Belong

by C. R. Jane

  At first, I didn't notice anything besides the fact that the gas seemed to be making me a little bit tired.

  But that changed quickly.

  I screamed as a horde of Khonsu began running towards me, each of them holding their whips. I crouched down in the street with my hands out in front of me, but when a moment passed and I felt nothing, I opened my eyes to see that the Khonsu were gone. It had just been an illusion.

  The rest of the guys were struggling just as much. Derrial was actually sobbing at whatever he saw. Corran disappeared right in front of my eyes, replaced by a corpse of him that was bleeding from large cuts all over his body.

  "It's not real. It's not real. It's not real," I chanted as great sobs wracked my body. I couldn't stop myself from leaning forward to try and touch it. As soon as I did so, of course, Corran's dead body disappeared, and I became aware of his live body standing in front of me once again.

  By this time, Thane was screaming, shouting my name over and over again as he looked all around me as if he had lost me. I tried to go to him, but I was stopped when my mother appeared in front of me. She was on her knees, begging to be spared.

  "Mom," I called out, running towards her.

  It continued like that for what felt like an infinite period of time. Every bad thought I'd ever had, every dream I'd woken up from in a cold sweat, every fear that I'd internalized...they were all there. Appearing before me over and over again, until I was sure that the world had ended and there was no happiness to be found anywhere. The air was filled with the screams of my hallucinations and that of my lovers.

  I would never be the same after this. Never.

  I had just convinced myself that we had somehow died and were now trapped in hell where we were being tortured, when it was like a haze seemed to clear around me and suddenly I found myself and my three husbands standing back in the street, completely alone, and completely hallucination free.

  All four of us were ashen, shaking, and soaked in sweat. Corran was the first to move. He grabbed me and hauled me into his chest. "You're here, you're here," he repeated over and over again as he assured himself of my existence. Derrial and Thane didn't try to take me from Corran. Instead, they crowded around until we were all in one big embrace, locked in each other's arms.

  We stood there for at least fifteen minutes, just trying to reassure ourselves that we were all alive and together. Derrial tried to shift away at one point, and I made a savage squeaking sound before yanking him back towards me. We only were able to move again if they all stayed close enough for me to touch them.

  "What's next?" asked Derrial hoarsely. And I knew we were all wondering whether we could survive whatever was "next" after the nightmare we'd just made it through.

  "The next layer is designed to flood and drown any intruders if you step in certain spots. Just follow behind me and we should be fine."

  We arranged ourselves in a line, me right behind Thane with Derrial behind me, and Corran at the end. As in the first layer, we walked slowly. I made sure to step exactly where Thane stepped.

  We'd made it three-fourths of the way through the rows of buildings that made up this layer when I heard a panicked grunt from behind me. I looked back and saw that Derrial was holding up an exhausted-looking Corran, who must have stumbled.

  That was all it took. A roar shook the street as water started to flood in from all directions. The water was immediately up to my shins and it was quickly rising. I couldn't even tell where it was coming from, because it was like the area had transformed into a lake with how much water was coming in from every direction.

  "Run," yelled Thane as he grabbed me and hauled me forward. A quick look at Derrial and Corran showed me that Derrial had his arm around Corran's waist and was attempting to drag him forward. Corran looked dead on his feet, like he was going to pass out at any minute.

  The water was quickly rising, making it harder and harder to run as we sloshed through the street.

  "We need to get to higher ground," Thane yelled back at us as he continued to drag me along. Derrial and Corran were losing steam as Corran was barely helping Derrial at all at this point to move them both along. "The flooding is designed to rise to the level of the roofs and dissipate after a few hours. We figured that most threats wouldn't be able to make it to safety in time."

  No kidding. Like right now.

  Thane kicked open a door, and water started to flow in after us as we darted inside. Since the city had been shut down, the technology that would regularly have flown us to the next level wasn't working. There was obviously something to be said for old-school things...like actual stairs.

  "Stay here," Thane ordered, like I was somehow tempted to go off on my own. He ran to the far wall where a beam led up to the second floor. He started to climb the beam, his muscles flexing with the effort. I hoped he had a plan once he got up there, because there was no way that I was going to be able to climb that. And neither was Corran. Another look at him showed me that his face was even paler than before. I wasn't sure if he was sick or just exhausted. How were we going to get him through the city if the rest of the levels were like this?

  Thane somehow leaped from the pole to the balcony of the second floor. He then pulled a rope from the satchel around his waist, tied one end around himself, and then threw the other side down to us.

  "Climb up," he hollered. Derrial was by my side in a flash, leaving Corran to sit on a chair that had floated by. The water was still rising, and it was above his waist in the chair.

  "Hop on my back, Ella," Derrial ordered, and I hoisted myself upon his back, trying not to choke him as I threw my arms around his neck.

  Derrial then began to climb up the rope. I was so happy for the Vepar's superior strength, even if it had been used against humans from the beginning. I didn't think there were very many human men or women that could climb a rope with someone on their back.

