Shattered Skies: Beginning's End (24 page)

“Thank you for that Cat; you really are coming back, aren’t you? I know that it is going to take a long time to truly earn your trust, but I will do whatever it takes to get to that point.” He was so sincere, only speaking above a whisper. “Goodbye for now Kitten and please, before you leave the palace, let me know. When you are done with the prisoner, peek your head in and let me know you are going.” 

I couldn’t make words came out; I just nodded and turned away. I was afraid that if I tried to talk, the tears would flow freely and my cover would be blown. If it was this hard to say goodbye to a man that I knew nothing about, how was I ever going to be able to walk away from Darien? I would cross that bridge when I came to it. As long as I could see the hate in Darien’s eyes it would be a lot easier. I wasn’t sure that he would ever forgive me so I really had nothing to lose.

I had found three open access points before I got to Doctor Walker. All we needed was one that would allow us to slip in and distract the guard long enough to grab the Doc and go right back out the way we came in. Jaden and Darien were in charge of what happened after we got out. I had nothing to do with that part of the mission; it would be the part of the mission where I went from leader to follower. That is why the trust among us needed to be so strong. You were putting your life in someone else’s hands; you had to believe that you would be safe and that they would carry out their part of the mission.

I could smell him before I saw him. It was his cologne that I could just faintly smell, behind the anger and the stubbornness. It was still the same voice that used to calm my fears late into the night when I was a child. He wasn't hissing; he wasn't acting like a mad rabid animal like he was when they first brought him in; he was just acting and sounding like Doctor Walker. It took me what seemed like an eternity to walk through the door. I guess I figured the longer I stood just outside of the
cell, the longer that I could pretend that all of this was really a dream and I would soon wake up. I knew as soon as I walked in there and saw him that reality would turn as hard as cement. I wasn’t sure that I was ready to walk in yet; in fact, if it hadn’t been for the fact that I needed to do this to save Darien and Jaden, I may have never have walked through that door at all. Denial may not be healthy but it can be protective. If you tell yourself a lie enough, eventually you believe it, or so I have been told. 

I d
idn't recognize him. Dr. Walker looked about 20 years older to me than he looked yesterday, which meant two things; one, we had to do something fast because he was truly going to die, and two, Dr. Walker had been feeding on something or someone the entire time we were hiding underground. I didn’t know which one of the two made my skin crawl more. There was only one thug in the corner watching him. Akia was smart enough to know that Dr. Walker himself was not a threat; he couldn't even lift his head but he wasn't smart enough to figure out that someone that he knew like me might be a threat to the kingdom that he was trying to repair. 

“Hey, the Regen
t said go ahead and take a forty minute break. I will watch him. It isn't like the pathetic loser is going to get up and run away.” I put as much sarcasm into my voice as I could.

“It is about damn time. I have been down here for ten hours
straight and it isn't like he is any kind of company. I can't keep my eyes open anymore.” With that, the guard walked off, grumbling incoherently all the way down the hall.

“I wasn't so sure that you would come back.”
He spoke in barely a whisper.

“Don't talk. You have to save your energy so we can get you out of here.” I tried to make my voice sound soothing when all I really wanted to do was tell him that if it had been up to just me, I would have never come back. 

“Wait, did you find them, Jaden and Darien?”  I couldn't stand the hope that was radiating from his voice. I knew that the chances of getting him and us out alive were slim to none, but I wasn't going to take his hopes away from him. I flashed to Jewel just for a second. She
had radiated the same look from her eyes as he was now; it was more than I could handle. 

“You are wasting your energy Doc. I need you to concentrate and to help me. I need you to try to remember how many guards are usually here with you and if there are any time
s when you are alone.” At first I thought my efforts were completely useless because he didn't answer me; he just hung his head down barely breathing. When he started to talk again, I knew that there was a tiny bit more hope for the situation. He wasn’t nearly as weak as he seemed. He might have been fading fast, but not as fast as I had thought originally. 

“They never have more than one at a time in here with me. I act weaker than I am so they only leave me with one. It is always just me and one of them, unless of course, they are trying to get information out of me. I
understand you have no reason to trust me, but I promise you that I have never told them anything about you. You have to believe me. I would never do anything to harm any of you.” He was rambling; I knew that was a sign of shock, which was the worst thing that could happen right now. 

“I believe you Doc. I know you would never let anyone know the truth about who
we are or where we are. I need you to stay with me though; I need you to think for me. Is there a time of day when there is no one here with you at all? I need to know so we can get you out of here as quickly and quietly as possible.”

He tried to lift his head a little bit. That was a good sign because I knew that he was at least hearing me. “Last nig
ht, I was alone for ten minutes. I don't know where the guard went. All I know is that he came back smiling.”

“Good Doc! That is what I like to hear. Tell me, was it someone that you recognized? I mean, have you seen that guard yet today?” 

Doctor Walker thought for a moment before he answered. “No, I haven't seen him. I am going to take a stab in the dark though, and say it was late last night when he showed up.” Good. That is what I liked to hear. It was a plus that the incompetent guy would more than likely
have guard duty again tonight. “Cat I wouldn't blame you if you just left me here. I think it would be better if you did. The three of you need to get out of here and lay low for a while until this blows over. I will be fine.” 

