Escape from Harrizel (46 page)

Tetlak starts forward with slow strides.
Through narrowed, yellow eyes, he watches as Jothkore and Vix seize
Yerza and Norpe, dragging them back behind us. With a low growl,
Tetlak extends his arms, running his talons along the walls. The
shrill sound increases with each taunting step but even as my heart
races with the promise of certain death, Sampson remains still.
Head lowered, he doesn’t bother offering him a glance.

Tetlak pounces forward, intending to crash
into Sampson who leaps to the right, scaling the wall to the
ceiling. Following in quick pursuit, Tetlak races after him,
hissing as Sampson’s legs fly free and kick him back to the floor.
He lands with a thunderous smack and Sampson meets Tetlak on the
ground, the two leaping at each other. Or, at least, that’s what I
expect. They start off diving at one another but after a few
seconds—and movements I don’t really catch—Sampson is standing over
a hissing Tetlak, who lies on the floor.

“Come now, lad, surely they trained you
better?”

Tetlak replies in the same language I’ve
heard several times before. He’s cursing by the sound of it,
spitting out long raging vowels. Already shaking his head, he
hisses up with yellow, searing slits.

“You will. You will and you are,” Sampson
confirms, glancing up, “right now, in fact.”

Vix and Jothkore move out to collect Tetlak,
each taking an arm. The Rogues part ways as they drag the head
guard through us and toward the giant black arch in the wall. In
the back corner with Jeb and Ergiloff, the rest of the guards lay
bound by wrist, ankle and snout, all together in one massive heap.
They watch in horror, squirming and struggling, attempting to pry
at the brown coils wrapped around them. It’s all in vain. Only able
to move the exposed parts of their bodies, it’s like they’re
paralyzed beneath restraints made of steel, helpless to watch.

“Ready when you are, son,” Sampson has
Tetlak brought to his feet.

“It will bring you nothing but death,” he
hisses.

“No, it will bring
you
nothing but
death… if you don’t open it for us.”

“And why would you want to?” he sneers,
narrowing his scowling yellow eyes on him. “A Fychu like you? You
do not believe in…”

“I believe in preparing for the worst…”
Sampson tilts his head, startled slightly at the revelation, “or
haven’t you figured that out yet?”

“Beshib will know what has transpired here,”
Tetlak shakes his head furiously as Jothkore slams him against the
door. “He will know of…”

“Open it and be done,” Sampson is growing
impatient now. “I know you know a thing or two about orders.”

With a fierce growl, Tetlak lowers his head
hissing and swearing in his own language. For a second it looks
like he’s going to do it, do whatever he needs to get that door
open. But just as his head rises, so does the volume of his words,
cursing and hissing. He shakes his head, spitting just before
Sampson withdraws, nodding at Vix and Jothkore. They grasp Tetlak
and, dragging him back over to the pile of bonded guards, swap him
for Jeb. Jothkore cuts the brown coil free, but reties Ergiloff’s
restraints as Vix leads the Guide toward the black arch.

“I’m growing tired, short on time and
therefore, irritated. I will
not
repeat myself so listen
carefully,” Sampson inhales, “is there a failsafe?”

Jeb nods ever so slightly, as if hoping the
others might not see him answer.

“Good,” Sampson goes on, “and is it
you?”

Again, Jeb glances at the others, then back
to Sampson and offers him the slightest indication that he’s
correct.

“Good,” he nods, motioning to the black arch
behind him. “Open it.”

“Fychu…” Jeb starts.

“I don’t have time for this. I’d really
rather
not
break you apart piece by piece until you
talk.”

“Yes…” Jeb sobs, “
alright
…”he raises
his hand high, scraping his talons down the door, writing something
into it. Suddenly a loud thud clicks and the black arch splits down
the center, opening back into the room behind it.

Scooping the babeeb from Rooney’s head into
her palm, Vix holds out her arm, lighting her way into the
darkness. I follow Reid and the others into the vast room that
could double the size of Jeb’s. Vix lifts her babeeb higher, Drenz
doing the same, everyone inhaling at once.

The walls are high and black and covered
from ceiling to floor with all sorts of strange objects. Some are
large and rounded, like shields or disks and others, small and
skinny, bursting with pointed edges.

