Scythe pulled out the trays, setting them on the counter and explaining to the patient Kin, “This is what we were afraid of. This is what we thought the Humans would do, if they knew we were coming for you.” He frowned at the syringes, thinking that, despite his fear, he had hoped he was wrong; but here, right in front of him, was the proof that Humans were...what?
“What are they?” asked Resner.
“My guess is a quick death,” murmured Flame, sparing a harsh glance for the guard.
“Yes.” Scythe shook his head. He needed to focus on their current problem. “Resner, hand a few out to everyone.”
He turned to Flame, “We need to get answers before we can leave here. Do you want to help?”
Passing the gun to Serena, Flame turned and pulled out a syringe from its fitted plastic casing. She grinned, “You know I do, son of Scythe.”
Scythe looked at the guard, “You will tell us if anything changes.” The guard nodded immediately. “You guys are on him, use the syringes if you need to.”
When? Now? urged his inner fury which somewhere along the line had begun to hum impatiently in the background all the time.
Soon, he thought, pulling on his cool cloak, not caring that he sounded a little insane to himself. Insanity would keep him safe in that place.
Chapter 13
Scythe strode forward, easily yanking the head nurse from the ground and dragging her to his room. Her legs frantically moved beneath her as she scrambled to right herself.
“You don’t have to do this, I’ll come with you...” she complained angrily. Scythe pushed her ahead of him, into and through the door. She stumbled forward, rubbing her head where it had hit the door, making it swing open. Sweat, fear, anger...a fast heartbeat and flushed cheeks... Scythe grinned wider, enjoying it all.
The head nurse backed away from them and was herded into the corner by Scythe’s bed where his personal nurse lay motionless.
Scythe spoke, “I’m going to ask questions, and you two are going to answer as best you can. Understood?” He stopped next to the bed, pulled off her gag and watched his nurse until she sighed, opened her eyes and turned her head with a wince.
“Yes,” she said and nodded. She was mirrored by the head nurse.
“Are any of us contagious?”
“No,” said the head nurse truthfully, but the woman on the bed before him reacted to the statement with widening eyes and a stuttering heartbeat.
“Which of us are?” Scythe asked his nurse, ignoring the startled, quizzical look of the other woman.
“You may be...we aren’t sure, because of the mutation. We haven’t studied it at all.”
“So, I may have already infected all these people, even you? Aren’t you worried about that?”
“Well, by the time we determined what had happened, we had already been exposed to you. Luckily, everyone tested negative for the new version,” his nurse answered.
The head nurse added, “Everyone here has been treated with either the cure, the immunization, or is under treatment for symptoms. We don’t think they can get it from you, but we’re not sure; it would take time to find that out. Anyone outside this facility, especially anyone that hasn’t been immunized, might be at risk.”
“I want all three of those cures before we leave here.”
The head nurse nodded, “We have a small amount of each here, and there is more in the lab. I can get it for you.”
Scythe nodded before asking, “How does your killer virus spread?”
“The version being prepared is airborne. It will pass from person to person whenever someone coughs, even breathes, as well as with touch. The most effective vector is through blood or saliva, of course. It is very virulent.”
“Yeah, you seem very proud.”
“We are. Decades of work went into...”
“What else do I need to know?” he interrupted.
They quietly pondered that for a moment. “Well,” said the head nurse, “the children born of immunized women were found to be immune as well. That was an interesting finding.”
“The children are all halfbloods, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” she unconsciously leaned back into the bed.
“How did the women get pregnant?” This line of questioning was making him feel...strong.
“The attempts to...” began the head nurse.
“They were raped,” interrupted Scythe’s nurse, using the same clinical tone she had employed when she told him how he would die.
Scythe nodded, his eyes on the nurse, “By?”
“Doctors, nurses and the guards, anyone who was willing to touch them.”
Something in Scythe’s bearing changed subtly, and head nurse backed against the wall, terrified, “Please...you are experiencing some of the symptoms of the mutation: aggression, impulsiveness, psychotic behavior.”
“And the cure for that?”
“We didn’t have an opportunity to develop one...the patient had to be killed.”
Not understanding their conversation, but easily seeing an outcome for Scythe’s growing anger, Flame interrupted in Kin, “Will this assist us in escaping?”
Scythe ignored her, asking, “Why?”
“She broke out, and began...” remembering, the nurse’s face twisted in disgust. “She started to tear people apart.”
Scythe reacted with a jolt and stepped back involuntarily. The expressions of both women told him that it was the truth.
Tear people apart.
He thought about the sensation of killing the man they had stepped around when they came into the room and about the urges that he had been experiencing ever since, even just a few moments ago. With a slow breath, he made an effort to calm himself, but the cool he often relied upon was out of reach.
He tried to ignore the chuckling sensation at the back of his mind as he shook his head and said, “Get the antidotes for us, now. We need them ready to carry. Can we wake these patients enough to get them moving?”
“You can wake them, but it will be hell on their system for those who are at the beginning of a meal interval dose. They probably won’t be able to get around at all. Even if they could function at a basic level, you still have to get them past the guards and...”
