by Coralee June
Hell, it had been a while since I’d seen so many people alive.
“Gotta scan you for X,” Lenny said before pushing me into a tube with a scanner attached. “We don’t want that shit spreading around our safe haven!” As I stood in the tube, the infrared rays trailed up and down my body then blinked green when it determined I wasn’t sick. One by one, the rest of my men followed suit as the people of Lythe watched us in silence. It was like a ghost town filled with people.
The underground city was just a large cavern with tall ceilings. Tents and people were set up all around the great room and well into a hallway that had more citizens lying around. Once Cyler was scanned, he went to stand beside me while Lenny’s man kept Heat pointed at my back.
“This place reminds me of the gold mines, but more disgusting,” he said under his breath. Each inhale made me want to gasp for air, but the more I gasped, the more the stench of this place made me sick to my stomach. It was making me dizzy, too.
“How do people survive down here?” I asked. It was almost a blessing that Jules had run off. We’d have to listen to her complaining about the stench the entire time. It wasn’t right, all these people living in filth. It was worse than the Zone.
“How do people live up there?” the beefy man guarding me asked while nodding towards the ceiling of the cavernous tunnels. He had a point. I guess nowhere was habitable at the moment. At what point would we start to prioritize the quality of someone’s life over just...living?
Jacob wasn’t handling the claustrophobic city as it reminded him of the sewage drain he fell down after being attacked in Ethros. After he was scanned, Lenny told him to file in beside Cyler. I ignored the threatening barrel of Heat at my back and reached around Cyler to grab Jacob’s hand, noting that he didn’t trust himself to put his mindspeak back in.
I took advantage of our time there to take in the room, observing everyone and looking for how strong of a guard presence there was but didn’t find anyone. There didn’t seem to be any class system down here. I noted Walker tags, purple fetter scars, and heads of white hair scattered around the cavern. It all blended together in a mass of humanity. There was a sense of community here that I hadn’t seen before. No one was fighting or even speaking as they stared at us. It felt like a quiet—and hopeless—existence. Ahead of us, a young boy was bringing an old Scavenger a bucket of water.
“They’re all so quiet,” I whispered. “They seem to work well together.”
Lenny must have overheard me because he then spoke. “You just need one commonality, miss. Survival bonds us. Anger keeps us going. We have strong hearts...and stomachs.”
Cyler watched the room also, and I knew that he was thinking the same thing as me. Although they had Heat, they didn’t have many guards. We could overtake them if necessary. Right now we were just playing along to gather intel and find the Scavengers Lenny and his man had captured.
Once Huxley passed the X scanner, they guided us to the middle of the room. “Everyone!” Lenny yelled through the cavernous room, his booming voice echoing off the walls. “We are one step closer to finding the boy with the cure. We’ve been searching for every Scavenger in the empire, and it has led us to a good lead. Soon we will all have the cure!”
There were a few polite claps, but something felt off. It was like everyone was in a daze, not really present as Lenny boasted. I looked around and noticed how still they were, like lifeless bodies with a pulse. Something was seriously wrong, and Lenny seemed manic. No one really respected his authority or his cause. It looked like they didn’t really care about anything.
He led us down the makeshift tunnels, and all of us watched in stunned silence, not sure how to take in everything before us. “So what was your plan?” Cyler asked, looking around at everyone with the same intensity as me. I knew that as a natural leader, he was taking mental stock of the living conditions, aligning his standards to his devoted leadership team, already making plans to save the people of Lythe.
“We found a Scavenger a few weeks back that gave us a good lead. We know she knows where the cure holder is. We can’t get her to talk, but I have a feeling you’ll be able to get her to sing. Found out from another Scavenger that she used to live in Dormas and knew you. It was only a matter of time. You’ll get her to talk.”
“And if we don’t?” Huxley asked. I still couldn’t shake the feeling like something was off about all of this. They didn’t seem normal; it was like they’d been drugged or something. I glanced at Maverick, and he kept sniffing the air like something was wrong. Suddenly, his eyes went wide like he’d realized something.
