Chapter 3
The moment the main doors open, my ears fill with shouting. Objects, both breakable and not, are thrown around the room.
Guy leads me inside after Ginny, tucking me between them. Their footsteps are slow and tentative as we approach, the shouting from the other end of the room only increasing in volume and aggression.
“Do you think I’m fucking stupid? Huh?” a deep voice hisses. “That I wouldn’t have eyes in the government to sniff out traitors?”
A man sobs. Words fall from his mouth in disjointed vowels and consonants, resulting in blubbering mumbles rather than sentences.
Something is thrown into a wall and shatters, the pieces scattering to meet an abundance of broken bits of clay, glass, and metal on the ground.
“I took mercy on you and your brothers,” the voice hisses again. “I gave you jobs, a place to live… but that’s never enough, is it?”
The man chokes on his rebuttal.
The voice growls deeply, vibrating the furniture nearby.
“I should have just eaten you while the others watched. Finger-by-finger, limb-by-limb until you were nothing but meat chunks within my stomach bile.”
The man gasps. “No! Sir, please, I’m s-sorry… we needed the money. I—” The man’s sobs are cut off by a snapping sound, followed by crunching. A horrific scream escapes the man’s mouth, so pained it rattles the windows.
Ginny’s and Guy’s gazes drop to the ground.
“Damn, you sure like to scream and cry,” the voice spits through a full mouth. “You’re gonna need to shut your mouth unless you’d like to join your other body parts in my stomach.” The voice cruelly laughs.
A group of Lizardfolk rush in to remove the man wheezing for air, wails catching in his throat.
As they pass us, I see that his right arm is missing. One of the humans tries desperately to tie a tourniquet around the heavily bleeding nub, their eyes filled with panic. My stomach feels queasy at the sight. I’d throw up the food in my stomach if there were any.
Claws click along the stone flooring as the source of the shouting saunters closer to us, the crunching sounds growing louder.
“What the hell do you want, Ginny?” he huffs through a mouthful of bone and flesh.
Ginny stands tall at attention, her previously casual demeanor dissolving into something more serious and dedicated. “Good morning, Lowell. The prisoner has incessantly requested to speak with you, sir,” she says, stepping to the side to reveal where I stand.
My eyes lift to the space that Ginny no longer occupies, my gaze filling with the sight of an enormous Lizardfolk who stares back at me. His eyes are a deep amber, reptilian pupils pulled into thin lines.
This is Lowell. The ‘boss’ of Gaia 4.
My heart sinks into my stomach as I’m swallowed by his enormous shadow. The WANTED posters that litter Nilsan’s bulletin boards hardly capture the staggering height and mass of this creature.
A chill runs up my spine.
Lowell snorts a sigh from his nostrils, the warm air whisking stray hairs away from my face.
His scales are unlike the other species I’ve seen. They are smooth and round rather than spiny, his slick scales dark-grey, his underbelly and neck a dull cream. He looks more serpent than lizard, his neck long and muscular.
His tattered leather jacket hugs his bare, broad chest, his collarbone covered by a dark-green bandana soaked with a dark liquid. Ill-fitting cargo pants are ripped at the knees to fit large feet, black claws scraping the ground.
“May,” he calls.
Blood dribbles down the sides of his mouth and onto his chest, his pink double-tongues licking at the corners of his mouth to expose rows of sharp teeth.
I tense.
How does he know my name?
When I don’t answer, Lowell narrows his eyes at me. His pupils dilate rapidly before returning to slivers, tongues whisking away the traces of blood more feverishly than before.
“Well, what the fuck do you want?” he growls, wiping his claws on the bandana around his neck. “Speak.”
My throat constricts as I try desperately to clear it, but my words fall flat as terror grips my chest. I stand before him, stunned, wide-eyed, and gawking.
Lowell’s upper body is wide, tapering down to a slim waist and thick tail matched by two equally thick thighs and reptilian feet.
Two scaled horns slide out from the back of his skull, accentuating the sleekness of his head.
His appearance is intimidating, but despite the scars and gore smeared across his face… he’s incredibly handsome. An unfamiliar warmth tingles up my legs to my abdomen each time his gaze washes over me.
I stare at him in silence, my mouth frozen.
Guy was right. Lowell is not like the other Lizardfolk. At all.
The skin above Lowell’s eyes raise, a smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. He turns to Ginny, resting his hands on his narrow hips.
“What’s her deal? Just wanted to waste my time? That it?”
Ginny nods in acknowledgment, her face stoic. I notice the number two in Roman numerals embroidered on her jacket and the number one embroidered on Lowell’s. From context, it looks like she is his second-in-command.
“She refuses to eat or drink water unless she speaks with you. As you know, the human body can only sustain itself for three days without water before perishing. We are nearing the end of day three,” she says, motioning towards me.
“She insists on knowing why she was captured. I informed her that you were busy and would have to be patient, but she took matters into her own hands and attempted to asphyxiate herself to get her way.”
Anger tenses my jaw, words returning to me as quickly as the blood rushing to my face. I glare at Ginny.
“You kidnapped me from my job and threw me into a dungeon for days without an explanation,” I scoff. “I don’t deserve any of this! I’m just a surveyor here to collect sand—”
Warm, scaled fingers wrap around my jaw, cutting me off.
Lizardfolk aren’t supposed to be warm.
My gaze snaps to Lowell, his face now inches from mine.