Ben’s voice interrupted them through a speaker by the door, “There’s a problem. The visitors are coming in anyway. It sounds like fighting.”
Scythe pulled the head nurse toward the door, saying, “We need those treatments, or vaccines, whatever you have. Get them now.” The nurse nodded and hurried forward.
“Flame, you go with her. Be careful.” He asked the Kin man named Venon who was standing at the nurses’ station, “Can you go with them, too?” They followed the woman into the room across from the nursery.
Scythe turned to Ben, who said, “They’re in, whoever they are and the guard is responding; sounds like they’re getting wiped out. Turns out, it’s a good thing I’m down here,” he tried to joke, clamping his mouth shut when he got only a stare for his efforts.
Scythe asked, “Where are they?”
“Upper level. They should find their way here within ten minutes.”
“Do you have video?”
“Let me see...hit the pad three over and one down...there’s this.”
Scythe leaned over the counter to see the screen, his heart racing at the sight of the new arrivals cutting easily through the facility’s inferior lines of defense. “Isn’t that a border patrol uniform?”
“Yeah, and I saw some grunts, too. Hit the pad next to it...okay, again. Here’s the lead group, they’ve just entered the lab. Damn, that guy with the helmet is fast. Oops, there goes Dr. Roan.”
Scythe concentrated on the picture in front of him, making sure, before he turned, “We’ve got help coming. Let’s get as many people ready to move as we can. Move the beds down the hall so we can grab and go.” Resner and the two Kin started moving stiffly but determinedly down the hall.
He heard a door open behind him and turned to see Ven
on drop a medium-sized crate onto the ground outside the supply room. Flame and the nurse followed him. The Kin woman pointed to the floor, and the head nurse quickly sat with her coworkers.
“Let’s get them strapped in the nursery, Flame. One at a time. Serena, can you have the other mothers prepare the children for a quick departure?”
“Yup. Hey, Diamond! We’re getting ready to go. Yes, I know. Let’s get the babies bundled…” She stepped aside to allow Flame to escort the first nurse into the nursery, her eyes on the remaining prisoners.
Venon brought out a large cooler from the storeroom, “We’ve got two more of these.” He stacked it next to the crate and returned to the supply room for the rest.
Scythe looked down at the guard who was sitting back, watching him. Scythe said, “Your name is Ben.”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
“Ben, did you rape any of those women?”
The man sighed, and an air of resignation took hold of him. Nodding toward a woman exiting the nursery with a baby in her arms, he admitted, “That’s my son.”
A young Kin woman looked around and saw Scythe and Ben watching her. She unconsciously hugged the baby and then walked to the nurses’ station, her eyes running over Ben’s tied hands and legs. She stopped when she reached the counter, nodding at Ben and giving her attention to Scythe.
She wondered, “What will happen now?”
“We’re leaving, I hope. I have to decide what to do with Ben here. Do you have a preference?”
She looked at Ben for a moment before answering.
“He...he wasn’t rough with me, and he visits his son every day for hours.”
Scythe’s look of surprise motivated Ben to ask, “What did she say?”
“You know we’re taking the children with us.”
The man closed his eyes, a pained expression spreading across his face, “I know.”
“And, you’re probably going to be killed when the Kin get here and find out you raped this woman.”
“The Kin are here?” he jumped in his seat. Then he looked down and scanned the video. “Ah, the ones with helmets?” He sat back again, clenching his jaw, but finding the nerve to return a steady gaze. “I guess I don’t blame them. I’d feel the same.”
Scythe looked back at the woman and the baby waving its hands in the air. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I...I love how he loves our son, but I hate him for what he did.” She added after a moment, “He’s the only one of all of them who visits the nursery.”
“Can I see him?” the man asked.
The woman walked around the counter immediately, holding her son out to his father. His eyes softened and his mouth curved into a sloppy smile, “Heya, big boy. You got momma’s hair, huh? Now, be nice to momma and don’t pull her hair.” He looked at Scythe, making another request, “Will you tell her that I’m sorry for what I did to her, I really am, but I’m not sorry for him.”
Scythe complied, adding at her thoughtful look, “He’ll never survive in Poinsea. He won’t even make it to the truck if they find out.”
“I know, but where will I find a father who so loves my halfblood son?”
Scythe thought of his mother’s words, spoken to him long ago: We had it rough, because his people didn’t like my being Human, but they accepted us. Otherwise, I don’t know where we would have gone, because Humans wouldn’t have had us. Then you came along and made us so happy. He shook his head, not seeing an answer to her question.
Checking the time, Scythe let the problem go and said, “When they get here, you need to open the doors.”
Ben nodded, his eyes back on his son as if he were memorizing every detail. He asked hopefully, “You could get word to me and maybe some vids of how he’s growing. I’ll get work with the border guard so I’ll be closer to the Kin city. Benjamin Warner is my whole name. Will you try?”
