Calico Descending

by Keri Lake

  Thumb rubbing against my throat, he tips his head to kiss me, and if Cadmus is capable of love and gentleness, at all, then this is his way of showing it. He guides my hand to his cock, curling my fingers around it, and, with his hand over mine, glides my palm down his smooth shaft. His eyes are on mine, drilling into me, when his tip slides down my belly, and the moment he lines himself at my entrance, the door clicks.

  Both of us swing our attention toward the light that slices through the room, where Legion soldiers stand outside the door, flanked by Doctor Ericsson.

  “Change of plans.” The soldiers march forward, spears in hands, and Cadmus pushes away from me, backing himself into the room, as he draws up his pants.

  “The fuck is this?”

  I yank my pants up, too, watching the soldiers back him into the room, and when the first guard lurches toward him, I follow their steps. “Hey! Leave him alone!”

  Cadmus bats away the spear and slams his fist into the guard’s chest, kicking him back a step. When his eyes fall on me, they hold a flicker of confusion, before he turns his attention toward Doctor Ericsson standing beside me. “You promised me! You dirty fucking pricks! You made a deal with me!”

  “The deal isn’t off Cadmus. You can still have her. After you return with the samples.”

  I snap my attention back toward Doctor Ericsson, the rage inside of me brimming to the surface. “You lying piece of shit!” I lunge toward him, stopped short by a guard who bands his arm around my waist, trapping my hands at either side of me. “You lying bastards! All of you!”

  “Get your fucking hands off her!” I hear Cadmus roar behind me, and when I turn, all six guards have cornered him, jabbing their spears into his flesh.

  “Stop! Stop it! You don’t have to do this!” Kicking and squirming, I try to break free of my captor. “Leave him!” I manage to slip one hand free, and reach down to the guard’s groin. With one tight squeeze, I grab his balls and yank upward. Hard.

  “Ah! You fucking bitch!” From the corner of my eye, a flash of black rushes toward my face, and the cold smack hits my cheek, kicking me off balance.

  The floor crashes into my hip, and I lie there, stunned, as pain throbs in my jaw.

  Another roar echoes from behind, and I turn to see Cadmus bent forward, held back by all six guards, his face a murderous shade of red.

  In a fit of my own rage, I lunge toward the guard again.

  Chapter 28

  A force jostles me out of dreams, and I jolt upright on a gasp of breath. “Cadmus!”

  The surrounding darkness is a clue that I’ve been returned to my room.

  “Shhh, Cali, it’s time,” Roz whispers in my ear. “The trucks leave in an hour.”

  A rush of adrenaline stirs in my chest, and I blindly slip my legs over the side of the bed. It must be eleven at night, since the trucks are scheduled to leave at midnight. On shaky feet, I take a step to trail after her, and pause. The knife. The one I stole from the kitchen a while back.

  Reaching under my bed, I fish through the hole in my mattress, until the tip of my finger hits the hilt of the blade. Once in hand, I tuck it up into my sleeve, and follow the memorized path through the pitch blackness of the barracks to the door. Light slices through the darkness, when Roz opens it, and I turn back to the room, spy two of the girls are sitting up in bed. They probably won’t say a word, and if they do, it doesn’t matter now.

  I slip through the crack, staying low against the wall behind Roz, who leads us toward the double doors ahead. The guard’s flashlight bounces through the window on the other side, and when it sweeps over our heads, we silently mouth a countdown from ten, just as in the days when the two of us snuck out for fun.

  Only this time, our punishment won’t be solitary, or missed rations. It’ll be death.

  By the time we reach ‘one’, the guard at the opposite end of the hall has begun his approach, and quickly we slip through the door.

  Shuffling low to the ground, we reach the door of the stairwell, and Roz sneaks ahead of me.

  “Hey!” The sound of the guard sends my muscles into a state of paralysis, and eyes wide, I slowly rise to a stand, as he runs toward me. The pounding of my heart feels as if it’s reached my throat, by the time he’s standing in front of me. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  “B-b-bathroom. Sir.” Only some girls get bathroom privileges. The ones who perform favors for the guards and are gifted a nighttime pass.