  Derrial was breathing heavily when we finally made it to the top. Thane had been straining to hold up our weight as we climbed, but there was no time to rest. Corran was still down there, and he'd had to stand up as the water was too high. I could see him rocking back and forth unsteadily as he tried to stay standing as the water pushed against him.

  Derrial quickly tied the rope around his waist and held onto it as Thane scrambled down the rope, a bit slower this time as his muscles had to be burning. Corran was a lot larger than me, and it was painful to watch how slow Thane's progression was up the rope with Corran on his back. Corran was trying to help. I knew that if he was at full strength he would have no issue getting up the rope. But that was not the case now.

  Looking down, the water was high enough that it would have completely enveloped us if we were still standing on the ground floor.

  Thane had to stop several times and I let out a small scream when Corran almost slipped off. Thane managed to stop him just in time, almost at the expense of one of his arms getting ripped out of its socket as he held onto the rope with one hand and held onto Corran with the other.

  He groaned as he pulled Corran back up so that he was steady on his back once again.

  I think I held my breath until they got to our floor, because I was feeling light-headed as the three of them all collapsed to the ground breathing heavily.

  I ran over to them and hovered, needing to be close to them. I glanced down at the floor below and the rapidly rising water. We couldn't afford to try and recover. The water was rising faster and it would soon be to our floor.

  How were we going to get to the roof though? There was no way the three of them could handle another rope climb.

  Thane staggered to his feet and jogged to the far wall. "There's an escape hatch that leads to the roof on every building, and there should be some kind of emergency ladder here somewhere," he explained as he began to run his hands all over the wall. "Found it," he exclaimed triumphantly, and I watched open-mouthed as a ladder seemed to just appear out of the wall. I'm sure they could explain the technology to me
later but a lot of what I saw on this planet appeared to be magic.

  "You first, pet," Thane called as he all but pushed me onto the ladder. I realized his hurry when I felt water rush over my foot, it had reached our level.

  I hurried clumsily up the ladder, my feet only slipping once. "Now what?" I called down.

  "Just push up on the ceiling right above you," called up Thane.

  I was expecting it to give me trouble, but as soon as I pushed on the ceiling, it flew open, showering me with fading sunlight.

  I pulled myself out onto the roof and gazed down the opening as the guys began to climb up.

  Derrial pulled himself up first, and I moved aside to make room for him. The roof was domed but it was such a large building that there was plenty of room for us all to be on a relatively flat part of the roof.

  Thane was last up. He'd had to help Corran up again. As soon as Corran fell onto the roof he was out, passed out from sheer exhaustion. He still hadn't told us all that had happened while we'd been separated, and I was scared to find out. The fact that he'd had to experience it all alone...I never wanted that to have to happen again.

  Thane and Derrial sat on either side of me as Corran slept behind us. We stared out at the still-rising water. I hoped Thane was right that it was designed to stay below the rooftops. Some of the smaller buildings were almost completely covered, but the building we were on was one of the highest in the city.

  "How did I get here?" I whispered as I watched the water rise. The baby chose that moment to give me a sharp kick, and it just reminded me what a dangerous world I was about to bring it into.

  "It will all work out, Pet," Thane said softly to me as he put an arm around me. I realized that he had been watching me instead of the water.

  I smiled at him sadly. I wasn't sure he could say that.

  "So what's next?" Derrial tried to joke. "Fire, earthquakes, rabid dogs?"

  Thane sighed. "There's a few more traps. One opens holes in the ground that the intruder falls through if they step on specific spots. Another is a pack of rabins..."

  Derrial took a huge inhale when he heard that.

  "What is that?" I asked anxiously, scared of Derrial's reaction.

  "It's similar to a cat on your planet. Except its bite creates excruciating pain that can lead to heart failure," Derrial explained reluctantly.

  "Of course it does," I sighed.

  "Let's get some rest. We can talk about everything tomorrow," said Thane. "Corran won't be able to go anywhere for awhile anyway."

  I nodded, glad for the rest, even if I was anxious to get to the lab and start actually solving all the problems we were facing.

  Despite my fear of the water and what we were going to face tomorrow, I fell into a deep sleep filled with images of the hallucinations I'd suffered from earlier in the day.

  It wasn't a peaceful sleep, to say the least.

  Corran was already up when Derrial woke me up, and my heart clenched with how much better he looked after a good night's sleep. I was afraid that he'd been sick or worse...was beginning to be infected. But there was no sign of any symptoms today in the bright morning light. Corran evidently had just been extremely tired.

  I next looked out to see how the water was looking, and I was shocked that there was no sign of it. The ground and all the domed buildings looked completely dry. I knew Thane had told us it was going to subside, but actually seeing that happen was something else.

  After eating some crackers that Thane explained were from the military, evidently packing quite the caloric punch, it was time to set off. We made our way down the ladder to the second floor, and then used the rope to get to the ground floor. Derrial carried me down the rope this time. Thane and Corran both used the same beam that Thane had climbed up first yesterday to get down.

  And then we were off to whatever hell waited for us.

  I just knew as Corran gave me a kiss and grabbed my hand, that despite everything, I was where I was supposed to be.

