Chapter 55: Volume II: Chapter 22: … Sort of.

They heard the klaxons long before the elevator reached the bottom. The sound vibrated through the metal floor, echoing in the oversized space. Jack imagined Johnson giving the orders to build it bigger, too impatient to wait multiple trips for his hostages to arrive.

He scoffed to himself. Yeah… that sounded like him.

Soft music played over the intercom while they waited.

“So…” Merk asked staring at the door waiting for it to open, “is this your first government facility?”

“Nah,” Jones answered ignoring a look from Tilly. “You?”

“Nah. They’re a bit like Brincha Chips,” Merk said with a smirk, “hard to stop once you get a taste.”

Jones barked out a laugh, eyes shining in agreement. The flickering Neons grew more agitated the lower they sank. Dai glanced at them as they strained against their harnesses.

“They smell the humans,” Tilly said.

“Right.” Dai shifted sharing a look with Eelock. Jack flashed back to the Tail, Mic’s neck gouged out by hungry teeth. He shuffled an uneasy step back.

The floor jerked to a stop beneath them. A few in their party stumbled before pulling their weapons, the music still playing a soft upbeat number above. Everyone huddled to the sides. Jack grabbed a few bees from his pouch and aimed at the door.

Fabric rustled. Harnesses clinked. Anxious energy buzzed in the air. The door didn’t open.

Merk straightened from a crouch, tapping on his wristlet. “Frog in a frying pan?” he mumbled to Dai.

“It is one of his favorites,” she said. Jack groaned, noticing the rush of heat through the vents. “You didn’t think Johnson would just let us waltz in did you?”

“I had hoped…” Merk muttered.

“Twenty seconds, Merk,” Eelock ordered. “Get that protocol in.”

“Working on it, Cap.” Merk tapped faster.

“What are they talking about?” Tilly asked turning to Jack.

“It’s a trap.” Jack shrugged leaning back against the wall.

“You don’t seem worried.” Her eyes narrowed.

“Ten seconds,” Eelock’s voice rang through the room. Sweat beaded on Jack’s brow, the wall behind his back becoming too hot to touch. He leaned forward.

“Merk’s good at finding backdoors.”

“And knowing the right protocols?” she asked raising an eyebrow.

“Five seconds,” Eelock said, moving to the side of the door. Jack took his cue and crouched breathing through the heat.

“Something like that.” He smiled.

Merk tapped his wristlet one more time before falling into a crouch. Tilly, Jones, and the others followed, sensing something was about to happen. The flickering Neons strained against their harnesses trying to get to the doors.

A soft ding interrupted the music and the door opened. The heat rushed from the chamber, chased by the flickering Neons. Guards’ eyes widened as the doors opened too soon, the closest’s blood splattering his lab coat as a Neon flickered over him. The others stumbled back, no doubt expecting to scrape fried bodies off the floor, not fight through frenzied, sick aliens. They recovered as the first round of bees followed.

Eelock rushed from the elevator first, Dai and Merk quick on his heels. Jack went last covering their backs. They didn’t know Tilly and her group, and while they appreciated the help, trust wasn’t a commodity Jack and the others gave easily. By the time he joined them, Dai had dropped two more guards. He grabbed one of their stunners.

A chrome hallway stretched in front of them, straight with no cover. They stood surrounded by collapsed men in lab coats, weapons scattered. Neons leaned back from broken bodies. Their flickering lights slowed then steadied.

“That was gross,” one of them muttered before standing and wandering over to Tilly and Jones.

“You’ll get used to it,” one of the others laughed, wiping blood from her chin. Jack’s stomach turned. One of the lab coats rustled. The man inside realized he gave himself away and jumped to his feet sprinting back down the hall. A hornet chased him. It snapped against his neck. He dropped.

Jack and the others watched as the blue and black orb zipped back landing in Tilly’s hand. Before he could cough out a protest, Merk beat him to it.

“Are you insane? We don’t use hornets to kill,” his voice rang, unbridled fury simmering under the surface.

“And humans don’t experiment on Neons anymore.” Tilly rolled her eyes. “Get yourselves together. We hit the lab first. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and the bitch’ll be there.” A few manic grins spread through her ranks. Jack’s heart beat in his chest. Johnson would only trust two people in his lab and Lexy wasn’t an option anymore, Lux rest her soul. “You with us?” Tilly asked turning to Eelock.

