Stronger (13 page)

Adrenaline thrums through my veins. I want to huddle in a ball and cry, but decide to hide that behind a bravery I don’t feel. I turn my head to the side, cracking my neck. “Alright, let’s do this.”

The first hit to my face knocks me back, sending me careening off balance. I stumble back a step, but regain my balance. My jaw is aching, but I don’t get to dwell on it because another fist flies my way. I block with my arm and the fist hits my wrist. From the crunching sound, the impact broke bones. It hurts so bad, I think it must be my wrist, but he steps back, cradling his hand, so maybe not. Another soldier slides in with a sweeping kick at my ankles. I jump over it just in time, but the distraction lets another fist land squarely on my nose. Blood trails over my lips, down my neck.

Oh, how it hurts!

“Take that, you piece of trash!” one yells, spitting at my feet. Several cheer at the sight of my blood. “It’s already healing,” the spitter says, his mouth falling open.

It is? If so it isn’t making it less painful. If anything, it’s like weeks of agony compressed into a short time. I wince as the pain piques and quickly subsides.

“Then make it bleed again!” Douglas orders.

And they do. Fists, elbows, legs fly out at me. They hit more often than not. I dodge when I can. I manage a few kicks and hits but there are too many of them. The blows keep coming until I collapse in crumpled heap of pain.

My tears get mixed in with the drying blood. I didn’t know it was possible for me to bleed this much and live. Or hurt this much. In my other altercations with the Vals, they’d been holding back, not wanting to kill a Deb. Today there’d been no such restrictions. But none of the blows hurt more than my brother’s.

“Up!” Douglas orders.

Lee grabs my hair and yanks my head back. He’s crouching in front of me, so close I can smell his pickle-scented breath. “Get up, Alien. We’re just getting started.” His free hand brings a knife under my chin. “I said, ‘Get up.’”

I flinch as the cool metal touches my burning skin. I meet his gaze and my lips tighten. “Go ahead.”

And in that moment I mean it. I’ve never known pain like this.

“Lee, hold!” Douglas orders. Lee grins and the blade leaves my skin. “Yeah, that would be too easy. Now, up!” He lifts me by the hair. I force my feet under me, to avoid my scalp being torn loose.

There’s a commotion down the hall that makes Lee turn and let go. I collapse again, not caring what the ruckus is.

I let my head fall to the floor, gasping for air. When I can breathe, I try to move, my whole body screaming in protest. My palms press against the floor and I sway on my knees. The room spins and my stomach heaves. I sick up on the floor, blood mixed in with the sick. Lee strides forward again, a short length of heavy chain grasped in his fist, spinning it in a blur at his side.

“Let’s see how you heal from a real wound.” He charges with the chain raised above his head. I bring my arm up to protect my face, waiting to feel my bone shatter under the blow. But Bryant steps in front of me and catches Lee’s arm, forcing him back.

“In line, Lee! Major Douglas told you to hold.” Bryant’s voice is so full of authority I barely recognize it. “They need her alive.”

“You taking up for the alien now?” Lee asks, gripping the chain.

Bryant slithers forward until he’s in Lee’s face. “You want to say that again?”

Lee drops his gaze and shakes his head.

“That’s what I thought.”

Lee steps back, letting the chain fall and I breathe a painful sigh of relief. I curl up, letting my body heal. I wonder if they realize how alike I am to them. Will I heal stronger, too? When Charlie sliced my arm, it seemed harder to cut the second time. It might not look like that way, but thanks to their abuse today, the next time around it won’t be nearly as easy to make me bleed.

“On your feet, Alien,” Major Douglas shouts.

I struggle to my feet before Lee can come over and try to rip my hair out again. The Vals surround me, ready for round two.

A tall and willowy Orion is standing back by Bates. That explains the stop in the beating. I’m not sure which one it is, but I notice the intensity of his gaze. Seeing it makes my adrenaline cool. With him here, will the beating stop, or become even more brutal?

“Capture it alive. For further… tests.”

The way he smiles on the last word makes me want to cry. I’ll be their science experiment for the rest of my life. My pain will be their pleasure. This is my future. Because I saved a life. Bryant’s life. And he turned me in.

Anger like I’ve never felt surges through me, like water breaking through a dam. And it’s directed at the boy in front of me. I’m here because of him.

I pick up the fallen chain and spring forward, grabbing Bryant, pulling from wells of strength and energy I didn’t even know I had. I pull him against me and loop the chain around his throat. Other Vals are pulling at me, but I shrug them off and cling to the metal links.

“I never should have saved your life, Stretch.”

Bryant’s eyes widen. His mouth opens and shuts, but no sound comes out. He’s bucking against me, his hands grasping at the chain around his throat. His chest stutters. At the edge of my vision, I see the Orion, so tall, so proud, so uncaring. It reminds me who the real villains are, and it isn’t the Vals who’ve just been beating on me. “I’m not the enemy, Stretch. You’ll need a pair of earplugs if you want to see it clearly. I’m on your side. You remember that.”

