The guards opened the door to Kora’s lab and they all filed into the massive, meticulous white room with Joshua on a gurney. Machines hummed and whirred, performing their mysterious tasks. Jars containing beating hearts and breathing lungs lined the counters and a large water tank dominated the center of the room where Ishmael peered at them through the glass. Several guards, holding dismantling guns, were covered in bleeding lashes and sucker-shaped bruises. They seemed relieved when they were told to stand down from the squid. Ishmael tumbled over the side of his tank and plopped onto the floor. He squiggled over to Kora and entwined her in his arms, lifting her high into the air. Kora pressed her cheek against the wet arm that held her. “I understand why you never told me about my past, Ishmael. I would have never believed you—not in a thousand years.” She gazed into his huge eyes, her face reflected in the massive pupils. “I remember everything now.”
Chapter 34
Kora had explored every room in the vast network of caves but one. She avoided the small entrance. The idea of having to duck down bothered her and once inside, she felt certain the ceilings would be low and the air stale. But something about this last, mysterious room attracted her. She lingered in the doorway holding up the lantern, her only light in the heavy darkness. Caleb had given her enough oil to last five days but she’d already burned through most of it because she kept it lit at all times. The idea of sitting alone in pitch black terrified her and, with oil running low, she tried to keep her mind occupied through constant movement.
The room was surprisingly large and lined with metal shelves stacked to the ceiling with crates. She set the lantern down and slid out a large box. It was full of surgical instruments, many of them sharp. She struggled to grab one caked with blood and hair, but her hands had deteriorated over the week and it took her several minutes just to lift the instrument so she could examine it in the light.
As she gazed at the blade, Kora recalled lying on a hard bed below a glowing ball of fire. Her eyes were closed but someone had roughly pulled back her eyelids, and for a moment Kora had focused on a woman’s cruel face. Ruby, her maker, who deserved death more than any of these poor creatures condemned to her table.
She moved the scalpel until it hovered over one of the many thick scars that covered her arms. It trembled wildly in her unsteady hands until it dropped to the floor with a loud clang, and was swallowed into the shadows.
Still curious about the boxes, Kora pulled down a stack of books and clumsily flipped through pages illustrating the muscle structure of creatures from both land and sea. Ruby herself wrote one of the books called Principals of Biological Synthetics. Kora gazed at the photo on the back cover where an extremely young, ponderous Ruby posed in a jet-black lab coat with her cleavage showing. Kora crouched down close to the lantern and read until the flame burned low and the pages dimmed.
In the far corner, a fleshy arm reached out from under a dark canvas covering a vast shape. Kora whipped the tarp away to reveal a long body with eight arms and two slender tentacles. A pair of huge, green-flecked eyes stared up at her, the lifelike pupils eerily still. She noticed a cabinet of computers against the wall and fumbled with the knobs until the machine switched on and hummed to life. The room was wired for electricity. Kora searched behind the computer and followed the cords up the wall to where they disappeared through a crack in the ceiling. The only one down here besides her was Caleb. She knew he had an appetite for electronic gadgets, and imagined that he must have smuggled the robot down and hooked it up to electricity so he could dissect it.
It occurred to Kora that if she found some wire and something to use as a bulb, she’d no longer be dependent on Caleb for lantern oil. Her heart raced as she searched for wire. She noticed an old book sitting on top of the cabinet with wires sticking out from between the pages. She opened it and lifted out a pair of mesh gloves, her eyes brushing over the first line of the first chapter: Call me Ishmael. Curious, she pulled the gloves over her hands and flexed her stiff fingers, making the robot lurch forward. Kora froze, relieved to see that the creature froze along with her. Slowly, she arched her index finger and one of the long arms curled slightly. She moved it toward the knife she’d dropped earlier on the floor and lifted it up with ease and held it before her. While her gloved hands trembled violently, the scalpel, in the grip of the robotic creature, remained perfectly steady. Perfectly controlled. “You could be a great help to me, Ishmael,” she said aloud to her new mechanical friend.
