Stronger (14 page)

Over the next few days I’m forced to endure other torture sessions. I’m poked, prodded and even stabbed a few more times by every scientist who passes. No one cleans me up and I reek of perspiration and dried blood. I’m not even sure how they can stand to be around me, but they continue to come. They keep snapping bones, tearing muscles, and cutting me open. It’s too much. I flow on a tidal wave of pain that ebbs and flows, rises into crests and crashes back down, but never seems to end.

I wake from nightmares gasping in pain and fear only to find the terrors from my dreams are also my reality. As the horrors of my day accompany me into sleep, invading my dreams, I find no escape at all.

Sometimes in my patches of sleep I picture myself free until my brother catches me and drags me back to my enemies. His betrayal gnaws at me constantly, a perfect companion to my pain.

I’ve stopped denying I’m an alien. No one listens. No one believes me. Or cares. I’m different and they’re scared. And I’m too afraid to tell the truth. They wouldn’t believe me either.

My stomach rumbles, my bladder whines and my mouth is dry, but my body hurts less than it did. Not being able to move, I’m not sure how much has healed, but something has improved. Or maybe my pain tolerance has increased again.

No Orions have entered my torture chamber, but I know they’re there. Hidden spectators on the other side of the glass, watching me, wondering what to make of me. Ordering the painful tests, wondering how to make me their own tool.

The next time I wake up, Bryant is standing in the corner, his blue eyes trained on me. He’s alone.

“Why are you here?” My tone isn’t friendly. “What do you want?”

He runs his fingers over the butt of his gun. “Who are you really? You said you weren’t my enemy.”

I study my bruised and bloodied flesh. It’s not pale anymore but a colorful palette of yellow, blue and purple. “I’m not.”

“Then who is?”

I shrug and my shoulder protests and I grimace. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

He drops onto the stool and glides it closer to me. “Try me?”

I don’t respond. I know where his loyalties are firmly placed.

“You said something about earplugs. How would those help?”

Son of a Musk! I did mention earplugs, didn’t I? I don’t answer. He can’t be trusted.

“And you called me Stretch.”

I freeze.
I did?
That was stupid of me. Stretch was what I called Bryant when I was a little girl because he stretched out at the last minute and saved my ragdoll, Polly, from a watery grave. He even slipped and hit his head on a rock getting it. He still has the scar over his left eye.

“You must have misheard me.”

He shakes his head. “That’s not something I’d be mistaken about. Only one person in my whole life ever called me Stretch.”

He doesn’t speak again but the silence is heavy, the accusation not needing to be spoken. No way am I going to answer him. He’d just go and report it to his precious Starburst. What if he already did? What if they know my death was faked? That Ty’s my brother? Do I even care about Ty now? He betrayed me to the enemy, keeping me from freedom. If he hadn’t tackled me I wouldn’t be strapped to this chair, living this nightmare.

But Ty is connected to my parents and to my Uncle Charlie. Whatever happens to him could lead to them.

I hold my breath and count to ten to loosen the sudden unease in my chest. Something cold touches my lips and I startle around. Bryant is holding a flask of nutri-drink to them.

I lick my lips but resist the urge to drink. “Did you poison it?”

He barks out a laugh. “Of course not.”

“Why would you help me?”

“You saved my life.” He tilts the flask up and a few drops of the liquid splash into my mouth. “And for some reason, I keep wanting to trust you.”

“You have a funny way of showing that trust.” The small amount of drink feels so wonderful on my tongue, I decide the temptation of it outweighs the possibility of a painful death by poison. “Hold it at an angle.” He tips the flask and I drink and drink until the flask is empty, my eyes rolling back in my head.

He pops a food tablet into my mouth.

“You
can
trust me,” I say as I chew.

He swivels side to side on the stool.

“Part of me wants to.” He absently rubs the scar over his eye. My scar. I hold my breath, hoping he won’t believe what he has figured out.

He looks like he’s about to say more and I wait. If he asks me directly, “Are you Lexie?” will I be able to lie convincingly. He takes a deep breath and his lips move, but the door swings open and he slides away, slipping the flask into his pocket.

