by R. A. Rock
We had been overconfident. And now we would pay. Though as for that, I supposed it wouldn’t have mattered when we tried to get in. They probably had a million safeguards to make sure the Plague Carriers or other undesirables couldn’t just walk on down.
I spun around when a gate slammed down at the end of the tunnel we were in. The same thing was happening at the other end. Then a second gate slide into place with a hissing noise as if it was sealing the area.
There were sirens going this entire time, loud enough to hurt my ears. And above the noise, a privileged sounding female voice was repeating over and over…
“Biohazard alert. Biohazard alert. Biohazard alert.”
“Uh, I don’t know what they’re saying,” Audrey said, leaning against the tunnel with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. “But I think we’ve been discovered.”
She really didn’t give a shit these days what happened to us.
“No, I don’t,” she answered my thoughts. “And you should be shielding. Have you all forgotten your training?”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes.
Embarrassed, I pulled a shield over my mind.
“Oh, stop bugging him, Audrey. We’re the only ones that can hear him right now,” Yumi said, unthinkingly.
And thank you for that lovely reminder, Yumi, of my handicap. What’s next? A paper cut and lemon juice?
“What do we do now?” Grace said, looking worried but not overly so.
Surely the people who lived down here would be more gracious than the Survivors or the Plague Carriers had been. They would be more like Matt and Nessa? Right?
“We don’t have much choice,” Shiv pointed out. “We’re locked in and they’re probably going to come and either decontaminate us or…”
He trailed off.
“Or what?”
“Or nothing,” he said, trying to cover his tracks. “They’ll probably come and make sure we’re not carrying anything that might infect them.”
Grace walked over to him and pulled on his shirt until he bent down and she could look him in the eye. And the contrast between them had never been so obvious. He was tall, dark, and handsome as the stereotype goes. My sister, on the other hand, is a head shorter than him and pale as a star, with that bright red hair glowing like a beacon on her head and emerald green eyes. Shiv’s eyes are dark and he’s more good looking than any guy has any right to be.
They’re so different, but so perfect for each other. Kind of like Yumi and I used to be.
“Or what, Shiv?”
Grace might be small and innocent looking, but I pity the person who underestimates her. He sighed, knowing that it was no use trying to keep anything from her.
“Or they might just kill us and not have to deal with any of that.”
At that moment, one of the seals lifted and four people in hazmat suits entered, the doors shutting again behind them with a hiss that sounded a lot more sinister this time. Even though I knew they were only protecting themselves from us, they gave me the creeps anyways.
“What should we do with them?” a male voice said.
“Kill them and dump the bodies,” a female voice answered after only a few seconds perusal of us.
“Hey,” I said. “You can’t just kill us. We’ve come as…”
I searched my mind for something that would make them want to let us stay.
What would people stuck underground in an isolated community want most?
“Gossip, of course,” Yumi sent, hearing my frantic thoughts.
“We are ambassadors from the outside world. We bring news.”
“News?” the female voice sounded skeptical but intrigued nonetheless.
“Kill the others but leave the male redhead for questioning.”
“I’m freezing their motor skills,” Grace sent.
“Not yet,” I sent back. “We shouldn’t show off our powers. Let me handle this.”
“Look,” I said, turning on the charisma as much as I dared and aiming my smile at the female voice. My grin has been known to melt panties and my charm is legendary.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot here,” I said, spreading my hands to show how harmless I was. “We didn’t come here to hurt anyone. We’ve been looking for Winnipeg and when we found the entrance, we thought that this might be the place we were looking for.”
“You were looking for Winnipeg?” she said. “And how do you know you’ve found it?”
“We don’t. But what else would be in the exact place of the old city?”
“We don’t usually let strangers in…”
“But you’re going to make an exception because I’m so handsome?” I said, hoping the joke would lighten things up and she would stop talking about killing us. “We could bring some new blood into the conversation.”
When she answered, I didn’t know if her voice sounded a little breathless or not.
“It does,” Yumi sent, sounding put out.
Shit, she was picking up on so many of my thoughts, even though I was shielding tightly. They must be coming through the soul bond — that happens to us a lot.
“Hm, new people. The idea is tempting.”
And I knew I had her.
“We’re interesting, I promise,” I said, infusing a heavy dose of seduction into that last statement and giving her the panty-melting grin.
“Well,” she said. “Bring them all in then. For questioning. Make sure they are properly decontaminated.”
“When you’re finished, bring him to my office.” She pointed at me. “The others can be put in the brig to wait for questioning.”
I didn’t like that they were going to lock everyone else up. But it was better that than all of us being dead. Or us all being locked up. Maybe I could talk this woman into telling me something.
Three hours later and we were all cleared, except Audrey. Somehow her blood sample had come back with something that made them think she might still contaminate the residents. So, they were keeping her in one of the holding rooms that we had been decontaminated in until… well, we didn’t know when.