Lenny replied while his man shoved me. “Then we rip the information from her skull. I’m not afraid to do what’s necessary.” The dark cavern was lit with green flames that flickered with intensity, shifting at the air whenever we walked by.
I swallowed. What if this man went on a killing spree? We turned down another hall which was much more crowded. We were practically on top of one another, shoved against the slick walls of the cavern as we followed Lenny, who was the only man that didn’t have to hunch. Jacob grunted and grabbed my hand—I could feel each tremble through his body. I didn’t offer for him to stay in the more massive tunnel, though. I knew he wouldn’t, and I definitely didn’t want any of my men out of sight.
“Here’s where we keep prisoners,” Lenny said, a proud boast in his tone that had me feeling sick. Huxley was at the front of our group and saw the Scavenger with supposed information about Payne. I knew it was bad the moment he screamed.
“Let her out of that fucking hole right now before I kill you both,” he growled. I shoved my way forward past Patrick and Maverick to see.
“You don’t get to make demands, traitor. I’m the one with fucking Heat,” Lenny boomed. The other guy, currently holding Heat on us was just swaying, watching us with a lazy grin. I maneuvered around them to see who was in the prison and gasped.
There, crouched in a hole barely big enough for a child, let alone a grown woman, was Mia. I nearly choked on the bile rising in my throat. She looked sickly and scarily thin. Her sunken cheeks gave her beautiful face a haunted expression. “Maverick!” I yelled, not knowing what else to say. She needed medical attention, now.
Lenny rolled his eyes as he stepped between the door and us. “Back up. We’re going to get the information from her. She knows where the cure is. We’re gonna bleed the boy dry!” he screamed, spit gathering on his lips. He sounded absolutely insane. “You know this bitch? Aha!” He started clapping, the smacking sound filling the small space. He was rocking back and forth with glee, stomping his feet on the ground as he whispered to himself, “Let’s get her out of here and play. I found a fun way to make her talk.”
He reached in his pocket for a key, and the moment Huxley saw the tool for Mia’s freedom in his grasp, he lunged for Lenny and immediately started landing punch after punch to his scruffy face.
Lenny’s goon lifted Heat to my skull, causing a frenzy to erupt in the crowded space. Jacob yelped and tried to yank me back. Maverick shoved past Patrick to intervene. But it was too late. Time slowed, and his pudgy finger pressed on the trigger. The last thought I had was how much I loved these men.
He engaged the weapon, and I closed my eyes, prepared to die.
But nothing happened. He clicked it again. Nothing. I was still breathing in the stench of the air, but now I was even dizzier, my thoughts felt slow. Cyler growled. “You’re so fucking lucky you’re holding a dud.” At that, all my men overtook Lenny and his goon. Huxley was still landing punches while Patrick and Jacob tackled the other guy, ripping the weapon from his hands. Within seconds they were pulling Mia out of the hole and were shoving the two of them back in it, firmly locking the door in place as blood poured from Lenny’s mouth.
I started to sway, not quite sure what was wrong with me. I fell to my knees to get a better look at Mia. She wasn’t awake, but she was alive.
“Mia?” I called out while stroking her white ha
ir out of her eyes as the guys caught their breath. She started to wake up, but I could see the fog in her eyes. I could easily wrap my fingers around her arm. What did they do to her? Where was Aarav?
“Agrio?” she croaked out.
“I’m here,” I said with a whisper as tears rolled down my cheeks. How many times would I have to watch those I love kiss the brink of death? She wore her suffering like a cloak that wouldn’t keep her warm. She looked like she should have died long ago. Around me, my men were cursing and moving out of the cramped tunnel.
“’Bout time you got here. Almost died before I could give you a clue,” she whispered.
“What clue?”
“That frigid bitch,” she started coughing, like a laugh got caught in her throat. Instead of a chuckle escaping her chapped lips, it was sickness that poured out of her. “Stonewell. She has the boy. Told me to tell you 88982. She said you’d get it.”
