Page 118 of Elas

We excuse ourselves, eyes boring into us as we circle the building to the parking lot. The attention comes from all sides—the guards in the watchtowers, the soldiers monitoring the doors, and the small cluster whose company we’re leaving.

We collect our bags in silence, and August follows me closely as I press the keycard against the lock and wait for it to beep. We step inside to blessedly cool air, and a few heads whip up from a common room directly to our left. Their eyes narrow, their curiosity obvious, but when they spot my rank, their gazes drop to the ground. One stands and snaps to attention, and a few offer tentative greetings of, “Evening, Officer.”

I only nod, exhausted from the long day and ready to get August alone. He’s nearly vibrating from holding his emotions in check. Our room is the last one in the front hallway, and I buzz us inside. The familiarity is a minor comfort. It’s almost identical to my apartment back at the Glaston base, just on a smaller scale. A few water bottles wait on the counter with a stack of MREs beside them.

“Are you hungry?” I ask gently, and August shakes his head without a word, staring at the ground. “Sweetheart?” I whisper, and his chin wobbles as he lifts his eyes, tears pooling as he opens his mouth and closes it again.

“Fuck, baby,” I murmur as I sweep him into my arms, and he tucks his face into my neck as the first sob breaks loose. I take him into the bathroom and turn on the shower.I’m not confident enough in this building’s construction to assume that sounds won’t carry. Water taps in loud, steady plunks against the base of the tub, and I drop to the ground with August in my lap. My fingers weave through his hair as his entire body shakes, his tears soaking the shoulder of my armor.

Powerful, gasping sobs force their way from his throat as I try to soothe him, but it’s all in vain. For every tear that falls, two more take its place until it feels like we might drown in them. His hands clutch at my skin as he presses himself even deeper into my neck. Hair tickles my chin, his fingers rough as they fight to hold on, but I only wrap him in my arms and hug him against me.

Minutes tick by, and slowly his sobs turn to hiccups, and his river of tears dries to a slow trickle. “I never should’ve brought you here,” I finally whisper, kissing his hair. “We can go, August. There’s been nothing signed, no official transfer to give them the authority to hold you here. I outrank them. Let’s just leave, baby. Let me take you home.”

August shakes his head, fingers clutching the leather of my chestpiece. “We can’t,” he rasps, a shuddering sniffle wracking his chest. “We can’t, El. Did you see them inside those cells? They weren’t…” He hiccups again, trembling as he takes another moment to collect himself. “They were barelyalive.”

Memories of those dead eyes flash through my mind, and I heave a shaky breath. “I know. I saw.”

“What could be worth it? What could they possibly be doing that justifies draining the life from so manypeople? They had them in shock collars, for gods sake. No better than animals, leashed and locked in a cage.”

My eyes close, savoring the warmth of his skin against mine. “I hate this,” I whisper.

“We have to do something, Elas. We have totry.” He pulls back, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. Sadness radiates from them, so profound it’s a punch to the gut.

“I don’t know how,” I admit. Hopelessness claws at my throat, threatening to close it completely as my mind processes the hundreds of ways this could all go wrong. “This is so much bigger than us. I don’t even know where to start. If there were more of us, maybe we could overpower them, but it’s just us, August.”

“We’re enough,” he says, his eyes so pleading that my feet itch to hit the ground and do something,anything,to see him smile again. “We have to be enough. We’re all they have.”

A rueful smile pulls on my lips that he mirrors, and I reach up to swipe at the dampness on his cheeks. “Can’t we wait for the heroes to swoop in and save the day?”

“We are the heroes this time, I’m afraid.”

“Yeah,” I whisper, weaving my fingers through his hair and tugging him closer. I stop him millimeters away from my face, his breath ghosting over my lips in unsteady puffs. “I was afraid of that, too.”

August

Thenightwasspentin a series of fitful tossing and turning. I’d fallen asleep eventually, wrapped up in Elas’s arms. My face shoved into his skin to avoid the unfamiliar smells of bleach and lemon industrial cleaners, and my ear pressed against his chest to focus on the steady thump of his heart. If I closed my eyes, I could pretend that this had all been a nightmare.

But it’s not a nightmare, despite my childish wishes, and last night I did something I’ve never done in my life.

I prayed.

That this was all some giant misunderstanding.

That I imagined all the horrors we’d seen within these walls.

But as Elas and I arrive in the main building, the last spark of hope remaining in my chest is extinguished as I glance between the faces roaming the lobby. No one is crying or distraught about the treatment of those prisoners.

No one cares.

There are soldiers in their leathers, medical staff in their scrubs, and one scientist that wanders by in a white lab coat. They’re working. Doing their jobs.

Calmly going about their day.

“Ah, good. You’re here,” a now-familiar voice says. We turn to find Gale walking towards us, his barbed tail whipping behind him as he flashes his daggered teeth. “We’re preparing for our first procedure of the day. August, retrieve the subject in cell E08 and bring them to Lab 2.” There’s a touch of malice loaded in his smile as he tilts his head at me. “I trust you remember where everything is?”

“Yes, of course, sir,” I say, my voice unsteady. His smile spreads as he passes me a keycard, and I take it before he can notice how much my hands are shaking.

“Oh, I almost forgot this.” He thrusts a small metal tube into my palm, seeming to relish my discomfort. “A few have been here long enough that they no longer wear their collars, but most of them need a reminder from time to time. Before you remove them from their cells, hold this against the lock until it beeps. That will sync the remote to their collar. If they’re difficult, press the button… for as long as you need it.”

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