RATH - Inception (4 page)

The temperature had risen ten degrees within the last fifteen minutes and although the passenger cabin remained completely silent, she knew what the others were thinking. Avoiding eye contact with the guard now stationed within arm’s reach and turning her back on the woman to her right, Sarah lowered her head to her chest and closed her eyes; her thoughts were hundreds of miles away.

As the first bead of sweat ran from her brow, down her cheek, and dropped to the seat below, she sensed the massive drone banking hard to the right. Moments later, they were descending rapidly out of the sky and the largest of the three guards nearest her stumbled backward into the door to the forward cabin. On his knees, the hulking man in black crawled to the first chair he could reach and pulled himself to standing position. He turned and looked for someone other than himself to blame. No one matched his gaze.

Suppressing the rage and contempt that continued to build, Sarah took three long breaths and tried to picture his face. She dug her fingers into her thighs, channeling her anger away from what her heart was telling her to act on. Stay within yourself. This isn’t your fight—This. Is. Not. Your. Fight.

The drone dropped again and decelerated even more rapidly than before. The guard nearest the door motioned to the others, and one by one they started for the forward cabin. Sarah turned her attention to the men as they filed out and watched as they strapped into the individual seats before slamming the door closed. Sarah turned to the woman on her right who’d yet to make a sound and nodded toward the rear door.

“I think we are landing… please try to keep it together.” She waited for Lauren to at least appear to understand before continuing. As much as it troubled her, Sarah feared more for her own safety, by way of association, than for the woman sitting to her right. Sarah leaned in again and whispered, “Lauren, can you do that? These men don’t exactly look like they care what we have to say; you’ve seen that. Promise me you’ll stay calm, at least until we figure out where they’re taking us.” 

The cabin began to shake as the drone pitched hard to the left and then back to center, righting itself. Slowing once again, Sarah guessed that the massive aircraft had finally reached its destination and that she and the other ninety-seven captives were about to realize their fate.

The door to the forward cabin and the massive cargo door breathed to life simultaneously. Lauren’s blank stare transitioned back into the terrified look of only a few hours before. Before she pulled enough air into her lungs to begin her verbal assault, Sarah intervened. “Lauren, stay with me, we have to be strong. Not for us, but for those we left behind.”

She wasn’t sure exactly why, although something in what she said finally seemed to force a wedge into Lauren’s psychotic path to self-destruction, a subconscious retaliation for being separated from her daughter. Her features softened and her eyes lost their hardened appearance as she looked at Sarah and for the first time actually saw her. Speaking quietly as the guards moved quickly past them and to the rear door, Lauren said, “I’m sorry. My daughter is out there somewhere, all alone, and I’m scared beyond myself. But you’re right; it won’t do her any good for me to get myself killed. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

The men in black began unstrapping the others two at a time. Then using the same heavy nylon restrains, they bound them together in pairs, by the ankles. Bodies tossed to the floor as the guards forced their will on the unsuspecting travelers and those who resisted were readily dealt with. It only took a half dozen or so strikes from their stun batons on the initial group to get the remaining passengers to comply.

The guard who’d thrown the man from the cargo hold earlier removed his baton and struck the woman lying at his feet once more. As she convulsed along the floor for all to see, he shouted one final directive. “Any more trouble and the rest of you are going to pay the price. Stay calm, it’s going to be over shortly.” 

Like a demented version of a three-legged race, the terrified passengers were marched through what appeared to be sand, into the early morning air.

The men laced the strap so tight around Sarah’s ankle that she could feel her pulse slamming into the thick fabric. They pulled Lauren to her feet and used the remaining length to bind the pair into one awkward unit. The larger of the remaining guards shoved Sarah forward and down the gradual incline of the door turned ramp. Both women narrowly avoided the fate that befell many others who misjudged the transition from drone to earth and ended up with a face full of sand as a chaotic welcome into their new world.

Lauren steadied herself against Sarah’s right shoulder as they stepped around another pair of women who began assaulting one another over the right to be the first to stand. Rounding the left edge of the enormous wing, Sarah paused, pulling Lauren to a stop as well. Lauren turned; her eyes growing wide as she also began to also realize what this was.

More bodies than either could count lay face down in the sand, black bags over their heads, unmoving. Sarah held back her anguish, although Lauren was overwhelmed by the scene. She lurched backward, both women falling to the sand in the process. They were instantly retrieved by the guard standing feet away, pulled back to their feet and again shoved forward.

Sarah took note that of the thirty plus bodies littering the sandy dune, most were men. A quick count of those still standing revealed that only fourteen of the original twenty-five who first exited the drone were spared.

Again Lauren’s instinct was to flee. She pulled hard against the forces drawing her forward as Sarah made her final plea. “Lauren… stay close and don’t fight them. No matter what they do, just remember you need to get out of here and back to your daughter in one piece. Let’s just do what they say and wait for our time.”

“Our time for what?”

“To escape.”

The yard was quiet and the short trip through the light dusting of early morning snow was quick. Rath entered through the back door without making a sound. The fact that the door was already partially opened only slightly concerned him. His boots leaving a trail of wet footprints as he made his way through the kitchen and into the living room, he found the first floor to be only a tad warmer than the outside. Blowing out, he watched his frozen breath float away and vanish as he rounded the staircase and paused.

Transitioning from the carpeted hall onto the slated oak hardwood flooring of the entry, Rath’s weight pushed in a loose section and with it came the first sound he’d made since entering the home. The squelch it made echoed through the family room and into the other downstairs rooms. He closed his eyes, held his breath, and waited for a sign that he may have company on the upper level.

