Toxic Dust (The Deviant Future Book 1)

by Eve Langlais

  They brought her down to the ground level and dragged her through some paths to a place where the white stone glistened as if wet, freshly washed, the grates in the ground still dripping. When she saw the post with its crossbeam, she struggled.

  “No,” she yelled. “No.” She had no desire to relive that pain. She fought, her mind snapping out, shoving the guards holding her. She turned and began to run, back the way they came, only he arrived.

  The Earl stepped elegantly into the arena; his hand extended. She threw up a shield to defend against him.

  He smirked.

  She didn’t realize why until she felt the needle entering her. The drug immediately flooded her system, making her lethargic.

  “About time,” the Earl snapped. “She’s bloody difficult to hold. Lash her to the post. You’ll have to hit her extra hard for her to feel anything through the inhibitor.”

  A part of her screamed that they were tying her up. Arms spread and wrists bound tautly. A rip of her gown bared her back.

  She bit her lip rather than cry out when the first whistle landed. The pain proved shocking. Despite the drug, she gasped.

  It hit her again, white hot and burning. She grunted, and her eyes squeezed shut. It didn’t stop the rolling tears.

  She held off making a sound until seventeen. A new record for her, but a disappointment to the Earl. He’d stroked her mind after the whistling stopped, a mind still ringing with her screams.

  He’d whispered into that abused part of her. Is it wrong I look forward to when you disobey again?

  The words chilled her right through. Sparked a deep hatred inside her, which she kept hidden. Now wasn’t yet the time.

  The salves they lathered on her torn flesh hurried the healing. The medical compound provided exactly what the wound needed to repair. The soothing nature of it did not erase the memory of the pain. How she’d ended up sobbing. Begging. Begging them to stop. Because seventeen was only when she started to scream. The lashes went on and on.

  Eventually they did finish punishing her and cut her body down from the post, cleansed her while she lay unconscious. Strapped her face down to a bed to ensure she didn’t do damage, only releasing her to eat and bathe.

  Two days later, the rapid healing done, the wounds now only slightly knotted red scars, they’d deemed her ready. Obedient.

  As if she could have a stray thought with the heavy drugs they fed her. She could barely stand and focus, let alone fight. She barely even took note of her room which had all the amenities for a prisoner, including a shower.

  The white gown they’d dressed her in molded to her frame, the material thin and clinging. It matched the sheets on the bed. The walls. Floor. More white. So much white in the room they’d placed her in. The word room not quite capturing the starkness of it with the open privy area sitting in a corner. A sink for her hands and the brushing of her teeth and a stall that acted as shower and waste eliminator.

  The bed proved to be more comfortable than expected, the mattress cushioning her body. She would know. She spent a lot of time sleeping in it, wondering at the fact they built them so wide. She eyed the metal rings welded on to its legs with worry. She could only too easily imagine them being used to tie someone down.

  She blamed Axel for the thought.

  Axel.

  She wished she could feel sad he died. Numbness filled her. She felt nothing at all. Not even regret that he’d not be coming for her. No one would. She’d been here for days. Days of no one to talk to. Those who came in and cared for her didn’t say much.

  “Turn around.”

  “Arms up.”

  “Eat or we’ll tube you.”

  She would almost welcome another conversation from the cold Earl. Except, he might order another whipping. She would do anything to avoid that.

  A sharp alert drew her attention to a chute in the wall. The little door for the alcove whooshed open. A sealed cylinder sat inside.

  “Drink it.”

  The robotic order almost caused her to flinch.

  It wasn’t a mealtime. Medicine came in the form of shots, rarely pills.

  “Drink it.” A hint of impatience in the command.

  Head heavy, she rose from the bed and tottered to the canister. She had time to remark on its smooth surface. Not a single thing to betray what lurked inside. The lid blended seamlessly with the body, no crack to see.

  Grabbing it, she noticed it was neither warm nor cold. The little door whooshed shut.

  “Unscrew the lid and drink it.”

  She didn’t want to.

  But if I don’t, they’ll whip me.

  Or worse.

  What if drinking proved to be even more awful?

  “Are you listening, Madre Laura? Open the vessel and drink.”

  She eyed it then the ceiling where that single round glass eye watched. “No.” It took everything in her to voice her refusal. “You want me to drink it, then make me.”

  The vessel hit the floor with a thud and rolled. She bowed her head and waited.

  The door took an eternity to open. She wondered if she could transgress hard enough that they wouldn’t put her back in this room.

  “You’re not dying, Laura.” Only one person could read her mind so easily.

  He stood there in the doorway to her cell. The Earl himself had come. He wore a sinister smile on his face. “I hear you’re being difficult.”

  I knew you missed me. I missed you, too. Your sweet screams. Your decadent pain.

  She backed into the wall. The terror hot and choking.

  He took a step forward, the door to her cell closing behind him. “I knew you wouldn’t wait long to call for me. Knew you’d want a repeat of our refresher. You like the pain, don’t you, Laura?”

  “No,” she whispered. “No.” Not again.

  “You say no, Laura, and yet we both know it’s yes. Why else would you disobey unless it was to beg me to come see you?”

