We Are Forever (Rishi's Wish Book 2)

by C. M. Martens

  Steve struggled to move their friend into a more comfortable position, his eyes furtively keeping watch for the threat.

  Ray was at the computers with the doctor, and the observation coincided with her own form halting its attempt to escape. With sudden stillness, Desiree gave up her exit strategy and turned as a predator stalking new prey. This controlled movement sent a new wave of macabre fear through Dee, and she couldn’t help but wonder what those trapped in the lab had felt when faced with the hunter.

  With precise steps, Desiree stalked off-screen, and Dee held her breath while she waited to see which pair her demon-self had chosen to prowl.

  Ray or the doctor never saw the attack coming. Dee covered her mouth to stop the impulse to cry out a warning. A violent swipe of arm hurled her friend across the room, where he slid another six feet after landing hard before coming to a slow stop.

  Steve ran towards his fallen mate as Dee sent more silent mantras to the past that he not draw the creature’s attention. Dee wasn’t sure she’d survive if forced to watch herself kill her friends.

  But the creature was too concentrated on stalking the doctor whose wide eyes bore into the predator as he took slow steps backward. When the doctor staggered, Dee knew that was it. The creature-that-was-her coiled to spring, and Dee squinted her eyes so she wouldn’t see the worst of the kill.

  Just before the potential of the coil was released, something distracted the creature’s attention.

  Scanning the lab, Dee saw Steve yelling, waving his arms to draw the attention she’d begged not to happen. In her thoughts, Dee screamed into the past for her friend to not be harmed.

  Stalked by the disturbed version of her, Steve tried to communicate with the thing that had woken in Dee’s skin. Dee could see in his expression and body language that he spoke soothingly, but there was no reaching the crazed lunatic who’d taken over.

  Some new distraction took the creature’s attention, and Dee blew out a breath of relief. Head snapped to the side, Desiree searched for the location of some new sound. With the audio off, Dee couldn’t be sure what it was.

  When the video zoomed to fast-forward again, Dee opened her mouth to complain.

  Snapping it shut, she decided to hold her tongue, trusting those who’d already seen to know what highlights to show. She’d have plenty of time later to watch and re-watch with audio, not entirely sure she wanted to hear the sounds that would accompany the carnage.

  She focused on the augmented motions of Steve pulling Ray across the floor while the creature went after the doctor. When two new camera feeds popped on screen, Zosma returned the playback to its intended speed.

  These new angles gave a view of another exit door inside the lab that hadn’t been visible from the other cameras. One showed the door from inside the lab, the other from beyond the entrance that looked back at it from down a narrow hall. Barely, Dee could make out the flickering of the lights in the lab through the door’s single square window. It was to this door Steve dragged Ray.

  Dee wanted to scream when Steve stopped his motion toward the door. Ever the hero, he attempted to distract Desiree from her stalk of the doctor.

  But it was too late. Dee watched herself pounce, a startled gasp coming from her mouth as she witnessed herself tear the doctor to shreds as the other two made their retreat.

  A flash of light from another camera pulled everyone’s attention, both those in the past and the present. Desiree scrambled off the doctor, blurring towards whatever had happened. Her change in location forced the boys to stop. The creature was now too close to their escape for them to risk continuing on.

  Ray gained consciousness. After clumsily regaining his feet, the pair readjusted their path towards the main door. Dee hoped they had more luck with opening it than her other self had.

  But there was too much distance to cover. Broken bottles full of liquid and the blood of victims had turned the smooth floor into a treacherous path. The frenzied attacker, distraction not kept long by whatever had caused the flash of light, was on the boys before they’d gotten far.

  Panicked, the two went down, blundering on the slick surface. Dee wasn’t sure she could handle the pressure of watching. Her eyes closed when the boys slipped, sure their death’s were upon them. She peeked through slitted eyes to see their attacker trip, dissuaded equally by the hazard of the floor.

