Page 60 of Calico Descending

In a fit of my own rage, I lunge toward the guard again.

Chapter 28

A force jostles me out of dreams, and I jolt upright on a gasp of breath. “Cadmus!”

The surrounding darkness is a clue that I’ve been returned to my room.

“Shhh, Cali, it’s time,” Roz whispers in my ear. “The trucks leave in an hour.”

A rush of adrenaline stirs in my chest, and I blindly slip my legs over the side of the bed. It must be eleven at night, since the trucks are scheduled to leave at midnight. On shaky feet, I take a step to trail after her, and pause. The knife. The one I stole from the kitchen a while back.

Reaching under my bed, I fish through the hole in my mattress, until the tip of my finger hits the hilt of the blade. Once in hand, I tuck it up into my sleeve, and follow the memorized path through the pitch blackness of the barracks to the door. Light slices through the darkness, when Roz opens it, and I turn back to the room, spy two of the girls are sitting up in bed. They probably won’t say a word, and if they do, it doesn’t matter now.

I slip through the crack, staying low against the wall behind Roz, who leads us toward the double doors ahead. The guard’s flashlight bounces through the window on the other side, and when it sweeps over our heads, we silently mouth a countdown from ten, just as in the days when the two of us snuck out for fun.

Only this time, our punishment won’t be solitary, or missed rations. It’ll be death.

By the time we reach ‘one’, the guard at the opposite end of the hall has begun his approach, and quickly we slip through the door.

Shuffling low to the ground, we reach the door of the stairwell, and Roz sneaks ahead of me.

“Hey!” The sound of the guard sends my muscles into a state of paralysis, and eyes wide, I slowly rise to a stand, as he runs toward me. The pounding of my heart feels as if it’s reached my throat, by the time he’s standing in front of me. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“B-b-bathroom. Sir.” Only some girls get bathroom privileges. The ones who perform favors for the guards and are gifted a nighttime pass.

I’m not one of them.

The blade in my sleeve rests against the tips of my fingers.

“Where’s your pass?” He’s a short, pudgy man with graying hair. He could be my father, or grandfather, but in this place, in this moment, he’s a roadblock to my freedom.

“I left it. In the room.”

“Well, then, you can get your happy little ass back to bed, before I call your Barrack Leader.”

With a nod, I lower my gaze, allowing the blade to slide down between my fingers. Exhaling a shaky breath, I flex my fingers around the hilt, and in one swift swing, I slice the blade across the front of his uniform.”

Hands flying to his chest, he stands stunned for a moment, staring down at his shirt, where blood has begun to seep through the fabric.

I swing again. And again. One slice drags across his belly. Another across his throat. On the fourth swing, he’s on his knees, eyes vacant, blood pouring from the wounds I’ve poked in him. He falls to the floor on a thunk.

My hands shake as I hold them out, and I drop the knife to the floor with a clang. So much blood on my hands. My lip quivers with the urge to cry for this man I don’t even know.

Hands grip my shoulders, shaking me out of my trance. “Cali, the other guard might’ve heard. We have to go! Now!” Swallowing past the dryness in my throat, I nod and follow her through the door. The two of us race down the staircase, one floor at a time. My muscles remain poised in my paranoia for the moment the alarms sound, when the other guard comes to investigate the clanging noise, but there’s nothing. Not a single sound, save our skittering footsteps, as we descend deeper, into the basement of the building.

We reach the bottom of the staircase and push through the door. Roz takes the lead, racing down the corridor, to where she must know the second switch lies.

I pad toward the cell for Valdys on shaky legs. At what sounds like the entire corridor powering down, on a low hum that vibrates over my skin, the lights dim and flicker, and I reach out and open the door to Valdys’s cell with ease. When he steps forward, his eyes scan over me, to my hands that he snatches up, examining them.

“It’s not my blood,” I say in a weak voice. Seconds later, Roz is standing beside me.

“Jesus.” Her voice carries awe as she stares up at Valdys. “He’s … huge.” She shakes her head, as if snapping herself out of it. “C’mon. The override only lasts a couple seconds. We should go before anyone notices.”

No sooner does she say the words than a door clicks ahead. It swings open. Another clicks. A second door opens. In seconds, a half dozen Alphas stand between us and the elevator. Every one of them has his eyes set on Roz and me.

A thick arm bands across my chest, and Valdys steps in front of me, slipping his helmet over his head.

On a whim, I spin around and open the door to Titus’s cell, then Cadmus’s. Titus steps out into the corridor, and I catch the wide eyes plastered to Roz’s face, as he passes in front of her, before coming to a stop beside Valdys.

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