“Nilsan Government Lead Scientist May, employee number 246, age thirty-two, recently demoted to Land Surveyor and assigned to the Sandpit Railway Construction Project.” He tilts my head in his grasp, tongues lazily dangling from his maw.
“But please, tell me more about how you’re ‘just’ a Land Surveyor, sweetheart. ”
I choke on my breath. “H-how— why would you know any of that?” I sputter, my cheeks pinched between his clawed fingers.
“I know everything about you that has ever been written,” he says with a self-satisfied grin. The scars on his face pucker with the curvature of his lips.
I frown, my breathing becoming labored while my voice becomes frantic.
“Why would you care about me? Or is harassing random government workers an interim Gaia 4 project between destroying civilian homes?” I snap.
As the words leave my mouth, I realize my bid for diplomacy is slowly losing traction.
Lowell blows air from his nose in a snort. “You’re a feisty one, huh? Brave, given your position.”
I press my lips together, straightening my worried brows.
“I want to get back to my work as quickly as possible. I don’t understand why I was taken or why you’d have business with me.
” I attempt to relax my face to appear friendly, but it doesn’t work.
“I assure you we can work out whatever misunderstanding has occurred here. But first I need to know why you care so much about someone like me.”
Lowell’s eyes widen, excitement coating his words. “Why do I care? Oh, wow, you don’t know anything, do you?”
I look at him in confusion, shaking my head.
He laughs manically, a breathy laugh that illuminates his disbelief rather than his enjoyment.
“May, I’ve been dying to tell you about my major grudge against the Junior Scientist who approved a project you might know as the ‘Misya Swamp Pipeline.’ But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” he asks, tapping a claw against the scales of his chin playfully.
I wince at his words, a flood of anxiety filling me to the brim. My blood runs cold; Lowell’s warm skin burns like fire.
I haven’t heard that name in ten years.
The ‘Misya Swamp Pipeline Project’ was my first assignment out of college.
The area bordered four major cities, including a close ally to Nilsan.
After ten months of both hunters’ and foragers’ complaints about the state of the land, the Nilsan Government decided to repurpose the land by laying multiple pipelines throughout the empty swamp.
Supposedly, this project was meant to stimulate the local economies that were in jeopardy due to the desolate habitats.
Being that it was my first project, I’d wanted nothing more than to make it a success.
However, my desire for success came with less-than-desirable decisions, including improper testing as pushed by the former Director.
Although I’d initially fought the improper tests due to my stalwart beliefs in following the rules and guidelines, my morals lapsed in favor of career advancement.
Unbeknownst to us in Nilsan, the area had been secretly retested by one of our allied cities, and our blatant disregard for proper protocol had come to light.
Although the Allies had proved that the land was indeed barren, they’d found abnormalities that should have been expanded on if not for the irreparable razing from the current construction.
My haphazard findings may have been supported, but my obvious negligence had been chastised. Because of this, the Director had been fired immediately I’d been placed on year-long probation.
Shortly after my return, Kinsley had been promoted from within the Department of Biological Warfare to his current Director position.
He’d made sure that the previously incriminating documents had been buried to cover up any potential investigations by the Nilsan Board of Ethics.
Kinsley continues to use that as a source of control over me.
The ‘Misya Swamp Pipeline Project’ is a major source of my shame and regret.
Grandma instilled in me a respect for nature that was lost by one bad decision, and I’ve worked the rest of my career to make up for the damage I’ve done.
However, I had hoped this secret would remain deep within the shadows.
Saliva collects at the corners of my mouth.
It’s not such a secret anymore.
I struggle against Lowell’s grasp, his sharp claws needling my cheeks. My body screams at me to flee like a rabbit caught in a snare, fight-or-flight pumping adrenaline into my veins. My skin flashes between hot and cold, the hairs on my arms standing on end.
“What’s with that look on such a pretty face?
” Lowell says cheekily. “Afraid I’ll rip you apart like you and your government have done to everything around us?
” he tuts, tapping his nose against mine.
“Rest assured, I won’t give you the same swift death.
I’ll make sure you know just how much I hate you. ”
I reach my shackled hands to Lowell’s chest for balance while he turns my head back and forth, inspecting me. He moves me with ease, as though I’m a doll. I’m no match for his brute strength.
Turning my head to face straight forward, Lowell stares daggers.
“Eyes like little emeralds… so fragile, like all humans,” he mumbles, pressing a single claw into the soft skin of my cheek. I flinch, sucking my teeth as he drags the claw towards my temple. Blood spills from the cut, and Lowell’s pupils dilate with hunger.
I swallow hard.
“What are you talking about? The land was barren and desolate. All life was extinct,” I argue, my brows drawn together. Lowell’s claws pinch my cheeks even harder, his scales darkening to black.
“Life tends to perish where it is being poisoned,” he growls.
“But the bribes were too good to pass up, huh? Material goods over life? A common downfall of all living, intelligent beings.” My heart hammers away in my chest, memories of sitting in the previous Director’s office as he convinced me to abandon my morals in favor of a larger commission for cutting corners.
I needed the money for Grandma’s funeral, so I took it despite the pit in my gut. It felt dirty to take immoral money to bury my grandmother whose life purpose has been dedicated to morality and utilitarianism. But I was twenty-one, and up to my eyes with college debt.
My brain finally catches up to Lowell’s words after all of the self-pity is done wreaking havoc, my thoughts skipping like a broken record of the same word.
The words are so foreign, so outlandish, my brain almost doesn’t process them.
“Wait, poisoned?”