“Kora,” a deep voice echoed through the caves. Kora dropped the knife into her pocket and stripped off the gloves. The robotic squid sank to the floor like a deflated balloon. Caleb had returned and she was filled with both relief and dread. She grabbed her dim lantern and walked through the maze of caves until she reached the largest room where a huge pile of twisted corpses lay in the center of the floor. Kora covered her face with her arm to avoid the stench, but it didn’t help. Caleb stood before the stairs that led up to Ruby’s lab, his arms piled with more of her murderous creator’s work. He tossed the bodies onto the heap that was now as tall as Kora.
“You have made no effort,” said Caleb. “Not a single one has moved onto the shelves since I brought you down here.” He strode around the pile like a grim general. “These bodies are your responsibility.”
Kora raised her chin. “And why? I had nothing to do with this madness. Let Ruby clean up her own mess.”
Caleb peered at her from under his massive brow. “Ruby made us. We do as we are told. I am trying to help you by teaching you your place among us.”
“You imprison me down here, alone in this hell, and expect me to just give in?”
Caleb clenched his huge hands into fists. “This is your life now, Kora, down here with the dead, and when I come for a visit I expect your work to be done.” He took a step forward. “And I expect you to be kind to me. I am tired of fighting with you.”
“What do you want? Dinner? Soft music and dancing?”
Caleb’s voice rumbled through the caves. “I am your mate. Your purpose is to please me.”
Kora gazed up at her colossal husband. She knew the danger of pushing him too far. “I never asked for this. I don’t want to be your wife.”
“You have no choice.” He pounded one of his fists against his chest. “Your flesh was made from my own. You are as much a part of me as this hand.” He clenched his massive fingers.
Kora knew what that fist felt like, but tonight she didn’t care. “I don’t want your stinking flesh. Did you think that would be romantic? Making your wife out of the extra skin off your ass? I'll remake myself.”
“Do not be stupid. You are what we have made you. Have you seen your refection?”
Kora had seen herself in the shards of a mirror left in one of the caves. The sight had unnerved her and she hadn’t returned to look again. Now she suspected Caleb had planted the mirror there to prove a point.
“No one will ever have you but me,” he continued, drawing himself up to his full height so his head nearly touched the top of the cave. “You are more hideous than I am.”
“I suppose I would be since Ruby pieced me together from your scraps.”
“You either accept me, or live down here alone.”
Kora rubbed her chin and narrowed her eyes. “I won’t accept you and I won’t be down here alone. You can count on that.”
Caleb frowned in confusion. “You will do as you are told.”
“That’s your role, Caleb, not mine.”
The giant looked calm, but she could feel his anger swelling and worried that he might try to force himself on her like he did the last time he was down. She couldn’t stand the feel of his rough fingers against her skin. To her relief, he pulled a container of lantern oil from the pack on his back. Kora lifted her arms, eager to grab hold of the precious fluid, but Caleb held it high. “I see your lamp died out. I brought more oil for this next load, but since you have not completed your old work, I see no reason to hand it over.” He s
hoved the bottle back into his bag and Kora’s hands remained in the air, grasping at emptiness.
“I’ll start working right now, I swear, but I’ll need light,” Kora pleaded.
“You already burned the oil needed for the previous batch. Now you must do twice the work without it.”
Kora’s throat closed and she gasped for breath. “Please Caleb.”
“I will return in three days with another load. If the bodies are on their shelves, I will give you oil. If not, you will have three times the work to complete in darkness.”
“That’s impossible. There’s no way I can get anything done without light. You know that.”
“You will learn to respect me.” He strode through the door and turned sideways so she could see his face in profile against the torches burning bright on the stairway. “And love me.”
“You're a fucking idiot if you think that'll happen,” she screamed.