Hands grab me from behind and pull me from a still gasping Bryant. The anger flees and in its place is clarity, a cold and hard truth. I’ve just made it so much worse for myself. But at this moment I can’t bring myself to care. Someone pulls Bryant to safety, his ragged breathing barely audible over the eruption of sound from the Vals.

The Orion has drifted closer, arms behind his back. “Teach her a lesson,” his melodic voice echoes off the walls.

The Vals go from angry to almost foaming at the mouth, reminding me more of grizzles than human beings.

Two hoist me up by my shoulders and prop my torso up, while others hit and kick from every side. There is no pause, no time to react to anything, just a continual barrage to my face and body. I have no idea how long it lasts, but when it slows, I struggle for breath, relieved that it has ended, until I see why. The Vals all back away to make room for Lee who is twirling a length of steel pipe. He full on grins as he swings it at my knees. Bones crunch. My left shoulder is wrenched out of socket, and the two holding me let go. White-hot pain explodes in my shoulder, a perfect companion to the agony in my knees.

I try to protect my face as he swings but my forearm shatters. He aims for my face again and my cheek concaves. I one-arm crawl a few paces, but he hits my back and something gives way. I can’t move as he attacks my fingers, my arms, my legs. There’s so much broken that I’m more broken than not.

Screaming is beyond me. I whimper, not even able to curl up anymore. Lee drops the pipe, his breathing heavy, and then kicks me once in the ribs. He spits on me and one by one the Vals all follow suit. Bryant’s foot never connects with me and I lie to myself that he had a moment of mercy. Ty’s kick is no harder than the other Vals but still it hurts twice as much. Does he hate me since I put the rebellion and my family at risk? Douglas is last, and the kick he gives sends shockwaves of pain coursing through my broken body. It’s what finally brings the relief I’ve been begging for. I slip into unconsciousness.

There’s no fog this time when my eyes open. I instantly remember where I am and why. My body feels like it’s been pulled through a loom and sloppily weaved back together wrong.

Every one of my joints throbs and all my nerve endings burn as they come back online. A rustling in the room lets me know I’m not alone. Something squeezes on my bicep and my muscles burn as it tightens. A blood pressure cuff, I realize. I open my eyes and am grateful the bright overhead spotlight is off this time. Even without it, it feels like a drill is digging into my skull.

Bates is bent over me, reading my blood pressure results. “Amazing,” he says jotting something down. Wires are attached to me, connecting me to various machines. One is reading my heartbeats; I have no idea what the rest do.

Bates’ eyes flicker to my face and he blanches, springing back. “She’s awake!”

Lee steps into my line of vision and I flinch. My reaction has him grinning. “Ah, yes. Remember me, do you?”

He’s no warrior; he’s a bully.

“Does it make you feel more like a man to hit a girl? Compensating for something?”

Lee’s eyes flash with anger as he steps forward, but Bates intercepts him. “Stand down, solider. I’m studying her healing.”

Lee glares at me, but nods at Bates’ command. Bates waits until Lee backs up and then lowers himself onto the same stool Douglas sat in before. Bates put on reading glasses and flips through the files on his display tablet.

“On a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest, how would you rate your pain, Emily?”

An eleven would be the truth but I have too much pride. I grit my teeth and lie. “Four.”

Lee snorts and Bates looks over the top of his glasses at me. “Really? That seems low considering the state of your body, many of your bones are still broken from the experiment we conducted with the pipe.”

“You call beating me with a pipe an experiment?”

“Of course,” Bates says absently. “Now be honest, what is your pain level? I’ve been wondering since you lost consciousness three days ago.”

Three days? I’ve been unconscious for three days? I’m processing that when Bates clears his throat and repeats his question. When I don’t answer he leans forward and slaps his hand across my calf. The pain radiates from there and I scream.

Lee laughs and Bates watches me. “A four?”

I bite my tongue as tears leak from my eyes. “Three and a half… four.”

My lie is stupid but I won’t admit my weakness. I stare at the corner of the room as Bates continues his questioning. My stomach growls and my throat is parched. If I don’t eat I doubt my body can fully heal, and without water, I’ll die.

“May I have some water, please?”

Bates tilts his head, considering. “No.”

With no further explanation he gets up and walks out. Lee follows him, sneering over his shoulder as he leaves. I’m alone in my pain, without even Bates’ questions to distract me. I try to hold as still as possible. Moving hurts too much.

My whole body feels warm, probably a fever. Can I survive those too? A young nurse comes in and takes my vitals. When she sees my temperature, she gasps and runs to get help. Bates comes storming back in and double checks her readings.

