“Sir, you called for us?”
“Ah, good.” Doctor Fitzgerald stood up and side stepped out of the way, “Have her taken down to the labs while I get the council on the phone.”
“Yes, sir.”
I recoiled away. “No! Get away from me!” They picked me up by my elbow and forced me onto my feet. My weak knees trembled as my bruised veins bulged out of my arm from the injection tracks.
“Actually, clean her up first then take her to my lab. I want to make her presentable. It’s time that we finish this.”
“Understood.” Forcibly, they turned me around and carried me out into the corridor.
“Let me go, you piece of shit.” I was dragged down the passageways with my feet scrapping along the floor. Eventually, they stopped by the showers and shoved me inside.
“You have three minutes,” the guard barked. He slammed the door as I stumbled in and hit the ground on my knees. The overhead lights were blinding as I struggled into a stand. The stench of urine and sweat fumed from my soiled clothes as flakes of dry blood came off my neck. I barely recognised myself in the mirror. The left side of my head was shaven down to only short brown roots. The other side was still long and badly ratted. I leaned forward to inspect the scar running along my temple. The black stitches pulled against the swollen pink skin as it throbbed with a tiny pulse. I took off my outer shirt and lifted up my white singlet to discover six sets of bruised drill holes running up my spine. I almost fainted at the amount of smeared blood dried all over my back. Oh, my God… what the hell?
Using the sink taps, I gently dabbed the blood away with my sleeve, carefully manoeuvring around the open cuts and grazes. What the hell has he done to me? I vomited stomach acid into the basin before soothing my throat with a mouthful of murky water.
For three minutes, all I could do was stare numbly at my own battered reflection, completely lost for words. What I am I going to do? He is going to kill me! I almost couldn’t stand; my body trembled so much I had to use the basin to keep myself standing up. I’m going to die! I’m going to die! I must not have heard the door open as a pair of arms suddenly pulled me back. I spun with my elbow bent, aiming for the temple but the guard caught me and twisted me forward. Surprisingly he then let me go.
“You look like shit.”
I spun at his familiar voice. “Diesel?”
Diesel took the guard helmet off and held it by his side. The black armour pinched around his neck in a tight collar and covered him completely down to the heavy, black combat boots. His natural lean physique moved inside the armour with the ease and comfort of a second skin. The swelling from his broken nose blackened the areas around his eyes in a miscoloured mask.
“What happened to your nose?”
“It’s nothing.” He gestured to his face. “It seems Doctor Fitzgerald doesn’t like others playing with his toys. Still, I look better than you.” He tilted my head up to inspect the scar on my temple. I was on wobbly knees and slumped onto the back of my heels. He snapped his fingers at me. “Stay awake.”
He took a small container from his pocket and proceeded to ease the contact onto my right eye. It rolled over my iris after a couple of blinks. “I thought Doctor Fitzgerald destroyed your lab.”
“Nah, if he had found it, I wouldn’t be alive. I had no choice; I paid off those guards to destroy it for me. Can’t leave any evidence,” he said as he eased the second contact in. “I managed to save this pair and some blue prints.”
“Do they work?”
He shrugged. “We’re about to find out.”
I fluttered my eyes as the second contact set. It didn’t feel any different to the previous pair I had on, except for a small line that was just out of focus at the bottom of my peripherals. Diesel put the helmet back on as we walked out into the hall.
“What happened to the other guard?” I paused once walking out to find the mangled corpse of the guard dumped by the foot of the door. I brimmed my lips shut. “Never mind.”
As we walked, exhaustion rode on my shoulders. Hunger scraped the lining of my stomach like a rough tongue licking an empty bowl, making me feel sick. “How are we getting out of here?” I glanced up as the door to Fitzgerald’s room appeared into view. Focus snapped back and I pulled away. “What are you doing? Doctor Fitzgerald is in there!”
“Shh, just act normal.” He reached upwards and knocked on the door.