After thirty seconds and with no other activity within the deep reaches of the home, Rath delicately removed his foot from the plank and headed back to the kitchen. Setting his pack next to the door leading to the pantry, he took only the edible items that he could carry and two plastic bottles from the cabinet. He shoved them into his bag and began digging through the cabinets for anything they may find useful on the trip he knew they’d have to make.

His bag at full capacity, Rath pulled his weapon and moved back to the living room. Glancing out the front window and into the street, he nodded his head. “So predictable… feed all night, sleep all day.” The half dozen Andros he could see from his perch alongside the overturned couch were sprawled out in the street and partially covered in the morning snow. Unmoving other than the quick rise and fall of their chests, he never understood how their kind adapted so quickly to their altered world. “Live among beasts, I guess you end up turning into one yourself.”

As the last hushed syllable left his tongue, the energy of the blow from behind nearly caused him to bite the end of it off. Thrown to the ground with such force that he smashed the antique coffee table into hundreds of pieces, he instinctively rolled onto his back to face his attacker. Reaching for the metal pipe he dropped, the large male Andro standing above him kicked it out of the room.

As the beast turned to see another of his kind march into the room, Rath slid his right knee under him and pushed off the wall he’d backed into. Catching the Andro off guard, Rath lunged forward with both hands extended. He grabbed the beast by the head and drove a thumb into each of its eye sockets. He clamped down and pushed its eyes into its head, instantaneously blinding his attacker.

The second was already coming for him as the first fell to the ground, either stunned or unconscious—Rath didn’t care which. The female Andro screamed as her partner lay motionless alongside the recliner. The sound carried, although as Rath looked to his right and again out through the window, it didn’t appear the others outside were aware of what was happening. She leapt over the shattered coffee table as Rath moved farther right and into the area between the stairs and the family room.

Maintaining eye contact as the Andro circled the room, attempting to close the distance, Rath slid his right leg to the rear. She lunged forward yet again, although he sidestepped the attack and seized his weapon as she went head over heels onto the hardwood, landing on her back. The low growl she emitted as she scrambled to her feet held an air of confidence, as if she was merely an animal toying with her prey.

Rath moved left and leveled his weapon as she vaulted off the bottom stair and came straight at him. Squatting to avoid another collision, he swung hard, making direct contact with her left arm and torso. She took the blow without any signs of harm and reeling backward under her own momentum, grabbed his pant leg, bringing them both into the wall. She pulled her right arm underneath, twisted to the left and was on top of him before he could react.

Her hands on his throat and her knees pressing into the meaty part of his upper arm, she was powerful, much stronger than any female he’d encountered before today. Female Andros were much faster than their male counterparts, although their strength usually couldn’t compare, not by half. The air running out of his lungs as she clamped down, Rath pulled his right arm free and clutching the three foot piece of metal, slammed his fist into her lower jaw.

She reacted by clenching tighter and leaning forward to her left. His windpipe felt as though it had already collapsed and his vision doubled as he was slipping away. The female beast sitting atop his chest brought her face in close and sniffed at his face, his eyes beginning to flutter. She assumed this to be a precursor to his defeat.

His vision, now just a hint past charcoal grey and his aggressor only a vague silhouette, Rath used his free right hand to grip a fistful of her matted down long black mane. Her focus was only momentarily distracted at his efforts, as he pulled free a sizeable chunk.

He sucked wind at an alarming rate as her left hand moved from his throat, attempting to bring his right arm back under control. He found his weapon and followed through with two quick blasts, again to the left side of her face. Backing away, her jaw was now completely obliterated and shards of torn flesh littered the floor below.

Blowing a mouthful of blood and saliva across the room, she stood and shook her head, attempting to free herself of the pain radiating from her mouth to her ear. Narrowing her eyes, she stepped forward as Rath anticipated her attack and swung once again, this time letting the heavy piece of lead do the work for him.

The instant the worn piece of metal made contact with her temple, her response time slowed to a mind numbing halt. Blinking away the fog that held her just the other side of this reality, her look softened. She appeared almost scared, a bit fragile, and the thick layer of rage from months on the road faded with the second and third strikes that relived her of consciousness. She continued to draw in a few labored breaths, although they were among her last.

Ripping what was left of the worn t-shirt from his first victim, Rath wiped clean his weapon and looked on as the two assailants navigated their way from this life. “They’re learning to adapt.”

Through the entry and up the stairs, he checked the Jack and Jill bedrooms before moving on to the fourth room, when he noticed movement in the street. Three of the male Andros had awoken and were headed to the front yard. Through the upstairs hall and into the master bedroom, Rath moved to the window. He watched as they avoided the front of the home altogether and instead moved along the side of the house, their pace so furious he was having trouble tracking them from one window to another.

Losing them as they moved from the side of the home, Rath assumed they’d be entering through the same door he’d used only minutes earlier. He hurried to the bathroom and waited for a sign that they’d entered. With the door only slightly ajar, he knelt behind it and through the one-inch gap, he scanned the stairway and the bannister leading to the first floor.

A full sixty seconds passed without so much as a single footfall along the interior of the home. He knew that Andros, especially the more aggressive males, weren’t known for their stealth-like movement. Their presence would have been apparent long before now. Something was wrong with this scenario.

Leaving the door and moving to the small rectangular window at the rear of the room, it immediately became clear.

“Chloe.”