He cocked an eyebrow while Merk thumbed his own hornet. “Lead the way.” Merk shot him a surprised look before replacing the hornet with a bee. Jack mirrored his confusion. Eelock allowed the other group to gain some distance before turning to them. “After they lead us to Melody, take them out.”

Merk turned to Dai a vicious smile splitting his face. “Bet I can take Tilly out before you.”

“You’re on,” Dai said already moving down the hall. “The usual?”

“Yes, and you better get the real stuff this time.”

“I won’t have to worry about it with you buying.”

“I’m serious, Dai,” he whined. “I could barely keep it down last time.”

“How did someone from Left Horn get so pretentious?”

“How can someone from Right Horn not tell the difference?”

Jack and Eelock shared a look before following them down the hall.

They found the lab quickly only running into three more guard detachments, Tilly’s hornet taking at least six more.

“Something’s up,” Merk said glaring at the Hornet Master as they walked through another group of lab coats. Jack couldn’t help but agree. Trusting defenses put in place by a prisoner was foolhardy. Johnson was arrogant but not stupid.

“We keep to the plan,” Eelock said glaring at the back of Jones’s head. He and Tilly were exchanging ideas with their crew on how to best dispatch the “scientist bitch.” Dai tensed as she heard the latest, Jack’s teeth grinding as he imagined bashing their heads in.

They gathered outside the lab’s door.

“We could pop her kneecaps first,” Tilly said earning a few chuckles. “We’ll force-feed her the other bastard’s blood, lean in and tell her, ‘I’m sorry. I’ll find you a way out,’ then lock her up in the damn viewing chamber. Let’s see how she likes it.”

Jack felt a pressure on his arm pulling him back. He whipped around, meeting Dai’s eye. She shook her head. Confused, he realized he was crouched ready to spring. His hands ached to wrap around Tilly’s throat. Right, not yet. He nodded, and Dai let him go.

Jones knocked the door open, and Jack rushed in. He heard the others yell as he ran by. He didn’t care. Jack refused to let the others find Melody first.

Rushing past equipment and desks, he scanned the room stopping short. Nothing. No one was there. He was sure. He was so sure they were there, they would be in the lab. Where was his family?

“Nothing,” Tilly spat. Jones cursed. Jack saw Merk tuck his hornet back in his pocket. Tilly sighed, disappointed. “Get the cages open.”

Jack cringed. He wasn’t sure freeing the poor souls locked away was the best idea. The prisoners they’d passed on the way didn’t look sane, some ramming their heads into padded walls, others chewing on their own fingers until bones were visible. He looked to Eelock, but his friend shook his head. Locked in an underground bunker with a bunch of psychotic cannibals… sure, why not?

“I’m not leaving without at least one of them,” Jones growled. “Tilly, you promised—”

“I know what I promised,” she cut him off. Glaring, she pulled a clunky block of tech more at home in the century before from her pocket and tossed it to him. “We chipped the girl. Find her. Bring her back, and we’ll get you your doctor.”

Jones glanced at the tracker, a toothy grin spreading across his face. “Done.”

“What girl?” Eelock asked, watching Jones gather a group with similar scales dotting their skin. They moved in the Neons’ glow reflecting it back.

Tilly turned to study him. “I thought you were here for your family. Why do you care?”

“Your disregard for life concerns me,” he said, turning a meaningful eye to the hornet in her hand.

“Human life,” she corrected, raising a brow. “Relax, she’s practically a Neon, and we need her alive.” Her face softened. “Go look through the cells. Find your family. By the time you get back, we should be ready to go.”

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Jack didn’t miss the suspicion resting behind her eyes. It seemed Eelock didn’t either. He nodded.

They trailed out the door after two from Tilly’s group, Jones and his crew veered off behind them, taking a side passage. Jack watched them go, noting the door in case they needed to follow. He turned back to the others. Chleo and Will could be in the cells. He would find them then look for Melody.

“Was she telling the truth?” Eelock asked. One of Tilly’s Neons glanced at him before looking back at the first cell. No longer flickering, she was still splattered with blood from the guard she’d mangled. She glowed with a soft periwinkle that matched her features, and Jack found himself hoping she never got used to the taste.

“Tilly won’t kill the girl,” she said trying to sound tough. Her voice trailed off at the end unsure.

“Prix,” her friend warned. He paused, hand hovering over the cell’s controls casting it in an eery red. He met Eelock’s eye. “Tilly was right. We need her.”