  I’m not one of them.

  The blade in my sleeve rests against the tips of my fingers.

  “Where’s your pass?” He’s a short, pudgy man with graying hair. He could be my father, or grandfather, but in this place, in this moment, he’s a roadblock to my freedom.

  “I left it. In the room.”

  “Well, then, you can get your happy little ass back to bed, before I call your Barrack Leader.”

  With a nod, I lower my gaze, allowing the blade to slide down between my fingers. Exhaling a shaky breath, I flex my fingers around the hilt, and in one swift swing, I slice the blade across the front of his uniform.”

  Hands flying to his chest, he stands stunned for a moment, staring down at his shirt, where blood has begun to seep through the fabric.

  I swing again. And again. One slice drags across his belly. Another across his throat. On the fourth swing, he’s on his knees, eyes vacant, blood pouring from the wounds I’ve poked in him. He falls to the floor on a thunk.

  My hands shake as I hold them out, and I drop the knife to the floor with a clang. So much blood on my hands. My lip quivers with the urge to cry for this man I don’t even know.

  Hands grip my shoulders, shaking me out of my trance. “Cali, the other guard might’ve heard. We have to go! Now!” Swallowing past the dryness in my throat, I nod and follow her through the door. The two of us race down the staircase, one floor at a time. My muscles remain poised in my paranoia for the moment the alarms sound, when the other guard comes to investigate the clanging noise, but there’s nothing. Not a single sound, save our skittering footsteps, as we descend deeper, into the basement of the building.

  We reach the bottom of the staircase and push through the door. Roz takes the lead, racing down the corridor, to where she must know the second switch lies.

  I pad toward the cell for Valdys on shaky legs. At what sounds like the entire corridor powering down, on a low hum that vibrates over my skin, the lights dim and flicker, and I reach out and open the door to Valdys’s cell with ease. When he steps forward, his eyes scan over me, to my hands that he snatches up, examining them.

  “It’s not my blood,” I say in a weak voice. Seconds later, Roz is standing beside me.

  “Jesus.” Her voice carries awe as she stares up at Valdys. “He’s … huge.” She shakes her head, as if snapping herself out of it. “C’mon. The override only lasts a couple seconds. We should go before anyone notices.”

  No sooner does she say the words than a door clicks ahead. It swings open. Another clicks. A second door opens. In seconds, a half dozen Alphas stand between us and the elevator. Every one of them has his eyes set on Roz and me.

  A thick arm bands across my chest, and Valdys steps in front of me, slipping his helmet over his head.

  On a whim, I spin around and open the door to Titus’s cell, then Cadmus’s. Titus steps out into the corridor, and I catch the wide eyes plastered to Roz’s face, as he passes in front of her, before coming to a stop beside Valdys.

  “Where’s Cadmus?” I ask, stepping inside his room.

  “Never came back after they dragged him off,” Titus says over his shoulder.

  A roar sounds the charge, and Alphas rush toward Titus and Valdys. All of them after Roz and me. Arms swipe out at us, and one Alpha attempts to dive through Valdys’s legs, but never reaches us, before his spine is stomped on and Valdys snaps his neck.

  Smaller than the two Alphas, the others can’t seem to breach the wall of power and muscle holding them away, and I’m
grateful. I can’t begin to think what they’d do, if Titus and Valdys weren’t here right now. Through bloody punches and a couple of broken necks, Valdys and Titus fight their way through, leaving a wake of bodies. By the time they’re halfway down the corridor, all the Alphas lay strewn about the hallway.

  “Come on.” A beat of urgency in Valdys’s voice goads us forward, and we carefully step over fallen Alphas.

  An arm reaches out and snaps up Roz by the leg, yanking her to the floor. Her scream echoes down the hallway, and I twist, reaching out for her hand, as the Alpha drags her back toward him, scrambling up her body like a starving Rager.

  One swift kick to his face throws him backward, and his spine cracks against the wall. Titus reaches down, helping her to her feet.

