Page 98 of Unnatural
Autumn turned and began making her way as fast as she dared across the slippery rocks toward the exit beyond while, behind her, Sam faced down an army of monsters.
Chapter Forty-Four
The beasts appeared through the mist, approaching from all sides. Sam turned slowly, watching them draw closer.Five,there are five.And only one of him. His feet were wet. The tide had risen in the last few minutes, and it washed over the rocks and onto the shore.Hurry, Autumn. Move quickly.Thank God she’d gone when she had. The rocks were only getting more slippery and harder to cross. He had to hope that even when they made it past him, the conditions would slow them down. He’d hold them off as long as he could, though he had no illusions that he could overcome so many. Eventually one or more would get past him, and they would go after her.Please let her head start be enough.He knew what their order was. They weren’t failures, not like him. They’d carry it out unflinchingly, spurred not only by their training but by pack mentality. They were always most dangerous together, a need to outdo each other in their brutality.
He heard their growls, smelled the bloodlust swirling in the vapor rising from the ground. He crouched, his muscles primed.Autumn. Autumn.He would not make this easy for them. He’d make them work to take his life. He would notgo quietly. Too much had been stolen from him already. And though they might take his life, here today, they would not take away his fight. That belonged to him and only him. Until the final moment.
They moved closer. He knew them, these monsters. They’d been children together, had trained and studied side by side. In another life, they might have been called brothers. But not in this one.
The man on the right was Corbyn, and he was the first to withdraw his weapon. A knife, long and curved.
Sam had expected to take a bullet and wondered why they hadn’t yet gone for a shot. Now it was clear. They planned to cut him. His heart gave a thump. He’d been cut so many times before, he didn’t relish it. But for Autumn, to give her the extra minutes she needed to escape with her life, he’d let them slice him limb from limb.Take your time, devils. Give her all she needs to get away.
Corbyn took three steps forward, and the others did too, withdrawing various knives. Sam pivoted toward one, then another, anticipating which of them he’d take on first. Corbyn’s jaw clenched, and he let out a yell, rushing forward, and Sam leaned his shoulder in the man’s direction, adrenaline pumping, preparing for impact.
But suddenly, Corbyn came up short, his twisted face registering surprise as he looked at his wrist. One by one, the rest of them did the same, checking the device, responding to the small vibration only detectable to the wearer. An emergency had just been called.Stop. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. Halt.Sam was familiar. He’d received messages similarly as well, though generally not in the middle of a mission. They all stopped, looking around at each other, appearing surprised, then angry, then resigned. One by one,they turned and walked back toward the rocks, ascending the cliff through the brush in the direction of their vehicles.
Sam watched, confused, his heart racing. Were they going to attempt to catch up with Autumn instead? But no, the road traveled in an alternate direction. The road would not intercept her escape.
And though Autumn was a target, he knew his own death would be more important to the program. So why had they turned away?
Sam stood alone on the small slip of shore, breathing harshly, still poised to fight, confused and suddenly unsteady as he watched them get in their trucks and turn back the way they’d come, their engines roaring and then disappearing completely. Movement above as a lone figure climbed slowly down the incline, his confusion increasing, though not his fear. “Morana,” he said when she’d made it to him.
She moved toward him, her leg dragging slightly, and he watched her warily.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” he said. He could, and he would, but he had no desire to do it.
“I’m not here to threaten you, Sam.” She let out a small laugh. “I’m well aware of my physical limitations.”
He looked up again, listening for the sound of engines coming back. He didn’t understand.
But apparently reading his mind, Morana said, “They fortified your body, Sam, but they fortified my mind. I never let them know how much, but between you and me, I’m smarter than all of them.” She glanced at the road above. “I intercepted the order once I received the alert that it had been sent. I’m sorry they got as close to you as they did. The text the members just got told them the target has changed. It isn’t you. Or Autumn Clancy.”
His brain buzzed with confusion. He was still primed to fight, prepared to die, and though his heart was slowing, his muscles were still held tight. “Who? What target?”
Morana just smiled, stopping a few feet from where he stood. “You won’t have to worry anymore, Sam. You’re scrubbed from all databases pertaining to the program. There’s no record that you were ever born.”
He struggled to understand. Morana had…deleted his existence? From the computers where his files were kept? “Dr. Swift knows I exist,” he said.
“He only knows your number, Sam, and your particular skills. Dr. Swift has been notified you’re dead. You followed the final command.”
He stared at her, confused. “Dr. Heathrow knows I’m not dead.” The man he’d once considered a father had put out the hit on him. And Autumn. He’d seen the email acknowledging receipt of the order. “Plus, he has paper files.”
She waved her hands. “Let the police find them. Let them see what they did to you. To us. There’s no way to attach that file to you, Samael. You are only subject number 1043.”
“Autumn—”
“When he learned you were with her, Dr. Heathrow took her betrayal personally. He wanted you both dead. She has nothing to worry about anymore either. The program doesn’t care about her. She was Dr. Heathrow’s subject, but she wasn’t one of theirs. Only you were.”
Subject.It was only Dr. Heathrow who’d wanted Autumn dead? Because it was his experiment she’d compromised. He’d considered her his property, and she’d proven herself ungovernable by him. She’d kept digging and digging, finding answers, finding Sam. It was coming together forhim, piece by piece. But if all this was true, Dr. Heathrow had reason to try again, even if Morana had intercepted his order this time. “Dr. Heathrow—” he started again.
“Sam. Trust me.” She took a step closer, then another. A bird trilled somewhere close by, and Morana’s gaze moved in that direction and then back to Sam. She looked sad suddenly. Lost.
Her expression startled him because he’d never seen that depth of emotion on Morana’s face. He saw that she was pretty even despite the pallor of her skin and the way her left eye drooped just slightly. They’d done that to her when she was a teenager with some type of brain surgery or another. Sam remembered now. She gazed at him with something that almost looked like longing. But for what?
“I wanted things too, Sam, just like you. They made me a monster as well.”
He studied her. Yes, she would have been normal, just like he would have been. They’d stolen her body from her, her life, turned her into what she was, yet she too had managed to somehow hang on to some humanity despite their best efforts.
