by Lizzy Bequin
She is the most incredible creature I’ve ever known. All I want is to bury myself deep inside of her. I want our naked bodies to melt together until we both disappear.
Thankfully, part of me remembers where we are.
Fisting her wet hair, I yank her back before Addom and Hasker have a chance to see us.
It takes me a moment to realize that something is wrong with the omega. Her face suddenly looks pale and tinged with sickly green. Her eyes are circled with darkness and appear sunken. Her body begins to twitch and convulse, but these are not the spasms of pleasure that I saw before.
My heart clenches like a fist inside my chest.
My omega is dying.
“Lily!” I shout as I pat her clammy cheeks.
But she can’t hear me. Or if she can, she shows no sign of it. Her lids flutter as her eyeballs roll over white in their sockets and her jaw hangs slack.
“Lily!”
I hold her tightly and drag her to the edge of the pool. I call for Addom and Hasker, but they have already noticed the commotion and they are coming near. I lift the poor omega up to them, and they carry her onto the dry stone and lie her dripping body upon her back. Hasker steadies her seizing body to keep her from hurting herself.
“What’s wrong with her?” Hasker growls.
Despite the contempt he has shown for her, he seems genuinely concerned about her now. The bonding process has already begun, and despite his misgivings about her as an outsider, he feels the need to protect her.
“It’s my fault,” I blurt, bowing my head in shame. “I disobeyed Addom. While I was bathing the omega, I allowed her to touch me, and I released my seed. That is what caused her to be afflicted like this.”
Hasker glances down at my knotted dick. He shakes his head and grumbles.
“Don’t think so highly of yourself, boy. Your seed isn’t that potent.”
“Not my seed,” I stammer. “But my sin has caused this. Addom forbade my release, and I disobeyed him. Now the Source has made the omega sick to punish my disobedience.”
Addom is checking Lily’s pulse at her throat, her wrists, and the big arteries at the top of her thighs. He pauses long enough to glare at me, and I think he’s going to castigate me, but he doesn’t.
“Come on, boy,” he says. “Do you think I would send you off naked with the omega and expect nothing to happen?”
“But…”
“No Alpha could resist that,” he says. “I knew you would hold out as long as you could, but I also knew the little one would best you, eventually. Besides, she needed your seed as well to complete the process. But that’s not what caused this spell. Hasker?”
The bald Alpha holds Lily’s head between his massive hands and braces her against his lap. He dips his face and sniffs her, inhaling her breath.
“It’s the outsider poison,” he growls. “I smelled it on her before. Now the scent of it is diminished.”
“I don’t understand,” Addom says, staring down at Lily’s shuddering, naked body. “If the poison is dissipating, why is she becoming sick.”
Hasker shrugs.
“I’ve heard of this kind of thing,” he says. “The outsiders deliberately poison themselves because they think it is medicine. But the medicine only makes them sick, and they become dependent on it. With enough time, the dependence is so strong that they need the poison to stay alive.”
“You mean she could die?” I gasp.
That thought is too terrible to consider. Even though I have only known her for barely a day, this omega has become the most important thing in my life. I don’t know what we would do if we lost her.
Addom gathers the sick, shivering, naked omega in his arms and throws her over his shoulder. Her wet hair drips down his back and sticks to him like vines. Hasker and I rise to our feet.
“Kadmon, get your clothes and your belongings. Hasker douse the fire. We must make haste.”
“What are we going to do?” I ask, trying to hide the panic in my voice as I dress myself quickly.
“We must take her back to the city,” Addom says resolutely. “The outsider healer will know what to do.”
“The other omega?” Hasker asks. “What if she doesn’t know what to do?”
“Then we must pray that the Source will give Lily strength and help her heal.”
PART THREE:
THE SOURCE
CHAPTER 16: LILY
The Alphas’ howls echo through the night forest.
The woods are eerie and blue with moonlight. I race through the trees. The brambles bloody my ankles and twigs whip my face and sting my eyes, blinding me. I slam into the rough bark of a trunk. Spinning, I stumble and fall to the ground, scraping my knees on the tangled roots and rough stones.
I scramble to get away, breath panting, fingers clawing at the soil, feet slipping in the carpet of dead leaves.
But it’s too late.
The Alphas are already here. They have me surrounded.
There are four of them. Four hulking silhouettes. They stand around me at the four points of the compass like they are preparing for some grim, primitive ceremony, and I’m the sacrifice. Their mirrored eyes glow dully in the moonlight. Plumes of steaming breath curls around their heads.
“Help me!” I scream.
My voice is shrill, but it has no echo. The dark forest simply swallows it, like a coin dropped into a bottomless well.
The Alphas just laugh cruelly as they slowly close in around me. Their disgusting wet-fur stench fills my nostrils. My ears fill with the percussion of my heart.
Scrambling to my feet, I make a desperate attempt to escape, darting toward a gap between two of the shadowy Alphas. They are too swift for me, and with a quick sidestep they close the gap, shoving me backward with their rough hands.
I lunge toward another gap. The same result. The Alphas just push me back into the center of their tightening ring.
“Please somebody help me!” I shriek again.
