Page 89 of Finding Her
“Hi.” I scanned her carefully, though she didn’t seem to be a threat. After all, we were both contained in thick acrylic cages. The same predicament.
“You look familiar.” She lifted a hand to tap at her strong jaw. “I guess you were one of the escapees? But you hardly look like you’ve been surviving in the forest all this time.” Her finger traced a scar absentmindedly before she quickly retracted her hand, like the movement had been unintentional.
“The forest?” I rubbed my eyes, grateful that my vision had fully returned on the left side. “What forest?” She couldn’t mean Eitrea, it was paradise. The only woods I could think of that would match the descriptions of “forest” and “surviving” were the ones I’d awoken in last summer. I was so removed from who I was then, the memory felt imagined.
A loud beep was all the warning we got before a metal door lifted behind her back, across the empty room. It clanged as braided wires pulled its weight to the ceiling, a crimson-haired woman in a lab coat ducking under its edge. She pushed a cart covered in bottles and medical instruments. Following her was a large Quadmos with a metallic rod in their lower hands who stationed himself by the open gate.
“Dia, I see you’ve met Faeryn,” the female Pyran stated softly, the emblem on her neck and unnaturally warm eyesrevealing she was in a heightened state despite the genial greeting. She pulled liquid into a syringe from a small vial.
The facial expression of the blonde across from me was consumed by shadows. There was not an ounce of humanity in her face. It was a menace not unlike what I’d seen on Graysen as he killed.
“Are you going to work with us today? I really don’t want to see you knocked out again. This doesn’t have to be difficult.” The Pyran’s voice was practically pleading as she stepped up to the glass of the woman I now knew was called Dia.
Dia stiffly rose to her bare feet, which were caked in thick scarring and loose skin. Mine had looked similar the night Graysen brought me home—the feet of somebody who had walked through thorns. She stood on the other side of the thick glass, shoving her arm through a hole I hadn’t seen before. I could only see her back, but I knew her baleful expression was now staring down at the Pyran in the lab coat.
“You know, Faeryn is the last living defector from your little stunt,” the guard called, lacking all the discordant compassion of the woman in the lab coat. “Once we get you both settled, it’ll be like it never happened.”
Dia said nothing, withdrawing her arm after a moment and returning to the middle of her cage. She stood and watched as the cart was moved towards me.
“Don’t let her scare you,” the woman said. “We just want you healthy.” She filled a fresh syringe.
“It’s why she wants you healthy that should scare you,” Dia stated bluntly.
The woman waited by the hole in my own glass. My face went cold and pale as I realized what she wanted. Had she said something about Dia being “knocked out” when she didn’tcomply? Ijustwoke up from my last drug-induced coma and wasn’t eager to return, but surely receiving a mystery injection wasn’t a good thing.
“Do I have to?” I asked quietly.
“Yes.” The woman’s face twisted empathetically. “It’ll help you feel better.”
My eyes darted to Dia shooting daggers at the back of the woman’s head. If looks could kill, Dia and I would be the only living things left in the room.
“Do it.” Dia’s lip curled up in disgust.
I stepped to the acrylic wall and shoved my arm through the opening. Its sharp edges pressed into my skin, followed by the pinch of the needle. All that remained as evidence of the injection was a drop of blood on my forearm.
“Thank you both. We appreciate your compliance.” The woman’s voice was so soothing, so genuine, as she silently exited the room with the guard.
“Fuck!” Dia screamed once the door thudded back to the ground.
She paced the cage’s perimeter, kicking at the walls, which gave not so much as a wobble in response. She pounded with her fists. Slammed her elbows into the glass. Shoulder checked each corner. All while screaming bloody murder. My body would be bruised and bleeding if I puthalfthe energy into my own assault. There was no hesitation in her strikes. No recoiling in pain when they failed.
“How long have you been in there?” A chilling sense of neutrality washed over me. I must be in some sort of shock. That, or my physiology was trying to balance out the chaos that ricocheted in the enclosure across from me.
Dia panted, a tight curl falling over her honey-toned eyes. “If they’re providing us three meals a day, then I’ve been here for over two.” Her pearly teeth were bared in my direction, although not explicitlyatme.
“She said I was the last of something—the lastlivingone. I don’t know what that meant.” I found my way to the sterile floor, tucking my legs underneath me.
Dia chuckled without humor and came to the closest wall, taking a seat across from me. “I managed to blow their power grid to shut the factory down. Every woman in those damn pods woke up and fled. The majority died before leaving the building. Of those who made it out, most died in the woods. The unfortunate survivors are now all back here. So, welcome back.”
“Who arethey? What do you mean bypods?”
“I guess you wouldn’t remember. The pods did a number on the others’ memories too.” She pouted with more inconvenience than empathy. “The program is calledE.A.R.T.H., a fucked up play on our world of origin. Turning that deplorable planet’s name intoEnergy Alternatives: Resource—it doesn’t fucking matter. They want to harbor our fucking energy to fuel society with a hefty price tag attached,” she was saying words, they seemed to be sentences, but I couldn’t piece together their meaning.
“Energy?”
“A blood gift from our bitch of a mother.”
Ourmother? I stared at the beautiful woman across from me. We didn’t look like we could be sisters… other than the hair color. Although differing in texture and tone, she was the only other blonde person I had seen on Trebianna. Did I have family?Here? Not on Earth?
