Kaia’s eyes remained wide and frantic when she was done, clutching a bruised arm as she stared at the others, waiting for some sort of reaction out of them.
Chloe and the others exchanged dark, suspecting looks and communicated with their silence. Miguel slowly retreated from the room, and outside could be heard ushering the children out of the house. The others, in the living room with Kaia, started to circle her.
Kaia looked around at all of them, frantic expression shifting into confusion. “W-w-what’s h-happening?” she stammered, eyes teary and voice cracked. “What are you doing?”
“Your heart,” Jin said softly. “It’s beating fast.”
“Too fast,” Andre added, his eyes narrowing. “What the hell are you?”
“And what did you do to my brother?” Chloe snarled, knuckles cracking as she squeezed her fists firmly, fingernails digging into her palms.
“W-what?” Kaia made sputtering sounds before throwing a pleading expression to Lucas. “Lucas, what’s going on here? What are they doing? You believe me, don’t you?”
Lucas met her eyes, bit down hard on his lips. “No,” he said after a moment, shaking his head.
“What?” Kaia’s face fell.
“Kaia, what did you do to Jon?” Andre demanded, very rapidly running out of patience. “Where is he right now?”
Kaia looked stunned for a while, mouth hanging slightly open, eyes wet, her lips quivering. And then, slowly, her expression contorted. She shut her mouth, pressing her lips firmly together. Her jaw clenched. Her eyes darkened and narrowed, and veins bulged along the signs of her face. When she spoke again, there was steel in her voice.
“He’s alive,” she said. “For now. I can’t guarantee how much longer he’ll stay like that. If you want to save him, you’ll give me what I came for.”
“What exactly is that?” Aiden frowned.
“She’s here for Jin,” Lucas said. “Isn’t that right?”
Kaia looked at him. “How—,”
“I’m not an idiot, Kaia,” he said. “I think I’ve known for a while that you were lying about something. It was too good to be true. And I’ve watched, seen what words you hang over, what statements you think about. You were keeping an eye on us for Bridge. I saw you go back to his last night. The real question is why.”
“No.” Chloe shook her head. “The real question is which of us gets to tear her fucking throat out.”
“You followed me?” Kaia asked, staring at Lucas.
“I told you. I don’t like being lied to.”
“So what are you waiting for?” Kaia took a step forward, fists clenched. “You know who I am, what I am, what I’m here for. Why aren’t you trying to stop me?”
“Just waiting,” Chloe answered, before craning her neck slightly and listening. They were the only ones left now.
“All clear!” Miguel yelled from outside.
Lucas was the first to charge. In an instant, his hand was at Kaia’s throat, pinning her against a bookshelf. “Where’s Jon?”
“Where the others are,” Kaia choked out, attempting to pry Lucas’s hand off her neck. After struggling a few seconds, her lips curled into a smile. She slammed a palm into Lucas’s chest then, sent him hurtling backward. Lucas crashed straight through a wall and out of the living room.
Chloe looked to Kaia, eyes going a little wide. “Blood,” she murmured. “That’s why your heart’s—,”
Kaia was right in front of Chloe in the blink of an eye. “I have to say, shame on you for keeping it to yourself. This power? From a little bitch’s blood? Tell me, what is she really?”
Kaia reached out to grab Chloe by the throat but Chloe was quick. She ducked beneath Kaia’s outstretching hand, charged right into the girl headfirst, knocking her backward before rapidly spinning around, seizing Kaia’s face from behind and flipping her through the air.
Kaia crashed onto the coffee table. It shattered immediately beneath her weight.
“Blood won’t make you a better fighter,” Chloe snarled, walking toward Kaia. She seized her by her hair and lifted her slightly. “Where’s my brother?”
“Oh, hush.”
Kaia spun around, drove a piece of wood from the broken table into Chloe’s thigh, before quickly shoving another into her stomach. Chloe staggered backward as Kaia rose to her feet. Kaia turned on her, broken table leg in hand. She licked her lips wildly, prepared to stab it into Chloe too.