Doctor Fitzgerald opened it impatiently in his surgical gear and thick gloves. “Set her up on the back table. We need to start our prep—”
Diesel’s arm slashed outwards, splitting open Doctor Fitzgerald’s face with a shiv. The attack was so fast I had to blink twice before the sight of red weeping from Doctor Fitzgerald’s eyes made sense. Without slowing, Diesel took Doctor Fitzgerald by the throat and marched him inside before forcing him into a chair.
He bound the blinded doctor and gagged him with a strip of cloth. I quietly edged around the room, my body trembling. Horrified, I watched Diesel pull the doctor’s shredded eyelids open again and cut across his eyeballs.
I quickly looked away. “Why don’t you just kill him?”
“Why? So he can be reborn into his youth? Nah, men like Fitzgerald don’t deserve to die. They deserve to suffer.” Diesel removed his helmet before clapping the doctor’s shoulders as he thrashed in his seat. “Nice to see you again, Doctor. Don’t recognise me, huh? Gotta admit, my feelings are a little hurt.”
“What are we doing in here?” I glanced around into the office to find the Doctor had cleared away all of his projects and turned it into a clean, operating theatre. It wasn’t the sight of the technician’s chair that churned my stomach, but the prepared surgical table near the back corner. There were cameras set up on tripods that made me feel uneasy.
“I can’t leave without his research.” Diesel pocketed the knife before inserting a chip into the doctor’s laptop. It flashed a quick warning sign for a password. Diesel furiously typed onto a small tablet he pulled from his pocket.
“You seem well prepared.”
“Well, I have been planning this for a long time.” The tablet set to work disarming the security firewall as Diesel turned around to scavenge the room, taking charts and vials off the shelves and drawers before shuffling them into a bag.
I glanced around the scattered mess of Doctor Fitzgerald’s work station when I noticed a small chip in the second drawer. Diesel must have over looked it. As I pulled some boxes aside, I ran my finger over the disc. The black plastic sparked with familiarity; this was my personal file. I promptly pocketed it.
At the beep of his tablet, Diesel returned and offered me the chair. “Okay, you’re up.”
“Shouldn’t you have used Doctor Fitzgerald’s eyes for this? Well… before you sliced them in half.”
“No need.” He nodded for me to sit. “These will work.”
I sat down and looked into the camera positioned on the computer. It flashed quickly, like a blink, before the computer kicked into a hum.
“Wait? It actually worked?” I gasped as Diesel impatiently pulled the swivel chair with me on it away to see the screen up close. It only took a few moments before the computer turned black and Diesel took the chip back.
He grinned and turned to hoist Doctor Fitzgerald into a stand. “Okay, time to go.”
“You’re taking him with us?”
“Only until I’m bored with him.” Diesel drove the blade into Doctor Fitzgerald’s thigh, causing him to howl and buckle. I tensed and looked away. Despite what he had done to me, my stomach still churned with guilt. If it was my choice, it’ll be one quick sideways cut across the throat and be done with it. Diesel shrugged, “What? Can’t risk him running away.”
“You’re enjoying yourself way too much.”
“Everyone needs a hobby. Don’t worry, I’ll take his tongue out too so he can’t blab about who we are and what we look like. I can’t have people looking for us, especially for you.”
“Why especially me
?”
Diesel sneered, “What? Don’t pretend you don’t know you’re the grand prize out of all of this. If they want your freaky eyes they are going to have to take them over my dead body. You’re mine now.”
I tensed at how confident Diesel sounded with his claim. Suddenly I understood what was happening. Diesel had no intention of setting me free. I was no safer in his hands than I was in the doctor’s. A sickening kick hit my stomach. I’m in the hands of a blacklisted lunatic who I know nothing about. No doubt the moment Diesel found me useless, he would pop my eyes out and put them into a jar.
I waited until Diesel turned his back before I took a heavy wrench from the table and subtly tuck it into the back of my pants. I swallowed hard. “Okay then smart guy, what’s next? How do you plan on getting us out of here?”
“The only way out is through the front doors or out with the trash. We can use the chute where they send the dead bodies. We use your contacts to gain entry and ride the chute down into the pits outside.” He checked the time. “They usually start burning the bodies around sunset. We should have enough time to get out.”
“Wait, did you say burn the bodies?”