The door slammed closed and Kora collapsed against the wall, her fingernails scratching against the stones. She hollered Caleb’s name until her voice grew hoarse. She stopped calling when she noticed the stench from the bodies, piled only a few feet away, had suddenly grown stronger as if they were crawling toward her. In a panic, she fled from the wall and staggered blindly through the room, hoping to find her way back to the storage area. She raised her arms in front of her, but instead of the wall, her hands touched something cold and moist that turned out to be the death pile. She stumbled in the opposite direction only to find herself surrounded by bodies. Drunk with terror, she tripped and fell to the ground where she writhed in a net of twisted limbs that grabbed at her as she struggled to wrench free.
Kora reached up and grabbed a hand that seemed to hold her as she pulled herself to her feet. Once standing, she realized the hand she was holding onto was warm. She explored the smooth fingers and knew whatever creature the hand belonged to was still alive. She heaped away the bodies until she found the owner and ran her fingers over its face. The head was pierced by one large, empty eye socket, and every inch of skin was covered in thick gnarled tissue that devoured every feature except for the hands. “I bet you look like a pile of mud,” she said aloud. She wasn't sure if the creature heard her, because he had no ears, but he squeezed her hand. She was no longer alone.
Chapter 35
Joshua awoke in a tangle of gelatinous tubes that surrounded him like hair. At first Kora worried he might be in pain, but when a crooked smile broke his face, she reduced the amount of opiates filtering into his fresh bloodstream. He looked too blissful. Berta helped Joshua to sit up as Kora scanned him to make sure everything worked properly.
“How do you feel?”
“Hungry.” Joshua looked around at his strange bed. “I’m in one of these tanks which means I’m like superman, right?”
“I wouldn’t try leaping off any buildings,” said Kora. “But you do have the ability to drink like a fish until you’re a hundred, if that counts as a super power. I had to replace almost all of your internal organs.”
“Mother of Jesus.” Joshua swung his legs over the side without noticing or caring that he was naked. He threw an arm around Berta’s waist and kissed her cheek. To his surprise, she reached up and turned his head so she could kiss him on the lips. When they separated, he stared at her in awe. “Where are we?”
“My lab in Ruby's castle. After Ishmael and I fixed you up, we transferred you here from Mirafield by helicopter,” said Kora.
“Can I take him home, now?” asked Berta.
“You mean the empty mansion?” said Joshua, his smile disappearing.
Berta kissed him again. “You're not banished anymore, you idiot. You're the clan hero.”
He gazed at her in wonder. “A hero? What for?”
“You mean you don't remember?” asked Berta. “How those soldiers almost beat you to death?”
“Oh, I remember that,” said Joshua. “But that's just sort of my normal day. No big deal.” He grinned and wrapped his arms around Berta.
“You're both free to go,” said Kora, eager to get rid of the groping couple. “But I want you back here in a week, Joshua, so I can make sure everything is working properly.”
“Berta will do that for you,” said Joshua, as she pulled him toward the door.
Kora woke Vaughn, who was asleep on the lab couch, and they climbed into the secret passage holding hands. By the time he opened the panel into his room, Kora was exhausted. She and Ishmael had rebuilt Joshua's entire body and transferred him back to the beach without even a five-minute break. Building a synthetic was familiar territory but rebuilding a human was messy and complicated. She desperately needed some sleep.
Kora had just nodded off in Vaughn's arms when she heard a familiar voice in her ear. “Wake up.” Gus shook her shoulder while Ivan paced the floor at the foot of the bed.
“What time is it?” grumbled Vaughn from where he lay curled around her.
“Two in the morning. Ivan and I have looked everywhere and we can’t find Caleb,” said Gus.
Kora’s eyes popped open and she unwound herself from Vaughn who repeatedly tried to pull her back into bed. She slipped on her robe while Vaughn rose up onto his elbows, his hair sticking straight up on his head as he glared at Gus. “Maybe Caleb decided to go for a walk and you’re bothering us for no reason.”
Ivan sprung up from the foot of the bed, making Vaughn jump. “You know perfectly well that Caleb doesn’t go for walks.”
Vaughn collapsed back onto his pillow. “Go away, both of you!”
Gus crouched down so his mouth was inches from Vaughn’s ear. “Look, I know you and Kora scheduled a morning shag, but Ivan and I have a really bad feeling.”