Andre crashed into her then, launching himself into her at full speed, tackling Kaia to the ground, pinning her beneath him. Kaia, still holding on to the broken wood leg attempted to stab Andre with it. Andre slapped it free of her grasp, grabbed it before it hit the ground and stabbed it right into her palm and against the ground, nailing her to the floor with it.
Kaia grunted in agony and stared at the piece of wood jutting out of her hand. Andre rose, straightening to his feet.
“You can’t take all of us on,” he said. “Juiced up or not. You keep fighting and the next one goes straight through your heart. Now tell us where you’re holding Jon and the others, and exactly what that lunatic’s goal is with the enhanced children.”
“You know where they are,” Kaia said. “You’ve been down there before.”
“The tunnel,” Chloe said, before grunting as she yanked out the pieces of wood lodged in her thigh and stomach. She tossed them to the ground, held one hand firmly over her stomach as she waited for the healing to begin. “That’s not good enough. We can’t get past the wall there.”
“It’s not a wall, it’s a door,” Kaia said. She attempted to free herself from the ground but Jin was quick. She planted a foot over Kaia’s free hand and shot her a dark look.
“Don’t even think about it,” Jin warned. “Keep talking.”
“You can’t get past that door because you don’t have the clearance for it.” Kaia sneered.
“And you do?”
Kaia grinned then, and she wriggled the hand Jin stood on. “I do,” she confirmed. “And I would happily take you all down there.”
“That’s okay, you can stay here,” Jin said softly. “We don’t need all of you. Just the hand will do.”
“What?” Kaia’s face darkened rather rapidly, appearing horrified.
Without warning, Jin stomped down on Kaia’s wrist with all of her strength, crushing it in one movement and severing the hand. A loud scream erupted from Kaia’s throat, eyes rolling back as she writhed in agony.
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut at once, turning her head away from Kaia as blood spurted out of the stump where her hand had been just moments earlier, most of it getting onto Jin’s feet.
Jin moved away from Kaia, stooping to pick up the severed hand, holding it up tenderly. “We should hurry,” she said. “I do not know how long this will be useful to us.”
“We’re not leaving her alone,” Andre said, gesturing to Kaia. “Missing hand or not, she’s still dangerous.”
“Go,” Lucas said, stepping back into the living room, blood trickling down the side of his face. “I’ll stay here and keep guard. The rest of you go, find Jon and the others, put an end to all of this.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I’m staying back too,” Aiden said. Lucas nodded at him gratefully.
“Alright then,” Andre said. “Chloe, Jin, head for the tunnels. I need to send a broadcast about what’s going on, and then I’ll catch up to you guys down there.”
“Capital?” Chloe asked.
“No.” Andre shook his head. “To Major Erwin. Go, now.”
Jin nodded at him and started for the exit at once. Chloe made to follow, but Andre’s hand shot out and grabbed hers. She looked back at him and frowned, slightly confused.
“Be careful,” Andre spoke softly. “I’ll catch up soon.”
Chloe nodded at him, squeezed his hand lightly for a moment and then she was on her way. Andre made his way out of the room too, leaving Lucas and Aiden alone with a Kaia who had tears of agony streaking down her face now.
Lucas tore off a piece of his shirt, crouched by Kaia’s severed hand and fashioned a sufficient enough tourniquet to stop the bleeding. While he acted to stop the bleeding, Kaia looked at him.
“He’s going to kill them,” she said. “He was going to kill all of you. I was trying to help.”
Lucas ignored her entirely. Once he was done with the tourniquet, he straightened to his feet and joined Aiden, two of them standing with their arms crossed.
“There’s no way she’s still strong enough to pull anything off, right?” Aiden asked, staring down at Kaia with some concern in his eyes.
“She tries to move, her head goes next,” Lucas growled, diverting his gaze away from Kaia.
