by Yalu Taylors
I get to the other end and unlock the next door, after closing it, I turn around to peer through the glass. Hunter is at the first door, pressing the number pad. I turn back around and start running towards the nearest room. There’s a sign on the door that says, ‘Laboratory twelve’ I input the code and add twelve to the end, it doesn’t work, so I try adding thirteen and thankfully the door unlocks, and I rush into the room. I stop short at what I see before me.
Lying on what looks like an operating table is a guy who is the spitting image of Zack. I walk over to the table to get a closer look. He’s not exactly the same, his hair is darker. I poke him in the arm.
“Zayne? Are you awake?” I watch as his eyes fly open at the sound of my voice.
“Babe? How did you get in here? Can you untie me? Where are the others?” His questions come out rapid-fire and I back away from him. Thinking quickly, I ask.
“Where are we and how did we get here?” He looks at me with a frown.
“We are in a research facility run by J.O.Y Genetics. We’re in danger and need to get the fuck out of here.” I study his face for a moment, but I can’t see any signs of a lie. I step back up to the table and undo the straps on his wrist. He sits up and undoes his other hand. I watch him cautiously as he hops down off the table. His well-toned muscles moving hypnotically as he reaches out to grab my hand.
“Have you seen the others Babe?” Gently tugging on my hand, he pulls me into a hug, I stand there stiffly not sure what to do. He pushes me back a step and looks deep into my eyes. His sapphire eyes are gorgeous, but I can see a sadness in them.
“You don’t have a clue who I am, do you?” I shake my head and he lets go of me completely. I watch as he goes over to the keypad and starts typing random numbers in.
“Four, two, seven, six, three, thirteen. It’s the code I used to get in here.” He unlocks the door and steps out, I watch as Braydon, Hunter, and Zack all run up to him and grab him into a group hug. Zayne pushes them all back and turns to face me, holding his hand out he says.
“I know you don’t remember us, but please come with us, we can keep you safe.” I eye the others skeptically and Zayne takes steps closer so that he’s all I can see. “Trust me.” He holds his hand out again and I stare at it for a beat before grabbing it. He breathes a sigh of relief and entwines our fingers together. I hear shouting coming from down the corridor with the security doors.
“Sorry guys but we've got to go. That’s Shaun making all that noise.” Zayne tugs me gently towards him and wraps his arm around my shoulders. The comforting weight of his arm has me relaxing a little. I feel really safe next to him. We take off running, not bothering to look into anymore rooms along the way. We turn left at the next T-junction then take a right. Hunter seems to know where he’s going so I don’t argue as we zigzag across the facility.
Just as we reach a door with an exit sign above it, we hear more shouting coming from behind us. Hunter taps out the code and the light doesn’t change color. I think for a few seconds then realize the pattern that been used. I push him out of my way and type out the code. The light goes green and I open the door. Zayne holds me back from running outside, allowing Hunter and Braydon to go first. I follow Zayne quietly and try to think of a way to ditch these crazies once we are free.
I run behind the guys, we make it across the huge open grassy area before anyone starts chasing us. I slam my hands onto the wire fence and double over at the waist. My lungs feel like they are about to burst. Gripping the fence tight I look up at the barbed wire along the top.
“Um exactly how are we going to get out?” I ask just as Hunter tears a hole in the fence with his bare hands. I'm standing there with my mouth gaping open.
“So, you guys aren't crazy?” I ask after Braydon gives me a gentle shove, urging me to go through the hole.
“We'll explain later. Now run.” Braydon shouts as he pushes me again. My sleeve gets snagged on the wire as I rush through, pain radiates from the spot, but I keep going. I follow closely behind the twins as we run into a forested area.
We run for a long time before the sounds of pursuit fade away. The forest is thick, and I can barely see in the dim light. I trip over a tree root and land on my hands and knees. Strong arms wrap around my waist lifting me up. I struggle against whoever grabbed me until he speaks.
“Tessa, calm down it's just me, Hunter.” He turns me around, keeping one arm around me. I look up into his hazel eyes and begin to relax. He holds my gaze for a moment longer, then lifts me up so he's carrying me bridal style. I fling my arm around his neck, holding on firmly as he starts to run.