“Why?”

They both tensed.

“Zel, maybe they could help. Half human, half Neon, they could have heard—”

He shot Prix a hard look. “If they can, they can. We wait for Tilly’s order. Until then, let’s get on with it.” He turned to Eelock. “Check the cells for your family, and let us do our work.”

Jack shared a look with Dai. Half human. Practically Neon. Chleo. He had a sinking feeling he knew exactly where he would find his wife and daughter. They needed to get the tracker away from Jones.

Eelock cocked his head toward the cells. “Jack, Dai start at the far end and work your way back.” Jack’s eyes snapped to him in surprise. “We make sure,” he added sending a careful look at the back of Prix and Zels’ heads. Jack nodded.

Eelock pulled Merk to the side as Jack and Dai rushed to the end of the hall. Already knowing what he found on the first floor, he sprinted up to the second, Dai doing the same on the opposite side. The Neons trapped below looked almost normal with the occasional flicker, much different than the end Prix and Zel worked.

The second floor held similar with a few humans scattered in the cells. Their skin began to pucker and blister as he went, each prisoner a little sicker than the last. Some lay on their cots shivering with fever, others picked at scabs covering the length of their body as they paced too sore to sit. All of them reached a hand toward him as he passed their pleas muted behind soundproof glass. He felt a stab of guilt as he thanked Lux he didn’t find Will or Chleo inside.

After finishing the third level, he slid back down to the bottom. Dai hitting the floor at the same time as him. They raced to the next section. On the second level, the Neon in the first cell banged the glass with a weak hand. Yellow flickered through the cell, reflecting off a sickly gas that hung in the air. His eyes stared unseeing, pupils blown wide in panic.

The next held a human surrounded by the same gas. He sat in the corner trying to bash his head against the padded wall. In the next a Neon scratched at her arms, her blue glow shining off the blood dripping to the floor. A cloth ripped from her shirt covered her mouth and nose but the same terror mirrored off her face.

Every cell held the same, gas and fear. Again, he failed to find Chleo and Will. At the bottom, he and Dai exchanged a relieved look when they noticed neither found the kids.

Jack’s stomach twisted thinking of the last section, the first floor filled with flickering Neons beating at the walls in a familiar frenzy. He wondered if they would settle with the taste of human blood like Prix… like Jace. The cells without Neons held… something else… something hybrid. They made Jones look normal. Scales covered some. Others had feathers or skin slick with slime. Intelligent eyes scattered the prisoners he saw on the first floor on the way to the lab. Jack wasn’t sure if he preferred angry intelligence or uncontrolled frenzy. Neither seemed like something he wanted to face.

The cells began to click open as he and Dai entered the third section. Eelock and Merk glanced at them, shaking their heads. No one found the kids.

An uproar filled the hall. Sound from muted cells fell into the space like a bull through a glass shop. Shrieks from the section behind, moans and growls from the section in front flooded their senses. The hair on the back of Jack’s neck stood on end. Zel stood back from the first cell’s control panel with a satisfied smile. He tipped a liner jack at them. Crude, ugly, but effective, Jack stared at the piece of equipment the neon had used to hack the software in charge of the cells.

“Gotta love tech,” Zel shouted over the roar, “even if it is a century old.”

A few of the hybrids wondered into the hall, cruel smiles twisting their faces.

“To me,” Eelock called. Jack and Dai rushed forward. Merk and Dai took the sides and Jack covered their back. “Did it hit home?”

“Pigeon is locked and chirping,” Merk announced. A Neon hurtled out of a nearby cell, finally finding the opening. The door slammed against the wall as she banged through it. The closest hybrid jammed a talon under her jaw up through her head. The flickering yellow died as she slid to the floor.

The hybrid lifted his talon to his lips. He licked the length, blood lining his mouth. Red splattered his white teeth.

“Oy,” Zel shouted from across the hall. The hybrid turned cocking his head. “No killing.”

“Says who?” he asked, eyes narrowed.

“Merk,” Eelock muttered, watching the hybrid prowl forward. Zel didn’t seem to notice the danger as the hybrids began to stalk him.

“Yeah, I see it.” Merk primed a bee. Prix took an unconscious step back, something primal sensing the danger.

“Take the shot.”

