Orr and I slowed, both keeping our reelians pointed at the Legion member. Orrean kept speaking in Taoree, “Do not move. How many others are down here?”
“None.” The Taoree’s voice was cold and distant. I didn’t know if I believed him or not.
“I’m going to restrain you.” Orrean’s voice was calm and precise. He hadn’t switched over to English yet in case the man truly didn’t understand it, but I still wasn’t about to say anything in English that I didn’t want the Legion man to know, just in case.
I nodded at Orrean, telling him I had his back so he could lower his reelian and cuff the guy. Once Orr had the guy restrained, he and I waited for the rest of our group to come over. When they’d seen that we’d had it under control, they’d stayed back, watching for any other surprise Legion men running around.
I told the others in English, “He said there are no others down here, but I think he’s lying.”
They nodded and Lee said into his comm, “We need backup in the basement; the entrance is through the west-end lab. We’ve restrained one Legion, but there could be others.”
Nolan’s voice responded in my ear immediately, “On our way. Hold your position.”
“Roger that,” Lee told him before clicking off his comm.
It was maybe only sixty seconds before Nol, Cal, Tabby, Sanjha, and Bek joined us. I knew without asking that the other teams were handling the prisoners and bodies upstairs. Another thing we’d started doing was burning the bodies we would leave behind. It was something we would do once we were ready to drive away from our location because we couldn’t risk bringing attention to our whereabouts. But it really needed to be done. There were whole towns that had begun to just smell of death. There were bodies everywhere. If we wanted our world to survive once this war was over, we needed to start cleaning it up a little, too.
Nolan announced, “Riley and Devon are guarding the exit. No one is escaping.”
We nodded, then proceeded to walk down row after row of cages. I stopped looking inside them and started only concentrating on finding anyone outside of the cages.
Tabby and Sanjha found a Taoree in a grey jumpsuit hiding in a supply closet and they easily detained him. Once that was taken care of and we’d cleared the entire floor, we all just stood there staring at each other for a few moments.
Orr started rubbing his hand across his forehead, then he blew out a breath and said, “We need to go down each row and release the humans and Taoree, and… and we need to kill the Ferals.”
I took a deep breath, and just so he wouldn’t have to be the first to do it, I headed down the first row, pushed my shoian through the bars of a cage and killed the Feral inside. Then I moved on to the next cage. Soon, my fellow Independents were following suit.
I was insanely relieved when I got to the following row and saw that it was only half filled with Ferals and the rest were human or Taoree. I killed two Ferals in a row, and was about to put my shoian through a third cage before I noticed the hunched figure in the corner was crying. I looked around and cringed when I realized the poor guy was surrounded by Ferals on all sides, even above him.
So I squatted down, unlocked the cage with my sziej and opened the door as I whispered, “Hey, it’s okay. We’re going to take you somewhere safe.”
The hunched figure only froze and tried to quiet his crying. He didn’t even look up at me. I looked him over and realized he was a young child, his braid not even reaching his shoulders, and he was very tiny and underweight. He was only in a pair of ripped-up shorts, with no shirt on. I swallowed as I looked at his skin… his pale-white skin that was covered in burn marks. Some of the marks were scarred over already, but some were still blistered with blood and pus.
I reached for my juhere before remembering that I’d left it upstairs on that poor soul who’d been skinned alive.
But this terrified Taoree in front of me, who couldn’t be much older than Mandy, was clearly in a ton of pain. I mean, fuck, when I burned just the tip of my finger, it hurt. I couldn’t even imagine what having your entire back burned would feel like.
The Ferals around us were snarling and clawing at the sides of their cages, trying to get to us, so I quietly used my shoian on them all, hoping their absence would help ease the little boy.
“You can come out, buddy. I’m not going to hurt you.” I kept my voice gentle as I spoke in Taoree to him.
He still didn’t move.
