Chapter 4 #3
Each step of the heavy boots thudding my way has my hands twitching.
I am barely able to form a single coherent thought.
Shock is my baseline. The walls of the truck are pushing in on me at every strike of heavy rubber against metal.
I want to fight, but with the sudden reality of my situation, all I can do is cower at the possibility of what is to come.
They can’t find me. I need to find safety.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” a leering tone hisses—the person in the truck, a hollow keeper. My skin shrivels over my protruding bones. They know. They have Nix.
I feel it before I even need to see him. There is no way of slipping out beyond the factory. The keepers will eventually find me.
They may have skeletal keepers on duty at the factories, but it’s enough, especially with the drones watching us.
And no one is climbing the double-fenced outer ring of the factory fences without being shot first. They’d hate to waste a bullet, usually going for starvation, however, it’s always a message they are willing to send.
“Come on, you didn’t think it would be that easy, did you? Stupid bastard inbreds.” My ears blister, his jibes harsh.
“Hey, fucker, I told you she ran. She’s not on the truck. I helped her jump the barrier.” His voice guts me.
Oh, Nix.
I whimper behind my bandaged hand. So damn foolish. Suddenly, I know exactly what he’s been trying to do. It was never about me going quietly. He hoped to distract them. It was a long shot. A stab in the dark. My brother believed he could distract them long enough that they’d let the trucks go.
Idiot.
A crack reverberates in my ears. It’s my heart. I feel it shatter. Nix has signed his death warrant. I have no recourse. There’s no way for me to fix this. He’s fighting for me. The only thing I can do is fight, like I said I would.
Fight, Storm.
Eyes filling again, I remind my body to hold that shit in. I will not crumble. I cannot let these monsters have that.
“Must be getting pretty hot, hey, boys.” The man in the truck jokes with his comrades outside.
Footsteps continue to pound closer, vibrating beneath me. The dreaded clock on my life is ticking precariously close to end, so I throw out the only card I have left.
Fight.
I stand.
Taking a deep breath, I stare daggers at the stern-looking hollow in all black, making his way to me. “Let my brother go, and I will go peacefully.”
Fight.
His thin lips crack into a sneer, beady grey eyes sweeping over me.
He chuckles—a big fucking belly laugh. “You have no right to bargain with Halo. You are nothing but livestock to us, girl. Your womb is a tool for us to breed. Be grateful I have not already killed your brother for his insolence. Maybe I will let you say goodbye before he’s left to rot. ”
My teeth crack, jaw locking. Pain radiates from my hands, fingers digging into the soft centres of my palms. I ache to hit this goddamm motherfucker right in his stupid shit-for-brains head.
I’m face to face with him. The frustration itches at my insides, and I want to burst. FIGHT.
Scratch his eyeballs out so he can never lay his eyes on a woman again.
FIGHT. Rip his tongue out so he never has the chance to call them a tool for Halo.
Halo will burn. I hate it with every drop of my life force. Right now, he is everything I hate. Vengeance finds me, oozing out. Through clenched teeth, I rein myself in for my brother’s sake. Damn it if I die, but I will not be the reason he does.
“I said I will go with you if you let him go.”
Tall, Dark, and Sinister walks up to me, stopping mere inches from my face. “Like I said, little girl, you forget your place.” He inches down towards my ear, and I shake with violence. “Not even you on your knees, your lips wrapped around my cock, would stop your brother’s death.”
Fuck it.
Fuck it all to shit.
FIGHT.
I snap. They have beaten us, raped us, stolen parts of our bodies and souls, and they expect us to be happy with our lot in life—with the scraps of candy they throw us.
I will kill him. I want to kill all of them.
My instincts take over, everything Nix taught me—the right hooks, the deflections, the weight advantage—kicking into gear.
“Remember, little Storm, your size will always see you with the advantage. Don’t forget it.
” I used to think Nix said that to me to keep my spirits up when he would beat me on my ass.
Now, with a man towering over me, I see how close I am to a particular part of him he most definitely doesn’t want me to knee.
How can I not, though, with it being so close and all…
Lifting my right leg, I aim and shoot, getting him square in that cock he was talking about before.
“YOU LITTLE BITCH.” He roars. Hands fly for his—no doubt, weeny—dick, falling against the stacked boxes in the process of securing his family shrubs. Jewels would be too nice of a word for a hollow.
YES. I’m bolstered at the ease of taking down one of the bastards.
It gives me a new sense of possibility. Maybe I can save Nix!
My leg only elicits a dull throb. I skirt the keeper holding his dick and run for the door, only to find it surrounded by Halo keepers, with Nix right in the middle, bleeding and unconscious.
I will not crumble.
FIGHT.
I will rage until there’s nothing left of them.
FIGHT.