“One hundred and five? And she’s still coherent?” His hand touches my forehead and he pulls it back. “She’s burning up. We can’t lose the specimen. I haven’t even started testing on her.”

If having all of my bones smashed by a lead pipe is a simple experiment than I hope the fever kills me.

Bates is almost giddy when my temperature begins to drop on its own, making it back down to a normal 98.6 in twenty minutes without any medical intervention. “Amazing. I’d love to see her cells attack a virus under a microscope.”

When Carter replaces Lee on guard, my chest loosens and it’s easier to breathe. I don’t trust any of the Vals but at least I don’t associate Carter with torture.

Eventually I sleep, and dream. I’m restrained in the middle of the lab and Bates is cutting my arm open. The blood trickles down my arm and across the floor. Like a snake, the line of blood moves, undulating forward, creating a path that leads directly to my family. Then I turn my head and my brother is on the examining table next to me. “You had to save Bryant,” he says. “My death is your fault.”

Bates cuts into Ty and I wake up screaming. My body jerks but I can’t move because of the restraints. Even though I’m thirsty and my throat is parched, I need to use the restroom. Bates is still hunched over his microscope.

“Can I please use the restroom?” My voice is weak.

He purses his lips before shaking his head. “No.”

“Water?”

He shakes his head again.

“Food?”

“No.”

“I do need to eat, you know.”

Bates nods absently. “I’m sure you do. But we don’t feel it’s in anyone’s best interest to let you build up your strength.”

Throughout the day, various scientists come in and examine me, always accompanied by a pair of stern-faced, heavily armed warriors. By the various colors of lab coats on the scientists, I’m guessing they all specialize in different areas.

“I expected its injuries to look worse than this.” A woman in a lavender lab coat frowns at me. “The altercation was only four days ago.”

Bates sighs and strides to her side. “I know. They seem to heal at an alarmingly fast rate.”

“That split by its left eye? I did that,” Carter interjects, puffing out his chest. “Gave me a new scar too.” He holds out his hands and points to something.

A simple laceration hasn’t healed? Considering how quickly the grizzle claw marks healed I would have expected it to mend itself quickly. I must be in worse shape than I thought. Maybe if I didn’t look so beat up, they’d stop calling me an ‘it’.

“I know you’ve been studying the way its bones heal, Professor, but were any bone scans taken before the incident?” the female scientist asks.

Bates takes off his glasses and cleans them on his striped shirt. “Uh, no. Only the ones we took after it was recaptured. What did you have in mind?”

She smiles. “If we can compare the scans before and after a break, it will tell us more about what’s going on inside this thing.”

Bates nods his head. “Yes, that should be all right. We’ve scanned all of them now and if we focus on the ones that weren’t broken…” He taps something into his tablet. “I think that’s an excellent suggestion.”

She turns to Carter. “Can you break a bone for me?”

“Break a bone? Just like that? While it’s restrained?” Carter asks.

She nods, adjusting something on the chair I’m strapped to, leaving my wrist restrained, but the rest of my arm free.

She motions Carter forward but he doesn’t move.

“Something wrong?”

“No, ma’am. It… just seems wrong to hurt it when it can’t fight back.”

She taps her foot. “It might appear human, but it isn’t. This thing is behind several terrorist attacks right here on campus.”

“I didn’t do those.” I meet his gaze. “Please, believe me.”

“Break her arm here, solider,” lavender coat demands. “Now. That’s an order.”

His chest rises and falls several time before he lifts his muscled arm and brings his elbow down on my forearm with a crack. It hurts badly, I moan, rocking back and forth as tears stream down my face. Carter actually steps back and gulps.

The scientist pushes her glasses up her nose and bends over my arm before tapping on her tablet. It isn’t knitting itself together, it lays there broken and screaming in pain. “Another please?”

“Another?” Carter asks.

“Yes.”

He moves to my hand and starts to isolate my middle finger.

“No, a major bone,” she says. “That one.”

I don’t see where she points, and the uncertainty makes the expectation of pain even worse.

“Right.” Carter alters the restraints on the chair, somewhere around my hip. He steps back, licking his lips. Then he jumps in the air and brings his clasped fists down on my thigh. This time I scream as the audible snap echoes around the room.

“And one more,” the scientist commands before my scream even ends.

I shake my head, though the restraints allow almost no movement. “No! Please no!” My sobbed words are barely intelligible.

“Here,” the scientist says, gesturing to my clavicle.

My whole body is shaking. Carter is trembling too, but he does what she asks. His clenched fist chops across my chest, robbing me of breath, stopping my shriek. I gasp, mouth open, but no scream comes out.

“That will be all, solider,” she says tapping against my newest broken bone allowing it to stab further into me.

Carter backs away from me, looking pasty, trembling and sweating. His eyes are wide and then he stumbles to the sink and throws up. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand before leaving without a backwards glance.