Chapter 6

2040

Ethan returned to his home, only to see his brother still lingering in the kitchen. “So what are we supposed to do now?” He asked with a sigh. The last thing he expected was for their mother to up and decide to run off. The dust hadn’t even settled from Valen’s death.

Azrael offered his brother a simple shrug. It wasn’t really his place to question what his mother was up to. Sure, he was just as concerned, but he knew the woman would do what she wanted to, anyway. Telling her not to go would only drive her further away. “We do what she wants and ‘hold the fort’.” He hadn’t heard the order first hand, but he knew that was the jist of it. They were old enough and certainly knew enough to get by until she came home. If she liked what she saw when she came back, then maybe for once she would settle down and relax. He wanted to see that. Without his father, he wasn’t so sure his mother could let go of the stress there was in running a community that just kept growing in size and prosperity. It was a grand accomplishment, but it was a lot for only one person to hold. The thought reminded him of a grander issue.

“Anna told me that our produce rates are lower than expected.” Azrael admitted to his brother before he took a sip of the drink in his hand.

Ethan frowned. “How much lower?”

“Low enough that we could run into some problems in winter. I’ve already called upon Arcadia and Seraphim. They will help us if we need it.”

Well, that was a plus and made Ethan feel better, though the fact they were short on supplies alone didn’t. “What happened?”

“Not sure. Audrey said that maybe our seed genetics are running out or something. She offered to mix up our seeds to see if it will help, but that won't be something we can do until next season. Oh... and she asked about the party. I think we should still have it.”

“The party? That’s usually mom’s thing to organize…and if we are going to be short of resources is it really wise to hold it?”

“And dad’s thing to take all the credit but he won't be here and I think if we take it over it will take the stress off of Mom. It may be better for the community to keep going with the party. It will be a tougher winter but everyone looks forward to that and to not hold it may do more morale damage than what it’s worth.”

“Good point. Okay... we’ve got a few weeks still. I’m sure she will want to look over the plans anyway so we can get it all set up, so she just has to okay everything.”

“Yea or she will change it all, anyway.”

“Mom’s stubborn.”

“Pain in the ass you mean…”

“Maybe if you’re quoting dad.”

“He wasn’t wrong..” Azrael spoke as a matter-of-factly, a smirk played on his lips very reminiscent of their father.

***

“Where are we going?” Nick asked. The conversation had been non-existent during their travel until he finally broke the silence.

“Revisiting the past a little…” Silurian finally spoke as she stopped and slipped herself down from her horse. She went to rub her hand over the animal’s face for a moment before she inspected the surrounding area before heading out into the open field, past the line of trees.

“Never struck me as the sentimental type..” Nick left his horse next to her’s and did his best to catch up as she walked towards what seemed like a run-down shack in the middle of a grassy field. They left the horses untethered, just in case they ran into any trouble while they were away. Leaving them tied could spell their death to anything that happened by.

“Nothing sentimental about it. I just wanted to check it out and see what's left.” The shack she stood in front of was barely even standing. It looked more like a wooden teepee of planks than what it had been. Years of neglect and storms having seen to its current state. She reached out to move the pieces of wood until a hand constructed metal hatch appeared.

“After….twenty years?” Nick looked at the woman with a skeptical arch of his brow. “Yea... whatever you say.” Nick watched as Silurian didn’t even bother to wait for him. She went down the hatch without another word. This trip was definitely a sentimental thing. Was she finally hitting a midlife crisis? With her husband gone, was she trying to rediscover who she was? It was hard to tell, since trying to pry information out of the woman was like pulling teeth out of someone’s skull. “So this is what we’re doing? Okay then…” Nick gave a sigh and followed down the same ladder. It surprised him as it held up to her weight and then his own. Everything was showing its age, and this tunnel was pitch black. “Can’t see a damned thing.”

Silurian rolled her eyes and inched herself along into the darkness. She still remembered this place like it had been yesterday. Step by step she moved until she felt the corner of an alcove that had a generator within it. She attempted to turn it on, once more having memorized how the contraption worked. No luck though. “Generator is dead.” Silurian shifted to reach into her back pocket. Luckily, she had a small flashlight. It would not do them good in the long term, but it was enough to give them a way to go for the time being.

Nick’s eyes adjusted to the small light that came into his view like a magical fairy. “That’s it? Why didn’t we bring better lights? Torches?”