Diesel dragged Doctor Fitzgerald up and forced him into a walk. “What are you, deaf? This is our only chance, so I’ll need you to suck it up and move!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Diesel led us toward the east wing of the prison, taking sharp corridors and using passages only the architect himself would know were there. He knew everything from every point security cameras were positioned, to every rotation the guards took. He had planned this to the finest detail, but there was no way he could’ve planned for me. We reached what I assumed to be the garbage storage room. We were blocked by twin iron doors secured under bolted locks and an ID scanner. He gestured for me to approach the scanner, but when the flash hit my eyes, the machine rang with a rejection bell.
“What? Why didn’t they work?”
Diesel hissed under his breath, “Shit, I don’t know. Hang on. There’s another way.” He shoved Doctor Fitzgerald forward and forced his finger onto the sensor pad. After a nervous couple of seconds, the engine pinged and the bolts unlocked themselves. The doctor jerked in Diesel’s grip before we both quickly ducked between the gaps. Inside the large storage room, there were racks of open coffins stacked in rotating shelves against the wall. In front of us was a large, chrome furnace with a short track leading into the mouth. Among the stench of smoke and burnt hair, there was an uncomfortable draft of heat coming out of the furnace.
“Umm… Diesel?” I stepped up to the automatic belt and placed my hands on the metal panels. “Please tell me we’re not going in there?”
“Don’t worry. I told you they don’t turn it on until sunset.”
“And what time is it exactly?”
He shrugged. “Hopefully not sunset.”
Next to the furnace, a large control panel operated the machine. With a simple switch, he opened the door to the furnace, revealing a charred drop into the drum belly below. The smell of decomposed bodies lathered my face and nostrils with a thick musk, licking my skin. I couldn’t swallow without both tasting and smelling it at the same time.
“You’re crazy!” I gagged.
“We only have one chance at this. It has to be now.” Diesel jumped up onto the track and shoved Doctor Fitzgerald face down onto the belt, pinning him under his knee. “Don’t make me drag you up too.”
“Shit!” I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve and jumped on. Quickly, I knelt down onto one knee as the slow moving track entered into the mouth of the furnace. The sudden drop landed us on top of brittle skeletons and a mound of decomposing bodies. It was too dark to see properly but I could feel the rough edges of the charred bones poke through the shredded meat. I dropped about waist deep amongst the stiffen corpses as I found it difficult to move my legs. I wrestled to the top of the pile and balanced on the saggy organs as they deflated under my weight. I tried my best not to vomit, but the smell was just so horrendous, it could almost form hands and strangle me.
“Diesel? Where are you? I can’t see anything!”
“Over here, hurry!” Diesel called from a few steps ahead. I dropped my hand from my mouth to drag myself up onto the next body and scramble over. It was so sticky and wet that I felt my pants dampen and hug my legs. I swore I even felt things wiggling around me. I gagged uncontrollably. “There’s a drain just near the centre at the bottom. That’s our ticket out of here.” Diesel shouted over my dry retching.
“Oh god… I can’t! I can’t do this!” I gagged again.
“Oh, I’m sorry, princess. Did I forget to lay out the red carpet for you?”
“Just shut up and get me out of here.”
“Then move that skinny ass of yours and climb down the pipe hole”
“I can’t see where the pip-” I started to shout when the walls rattled and the gate to the entrance snapped closed. “Wait. What? Wh-what was that?”
I stilled and checked over my shoulder. Suddenly, snaps of orange jumped up along the hem of the tin walls followed by the distinct smell of gas. The orange glare illuminated the mass of corpses around me and instinctively, I snapped my hands away and held my breath. Their broken faces with dislocated jaws reminded me of a movie horror; many were completely naked and badly decomposed.
Diesel was still shifting through the corpses with Doctor Fitzgerald in one hand, edging closer the centre. He glanced back and sharply barked, “If the flames weren’t an indication, the furnace is turning on.”
“Oh, my God! No! No, I’m not going to die here!” Suddenly, the corpses were no longer at the centre of my fear as I dug my nails into their backs and hauled myself across.
