Chapter 53: Volume II: Chapter 20: Rocks and Hard Places

“Let them go,” Lexy ordered. Melody watched as the guards ignored her, pulling the kids toward a holding chamber.

“No,” Melody said, heart aching as they threw them in and locked the door. Images of the previous occupants flashed through her mind, the horrors she and Lexy inflicted on them. Not Chleo, not her Chleo, not Will.

Melody turned to glare at Johnson. Lexy pulled against a guard, trying to get to the door.

“Now, now, Lexy, a queen never struggles,” Johnson scolded. “Very undignified. I would expect it from Melody, but you… have you forgotten all of your lessons?”

She fought harder. Melody wasn’t sure what she thought she would do if she made it to the door.

“What do you want?” Melody asked. Lexy stopped, head turning to look at her. The smile that spread over Johnson’s face made her stomach turn.

“Perhaps, I didn’t think enough of you,” he said. His gaze flicked to Lexy. “Negotiation, a lady’s weapon.” Melody clenched her teeth against a knee-jerk response and waited for an answer. Disappointment skirted across his face at her silence.

He spun, stalking over to gaze into the holding chamber. Will and Chleo glared back through the glass. Johnson reached up and turned on the intercom.

“Your daughter was my star subject on Luna,” he said. Melody’s stomach dropped.

“What did you do?” Her hand twitched, aching to grab for one of the guards’ stunners.

“Made her better,” he said. His eyes tracked Chleo in the chamber. Will stepped in front of her.

“Johnson,” she warned.

He lifted a finger tracing the glass around her daughter’s silhouette. “She’s the only one who survived,” he muttered. Turning, he stared at Melody. “Your serum worked.”

She stumbled back into the desk. Her hand clutched the edge for support.

“You injec-… It’s not even working on the rats, and you injected my daughter?” she asked.

Johnson shrugged, his attention back on the chamber. “I told you to make it work. It did.”

Melody moved to join him by the viewing window. A guard reached out his hand to stop her, dropping it when Johnson shook his head. She lifted a hand and pressed it against the glass. Chleo stared at her looking torn between moving closer and staying behind Will.

“We have a few tests to conduct first, Luna was understandably ill-equipped, but I believe we’ll be ready for Phase Two as early as tomorrow.”

Melody’s stare snapped to Johnson. “Phase Two is months away from a feasible test.”

“Yes,” Johnson said, dragging the word as he turned to stare down at her, “so you’ve said…” He turned back to the containment chamber. “I suppose we’ll find out soon. Prepare the subject.”

Guards entered the chamber and forced the kids apart. They dragged Chleo through a doorway into the room they used to evaluate a patient’s physical health. Melody scrambled to the next viewing window.

Chleo stood, a guard at each shoulder, with a look of dismay.

“You have got to be kidding me,” her daughter’s voice crackled through the intercom, eyes glued to the treadmill sitting among the equipment.

~*~*~

Chleo’s legs ached. Her feet throbbed. Everything hurt.

“Are you still awake?” Will muttered by her ear. Her back rested against his chest as they sat against the corner of the room. The lights were cut minutes after Chleo returned and neither of them wanted to sleep out of reach.

“Mhm,” she hummed, not quite a groan.

“You seemed a bit unsteady when you came back.”

She laughed. He understated it. She had staggered, if not fallen, into his arms as soon as the guards pushed her his way.

“Remember how you felt after your first day of training?” she asked.

“Yes…”

“That with fewer bruises.”

Will hummed in sympathy, hugging her tighter. Chleo’s watch pressed into her chest under his arm. She wondered if she’d have enough energy to use it.

“Will?” She let her head fall back onto his shoulder, losing her will to keep it up. “We need a plan.”

“I know,” he muttered into the darkness. She waited for him to say more, but he stayed quiet. It wasn’t a surprise. She usually made the plans. Then again, her plan was what landed them in their second cell of the day.

“Do you think Mom has one?” she asked. He sighed, his breath tickling her neck and ruffling her hair.

“I hope so,” he said, the words low, muttered as a wish more than a statement. Then louder he added, “She usually does.”