My voice breaks. Scalding tears are now streaming down my face.
The Alphas are so close now I can smell their rancid, cannibal breath. They snarl and huff and pop their jaws like wolves. White fangs flash in the moonlight.
These are not the Alphas who rescued me. These are the far-landers. The horrible, disfigured creatures that attacked me in the woods.
They are grunting and chanting something over and over again, but their accent obscures it.
Their faces begin to resolve in the dimness. They are mangled and bloody. One of them is missing an eye, the gaping socket dripping black blood, and in my horror, it takes me a moment to recognize him.
Deakon.
I scream and spin away, but immediately bump against another hideous Alpha. His face is also familiar. It is Chappel, though transformed now with far lander features—a heavy brow and ridged nose.
The Alphas continue to chant, and now I can understand them, though just barely. They are growling my name over and over.
Lily…Lily…Lily…
Chappel snarls and spins me around, and I find myself facing Bishop now. His wiry black beard and eyebrows are wild with the Alpha mutation. He looks like a monster.
I’m pushed backward one more time, and I am faced with the most terrifying creature of them all. His face is a misshapen horror, and his eyes are shining balls of blood.
It is Dr. Lucian in Alpha form.
“Lily,” he hisses.
I scream from deep in my soul. So loud that the illusion shatters. I scream the entire forest away. It disappears in a burst of blinding light.
“Lily. Lily, it’s all right. You are safe.”
Strong hands are pinning me down against a firm cushion. At first I struggle, but then I realize those hands are protecting me from my own thrashing terror. And the face gazing down into mine is no twisted horror. It is handsome. Sculptural. Nearly angelic in the dim light.
It is Addom.
“You’re safe,” he says again.
That ro
lling, rumbling purr of his voice soothes me. The warm firmness of his hands fills me with a sense of security. I exhale a sigh of relief, as I realize that the dream is over.
But as I glance around, I can’t help wondering where the heck we are.
This place is dark and cavernous, a circular room with a high dome reaching overhead. The walls are covered in metal paneling. There are other people here too. Alphas and omegas. They are milling around quietly, carefully stepping over the thick cables and conduits running along the floor.
I also notice a strange humming noise. It’s not a sound so much as it is a feeling. A vibration deep in the very marrow of my bones.
I’m lying on a simple pallet with my head propped on a pile of pillows. Hasker and Kadmon are squatting by my feet, watching me intently.
Even in the darkness of this shadowy place, Kadmon’s face is bright with happiness to see me. Surprisingly, even gruff Hasker is unable to hide the fact that he is glad I’m okay.
But what happened? The last thing I remember, Kadmon was bathing me at the waterfall and we were kissing.
I rub my tender wrists, realizing that those annoying iron shackles have finally been removed. I try to rise from the bed, but Addom places his hand over my naked chest and pins me firmly but gently in place.
“Be still, little one. We need to consult the healer.”
That’s when I realize that there is a metal pole with a clear bag of fluid hanging beside me. A narrow tube runs to my arm where it is wrapped in white bandages.
They’ve got me on a fluid drip, and Addom is talking about healers. Is this place a hospital? If so, it’s the strangest hospital I’ve ever seen. Hospitals are normally white and brightly lit. This place feels more like a dark cathedral or temple.
Addom turns and nods to Kadmon, who quickly departs somewhere behind me. I can hear voices back there, and soon he returns with a woman following close behind.
I am shocked at first to see that she is naked except for a few strips of fur covering her loins. I don’t know why that should be so shocking to me at this point, considering all the nudity I’ve experienced first hand over the past couple of days. In fact, I’m nude myself at the moment. But seeing a naked woman—or nearly naked at least—is a new experience for me.
What’s even more surprising about her appearance, however, are her piercings. She has several metal rings adorning her face—one through her eyebrow, another through the wing of her nostril, and yet one more in the middle of her bottom lip. And that’s not to mention the multiple rings in the lobes and cartilage of her ears.
However, the one that catches my eye is the glinting ring pierced through her left nipple. The woman catches me looking at it, and even in the dimness of this place I can tell that she blushes slightly. That’s unusual. I wouldn’t have expected a woman inside the zone to be bashful. Especially not one clothed—or rather unclothed—the way that she is.
But my biggest shock of all comes when she opens her mouth to speak.
“Hello, Lily,” she says. “My name is Hannah.”
It’s not what she says that surprises me. Her name certainly doesn’t ring any bells. But what I’m not expecting is her crystal clear accent that I have no trouble understanding.
“You’re an outsider,” I gasp.
Now it’s my turn to blush, and I’m grateful that the shadows of this place at least partly conceal my embarrassment. Obviously I’m much more of an outsider than Hannah, since she has clearly been here for a while. I can’t believe how quickly my perspective has changed. I’m already talking as if I belong in this place, and I don’t even know where this place is.
Hannah seems to notice my slight twinge of embarrassment and gives me an empathetic smile that let’s me know no offense has been taken. She crouches beside me and presses her palm against my forehead.
“Your fever’s gone,” she says. “And your color has come back. How do you feel?”
“Weak,” I tell her, “but mostly okay. What happened to me?”