“AK’s
,” someone
mutters, rushing forward, Drenz following after. “Yes!”

The light splits between Vix and Drenz, the
Rogues watching with keen interest as someone hollers again.
“That’s what I’m talking about!”

Nearly the entire Clan takes off, Vix
keeping up with the second babeeb, Rooney on her left. Once she
reaches the wall, she plops the babeeb back over his head, Drenz
and Simon gazing in excitement at the rifles behind her. She turns
and starts removing rifles from the wall one by one, handing them
to Reid. “Pass these out.”

With each rifle he takes, he hands it off to
Tucker who then passes them to each Rogue Commander. Once all
Rogues are supplied, Reid motions the rest of us closer. He hands a
gun to Griffin first, then Clark, Pratt and finally me. Hesitating
as he passes the rifle over, Reid inhales, watching as I fumble
with the foreign object, unsure how to hold it. Have I ever done
this before?

“For those of you who
don’t
know,”
Reid draws back, commanding attention with his powerful voice. He
holds his gun up high, “This is an AK-47, the most reliable firearm
available. This is how you use it,” Reid does a quick
demonstration. “Pointer finger here, rest the butt against your
shoulder here. Aim,” he looks through it. “Fire.”

I throw a quick glance to Pratt who’s
attempting to replicate the demonstration. It takes her a moment to
position the butt correctly but once she gets it, she’s good. Clark
also has a little trouble figuring it out but after Reid sets it up
for him, he’s fine. Reid comes for me.

“Need help?”

“No,” I arm myself quickly, pointing to a
fake target in the empty corner across. “I think I got it.”

“Right,” he rolls his eyes. “Just hand it
over before you kill us all.”

“Give me a minute to get comfortable with
it,” I mimic the actions around me, how the other Rogues seem at
comfort practicing on a fake target.

“We don’t have a minute. Come here,” he
wraps his arms around me, repositioning the gun in my hands. “Like
this. Butt goes here,” he pushes it back into me, just below my
shoulder. “Feel it? There,” he does it again before pointing to the
various parts of the weapon, “… is the safety. Trigger. Aim. Always
be aiming. Not shooting—
aiming
. Remember you’re holding it
and in control.”

“Got it.”

“Try not to kill us,” he departs with a
slight eye roll, moving through the Rogues who all seem to know
what they’re doing. With the exception of me, Pratt and Clark,
everyone else seems incredibly comfortable.

“Vix,” Sampson calls, a cluster of babeebs
over his head, “have you found it?”

The room grows lighter as he nears. He finds
Vix by the adjacent wall which is not covered in guns like ours,
but, instead, with tiny devices of all different shapes and sizes.
Retrieving an object from high up, Vix pulls the prize down to
examine it closer.

“Yes,” she whispers, blowing off the dust,
“and it’s fully charged.” Glancing at the wall, she pulls three
more yellow tubes from their pockets, cupping them beneath her
belt. Turning, she shows Sampson, “Here.”

Nodding in approval, he motions behind him
and Vix takes off, back out to the corridor. Sampson turns to the
rest of us, “That should be the rest of the guards. All that’s left
are the scientists but don’t be fooled—they are
well
trained
in combat. We’re running short on time so we’ll have to be quick
about this. Jothkore, Vix and I will assume lead and then Rogue
Commanders for support and that’s
only
if it’s necessary.
I’d rather not involve the Rogues unless it’s on a need-be
basis…”

Drenz and Rooney sigh simultaneously, a few
others scowling in disappointment at their missed opportunity.

“There’s plenty of time for war. But let’s
keep
this
quick. Clean,” Sampson eyes everyone in the room,
“we’re on a schedule.”

“Yes, Fychu…” Jothkore lowers his head just
as Vix returns, offering a private nod at Sampson. “Alright,” he
motions back out. “Let’s get to the labs.”

We all dash from the room, racing down the
black hallway. Gripping the rifle, I replay Reid’s teachings over
in my head, visualizing. How to hold it.
Where
to hold it.
My heart pounds a thousand beats per second but there’s no time to
pay it any attention.

Just don’t drop the gun. Hold it close to
you and pray it doesn’t go off accidentally.

