Page 130 of Wicked Nightmare

"How much further?" I hissed.

Kyle's eyes narrowed. "Almost there. Just keep your shit together."

"Oh, don't you worry about me. I'm cool as a cucumber. Just focus on getting us further in without getting caught, yeah?"

Inside, my gut churned. Something about this whole place felt wrong. Looking at Rose, I could see she was trying to put on a brave face. She looked cute, for lack of a better word. Definitely not one of us. Though, she did know how to fight when push came to shove, so that feral kitty was just hiding somewhere inside.

We rounded the corner, and the world fell away.

My breath caught as I took in the scene behind the glass in a closed-off room. Rows upon rows of glass containment units lined the walls, each one housing a child in various stages of development. Some were barely more than clumps of cells, while others were fully formed infants, their tiny fists pressed against the glass.

"Holy fuck," I whispered.

In the center of the room stood a massive, translucent bag filled with fluid. Inside, a fully formed baby floated, umbilical cord still attached. IV lines snaked into the bag, pumping God knows what into the kid.

My stomach lurched. I'd seen some fucked-up shit in my life, but this was on another level entirely.

Cam's hand found mine, squeezing tight. His face was flushed, eyes blazing with a fury I rarely saw. Not the controlled anger he used when he fought. This was something rawer. Something that came from a place even Cam didn't like to visit.

A choked sob drew my attention. Rose stood frozen, staring at the rows of children. Sarah was at her side immediately, a hand on her back stroking up and down in slow motions.

"Stay with me, Rose. We can't help them if we fall apart now. Go to the garden. The garden, Rose, go to it."

Sarah gently blocked Rose from the worst of it, positioning her body in Rose's line of vision, murmuring encouragement. Part of me wanted to mock their weakness, but something in Sarah's quiet strength gave me pause. We kept walking, on high alert. Down the hall, Kyle showing us to where we needed to go, unlocking the door with a code. The door hissed open and we rushed inside. Sarah sat Rose down and kept talking to her, helping her breathe through it.

A sudden whirring sound had us all tensing. Kyle's voice cut through the buzzing.

"Drone! Everyone, hide! Now!"

We scrambled for cover, ducking into a darkened alcove. I pressed myself against the wall, Cam's solid presence at my back. As the drone buzzed past, I held my breath, every muscle coiled tight.

When it passed, Kyle pulled out a gadget, scanning for heat signatures.

"Looks clear," he muttered. "But those cameras are still active. See that one in the corner? Must be on a different system in case of power failure. Can't imagine anyone wanting this shit getting out. Give me a sec."

What the fuck is this place?

As Kyle disabled the cameras, I grabbed Cam's hand, squeezing. The question hung between us: How far were we willing to go to see this through? Growing babies in bags was pretty fucking out there. The small, almost nonexistent maternal part of me wanted to save them. They were just babies. But what the fuck would I do with fifteen infants?

I tore my gaze away from Cam, forcing myself to focus. The experimental equipment scattered around the room made my skin crawl. Sleek metal contraptions with sharp edges and cold, clinical designs. A special kind of sick fuck came up with this shit.

"Well, well, well," I said, keeping my voice light despite the churning in my gut. "Looks like we've stumbled into a mad scientist's wet dream."

I snatched up a file from a nearby desk, flipping it open. My eyes widened as I scanned the contents.

"Jesus fucking Christ. Kyle and Sarah were right," I muttered. "They're not just breeding kids. They're enhancing them. Genetic modifications, hormone treatments, cognitive rewiring. It's a whole assembly line of custom-built child soldiers. They've been growing them in 'grow bags' in order to handpick their genetic material. These aren't even babies. They're pieces of DNA spliced together."

My fingers tightened on the file, crumpling the edges. For a second, I wondered if I'd been through something similar. Is that why I was the way I was? Is that why I didn't remember ever having a family? I shook the thought off. No time for that shit now.

"Hey, guys," I called out to Cam and Kyle, who were looking at one of the bag babies with a mixture of curiosity and revulsion. To hide my irritation at their growing bromance, I forced a teasing lilt into my voice. "Any sign of our girl Janine in this clusterfuck?"

"Nothing yet," Kyle sighed. "But there's gotta be a relocation log somewhere. The map said this was the central laboratory, which means most everything will be kept here."

I turned back to my filing cabinet, pulling out files. Some were labeled with a different letter. Some had numerous numbers, like Rose's brand. There were four with single-number, single-letter identifiers, and then two folders labeled X and Y with nothing in them.

"Ugh, mother fuck—"

Cam's voice cut through. "Found it." He held up a thick binder labeled 'Relocation Schedule.'