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“And how will you defend yourself when they find out you’re fucking Jed?”

“They’d give me the opportunity to atone for my sins first. Offering me one of the Daughters to impregnate.”

The Daughters are a group of young girls, mostly virgins when they first join the sect, who are chosen to help repopulate the community. Their sole function is to get pregnant and have babies, with as many different men as they can, to increase the diversity. As I understand, they’re deflowered by a priest, who’s supposedly sterile, in a ceremony that sets them free from any persecution, or fault. When a man takes one of the Daughters, even if he’s married, it’s not considered adultery, or sin, but prolonging the viability of our species.

The Daughters are off-limits. They don’t marry or commit to one man until they’ve fulfilled their duties, by bearing children for a certain number of years, and in return, at the end of their term, they’re given a nice home, the opportunity to marry and raise the children they’ve brought into the world. They will never want for anything again, and they’re treated like something holy and virtuous. Parents actually encourage their daughters to become one of them, in the same way they encourage their sons to join Legion. And every boy in Szolen grows up wanting to marry one of the Daughters, to raise his status and be respected by the others.

It’s sickening.

“How fortunate for you.” The edge of sarcasm in my voice seems well received, when he bows his head and smiles.

“Yes, well, sex with little girls isn’t my thing, so I guess I’ll be opting for punishment when that day comes.”

“Or, like I said, you could always leave this place and live by your own terms.”

“Like you?” His sarcasm isn’t as well received, and my eye twitches at the question.

“I wouldn’t be here, if Six didn’t insist on going back into those tunnels. I’d be off living my life, accepting the consequences of my choices.”

“And my choice is to stay and accept the consequences here.”

I bite down into my sandwich, chewing on his words, along with fig jam that explodes in my mouth. Turning back toward the camera on screen, I see that Six has focused the camera’s view on something to the right of them. Something prowling toward them on all fours along the ceiling and walls. Mutations.

“Oh, my God.”

Gregor stands in front of the screen, staring in horror, and pushes the button on the keyboard. “Jed, can you hear me?”

“Can’t talk at the moment. Pretty sure we’re about to die.”

“There’s a lever up by the ventilation shaft. Do you see it?”

The camera pans upward, to where a metal lever sticks out, high enough that Jed can’t reach it, but Six can.

“Pull that lever. Now.”

Without hesitation, Six yanks down the lever, setting off a cranking and ticking noise. From the ceiling, a thick steel cage slides down, just before the mutations reach them. It stops short of a small gap at the bottom, not wide enough for any of them to slip through, but I sit forward, my stomach churning.

“It’s not closed all the way.”

“Must be something stuck in the track. But don’t worry, they can’t lift the gate unless the lever is pushed up again. It has a locking mechanism.”

Claws swipe beneath the gate and between the bars. The growls and snarls on the other side of the barrier send crystals of fear through my chest. Every mutation in that research lab must be gathered on the other side of the gate. All of them starving for the men who stand on the this side of it.

“It’ll hold against them?”

“It’ll hold against a fleet of tanks. We designed this facility alongside the military, before the Dredge. All the materials are high grade.”

Exhaling a breath, I shake my head. “Why don’t they just leave the tunnels now? Why do they have to wait there for the others?”

“The hatch locks automatically. The only way to release the lock is if both gates to the tunnel are closed. It’s a safety mechanism. To ensure mutations don’t escape. They’ll be locked inside a small chamber, out of harm’s way from either side, and can climb back up through the hatch to safety. If he pulls the lever now, the others will be trapped on the hospital side of the tunnel.”

“You really had to complicate shit, you know that?” I rub my hands down my face. “Will the hatch open if that gate isn’t down all the way?”

“Should, as long as it’s locked. Guess we’ll have to wait for the others, to know for sure.”

Over the growls and snarls, a loud screeching sound echoes, and when Six swings the camera to the other side of the tunnel, my stomach sinks.

Chapter 29