We've been running for what feels like hours. I'm exhausted, the guys have finally slowed down. All around us are trees, trees, and more damn trees. I don't have a clue where we are or how we get back to civilization. I'm cold, scared and pretty sure the guys are lost.
“We need to find somewhere to rest for a few hours.” Braydon's voice comes to me from somewhere in the darkness ahead. We've been reduced to holding hands and walking close together so we don't get separated. I'm holding Hunter's hand; his night vision is better than mine.
“There should be a cave up ahead a little further up the trail.” Hunter sounds weary but confident. How does he know there’s a cave? Have the guys been here before? Too many questions for my tired mind.
Finally, we reach a clearing in the trees. The moon shines down giving us a better view of the area. I look around curiously and notice a creepy looking cave. Braydon and Hunter gather armloads of wood and take them to the mouth of the cave. Zayne and Zack walk right in behind them leaving me staring at the dark forest around us.
A shiver goes down my spine as a twig breaks in the distance. The sound echoing around me. The scent of smoke and damp earth surrounds me. I can hear the guys talking quietly but their voices are too soft to make out what they are saying. I try to follow the sounds but stop after a few feet. A flicker of light emerges in the darkness. Creeping silently forward I approach the light. Braydon is holding his hand to the wood. Fire flickers between his fingers, I stare in shock as he starts the fire.
A hand lands on my shoulder causing me to jump, fire blasts from my raised hand. Hunter jumps back in a desperate attempt to avoid the fireball. Screaming I back away from him, the flames continue to come out of my palm randomly. One hits the cave wall, one blasts right past Zack. Braydon rushes over grabbing my arm and pushes it down, pointing my palm towards the ground.
“Tessie, just breathe. It’ll stop if you calm down.” I stop screaming, my lungs out of breath. I copy Braydon, breathing in then out as he counts to three each time. The fire stutters and slowly fades from my palm. I watch in awe as Braydon lifts his hand and brings a small, controlled flame to life. “Think of the fire as a small flame.” I lift my hand and copy Braydon’s actions, keeping my breathing even. A small flame flickers in my palm and I laugh.
“I did it. Now explain what the fuck I just did.” Braydon laughs but I stare over his shoulder. “Are you guys okay?” Hunter holds his arms out showing me there’s no damage. The fire gives off just enough light for me to see that everyone is okay. The twins walk over as I let the flame die.
“We’d better get some sleep Babe. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.” I look at each of the twins and yup I’m blatantly staring, they have no shirts on. Zayne takes my hand and leads me to the back of the cave. The twins had set up a bed of sorts using their shirts. Zack tugs me down next to him, Zayne lays down on my other side, their body heat keeping me warm. Hunter and Braydon get comfortable sitting next to the fire.
Resting my head on Zack’s shoulder I curl up and drift into a dreamless sleep.
“Honey, you need to wake up, we have to go.” Zack shakes me awake. Sitting up, I realize that Hunter and Braydon are gone. “The others are outside, keeping an eye out for whoever went passed the cave earlier.” Getting up I stretch and Zack stares at the slither of skin exposed around my stomach. Moving closer to me he studies me f
or a moment before pulling me into a tight hug. Resting my head against his solid chest I breath in a faint Vanilla and coconut smell. The scent has a memory niggling at the back of my mind and a vision of Zack and Zayne both kissing me plays out behind my closed eyes.
Zack pulls back enough to see my face, lifting my chin with his finger he gently presses a chaste kiss to my lips. More memories flood my mind. All four of them sitting around a big table. Zack and Zayne holding my hands while we walk towards a little wooden bridge. Lying beside both twins on a sofa bed.
“We’ve got to go; Shaun and Peter are looking for her.” Zayne’s voice has me snapping back to reality. Shaking my head to clear the remaining memories I grab both their hands and walk towards the cave entrance. Hunter is standing just outside but I can’t see where Braydon is. As I watch Hunter’s eyes glaze over with a thin film of white. He looks like he’s gone blind. Worried I step up beside him and grab his arms.
