Page 33 of The Program

That reminded me that we also needed to create some sort of door or privacy screen at the entrance. A few of the other girls had a habit of snooping. Our first night here I’d woken up to find one pair – Harriet and Ingrid – standing over me and Libby like they were debating whether they should kill us in our sleep. That was one altercation I hoped to never have again, but they seemed to get the memo to leave us alone. Harriet especially had learned that waking me up was never a good option. I’d choked her out so hard she still had bruising around her neck, but the action seemed to have had positive consequences around the group as a whole. I’d earned their respect – albeit through fear – enough that no one had yet to try anything again.

Plus, they listened to me now. I guessed they preferred to have me as an ally rather than an enemy.

Me too, ladies. Me too.

I settled myself on top of my mattress. I pretended the flat, lumpy thing by was one of the bunks from The Carina. I never got the opportunity to try out the beds at Nova Academy since I’d been captured before I could, but I imagined they were even better than the ship’s. I hoped everyone was doing okay, that they were safe. At the very least I hoped they were sleeping in comfortable beds each night. The last thing I would wish upon them was for The Program to treat them like subjects.

Or to turn them into their subjects…

Nope, not going there. They wouldn’t do that to an entire military base. I doubted they would have been given access to Nova Station if they hadn’t struck up an alliance with the military’s leaders alongside whichever IU political representatives they had on their side.

But this wasn’t what I wanted to think about when I drifted off to sleep. I wanted to remember the way it felt to be held by Bromm. I wanted to remember Reece’s kindness. Adara’s loyalty. Foryk’s protectiveness. Even Dorian and his team popped into my head, ready to stand guard against my nightmares the way they guarded us against the populace once upon a time.

I wondered if they were still assigned as the guys’ protective detail. Had they managed to acquit Reece?

Fuck the captain, though. He could burn for eternity for all I cared, the traitorous bastard. The thought had occurred to me that Adara was with him in his mission to keep me compliant for The Program to swoop in and takeme back, but I always ended up dismissing it. Sure, she and the captain were lovers, but I believed whole-heartedly that she was my friend. Despite the small niggling sense of doubt whenever I thought about it, I chose to believe she would never do anything to hurt me. She’d never exhibited any signs that she would. Quite the opposite, in fact. She’d gone to bat for me consistently.

Except, when I imagined them all lined up, arms open in welcome, the captain was still there. He stood beside Adara, long arms open wide as he beckoned to me like the others.

It was his glowing yellow eyes that haunted me when I finally drifted off.

???

‘And what do we have here?’ a chilling voice cut through the mele of sounds like a whip, immediately silencing the rising murmur of countless other voices.

‘The runaway, sir. We’ve reacquired her, just as you asked.’

‘Ah. Little miss troublemaker. You’ve caused quite the stir, you know. Such a naughty girl.’

A hand stroked over my head, fingers tangling with the knots in my hair. I couldn’t see who the hand belonged to. There was something over my eyes that was preventing them from opening. They wanted me blind.

They always removed at least one of my senses, and it was usually my sight. They thought I wouldn’t be able to turn on them if I couldn’t see them.

I’d prove them wrong, just like I did before. I’d get free again, find Libby, and run away too far for them to follow. And hopefully I’d take out a good portion of the bastards in the process.

‘You really are a naughty little thing, aren’t you, precious girl?’

The man kept repeating the nickname. Precious girl, precious girl, precious girl. I hoped it wouldn’t stick. I could feel the tension in my jaw as my teeth ground, desperate to sink into his flesh so he’d stop calling me that. Then maybe he’d stop touching me, too.

No such luck. His voice had gentled now, and I knew it was him stroking my hair.

‘I’m your master now, precious girl. You belong to me. There won’t be any more escape attempts from you, I promise. You’ll never escape me. You’ll see.’

???

The panicked screams jolted through the memory I didn’t think I’d ever be rid of, but I was oddly glad to hear them compared to the sound ofhisvoice echoing through my mind.

I bolted upright, taking Libby with me who was wrapped around me with a vice-like grip. She blinked open her eyes, momentarily bleary from the sudden wake-up call but was quickly replaced by alertness. Forced habits died hard, not that I wish for her to ever give up that particular gift.

‘What’s going on?’ she croaked.

‘I don’t know,’ I said as more screams pierced the air. They bounced around the stone walls as if hundreds of people were screaming at once, heightening the panic.

We darted out of our room to check what was happening, Libby a step behind me at my insistence. She huffed at my protectiveness but didn’t argue, instead simply peering over my shoulder to see what the fuss was about.

In the centre of the cave where I’d fenced in Dave, we soon found the source of the women’s panic. Karmella was somehow out of her claimed tunnel, her baby strapped to her back with pieces of torn clothing she’d tied together to create a sling. She was crouched in front of the fence, slowly backing up as she hissed and growled at Dave.

Dave, who was previously mummified and forever at rest, but not so much the forever part, it seemed. He was now somehow awake and towering over the lot of us.

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