The decontamination process had been uncomfortable to the point of pain sometimes. And seemed needlessly invasive. My skin was stinging and though we had been well rinsed with water, I could still smell the disinfectant. I thought that maybe my pores were filled with it.
Following the decontamination process, we had been put through a battery of tests, blood, urine, etc. The blood test was the one that Audrey didn’t pass. She was fuming as they led the rest of us away.
“Of course, we’ll get you out as soon as we can,” Yumi sent to her.
“Sure, whatever,” Audrey sent back, crossing her arms and not meeting our eyes, her rage scorching my mind.
The guard that was escorting us started chatting up Yumi, and I saw him checking out her ass when we had to go single file through a narrow hallway. I wasn’t impressed but I didn’t worry about it much. We had bigger problems at the moment. He locked the others in a small room and then led me to a staircase.
“I’ll get some info out of her,” I sent to the others. “Don’t worry.”
***
Chad
We climbed six flights and came out in a brightly lit corridor that seemed to have… sunlight?… coming through the windows. But that couldn’t be.
When we had come in, we had gone down and down, maybe twenty flights of stairs, if not more. So, it couldn’t possibly be sunlight. Still, if I was designing an underground city, I would make sure it had as much light as possible. I assumed that it was the same spectrum of light needed to help them continue to make Vitamin D in the absence of true sunlight. They probably supplemented in the food, too. You would have to if you were going to survive for any length of time underground without getting deficiencies.
The man walked me to the end of the hall where there were large double doors. He opened them and led me in to a richly appointed office, which seemed — strangely enough — to be decorated in
Victorian era furnishings.
I swallowed and tasted some sort of nasty chemical from the decontamination.
“Hello,” the same female voice from the hazmat suit said, spinning on her chair to face me, like a movie cliche come to life. I heard the man close the doors as he let himself out. “My name is Natasha Thompson. I’m the mayor here.”
I was frozen for a moment as I took in her perfect face and long, curly blonde hair. She had the most perfect ringlets that I have ever seen — on anyone other than my sister — that bounced when she turned her head.
And when she stood up to shake my hand, I noticed that she was wearing a pencil skirt and a blazer. I also noticed that the blazer showed off her ample cleavage and the skirt her long legs.
I was a bit shocked. I think I had been expecting a middle aged woman in a pantsuit.
I smiled at her, feeling a little dazzled, which is not normal for me. I’m not usually attracted to women who aren’t Yumi. But this one, for some reason, was doing it for me. It made me feel uncomfortable.
Especially since she seemed to find me attractive, too.
“Uh, Chad. Chad Dvorski. Nice to meet you.”
Oh God. Slick, real slick, man. You’re supposed to be making her incoherent. Not the other way around.
“Chad,” she said, savouring my name. “Welcome to New Winnipeg.”
6 Jealousy
Yumi
I was back in my room following our disastrous tour of New Winnipeg, where I had nearly got us kicked out — and after Natasha had only just decided to let us in as guests instead of prisoners.
Why did I always have to piss people off?
Why couldn’t I just play nice for once?
I hadn’t bothered to get anything to eat for supper because I had been too upset. I had just come back here to mope about how sucky my life was. I knew it was pathetic but I honestly felt like I was nearly at the end of my rope. I felt like I might snap at any moment.
The others were hanging out in the common room but I couldn’t stand the thought of being with them right now. Besides they were annoyed with me for aggravating Natasha and jeopardizing our position here. They probably wouldn’t welcome my company.
My guts churned in turmoil. I ought to be happy that we had found Winnipeg — sorry, New Winnipeg. We would almost definitely be able to find what Shiv needed here. But I was unsettled instead. Chad and I had been doing so much better. Not fighting. Getting along. But now I felt like we were back to where we had been before we time travelled — so damn bitter at each other.
I knew it had started with that kiss in the Survivor community and then him rejecting me and I had to admit that not sleeping together had probably been the best decision in the long run. But I had really believed that we might reconcile and when he hadn’t wanted to, it had hurt me so badly. I felt tears coming to my eyes at the thought.
And then he was flirting so outrageously with that Natasha, it made me sick to my stomach. I had never seen him look at any other woman that way, except me. Did he want to fuck her? He wouldn’t sleep with me but he would consider some stranger? What a bastard. Anger and resentment filled me. It didn’t feel good but it was better than the hurt, which only made me weak.
I reminded myself that those thoughts were all conjecture. The possibility that they might be true, though, pissed me off anyway.
I bounced on the large canopy bed that looked as if the curtains really came down and tied. Was this actually authentic Victorian furniture? And why had anyone bothered to go to so much trouble to decorate in this style? I couldn’t imagine the amount of credits… I mean, money that must have taken.
Chad had convinced Natasha to change our status from prisoner to guest — god knows how. I remembered the image of the kiss that I had got from him accidentally after that they had released us from the little cell,
Our cell looked a lot like a storage room that had been repurposed for holding us. They didn’t get a lot of prisoners in a closed society. I had managed to glean that much from our guard, Jeff, who seemed to have taken a shine to me and was chatting incessantly as he brought us here.
