"We wouldn't be going if there was," Jessica assured her as she slid a knife into her belt and took the other knife that Leo offered her. I recognized the look in Leo's eyes and had to force myself not to glance back toward where I'd left Bethany. I wouldn't be able to see her from here anyway and looking back was something I wasn't going to do.
"That doesn't mean they couldn't find us at any time," Rosemary told her.
Rosemary stepped forward and handed another knife to Betty, a small brunette girl with a compact body that would have been better suited for a twelve year old boy. She was quick though and far more agile than what I'd expected upon first seeing her. She slipped the knife into the holder at her side and turned toward Art, the man hovering anxiously beside her. I turned away from their goodbye and stepped beside Jessica as Leo turned away.
Craig, a large man with hair even darker than mine and skin nearly as dark, bent low to kiss the small blond woman, Jodie, standing at his side. Craig appeared to be nearly thirty and I assumed Jodie was about the same age, but her small stature made her appear much younger. Steve, a small Mediterranean looking Tintagelian was hugging Leighann as they exchanged their goodbyes.
Jessica handed me a large plastic bag. "You'll need it later." I took it from her and shoved it into my back pocket. "Does Bethany know?"
"Know what?"
"That we most likely won't be coming back."
"She knows. Does Leo?"
Jessica's eyes traveled to the young man gathered with the others. "He does."
The first splash of color began to streak across the sky as the sun started to set. The filling station that Jessica had shown us on our test run three days ago was almost a hundred miles away. It would take us less than an hour to make it there but I was eager to get this over with. I remained immobile though as I hid my impatience and waited for the others to say their goodbyes.
The last streaks of pink were fading from the sky when we finally made our way into the woods. It was freeing to run again, to move, to do something other than think because all of my thoughts only brought me back to one realization. I'd just left behind the only person I'd ever loved.
If I thought too much I would go back to her. I didn't fear death; it was simply a fact that it would happen one day and it wasn't something that I thought about often. The imminent threat of death didn't make me want to turn back, but even now I could feel the pull of Bethany trying to lure me into returning to where I belonged. I could sense it in the others too as they didn't slow, but there seemed to be a heavier weight upon them as their shoulders slouched and their mouths became more pinched with every step they took.
It was refreshing to feel the wind whipping past me as I concentrated on avoiding the obstacles in my way. My heart raced as we rounded the top of a hill and the filling station came into view. Unlike the encampment we had just left behind there were no humans here but only a simple train station looking platform that was a good ten feet off the ground. The tangy smell of blood wafted up from the valley the station was nestled in below.
I'd seen it before but even so I felt the hunger within me stirring to life. It wasn't a part of myself I was proud of, but I wasn't ashamed of it either. It was who I was, a predator, one that ranked even higher on the food chain than the humans that had mistakenly thought themselves at the top of it.
I slid over top of the hill and behind an outcropping of rocks. Settling behind a large boulder I rested my hands on it as I rose to look into the valley. Jessica's shoulder pressed against mine as she stood up beside me. From our vantage point we could see some of our kind walking a patrol around the ten foot high fence surrounding a few acres of the land below us. Actual buildings had been erected; they weren't hastily assembled shacks but rather they were elaborate creations with roofs that wouldn't leak and floors that weren't dirt.
"Are you going to tell me how we get on the ship now?" I asked.
She'd kept her secret to herself until now, but I didn't doubt she had a way onto the ship just as I didn't believe she would betray me. I'd seen her love for Leo and I knew that what was driving her to get on that ship was the same thing that was driving me.
"It's not fun, even for our kind," she answered.
I didn't like the sound of those words but I'd never expected this to be fun. She gave me a secretive smile and nodded to the left. Creeping out from behind the boulder we carefully made our way through the woods and around to the side of the platform. Jessica put her hand up to halt us. I knelt down as I surveyed the fence and the land sprawling out beneath us.
The ground shook as a Seeker full of blood approached the platform on its spiderlike legs. From its lower midsection a single, its main spindly tentacle slid out like a worm from the earth and into a metal tube. Like a person pumping gas, the blood pumped out of the creature and into the waiting canisters that would be transported back to the ship.
As the blood left the Seeker, it began to dwindle from the size of a school bus to that of a midsize sedan. The tentacle retreated from the pipe on top of the canister and pulled back within the creature that had returned to its natural opalescent hue now that it was empty. The three silver canisters that had been filled moved forward on a long conveyer belt that aligned it behind four other full canisters set out on the platform.
"That's how we get on," Jessica whispered in my ear.
"In the containers?" Cory blurted.
"Yes. They'll keep filling them until morning when one of the smaller ships will arrive to pick them up," Jessica explained.
"How do we know they'll go to the main ship?" Steve inquired.
"All the blood supplies originally go to the main ship. It's decided where else they go from there," Jess explained.
"And we come back in those things?" Craig inquired.
"Yes."
"They don't notice the weight difference?" I asked.