  Did you miss me? The taunt arrived with the ghostly fingers. They clawed at the edge of her mind, ripping past the flimsy wall she’d built and then tunneling in to find her darkest secrets. Her most painful memories.

  Then once those fingers had them, they played with them. Over and over again as she screamed, determined to shape her and accomplish what the years in the Creche had never managed; break her.

  Eighteen

  The first time Axel experienced the mental scream, he ended up crashing the bike. Gunner would be pissed.

  Even after everything stopped moving, and he lay face first in the dirt, he paused and tried to decipher what had happened.

  Someone was hurting Laura. He’d felt it, sharply. Intensely.

  Then nothing. The strange link between them went blank.

  What did it mean? Was she dead? He had no way of knowing.

  He pushed to his feet and brushed off his dusty apparel. The motorbike chugged where it lay on the ground, a single wheel spinning. He lifted it and could have cursed when he noticed the damaged siding. Which meant only half the recharge power. Well before he reached the Incubaii Dome, the bike died.

  He kicked it. Cursed it. Yelled at the sky.

  “Why are you fucking with me? She needs me.”

  And he kept failing.

  It took a few moments of self-pity before he found his balls, yanked them out, slung them over his shoulder, and began to walk. It was several hours more before Gunner located him with the lumbering Enclave truck.

  He stopped alongside Axel. “Need a ride?”

  Axel swung into the truck. “About the bike—”

  “It’s in the back,” Gunner growled. “I told you to be careful with it.”

  “I’ll have it repaired.”

  “Fucking right you will. Although it was probably for the best it happened. You need to slow down. Revenge doesn’t have to happen today.”

  “I won’t let them get away with fucking us.” Wouldn’t let Laura stay there one moment longer than necessary. Already, he’d
spent too much time trying to make it there.

  “We will make them pay for what they did, but you can’t go barging in there half-assed. Not if you want to save her.” Gunner discerned the real reason for his panic.

  “The longer she’s with them…” He couldn’t finish the thought. He remembered the things Nikki told him, the things he’d heard over the years. What they did to some of the Madres. He should have never agreed to use Laura as bait.

  “Do you have a plan once we get there?” Gunner asked. “Because mine is just see if I can drive into the loading area with the truck and then run around like a crazy Deviant shooting people until I find your girlfriend.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “It should be noted the thing you took offense at was the only normal thing in that sentence. I’ll ask again, what’s your plan?”

  That required thinking, trying to push past his worry to a way to win. A full-on frontal assault would never work. They needed do something that would work with small numbers.

  “How far is the Ajatarai Forest from the Incubaii Dome?” he asked, trying to picture in his head the vast area.

  “Good question. And I might have an answer. Check out what this truck has.” He touched a screen, and a map appeared, the topography astonishing. Gunner pinched, and it zoomed out, showing the highlighted Incubaii Dome number four, and—coming close enough to be useful—the Ajatarai Forest.

  Axel pointed to a dip in the forested image. “Bring us here. I know what we can do.”

  “Now you’re thinking.” Gunner nodded in agreement.

  “Not really,” was Axel’s dry reply. If Gunner knew of the maelstrom inside of him, he’d run far, far away. “Once I grab us some allies, I’m going to need to find a way inside the dome.”

  “Casey is already on it.” A reminder the woman had a way with locks. “I’m more interested in how you think you’ll find Laura once you’re inside. The place is huge.”

  “Yeah, but how much of it is turned over to inhabitants? My understanding of how it works has most of it used for gestational tanks. We’ll need the building where they keep the Madres.”

  “You mean buildings. There at least four Madre barracks, plus a few specialty ones where she could be held as well.”

  “And how do you know this?” Axel asked.

  “A lucky guess.”

  Axel snorted. “Leave locating her to me.” He’d find her.

  “And once we do, then what? Are we shooting to kill? I am assuming there will be a hefty number of dome guards, plus possibly even some Enclave soldiers.”

  “We can handle it.” Said with the utmost assurance.

  “Just making sure you understand the odds are stacked against us.”

  “Is this your way of chickening out?”

  Gunner snorted. “Hell no. I like a challenge myself, and besides, I’ve been telling you for a while now we needed to do something bigger.”

  Trying to kidnap a Madre from within a dome certainly constituted as big.

  “Going in after Laura will probably start a war with the Enclave.”

  That brought a snort from Gunner. “Last I heard the patrols had an order to shoot on sight. The war is already here, my friend.”

  “Then it’s time we hit them where it hurts.”

  Axel did his best to get some sleep as they jostled along the Wasteland, hoping no one tracked their passage. They’d angled somewhat away from the dome, which might keep them concealed longer. The closer they got, the more likely they’d be noticed.

  Given its rapid speed, the ball drone would have shaved almost a full day off on the trip, especially if it went full-out as he suspected. Which meant she’d long ago landed. The detour to the forest would add even more time to the trip.

  But the real shit kicker? The truck broke down before they fucking reached the forest.

  Gunner emerged from beneath the hood of the hissing vehicle. “It can’t be fixed, not without parts and tools.”

  Of which they had none.

