Chapter 50: Volume II: Chapter 17: Captive

Chleo picked at the bandage covering her forearm, unraveling the gauze at the edges. From the corner of her eye she watched Will. He still hadn’t moved.

A chain harness gleamed from his chest mirroring her own. She tugged at the metal in unconscious frustration. He lay on the same rough nest of blankets the neons threw him on when they arrived, and she wanted to check on him. She threw a glare at the ball hovering behind her. It looked like an overgrown version of Will’s hornet. The leash attached to her back connected to it, and she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out how to get it to move.

Meters separated them, and she was sure it was on purpose, the vindictive… worms. She scowled trying to think of a better insult.

“I wouldn’t say we’re worms.” Chleo jumped as the cell door slid open, the opaque walls blocking the view of anything outside. She bit her lip in disappointment. She thought she was getting better at keeping her thoughts to herself. Blue swallowed the room giving her a second of false hope that Dai had somehow found them. Instead, she was greeted by the man who punched Will. “Vastly different biology, you see,” he continued with a friendly smile and a syringe. She tensed.

“Leave him alone,” she said when he dismissed her for Will. She struggled against her harness, turning and pulling at the leash as he slid the needle into Will’s vein. The stubborn oversized hornet wouldn’t budge.

“Relax, little one,” he said in a soft timber she thought was meant to calm her, “just taking a little blood.” He slid the syringe back out, giving the full tube a couple flicks. “Yes, this will do nicely,” he muttered to himself.

He turned, eyes sweeping over her in appraisal. “Are you going to let me take a look at that?” he asked tipping his head toward her bandage.

“Are you going to leech me for blood, too?” she challenged.

He let out a booming laugh as he tucked the blood into a pouch on his belt. “Not right now, no.” He took a tentative step forward. She took a confident step back. They continued the dance until she hit the cell wall. Her back pressed into the smooth glass as he continued forward holding his hands up to show he meant no harm.

“Easy,” he said speaking like he would to a wounded animal, “that’s it. I just want to take a quick look.” She let him take her arm, not seeing any scenarios that would end with both her and Will escaping.

“See, that’s not so bad, is it?” he asked shooting her a smile, his hands working with experience to unwrap the frayed gauze. “You know, you should thank Tilly when you see her. She went for your arm and not your neck. That kind of restraint in her state… it was an act of pure Lux.”

Chleo looked down at her mangled arm, the bandage falling away to reveal gouged muscle and ripped skin. Her stomach rolled. “Sure, I’ll remember to thank her,” she snapped through clenched teeth.

The self-proclaimed doctor chuckled. She fumed. He tossed the gauze to the side leaning in for a closer look. His eyes widened in surprise before flicking to face. Suspicion replaced amusement.

“The muscle is half healed,” he said. She shrugged, not knowing how to respond. He turned back to her arm, prodding her skin before flipping her palm up. She yelped as the wound stretched, shooting pain in angry streaks. Her world tilted.

He steadied her with a strong hand on her shoulder. “How long have you healed this quickly?” he asked, indifferent to her trouble.

She gasped in a breath against the pain, trying to regain her balance. Her head shook as she tried to clear it. “Don’t know. Was it quick?”

“For a human,” he sniffed, his earlier smile noticeably absent. Her arm settled back into the steady throb she could ignore. She glanced at Will.

“Who says I’m human?” she asked straightening. His mouth opened to answer, coming up blank. The smile returned.

“Fascinating.” He pulled the syringe back out popping a new tube on the end. “I think I will take that blood sample, now.”

She pressed her back farther into the wall, slapping a hand against his wrist. “Please, don’t.” To his credit, he hesitated.

“Don’t worry, it’ll barely pinch.” He tried to reassure her, peeling her hand away and plunging the needle into her vein. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away, forcing herself not to fight back. Will needed to wake up first.

“There, done.” He patted her shoulder in sympathy. “I’m not a fan of needles either.”

Her teeth worried her bottom lip, a hand raising unbidden to rub where the needle had injected her on Luna. She bet her reason was better than his. Her arm throbbed.

Sensing her discomfort, the neon reached into his pouch and pulled out a salve. “Rub this on the bite once a day until your skin returns. Shouldn’t be more than a couple based on your progress so far.”

She gave him a short nod. With one last smile, he stood to leave. At the door, he turned back, mouth half open to say something. He shook his head instead and left.

~*~*~

The day crept past. Will finally woke up after her hundredth circle around the floating ball controlling her leash. She cursed it for keeping her confined to one side of the cell, tugging as close as she could as he groaned awake.

“Chleo,” he mumbled, eyes snapping open as he shot to his feet. He stumbled using the wall for support. His eyes found hers, a hand raising to press against his temple, his face completely blank despite the pain. Blank face number seven, the one he reserved for when they were in way over their heads. “Are you all right?”