  Another Alpha clambers to his feet.

  “Run!” Valdys commands, letting Roz and I pass him on the way toward the elevator. I slam my finger on the button as Valdys and Titus hold off the Alphas, fighting them back each time they charge toward us. When the door opens, we stumble inside, propping it open. Titus slams his boot into an Alpha’s chest.

  “Go!” Valdys commands, as Titus leaves him to join us. One violent twist of another Alpha’s neck, and Valdys strides toward us, covered in blood.

  The doors close before another Alpha can breach the barrier, and the elevator sets into motion.

  “Where’s Cadmus? Did he return from the tunnels?”

  “He was taken to isolation. Heard one of the guards say it.” Titus wipes a glob of blood from his arm, where an Alpha must’ve bitten him.

  The door opens on the first floor, where we need to exit the building, past the guards to get to the trucks, but I shake my head and slam my finger against the button for the third floor. “Neela’s on that floor, too. I’m not leaving her behind.”

  Valdys groans, throwing his helmet to the floor. “The more we take with us, the better our chances of being killed.”

  “We can’t leave them. Cadmus can help. If something happens.”

  A frown dances across Valdys’s face, and I’m certain he knows something has changed between Cadmus and me, but I ignore it for now. Even if I wanted to, I can’t explain it, not in words. And not in a way that won’t make Valdys jealous. It’s not sexual, by any means, but something shifted when they tried to drag him off. Something told me if they’d hurt me bad enough, he would’ve killed for me.

  “You and Titus go after Cadmus. Roz and I will get Neela.”

  “And the cameras?”

  “They power off on the experimental wings to conserve energy,” Roz answers for me, looking small between Titus and Valdys. “Most of the subjects there are sedated, or placed in isolation.”

  The elevator doors open again on the quiet wing of the third floor, and we step out onto the cold tiles. “We meet back here,” I say, and tug Valdys to my lips. “Don’t be late.”

  His nostrils flare with frustration, before the two of them stride off in the direction of the isolation rooms.

  As Roz and I head for the observation unit, I glance back, wondering if I’ll regret not running off with Valdys alone.

  The guard’s flashlight sweeps across the corridor, and the moment the light fades, I push through the door of the observatory, with Roz at my heels. Keeping low and out of sight, I round the curtain that surrounds Neela’s bed, and go to work on her binds.

  Beside me, Roz stares down at her, not moving. “What the hell happened to her? Is she pregnant?”

  “No.” Neela’s stomach has shrunken considerably since a few days ago, but a small bump is still visible through the sheets. “This is what happens when we go through estrus.”

  “’The hell is estrus?” she asks, loosening the strap of Neela’s ankle.

  “It’s like being in heat. A mating thing.”

  “Jeez. I thought menstrual cycles were bad enough.”

  “You have no idea.”

  Waking on gasp, Neela looks around, eyes wide in terror, and I stroke her hair, with my fingers set to my lips. “Shhh.”

  As if she understands what’s happening, she nods, and reaches across her bloated body for the other strap.

  “Where do we go from here? How do we get to the loading dock?” I ask, busying myself with the final strap.

  “At the end of this hallway, take the staircase down to the first level, but don’t head through the doors. There’s a panel across from the staircase that leads to the circuit room. From there, you can access the dock.”

  “How the hell do you know this?”

  “It’s where Kenny and I …” Her lips flatten and stretch to a devious grin. “Our first time.”

  “You had sex?”

  She shrugs, crossing her arms over her chest. “I guess you could call it that. Only lasted a minute, or two.”

  Snorting, I shake my head. “When? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You were busy with your … behemoth. Which … I’m still trying to wrap my head around how that works.”

  Now I’m the one trying to hide a smile. “It works.” I reach out for Neela’s hand, helping to steady her as she slides off the bed.

  The curtain snaps back to reveal the guard, with his gun pointed at us. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Wait. Just wait a second.” Roz glances over at me, and if I had to guess, she’s trying to avoid another murder, as she steps in front of me, toward the guard.