  Eyes now wide, Dee thought to demand Zosma shut off the video and just tell her the highlights to save herself from the tortured viewing.

  But she needed to see this. She wouldn’t believe, not really, if they just told her.

  So she sat, pinned to her chair with rigid posture.

  Despite its fall, the monster managed to grab Ray’s leg, who kicked at it while attempting to pull himself away. Steve tried to help with kicks of his own, but it was as helpful as doing nothing.

  His hand brushed one of the fallen rifles, and Dee’s heart flared with hope. He pushed to a knee to brace himself and, using it like a club, the expression on his face telling how difficult it was for him to assault his friend, swung.

  The first swing barely brushed her, but his next swing had more force behind it. He swung again with all the savagery he could conjure. This last hit broke Ray free, and they lunged at their portal to safety.

  The door didn’t open.

  They pounded against it. Ray screamed into the air while Steve played with a keypad next to the door.

  It’d only been seconds, but they were long seconds primed for the worst to happen.

  Realizing the futility of continuing his actions, Steve turned and moved back towards the creature who’d regained its feet. Its purchase on the floor connected to its stillness, and though its expression stared menacingly with a face Dee didn’t recognize as her own, it didn’t try to attack.

  Another flash of light turned the creature’s attention.

  The boys jumped at the same time as the flash, so Dee imagined some explosion occurred. Whatever it was, it pulled the creature from their path, its leap sending it sprawling along the slick ground, so it scrambled on all fours towards the newest stimulus.

  Steve and Ray wasted no time, sliding and skating across the lab while the demon was intent on other things.

  This time, the door opened, sucked into the wall in perfect timing, so they made it through without slowing.

  The creature, finding nothing to keep its attention, moved with blinding speed after them.

  Dee’s eyes blinked back and forth from the view down the hallway where her friends fell over each other into the corridor beyond the lab, to the picture of the creature racing towards them. She waited with held breath to see if the violence would follow them into that hallway.

  When the door slammed closed in the creatures face so close that her face bounced off the hard surface, Dee let out a long breath. She covered her face with her hands, sighing quiet relief before returning her attention to the screen.

  The video moved again in fast-forward as the creature’s body raged at the obstacle between it and its prey.

  14

  Zosma skipped the video ahead. The timestamp read hours later.

  A unit of Soldiers, dressed more tactically than those who’d accompanied the doctor, entered the dark lab. A few flickering lights and patches of flame were the only illumination, hiding the chaos of the lab in shadows and smoke. Still, it was easy for Dee to see that the creature had torn the room to shreds. Sparking computer equipment was a source of light on one side of the room, showing the broken glass of lab materials, their contents swirling with blood on the floor into macabre mosaics.

  It was near the computers that the fire raged largest, burning slowly through the liquids on the floor that dripped from shelves and tables. The purple, blues, and greens of the flames told the chemical nature of the fire and explained what caused the flashes of light seen earlier. While combustion’s distraction had saved Steve and Ray, the fire eating away at the room meant they weren’t completely out of danger.
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br />   “I’m going to turn the volume on now. It’ll help explain what’s happening since visibility is low.”

  Dee nodded at Zosma’s statement, eyes never straying from the television, heart never ceasing its racing.

  A male voice spoke. “—cleared the corner?”

  “We did, sir.”

  “Well, apparently, you didn’t!”

  A Soldier bent over the body of the doctor while two others covered their comrade from any threat, rifles pointed into the room.

  Dee found herself relaxing as she watched. This many Soldiers could handle the demon-her who hid somewhere in the room. Steve and Ray were alive, safe behind the thick door at the back of the lab. She began to believe this wouldn’t end as badly as she’d thought. Maybe everything she’d assumed about this place was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t the place of the fire of her nightmares. Maybe she’d been wrong all along about the fates of her friends.

  “Silence!”