As much as I would have loved to agree with him, to punish him for lying to
us since forever, I couldn't do it. He had saved me and he was still himself as much as I wanted him to be. He was no more a monster now than he was before I knew the truth. “There was this man once that taught me that my family, even though not the least bit normal in any sense of the word, was the most valuable thing in my life. I am not losing anyone else Doc, so stop the self-pity. I forgive you and we are going to get your sad looking ass out of here.”  He used the last bit of strength he had and looked up at me with an understanding and a pride that I had never seen before.

“I have to go. We will be back as soon as the coast is clear. I just need you to keep your mouth shut and not to provoke them in into torturing you anymore than they have already. I don't think you can live through much more.” With that, I started to turn and walk away. I had been
graceful and civil, and yet inside I was confused and I felt like the walls around me were closing in.

“Cat wait, there is more that you need to know. You need to know what you are truly up against, just in case you can’t get back in here and get me out.” There was something about the urgency in his voice that convinced me that he was thinking more clearly now than he had in a long time. I was not worried about getting caught. The guy that was watching him still had thirty minutes left and by the look of that guard, he wa
s no overachiever. 

“Doctor Walker, please save your energy.
Save your story and tell me later when you are out of here safe.”

“No! If you don’t hear this, then everything that we have been working for will be lost. Now come over here and listen; please do not interrupt me with an argument. I don’t know if I have enough energy to repeat myself.”  I took a seat half out in the hallway so that if anyone came walking by, I would see them in time to hush Doctor Walker, and they would just think I was keeping an eye on him. 

“First of all, forget everything that you think is real.” I didn’t know if I could handle anymore lies, but I had promised not to interrupt him. “There is a lot of history that I don’t have the time to tell you and you will have to figure it out on your own. Right now, you need to know the basics just in case I am lost. Humanity has been told a lie
for centuries. Your kind was never free; there wasn’t a time throughout your history that my kind didn’t walk side by side with yours. In fact, we are the reason that your race has survived and thrived this long. We found you when your planet was young, and very soon we realized that we could use you. Eventually, there would come a point where we would be able to breed with you humans and make the ultimate race. In order to do that, we had to slip into your population; we scattered ourselves all over your world, some of us in positions of power and some of us just living side by side with you humans. We helped you develop all of the technology that your ancestors became dependent upon. We gave it to you, and allowed you to get to the point where you couldn’t function without it. Electricity, the Internet, modern weapons and vehicles; these were all things that we decided to give you. When we took them away, you were all putty in our hands.”

“
That is how the takeover occurred, Catalina. It wasn’t by chance or luck; it happened thanks to centuries of careful planning. We eventually managed to get enough Vampires into government positions without you humans catching on; we managed to get ourselves into the technology fields, and when the time was right, it was our infiltration of those fields that enabled us to pull all the plugs. I know this sounds harsh Cat and I am sorry for that, but reality is, the human race has been enslaved from the beginning. Your race would have died out a long time ago if mine hadn’t saved you. We nurtured your race, we bettered your planet, and we were even responsible for your population growth. The human race was never a very fertile one, but when our scientists came up with a fertility drug that could be put into the world’s water supply undetected, the birth rate started to soar, and more and more babies were born every day. The population growth ensured us that we would have an ever ready food supply when it was time to take over. Your race has always been our pets. I am telling you this not to sound cocky, and not to talk you out of saving me, but to let you know that you are not alone. There are more humans out there that are hiding. They know the truth and they are working to take the planet back, much like we are. You also have to understand that there are monsters hiding among them, just like I was. A lot of these monsters are good; like me, they know that enslaving the humans is wrong. However, there are still some bad monsters pretending to be on the side of freedom. They are reporting back on their human coven’s activities. They are so deep into hiding that Akia knows nothing about them. There are those on the Elder’s council who know the truth, but not many. You have to be careful who you trust. Your ancestors trusted the monsters wholeheartedly and that is how we ended up here today.”

When he finally stopped talking I could do nothing but stare. This had to be some sort of sick joke. He really expected me to believe that we owed our lives to these monsters? What kind of moron did he think I was? There is no way there were monsters in the government. I had read about politics and I knew that most of the people that held offices were elected to them. Humans were actually stupid enough to
have voted monsters in? It couldn’t be true. 

“Doc, I think that you are confused. You are weak and you are talking off the top of your head. The human race
is smart. I have read about them in the books in your office; they would have never let monsters take over. Even if every human knew not the truth, there had to be some that did.” 

“Of course there were humans that knew and they were dealt with severely. Most of them were viewed as crazy and were no true threat to us. The smart ones that wouldn’t let it go were done away with. It was easy for us to take care of them and even easier for us to cover up their deaths. There were a few who told their stories; some of the greatest
works of fiction are not fiction at all, but humans in general have always been a close minded race; egotistical enough to believe that they were the only living beings in the universe. How self-important do you have to be to truly believe that? It is kind of sad really; you never know what might have happened if your people had opened their minds even the tiniest bit.” 

I had heard enough. I couldn’t sit here and listen to more of his lies. I was going to get him out and it would end there. He had lied to all of us all our lives, and now he expected me to listen to this nonsense and just accept it willingly? I had to believe that there were other free humans out there. I mean, with the sheer number of people that inhibited the world, it was impossible for there not to be more fighters like us out there. I was going to pretend that I never sat down and listened to this. I would get him out, make sure Darien and Jaden were safe, and then I would just disappear. We couldn’t stay together anyway. There was no reason to put it off any longer.