She shook her head. "It's all robotic arms that lift them in and out of the ships. I don't think they put a weight system into effect because they never expected anyone to try and sneak on or off the ships in the containers. They would never expect anyone to disobey them."
"How did you know that before you went on there last time?" I demanded.
She shook her head. "I didn't."
"And you went anyway?" Betty inquired.
Jessica looked at the others before meeting my gaze. "I met Leo before this happened, before I even knew that The Freezing was going to occur for certain, before we graduated from high school. I knew that you and I were supposed to meet our freshman year in college, but I simply... I just couldn't," she whispered. "They had another station like this on an island off the coast of Maine. I only knew about it because the family I'd been placed with was Tintagelian too and I overheard them discussing the island. The island was set up as a test run for The Seekers and the ships, along with other places where I'm sure that the missing populace wouldn't be overly noticed.
"I went onto that ship with the hope of finding a way to end all of this before it even started. In the hopes that I could free myself from the destiny they had set out for us, and instead I discovered that The Freezing was going to occur before the summer ended. The Freezing wasn't the escape I'd been looking for, but it was a way for Leo and me to get away all the same. I took a chance going up there, I didn't know if I would be able to make it back to him, but I was going to lose him no matter what and I wasn't willing to do that without a fight. It may have been stupid and rash..."
"I understand," I interrupted as she continued to try and justify herself. I may not have boarded a ship, but I'd risked Bethany's life with my own stupid and rash decision. I could only hope The Ancients arrogance in believing that no one would dare cross them, or outsmart them, would be their ultimate downfall after this day.
I leaned back on my heels as I studied the containers. She was right, even for one of our kind I wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of using them to enter the ship. "We have to go now," Jessica urged. "The last time I was
here there was only one hour between each one of those things arriving. I doubt it's happening as quickly now as they have to be running out of people, but I don't want to take the chance that it's not any different."
"Let's go then," I said as I slipped away from the tree.
We descended the hill rapidly and perched at the corner of where the fences joined. From here I could see the patrol making their rounds on the other side of the compound near another platform. Jessica broke out a set of wire cutters and began to snip at the metal wiring. The metal was cool beneath my hand as I helped to roll it out of the way for her. Pinning the makeshift gate back we moved quickly through the hole and kept to the shadows as we hurried toward the elevated platform.
Reaching the platform, I cupped my hands together before me and helped to boost Jessica up. She grabbed hold of the platform and lifted herself onto the landing. Craig helped push Betty up as Steve boosted Cory upward. I could hear the three of them moving around above us, but from this angle I couldn't see them up there. "Lowering one down," Jessica whispered.
Raising my hands above me I braced them to grab hold of the bottom of the canister. My knees bent beneath the weight of it but I brought it down and placed it on the ground beside me. Jessica disappeared briefly before reappearing with another one. I lifted it down as she jumped off the platform with Cory and Betty at her side.
I didn't know how much time had passed but I could hear the steady click of the clock winding down as I lifted one of the canisters onto my shoulder and scrambled back through the fence and up the hill with it. Jessica and I, faster than the others, made it to the top of the hill first.
"This should be good," she panted.
Grabbing hold of the edge of the canister, I yanked the top free. The blood was the color of coal in the dim moonlight but the scent of it assailed me. Inhaling deeply, I had to fight the urge to dip my hand in and savor in the warm life pooled within. I forced my head up and wasn't surprised to see the darkness that resided within us, and that was ruled by our hunger and rage, creeping across Steve and Cory's faces. There was no name for it, it was simply who we were, who we had always been, and what resided within us, but I believed it was what had caused the humans to come up with the legends of demons.
Though their desire was evident, Steve and Cory tipped the canisters onto their sides and poured the blood onto the forest floor. I placed the canister upright again and gathered leaves and pine needles to cover the massive puddles seeping into the earth. I knew there was no way to cover it all but I was hoping that between what we did now, the location, and the trees they wouldn't be able to spot the blood from above.
"Leo helped you do this the first time," I said to Jessica as we started back to the platform with our much lighter stowaway containers. Her head tilted as she studied me. "This isn't a one person job," I answered her unspoken question.
She took a deep breath and shook her head. "No, I never told Leo I was going to do this until after I was back."
"Who helped you then?"
"Rosemary."
She turned to face me when I stopped walking. "How long have you known Rosemary?"
"She was a teacher at my high school; I think she had been placed there with the sole purpose of watching over me." I didn't doubt it. The Tintagelian that had watched and reported on me was the adoption agent that had originally placed me with the Marshall's and moved me about over the years. He had also been the one to decide that the Marshall's had to go.
"Rosemary saw the difference in me after I met Leo; she knew what was happening to me even when I didn't. I don't know what I would have done without her there to guide me; I don't know how you or any of the others managed to navigate those waters alone. It must have been horrible."
It had been but I wasn't about to admit that. "She let you go alone?"
Jessica flashed a wild grin. "She didn't have a choice. Our breeding has ensured that we are the stronger ones after all. I don't pull that card often but in this case it helped me to get my way."
I couldn't help but smile back at her as I nodded. "I understand."
