She agrees and falls silent. I want to rewind to thirty seconds ago when we were giggling over boys. I hate it when reality smacks me in the face like ‘Wake up, Teddie. I’m not done with you, yet’.
I lead her back to the group. “Have you noticed chemistry between Seth and Kesh?” I whisper, trying to claw back our easy conversation. Yana looks to reply, but Cooper tackles me from behind, hoisting me off the ground.
“Do you two need to squat in a bush? Crow won’t let me piss in the hedge. Apparently, I’ve got to see who else needs to go, and we have to make an orgy of it.”
“Bathroom breaks in groups is what I actually said,” Crow calls.
Wheeler jogs over, bringing the toilet paper with him. “This isn’t weird at all,” he jokes. “Come on, bathroom buddies.”
Cooper stares at him. “Never say that again.”
The bushes have an eerie quality with the night drawing in. We have to venture in quite a way, to find privacy from the camp.
“Okay, here’s good,” I say.
“Nah, I’m laying one down here,” calls Pug from the next bush.
I pull a face at Yana, and she clasps a hand to her mouth to muffle her giggles. “Crow will kick your ass if he knows you’re out here solo,” I tell Pug. He merely grunts his indifference.
We follow Cooper and Wheeler a little further in, and Yana and I find a hidey hole to do our business. Squatting behind a fern, my head is still visible, and Yana continues to chat to me about Crow. Darcy paws at the ground, waiting patiently.
“Throw me that tissue,” I ask. She underarms it in my direction, but I hear a noise. The toilet paper roll lands in the mud, and I shoot to my feet, tugging my trousers up. “Shush!” I say, not that she is talking.
Cooper’s and Wheeler’s heads pop up from behind their bushes.
“Did you hear that?” Wheeler asks.
I try to read the area. “Quiet lads. I hear something.” “They’ll hear us coming.” Thoughts rush me thick and fast. I can’t get a handle on it.
“I think it’s Taggers,” I whisper to Yana. “Is there a drone?”
Cooper zips his flies and rushes to my side. “How many? Can we take them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, listen again.”
“I don’t know,” I say, firmer. “More than one.”
“Loads more…two…three…Come on, Teds.”
“I don’t know,” I hiss through my teeth. I already feel useless enough without Cooper badgering me.
Darcy whimpers beside me, his ears up and on alert.
“Shut it, dog,” Cooper hisses.
He whimpers louder.
“Hush now, Darcy,” I whisper, placing a hand on his head.
Wheeler shoves Yana back to camp. “Hurry. Warn them.”
She starts to run back through the trees. Darcy whimpers again.
“Shut that damn dog up,” Cooper growls.
“Go, Darcy,” he pushes back against me. “Darcy, go!” I snap at him. He reluctantly runs after Yana, whining and whimpering as he goes.
Pug rushes up, trousers round his ankles, and a toilet paper roll in his hand. “Did you hear th—”
A muffled gunshot echoes off the trees, and Pug’s head explodes across my own. His warm blood covers my face. Cooper wraps a large hand over my mouth before I can let out a cry. Pug’s body doesn’t appear to register that it’s dead. He teeters for a few moments before dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Towley steps out from behind a tree. The soldier behind him fires a weird looking contraption, and large, metal netting covers us, spikes pinning it to the ground. The three of us squirm to get free, but it’s pointless. Many more faces appear behind Towley; many more guns trained on us.
“Don’t bother with abilities, the net will electrocute you at the slightest rise of kinetic energy,” says Towley. He holds my eye contact. “Hello again, Theyda.”
“You didn’t have to kill him,” I scream at Towley. I can’t bring myself to look at Pug.
“He was armed.”
“If it’s me you want, then you’ve got me. Let these two go. Leave them be, and I will go with you.”
“I’ll take the three of you, but you have my word that if you come with us, we will leave your little cult be… for now.”
Cooper takes my hand. “We can’t trust him to keep his word.”
“It’s this or he kills everyone back at camp,” Wheeler whispers.
I look Towley dead in the eyes. “Your word means nothing to me.”
