by Keri Lake
Prick.
Straining against his wrist binds, he trembled, stretching toward the band that held the keys, his fingertips just grazing the metal. Loud screeching echoed out the approach of mutations, and Valdys strained with the effort of reaching for the keys.
When another pair of hands nabbed them up, Valdys lifted his gaze to Everett, standing alongside him and unlocking his first bind. Once loose, he went to work on the next, as Valdys yanked at the chain attached to his throat. It broke away from the capsule, dangling from the band at his neck.
In his periphery, something monstrous caught his attention, and he swung his gaze toward where a feral looking humanoid, its face stitched up wrong, its neck too thick for his body, teeth sharp as a mountain lion’s, stood licking its chops.
“Oh, fuck,” Everett said beside him. “I have to … I have to go. Oh, God, I have to get out of here!”
He’d only gotten Valdys’s ankle loose, leaving half his body still bound to the capsule, as the Legion officer took off running in the same direction the other Alpha must’ve gone.
The mutation didn’t run after the two of them, though.
Didn’t have to.
His next meal wasn’t going anywhere.
Valdys had fought off mutations before, but never in a wounded state, and certainly not half tethered. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he twisted toward the key that was still lodged in the lock binding his left wrist. A shadow from the corner of his eye warned of attack, and Valdys swung out with his free hand, blocking the swipe of a claw. The mutation struck again, the path of its claw leaving a wet burn down Valdys’s forehead, along his nose and across his lip. Blood dripped in his eye, as he drew back his fist and hammered a punch to the mutation’s face, but it kicked it back only a step, before it lunged again.
A slice across his arm tore through his bicep, ripping away the sleeve of his uniform, and glass rained down from the shield above him, as it caught the brunt of its swing and shattered. One-handed, Valdys volleyed a series of punches, knocking one of the sharp teeth into nothing but a crag that hung from its black gums. Still, the beastly thing wouldn’t relent. As he grabbed its throat, the thing snapped it’s jaws, the missing tooth chipping away with every clack of its teeth.
Another screech signaled the approach of a second mutation.
Exhaustion weighed on Valdys’s muscles, and stretched the wounds on his back, as he held the mutation away from him, while the second approached the capsule. He still held on, though. If they planned to eat him alive, he sure as hell wouldn’t be going down without a fight.
Thankfully, the second one abandoned him for something else, but he didn’t dare take his attention off the one hellbent on taking a bite of him. Instead, he growled out and curled his fingers into the mutation’s throat, the beast screeching as he tore through the flesh and around its gullet. With one harsh twist of his hand, Valdys dislodged its throat, and the mutation collapsed beside him.
He scrambled for the key, unlocking his wrist, as another mutation hobbled around the wall. Upon seeing him, it screeched and charged, stopped short by the Alpha that Valdys was certain had abandoned him. In his wake lay the other mutation that’d run off, its head separated from the twitching body beside it. As the Alpha fought off the next mutation, Valdys stole the opportunity to unlock his last remaining cuffs at his wrist and ankle, freeing himself in time to see his sudden ally snap the mutation’s neck.
“You decided not to be a prick?”
“I’m a man who believes in karma.” Arms outstretched, he bowed as Valdys clambered out of the capsule. “Don’t forget the keys. Apparently, that’s the only way out of this shithole room.”
“Yeah. Figured you were still a prick.” As Valdys swiped up the ring of keys to ensure he didn’t take off on him again. the severity of the wounds at his back reminded him that he was still weakened, and he stumbled forward.
The other Alpha caught his fall, wrapping his arm behind his neck to hold him up. “You make any moves on me, and I’ll break your arm.”
“You break my arm, and I’ll rip out your throat with my good hand.”
The two of them hobbled toward the opposite end of the room, skidding to a halt at the sight of a dozen, or more, mutations blocking their path to freedom.
“Lockdown will commence in T minus five minutes. Prepare for decontamination protocol. Lockdown will commence in T minus five minutes.”
