by Keri Lake
“I saw them, too, Six. The night I came for you. Albert led me past a unit in the hospital where women were suffering. Dying. Their babies kept in tanks. She isn’t lying about that.”
“You don’t have to believe me.” Chin tipped in defiance, she stares back at the two of us. “One way, or another, I’m getting inside that hospital. I don’t need your help.”
“You chase after a man you don’t even know is still alive,” Six says, prodding her frustration.
“And you’ll find yourself chasing after a cure you’re not even certain will work, the longer you wait. Neither of us has much time to dwell on the outcome.”
Something isn’t adding up for me, though, a piece of this is missing. “If the cure exists inside the hospital, why didn’t Ericsson retrieve it himself? Why did he dedicate so much of his life to the torment of so many subjects?”
“Enjoyment, for one. But also because it resides well below the surface, as I understand. Inside the early labs. Where the mutations are more violent than the ones that run free now.”
The gravity of risk presses down on my shoulders, and as if my nightmares are coming to life, I glance back at Six, remembering him fighting off the mutations in our bid for freedom.
“No. I won’t let him do this.”
“If it means saving you and the child, it’s already been decided, Wren. There’s nowhere I wouldn’t go to ensure you stay alive. Even there.”
“You’re chasing theories, Six! Nothing but hunches that could turn out to be vials of cyanide.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take. For you.” He rests his hand against my belly. “And the baby inside of you. My baby.”
“We don’t even know how to get inside. It’s sealed.” My arguments, as strong as they may be, are growing weaker to the resolve I can see spinning in his head.
“Kenny knows the computers inside and out,” she says. “He can find a way to get us inside.”
Of course she has answers for every argument. Why wouldn’t she, when she stands to gain so much from this endeavor?
“He can’t. He told me there’s no possibility of such a thing.”
“If I believed every time I was told the impossibilities, I wouldn’t be standing here now. Fate led me to you, Wren. We both stand to lose something impossible to fathom.”
I’d give anything to be alone right now, where I can work through the mishmash of thoughts inside my head, without the worry of having to school my expression. As much as I appreciate what she’s offering, I refuse to stand by and watch Six torn apart by ruthless beasts who’ve undoubtedly grown hungrier and more violent in the last two months. I’d sooner suffer the same fate as Mara to keep that from happening. Thankfully, regardless of her faith in fate and impossibilities, Kenny already assured me there was no getting inside, or out.
“We’ll start with Kenny,” I offer. “If he thinks there’s a remote chance of opening those doors, we’ll talk. If not, we put this mad idea behind us and deal with this pregnancy, regardless of the outcome.”
The girl nods, without saying another word, to her benefit, because there isn’t anything she can tell me right now to convince me this idea is worth it.
“I’ll get Kenny, and we’ll figure out where we go from there.” Six steps past me, and I reach out, grabbing his arm. “Promise me. That if he has even the slightest hesitation about this, you’ll abandon this idea.”
His scarred eye twitches as if I’ve slapped him in the face with insult. “I promise.” Skirting around the girl, he exits the cave, leaving the two of us.
“He would do anything for you,” she says.
“No matter how stupid the idea. Yes.”
“Valdys would, too.” The corner of her lips lifts with a slight smile. “He called my idea for escape foolish. But he did it, anyway.”
“And he’s the one locked inside the hospital?” As soon as the words tumble thoughtlessly from my mouth, I flinch and shake my head. “I’m sorry. Forget I said that.”
“No, you’re right. I punish myself every day for it. I’d trade places with him in a heartbeat, if I could.”
“If he loves you as much as you say, there isn’t a chance he’d let you.”
“He wouldn’t. You’re right. But I’d still do it.” Tears gather in her eyes, and she looks around the cave, as if trying to stave them off. “I … feel like I died with him, anyway. The freedom I have. The air I breathe. It doesn’t matter to me. None of it matters without him.”