***
“You didn’t have to take the hand off like that,” Chloe said as they dropped into the tunnel. She flicked on her flashlight at once, aiming it around to illuminate the path ahead.
“What was I supposed to do? Negotiate with her? Plead with her? Those are human solutions, not mine. She had something we needed, I took it. And don’t tell me you pity her when you don’t even know what she might have done to your brother?”
“I don’t pity her.” Chloe’s voice was flat. “You just didn’t need to do that.”
“Well, I did.” Jin shrugged. “And after I help you save Jon’s life, that’ll be one more thing you owe me for. And now, he’ll also owe me one thing too so funny how it all works out, right?”
“Right. That’s the only reason why you’re helping.”
“Damn right it is. Now come on, let’s hurry up.”
“What do you think Bridge is really doing all of this for?” Chloe asked, while she and Jin upped the pace, half-sprinting through the tunnel. “Turning children into weapons. He’s got to have a reason for doing this, right?”
“My people studied a lot of your history when we were preparing our move on this world. There is some historical precedence for things like this, a trend to seeking out weapons of mass destruction for no reason other than to defend against an imagined threat. Or to conquer.”
“What would he want to conquer?” Chloe frowned. “There’s nothing left to conquer.”
“There’s the Capital,” Jin pointed out. “A man displeased with the current state of things sets out to remove those he deems responsible. His perceived enemies live within a fortress he cannot singlehandedly breach, so he raises an army to fulfil that purpose.”
“So he’s crazy.”
“Perhaps.” Jin shrugged. “But who’s to say he does not have his reasons for perceiving the Capital an enemy? Just because they are your leaders does not mean that they are good. Trust me, I would know.”
“Whatever they are, there’s nothing that could justify what Bridge is doing.”
“Perhaps,” Jin said. “But who are we to dictate what means are justified?”
They got closer and closer to the spot where the previous encounters had occurred, and Chloe started to train the beam of light at the walls, scanning for the section they’d marked. A few minutes later, she picked up on a footstep and came to an abrupt halt, stretching a hand out in front of Jin.
“Did you hear that?” Chloe turned around, aiming the flashlight down where they’d been coming from. Her eyes narrowed.
“Someone’s coming,” Jin said.
Sure enough, the footsteps grew louder and louder and Chloe saw the approach of a shadow just down the tunnel. A few moments later, Andre appeared, flashlight in hand, jogging toward them.
He came to a stop in front of them and grinned. “Miss me?”
“Send out the broadcast?” Chloe asked.
Andre nodded. “Didn’t get an answer but I can only hope it got to him. No telling what might happen down here, we might need all the help we can get. Plus, even if we handle things ourselves, we probably will need help with the cleanup.”
“Cleanup?” Chloe frowned.
“Word of what Bridge is doing can’t exactly get out or spread to the other districts,” Andre said, as they continued moving down the tunnel. “That’s the kind of thing that could, you know…make things more tense than they need to be, or it might give some of the other Chancellors funny ideas.”
“So we take care of this and then Capital covers it up.”
“Pretty much.” Andre shrugged. “That said, when we find wherever Bridge is conducting all of the sick stuff, we’ve got to wipe it out. The information, the samples, everything.”
“And the children?” Chloe asked, halting then and turning to face Andre, a stern look on her face.
Andre met her eyes. He shook his head. “I don’t know what happens to them. Capital will want to run tests on them, find out—,”
“Is there a chance that they might want to neutralize them?” Chloe demanded.
“Not on my watch,” said another voice, distorted and modified. A figure emerged from the shadows. Chloe, Jin and Andre all spun toward him, training the beams of their flashlights on him.
The figure had on a hat despite a face already hidden behind a black mask, with odd-looking googles obscuring his eyes and a weird contraption over his mouth no doubt responsible for his altered voice. He wore a coat over a black suit, padded in such a manner that indicated it must have been military-issue. But old. A mismatch of gear, no doubt scrapped together for his ensemble.