So I tentatively reached my hand out. It took me a few seconds to find a part of unharmed skin—the last thing I wanted to do was cause more pain. Finally, I held his forearm. He flinched away at the touch, and for some reason, I naturally sent my light into him, thinking that it would help calm him and make him trust me. That it would let him see that I was trying to help. I didn’t know how I knew, but there was no way he could feel my light and not understand my intentions. It was the only way to prove that I wasn’t going to hurt him.
He looked up at me, his dark-blue eyes filled with pain, terror, and… surprise.
As I continued pushing my light into him, he and I both gasped as the open wound above his elbow started to close. I inspected his wounds, seeing all of the open ones closing. I had no freaking clue how I was healing him without a juhere, but I didn’t care as long as it helped. I pushed my light into him even more forcefully, and soon all of his open wounds were healed. I tried to heal the scars on his skin, but my light couldn’t heal old wounds. They were healed and whole, and even though they didn’t look very pretty, they weren’t hurting him anymore either, so my light wasn’t needed there. Before that moment, I hadn’t even known that Taoree could scar. I’d thought they healed their wounds on their own.
So I released the small blue-eyed Taoree and said, “Will you come with me? We can take you somewhere safe.”
The little boy finally responded with a small nod, then he grabbed my hand and allowed me to pull him out. I started walking him out, and when we got to the top of the stairs, I was happy to see that someone had collected some blankets from the rooms in this place of horrors. I wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, and when Sanjha offered to walk him the rest of the way, I shook my head and walked the boy all the way to one of the trucks.
“Stay here, okay?” I told him. “I have to help the others, but I’m riding back in this truck, so I’ll see you soon.”
He gave me a slight nod, so I patted his knee lightly and headed back in. When I passed Riley, I whispered, “Keep an eye on the kid, okay? I don’t want him taking off.”
Riley shot me a small smile and nodded before escorting another freed victim to a truck.
The next victim I freed was missing an arm, and the one after that had slice marks all over her, like she’d been bled multiple times. All of the Independents were quiet, only talking softly to the people they were rescuing, as we made our way through the warehouse.
I got to the last row at the same time as Orrean, and I didn’t know which one of us was more surprised by what we found. The row was filled with Ferals… but they weren’t Feral humans, they were Feral animals. Wild animals and… pets. Dogs, cats, wolves. Why in the hell would the emperor want to change animals into Ferals? What purpose was there? I mean, a dog could attack a human, I suppose, but it wasn’t like there was a lack of fucking human Ferals everywhere.
“He probably uses them as a distraction before setting the real Ferals or bug-bots on humans,” Orrean said quietly, almost like he’d read my mind.
“That’s…” I didn’t finish because I didn’t know what that was, it just was, I guess.
“Yeah,” Orr whispered before using his shoian on a Feral dog in front of him.
I swallowed hard before following suit and making my way down the row.
My nightmares are going to be horrible tonight.
When I finally finished tasering the last Feral in my row, I backed up and looked around. Killing that many people and animals, even when they really were monsters, was rougher than I’d like to admit.
You’d think that after all this time, I wouldn’t give a shit about it. But I’d never been forced to kill something that was trapped in a cage. Every other time, it’d been a matter of defending myself or my family, a matter of life or death. This hadn’t felt like that at all, and I was feeling rather disgusted with the situation.
Glancing around and adjusting my hat, I noticed everyone else finishing up, but I didn’t see Orrean anywhere, so I called out to Cal, “Do you know where Orr went?”
“I think he went outside to get some air,” Cal answered.
I nodded. “Okay, I’m gonna go check on him.”
Cal just nodded, but didn’t seem to be paying much attention.
As I made my way upstairs and outside, I passed my fellow Independents and many of the victims. Some were crying, some were shaking, some were unresponsive. There were so many of them and they all needed help. But they weren’t my concern at the moment. For some reason, I knew that Orrean needed me. I could feel it and I didn’t even want to ignore it. I wanted and needed to find him.