My brother Ty walks in. The hot hurt of betrayal knifes through me when I see his face. His eyes are averted. A Val military leader comes in behind Ty. Based on the number of medals hanging from his chest I’m guessing he’s a very important man.

Bates comes in behind him, like a dog trailing the pack leader with its tail between its legs. Bates offers the man his findings, but the man barely glances at them before pushing them away. “I’ve brought my own scientist with me. She’ll look over what you’ve found.”

Bates jaw goes slack. “Your own scientist, General Wright?”

Wright? Even through my pain that name startles me. General Wright is the top military leader, not just for our compound, for all of them. He probably has more scars than anyone else, even if most are hidden under his clothes. And he’s our military liaison with the Orions. They give him the orders and he makes them happen.

“Yes. Bradford wants to bring in an additional team to work on this.” I’ve heard of Dr. Bradford too. The Orions appointed her as the head scientists five years ago, the medical leader over all the different colonies. She spends more time with the Orions than anyone, even General Wright.

Wright scratches his chin as he studies me. “This is what’s responsible for all these attacks?”

Bates brings his tablet to his chest. “Yes. It’s almost disappointing, isn’t it? But it shows amazing resilience. Its ability to heal is off the charts.”

He scoffed. “How’s it amazing? I can see several open wounds, bones that are obviously still broken.

“Well, we have several different teams studying her so…” Bates clears his throat. “We’ve been studying its blood, and we’re planning a level 3 thromboscan later today. I—”

Bates is interrupted by the door flying open. A highly decorated military officer walks in. It takes everything in me not to sob when I see his face. I bite my lip to keep the ‘Daddy’ from slipping out. I haven’t seen him in twelve years. His dark hair has more gray, and he’s thinner with more wrinkles around his eyes, but he’s still the same man who held me tight whenever I had nightmares. I almost lose my composure completely when a female scientist with dark hair and green eyes walks in wearing a gold lab coat. Mom!

My dad salutes General Wright, and then turns to Bates. “Hello Dr. Bates. I’m Colonel Hake, and this is my wife, Nadia. Dr. Bradford wanted Nadia to head up the new scientific study on the alien you’ve discovered, and I volunteered to head her security detail.” My dad holds out his hand. Bates scowls for an instant before shaking it.

My mom smiles. “We’re eager for our research to begin. Can you catch us up on what you’ve learned so far?”

My dad spins on his heels and his face drains of color when he sees me. Does he recognize me? Did Ty tell them I’m alive?

He opens his mouth and then closes it, his eyes shimmer. “Uh, is this her?”

My mom gasps and quickly studies her tablet.

“Yes, wait until you see this.” Bates taps his tablet a few times and the video screen behind me comes to life. I can’t see it, but know from the sounds that it’s a recording of my time in the hallway. I can hear the punch to my face, and Carter’s stunned expression, “It’s already healing.”

My dad’s hands clench and his lips press into an angry thin line. “Yes, that’s enough.”

“There’s more. You should see—”

“I said, ‘That’s enough!’” My father’s voice is commanding. Bates shuts it off, the gleam in his eye fading.

“And why is she so dirty?” my mom asks. “This is a scientific facility, is it not?”

Bates scoffs. “Did you expect me to clean her?”

“Someone needs to,” my mom snaps. “We risk contaminating our blood samples if the subject is like this.”

“We already took blood samples,” Bates says, his eyes studying the floor, the color in his face rising.

“You did?” She shuts her eyes, apparently afraid of the results.

“Yes, she screamed like a banshee, kicking and fighting, but we got them.”

The corners of my dad’s lips turn up. “I’m sure she did.”

My mom holds out her hand. “Let me see all the data you’ve collected.”

“You’ll find it fascinating.”

“I’m sure I will.”

My dad slides closer and runs his hand gently down my neck. It feels tender, like he cares, like he’s touching his daughter, not a terrorist. A prick of an injection glides into my skin while my mom talks with Bates. Instantly the pain starts to numb. He palms the injector as my mom steps forward and examines my eyes, face and hands.