Chleo raised and eyebrow, and turned to look at him before remembering it was too dark for him to see it. She squinted, trying to find his outline. Nothing. Eyes open or closed, it didn’t matter. It all looked the same. She settled for the feel of his knees by her sides and his arms around her middle.

“I guess if she doesn’t have a plan, your mom could,” she said trying to keep her voice light. He hadn’t mentioned seeing her since they arrived.

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He sent an obligatory hum into her hair.

“Will…” she said when he didn’t add anything else, “are you ok?”

She heard him swallow.

“She’s here. I didn’t think—…” Will rested his chin on Chleo’s shoulder. “How long have they had her? Since I ran away?” His fingers trailed down her arm before linking with hers. “Johnson said your mom made the serum. Did he make her help, too?”

“I don’t know.”

“And those people we passed on the way here, the Neons who captured us, are our mothers responsible for what happened to them?”

“Will… I don’t know. Does it matter?”

“Does it—of course it does. It goes against everything your mom taught us. Everything my mother taught me.”

“They didn’t have a choice.”

“Chleo, you can barely stand, and they just stood there and watched it happen.”

“With a gun to their heads.”

Will’s breathing filled the room, long and labored, as he tried to rein in his emotions.

“Will they do the same tomorrow?” he asked, anger simmering under the surface. “Will they watch as Johnson injects you with another nightmare they created?”

Chleo wanted to say no. Her mother would never stand by and watch someone potentially kill her. The truth was she didn’t know, and the realization scared her. She was just getting used to the changes from her last encounter with one of Johnson’s experiments, and didn’t care to experience another.

“I guess we’ll find out,” she muttered into the dark.

~*~*~

“I thought you said the ship would make the trip,” Merk yelled somewhere behind Jack.

“I did,” Jack said rushing over to a blown fuse and trying to reroute the power to back up systems. “We made it to Umbra didn’t we?”

“I assumed you included the landing.”

Jack ignored him in favor of a sparking control panel. He stared at it wishing Melody were there to help. Hardware was her thing not his. She would know what to do. He started to rewire a piece hoping he was right. From the corner of his eye, he saw Dai raise her hand by the door.

“I kinda thought you did, too,” she said, grabbing the frame as their ship bucked against the atmosphere. There wasn’t much, but it was enough for their small ship to feel it.

“We’ll land,” he said. A wire sparked burning his finger. He shook it off and lifted it his mouth, trying to finish the wires with his left hand.

“In one piece?” Eelock asked. He leaned against a secondary panel unaffected by the constant jerks and bumps.

Jack paused before switching back to the blown fuse. “We’ll land,” he repeated.

They did, and with the help from a trick Melody taught him, the ship was only in two pieces. All things considered, he called it a success. The others disagreed.

“I’m never following one of your plans again,” Merk said, trying to pry the cockpit’s door open. Adrenaline shot red from his skin, overpowering Dai and Eelock’s glows.

Jack suppressed an eye roll. “You say that every time.”

“This time it’s true.” The door inched open. Jack caught his first glimpse of Umbra around the back half of the ship, barren and dull. “Only plans from Eelock and Melody from now on, or I’m out. You’re almost as bad as Dai.”

“Hey,” Dai said, looking up from checking their packs, “I didn’t do anything.” She started rummaging through the bags again before muttering, “This time.”

The door wrenched open with a groan. Merk stepped back with a satisfied smirk as Dai handed out the packs.

“Which way?” he asked leading the way into a world of dust and sand.

Stars mixed with light from Terra. The result reminded Jack of nights on Luna. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“The compound is our best bet. It’s the most likely place Johnson would keep Melody. If I’m right, her watch would have led Chleo and Will there, too,” Jack said unfurling the only map they could find on short notice. He could only hope it wasn’t outdated.

“What did I just say?” Merk asked, spinning to glare at him.

Eelock raised an eyebrow. “We’ll check the compound, evaluate the defenses, and find the best way in… agreed?”

Merk flicked his eyes between Jack to Eelock. “Fine,” he said, turning and storming off.

“Hey, Merk,” Jack called, biting back his amusement.

“What?” he yelled back, not bothering to turn around.

“It’s that way,” Jack said pointing in the other direction. Merk turned on his heel and stomped off in the right direction. Dai tried to cover her laugh as they moved to follow.

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