She laughed. Passed out for hours and he asked if she was all right. Ridiculous. They were chained in a cell, Lux knew where, on a moon that wasn’t supposed to exist that they got to by stealing her brother’s—because apparently she had one of those now—ship. She felt the first tear trail down her cheek, her helpless smile still stubbornly in place.

“I haven’t heard you do that for a while,” Will said shuffling closer. His harness stopped him just out of reach. He pulled at it.

“Do what?” she asked as more tears followed the first.

“Think out loud,” he said huffing in frustration, a small sound only recognizable if one knew to listen for it, before giving up on the chain. He gave her a small sad shrug before plopping down to sit on the ground. She followed his lead.

“I thought I was getting better at it.”

“I think it’s cute.” He smiled the goofy grin that always tricked a laugh out of her. “So Mic’s your brother… Didn’t see that coming.”

She wiped at her eyes, willing herself to stop crying.

“Though, I suppose it makes sense.” At her look he continued, “You’re both so… passionate.”

She flicked a piece of lint at him. “You don’t think he just said it to get me to turn around?”

He shrugged. “My watch didn’t glow.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Does it even work if he’s talking through a bird?”

Will pondered it for a moment. He shrugged again. “We can ask your mom when we find her.”

Chleo’s heart clenched. After months spent worrying, they were close. Her hand rose to cover the spot over her hidden pocket. Two lumps pressed against her skin. “Do you think she’s here?”

Will lifted a hand before remembering he couldn’t reach her. He let it drop. “Umbra was.” He let the rest go unsaid.

~*~*~

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Boredom set in quickly. There were only so many ways to pace a room. Their nerves grated as time passed. Hunger followed next, the familiar empty growls echoing off the cell walls. Chleo rolled to her other side, the nest of blankets doing almost nothing to keep the floor’s chill away.

The cell’s fluorescent lights glared down, keeping any semblance of sleep from taking hold. She snuck another glance at her watch. Ten minutes since her last check. She slipped it back into the pocket, her jacket hiding the movement.

The second hand mocked her, ticking slower with each check. She could almost hear the tocks as she fought the urge to slip it out for another look. Flipping back over, she punched the blanket she was using as a pillow into a puffier ball. Her head landed back on the pile, an arm flung over her eyes to ward off the light. The bite twinged, the salve she rubbed on it earlier doing its job numbing most of the pain.

At some point, sleep found her, fleeing again at the sound of the door sliding open. She jerked awake, disoriented. Expecting to find the comforts of the Shack, the couch below her surrounded by her parents’ sorry excuse for art on the walls, the harsh lights and spartan cell stomped the dream into dust.

Blue flooded the room throwing everything under a surreal filter. Chleo watched through blurry eyes as the doctor entered followed by the woman who bit her. Yellow flowed brightly from her skin, the flickering from the ship absent as the filter swallowing the cell combined their colors and morphed to a lively green.

“I have to say,” the woman said sweeping a critical eye over Chloe and an equally groggy Will, “you weren’t quite what we were expecting when we caught the ship.” She took a few measured steps toward the corner Chleo occupied.

Dropping into a squat, she met her gaze. Chleo pressed her back against the wall, squeezing her knees to her chest. “If it’s any consolation you don’t taste very good.”

It wasn’t.

Chleo’s arm throbbed. “What do you want?” she asked, searching the woman’s eyes for the insanity from before. Instead they stared back, intelligent and calculating.

“A cure,” she shrugged. “Your people,” she hesitated, “well, maybe not your people, but his,” she tilted her head toward Will, “created a disease. We need a cure before we can go home. That and a ship.” She shrugged the topic away. Her breaths quickening in excitement as her skin pulsed brighter, greed and hunger joining the gleam shining from her eye. “What are you?”

Chleo and Will shared a look. She turned back letting her face fall into the mask she used when someone on Luna called her a relo-rat, aloof, blank. “You have my blood. You tell me.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Tilly,” the doctor warned.

The slap came faster than Chleo could react, her head snapping to the side as Tilly’s hand connected. She heard Will jump to his feet and rush forward, his harness stopping him meters away. He tugged at the chain trying to force the floating ball to move.

“Leave her alone,” he grunted, the chain stubbornly immobile.

Tilly ignored him, raising a sleeve to tap a command into her wristlet. Will yelped as the ball reeled his chain in, yanking his feet out from under him. It didn’t stop until the back of his harness hit the ball leaving him hanging centimeters from the ground. He kicked his feet in anger pulling at the chains that refused to give.

“Let’s try again,” she said, the corners of her mouth chilling the room with a sharp smile. “What are you?”