As I scrambled, I tried to convince myself the saggy sponge I felt under my palms was not someone’s collapsed chest cavity but just a large pillow soiled in damp water. The heat flashed my cheeks as the flames erupted from the grill underneath, bursting through the corpses. Diesel and the doctor reached the centre where they nosedived out of sight. The heat rose up impossibly fast as I dove down into the pit of mangled limbs after them, using the bodies as shields against the heat. Trying to paddle my way through deteriorating limbs wasn’t something I thought I would ever have to experience. But the moment was just a fleeting thought as the real danger rose from beneath me as it weaved through my uniform and seared the skin along my legs. I scrambled forward when one of the corpses kicked with life at my touch. I jerked back, first frightened but then quickly confused when noticing it was Doctor Fitzgerald I had accidentally grabbed. In his blindness, he kicked and squirmed, screaming into the gag. I didn’t have time for him. I weaselled past carefully, in case he tried to grab on for a ride, and pushed my way to the bottom. The floor dropped below my foot as I slid into a tunnel of darkness, slipping straight into the narrow width of the pipe leading out of the fire’s reach.
The pipe was impossibly tight; my shoulders wedged against the metal lining as I felt the air around me disappear. I squirmed and wiggled down further, but I only found myself more restricted. Charred bones sprinkled down on top of me, shooting up my nose and into my mouth every time I breathed. I coughed and choked, forcing me to gasp loudly only to inhale more ash into my mouth, resulting in more coughing and choking. If I wasn’t claustrophobic, I definitely felt the surge of panic throttle me now. I thrashed and cried within the tiny space as the sides coated me in a strange, wet slime until it suddenly dropped me down the chute.
The downwards plummet was brief as the crisp touch of chilled air hit my exposed legs when I tumbled out at the bottom. I hit the ground and scrambled out, moving faster than I ever thought I could. My head felt full of pebbles as I collapsed and rolled out onto my back. The wrench was digging into my spine but I was just so happy to breath without my chest hitting the steel pipe that I didn’t care. I quickly rolled myself onto my stomach, spat the last remaining pieces of ash out and looked out into the landmine of the scattered bones of all the d
ead prisoners.
I can’t believe it. I made it. The thought stilled in my mind like forming ice. I’m free. I really am free.
I went to sit up when a hand shove me back down. On top of me, Diesel pressed his kneecap into my spine and pulled my hair off to the side. He forced my cheek into the mud that the dirt smeared over my teeth. “What are you doing? Get off me!”
“Stop struggling!”
“Get off! Get the FUCK off!”
I bucked underneath him and caught sight of a knife. The glistened end was turned toward me and the adrenaline sent a fire into my arms. I cracked my head back with a fast snap, managing to collide with Diesel’s as he reached down to cut into my throat.
As he wavered off balance, I bucked again, throwing up enough space that I was able to wiggle underneath the strong hold of his thighs. I pushed up onto my hands and threw my elbow backward, aiming for his nose but landed on his throat instead. I then turned, punching him again in the jaw but he managed to catch my wrist and twist. The pain felt like a draft of thorns shifting under my skin, splintering up my wrist like nipping parasites.
I kicked out from underneath him, reached behind me and withdrew the wrench from my pants. With a wild swing, I connected the knob with the side of his head. Diesel’s neck cracked the other way as he fell and cupped his face.
The momentum of the swing threw me to the side. I didn’t get a chance to recollect my posture when Diesel flashed the blade and looked up at me through his black oiled hair. “Oh… I’m going to make you pay for that.”
I scrambled back but he grabbed my calves and pulled me along the mud. I quickly turned back to face him and kicked my heel into his chest. Quickly backing out, Diesel scrambled off me and let me go.
Aiming to kill, I swung at him again but missed as Diesel dodged backward while shielding his blood-covered face with his hands. My head felt heavy under the thick mud as the nauseating anaemia threatened to knock me out. Everything had doubled; my vision shifted so the tip yard had just multiplied. I stumbled back, knowing if I went into a hand-to-hand combat, Diesel would win.
Soulless (The Immortal Gene Trilogy Book 1) Page 8