Merk launched the bee, his aim as true as any Hornet Master. It bounced off the hybrid’s neck, ruffling his feathers. The shock failed. Merk eyed his hornet as the hybrid slid his gaze to their group. A snarl displayed his blood spattered teeth as he studied them.

“Do it,” Eelock ordered.

“They’re human,” Merk protested.

“They were. The bee didn’t work. Do it.”

The hybrid charged them, the others hesitating, waiting to see what would happen before they joined. Merk shot the hornet. Jack watched his teeth clench hoping it wouldn’t kill the creature.

The orb locked onto the hybrid’s neck. He stumbled a step before regaining his balance. Merk’s eyes widened in surprise. Hornets stunned everything. Jack once saw Merk bring down an elephant.

They stared in disbelief. Eelock was the only one to react. He swept a blow to the side of the hybrid’s head. Resilient, but light, the creature flew down the hall colliding with the wall. The others circled waiting for someone else to strike.

Another stepped forward. Slime dripped from his fingers, clinking on the metal floor. Eelock glared. He shrank back turning his attention to Zel instead.

The feathered creature climbed to his feet down the hall. He shook his head, wiping away the crash before snapping his gaze to Eelock.

“We freed you,” Zel shouted. More Neons burst from their cells desperate for blood. They sped by, some falling to mad gashes from the hybrids, most rushing toward the lab and down the side passage Jones and his crew took. The shrieks from the previous section grew louder as prisoners and gas drifted into the common area.

“Thank you,” the creature said, taking two loping steps before grabbing Zel by the neck. Prix yelped in surprise, scrambling back. Zel’s skin sizzled under the creature’s hand, bubbling as the slime coated his neck. His shrieks joined the others. Dai drew her stunner blades, stepping forward to help.

“Stay in formation,” Eelock barked. She opened her mouth to argue before meeting his eye. Jack agreed. Zel was dead the moment the hybrid touched his neck. There wasn’t anything they could do. She moved back into position.

Jack tracked the feathered creature with a stunner he’d grabbed off of one of the downed guards, a cloud of gas drifting closer. “Cap,” he warned.

“I see it. Stay close. Dai, you’re point. We can’t trust the stunners, but they might slow them down. Lay down cover until Dai can finish them off.” Eelock met Dai’s eye. “Make us a path to Jones.”

Merk showed her the path on his wristlet before falling back into his Hornet Master stance.

“Done.” She nodded.

The hybrid holding Zel grew bored. He turned to stare at Prix as she stumbled back. With a sigh, he snapped Zel’s neck. Prix choked on a sob, spinning toward the door to the lab. The cloud of gas reached the feathered hybrid. His pupils blew wide, terror overtaking his face. He panted, gritting his teeth.

“Oh, shit,” Merk said.

“Go,” Eelock ordered, his calm voiced edged with worry. They moved as the hybrid struck out taking the closest creature with him. The scaled woman fell seconds before he attacked another feathered creature. His movements were frantic but clinical, fighting invisible horrors in a controlled dance, taking Neons and hybrids alike.

The slime covered hybrid stalking Prix paused turning back to the melee.

“Move you idiots,” he yelled at the other confused hybrids. Recognizing him as their best shot, they rushed to circle him careful to keep their distance from the dripping slime. The feathered creature took two more in the commotion.

Jack followed Dai and the others past the group as they focused on the feathered hybrid and crazed Neons piling in from the other section. They watched Prix slip into the lab as they hurtled through the side passage. A hybrid tried to follow, teeth too large, jaw too long, hair dotting her skin in patches. Jack popped her with the stunner. She didn’t flinch. Jack shot her three more times before she yelped and slunk back.

“The Umbra is Johnson doing up here?” Merk cursed, watching the hybrid disappear up the stairs. They ran down, the tunnel taking them farther underground. Their boots clicking on the concrete.

“Whatever he wants,” Dai said through clenched teeth. She checked around the corner before motioning them forward.

“I’m going to rip his uppity, polished throat out,” Merk said, motioning for Dai to take one of the passages when they came to a fork.

Jack followed, trying not to imagine Chleo or Will with feathers dotting her skin, trying not to imagine Melody captured and bleeding at the hands of Jones and Tilly. “Get in line.”

“Dai,” Merk said, stopping to check his wristlet. She paused, pulling back from around the corner.

“What is it?”

“Jones stopped.” He looked up, meeting each of their eyes. “Whoever he was looking for, he found them.”

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