Page 2

The older soldier stepped forward, shrinking the kid. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

The kid kept his chin up. “The one assigned to escort him. My name is in his record, and if you kill him, I’m the one who faces punishment.”

Bold little shit.

“Get him locked up, and expect that there will be words later.”

Without much more resistance, Valdys climbed inside the capsule, catching the somber look on the kid’s face. There’d surely be punishment for him for later, as well as words. Legion kept a tight leash on their guards, and the boy had a lot to learn, from the looks of it.

Cushions pressed against his wounds, when Valdys lay back inside the capsule. His wrists were bound to thick metal straps, along with his ankles. A chain would connect the band at his throat to each side of the interior, and already limited his movement on the one side where the boy worked to anchor him.

“It’s to keep you from breaking your neck, as I understand.” The boy lifted the chain to fasten the other side, his hands trembling against Valdys’s chin. “We had to watch a video on how to do this.”

Christ. They watched videos on how to properly torture their subjects.

An alarm sounded, and a woman’s robotic voice blared through the speaker: “Warning. Code Triage. Biohazard safety breach. Infectious patients. S-block. Lower level. Evacuate immediately. Warning. Code Triage. Biohazard safety breach. Infectious patients. S-block. Lower level. Evacuate immediately.”

S-block was made up of many levels. The seven levels of hell some called it, and at the very bottom, even beyond the floor that held the Alpha cells, were the most dangerous mutations in the place.

“We gotta get the fuck out of here!” The older guard’s face had blanched white, chest heaving with rapid breaths. “Oh, God, they’re sealing the doors!”

A brisk tendril of alarm curled up Valdys’s spine, and he lifted his head as much as the chain would allow.

The guards who’d locked up the other Alpha raced past, abandoning their duties.

“We … we can’t just leave them here,” the boy said, facing his superior, who backed away. “They can’t just stay locked up in hibernation.”

“Fuck them. Get out of here, kid. You know the rules when this place closes up. Evacuate while you can.” The older guard took off at a run, leaving only the boy.

With his bound wrist, the Alpha managed to grip the young soldier’s hand, snapping the guard’s attention his way. “Please. Unlock us. We can help you.”

Eyes wide, chest rising and falling in time to his rapid breaths, the boy seemed to slip into hysterics. His head probably spun a mile a minute, his body on the brink of acting out of pure adrenaline.

Valdys didn’t have much time.

“Fuck him.” The other Alpha lay wriggling against his binds. “He’s wounded. He can’t help shit. Unlock me, and I’ll get you out of here, kid.”

Valdys squeezed the kid’s hand as he fought to get loose. “You can’t trust him.”

“I can’t trust either of you! You’re a defector, and he’s a murderer!”

“Help us.” Valdys glanced toward the silver dogtag hanging around his neck. “Everett. Please.”

A hard thump at the door startled his muscles, and he whipped around, pausing as if to listen.

“They’re going to break through that door any second.” The warning in Valdys’s voice mirrored the caution exploding inside of him, the warning bells blaring through his skull.

More thumping echoed through the massive room, and Valdys could see the goosebumps prickling the kid’s skin.

“We don’t have much time, Everett.”

Breaking free of Valdys’s grasp, he raced to the other Alpha’s capsule, hands trembling as he unlocked his binds.

With a futile tug of his binds, Valdys groaned. “C’mon, kid, you can’t leave me here.”

More pounding, like the sound of something pummeling the door, served as a constant reminder of how little time was left.

“I’ll get him loose first. He’s strong enough to fight them off while I get your binds unlocked. Then I can help you out of here.” Probably smart, but Valdys didn’t exactly trust the other Alpha.