  Dee jumped at the suddenness of the commander’s voice. A handful of moments passed before a flurry of movement drew everyone’s attention. The commander turned just in time to pull his weapon as the thing they were after hit him. The gunfire, muffled by her body taking hits from point-blank range, sounded in the quiet.

  Accelerated movement from the Soldiers followed.

  Shocked he still lived, Dee listened wide-eyed as he called out from the center of the chaos, “Get her off of me!”

  “Holy hell! This is one crazed Revenant. I’ve never seen one like this.”

  Dee allowed a grin at the random voice. That’s not what this is. It was nice to know more than someone about what was going on for a change.

  Yanked from the ground by more than a couple pairs of hands, the bodies surrounding the monster blocked it from view. More Soldiers continued to surround her. One pulled the commander to his feet.

  The commander’s experience and training reflected in his poise. “Let’s secure her gentlemen. Rendezvous out front. We’ll wait for Fire Team before continuing our analyses of the area.”

  Curses and shouts told how difficult the creature made the Soldiers’ task. Dee couldn’t help a wider grin that she’d given them such a hard time.

  Zosma muted the volume, and the video resumed a fast pace. In this buzz of speed, Dee watched the team leader look around the room, body language suggested more orders. Weapons from those not tasked with securing Desiree came up right before the room burst with fire.

  Dee spoke, the words leaving her mouth before thinking to wait and see what the video might tell her. “What just happened? Did something blow up?”

  The video resumed its normal pace. Feed from Steve and Ray’s location popped back on screen. Dee watched them run down the hall, the door from calm to chaos opening when they reached it.

  Audio resumed.

  “Hurry! But you have to leave Dee.”

  Dee’s chest constricted at the sound of Steve’s voice.

  Between barked orders, the commander asked, “Who’s Dee?”

  Dee smirked, imagining Steve’s frustration. It should’ve made her mad that no one knew her name, but she was beyond those reactions.

  -Asellus would be proud.-

  Steve yelled something about DOT not letting the subject through the door. Dee turned raised eyebrows at Zosma and Regina, who motioned for her to continue watching.

  The commander, just outside the door, a step from safety, stopped in front of Steve. “I can’t leave the subject here to die. My orders were to secure her.”

  Steve answered briskly, eyes staring into the fire and smoke-filled room where the group holding Dee remained. “I understand commander, and trust me, there’s nothing more I want than to save that girl, but DOT will just slam this door shut on us if you try to bring her through here.”

  She couldn’t see the commander’s face, and if he commented on Steve’s explanation, it was too low for the microphone to pick up.

  Steve coughed, a hacking sound that told of the smoke getting into his lungs. He tried to speak, but it took a few moments for him to catch his breath.

  “DOT? Can you shut off the air intake to the room once we’re out? Will that put out the fire?”

  Dee’s questions about DOT were answered when the same voice she’d spoken to in her room that morning came through the speakers. “Yes, but it will take time for the oxygen to be used up. This is not the best solution.”

  Whatever way that plan might have gone was forestalled by distraction from those still in the lab. The commander turned to the group holding Desiree. “Get her on the ground! All of you, closer to the ground.”

  Dee strained her eyes, wished the smoke would clear and a light would stay on long enough that she could focus.

  How the creature got free, those watching from the future couldn’t see, but when the commander pulled his sidearm, Dee knew it had happened.

  The demon’s body hit the commander before he’d managed to clear his waist with his pistol. No report from the gun sounded, and Dee was surprised none of the Soldiers she’d escaped hadn’t peppered her with bullets.

  The creature in Dee’s body had her face buried in the Commander’s neck, blood spraying in a misty arch. As close as the carnage was to Steve and the Soldiers in the hall, their attention was on the spreading fire.

  Ignoring the metallic tang that coated her mouth, Dee switched her gaze to another angle. A Soldier, uniform ablaze, caught her attention. He stomped around the room, his comrades trying vainly to put him out.

  An electronic voice cut through the chaos. “Steve, I must close the door now.”