I try to look at the situation from her point of view. She’s not a villain, after all, but a young girl in love, and motives don’t get any purer than that. “Cali, I understand your reasons for going back. But what you’re proposing is … what I fear every night that I close my eyes. I see those mutations come to life inside my head, and I can hear that countdown sounding off the final steps toward those doors.”
“Then, you can imagine my nightmares while knowing the one I love wasn’t as fortunate to escape.”
“I can. But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to send the one I love back inside to chase what I believe doesn’t actually exist.”
“How do you propose you’ll survive the pregnancy without it?”
“I don’t.” Rolling my shoulders fails to alleviate the snaking fear that climbs my spine at the thought of giving birth after what I witnessed. “If we haven’t evolved with this disease enough to survive it, then that’s a consequence we face.”
The door slides aside to show Six, Kenny, and the two males who arrived with her, one of which I’ve learned is Cadmus. The other wears the frayed uniform of a Legion soldier, and his role in all of this is a mystery to me. His alliance with them doesn’t seem forced, or under any sort of duress.
The space is cramped with the larger males, but I direct them to sit around the unlit fire pit. The conversation is one that could take place outside the cave, but I’m hoping to avoid rousing panic from the others, who remain hopeful of our future out east.
I don’t hesitate to probe what I already know after my earlier conversation with Kenny. To end this insane idea and lay to rest any possibility that we’ll be heading back inside that building. “Kenny, what are the chances of getting back inside Calico? Of unsealing those doors?”
“We’re … still on this topic?” His gaze flits from me to the newcomers, and then to Six. “It’s not possible, at all. There is no getting inside.”
“You know the computers. You designed the system,” Cali urges, and from the desperation bleeding in her voice, it’s clear the bulk of her motive is finding her Alpha. Not that I blame her, of course. If it were Six trapped inside that hospital, I’d probably be as batshit crazy to formulate a similar plan. But I have no interest in sending my man back into that hellhole.
“The computers are only accessible from the inside. It’s an impenetrable seal. For good reason! Those mutations would wipe out all of what’s left of us.”
“I don’t believe anything is completely impenetrable,” the girl argues.
“You could drive a tank into those steel doors, and they’ll not budge,” Kenny throws back, the tight clip of his jaw revealing the resentment he harbors toward the girl. “They were designed by the military, well before the Dredge hit, to effectively seal in any threat. There’s no way in, or out. Whatever was left inside is dead.”
The younger male sitting beside Cadmus lowers his gaze, eyes wide with alarm. “My brother was trapped inside.” A flicker of anger twists his face, and before anyone can stop him, he leaps onto Kenny. “You fucking murdered my brother!” He manages to hammer one hit to Kenny’s face, before Cadmus lifts him away. “You didn’t give them enough time to evacuate!”
Eyes flinching, Kenny daubs his bloody lip, pausing to examine the blood on his knuckles as he sits up.
“Everyone settle down.” Eyes scanning over them, I catch the murderous stare still plastered to the soldier’s face with his gaze directed toward Kenny. “We’re here to discuss what’s a possibilit
y, and what isn’t.”
Kenny sniffs, kicking himself back against the wall, away from the group. “They were given the standard time. Any more, and we’d have risked Level Three mutations escaping. Surely, you know what lives below that facility.”
“The cure. Isn’t that right?” An air of sarcasm lingers in Cali’s voice.
“There was talk that samples from early in the disease might contain proteins that make the organism less … virulent. Pathogenic. Something that could be used to develop a vaccine. It’s stuff I’m not familiar with, but the docs seemed to have theories that they could produce an attenuated virus.”
“’The hell is that?” Six crosses his arms, keeping his eyes on the other Alpha in the room.
“A virus that doesn’t cause disease,” I answer for Kenny. “Used to create vaccines.”
“I don’t know any more than that.” With a shrug, Kenny shakes his head. “Just what I overheard in meetings.”
“So, it does exist.” The intrigue in Six’s voice seems to grow thicker with every morsel of information he gathers.
