Page 45 of V for Vindictive

I was vindictive, and I’d get out of here if it was the last fucking thing I did.

The sound of footsteps receding from beside me stole me away from my internal rally, and then Lux was calling out from farther away, “Once we have what we need, you’ll be the one to kill her. If you don’t, Donna, God help you, it’ll be the last time you ever defy me. I’m done giving you chances.”

So they had a way to kill me. Or at least they thought they did. Just another reason to work my ass off to get out of here.

The eerie threat lingered in the air as the room door clanked shut, and then it was just the two of us. The silence went on for nearly ten minutes before I felt Donna’s hand touch my arm, the trembling caress shocking to my hypersensitive senses.

Then Donna was whispering, so faintly it would’ve been inaudible to human ears. “I know you’re awake, and I know you haven’t any reason to trust me…” As if her words summoned my mobility, my fingers movedand I could finally take a deep, powerful breath. “Don’t move. Don’t breathe,” she whispered urgently. “I’m not talking to you with my voice. I’m reaching out to you through your mind. They’ll be watching, so try not to move at all.”

I froze, no longer breathing.

Her hands worked on my arm for a second, a few things coming loose, then her voice was in my head again like before. “Your mother and I were best friends a long time ago, and my mistake led to her death. I told my brother something I shouldn’t have, and I haven’t any right to ask you for forgiveness. I deserve whatever fate comes to me after this. But if you could just…” Her soft, barely-there voice in my head trailed off. “If you could just get my family to safety once you’ve escaped, that would mean the world to me.”

My heart ached for her. The resignation in her voice was in every word. Whatever she planned to do, she knew she wouldn’t come out of it alive. And I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to sacrifice herself, but I was afraid of interrupting.

When she didn’t immediately talk inside my head again, an anxious coil started in my stomach, but then my body felt lighter, less drugged. I sensed the power within flutter and move, alert and flickering anxiously to life. I slowed my heart and smothered the urge to breathe in relief. My entire escape rested on my ability to control my body’s reactions, and I focused all my attention on that while Donna’s voice continued like a faraway melody in my head.

I tuned into it, listening intently to every soft word.

“After you hear me leave this room, wait three minutes. I’ll cause a distraction. Leave through the door and take a right. I have an extra keycard,weapons, and equipment in my office. Use them. The code is 42768. Take a right out of my office and follow the hall all the way down. Use my keycard to get through the double doors, and watch out for Hunters. There will be a small, keycard-access-only door when you walk through. Go in and take the elevator to the top. It’s a back access for this facility, and one only myself and a few others can use.”

Her voice was wispy and hurried, but I listened carefully, missing nothing, and repeated the code she told me over and over in my head.

“Lux is gone for now, probably in an attempt to keep the other leaders off his scent, so it’s only I think eight other Hunters and about a dozen scientists who run this underground lab. The scientists are all here involuntarily, blackmailed to work on this project in secret for Lux, so they won’t fight you. They’re scared and don’t have any choice but to be here.”

Scared, like Donna was. Hostage, like Donna was. Left with no other choice, like Donna was. And it hurt to think that she was cornered, forced to be here, threatened to do things she didn’t agree with. It was all there in the way she fought back, in the grief-stricken voice when my mother’s death was blamed on her. A victim of a shitty-ass fate manufactured by the Organization the same way mine was.

I wanted to see the woman who was saving my life, knowing my mother had once called her a friend, but I wouldn’t risk it.

“I’m going to unbind you. I can’t fight like you can, or do more than this, but I can make sure they don’t know you’re gone right away.” I heard her take a small, anguished breath, and I knew right away she was crying again. “You look so much like your mother. Mariam would be so proud of the woman you’ve become.”

Donna’s hand touched mine, and the warmth was so powerful I nearly reacted. “There are far more of us behind you than you realize. You’ve given us hope, so much hope, V, and I’m so grateful to you. I wished you weren’t forced to do any of this, you’re so young…much like your mother was.” Her voice cut out, and I heard her swallow another sob. “But you’re never alone. Simply ask ‘Do you speak of flames and games?’ and if they respond ‘Only flames,’ then you know they are one of us. Most importantly, if I die here today, I stand with you, with all that you are. We all do. Never forget that we’ll come if you call us, whenever, wherever. We’ll give our lives to fight back the minute you ask.”

My throat was suddenly seized with emotion.

She’d given me hope that I hadn’t realized was wavering. Knowing I wasn’t alone, knowing I could find others, knowing that I had allies, it was more than I could’ve ever hoped for. I’d get the fuck out of here, and if I had anything to do with it, I’d save Donna and her loved ones when I did.

I sent out my thoughts, hoping they’d reach her mind the same way hers did mine. “Thank you. I don’t blame you. Whatever your reasons, it’s the Organization who’s done this, not you. And I’m going to get us both out of this, Donna. I don’t leave people behind.”

She made a little sound in her throat and sniffled before I heard her shuffle across the floor quickly. The door creaked and then thudded shut. As instructed, I counted the minutes until I could escape this hellhole, or burn it down to the ground trying.

It’s time for the vindictive bitch, V, to show these bastards who they’re messing with…

Chapter 17

Lame-Named Sword

The first couple steps were disorienting because it felt like my body wasn’t fully awake. Everything was oddly numb and prickly. So, I stumbled to the right and nearly crashed into one of the many machines lining the room.

Being drugged sucked balls, seriously…

But I got my shit together and shook away the fog in my head. Slowly opening the door, I peered out into the low-beam hallway.

It looked like something out of a horror movie, and I absently wondered if zombies were a thing. If they were, I was sure as shit never going to sleep again. Brainless monsters with their gnashing teeth and decaying bodies freaked me the fuck out as odd as it sounded. Give me a vampire or howling wolf the size of a bear any day, but ghouls and fleshy human corpses were a hard pass even for this superior Hunter.

My backside was on full display, but I’d been in weirder situations and couldn’t care less how I looked. Whoever reviewed these security tapes was going to get the middle finger while I was at it, though. I offered the security camera a look and gestured to whatever asshole watching to fuck off, then slipped out of the room door.

It was a standard hospital-like facility—everything glaringly white and undecorated. Practically sterile to look at. Nothing about the hallway stood out, aside from a door a few feet to my right with a pin-access handle.

---