Page 56 of Calico Descending

Both of us chuckle, and I finish off the last of my bread.

“You’re in love with him. Your Champion. You love him, right?”

I shrug, pulling my knees into my chest. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt that kind of love before.”

“You’d have to be in love, to want to do something as stupid as this. It’s for him, right? I mean, you’ve never talked about getting out of here before him.”

“I guess I just found reason.”

“Good. Because if something happens to you, or me, or Kenny, I’d like to know there was a good reason behind it. Love is the only good reason.”

Lowering my gaze, I blink away the tears I’ve fought for most of the day. “If they send him down in those tunnels, and I lose him, I’ll die. I’ll … shrivel up and die.”

She threads her hands in mine and gives a squeeze. “Then we better make sure that doesn’t happen.”

I lie on my side, staring at what would be the wall, if I could see past the blackness. Only in Valdys’s room do I get a small bit of light from the corridor at night, but I wasn’t permitted to sleep with him tonight. I haven’t seen him since I left his cell this morning, and the ache in my chest tells me I’ve reached a dangerous attachment to him, and I know all too well what it feels like when those attachments are severed.

The thin blanket covering my lower half lifts from behind, and Roz’s warm body slides into bed, next to mine. Sometimes, when I come back from the lab, restless and moaning in my sleep, she crawls in bed to settle me like this. Sometimes, she just needs the contact, and we lie here, whispering in the dark about things girls think about late at night.

“Tomorrow night.” Her lips are at my ear, her voice low and soft. “They’re transporting cages to some … facility in the north. Trucks leave at midnight.”

I turn slightly and frown. “What cages?”

“Kenny just said they’re big steel boxes that were loaded onto the dock earlier today.”

Jesus. The mutations. They’re taking them to another facility. I didn’t even know another facility existed, which means something is in the works for those things, and I’m certain if it was death, they’d have killed the mutations by now.

“Kenny can interrupt the tracker on Valdys’s throat until you’re out of range. Only a couple of hours, though, between rounds to the Alpha wing.”

I try to imagine how far we’ll need to be, not to be picked up by their trackers. Far enough to feel like freedom, I think. “That should be enough time. And the cameras?”

“He’s set aside footage of the cell from the other night. Of you and Valdys together. Which means you have to find a way to earn another night with him. He couldn’t have your prints set to open Valdys’s door, but there is an override to the lock. He can open it remotely. It just takes an extra person to flip the switch from the Alpha wing to keep the alarms from going off.”

With a huff, I curl my lip between my teeth and nibble on it, as I do when I’m feeling a bit stressed. “I can ask Medusa.”

“She’ll never agree. She’s acted like a beaten puppy since they took her hand.” The pause of silence in between is followed by a sigh. “I’ll do it. I can sneak out to flip the switch, and be back in bed within a half hour. No one will know.”

“You’re not coming with me?”

A long pause follows, and she burrows her face into the back of my neck. “I don’t know yet. I just have a bad feeling about it. About what’s out there.”

“Then, I can’t ask you to do this. You’ve already done so much, asking for Kenny’s help.”

“It’s no big deal. If it means more time with Kenny’s cock, I’ll do it.”

In the darkness, I roll my eyes, and snort. “You’re obsessed with the thing.”

“Truly. If I could have one of my own, I wouldn’t even need Kenny.” Her hips nudge me from behind, slamming into my backside, and I chuckle.

“You’re terrible.”

“Terribly amazing, you mean.”

I draw her hands around me, tucking them against me, as she nuzzles closer. “I’d have never made it here without you, Roz. After Bryani, I just … I was lost.”

“I’d have never made it without you, either. I’m going to miss you.”

“Please come with me?”

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