“She’s dehydrated, too. We need her healthy enough to survive the experiments. Get her cleaned and fed before our only living specimen dies!”

“Yes, ma’am” Bates says. “Cindy, assign some Debs to clean her up, and bring her some water.”

I try not to smile. Bates probably doesn’t realize I’m a ‘her’ again and no longer an ‘it’. My parent’s are here and I think they know I’m their daughter. I believe they’ll do what they can to protect me. Their love outshines the hate and betrayal I’ve been dealing with. Feeling a ray of hope for the first time in what feels like an eternity, I fall asleep.

I wake from a deep sleep, feeling groggy but refreshed. Where did my parents go? Did they leave again? Did they not recognize me? I’m still dirty so they must not have followed my parents’ orders to have me cleaned yet. I’m hungry and thirsty too, so I hope those orders still stand.

Before long, two Vals come in and untie me and allow me to use the toilet. I have to go so baldly the guns pointed at me don’t even make me hesitate to use the facilities in front of them, staring into the barrel of a gun. It isn’t until my restraints are being tightened again that I realize I’m not in pain anymore. How long have I been out?

The smell of truff soup has my stomach rumbling before the door even swings shut. A Deb comes in, her blonde hair obscuring her face, but I recognize her instantly. Gracie is shaking, making the bowl rattle against the spoon as she set it down on the table beside my bed. My shock of seeing her here is outweighed by my hunger. It’s only my morning Deb rations but it looks like a feast.

“Thank you,” I say. If she weren’t bringing my meal, would I be upset to see her? To remember her condemnation? I can’t think clearly through my hunger. My eyes stare at the food, drool forming behind my lips. I’m tethered to the bed and can’t possible feed myself. “Will you help me?”

I hate that I have to ask such a humbling question to someone who betrayed me.

Her lips press together. “No.”

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Gracie.” I keep my voice gentle. “I’d never hurt you, you were my friend.”

She flinches and fully faces me, pulling her hair back. “Yes, they all know.”

I gasp at her black eye, bruised face and swollen lip. “What happened?”

She laughs in a totally non-Gracie way. “They questioned me because they thought I might be like you. That I might be a dirty alien!” She points to her wounds. “This is because of you. Meeting you is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m on probation and might lose my position. If I don’t die first.”

I blink back tears as she storms out of the room. Guilt that isn’t mine crowds my heart and head. A cold voice of reason reminds me they would never have known she was my friend if she hadn’t turned me in. And how dare she be upset at me when I’ve been tortured because of her. I shake off that thought knowing she’s never been free like me. She’d been compelled her whole life.

The tray sits out of my reach. Perhaps they brought it in so I could smell it, a new form of torture for their experiments.

Soon afterwards, Bates come in and injects me with a variety of diseases and a poison. I thought having my bones broken was the worst thing I could feel but it turns out this is worse. It slowly, painfully closes my airways, eats at my internal organs, and cramps my muscles. I break out into another fever, this one lasting longer and hurting much worse.

I’ve finally worked the last of the serums from my system when my parents walk in. My smile spreads across my face before I can stop it. It vanishes when my brother follows them into my room.

I scowl at Ty. “Come to see what you’ve done?”

My mom closes the door and Ty leans against it. He’s frowning and his forehead is wrinkled.

“We’ll discuss that later, Lexie.”

Hearing him say my name makes me catch my breath. Dad carries a chart and studies it as he talks to me. “I’ve managed to block the sound for a few minutes. The video is still live. You can talk freely though.”

“Ty why didn’t you let me escape? Do you hate me for being a Deb?”

“Of course not. I stopped you because I love you!” Ty runs his hand through his hair.

I use my tethered hands to motion to myself. “You call this love?”

“Lexie,” my mom hisses just as Ty shouts, “There were thirty Vals outside with their guns ready to shoot to kill you if you made it outside. The order to catch you alive was only given to those of us inside.”

I suck in a mouthful of air. I hadn’t expected that. “Oh.”