“Hunter? What’s wrong with your eyes?” The twins start laughing and I glare at them. “What’s wrong with you two, can’t you see there’s something wrong with his eyes?” Their laughter cuts of as Hunter growls out for everyone to be quiet. Startled by his sudden change, I blink up at him. His beautiful hazel eyes are normal again.
“T, we need to get you out of here, now. It’s Peter and Shaun, they are working together to find her.” He directs his words at the twins but doesn’t take his eyes from mine. “Don’t worry Love, we’ll keep you safe.” Lifting his hand, he gently cups the side of my face. His eyes full of worry as he slowly slides his palm down to cradle my neck, shivers shoot through me at the contact.
Before my mind can comprehend what is happening Hunter's luscious lips are on mine. I find myself instantly kissing him back with a passion I didn't know I possessed. The world narrows to just him and me as his hands roam down my back. Cupping my ass, he lifts me up onto my toes, wrapping my arms around his neck, I deepen the kiss, our tongues tangling in a dance of heat and love.
“Hunter, snap out of it, we have to go.” Braydon’s voice has me pulling away from Hunter with more force than necessary. Hunter falls flat on his ass while everyone else looks on in stunned silence. “Tessie? Are you okay?” More memories flood my mind. Hunter holding my hand beneath a table. Hunter kissing me, Hunter carrying me over his shoulder.
I’m stuck inside the loops of memories as they all come flooding back. Someone touches my shoulder and I lash out, my fist colliding with a stomach. Braydon’s cry of pain snaps me out of it. Hunter grabs me from behind, holding me so tight I can’t move. Big fat tears slide down my face as I look at Braydon curled up on the ground in agony. “I’m so sorry Braydon, I’m so sorry.” Hunter slowly releases me, and I rush over to Braydon.
Kneeling down beside him, I lift his shirt. Gasping at the black and blue marks I inflicted on him. “I'm so sorry.” I hover my hand above the bruises as he grabs my hand. Tears fall onto his shirt, staining the material with the dirt caked on my face. A tingling sensation goes through me, I feel something pass from me to Braydon, an energy by the feel of it. Braydon sits up suddenly looking at me strangely. I lift his shirt and stare at his now flawless skin.
My head is spinning a little, like the time I spun around and around as a kid. I’m still clasping Braydon shirt when he tilts my head up to look into my eyes. “You okay Tessa?” I nod my head and a giggle escapes me, I have no idea what’s funny, which is funny, so I giggle again. “Shit! Hunter, pick her up and try to keep her quiet. She definitely acts drunk after healing.”
Hunter lifts me up, swinging me over his shoulder like a caveman. I giggle as I watch his ass cheeks clench and relax beneath his pants, as he walks. Acting on impulse I slap his left cheek and he growls at me, causing me to giggle again.
“Hunter! Keep her quiet.” Braydon sounds angry, so I pout and stare silently at the ground. Hunter pulls me back down, my front dragging slowly down his chest. He’s holding me like I’m a baby now, so I bury my face in his chest, breathing in I catch a hint of a woodsy cologne. Closing my eyes makes the world stop spinning so I hold them tightly closed. After a little while I drift off to sleep.
Chapter 11
I awake to the sound of angry voices. Opening my eyes, I find myself lying on a couch in someone’s lounge room. The room is furnished with two big couches and an arm chair, on the wall opposite where I am, is a huge big screen T.V. A small bookshelf filled with books and a big black and blue checked rug, nothing looks familiar.
Getting up I walk to the arched doorway and look into a short hallway, to my left is a door, to my right a set of stairs and another door in front of me. I walk over to the first door and peer out the window, it leads outside. I poke my head into the second door and see a kitchen with beautiful wooden countertops, A matching wooden table with six chairs and a breakfast bar with five stools all in the same light brown timber. There’s no one here so I walk over to the stairs that lead up to the second floor.
At the top of the second floor is another hallway with three matching plain white doors on both sides and a darker cream door at the end of the hall. I walk over to the first door on the left-hand side of the hall and gently tap on the door. I hear movement inside.