I went still. That didn’t make sense. I didn’t understand what she meant. I stalled while staring at Mia, watching as she slipped into further disappointment at my lack of a reaction. She’d been holding on to tell me this, and I had no fucking clue what it meant.
I listened as the noises faded and a shrill scream met my ears, was it me? Everything felt so distant. A hand landed on my shoulder as I turned around to face Patrick. “Come here, Ash. Let Maverick do his thing.” I stood up and somehow managed to find Jacob’s hand just as Huxley was knocked out—by Cyler. Huxley was in his overprotective mode and was itching to open the hole and continue to beat Lenny to death. Huxley had scratches running down his cheeks from his fight with Lenny and a good bruise forming on his face from Cyler. I winced. Even though I knew there was no deterring Huxley when he got in that headspace, knocking him out still felt a bit excessive.
Cyler shrugged. “Can’t kill him yet. Need to get intel.”
“Will he be okay?” I asked Patrick while looking at Huxley.
“Hux?” Patrick said with a chuckle, though it was a dark tone. “He’s been hit way harder. He’s fine.” Hux might have gotten better about losing himself to his episodes, but some things never changed. He couldn’t get past his devotion to those he cared about.
While Maverick looked Mia over, I took stock of my other men. Their eyes seemed heavy, and Patrick was leaning against a wall while clutching his stomach. It was like we were all sick.
Maverick picked Mia up and cradled her in his arms while storming out of the small tunnel, nearly tripping over Huxley in the process. “We have to get out of the caves. The air is poisoned. That's why everyone was so complacent back there. Everyone, grab a body, and we’ll do shifts to get everyone out.”
“Fuck,” Cyler said while grabbing his head. “The tunnel sickness. Had it in the mines, too. There are at least a hundred people in here.”
Maverick cradled Mia while heading back towards the main room. “We’ll get them out. We’ll save them all.”
Chapter Nine
It took the guys four grueling hours to carry everyone out of Lythe. I watched in horror as they moved men, women, and children on their backs up the elevator. Each time they’d get back to the top, they’d gasp for air like they’d been holding their breath.
Maverick found an old building above ground and was setting up people there. He said it would take a while for the poison to leave their systems. Tunnel fever came from some of the natural gasses trapped in the caverns underground. It was like a potent opioid, causing mania, delirium and mostly apathy. It was such a downer that people didn’t care what they were doing, they just existed.
The guys alternated going down into the caverns, working as quickly as possible while taking breaks. Once they got dizzy, they switched shifts and laid down to rest. By the end of it, all of them were dripping with sweat, their limbs shaky. “What happens with long term exposure?” I asked.
“Weaker people die, but it just acts like a long-term high. You don’t think. Don’t feel. It’s probably why Lenny thought he was in charge down there. He got the manic side effects and went crazy. Plus, if he was often leaving to gather more Scavengers, he wasn’t having nearly as much pumped into his system.
The underground city of Lythe was coordinated by anarchy. There was no real leader. No real governing body. Lenny and his goon were just a couple of guys that had their ear to the ground, knew of rumors, and took things into their own hands.
The guys refused to let me help rescue the people down there, so I stayed by Mia. She had a broken arm. We couldn’t tell how long it had been snapped, but Maverick said it was healing wrong, which meant it had been a couple of weeks. On top of that, food rations were sparse. It appeared that they’d only given her the bare minimum of nutrients to keep her breathing, and nothing more.
“How do you get food?” Cyler asked while adjusting his belt. He’d been addressing one of the Lythe citizens. The first men to be pulled from the cavern started to wake up from the waking sleep they were in and frantically asked questions. Some of them had been down there for months and had no idea what was happening. I loved watching Cyler approach the problem that was Lythe. Some of the people living here recognized him, some even were previous citizens of Dormas and were eager to follow his lead. Soon, we had a central station set up in an abandoned building, and the tents set up down below were now scattered around above ground Lythe.