  The sound of the gun going off is unmistakable. Once. Twice. Maybe that’s just the noise in my head, though. I remember that sound vividly, from when the horde of Ragers invaded our camp, and my mother tried to fight them off with bullets, before running out. I remember hearing it when the bullet hit my sister, and I watched her dragged off on a trail of blood.

  I look down to see drops of blood on the white tiles below me, but when Roz falls to her knees, my body turns cold and numb, as if it’s punctured my lungs.

  I drop to the floor beside her, and catch her head before it cracks against the tiles.

  Through sharp pants of breath, she trembles, her face turning pale, as she lifts her head, setting her hand to her stomach. “Oh, shit,” she mutters.

  I follow the path of her gaze to the blossoming patch of red at her stomach.

  Shock beats through me, as I gather her up onto my lap. “Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no.”

  “Get up.” The guard spouts off a command that’s distant to the clamor inside my head while I stare down at my friend through a blur of tears. “Get the fuck up now!”

  In my periphery, I see him raise his gun, point at me, but I don’t take my eyes off Roz. “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay,” I whisper, drawing her up higher.

  She flinches and cries out with the movement, and I don’t even realize how much I’m shaking, until I try to draw a strand of hair from her face. For a brief moment, I’m fourteen again, reaching out for my sister beside me.

  The guard racks the chamber of his gun. “I’m not gonna tell you again, girl. Get the fuck up.”

  Eyes closed, I hold my friend, who shivers in my arms, and I wait for the bullet.

  A sharp grunt draws my eyes open, and I turn to see Valdys releasing the guard’s newly snapped neck, as he falls to the floor in a slump.

  Tears spill from my eyes onto Roz’s forehead, while I stroke the stubble of her shaved head. “We’re going to get you out of here. I won’t let you die in this place. You’re going to be okay.”

  She lifts a shaky hand, setting it against my arm that’s wrapped around her, and tips her head back, smiling up at me. Each breath becomes more shallow, and she frowns, as if she’s mentally counting down the last of them. “Do you … remember ... “ Quick pants interrupt her, and she coughs, jerking in my arms. “When we … used to reminisce about sleeping … under the stars?”

  My lips quiver, as I nod through tears. “Yes.”

  Thin lips stretch wider, and she blinks away the tears that stream down her temples. “Just think … Cali. When you’re �
�� lying beneath the stars out there … I’ll be looking down on you.”

  Her breaths turn rapid, on the cusp of a wheeze, and her arm falls from mine. One long exhale, and her eyes turn vacant, pupils dilated. She stills as the life visibly fades from her face.

  Shaking my head, I squeeze her, my whole body quaking with a sob. “No. No, Roz, c’mon. Wake up. Wake up!”

  Fingers snake beneath my arm, nudging me to my feet, but I wrench my arm away. “She’s gone, Cali. We have to go.” Not even the calm in Valdys’s voice can subdue the panic that’s consuming me.

  Shaking my head, I hold her against my heart. “I can’t leave her.”

  “She’ll have died in vain, if you stay any longer.”

  As much as I want to fight him, and stay here with her, he’s right. She risked her life to get us out of here. If I stay, it’ll have been for nothing, but the thought of leaving her here feels wrong.

  I lift my head, turning to see Titus holding up Cadmus, who twitches beside him, skin pale. He stands bent over and weak, covered in markings that will make for new scars. Arms curled into himself, he reminds me of the males who come out of provocation tests. I’ve seen them, sometimes, on my way for weekly checkups with Doctor Tims, when I’ve passed by their observation rooms. My curiosity is only overshadowed by the incessant tick of the clock that winds down the seconds until our opportunity slips away, or someone notices the carnage we’ve left behind in this place.

  Lowering her head to the floor, I kiss Roz’s forehead, shutting her eyelids closed. “I’ll see you in the stars,” I whisper, and push to my feet.

  I reach for Neela and tug her to come with us, but she wrenches her arm back and shakes her head, eyes set beyond me. I glance back to Titus and Cadmus behind me, and its only right then that I remember it was Cadmus who attacked her.