Hannah sighs. She glances around at the three Alphas standing over me protectively. I notice that her neck and shoulder bear three marks that look as though they were made by teeth. Suddenly I remember where Addom marked the crook of my neck with his fangs, and I touch myself there, feeling the scar.
Hannah turns back toward me.
“You gave us all quite a scare, Lily,” she says. “I need to ask you something, and please don’t take this the wrong way.”
I nod.
“Lily, are you a nihiloxin user?”
I cast my eyes down in shame. Even though the drug is not illegal in the city hives and its use is widespread, there is still a certain stigma attached to it.
“Yes,” I mutter.
Hannah smiles and squeezes my arm.
“Hey, don’t be ashamed,” she says. “I used to take that shit too. In fact, I had a similar reaction to yours when I first came here several weeks ago. You were experiencing withdrawals. The worst of it should be over now. Do you feel any nausea?”
I shake my head. The only thing I feel in my stomach is an intense, gnawing hunger, and right on cue my tummy growls irritably. Hannah frowns.
“You must be starving. We’ll get you some food.”
She turns to Addom on the other side of the bed.
“She should be able to keep food down now. Broth would be good, and maybe some eggs.”
Addom nods. He moves over to speak to Kadmon, and soon the younger Alpha is sprinting away, presumably to retrieve some food for me.
I groan as I sit up in the bed.
“What is this place?” I ask her, glancing around. “Are we in a hospital?”
Hannah shakes her head.
“No. We’re actually inside the SynerGen headquarters.
My body stiffens, and I sit up straight on my pallet.
“Don’t worry,” Hannah says, placing her hand on my shoulder. “We’re in the old SynerGen headquarters. From before the cataclysm. The facility is no longer in use. Well…actually it is, but not by the SynerGen people. It belongs to us now.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. After what Dr. Lucian did to me—the way that he betrayed my trust—the very mention of my former place of employment is enough to make my skin crawl.
Still, this has to be more than just some weird coincidence.
“But I don’t understand,” I say, looking around. “I mean, what am I doing in this place? Why SynerGen?”
This time it’s Addom who answers.
“We brought you here so you would be close to the Source. That is what healed you.”
He has returned to the side of my bed while Hasker continues brooding a little farther away though he never takes his eyes off of me.
“The Source?”
I have heard them speak about it before, but I thought they were just referring to some sort of abstract concept. Some part of their religion. But the way Addom is talking about it, makes it sound like it is some physical thing.
“What is the Source?” I whisper.
“Take a look for yourself,” Hannah says and gestures behind me.
I turn around to see what she’s pointing at.
“Oh my God,” I gasp.
Hannah sets to work removing the bandage from my arm.
“Well, as far as the Alphas are concerned, ‘oh my God’ is about right.”
***
A few minutes later, I’m on my feet. I still feel a bit wobbly, so I have to lean against Kadmon as he walks me around the perimeter of the room. Hannah walks along beside me, while Hasker and Addom walk ahead of us, quietly discussing something.
We are doing laps around the Source, the massive device that dominates the center of this enormous space.
Anyway, I think it’s a device. It is like a huge sphere, but instead of a smooth surface, it is covered in matte black cones. Other groups of males and females are also circling the Source, and their heads are bowed as if they are praying or meditating. Others are lying on pallets
similar to the one I woke up on, apparently healing from wounds or sickness.
One thing is for sure—that strange vibrational sensation I’ve been feeling ever since I came too? It’s definitely emanating from this thing.
“So…what exactly does it do?” I whisper to Hannah.
She shrugs.
“Honestly? I have no fucking clue.” I can’t help but giggle at Hannah’s brusque demeanor. She goes on. “All I really know is that it emits some kind of healing energy, but I don’t understand how it works.”
Hannah fidgets with her lip ring.
“Here’s what I do know. This thing, whatever it is, was built by SynerGen. And as far as I can tell, it is dead center at ground zero of the zone.”
She pauses to let the implications of that sink in.
“So SynerGen caused the cataclysm?” I whisper.
“It sure seems that way,” Hannah says. “Whether on purpose or by accident, who knows? Obviously the Source had devastating effects on the majority of the population who were turned into betas. But on the other hand, it has some sort of healing powers for the rest of us.”
She nods at the convalescing people lying on cots and pallets around the room.
“As you can see, we bring the sick and wounded to this place to help them recover more quickly. In your case, we put you on fluids because you were vomiting too much to keep water down, and we needed some way to keep you from becoming dehydrated. But other than that, we didn’t give you any medicine. Your recovery is all thanks to the Source.”
She runs her hand through her hair.
“You’re lucky that they brought you here when they did. If you had undergone those same withdrawals out in the wilderness, you very likely could have died.”
Ahead of us, I can sense Hasker tense at those words.
“But what about you, Hannah?” I ask. “You said you’re not from this place. Are you a doctor?”
“No, I’m a scientist. A research assistant to be exact. I worked for SynerGen just like you did. Then, about six weeks ago I came into the zone as part of a research assignment as an assistant…”
Her face becomes pale as if she is reliving a terrible memory.