Scythe shrugged, not making any promises, and Ben nodded, adding, “Well, if you can, and if I make it through the day, that is.” He leaned forward, intent on the screen before him, “They’ve almost made it through. Here, let me walk you through the procedure, and I’ll give you the password to open the doors.”
Together, they got the doors unlocked, and the metal door rose to reveal the standard double doors. When the sounds of fighting reached them, Scythe waved everyone back before he approached the doors and looked through one of the windows. He could see four Human soldiers backing down the hall towards them, firing at any heads that peeked around the corners at the end of it. He smiled, letting his rage loose and enjoying the powerful rush that replaced the buzzing in his head.
He removed two syringes from his pocket, his thumbs rubbing little circles over the trigger mechanisms on the back of each, and slipped through the doors. It took him only two long strides to be at the backs of the two men hugging the righthand wall, the pair closest to him. He jammed the syringes into first one, then the other’s neck, knocking them forward. Then he sprinted across to the remaining two men, who, delayed in reaching his position, had only just recognized an unexpected attack from behind.
They brought around their weapons, but Scythe crashed into them before the noses faced him. Bullets skittered across the tile, the sound mixing with the choking and thrashing of the other two guards. One half of a pair of scissors in his hand now, he slashed across the first man’s chest, missing his neck in the confusion of the fall. His other hand unholstered his gun and he shot the second man in the face, enjoying the squishy sound it made when he fell back on the floor. Scythe, his attention already back on the remaining guard, paused for the first time since he entered the hall, savoring what little was left to him.
He heard movement down the hall and smelled both Human and Kin beyond the assorted Human fluids, the tangy metallic odor, the oil and the smoke. “Stay back,” he warned, “I’m infected.”
“Scythe?” a voice, Lena’s, called from far away.
“Stay back,” he repeated and was glad for the excuse. He leaned in to check out the man hunched against the wall, the victim of a few wild shots from his partner’s weapon. Clutching his chest with a bloody hand, the guard panted, staring at Scythe and gripping his long barreled weapon which was now useless in close quarters.
Scythe took a deep breath, his eyes rolling at the smell of fresh, hot blood. His mouth started to water and he opened it, sucking the flavor in to spread across his tongue. His eyes snapped out of their dreamy haze, however, when the man, horrified at what he was seeing, screeched and threw himself back against the wall, flailing with his legs to get away. His weapon, like his senses, was left behind.
The sight of the man’s panic broke through the last of Scythe’s limited restraint. Free! His thoughts simplified instantly: he didn’t have to wonder, or worry or decide. He could just do.
He dropped his scissors and gun, tearing into the man with his hands. His thumb poked in and around the windpipe, his fingers scratching along the neck until they hooked on his jugular. Grabbing the back of the man’s neck with the other hand, he pulled his hands apart, ripping out the man’s throat. Blood splattered everywhere, streaming down his arm when he squeezed the flesh in his hand, smiling at the popping sound of crushed cartilage. The smell was so intoxicating that it made him dizzy.
The man squirmed for far too short of a time before lying still, to Scythe’s disappointment. He looked around for more, but everyone else in the hall was still, even the people at the end of the hall were frozen.
Easy prey, he thought, giving a yank before letting go of the mass in his hand, which flopped down against the man’s chest. He stood and stalked down the hall. He rubbed his fingers slickly together at his side.
“Scythe?” a female Human stepped fully around the corner, a gun in her hand, which she unwisely held pointing down. A weak, skinny woman...she might scream a bit, if he went slow...
She hesitated when he didn’t respond; he watched her grip the gun in her hand and then loosen her fingers. “Di
dn’t you say you were infected with something?”
Infected. His mind sped up, I am infected, maybe contagious. He shook his head, bothered by the thoughts that were pressing on him. He slowed and then stopped, grabbing his head. There was something important…
The scent of blood was strong next to his mouth. He nuzzled his hand, comforted by the wet sensation and the heady smell; he let a little of the warm liquid roll over his lips.
“Scythe! Stop that!”
He jerked his head up, eyeing her savagely, and grabbing on to what he knew: this one doesn’t know her place in the pack.
Then he met her eyes and something peeled away and he saw her: his friend Lena, an honest, funny, caring woman who loved him. And that reminded him of who he was, because he could see himself right there in a glowing sphere behind the clear window. Scythe: a clever youth who was adorable, kind, honorable, sorrowful...
“Lena?”
She sighed, and everyone around her visibly relaxed. “Yeah, what’s happening? What did they do to you?”
The rage, like his strength, started leaking away. Scythe remembered the words of a friend.
“The truth did this to me.” He rubbed his eyes forcefully with his fingers, “It just keeps getting worse, Lena. The more I find out, the less I want...” to live, he thought, but, returning to himself, settled for, “to know.”
“We want to get everyone out of here. The place is secure for now, but we’d like to hightail it before anyone shows up. That sound good to you?”
“Yeah, let me get out of the way, first. We’ll come to you. Don’t come down here.” He tipped his head sideways, calling, “Brothers.”
Halfblood Heritage Page 19