“Good idea, if you want to suffocate.” Silurian continued along the dark corridor with her blunt statement. Her hand ran along the walls, making her wince now and then as her fingers would hit rougher parts. The walls were far from perfect, and the years of neglect didn’t help. The luminosity of her light wasn’t much to see as they went, but it was enough to move around the random scattering of debris. Then she felt the sudden shock of a cool breeze. That wasn’t quite a breeze. It was the opening of a room, a large open space that even in the darkness was nearly suffocating in its dark depth. Her eyes glanced upward to see a slight glimmer of light above. This was the hangar.

They had already traveled about two miles from the shack to where they were now. While they were still technically underground, the hangar loomed above with walkways that surrounded the way up for two more stories. It seemed the hangar had survived the years a little better, but the overgrowth of the forest had darkened the windows above.

Nick came into the room behind her, only to frown with the tease of limited light. It wasn’t much at all. He could only see the lights peeking in from above and the light Silurian carried. But with the walls of the corridor gone, he took better care to stay close to the woman. “How did you live like this?”

“It was a lot easier when the generators worked.” Silurian scoffed at her companion and continued on a few steps as she looked for the stairs to head up to the ground level of the hangar. If she could open a door or move some of the debris, they could at least get some more daylight in.

By the small light Silurian had, the duo slowly made their way through the expanse of darkness to the wall, moving along its path until they could finally locate a set of stairs. The stairs weren’t in the best of shape either, but they seemed to be sturdy enough to allow the both of them to move up onto the second level. The next set of stairs led upward once more and to surface level. Silurian moved towards the walls of the hangar in search of something she could move to let in some light.

“Ssssiiilllluuu...rrrrr...iiiiiaaaannnn….” Something hissed out a name from the depths of the shadows of the pit below them. The very place they had just emerged from.

The voice sent chills up Silurian’s spine. She knew that voice. It wasn’t the same, but it was so familiar…

2020

Seth stared at the computer terminal in front of his chair. His brilliant, nearly glowing red eyes taking in the information that slowly compiled for his scrutiny. The room was practically a metal box, each wall made of a titanium alloy that matched the desks and computer equipment. The sleek and sterile like environment fit perfectly with the testing equipment laid on the table nearby. As a scientist, he needed everything at his disposal when he needed it. He heard the hiss of the door sliding open behind him, but gave it little thought. The singular door was the only thing that kept him from his work. It seemed it always had someone coming through to harass him with every stupid little thing. He centered his concentration on the files that appeared one after another with new data on his current project.

“Don’t mean to interrupt, but the girl is being released from the ward today. Thought you might want to know.” A soft yet perky voice interrupted the gentle hum of the equipment in the room.

“Get Talon on it. It’s his job.” Seth dismissed the pesky feminine voice that lingered from behind him. In fact, he was looking at that very girl’s lab results and the information was intriguing. She was healing faster than an average human, her physical aptitude tests were higher too. “Tell him he has full permission to break her.” If the strain they had injected into this girl with was truly working how the tests showed, then they had to put it to the full test.

The woman giggled at the news. “I’m sure Talsy will love to hear that! He was as happy as a little puppy with a big bone the last time he got to play with her. Even got some ‘play time’ myself after that...” The blonde rose her eyebrows suggestively while her body squirmed in delight with the memory.

Seth rolled his eyes at the woman’s continued banter. She was a typical pretty drop dead gorgeous body type blonde. Long legs, an hourglass figure that was squeezed into a pencil skirt and button up blouse. Definitely not the brightest crayon in the box either. “Get going then, I’m busy!” The order was sharp enough to send the woman back through the door at a quick pace.

***

Blood dripped onto the concrete floor as Silurian slowly pushed herself up to her feet. Long dark hair kept the teenage girl's face hidden while she tried to get her wits back into her head. The room tried to spin and she the ringing in her ears would just stop. Her blue eye remained clear while the green one had blown a vessel, causing the white parts to turn red.

This was not the first time she found herself in such a situation.

"Whoa, look who thinks they're a big bad bitch today!" A man's voice boomed and partly echoed through the metal lined room. The voice belonged to her hand to hand skills trainer. Talon was ruthless with training and the more they worked, the more he seemed to gain energy. She wasn't sure if it was from the workout or enjoyment of beating the hell out of her, but she was stubborn, and stubbornness brought her back to her feet to give a glaring stare in the larger man's direction. At her age she hadn’t fully grown into her height by any means, but she assumed Talon’s seven feet would continue to dwarf her even in the future.