Chleo kept her mask in place, unsure what to say, positive it wouldn’t end well if she explained. Tilly’s eyebrow rose. “It seems you don’t fully understand the position you and your friend find yourselves in.” Her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps a demonstration would help.”

She tapped another command into her wristlet and Chleo found her own ball at her back. Her hands grabbed the arms of the harness, trying to relieve some of the pressure as her feet dangled. With a soft jerk the ball moved forward to follow Tilly. Chleo hung helpless as it pushed her along.

“Are you sure about this?” She overheard the doctor mutter as Will’s ball moved to follow hers. Tilly shot him a glare. He raised his hands in surrender and let it drop, falling in line behind the two floating prisoners.

They filed out into a dark corridor, nothing but the light of the neons to guide them. They passed a line of doors before taking a turn. Chleo wondered if there were others like her and Will behind them. The walls widened, rough stone held in place by hastily constructed braces.

Chleo cringed as her feet swayed. They were in a mine. Something about the thought made her breaths shallow and her palms clammy. She wondered if it was the same feeling Will got with heights.

She took a deep breath as Tilly slid another door open. They entered a large chamber. The walls towered over them, uneven rock meeting stalactites at the top, hanging down to pierce the green glow from their captors’ combined light.

“This,” Tilly announced, pride in her voice, “is the farm.” Her arms rose presenting the scene in front of them. Chleo and Will looked on in horror.

Rows upon rows of lab coat clad humans sat unconscious, strapped to chairs with monitors displaying their vitals. A needle protruded from every arm, blood pumping from a fourth of them into a large vat sealed in the middle of the setup. Others lay motionless and pale, their screaming vitals falling on deaf ears.

Chleo caught the eye of the doctor. He glanced away, shame darkening his cheeks. “Why?” she asked him.

Tilly answered instead. “Blood,” she shot her a toothy smile before eyeing Will, “more precisely, human blood. Observe.”

She typed something into her wristlet and another door opened. A neon, strapped to his own ball floated in, his yellow glow rushing up to meet Tilly’s as it flickered at a frantic pace. He dangled listless, his nose fluttering as he neared the humans. His head raised, lips curling into a snarl.

Passing the first row of chairs, he snapped. His teeth clacked as he lunged without leverage, trying to reach the unconscious form. The chains from his harness rattled. Spit flew from his mouth, drool running down the corners. The closer to the vat he flew, the more rabid he became. His body twisted and squirmed against the ball, blood seeping into his shirt where the harness cut into his skin.

Chleo was sure he would break loose, but his bindings held tight. Tilly stopped the Neon by a spigot leading from the vat. She tapped another command into her wristlet and blood flowed from the small pipe into a bowl. The neon clawed himself closer lapping at it before the source cut off, blood dripping down to coat his hair.

From his first gulp, he visibly calmed. His urgency never wavered but tension fell from his body with each sip. Chleo felt her lips press tighter in distaste. Her stomach clenched.

The neon slowed, then stopped, his glow growing stronger until the flicker turned solid. Looking up, he took in the room. Intelligence lit his eyes replacing the dullness of instinct.

“Tilly?” he asked, catching her stare. Groaning, his face clouded in understanding. “Again, really?” He smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, nearly gagging. “You couldn’t just inject it?”

Tilly rolled her eyes. “If you would keep up with the regimen Shoke set for you, we wouldn’t have to. One blood pill a day, Renny. It’s not that hard.”

He shot her a petulant glare tugging at his harness with a grimace. “My supply ran out last week.” He cast a searching look around the room, eyeing the screaming vitals on the majority of chairs. “Looks like yours is running low, too.”

She tapped a command into her wristlet. His harness snapped open. Unprepared, he hit the ground in a heap. Hopping to his feet like nothing happened, he sauntered over to join them.

“Who are your new friends?” he asked sniffing the air near Will. Cocking an eyebrow, he added, “A bit young for harvest, don’t you think?”

“Why don’t you worry about taking your pills, and I’ll worry about supply,” Tilly said. He scoffed, circling around behind Chleo.

The hair on the back of her neck rose as he sniffed near her ear. “Woof, this one is… I don’t even know. What is she?” he asked moving to stand next to the doctor. “Smells a bit like you Shoke.” He laughed clipping the larger man on the shoulder. Shoke glared. He shrugged.

“Based on her blood,” Tilly said ignoring the byplay, “something in between.” She took a step closer to her prize, eyeing Chleo with a familiar look. For a moment, she was back on Luna, The Man in Black staring down at her proud of his experiment.

“You’re the key,” Tilly said, a greedy smile lighting her face. Yellow flashed brighter from her skin. “You will cooperate. You will answer our questions, or we will find chair for your friend.” She tilted her head toward the farm. “Like Renny said, our supply is running woefully low.”

Renny’s laugh echoed in the chamber as Tilly ordered the balls to float them back to their cell.

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