Swinging around toward the direction from which they’d come, they found more mutations clustered, their humanoid bodies slick with blood, undoubtedly from feeding on the comatose Alphas trapped inside their capsules.
Lights flickered, the buzz of electricity overhead warning of the pitch blackness that would soon follow.
“Looks like this is the end of the road, my friend.” The defeat in the Alpha’s voice gave life to the hopelessness that pounded through Valdys, as the mutations closed in on them.
He’d never fought off more than two mutations at a time, and even that was a challenge when he wasn’t wounded. There wasn’t a chance in hell the two of them could take on so many at once and survive it.
Expelling a breath in defeat, Valdys lowered his gaze.
Cali.
Perhaps if he couldn’t lay beneath the stars with her, he could watch over her from among them.
The light gave way to darkness.
Chapter 1
Cali
Present day …
* * *
It begins as no more than a whisper. The airy breeze that kicks up the desert sand and rises to the top of the juniper tree, ruffling its leaves. If I pause to listen, I can hear his voice on the wind, calling to me from the other side of this hell.
Valdys.
No sooner does it arrive, taunting my ear, than it fades away to desolation. And the black hole in my heart sinks deeper with every rise of the sun. The air I breathe grows thicker, more suffocating than the day before.
“There’s a camp.” Beside me, Titus stares through the binoculars over the small valley nestled below the roadside, where we’ve stopped to gain our bearings. The sun settles over the mountains, a grim reminder that another day is coming to a close--another day I’m no closer to opening the sealed doors behind which Valdys lies trapped. “Not a hive. Maybe one family.”
“Then, they’re of no interest to me.” My voice is as flat as my hopes have become after nearly two months of searching the desert for the rebels. Two months of disappointment. Fatigue. Despair. Two months since I watched my whole world disappear behind the impenetrable steel doors of Calico. “I doubt they’ll know anything.”
For weeks upon weeks, we’ve sought out every hive, and even a few marauder camps, leaving behind a wake of death when a few of them turned hostile. Just doesn’t seem likely that a such a small camp in the middle of nowhere will have any connection to the rebels.
“There’s meat. I can smell it. And they might know a nearby water source. Maybe some prickly pears we can pack for our travels.” Lowering his binoculars, Titus turns to face me. “I could do with some venison right now, and some cool water on my neck.”
Behind him, Cadmus stands with his legs set apart, urinating on a creosote bush. The Legion soldier, Brandon, who hardly looks like a soldier anymore, with his shirt sleeves torn away and hair thick with sand, scrambles on all fours after a lizard that disappears into the cactus.
We’ve lost direction. Purpose. Weeks of nothingness have left me desperately clinging to the small sliver of hope that Valdys is still alive in that hospital.
If not for Titus, and his determination to save his friend, I’m afraid I’d be left on my own, so I nod in defeat. As much as I fear stopping for the night, I can’t ask him to keep going. I can’t risk losing his persistence in all of this. I need him to keep me from falling into despair, from becoming nothing but a broken shell. “We’ll stop here for the night.”
I can’t deny I’m weary. Every bone in my body aches like that of an old woman, battered
in despondency. Yet, I tread on through this abandoned wasteland, because I have nothing else. Without Valdys, this world isn’t enticing enough for me to keep going.
“That’s great.” Cadmus strides back toward the truck, his irritation unmistakable when he throws back the passenger door, nearly busting it from its hinges. “Fucking wonderful. Hey, what do you say we hit up every last remaining human being on the planet and ask if they’ve seen the rebels?”
“Don’t do this, Cadmus. Not now,” I warn, my patience growing thinner with every word that passes his lips. Of all of us, Cadmus has been the most resistant to finding the rebels.
He turns around, tapping his chin in mocking. “Better yet, why not ask the fucking Ragers, while we’re at it? Maybe they’ve done some trading with them over the last few weeks.”
“Are you done?”
“No. Not even close. We’re chasing ghosts here, Cali. You saw some messiah looking bastard walk through those doors before they shut. Ever stop to think your head wasn’t right that night? That maybe you were seeing things?”