  10

  It was too quiet in this section of the city. After the constant booby traps of the last few layers, it didn't make much sense that now that we were so close to the laboratory that it would now be a walk in the park. Thane and his team hadn't put anything in this section of the city, stating that this was where the soldiers were supposed to be stationed to protect the building. But the street we were walking down was completely deserted. There were no signs of any soldiers.

  We stayed in the shadows, close up to the buildings still, but the chaos of the rest of our trip was nowhere to be found.

  "What do you think is going on?" I whispered to Derrial. He shook his head, reminding me to stay quiet. One of the traps we'd gone through had been triggered by any sound. That hadn't been fun.

  I wouldn't risk testing it, but the silence was almost more unnerving than the death traps had been...almost.

  We turned the corner, and that's when I realized why there didn't seem to be any traps or soldiers in this section of the city...because they weren't necessary, due to the hundreds upon hundreds of infected Vepar we'd just stumbled across in the road surrounding the building that housed the lab.

  The infected Vepar at the hospital where we'd been visiting Thane's mother had been crazed. They'd been desperate to attack us.

  These infected Vepar were decidedly not crazed...at least at the moment. They were walking slowly, as if they were all in a trance. It was impossible to miss that they were infected though. Nearly all of them held ghastly wounds where they had been attacked in the near past. If the Council's infection didn't finish them off, the infection that was growing in their wounds certainly would.

  As terrified as I was of them, I also felt immense anger on their behalf that their own government had done this to them. I just hoped that Corran could figure out an antidote, and that all of these poor Vepar wouldn't remember what they did while they were infected. That would probably be hard to deal with, if you could remember tearing another Vepar's flesh off their bone with your mouth.

  We were frozen in place as we watched them. "Is there another way into the facility you think?" I asked hopefully, even though I knew the answer would be no.

  "We need some kind of diversion," said Derrial, ignoring my question. "If we could blow something up down the street and get them moving that way, we could hopefully make it in before they saw us."

  "It will take a little time to figure out the code to get in. Every lab we have has a complicated set of security protocols. I'm sure that this one would be no different from the others. Especially if they were working on so many things they weren't supposed to."

  "Alright. Create a big enough explosion to get us through the next few streets and allow us to crack a few codes. Sounds simple enough," said Thane sarcastically. But I could tell that my soldier was already working through the logistics of everything. If there was a way to do it, he would figure it out.

  "Aha," said Corran quietly as he pulled two small vials out of his waist satchel and handed them to Thane. "Shellum and Wenciom," he explained.

  Thane's eyes lit up, but Derrial just shot Corran a look. "What are you doing with Shellum and Wenciom? And how do you have big enough balls to carry those things around your balls?" he whispered with wide eyes.

  "What are they?" I asked confused.

  "Two powders that if combined, create quite the chemical explosion," Corran answered me matter-of-factly. Derrial was still looking at him like he was crazy...or he had big balls. I really couldn't tell.

  "I'm going to circle around and blow up that eating hall down the street," Thane told us, pointing at a small, silver-colored domed building a few blocks down, or at least, what would be blocks if the Vepar did things that way.

  "Wait," I whispered urgently, grabbing his arm before he left. Fear was coursing through my body at what would happen if he separated from me right now.

  "Pet, I'll be right back," Thane reassured me as Derrial tried to pull me away from him.

  "Okay
," I answered, but I was still holding onto his arm tightly.

  "Ella," Thane said again, and I finally pried my fingers off his arm. He was gone before I even blinked.

  I paced back and forth beside the building we were hiding behind, practically gnawing my fingernails off. Derrial was keeping watch, and Corran was fiddling on a device, trying to see if he could hack into the Council's information database in order to find blueprints of the lab. Unfortunately, the guys had been the ones responsible for setting up the security for the Council's database, which meant the job had been well done and it was almost impossible to get in.

  Derrial suddenly grabbed me and gently took us both to the ground as he covered my body with his. "Thane's almost to the building. The explosion will knock us down," he explained. Corran crouched down beside us, also trying to shield my body with his. It said a lot about how bad the situation we were in was that I didn't even feel a tingle of lust at their close proximity to me. They were just that incredible.

  The explosion went off. The ground rattled under us, and the two buildings we were in between shuddered. I would have definitely gone flying if Derrial hadn't had the foresight to get me on the ground first. Debris went flying everywhere, and I couldn't believe that two tiny vials could create an explosion that large. I couldn't even comprehend the damage that large amounts of those compounds could create. I just hoped that Thane had managed to find something to get behind. I didn't know how he could have set off the explosion and gotten to safety in time. My heart was thudding painfully fast, and the baby gave me another kick, evidently not liking the weight of Derrial and Thane in its space.

  I really needed to get an ultrasound of this baby - if they did that on Veon - so that I could stop calling my baby an "it."

  In the aftermath of the explosion, the eerie silence came back, somehow quieter than before. Derrial and Corran slid off of me, and Derrial darted to the edge of the building to see if the infected Vepar had taken the bait. He pumped a fist as we watched. I assumed that meant that Thane had been successful. We needed to run to the lab...but where was Thane?