“And I care because...? I will spare your other friends and the children, Theyda.”
A wind picks up, and a black aircraft, barely discernible from the night sky, flies quietly overhead. It descends into the trees and out of sight. It could be something alien for all I know, but I’m guessing it’s military; a stealth plane or something.
“We have our own means to win this war,” Towley states. “Even your Technokin didn’t pick that up.”
I’m not sure how Kesh works. I don’t think he just senses technology around him. He’d never have been purposely sensing for stealth aircraft in the area. How farfetched does this whole situation sound? Let me wake up from it all, please.
Soldiers approach the netting, and the next thing I see is the butt of a gun slamming down into my face.
“I owed you that one,” Towley’s distant voice calls. “Hurry, get them on the plane before the other EVO arrive.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I wake screaming. The feeling of hands on me makes me gag, and Towley strokes at my cheek. It’s a strangely affectionate gesture, but there is something in his eyes that puts the fear of God in me. Someone places a mask over my mouth and nose, and although I fight it, my limbs feel useless, heavy, and out of my control. A buzzing noise fills my ears, but I’m drifting again, barely able to keep my eyes open. Towley leans over me, his features blurring through my watering eyes.
“I didn’t catch that,” he says in my ear, pulling the mask away from my mouth.
I lick at my dry lips. “I said, fuck you.”
***
My dreams consist of Adam’s voice. He repeats my name over and over. He cries my name over and over. I cry out for him to help me. I cry until my dream voice runs hoarse and no sound comes out. Then, I merely sob in the darkness of my mind.
***
I’m naked on a bed. My feet and wrists are bound, and my eyes spot from an intense headache. Someone stirs just outside of my peripheral. I crane my neck back, more agony erupting in my skull. Towley sits in a chair- he’s been sleeping.
He rubs at his eyes and smiles at me. “Good morning,” he says. His shirt is unbuttoned and showing chest hair, and his sleeves are rolled up to the elbows. “I’ve been here all night just to make sure you were well tended.”
I don’t reply to him. I’m not sure I even know the words to say.
“Selective mutism? That’s not like you, Theyda. I have an admiration for your colourful use of vocabulary. You can tell me to fuck off, or go screw myself if you’d like. I don’t like this silence. At least I get conversation out of your friends.”
“Where are they? What have you done to them? You fucking bastard.”
“There’s my Theyda.”
He cups my cheek in his hand, and I turn my face away, trying to bury into the pillow. The pain in my skull erupts again, and I release a hiss through my teeth. I curse myself; I don’t want him to know my pain. He’s gentle still. I feel the coolness of his palm brush against my scalp. My eyes betray me, and he smiles a little.
“Yes, that’s right, we had to shave your head to operate. But don’t think on it, hair grows back.”
I bite my lip to stifle a sob. My eyes search his face for something, some clue as to what they have done to me. He’s desperate to tell me, but he knows he can torture me just by withholding information.
“Ask me, Theyda. Come on, speak to me. I know you want to, so just ask. I won’t tell y
ou about this,” he strokes at my scalp, “unless you ask me.”
“What did you do to me? Are you turning me into some kind of TORO?”
He laughs, perching a butt cheek on the bed and leaning closer. “Not quite. We have merely fitted a Scrambler. It’s a kinetic reader. Any use of your ability will kill you... poof.”
“Why would you do this? Why do you hate me?”
He looks perplexed for a moment. “I don’t hate you, Theyda. I think you are magnificent.” He takes my face in both his hands, much like Adam would do, and I cringe, pulling away from him. “Why do you turn away from me?”
“Because your hands on me make me sick to my guts.”
“Does that TORO touch you like this?” He strokes his thumb along my cheek, and I twist under his grip. “I appreciate what you are, Theyda. I accept it. You are an incredible creation of nature, and that’s why I want you.”
I’m not sure why he’d say that. He doesn’t eye my naked body, or touch me inappropriately. I’m a trophy to him, nothing more.
“I will never be yours,” I spit.
“Do you know what I do with the things that I adore, Theyda? I control them. And that is why this next bit is necessary.” He gets up and bangs on the door.