“I saw him! I know what I saw!” I charge toward him, but get stopped short by arms banding around mine and lifting me up off the ground. “Let me go! Let me go!”
“Enough, Cadmus,” Titus says from behind me, his sharp tone echoing his obvious annoyance. “She doesn’t need this.”
“You know exactly what she needs, don’t you, Titus?” Cadmus’s lips curve with his sneering. “You tell her, every day, exactly what she needs to hear, don’t you?”
My body crashes to the dirt, and Titus barrels forward into Cadmus.
The truck wavers as Titus scrambles for footing against the dirt. He slams a punch into the other Alpha’s ribcage. Cadmus hammers his elbow into Titus’s spine, and the fallen Alpha grunts as he gets to his feet, before Titus knocks his fist into Cadmus’s face, kicking his head to the side on a spray of blood. Cadmus volleys a return hit to Titus’s nose. All in a matter of seconds.
“Stop this! Stop!” Against my better judgment, I rush toward the fighting Alphas and push between them, just as Cadmus draws back for another punch. Wedged against Titus’s chest, facing Cadmus, I squeeze my eyes shut, breaths corked in my throat, and prepare for the hit.
In the absence of pain, I open my eyes to find his jaw hard and tense, chest heaving. Blood trickles out of the corner of his lip, and his eyes hold the murderous stare of a man who’s lost hope. One who has nothing left to lose.
Frowning, he lowers his fist, and I feel the tension in Titus ease at my back.
Hands lodged in my hair, I’m one thread away from losing what little sanity I have left. “Why do you have to be so damn difficult all the time?”
Tonguing the corner of his lip, Cadmus shakes his head and snorts. “Guess somebody’s gotta be the bad guy, right?” he says, as he climbs into the truck.
A dull ache throbs in my stomach, one I’ve ignored for days now. Not from my anxiety over their fight, but from something I dread even more. My estrus has arrived, and I know its presence is part of what makes the two uneasy. They can smell it on me, and instinct begs them to give release. Something they’d have probably fought over, if not for the respect of their absent brother.
After a glance back at Titus, who wipes the blood from his nose, I climb over Cadmus in the small space between his legs and the dashboard and take my seat beside him. He slams the door on Titus, and rests his elbow on the bashed-out window, daubing the blood at his lip with the back of his hand.
His eyes fall to my thighs and back, brows flickering with his troubled expression, but he doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t have to. His taut muscles, and the bulge I noted at his crotch as I climbed across him, tell me everything I don’t want to know.
A month ago, it was Titus who gave me relief after nearly two weeks of intense pain, and I know, in spite of their bodies’ natural instincts, the two of them dread the moment they’re forced to defy their brother again.
I’ll try to hold off as long as I can, though. To keep my pain and agony to myself so as not to rouse their primitive urges.
Titus climbs into the driver’s seat at my other side, and through the window I see Brandon scramble toward the back of the truck. In silence, Titus fires up the engine and turns the truck off the road, down the sloping hill. Toward the camp below.
A man, perhaps in his fifties, pushes to his feet, abandoning the fire he’s set, as we roll in and Titus parks the truck outside the perimeter. Without hesitation, he exits the vehicle and approaches the man, who stands with a hand behind his back, as though reaching for a weapon.
Palms in the air, Titus takes slow and easy steps toward him. “We don’t mean you any harm.”
“What do you want?” The man’s voice is neither friendly, nor welcoming, as he alternates his stare between Titus and the truck.
“Just kill the bastard already and take the meat,” Cadmus mumbles beside me, already bored with the exchange. The very reason Titus jumped out first, I’m guessing.
“We’ve been traveling for days. We were hoping to share your camp.”
“I don’t share nothin’ with nobody. Now git outta here.”
As Titus lowers his hands, the man snaps a blade from behind his back and holds it out in front of him.
“I don’t want no trouble. Just leave and nobody gets hurt.”
“’Fucks sake, Titus.” Cadmus lurches beside me, and I grab his arm to stop him. His gaze falls to my hand on his skin, perhaps the first contact I’ve made with him in a week, and he eases back into his seat.
