Page 46 of Sergi
A guard stepped next to me and pushed me toward the corner of the lab as another one forced S-272 into the same area. We sat with our backs to the wall without further instruction. It was the same routine with each experiment. We would wait, forced to watch until it was time for cleanup.
I startled when S-272 nudged my arm. After glancing at the others in the room to confirm they were occupied, I looked down. His fist opened to reveal a vial. I didn’t have time to read the label, but I grabbed it, and keeping an eye on the guards, I slowly brought my knees to my chest, allowing easier access to slip the vial into the familiar place under my shift.
“Can you feel the difference in the shifters?” S-272 asked.
I lowered my head and said, “I’m hearing whispers.”
“There’s a rumor that the vampire prisoner was sent on a rescue mission.”
I didn’t shake my head, though I almost did. “He was sent to locate the lab. I spoke to a shifter who was sent with him. One of their team members might have gotten away.”
We sat in silence for several minutes before S-272 spoke.
“That explains the rumors of an uprising.”
An uprising? That matched my earlier thoughts, and I connected the dots on how the shifters were communicating. I wasn’t the only shifter going into cells to clean, and the guards didn’t watch as closely as they once had. They’d grown complacent. It would be slow and tedious, taking a few days to communicate a plan, but one by one, each shifter would only have to be told which day to be ready.
“What did you give me?” My curiosity couldn’t wait until I returned to my cell. I wanted to know what I was carrying to determine the risk of being caught. I could always dump it before I left the lab.
“The lab assistants talk freely around me. This morning, they were working on something extremely addictive to vampires. I assumed it would be bad for them, but the assistants were tempted to try it. On its own, it’s supposed to revitalize a vampire. The vial is labeled BP-X.”
When he mentioned something addictive to vampires, I assumed it was Magic Poppy. Yet, the label identified it as Blood Poppy. The X in the label name must reference a newer variation. The question was, modified in what way? If the lab assistants were willing to try it, it couldn’t be bad.
“Will it help?” S-272 asked.
“Maybe. I found a vial labeled BP without the X. The vampire seemed eager to try it. I’ll know tomorrow if it had any effect against the drugs they’re injecting him with.”
“There’s something else I need to share with you.”
We fell silent when one of the guards strolled over. His grin was ugly as he sneered down at us. “It won’t be long now. Wait till you see what’s going to happen. We’ll be making better shifters.” He nudged my legs that I had lowered to the ground. “Ones that won’t talk back.” He laughed. “Now you just remain where you are like good little doggies.”
He strode back and bumped fists with the other guard.
S-272’s eyes glowed, and I laid a hand on his arm until his eyes returned to normal. It took him a moment to settle enough to speak, but his skin sizzled with energy. “There’s a secret back door out of the facility. It’s on the third level in the mechanical room.”
“How do you know this?”
“I learned of it early on while listening to the guards. It was used when the labs were expanded.”
“And no one has tried to use it?”
“The old road doesn’t exist anymore. The area is rife with wild shifters, and it’s a long walk through thick forest and dangerous terrain to any village.”
“It would be impossible to get everyone out that way.”
“Not for one or two with the stamina to survive.”
Before I could respond, a window at the back wall that I hadn’t noticed before slowly illuminated to reveal a group of six people. I recognized one of the female scientists and her two assistants. There was a male, the only one wearing an open lab coat over a suit, who seemed to be dictating something to a young female. I wondered if he was the director, or what the guards and staff referred to as Master. A cold dread ran over me when I saw the muscled male behind him. I would never forget his face or his nasty leer. The interrogator. The one Sergi had called Gheata.
Then the door leading to the hallway opened, and four guards strolled in with a shifter between them. His feet were bare and shackled, and his only clothing were loose fitting pants all the male prisoners wore. He appeared resigned to his fate or perhaps they fed him a sedative in his food.
I closed my eyes and mentally prepared myself for the carnage to follow.
I thoughtI knew what to expect.
I’d been witness to a handful of experiments on shifters that left only bits and pieces of them behind. Someday I would have to face that trauma and know it represented only a fraction of the shifters who’d been unlucky enough to find themselves trapped in this facility. And that it happened because they’d been seen as less.
S-272 and I sat shoulder to shoulder, our arms touching. A mutual need to remind ourselves who we were. This time was different. These scientists believed they’d achieved a breakthrough, and it terrified me. S-272’s energy was tangible, and I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or anger. If he felt as I did—it was both. I was both horrified by what was to come and angered by their excitement at using another sentient being for their games.