Once I was outside, I bypassed one of the extra trucks that’d been brought in to take the victims back to base—Orrean had signaled his brother once we’d cleared the area of Legion, so reinforcements were sent—and made my way to the side of the building. I found Orrean there, leaning against the building with his hands behind his back and his face turned away from me. I walked over and stood beside him, leaning my shoulder against the building so I could face him.
After a minute of silence, I whispered, “You okay, Orr?”
He shook his head slightly, but didn’t look at me or say anything.
When he still hadn’t moved or said anything a few minutes later, I asked, “You wanna talk about it?” He shook his head, so I said, “Can you at least look at me?”
He still didn’t speak, but he did pull his hands out from behind his back. As he raised them to his face, I noticed them shaking. After he rubbed his face, he finally looked at me and a pain shot through my chest at the amount of hurt I saw there. He looked utterly devastated.
“Orrean,” I whispered before pushing off the wall and moving to him. I grabbed him in a hug and pushed his head down to my shoulder. He was tense and unsure of letting me comfort him, but when I refused to let him go, he finally sank into me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He pushed his face into my neck as his whole body started trembling.
I was pretty sure it was ghosts of the past haunting him after what we had to do. I couldn’t even imagine how hard it had been for him to kill his best friend all those years ago after his own brother turned him into a Feral. His best friend—Autnomlias—had been tied down to a bed, much like many of the victims we’d come across in the labs. Seeing everything inside the warehouse today must have brought back some horrible memories. I hadn’t been brave enough to ask him for more details about the things his fucking brother, Thelonious, had done to him. From the little I already knew, Orr’s childhood had been a living nightmare. I truthfully didn’t know how he even survived it, let alone remained such a kind man.
When Orr’s shaking seemed to ride him even harder, I squeezed him tighter, then started rubbing his back and hair in a comforting manner. He was folded so far down because he was so much taller than me, that I went up on my toes so I could try to pull him even closer.
All I wanted to do was make him feel better. All I wanted to do was take his pain away.
Then it hit me. What the fuck had I been doing? I’d been treating this caring, sweet, gentle man like shit, all because I was scared and feeling guilty. But I hadn’t been taking his feelings into the equation. He was hurting, I knew he was because I’d felt it every day since I’d kissed him, then turned him away. He was one of the best people I knew and I’d been the worst friend a person could have… even when I’d felt it in my soul that he was hurting, I’d ignored it. I’d pushed aside his feelings, all because I didn’t want to admit I had feelings for him in return. But he was a part of my life, he was a part of me. I’d been denying him all because of the guilt I carried over Colt. But that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to him, it wasn’t fair to me, it wasn’t even fair to Colt, since I’d promised him I’d try, that I’d give Orr a chance… and I’d done the exact opposite. I should’ve been helping him, trying to make him happy. But I’d only been adding to his pain and sorrow these past months, not helping it. My god, I am such a selfish asshole.
I didn’t know how to fix this. I didn’t know how to apologize or how to make up for everything I’d done to him or where to even start. I didn’t think there was anything I could do to make it up. I didn’t deserve him, I didn’t even know if he’d ever want me like that after what I’d done. But I had to try. For both our sakes.
I somehow managed to hug him tighter as I whispered, “It’s okay. We’re okay. We’re going to be okay.” When another wave of shivers racked his body, I stopped talking and just tried to hold and comfort him as much as possible.
The problem was that he didn’t trust me not to hurt him, so he never seemed to calm.
We eventually moved apart and he nodded at me before walking away without a word. My heart and my fucking soul broke as he turned the corner without looking back.
And I had no one to blame but myself.
Chapter Twelve
By the time we got all the victims out of the warehouse and back to the Independent camp, the sun was coming back up again, and I just wanted to fall into bed and stay there for at least a week straight. But my family members were looking worn-out and distraught, and I couldn’t fault them for it. So I announced that we were going to have some food brought up to our suite so we could eat and shower before going to bed.