  “What do we do?” Out here on the flat expanse of Hades, the comm units were practically useless, the signal shredded before it had a chance to go far. Only the most basic of machines worked.

  “We walk.”

  There was no other choice. They were still miles from the dome. Miles from anything.

  It was Gunner who thought they should make conversation, oblivious to the fact they were trudging through a dust haze, losing moisture to sweat as the heat baked them.

  “You going to promise her?” Gunner asked.

  Promising, what a couple did when they decided to become exclusive to each other. It involved a tattoo and a pledge in front of a witness.

  “I don’t know.” He’d not thought that far. He’d just met Laura. Just gotten to know her and looked forward to learning about her. He groaned. “Probably.”

  “Congrats.”

  “Hasn’t happened yet,” he growled.

  “Something to look forward to. Just like now you can start thinking about kids.”

  “Why would I think about kids? I haven’t even saved the woman yet.”

  “Gotta think ahead.” Gunner tapped his temple. “What if you have some? Where you going to put them?”

  “Haven is too small. I’m aware,” he grumbled. “Where else can we go?”

  “I know you don’t like it, but The Ruins offer more space.”

  “The Ruins are full of ghouls.”

  “There are things we could do to remove the threat.”

  “Extermination.” A possibility not without danger. Axel shook his head. “Too risky. We need to find a place that doesn’t literally have monsters underneath us.”

  “Good luck with that,” Gunner snickered. “You know we could try and head south where the sun rises.” Into the unknown, past the Wastelands and through a field of volcanoes and geysers that led—according to some—to the end of the world.

  “You still believe there’s a hidden city there.”

  “You’d believe, too, if you’d heard the guy, seen what he showed me,” Gunner enthused.

  Gunner met a fellow who’d shown him marvels, including images of a place, a city, where apparently people lived free. A fantasy atop a mountain wreathed in clouds.

  “Could have been doctored,” Axel said, trying to be the voice of reason.

  “He had those gadgets I’d never seen before.”

  “Ancient tech doesn’t mean shit. You can find it anywhere if you look hard enough.”

  “Fine,” Gunner huffed. “Don’t go looking where there’s actually a rumor. What’s your brilliant plan to find us more room?”

  “I don’t have a plan.” As leader, he really should. “Even if there is a city or town or something elsewhere willing to take us in, how do we get everyone there safely?”

  “I don’t know. But maybe it’s time we find out. Which means, after we’ve saved your promised, I’m going to scout a look.”

  No hint he thought they might fail. No attempt to talk him out of it. “Thanks.” Axel clapped Gunner hard on the back, almost knocking him over.

  But his friend grinned. “Anytime. Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and conquer the dome solving two birds with one stone.”

  The very idea was ludicrous. Steal a dome from the Enclave?

  Had anyone ever tried?

  The thought rolled in his head, percolating as the night rolled into day. By the time he saw the smudge on the horizon, he was ready to collapse. He and Gunner held on until they reached the forest.

  Then, climbing a tree, they each took a much-needed rest. They woke as the sun was setting and shadows began creeping between the boughs.

  He joined Gunner in stretching on the ground. Pulling and turning, limbering his muscles.

  “I’m going to have to leave you now,” he remarked.

  “What am I supposed to do while you’re communing with nature?”

  “Head for the dome and cause a distraction.”

  “What kind of d
istraction? In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re not exactly well equipped.”

  “Figure it out.” Because Axel had no suggestions.

  “Remember the not rushing in thing we talked about? Maybe we should take a night to stake out the area, come up with a real plan.”

  “No.” Axel refused to budge. Laura had been taken from him almost three days ago.

  Three days.

  And nothing from her in that time. Not another burst of fear. Anger. Nothing.

  He’d not realized how much he’d been aware of her until she was gone.

  Gunner eyed the encroaching shadows with a wary eye. “You’re insane going in there at night. Especially since we know the stories mothers tell their children about the Ajatarai Forest are true.”

  “The wildness is the best part about these woods.” Axel showed his teeth and turned his face upward. A chunk of the moon hung in the sky tonight. It moved on a strange axis. It was said, before the Fall, the moon used to be a large round globe. Then it broke. Everything changed after, or so the histories handed down claimed.

  “Let’s say I figure out how to cause a distraction. Any particular time you’re aiming for?”

  “The dome is only a few hours by foot.” He glanced off in the distance as if he could see it. In a sense he could. His connection to the land was strong here. He could smell the otherness of the dome on a night breeze. “If we wait until the darkest part of night, that is when the soldiers are most likely to be lulled to sleep.”

  “And the monsters are fiercest.” Gunner groaned.

  “You don’t have to join me,” Axel said.

  “Don’t pull that shit with me. Of course, I’m coming, but why do missions always happen in the dark? Sometimes it would be nice to fight on a soft, springy grass. Short grass, in the sunshine, where we can see the monsters coming.”

  “Stop whining.” Axel slapped him on the back. “Distract at the pass-over hour.” When today turned into tomorrow.

  “Midnight. Right. Pull a magical Wasteland lizard from my ass in a few hours. Got it,” Gunner grumbled.

  But Axel knew his friend would do his damnedest.