It only took a few minutes for all of us to help each other onto the platform. We were just beginning to get organized when I began to feel the solid thump of one of the larger Seeker's approaching the station again. Placing the empty canister down I lifted my head to see if I could locate it. The solid wall behind the platform made it impossible to see what was coming our way though.
"It's too soon," Jessica whispered.
Betty bent over the canister still situated in the middle of the wall between where the full ones slid through and where the empty ones remained. She stood immobile for a full minute before turning back to us. "There's one coming!"
I jumped forward to help shove the empty canisters back into the places we had removed them from. "We have to go," Steve, who had taken over Betty's position, declared.
Grabbing hold of Jessica's elbow, I pulled her toward the edge of the platform as the others leapt off. I landed smoothly on the ground and took a swift step back so that we were underneath the edge of the platform. The wall behind us should keep us blocked from the Seeker but even still I bent low as I crept toward the edge of the platform and rested my hand upon the ground. Drawing within myself, like I had taught Bethany to do, I searched the world outside of myself. My ears became more attuned to the subtle sounds of the earthworms moving through the dirt, the mice within the forest, but I mainly focused upon the creature less than twenty feet away from us.
I could hear the pulse of blood exiting the creature as it filled the next canister in line. The sounds of it withdrawing from the canister reached me as the line of containers was shoved forward. Another click indicated that another full canister was moving forward but from the less forceful pumps of the Seeker I realized that the creature was starting to empty out. Jessica knelt by my side as another canister slid into place. More blood rushed out, but the next container wasn't completely filled as it didn't slide forward.
Dull thuds resonated as the creature retreated from the platform. "We might as well take our clothes off now," Jessica suggested in a low voice when the ground stopped trembling from the Seeker's retreating weight.
I glanced at her and then back at the others. "Why do we need to take our clothes off?" Betty inquired.
"The minute we climb into those canisters we're going to be coated with blood. We can't walk around the ship like that."
I nodded as I pulled the folded up plastic bag from my back pocket and began to hastily unbutton my shirt. I didn't look at the others as I carefully folded the shirt and wrapped it within my other clothes to keep the explosives as protected as possible. I barely noticed their naked bodies as I pushed my sneakers and socks inside and knotted the bag.
Their eyes didn't flicker away from mine when I looked at them again, I didn't try to shield myself from them nor did they attempt to cover themselves either. I assumed the sight of my naked flesh had the same affect on them as theirs did on me, nothing. I didn't feel curiosity, didn't feel a stirring of lust or attraction or even a morsel of embarrassment at being naked before them.
The air was cool against my skin as we stepped back out from under the platform but I barely felt it as we maneuvered ourselves back onto the platform. I made sure the others were in containers before settling into one with the bag on my lap. I met Jessica's gaze across the platform before I pulled the lid into place and tugged it down until I heard the click of the locks sliding into place. The blood still lining the container was warm against my flesh but I fought the impulse to taste it as I impatiently waited for the smaller ship to come and pick us up.
Chapter 20
The ride was far less jostling than I'd expected it to be, a fact I was extremely grateful for with Lloyd's makeshift bombs in my lap. I wasn't sure how much time had elapsed though before the container was finally settled into position somewhere aboard what I assumed was the main ship. I remained where I was, curled up amongst the blood and ov
er my bag of clothes. I was about to lift the top off the container when a small tap on the side sounded near my ear.
Dim illumination flooded in as I pushed the top off with a soft pop of air. I inhaled the fresh air as I rose to my feet and stretched out my cramped legs. Grabbing my bag of clothes I climbed from the container. The others were streaked with blood that smudged their cheeks and foreheads, and coated their backsides. I knew I wasn't much better though as I could feel it sticking and cracking against me with every step I took.
As I worked the cramps out my legs I got my first good look at the ship I'd spent the first two years of my life on. I didn't remember those days, but then I had no aspiration to either. Especially not as I looked around the football field sized room that contained canisters for as far as I could see. I'd never imagined anything like this could exist and though I'd never been ashamed of what I was before, I was suddenly disgusted by the more twisted ones amongst us that thrived on such atrocities.
"Oh," Betty breathed and lifted her hand to her mouth. She winced and instantly jerked her hand away to reveal the blood print it had left on her mouth. "This is awful."
I met her stricken gaze. "If we're successful it will end today."
Tears briefly swam in her eyes before she nodded. "Art will never know this atrocity, he'll never experience this. I don't care what I have to do to make sure of that."
I knew exactly how she felt as I began to move through the endless rows of blood and human life that cluttered the room. It wasn't until we were halfway through the room that I realized it was even more massive than I'd originally thought. At least three football fields could fit within this part of the ship, and at least two of them were full of containers. The other one was stacked full of people that remained frozen within their bodies.
I stopped walking, and so did the others, as we spotted the humans packed like sardines into the other third of the ship. "What is this room?" I asked Jessica.
"It's the lower level of the ship. There were only a few canisters the last time I was here, I wasn't... I didn't expect this," she choked out.