The sound of our feet stampeding down the
corridor awakens me to the task at hand, especially as Jothkore
gestures ahead.

“There,” he points. “There they are!”

Our group slows to an approach as it comes
into view—

Behind the glass wall, motionless bodies lie
atop the metal beds, a team of Dofinikes in custard coats passing
between them, odd instruments in their hands. They stop at
different beds, examining every patient.

I focus on the closest occupied bed.

A girl with long brown hair, nearly the same
length as mine, lies asleep—or is it unconscious?—her belly a
swollen mass, as if someone cut it open and slipped in a bowling
ball. Suddenly her body starts to twitch, drawing the attention of
the nearest scientist. Approaching, he scans the change and
extracts a long, thin instrument, rounded like a half-moon and
places it over her belly. Two pincers emerge, pushing into her
flesh to create a streaming waterfall of red.

I go to cover my mouth but feel the weight
in my hands. I can’t look away anyway. My eyes dart around and it’s
all I see. The bodies—they’re all girls on the beds, each with a
different-sized stomach, all swollen to some degree. My mind races,
the pieces all flying together, clicking into the obvious answer I
never saw.

How did I not see this?

The orgy of Leisure Time they provide for
us, the pressure to mate, the long lists of females called…

That’s what it was with Hinson. That was the
thing I couldn’t remember, a comment stored too deep to
retrieve.

She’s been throwing up every
morning
…

I was too concerned with following Ergiloff
into the Castle to think about it then. She was pregnant. They
all
were. It’s finally clear why certain people were called
and I, who Tetlak most certainly did not like, never was. I wasn’t
ready to be called yet.

“Sampson...” it comes out a whisper, my
heart drumming heavily in my chest.

“Alright…” he glances to Vix and Jothkore.
“
Now
.”

The three fly to the other side, the closest
scientists immediately dropping their instruments and scattering on
hands and feet. They knock past the others but Sampson races down
the center aisle between two long rows of bodies, Vix and Jothkore
at his side.

The scientists scurry up the walls, their
custard coats flapping as they jet across the ceiling, toward us.
Reid and the other Rogue Commanders form a steady line, guns aimed
and ready.

Vix is on the ceiling behind the eight
fleeing scientists, dropping the last two down by their legs.
Sampson grapples with them for a second, knocking both down with
swift, simple blows. Whacking another two from the ceiling, Vix
continues for the first four but they drop to the ground of their
own accord, catching Harrison and Able in the tumble.

Everything happens at the same time.

Jothkore finds himself at the far end of the
never ending room, surrounded by the newest arrival of scientists
while Sampson’s making his way down to help, leaving the first four
disarmed and immobilized on the floor. Vix battles three but
doesn’t have the same combative strength as Sampson. Surrounded,
she takes a few blows before Reid joins the quarrel and Chief takes
on the remaining scientist alone. Tucker helps Able and Harrison,
the three turning to assist Chief who’s been slammed against the
wall. The scientist turns to the other Rogues, Able reaching for
his gun, which is quickly knocked out of his hand before he’s
thrown back to the opposite wall.

Waves of yellow coats rush in behind Sampson
and Jothkore, Reid finally plugging each nearby scientist with two
bullets. They drop to the ground as the rest of the Rogues enter
the room, which overflows with the custard color. As they enter,
one by one, the scientists fall but Reid holds up his arm as a
bullet grazes Vix. Holding their fire, the rest of the Rogues halt
as Griffin, Clark, Pratt and I push our way in.

It’s a storm.

Custard coats crawling on the ceiling,
Dofinike on Dofinike duals down the rows and up the walls, all
while motionless girls lay undisturbed in the middle, pins and
pieces prodding their round bellies. Racing into the room, I jet to
the closest occupied bed, dodging the flying limbs thrusting into
one another.

Ducking beneath the swinging leg of a
custard coat, I find myself at the bedside of the girl. Her eyes
are open but glazed over,
gone
and her body lies limp,
except for the bit of twitching coming from her swollen
stomach.

Tears threaten but I do everything in my
power to stop them. I will not cry. Whipped back to the wall, the
impact slams me awake. Falling to my knees, it takes me a second to
catch my breath but when I do, everything changes.