“I don’t remember. I think there were rations down below? It’s all a bit hazy. I know we ate, but…”
“One of the guys handed out food every morning,” a woman explained while cradling her head in her hand. She reached over to vomit in a nearby bucket then wiped her lips before turning back to Cyler. “It’s like he knew what was happening to us but didn’t care,” she whispered. “He just kept bringing in more Scavengers, and I was too...tired...to think anything of it.”
“Can you make him stop moaning?” Cyler growled at another man. Lenny was moaning in the corner. Alone. No one bothered to help him. We debated long and hard about bringing him back to the surface. When Huxley woke back up, he voted to leave him down there to starve to death, but Cyler vetoed that. He seemed convinced that Lenny had more information.
To keep Huxley from beating Lenny’s skull in, he and Patrick went to find Tallis, Jules, Thurst, and Bowden to explain everything that had happened. Mia wasn’t entirely out of the woods yet, and I knew that Tallis would want to see her.
I scraped my nails along my scalp while trying to make sense of the numbers Mia told me. I had left her bedside thirty minutes ago, determined to sit down and think about the mysterious code she spouted off at me when we had first found her. Was it a delirious musing? Or did it have merit? 88982.
“You okay?” Patrick asked as he settled beside me. Jacob hadn’t left my side since the moment we got here. And when Cyler told a few men to go scout food supplies, my broody leader looked like he was itching to go but stayed behind with me instead.
“I don’t understand what Mia was talking about. She said Mistress Stonewell wanted me to know this sequence of numbers. What does it even mean?” I cradled my head in my hand and felt a sob rise up my throat, threatening to make me feel helpless again. “Mistress Stonewell has Payne, but where?”
Patrick rubbed my back as Cyler yelled at a kid to clean out a makeshift pantry. He also ordered a coughing man to go to quarantine, and when he was informed that there was no quarantine, he let out an exasperated sigh. He was in his element.
“I’m sure she went into hiding when shit went down. Word got out that the cure was pumping in his veins. She might be a bitch, but she’s not an idiot. She left a code for you to find her. So think about it. We can figure it out,” Patrick replied.
Just as I let out another huff, Kemper plopped down at the bench across from me and handed me a piece of paper and a pencil. Sliding it across to me, he gave me a small smile before saying, “Sometimes it helps to write it out?”
I slowly dragged the lead of the pencil along the tan paper, digging so deep that it almost t
ore.
88982.
What could I possibly know about a code?
I kept tracing over the numbers while trying to rack my brain. “It's not coordinates,” Kemper said while staring at the page in front of me. Was it a cryptogram? That didn’t seem likely because what word started with two of the same letter? I felt helpless and angry. Nothing seemed right, and how could a sequence of numbers have so much damn power over me?
I stood up and marched over to a writhing Lenny, despite the low warnings from my men. “Does this mean anything to you?” I asked while thrusting the paper towards him. If he was so determined to find Payne, now was his chance. Maybe he overheard something else from Mia? He scrunched his bruised and battered face in confusion while studying the five numbers like they could somehow cure X and all of the empire’s problems. After a few moments of mindless staring, he directed his gaze back at Cyler, who was pacing the room with a scowl.
“Fuck off. Get me some water, and I’ll talk,” he mumbled.
I wanted to choke him to death on the spot, but instead, I settled on kicking him in the balls. “Answer me,” I insisted as he cried out in pain and cursed me. People were watching, but I didn’t care.
After a few minutes of whining and composing himself, he sighed before drawing his attention back to the paper. “I don’t know what this means. It looks like a code?” I chewed on my bottom lip, mulling over his words while thinking up everything I knew about the Stonewells. A code.
A code.
A code.
Holy shit. I knew what these numbers were.
“Kemper!” I called out while running my fingers over the paper like it could somehow magically take me to where I needed to go. Within an instant, he was at my side, stroking my arm while wearing a concerned expression. “I know what this means. There’s a safe at Stonewell Manor in Master Stonewell’s old office. I was never allowed to touch it, but I know where it is. I bet this is a code to the safe.”