“No one knows. The lab is connected to tunnels underground that have become inhabited by more violent Ragers. Early mutations. Even if you could breach the doors, which you can’t, you’d have to get past the mutations. And who knows what state that lab is in? It hasn’t been accessed in almost thirty years.”
“How do they survive? These mutations?” I can’t imagine what that place must be like now. And if those things are still alive? They’ve surely not grown docile.
“How does anything survive? Evolution. Nature finds a way.”
I stare back at Six, whose furrowed brow tells of thoughts churning inside his head. Plans he wouldn’t dare share with me. “There you have it. Your answer. There’s no getting inside.”
Six lifts his gaze to mine, and I swear there’s defiance in his eyes. A burning flame that won’t be doused by my preoccupations, or Kenny’s arguments. If there’s even the slightest chance of getting back inside and finding that cure, I know he won’t hesitate to try.
“You’re wrong,” Cali snaps. “You’re all wrong! I’ll find a way inside. With, or without, you.”
The moment the girl jumps to her feet, a stab of pain strikes my abdomen. Sharp and piercing, it feels like a blade penetrating my guts, and I cry out, falling to my knees.
“Wren!” Six rushes to my side, his eyes wide with fear.
Bent over myself, I clutch my stomach, while the rest of the group stands on the fringes. Pulse after agonizing pulse moves across my belly, and I can feel my organs shift against the palm of my hand set there.
“She’s pregnant. With your baby?”
I look up to see Kenny staring down at Six, his face mirroring the same grave look of both Six and Cali.
All of them.
They stand around me as if they’re watching the reaper himself steal another piece of my soul.
“They’ll get worse.” Cali’s voice mirrors the same grim tone as her expression. “As the baby grows, you become one step closer to your own demise.”
“Shut up!” I manage to scream, before another round of pain hammers against my stomach. “Get the hell out of here! All of you!”
Chapter 13
Cali
Running my hands through my hair, I settle down by the fire, after having checked on Titus. The Alpha continues to sleep, which I’m assuming is the result of whatever was given to him by the medicine woman—Hesaya, as I’ve come to learn. The bullets apparently didn’t travel too deep, thanks to the density of his muscles, which must truly be like steel. She tells me, with a bit more rest, he should be well enough to travel again, and I hope that’s true, because I don’t think we’ll be welcomed here much longer.
I don’t intend to stay idle for long, anyway. Each day I waste on their impossibilities is another day Valdys remains trapped behind those doors.
Cadmus sleeps behind me, his large body shadowing mine, as I stare off at the fire. Since my estrus, he hasn’t gone out of his way to touch me, but hasn’t avoided me, either. In fact, he’s watched me closer, for some reason, always guarding me. I’m grateful, as it’s helped my mind and heart to know we’ve not been damaged by what happened between us.
At the sound of rustling, both Cadmus and I jolt upright, twisting to see Kenny plopping down beside us. His lack of knowledge on how to get inside the hospital has made him essentially useless to me.
“What do you want?” I ask, lying back down on the sleeping bag. Behind me, Cadmus shifts too, as though disinterested by his presence.
From his pocket, he pulls a cigarette and leans forward to light the end of it in the bonfire, stealing a few puffs to get it going. “She was pregnant.”
“Only a couple months along, as I understand.”
“Not Wren. Roz.” His words hit like a lightning bolt to my chest, searing my ribs apart. “The plan was to get her out of there. So she could be free. So the baby wouldn’t be taken away.” Voice wobbling with tears, he clears his throat. “Had they found the baby, she would’ve been killed. They would’ve studied it. Probably kept it for their experiments, or sold it off to a family in Szolen. Either way, the outcome would’ve been the same.”
“She never told me.” The flames of the bonfire dull, as my mind drifts back to any point when my friend may have tried to confide in me, and I didn’t listen. “I’m sorry. For everything, Kenny.”