Nightman.
“You,” Chloe growled. “You’re the reason my brother—,”
“An unforeseen consequence,” Nightman interrupted. “But I think you would agree with me that he’s in considerably worse danger at this moment, wouldn’t you?”
“I didn’t hear you,” Jin murmured, narrowing her gaze at the vigilante. “How—,”
“Technology’s a beautiful thing,” Nightman said. “I did not intend to reveal myself, but I couldn’t help but overhear the course this conversation was taking. So I’d like to make one thing perfectly clear.” He cocked his shotgun. “We shut down Bridge’s experiments but the children are off-limits.”
“The gun supposed to scare us into agreeing?” Andre snorted.
“No.” Nightman shook his head. “That’s what the bullets are for.”
Jin chuckled. “You really think that’ll work on me?”
“I don’t know what you are,” Nightman admitted. “But I’m willing to bet I’ve got something on me that’ll be just right for you.”
“Let’s test that theory.” Jin took a step forward but Chloe extended a hand ahead of her and shook her head at the girl.
“We don’t have time for this,” Chloe muttered. “And he’s right. We save Jon and the others, shut down the experiments.” She turned to Andre. “But absolutely no one lays their hands on the children. We take their helmets off, break whatever control Bridge has got on them, and then we get them to safety. If Erwin or anyone from Capital does turn up, we figure out a way to keep them safe.”
Andre nodded. “Works for me.”
“Then let’s keep going.”
And so on they went, Nightman in stride with them. Every now and then, both Andre and Jin shot dark looks his way but neither one of them acted or even said anything, not until the door came into view.
“There,” Jin said, pointing to the door, identified by the X that had been marked onto it by Yuri’s blade. And there, on the ground was the sword itself, unsheathed and its blade stained in blood. The scabbard had been tossed onto the train tracks.
They were definitely there.
Nightman retrieved the scabbard and sword, re-sheathing the sword before fumbling with the scabbard and strapping it to his back in a manner that made him look like a comic-book character from back when there’d still been comic books.
Andre took the hand from Jin and walked up to the door. He felt around the door with his own hand for a few seconds, frowning for a while before, finally, his eyes lit up and he placed the severed hand over the last section he’d felt.
They all stood around and watched, waiting for the door to open. Nothing happened.
“Uhm, did you place it right?” Chloe asked, a sense of unease creeping on her now. If Kaia had somehow played them.
She turned around, glancing down the tunnel in either direction and scanning for heat signatures. There was no one else down there with them. “Try again,” she said, as she turned back to Andre and the door.
Andre obliged,, lifting the hand from the door and placing it back, this time pressing it against the door with added force. Again, nothing happened.
“What’s going on?” Nightman queried, his anxiety evident even despite his voice modifier. With the anxiety in his voice, Chloe thought he sounded strangely familiar and she actually looked to him, oddly curious. But now wasn’t the time to attempt figuring out who he really was.
Andre growled in frustration and slammed a foot into the door a few times, before bashing his fist into the section where the biometric scanner off had been. Afterward, he took a deep breath then placed the severed hand to it again.
This time, there was a beeping sound, followed almost immediately by a scanning green flash. A buzz followed and then a hissing sound from behind the door as it shifted slightly, separating itself from the wall. And then it started to slide apart, as if retracting into the wall.
Andre tossed the severed hand aside at once, and the others all moved a little closer, staring at what had been on the other side of the door.
A long hallway that seemed to stretch almost endlessly, shrouded in gloom, the result of the dim, flickering fluorescent strips that ran along the wall and floor. Overhead, the buzzing of electricity. There were pipes that ran along the ceiling before vanishing into wall at sections and from some of these pipes, water dripped to the floor, forming puddles that were no doubt responsible for the stale, damp odor.
They all exchanged looks.
Chloe took the first step forward, stepping into the hallway with the flashlight aimed ahead of her.
“Well, here we go.”