He had said that we would still be locked into the wing but we would be able to come and go between the common room and to each other’s rooms. He said that he hoped we would find it more comfortable than the cell.
I gazed at the opulence that surrounded me.
Yeah, I guess you could say that I would be more comfortable here than in a storage room. That was like saying that the universe is really big — a bit of an understatement.
I was still flopped back, enjoying the softness of the bed when the door flew open and a stormy eyed Chad barged in. I sat up slowly and lifted one eyebrow, wondering what had him so upset that he looked like some sort of vengeful god — Norse probably with that red hair.
His blue eyes had darkened and his cheeks were scarlet with some strong emotion. I took him in — the clenched fists, the tension in his neck and shoulders, and the tightness in his jaw.
Something had him extremely irate.
Usually it was me that did that. Nobody else really affected him that way. So, I waited for him to berate me for something. I wondered what I had done, this time.
“I was just talking with Jeff,” he said, putting on a fake pleasant face.
“Who? Oh, the guard? Were you?” I felt myself reacting to the angry energy that was coming off of him like the intense heat from a fire raging out of control. “And what’s got your panties all in a knot, Mr. Dvorski?”
“He was telling me that he thinks that you’re into him and he hopes he’s got a chance of getting into your panties.”
I laughed at the thought.
“It’s not funny, Yumi,” he said, looking even more angry.
“Are you kidding me?” I said, my own temper firing up. I grasped the covers inadvertently as my hands formed into fists. And suddenly all the hurt and resentment from what happened in the Survivor community came back and I lashed out at him. “After you were eye-fucking that chick through her hazmat suit? You think you can come here and give me shit? And what did you two chat about when you went to see her that got us out of that cell? Did you buy our freedom with your virtue?”
“You bitch,” he said viciously. And that surprised me because Chad usually fights very politely. He never calls names. It didn’t hurt me, though, because I am a bitch.
“I’m sorry,” he said a moment later.
There you go. He can’t even call names without apologizing.
“That just struck a nerve, that’s all.”
Struck a nerve? As in, it was close to the truth?
Now that pissed me off.
What had he been doing with that woman?
“Well,” I said, without thinking. “Maybe we should try out other people.”
“What?” he snapped out, looking even more furious.
“Maybe that’s what we both want, don’t you think? We’ve never been with anyone but each other. Maybe we need a break. A chance to see if someone else would suit us better.”
“Suit us better?” He completely deflated, seeming confused. Walking over to the bed with his shoulders drooping, he dropped down and the mattress dipped under his weight. “You want us to see other people?”
“Why not?” I said, feeling reckless and filled with wrath. “You practically admitted that you were attracted to that hussy who’s throwing herself at you. And you said we were broken up. Clearly you aren’t at all interested in reconciling. Admit it, Chad. No matter what you told the Survivors, we’re married in name only.”
I felt sick to my stomach at the thought.
He turned his head to study me, a troubled expression on his face.
“Fine,” he said, getting that hard look in his eyes that I hated. “Let’s try out other people.”
Oops. I guess I didn’t actually think that he would agree, so I was surprised when he did.
“I came here to invite you to the party tonight. Natasha said we shou
ld all come — well, except Audrey, who’s to remain in quarantine.”
“Great, we can try out new people at the party. And of course find out some information that will help Shiv fix the bracelets, which is our real mission here. In case you forgot in your jealous rage.”
“My jea-…” He cut himself off and pressed his lips together, clearly furious. Then he tried again and managed to speak this time. “Yes, we’ll find out information and try out new people. Great.”
His jaw twitched at the thought. He stood up.
“Looking forward to it.”
I could not believe he was being so possessive, when he had been flirting so outrageously with this Natasha person. It was ridiculous.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you at the party,” I said.
“I guess you will,” he reached for the door handle. “And be sure to keep that tongue of yours in check. We don’t need them throwing us all out before we get what Shiv needs for the bracelets.”
This was maddening. And what was most annoying was that there was no doubt that I needed the reminder to act civil. He was right, as usual, and it just made me want to piss him off even more.
“I’ll be sure to dress sexy for Jeff,” I threw the words at his back. “I bet he’ll like that. He probably won’t ask me to keep my tongue in check. And I’m absolutely certain that he won’t turn me down.”
For a moment his entire body went rigid, then let go.
“I’m sure he won’t. But that’s not my business is it?”
“No,” I said, the bitterness seeping into my voice again. “It definitely is not.”
He wrenched open the door, slamming it as he went out — a very un-Chad-like behaviour. Chad didn’t slam things. Images of him punching the poor guard over and over flowed through the soul bond, till I blocked them. Chad is the opposite of violent, so I was taken aback by how savage his thoughts had been.
Well, I thought, that went particularly badly.
Then I realized what I had agreed to.
Trying out new people?
No matter how infuriated I was with him, I didn’t want to do that. And now I would have to watch Chad and that woman together. Gah. It made me nauseated just thinking about it.