  Steve stood in the lab, two steps from the threshold of safety. Dee panicked as she watched, barely able to make him out through the smoke and fire, praying he got to the other side of the door.

  But there was no time. The door slid closed on silent motors controlled by a source that shut him into a bloody, fiery hell.

  She couldn’t look away. Eyes wide, Dee willed the thing she’d most feared not to happen.

  Steve turned from the door to stand face-to-face with the-creature-that-was-her. He said her name, a hopeful sound that carried over the shouts of Soldiers and flaming chaos.

  In the present, Dee stood, hands pressed over her mouth, heart seizing while she willed this thing not to happen.

  When coughing doubled him over, Dee was sure that was it.

  Tears fell from unblinking eyes.

  But that wasn’t it. The Soldiers engaged, pulling the monster from her stance in front of Steve with their gunfire, screams telling their losing story.

  While a large part of her wanted nothing more than to curl around herself, Dee kept her eyes on Steve rather than pay attention to the fight.

  Coughing, he dropped to his knees, one hand covering his mouth. She thought his eyes searched the darkness, but what for, she couldn’t know.

  An explosion made her jump, her already racing heart threatening to explode. She dropped back in her chair.

  The blast came from the other side of the room, but the eruption was enough to push Steve hard into the closed door behind him. The impact knocked him unconscious.

  Dee barely breathed, still hoping he might be saved.

  The others, Ray and the few Soldiers who’d gotten out of the lab, secured from the dangers, could survive. It meant Ray might be alive. If they got Steve behind that door in the next few minutes, he might be alive as well.

  Her brain ignored Kim’s fate. Later, when she could sob in seclusion, she’d wail the circumstances of the loss of her friend.

  Another blast sounded, and the cameras went dark.

  She stared, seconds ticking by as she waited for the story to continue, refusing to believe that was all.

  Finally, she forced words from her throat, eyes staring into the snow of the camera feeds. “What happened? Are Steve and Ray still alive? How am I still alive?”

  Her eyes moved to the couple watching her from their seats, expressions carefully neutral.

&nbs
p; “I came here for answers. You said you had them. This isn’t answers. This is more questions!”

  Zosma’s brow furrowed. Regina cocked her head.

  “It is all the information you asked for. You see what was done to you. How you woke explains how you got away. The chaos why we didn’t find you right away. Besides thinking you were dead, there was never any reason to consider you were sentient enough to be worth finding.”

  Dee stared uncomprehendingly at the Rishi. How could he not understand? She looked to Regina, whose female empathy had a better chance of understanding why Dee was so frantic to fill the holes in the story.

  Regina met her eyes, slow realization moving behind them. “We never thought you would still care about them after you saw their part.”

  Dee choked on a mixture of frustration and annoyance. She turned from them to step around the television, to pace around the room. She ignored the Soldiers lining the perimeter, though part of her wanted to start a fight with one, or all of them, just to burn off the crazed wash of emotions boiling inside her.

  After a few minutes of watching her silent rage, Regina spoke. “What do you need? What questions do you have?”

  Dee stopped. She turned from her place across the room. “How could I have survived that?”

  Zosma answered. “We didn’t think anything could survive that. The house crumbled, blocking access to the lab. We’d written off the entire site.”

  Dee’s heart crumbled. The others had been trapped in that hallway. Still…

  “Did anyone survive?”

  Zosma and Regina shared a look. “Yes.”

  Dee took a step forward, waiting to hear who, even as she told herself it couldn’t be Steve.

  “Everyone who was in the server room.”

  Dee’s brow furrowed. Server room?

  Zosma explained. “The hallway fell back to a server room where all the information from the lab was backed up. Also, where DOT was housed. Your friends lived.”

  The sound in the room went mute. The floor fell out from under her. Friends. With an S. The plural of the singular. More than one friend.

  She hadn’t considered elation would so resemble misery. The constriction in her chest, the lack of oxygen getting to her brain seemed like the opposite of what should happen when the best news was received.