“Tessie?” Braydon rubs the sleep from his eyes as I sneak a look into his room. Everything is green, the curtains, bedding, there’s even a green rug on the floor.
“I heard shouting.” Braydon grabs my hand and leads me back downstairs in a hurry. I follow along quietly wondering what is going on. We reach the front door and he opens it and drags me out. The shouting gets louder as we make our way around the veranda.
“You had no right to do that, we all agreed to wait until after everything was sorted out before we pursued her, and you just go ahead and start kissing her again.” Zack is shouting at Hunter. His face is bright red, and his fists are clenched by his side. Zayne is standing between them, his hands raised in a stop gesture.
“What is going on?” Braydon asks calmly. All three guys whirl around and their anger melts away as they look at me. I’m pretty sure I was the topic of their heated argument and it’s making me very uncomfortable. Hunter, Zack, and Zayne all start talking at once and I can’t make out what they are saying, Braydon seems to grasp what they are on about though as he shouts at them all to shut up.
“Zack, if Tessie didn’t want Hunter kissing her she would have said something by now. Hunter, next time you start getting side effects try to keep control of yourself.” Braydon sounds like a father telling his kids off for misbehaving, I’d laugh but that comment about side effects has me curious.
“Side effects?” Four sets of eyes are now all on me, I shift nervously from one foot to the other as I wait for someone to tell me what they are talking about.
“Our abilities, have side effects. Hunter gets emotional after using his vision ability, he gets all touchy feely after using his strength. The twins get blood noses and headaches and if they use their abilities for too long they can cause a brain hemorrhage. I can summon fire, but it dehydrates me if I use it too often. Healing causes me to speak like I’ve been drinking. You were showing signs of something similar when you heal, only yours seems to affect your motor functions.” Seeing the frown on my face Braydon explains further.
“You act drunk even though you haven’t been drinking. Your fire seems to make you tired and your visions seem to just leave you with a slight headache. We saw after you used strength that you got all teary so that may be the side effect from that, but we can’t be sure until you use it again.” Curious about our abilities I ask if we can train them later. The guys all agree to help me but not today.
Their argument seems to have been forgotten as we head back inside. These guys really confuse me sometimes. Hunter and Braydon go into the kitchen, talking about making breakfast. The twins grab my hands and drag me into the lounge room. Both of them look at me strangely as they sit down on the couch pulling me down in between them.
Zack rests his hand along the b
ack of the couch and turns to face me, Zayne does the same on my other side except his arm is around my shoulders. “Let’s watch a movie.” Zack jumps up and grabs the remote off of a little coffee table underneath the T.V. I look curiously at the table, I didn’t notice it when I was looking around earlier.
I look around again and notice a few other things, that I missed in my first perusal. Against the wall under the window is another table with a few photographs in frames. One of them is of me with the four guys at a bowling alley. We are all smiling and looking at the camera. The other pictures are all of the guys except the smallest one. It’s of a guy in his late thirties holding a small baby.
“Who’s that with the baby?” Zack answers me after he sits back down.
“That’s Uncle Frank, with his daughter Hallie. She died a few days after she was born. Uncle Frank only had the one photo.” I’m curious about where their Aunt is so I ask what happened to her. “Aunt Kelly died in childbirth.” His answer is blunt, and he looks away from the picture. “Let’s get this movie going huh.” Not wanting to upset anyone, I let the subject drop.
Hunter and Braydon bring in food about half way through the zombie movie. After eating, Braydon and Hunter swap spots with the twins while they wash the dishes. I sit there quietly wondering when we are going to talk about the fact that we just escaped a facility that does experiments on kids. I wait until the movie is over and Zack and Zayne have returned to the lounge room.
“So, what exactly are we going to do about the facility?” I ask as the credits begin rolling. Hunter looks at me curiously, while Braydon frowns. The twins are wearing identical looks of annoyance. “There is something we can do, right? It’s not like we are just going to go about our lives as normal while those assholes are still running their experiments, right?”