He snorts. “Yeah, oh. You don’t think it killed me to see what they did to you? To have to help them break you?”

I bite my lip. “I didn’t know. I thought…”

He crosses his arms. “I know what you thought. But how could you think that of me?”

“Ty, she’s been without us for a long time,” my dad interjects, taking my temperature.

“I’m sorry for doubting you.” I lower my eyes. “Thank you for saving me, Ty.”

“Forgive me for turning you over to them and having to hit you. Your expression when I tackled you about destroyed me.”

Emotion clogs my throat but I give him a meaningful nod.

“I’m sorry we have to act so distant. I want more than anything to hold you again.” My mom crouches beside me and draws some blood. “Ever since Ty told us what Charlie did, I’ve been trying to get to you.”

“As soon as she’s free you can hug her to your heart’s content,” my dad says.

“What’s the plan? Do we have one?” Ty asks as he takes the sentry position in the room, standing between Dad and me.

“There are plans in motions.” My dad types into his tablet. “But we need to free her first.”

“You’re going to get me out of here?” An indescribable joy starts to bubble up in my heart.

“Of course we are. You’re our little girl. We’re sorry you’ve been without us for so long.” My mom pours a few drops of my blood into a beaker of clear liquid. “Ty told us about your new healing ability. It’s amazing. Don’t worry, Charlie’s still figuring the details of your escape, but it won’t take long.”

“Thank you.” Tears leak down my face. I hope they don’t look like tears of happiness on camera. “How long have you known Uncle Charlie was the head of the rebellion?”

“Only a few weeks. He’s been so busy on discovery missions he wasn’t aware we’d joined until then.”

“Ty told me about your falling out.”

My family all exchange uneasy glances.

Dad pinches the bridge of his nose. “We blamed him for your death and we avoided him ever since. Then, a few weeks ago, he contacted us, and begged us to hear him out. He said he had some shocking news for us but we never guessed it would be you.”

“What he did was cruel,” my mom says, her lips trembling. Tears pool in her eyes, threatening to overflow.

“It was necessary,” my dad says, wrapping a blood pressure cuff around my arm. “We weren’t ready for the truth.”

“He could have told us later.” A tear slides down her face and she quickly brushes it away.

“He tried, but I wouldn’t let him near us,” my dad says.

“So what do we do now?” Ty asks, breaking into what sounds like an argument they’ve had before.

“We wait.” My mom has her composure under control again. “There’s a plan in motion, but it could fall apart if we’re not careful.”

Ty comes to the side of my bed so I can see him. “Make it happen soon. Seeing her like this is killing me.”

“Don’t risk yourself for me.” The words are hard to say. I mean them but I’m terrified for them to leave me here. “I was stupid enough to get myself here.”

“You’re not stupid,” my dad says. “You’re brave and caring. The fact that you saved Bryant shows that. It makes me proud to be your father.”

“And I’m proud to be your brother. But I’ve come so close to strangling Bryant for turning you in.”

“Don’t,” I say to Ty. “Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself.”

Ty gives a jerky nod but doesn’t say anything.

“And don’t get Bryant in any trouble” My mom pretends to study a chart. “He’s on the watch list.”

“He is?” I ask.

My mom starts to say something but then something beeps.

I glance back toward my dad. He pushes a button on his vintage wristwatch. “Times up.” He starts talking like he’s midsentence “—every day is normal.”

“Let me see the food their giving you.” He examines the tray. I’d forgotten it was there. It’s cold now, a congealed mass, but the hunger was worth it to speak with my family. “This is it?”

“Yes, sir. It’s the same amount I’ve always been given.”

He frowns but nods. He peers into the two-way window. “Bates, are you in there? Is your break over yet?”

No one answers over the speaker. “I’ll be back. I need to talk about your calorie intake with Bates.”

He sticks his head out into the hallway. “Bates?”

A few seconds later Bates wanders in, leaving the door open behind him. “Something wrong?”

“No, I’m just curious about how much you’re feeding her. How did you decide on the amount?”