Talon would have been intimidating even in a more casual setting, with a musculature that could leave most professional wrestlers in shame. She knew he had to have some virus in him too, but she never dared to ask. Experiments never really seemed to enjoy being reminded that they were just that.

"Why don't you stay down?"

She heard his voice again before she attempted to block the punch headed for her stomach, but even with that deflection she felt his other elbow down against her shoulder and her body met the floor again. "See? Isn't it more comfortable down there?" The man laughed.

This was usually how their sessions ended. He left her on the floor, unable to move until someone finally came and returned her to her room or the medical ward. The scientists would wait until she healed before she was in this place again to test her fortitude. Placed up against any normal person, her skills were flawless. This man, though, had two advantages. He was better, with more years of experience, and he was far larger. Unfortunately, he also loved to get inside her head. It was torture both physically and mentally, and it was hard for her to tell if he did it for her training or because he was that sadistic.

She must have lingered on the ground too long when she felt his hand grip her hair and pull her up by her scalp. Suddenly she felt the nearest wall against her face and body with his own bare sculpted chest pressing in right behind her to turn her into that proverbial 'between a rock and a hard place'.

"Where is all the fight you had a minute ago? Huh? Have I worn you down so soon? Pathetic."

Talon was what one could call ‘blood drunk’. He seemed far more susceptible to that minor side effect of the virus than she was. The scent of the fresh metallic liquid loved to linger in the air when enough spilled out onto the metal floor. The more blood she shed, the more he wanted to torment her and send her home crying. Problem was...she didn't cry. He pushed and pushed to gain those tears, but they never came. In some dark sense, it even seemed like she enjoyed it. The testing, the pain and torment, it only ended up egging them both on to their limits. She just didn’t have the stamina to continue on with so many injuries. Silurian had yet to find Talon’s limitation. Only that these exercises seemed to be a guise for more sinister desires. The plastered grin on his chiseled face with each blow of his fist betrayed any sense of professionalism .

When she stopped fighting against his grip as much, he couldn't help but laugh. "Now now...you're supposed to learn from pain." He'd lean his face down to breathe in the scent mixture of her skin and the blood that dripped and dried among the littered cuts and bruises. His tongue reached out for a taste of a drop of that vital crimson liquid along her cheek. The satisfaction of that taste caused the man to let out a growling groan from his throat. Before he could get too carried away, Talon noticed her breathing had slowed, which only meant he needed to step up the game. She was getting too comfortable. Just as quickly as he had pinned her to the wall, he used his grip on her hair to toss her several feet away. "You are disa-" His voice cut off as Silurian recovered a little more quickly than he expected and slammed him into the same wall. She landed a few well-placed knees and punches to his torso to take advantage of his error.

As much as there is a blurred line of pleasure and pain. A weird brainwashed effect occurred within Silurian's psyche from the lack of any form of tender affection. The only attention gained these last five years was from Talon or the needles of the scientists. It made her heart race and her skin tingle with all the hairs standing on end from the stimulation. There was still a harbored hatred there. A hatred that she'd gladly see Talon’s lifeless corpse on the ground if she could only make it happen. It was like a bunny trying to attack a wolf, and the big bad wolf always won. While her sudden show of energy had impressed her trainer, he did not take it well. Talon grabbed her and spun her around like a rag doll, her fatigue enough to give him that leeway while she gasped for air.

It felt like a train had hit her when she felt his knee driven into her back and then she felt the cold ground again. Her body slumped down to the ground with no effort of Talon attempting to lessen her fall. Silurian couldn't move while she gasped for air, desperately trying to regain the sense of air filling her lungs again.

"Nice try, little one. Maybe next time you'll learn from that mistake." Then, like many times before, she was left alone on the floor watching the tormentor leave with an amused smirk on his face.

The floor seemed comforting the longer she found herself laid upon the cool surface. She knew eventually some medical crew would come in to take her off to see to her injuries. Yet in the meantime, it left her with her thoughts. Thoughts of how she ended up in this place. Contemplations on how her brother escaped, but wasn’t willing or able to take her with him. What was he even doing outside of this compound? Was he thriving? Did he even know she was still living? The memories of the world outside of this metallic one were fading in her mind. All she knew was that it had been years since they had permitted her to leave the facility. When her parents were still alive.

2040

“Ssssiiilllluuu...rrrrr...iiiiiaaaannnn….” The voice grew more demanding, as if the first time it hadn't been sure of the woman's presence.

"What the fuck is that?" Nick spoke with alarm with wide eyes searching the darkness of the depths below for some sign of movement, anything.

"The past..."