The room fills with people, some in white coats, most in fatigues. The restraints pull tight, pinning my wrists and ankles to the bed and parting my legs in a vulnerable, indecent manner.
Towley strokes my face, hushing me like a baby. “I don’t get joy from this. However, like I said, it’s necessary.”
I jerk my head to the side and bite down on his hand until I can taste blood and hear his screams. “None of this is necessary,” I shout.
They wheel me from the room.
***
“She’s a biter. Get the muzzle on her,” says a doctor with thick rim glasses and a moustache. He stands aside as the soldiers wrestle a leather contraption around my mouth, tying it at the back of my head. My jaw is clamped shut. I’m only able to breathe through my nose, and my screams are muffled to inside my throat.
They slide a hospital gown over me, leaving it untied at the back. At least I have a little dignity restored. I look around to find Towley, but he’s not present. One of the soldiers slams my head back down onto the bed, and I scream out as blinding pain surges through my skull.
Large chains hang down from the ceiling above me; thick, monster chains that entice fear just from the mere sight of them. One soldier pulls them down toward the bed. The sound reverberates in my teeth. Another soldier starts attaching them to my wrist restraints.
“When you are ready,” the doctor says to him.
He nods to the other soldiers and they untie my bed restraints. There is a clunking sound as the chains pull tight, dragging me up and out of the bed. My shoulders almost tear from their sockets as my weight hangs from my wrists. I cry out though the muzzle, trying hard not to be sick.
The bed is quickly wheeled from beneath me and the soldier lowers the chains until my toes graze the floor. They say nothing, acting like they’ve just strung up a pig carcass and not a human being.
“That’ll be all, for now,” the doctor tells them, and they file out of the room.
Moving to the far side of the room, he presses his palm against a panel, and then looks into a retina scanner. Taking one final glance over his shoulder at me, he taps another button. The whole wall recedes into itself, opening into a larger, laboratory type room. He rips open a hospital curtain to reveal Wheeler and Cooper hanging from chains. They both wear hospital gowns identical to my own, but no muzzles. They do, however, wear collars. Whatever Towley has done to my brain, he has only done it to my brain.
“Teddie,” Cooper shouts, thrashing against his chains. His shoulder joints bulge under his skin.
Wheeler lolls his head to the side to see me. “Are you okay, Baby Girl?”
I nod, sobbing through the muzzle. Seeing them both makes my stomach clamp. If I’m sick, I’ll choke and die before anyone will have realised anything was wrong.
“Be brave, okay. You are so so brave,” Wheeler adds.
Cooper lets out an angered growl. “What is on her face? What did you do to her head?” He screams at the doctor. “Answer me, you son of a bitch.”
The doctor barely offers Cooper a backward glance. “The muzzle is a precaution. The device in her head… well, that’s a solution.”
“If you hurt her, I’ll—”
“You’ll what, Mr Cooper? Do not threaten me.” He picks up a metal rod with a bizarre, orange handle.
Cooper snorts, rolling his eyes. “Do your best,” he hisses through his teeth.
I want to scream at him to shut up, to stop playing the big man before he ends up dead.
The doctor walks toward him, stopping in front of him, and twisting the device between his fingers. He’s toying with him, getting off on torturing him. “You don’t fear physical pain, Mr Cooper. So, it would be worthless to use this on you,” he says.
“Damn right,” Cooper roars in his face.
“Her perhaps.” He looks over his shoulder at me and swivels on his heel. He marches toward me with the rod outstretched.
“Don’t you fucking touch her. I said it, not her. If you want to punish someone, punish me.” Cooper screams.
The doctor places the metal against my stomach and volts course through me. I scream into the muzzle, my body convulsing on the chains, and my skin blistering under the rod. Then, it stops just as suddenly. I try to suck air in through my nose whilst my shaking legs try to get a footing on the cool floor.
Cooper’s shouts almost sound sob like. I’ve never seen Cooper emotional to this extent, and my heart shatters.
