He stifles a laugh, "Mutant?"
I nod, "The doctor said I have mutant blood."
He laughs again, "Oh my God." He grabs my hand and kisses it, "You're going to get us killed. Mellow out. He probably said mutated."
I roll my eyes and jerk my hand free, "I don’t mellow."
He nudges me, "I like that about you."
"You do?"
He smiles, "Of course I do. I never want you to change. I like the feisty, crazy girl you are. I don’t like it when you savagely attack people, or make bad choices and put your life in danger, and scare the shit out of me. But I like that it's never dull and I never know what's going on in that brain of yours."
I shrug, "Probably a lot less than you think."
We round a corner and he points, "That’s it."
I feel sick again. People are few and far between.
I pull out the card Bernie made from the one I had stolen and swipe it. It works. I glance up at Will. He shakes his head, "Feels like a trap."
"That, or we are just the most jaded people on earth."
He chuckles and holds the door. We walk inside and instantly the lights do the thing they were doing in the other building. I groan, "I hate these lights."
"Me too. Makes it hard to focus."
I look back at him, "Maybe that’s the plan."
We walk into a reception area. A man walks out of a door and smiles at us, "Can I help you?"
I hold up my ID badge, "We are looking for a friend of ours, Bernard."
He nods and looks around, "Bernie. Of course."
I see a look in his eyes and punch hard. His head snaps back. Will grabs him and puts the chokehold on him. He passes out. Will carries him to a room and opens the door, placing him inside of it.
"Shit," I mutter.
"Yup.
We enter the door, peeking our heads in. It's a lab but none of the lights are on. No one is in there…if they are, they're not moving around. Will opens another door, "Stairs."
We climb them to the next floor, checking for lights until we reach the fifth floor. Lights in the far back corner of the huge, open floor, stop us both in our tracks.
"Can I help you?" a man asks.
I turn, swinging my gun hard and backhand him. Will grabs him, snapping his neck. He winces.
I shrug, "Wrong side."
His eyes flare, but he drags the body inside and hides it under a desk. We duck and creep through the desks and shelves, not that it matters. The lights come on over us as we walk. The closer we get the less we see over top of the furniture. I sneak to a corner and peek. A man is reading and doing work at a desk. He's typing something but we can't see his face. He doesn't look up at the lights moving in the ceiling.
I frown, "Is that a computer?"
Will nods, Looks like one."
I stand up and tuck my gun again. Will undoes a button on my shirt. I swat at him but he puts a finger to his lips, "Trust me. Act dumb and tired from working all day. They are not expecting us. He didn’t even bat at eyelash at us walking and making the lights come on."
I swallow and shake my head. He grabs my face, kissing me hard. When he let's go I stumble back and out of the hiding spot. I smile at the man who glances up at me.
"Hi," I say. My lips are still shiny from the kiss.
He grins, "You all done for the night?"
I nod, "I am. I'm beat."
He sits back, folding his arms and grinning. "What section do you work in?"
I point back at the other desks, "I work up a floor. I was coming down and saw the lights. I didn’t want to walk home alone. Thought I would see… if you were leaving soon?"
He stands up from the chair and closes the computer. It's a folding one like Granny had.
"I was about to leave," his eyes settle on my chest. I feel bile rising. I can't do it. I can't let him ogle me. I feel the panic and hear the tearing. I tell myself it's only one man. I wipe my hands on my pants and smile.
He steps away from the desk, "I'm getting tired anyway. What's your name?."
I nod, "Lainy."
He grins, "What do you do?"
"Nurse."
He frowns, "In this building?"
I nod, "I'm here to deliver things to the farms." I have no idea what I'm saying.
He sighs, "I see." His face looks funny when I say the word farms.
"How are things there?" His eyes search mine.
I shake my head, "The vigilante killed a lot of people."
A smile plays on the man's lips. Will sneaks up behind him and grabs him by the throat, but I put my hands out, "Stop!"
Will holds him tight as he struggles. He is nothing compared to Will.
I have a feeling about him and ask, "Are you a rebel?"
His eyes flash.
I decide to just go with it. We can kill him if we have to. I sigh and say, "I'm the vigilante."