Kora slipped an arm under Vaughn’s shoulders and dragged him up into a sitting position. “Come on sleepy head. Let’s help them look.”
“It’s no use,” said Ivan. “We’ve searched everywhere through the house, and the Food has already searched the beach and the hills. He’s just gone.”
“Maybe he went down to the catacomb,” said Kora.
“Ridiculous,” said Ivan. “Caleb doesn’t even know how to swim. He’d never go out into the ocean.”
“He doesn’t need to, remember?” replied Kora. “Let Vaughn and I get dressed and then I’ll show you.” Kora herded Gus and Ivan out into the hall, then disappeared into Vaughn’s closet. She ran her hand over a pile of cashmere sweaters and Vaughn lifted one and held it up to her.
“On you it’ll be more like a dress.” He slipped off her robe and ran his hands down her sides and over her hips.
“We need to go find Caleb, remember?”
Vaughn groaned and leaned down to kiss her. “He’s probably sitting in the kitchen, right now, eating Cheerios.”
“There’s always tonight.” Kora arched up onto her toes so she could reach his mouth more easily, and Vaughn lifted her off the ground and rushed her through a jungle of shirts. He pressed her against the back of the closet and his passion was so overwhelming, it took a while before she noticed Gus calling out to them.
“I know you two are horny bastards, but Ivan’s crawling the walls like a spider.”
Vaughn set Kora back down and they both emerged from behind the line of suits. “We’ll get dressed and be right out,” said Vaughn, glaring at Gus.
“Maybe I should stay and watch, just to make sure,” replied Gus.
Vaughn shoved Gus out the door and closed it behind him while Kora slipped the cashmere sweater over her head. Vaughn rolled up the long sleeves until her hands appeared and raised her fingers to his lips. “When this is all over, I want us to go off together for a while where no one can bother us.”
“Where?”
“I don’t care. Just some place we can be alone without work, Gus or Ivan. How about Belize?”
Kora stroked the side of his face. “Sounds amazing.”
Ivan stuck his head through the door. “Here you are fornicating while Caleb lies dying in some gutter. My God!” H
e reeled back as he gazed at Kora. “You’re wearing that as a dress? Don't you have any clothes of your own?”
“They're all white.” Kora didn't want to explain and luckily with Ivan, she didn't have to.
“After we find Caleb, we'll fix that,” he said. “Now out the door, both of you. I don't trust you in here alone.”
Kora and Ivan followed Vaughn into the hall, but Gus hung back, clearing his throat until everyone stopped to look at him. “Would anyone mind if we took the tunnels? I feel very exposed in the main house.”
“But there’s nothing to worry about. Ruby’s gone,” said Kora.
“I know, but it still freaks me out. The tunnels feel cozy and safe,” said Gus.
Everyone climbed through the secret panel and wound down between the walls until they poured out across from Ruby’s office. Gus pushed on the door and it creaked open to reveal her empty chair. He darted in, gathered her script off the desk, and wandered back in line behind Ivan, reading as they marched down the hall toward Ruby's lab.
“Just as I thought,” said Gus, waving a page in the air. “She wrote it so we’re all dead at the end of her new reality show. Vaughn is devoured by sharks, Humphrey’s shack crashes through a glass window, Caleb is dismembered by mountain lions, and Ivan falls off a tricycle, gets a minor head bump that causes his brain to explode two hours later.”
“Gus, can we keep on task here for a few minutes?” said Kora as she inspected the far wall of Ruby's lab.
“Sorry.” Gus plopped the script down at the base of the iron tower. “But we already tried finding a passage through that wall and nothing worked.”
“Vaughn figured something out when we were in the catacomb,” said Kora.
“We both figured it out,” said Vaughn, scouring the stones thirteen feet up until his eyes stopped on one that looked smoother and shinier than the others. He ran up the wall and pressed the brick as hard as he could before dropping to the floor again. The wall rumbled aside, revealing a stairwell curving into darkness.
Synthetic: Dark Beginning Page 28