“Wren has been good to me. Kind. Lot of the survivors treated me like Legion in the beginning, but not her.” He sniffs and pulls his knees up to his chest. “I want to help her.”
“You said you can’t.”
“There might be a way.”
I push myself up and dare to look into his eyes, to see if there’s any possibility that he might be lying, any chance that he might be getting my hopes up for nothing, but all that reflects in his eyes is the sadness. “How?”
“There’s a man in Szolen. He engineered the building. Designed the tunnels and the underground lab. He’s the mind behind the whole community. If there’s anyone who can get us inside, it’s him.”
My heart pounds to life so fast, I can scarcely draw in a breath.
“Getting to him will be tricky. What’s left of Szolen is heavily guarded. And I’m not certain he’ll entertain a meeting with us.”
“We won’t ask for one. We’ll get in and get out. With him.”
“He’s seventy years old, Cali. If he’s still alive, he’s not physically capable of venturing inside that hospital.” With a huff, he nabs a twig and digs in the dirt. “Probably a mistake telling you this.”
“Thank you, Kenny.” I reach out to touch his arm, but he recoils, his eyes cold and angry.
“I’m not doing this for you. Or Valdys. If it were up to me, he’d have been executed by a firing squad. It’s only for Wren that I’d consider such a stupid idea.”
Maybe his anger is justified toward me, but I haven’t forgotten he was the one who put Valdys back into that facility. I’m certain he’s the one who led them to our hiding spot. “You should know that Roz was looking forward to seeing the stars again. We both talked about it endlessly, while locked inside that place. I don’t care if you forgive me or not, Kenny. The fact is, I loved her. She was all I had for a sister when that shithole stole mine from me.”
“I will never know love like I did with her. Never again.”
“As I will never love another the way I love Valdys.”
His eye twitches, and I know it’s resentment that runs hot through his blood. “I’ll talk to Rhys. The sooner we get inside, the faster we can save Wren.”
“You must care about her a lot.” In an effort to keep from stirring his anger toward me, I try to keep him placated with more benign conversation about her. I get a sense she doesn’t care for me much, either, but I’m not here to make friends.
“Do you even know who she is? Do you even recognize her?”
“Should I?”
“She’s the gi
rl who escaped. The only girl from Calico who escaped and lived.” His eyes give an appraising onceover. “Before you, anyway.”
“I heard that girl was eaten by Ragers.” Obviously Wren came from Calico. I saw her Alpha carry her through those doors, but I never made the connection to the rumors I heard about the girl who escaped.
“Of course you did. Why would anyone at Calico want to make the others believe that escape was possible. It breeds hope.” Cheeks caving with a long drag of his cigarette, he squints and holds it in his lungs for a second. “The two Alphas. They both in?”
Glancing back to Cadmus, whose back expands and contracts with easy breaths, already asleep, no doubt, I nod. “I’m not going to lie, though. Our only objective … my only objective is saving Valdys.”
“Then, it’s understood. Neither one of us shares the same purpose for doing this.”
“I guess not.”
A cold chill settles over my skin as I walk through a dark tunnel. The sounds ahead, an agonized wail like nothing I’ve heard before, draw my feet closer, in spite of the fear thrumming through my veins. Everything inside of me says to go back, to abandon this idea, but I can’t. I have to know where the sounds are coming from. As I approach a gate, smack in the center of the tunnel, I notice skulls, hundreds of them, lying in a pile. A man lies atop of them, his arms outstretched, nails digging against the bones as his body sinks into them. I can’t see his face, but I’m certain it’s Valdys. “No! Wait!” I cry out, pounding at the gates. “Valdys!”
He reaches out for me, right before the skulls bury him alive, the bones swallowing the shine of his slave band.
“Valdys!” I scream, startling upright.
Panting hard through my nose, I scan over the small group sleeping around the campfire that still flickers with orange embers. One man sits off to the side, leaning against a large boulder where he keeps watch. His eyes flit to mine, only for a minute, before he rubs them and yawns, resuming his watch.