He claws at Will's arm. Will releases him and gives me a look.
He looks at me intently, "I'm friends with Marshall."
I roll my eyes, "Well, he's a bastard, so that’s not a good thing."
The man puts a hand up, "I haven’t spoken to him in months. Last I heard, a vigilante from his camps was taking down those disgusting farms."
He turns and faces Will and they both laugh and hug. I don’t understand.
"Al, what the hell? How did you end up here?"
The man shakes his head, "It's the best way to sabotage, from inside."
"You two know each other?" I ask.
They nod together, "Allan here used to work the farm I was at."
Al patted him on his back, "He was, by far, the worst inmate, ever."
Will's face grows serious, "My sister is here somewhere with Bernie."
Allan grimaces, "Bernie, that little shit? Oh God."
My stomach sinks.
Al walks away from us to the door, "Up two floors. You'll need weapons."
I pull my gun. He looks at me, "You really are the vigilante?"
I nod, "I guess. They call me that."
"The Phoenix girl?"
I scowl, "No. That flashy crow thing is not for me. I just want to stop them." I don’t say my dad but Will does.
"Michael is her father."
Al winces, "Oh. I'm sorry."
I frown, "For what?"
He shakes his head, "Your father is a very bad man. Was he always evil?"
I shrug, "I think so. My mom ran with me when I was little." I lie and flash Will a look. I don’t know this man. I don’t want him to know I'm a Gen baby.
Will shakes his head. We enter the stairwell again. The dim lights are a welcome sight, compared to the constantly changing ones in the labs.
We climb the stairs as Al whispers, "Bernie has been allowed to come and go. We all figure he has something Michael wants. He is allowed a truck and a house on the outside. No one is allowed that. He's up Michael's ass all the time. If he has your sister, she might be…gone."
I shudder and push harder up the stairs. "This level is guarded. It’s Michael's personal lab."
I crack the door and peek. There are lights on in several areas. "At least four of them moving in there," I whisper.
"Go to the right…me and Al will go left," Will whispers.
I look back at him. His eyes tell me what I want to see; he's watching Allan just in case.
I sneak into the lab, hating the stupid flashing lights above me. Whoever thought of it, was an idiot.
I swerve to the right and watch. No one notices the lights coming on. I've noticed this about them all. They’ve gotten so accustomed to the lights that they don’t pay attention to them. They move around, making the lights move with them, like spotlights.
I see the ceiling lighting up to the left where Al and Will are walking. I peek around a desk to see Bernie. He's bent over a book. I stand up and tuck the gun in my back pocket. I walk to him like I'm supposed to be here.
He looks up; his face loses all its color.
I know the look on my face is scary. I can feel the rage simmering under my skin. I have an urge to pull the gun and fire, but I don’t. I watch his face.
He looks around, putting a hand up. I stop. He gets up, bringing the book with him. I stand next to a large shelf of books.
He whispers when he gets close, "What are you doing?"
I growl, "We want her now."
I see something on his face that I want to smash off of it. He swallows, "She is in the back lab, with your dad."
I grab his shirt, pulling his face down closer to mine, "I will kill you, without making a fucking sound. Do you understand me?"
He winces, "She was really sick. He saved her but it took a lot. She isn’t ready to be moved."
My fingers slide up to his throat. I grip tightly, "I am stronger than I look."
He swallows, I feel the lump of fear in his throat, "I swear she is okay. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her."
My lip twitches, "We met Allan. He doesn't seem to think you're what you say you are."
He shakes his sweaty face, "I swear, Em. I won't let them hurt her." I hear men talking. I step back into the shadows of the bookshelf. Bernie stands there shaking. The fear on his face worsens.
A voice from my past fills the air around us, "Bern, what's the solution? None of us can get her to tell us anything."
Fear fills his voice, "Not sure. I still think the fever cooked her brain; she has damage we can't see."
The man I can't see makes a humming noise, "I guess. There is that possibility. Well, she's your friend. What's the decision?" he sounds exactly like my father did. I should jump out, I should attack, but I'm scared. I don’t move. I freeze like I used to before. I want to sneak away like a coward.
Bernie winks at me with the eye the man can't see, "I think I'll end her. She's a veg."