“It’s the same amount they fed her when she was a Deb.”

“I see.” Dad nods. “I can see why you’d do that. But we have to assume that the others of her kind are eating more. It might make them stronger and faster. Let’s increase her food rations to be the same as the Vals.”

“That much? If she’s too strong, won’t she be harder to control?”

“We’ll have to risk it. It’s vital that we…” My parents carry on their scientific conversation with Bates about caloric intake and metabolism. Both pale as they listen to the results of the tests they’ve administered to me already. I count the cracks in the ceiling when they start talking about the further tests they’d like to run on me.

“You wanted someone to clean her?” Bryant is standing in the doorway carrying a bucket of water, a bar of soap in his hand and towels tucked under his arms. He takes another step into the room and dad tenses. My mom and brother slide to my father’s side, creating a wall between Bryant and me.

“I thought they’d assign a job like that to a Deb,” my dad says.

Bryant laughs. “They’re all too afraid to be around her.”

I think of Gracie’s bruised face and frown.

My dad glances at me wearing a hint of a smile. “Right. I suppose that’s a dangerous job.”

“Our Vals can’t be wasted with such a menial task,” Bates says.

“I agree. And Bryant is the wrong person for the job,” my father says. “She attacked him this week.”

Bryant rolls his shoulders, standing up to his full height. “I can handle myself.”

“Are you sure?” my brother asks, raising an eyebrow. “Because the first time she knocked you down and saved you from a grizzle. And then last time she almost strangled you to death.”

His throat still bears oddly shaped bruises from the chain.

Bryant’s face turns red, his nostrils flaring. “She won’t surprise me again.”

“I don’t want him near me.” The thought of him touching me makes my anger steam like a whistling teapot. My skin itches, my hair hangs in greasy lumps across my face, and my gown is stained a rusty red from my blood, but that isn’t enough to trust myself near him. I’m here because of his blind loyalty. It may not fully be his fault but I still blame him.

My dad’s eyes flicker between Bryant and me before he nods. “They do have an unpleasant history. And bathing her is beneath our soldiers. Perhaps we should let her shower instead.”

“You think that’s a good idea?” Bates asks.

Bates and my dad leave still conferring about the safety of me walking to the shower. Ty takes sentry by the door and Bryant stands closer to my bed. Until this moment I didn’t know that hate could be so tangible, that it could suffocate you as it burns in your chest. The fury and hate scream silently in the space between Bryant and me.

“So, alien spy,” Ty says. Even sarcastic, his voice is like a balm.

“Emily,” I correct.

Ty snorts. “Tell me, if the grizzle was going to attack Bryant again, would you still save him?”

I scoff. “No.”

Bryant’s eyes dart toward mine and away.

“You risked your own life to save Bryant, here. Why?”

“I don’t know.” I glare at Bryant. “It was a mistake.”

Ty grins. “Why do you think she did, it, Bryant?”

Bryant spins toward me, his fingers clenching on his gun. “She was trying to recruit me. She thought she could gain my trust, sway me to her side.”

“Wow.” I whistle. “You have a very high opinion about yourself.”

He studies me, his finger twitching on the trigger. “If you’re not a Musk spy then what are you?”

I shrug because honestly I don’t know. “I’m just different. And people are always afraid of what’s different.”

He opens his mouth and then snaps it shut and focuses his gaze on the foot of the bed.

My dad comes in, followed by Bates. My dad is finishing his thought. “Yes, that shower room should be safe enough.”

My stomach rumbles loudly attracting everyone’s attention.

“I thought we had agreed to feed her,” my mom says.

Bates points the tray full of food. “We did.”

“How is she supposed to eat it? Her hands are tied.”

Bates has the decency to flush. “Perhaps we should have someone feed her, since she’s bound.”

“I—” Bryant starts, but Ty talks over him, loudly. “I’ll feed her.”

“Be careful of your fingers. She’ll probably try and bite them off,” Carter says, lounging in the doorframe. “She’s feisty.”

“Who needs ten?” Ty asks. “What are you doing here, Carter?”