Everyone reluctantly agreed… everyone but Orrean.
I watched the Taoree walk in and give Mandy a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek before he disappeared into the bathroom. I heard the water shut off ten minutes later and about two minutes after that, I heard his bedroom door slam.
I tried not to let it get to me, but I was upset that he hadn’t come out to join us. He was a part of our family and he was hurting. I wanted to help him heal those old wounds, but I didn’t know how.
Cal must’ve noticed how upset I was because he patted my shoulder and whispered, “He’ll be okay. I think he just needs to be alone.”
I nodded, even though everything in me wanted to argue that alone time was the absolute last thing Orrean needed. But I didn’t have a right to claim what I knew to be true; even if I felt down to my bones that he needed to be surrounded with love and family, I couldn’t say that. I’d pushed him away. So I nodded at Cal and decided to try and concentrate on the rest of my family… even if a huge part of me felt like it was being ripped apart.
I cleared my throat and sat next to Mandy on the couch, who was getting ready to go to school. She’d been staying home, with Lee’s sister watching over her in our absence. “How was your week, Peanut?”
“You do know I’m eleven, right?” she said before shoving a bite of a pancake in her mouth.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes and Nolan said, “Didn’t you get the memo last week, J? Mandy is all grown up now and refuses to answer to ‘Peanut.’” Tabby was sitting on Nolan’s lap, smiling in amusement.
“Well, that’s just too bad,” I said with a grin before grabbing her into a hug and dramatically rocking her back and forth as she squealed, complained and tried to get away. “You’ll always be my little Peanut.”
She was still trying to escape, but she started laughing too. “Jesus, you are such a dork! Get off of me, you ass!”
“Don’t say ‘ass’!” Cal yelled from the table.
Mandy and I both laughed as I finally released her and we settled back into the couch. A minute later she elbowed me. “You’re a major nerd, but I’m glad you’re home for a couple days.”
“Me too, Peanut, me too,” I said quietly with a grin.
She rolled her eyes aga
in, then asked all of us, “You’ll be home for dinner, right?”
Nolan answered her, “Of course. We have two days off to recover, though we might go down and help the new refugees tomorrow.”
Wes came out from showering and sat on the chair in the living room. He looked at Mandy and asked, “Wanna go down to the community room with me after school, Peanut?”
Mandy smiled brightly, apparently ignoring the Peanut thing with him. “Yes, that’d be great. You can meet some of my friends.” The community room was pretty much the only place the kids could go to hang out—besides the mess hall—since they weren’t allowed outside, obviously.
“I’ll meet you outside your classroom so we can walk down together.” Wes shot her a tired smile. I could see the strain on his face. Everything we’d seen over the past day had taken a toll on all of us. I had a feeling that he wanted a happy distraction. Plus, I was sure he missed Mandy. I’d noticed that he tended to worry about her a lot when we were away from base… all of us did. But we always reminded ourselves that she was at the safest place she could be. She stayed in our suite, and Lee’s sister would come stay on our couch and make sure Mandy ate and got to school and everything okay. It was hard having her out of sight, though.
“Sounds good.”
I asked, “How come he gets to call you Peanut?”
Mandy rolled her eyes again and turned away from me, making plans with Wes. If I had a dollar for every time that girl rolled her eyes at me lately, I’d be a rich man… not that money was even relevant now.
I sighed out loud.
After our food was brought up from the mess hall by a volunteer, we ate, Mandy left for school, and the rest of us went into our bedrooms to sleep.
I kept seeing that poor Taoree man that was skinned alive, that little boy that had burn marks all over his torso and neck, that woman that was missing an arm and a leg, those puppies that were missing various body parts…
It was a long-ass time before the nightmares of my reality faded and a dream took me far, far away from that warehouse and the horrors within.
Independents: Taoree Trilogy #2 Page 20