“You fear her pain, though. That’s useful,” the doctor says, nonchalantly. He sticks the rod against my inner thigh, and I jerk painfully against the chains.
My eyes water, and the agony eats at my aching skull. ‘Please, stop,” I try to cry, but it’s incoherent through the muzzle.
“Enough!” Wheeler bellows. “You’ve proved your point.”
The doctor laughs to himself. “I’m not here to prove points, Mr. Wheeler. I’m here to break you.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
Cooper thrashes once again. “You’re sick. This is fucking sick.”
“This is science. This is to protect the future of the human race.”
“We are humans!” Wheeler shouts. “We are humans!”
The doctor merely laughs. “As of now, you are just a number in a system- test subjects for the greater good.”
“Testing what?” Wheeler asks.
“Whatever we like. For starters, let’s see how long it takes for EVO to become subservient and controlled.”
“I can save you a whole lot of time. The answer you are looking for is never. We will never be controlled,” says Cooper. “You will see that. I promise that you will see that first hand.”
Two soldiers enter the room. “That one,” the doctor says, gesturing toward Cooper. “He’s got a mouth on him.”
They round on him. Cooper tries to get a better footing, but his chains rise a foot off the floor. He cries out as his weight threatens to dislocate his shoulders. One soldier punches him in the face, sending him swinging precariously. The sound of their fists meeting his face and torso cuts straight through me.
I scream against the muzzle, drawing the doctor’s attention. “He means a lot to you too, doesn’t he?”
“Thank you, gentlemen.” The doctor writes something on his clipboard, and then nods to Wheeler.
The soldiers turn their attention to Wheeler. Cooper hangs bloody and hurt. Spit falls from his lips onto the floor. Wheeler cries out as a boot slams into his chest. A hit to the face renders him lifeless, and his nose has exploded with blood.
I cry out, scrunching my eyes against his torture. “Both men have an importance to the female,” the doctor says. “This threesome may prove advantageous in our tests.”
&n
bsp; “Who are you talking to?” Cooper asks, spitting blood onto the floor. The doctor doesn’t reply. “Towley, right? Hey, Towley, are you there? You will never control EVO. Do you hear me you scummy, little scrote? We may be few, but it’s quality over quantity, and if you mess with us, we will annihilate you.”
A pride swells in my chest. Maybe it won’t be Cooper, Wheeler, or I, but EVO will survive. The Towleys of the world will get what is coming to them. Strength and no mercy where they are concerned.
I smile at him, giving him a little ‘damn right’ nod. Doctor Death slams his clip board onto his desk with a purposeful thud. Wheeler comes around to the noise, his head lolling and bleeding.
“You okay, mate?” Cooper asks. Wheeler groans inaudibly.
The doctor races the length of the room, spins me, and wrenches my gown fully open, so my rear side is on view to everyone.
He lashes my back in one flash. I know my skin splits; I’ve never felt a pain quite like it. Even my eye didn’t hurt to this extent. Screaming, I launch forward with my arms pulling the chains. I want to allow my abilities to do what they want to do- protect me. Self-preservation makes it difficult to fight the urges.
Cooper spouts every cuss word known to man, and Wheeler screams at them to leave me alone. Another lash lands between my shoulder blades, and another, and another. The pain is unbearable. I can’t get enough air through my snotty nose, and I feel my legs fall from beneath me. My shoulders must strain from the weight, but I don’t notice as a cloud of darkness smothers my vision.
Water fills my nostrils and mouth. I scream, inhaling the stagnant, warm liquid in the process. A hand around my throat wrenches me out of a trough. I fall forward, still hanging from the chains, spluttering and vomiting up water and bile. The muzzle has gone, allowing me to breathe freely.
“You bastards,” I scream, flailing my legs, hoping to connect with the doctor or his minions. A guttural, angry, pain-filled cry spews from my mouth until I have to catch breath.
“Teddie, are you okay,” Wheeler asks. His voice croaks through sobs.
I nod, but tears spill over my cheeks and I hang my head to keep them from the doctor and Towley.
EVO Nation Series Trilogy Box Set Page 51