“A knife is no match for a gun, and you’d do well to protect your camp with something that doesn’t require close proximity to kill. I’m happy to leave you with one. And some bullets, too.” Titus nods toward what looks to be a headless deer on a spit, strung over the fire. “In exchange for some meat for me and my friends.”
“What friends?”
With a sigh, I nudge Cadmus beside me, urging him out of the truck, and clamber out after him. Upon exiting, I grab the canteens from a hook above the back window and strap them across my body.
The man’s eyes linger on me longer than the other two, and whereas I might’ve once feared that look, standing between the two Alphas emboldens me to hold his stare until he turns away.
He sniffs, tucking the knife behind his back, and crosses his arms, giving a nod toward me. “Meat for the woman.”
Cadmus snorts a laugh, and before Titus or I can stop him, he bounds forward and grips the man’s throat tight enough to make the stranger’s eyes pop wide. “Meat for the opportunity to keep your head attached to your spine,” he says through clenched teeth.
“Wait … just wait ...” The man’s face turns red, the veins popping out in his forehead, warning that Cadmus really does plan to snap his head from his body.
“Daddy?” A soft voice draws my attention toward a young girl, maybe thirteen, emerging from the tent behind him. Her stained and ragged dress fails to hide the bulge of a belly beneath.
“Git yourself … back in the tent … Tessa girl,” he rasps.
Pushing the man away, Cadmus releases him, and the older man tumbles to the ground.
“Daddy!” As she rushes forward and falls at his side, I catch sight of another little girl, peeking out of the tent. This one no more than a toddler.
My eyes dart from the girls, to the man who lies on his side wheezing for breath, while his daughter clutches his shoulder. “Is the child yours?”
The man frowns, rubbing the band of redness at his throat and coughs. “No, it ain’t mine. Some … little bastard who ran off. Left her alone.”
Lowering her head, the girl shifts beside him, as if she’s suddenly uncomfortable.
“Fine. You win. Let’s see the gun,” the man says, rolling over to push to his feet. “Could’ve used one tonight, I suppose.”
Titus heads toward the back of the truck and returns with one of the many guns we swiped from fallen and ravaged soldiers back at Calico. Brando
n trails his steps and comes to a stop alongside me.
For the last few weeks, he’s been a far less intense companion in comparison to the testosterone-fueled Alphas, almost brotherly. Not at all like the Legion officers I came to know before him. After Calico, we gave him the option of going back to his home in Szolen, but he chose to stay with us. To find the rebels and learn what happened to his brother behind those doors.
I have to admit, it’s been nice having him along.
“You get the bullets when we leave.” Titus hands him what must be an empty gun, and the man lifts it toward Cadmus, staring through the scope.
Cadmus doesn’t even flinch the moment he flicks the trigger and nothing happens.
The man sighs, lowering the gun again, and his gaze flits over all four of us, before landing on me again. “You got quite an entourage there, young lady. Must be someone important.” Rolling his eyes, he waves us over, shoulders slouching with reluctance. “C’mon. Let’s git you something to eat.”
The girl refuses eye contact, as we pass her on the way to the fire. While we take a seat in the dirt, Titus helps the man lift the deer from the flame and hoist it onto the awaiting posts already driven into the ground.
“We’re looking for a group who calls themselves The Skulls. Ever heard of them?” I ask, watching the two of them cut meat from the charred carcass.
The man pauses mid-slice, and I catch the flicker of a frown dance across his face, before he returns to his carving. “Nope.”
“But Daddy--”
“Thought I told you to git back in that tent!” he interrupts, and I turn to find her looking at me, before she drops her gaze from mine. “I’ll bring you some food.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
I steal a glance at Cadmus beside me, rubbing his hands together, and when we make eye contact, I know what he’s thinking. Perhaps torturing the man might get him to talk, but there’s no guarantee he’d tell us the truth about where to find them, and by the time we catch on to his lie, he could be long gone.