Bound – Chapter 5

It was like a swarm of bees had filled her ears the moment she was pulled through. She could still feel the warmth of Leander’s palm against her, but everything else felt disconnected. The sound was so deafening that she wanted to raise both hands against her ears, but Leander kept his grip firm. When she felt a small electrical shock against her palm, she gave a small yelp and could see the shadow of her partner’s face when he looked toward her, but nothing else as she was lead through what appeared to be a dark tunnel.

It smelled of earth, but the air tasted metallic on her tongue, and when she touched at her face with her free hand, it came away wet with something warm and slightly sticky. She was so disoriented, that she didn’t even question it until somewhere overhead a bright light suddenly appeared.

Blinded, Kersten cursed, pressing her face into the back of Leander’s shoulder to shield herself from the light until her pupils were able to better adjust. It made her dizzy, and after the day she’s had so far, the experience just exhausted her. Was it possible for one person could be taken apart and put back together so many times in one day and stay sane?

“You’re okay, kid,” Leander said softly beside her, finally releasing her hand and leading her by the shoulders to sit down, “Stay still. You shouldn’t have been affected by that shield. We took your Life Wire out, which means, there is something else in you,” he continued, sounding worried enough to make Kersten worry.

“I’m not a kid,” she growled, landing hard on the edge of what felt like a metal bench. Her vision and hearing were still clouded, all her senses were, and she slumped in the seat some with her head between her knees, willing her nausea away, “What was that? What do you mean ‘something else in me’, Draven?” Kersten groaned, putting her head in her hands and rubbing at her skull, willing it to stop throbbing.

“You are. I fail to understand why you would be offended by that observation,” he said in a slightly amused voice as he pulled one of the heavier bags from her shoulder and started through its contents. They were both quiet for awhile as he worked, she still slumped and struggling to regain her composure.

“Here, swallow this,” Leander said, holding a glowing purple orb the size of a marble against her lips. Kersten looked wearily at him through a foggy gaze, but slowly parted her lips to take the pill. It broke apart quickly, tickling her tongue and the inside of her mouth before it disappeared down her throat, coating her esophagus with a crawling warmth that made her claw slightly at her throat.

“You actually did it without a fight,” he chuckled, before his face went serious again, “What you swallowed is called an EF Bug. On contact with your tongue, it dissolves into thousands of nano organisms that soak into your bloodstream. If there is any metal in your body, it’ll attract them like bees to honey,” he explained as he took a rag from another one of the bags and started to wipe at her face with it.

Kersten just sat there stunned into silence, wanting to rip out of her skin as she had the phantom sensation of feeling the little organisms squirming through her insides, making her skin crawl.

“Leander…” she panicked as he pulled away the rag from her face, stained in blood and several purple hued spots started to illuminated so brought she could see them through her suit. For a moment, she thought she was hallucinating it all, but the look on Leander’s face told her otherwise.

“It’s just blood, Powell. You’ll be fine,” he tried to assure her as he took one of her arms and extended it out. At her wrist, the tip of her middle finger, and against the fleshy part of her palm three little dots pulsed a purple hue just beneath the surface of her skin. It was the same on the other arm, on her left thigh, at the base of her throat. They nearly missed the ones on her legs, but before she could react Leander was slicing through the fabric of her suit, exposing her legs, her stomach, her chest. She felt exposed. Embarrassed. Angry.

“What the hell do you think you are doing!” she snapped, but had little strength to do much but knock her fist into his shoulder.

“You ask that a lot. Now shut up, and let me cut these out of you!” he snapped back at her, taking her arm and pressing the laser pen he had used last time on her back into her flesh. Her head going back over her shoulders, she tensed, gritting her teeth as he mutilated her flesh. Gasping in pain, she dug her nails into the flesh of his free arm, trying and failing not to cry out.

“I’m sorry, Kersten, I really am,” he said softly, “I should have done a thorough check before we left. I didn’t think they had already gotten to you,” he frowned, concentrating on each glowing area until it would dim, pulling out little metal discs, wires, and tiny glass pieces that looked like little hour glasses from her.

She wanted to be furious at him. Nothing that was happening made any sense to her. Opening her eyes, she stared up at a ceiling of glass, but any light that may had come through at one point, was now blocked by earth. As if a landslide had buried the entire building. The idea made it hard to breath, and she struggled to keep from hyperventilating. It made her feel weak. Like a joke. Like all this years of acting tough were just a farce, and her first test was stripping away that mask and exposing a weak, defenseless child.

“I’m not a child. I’m not weak,” she growled, focusing on the room around her, tuning out the pain as she took in the expanse of her surroundings. The walls were at least thirty feet high. Square, metal pillars stood scattered around, beams crisscrossing above her like a web, connecting them all together.

“No one one is calling you weak, snap out of it,” Leander said a little impatiently, cupping her face and forcing her gaze to his, “Listen to me, we have to get out of here. If I didn’t get them out in time, then we’ll have company soon. If I did, we aren’t anymore safe. Can you walk?” Leander asked, narrowing his dark set eyes up at her to judge her expression.

Her azure gaze shifted from the walls of strange equipment and large metal doors and darkened passages, to his face, seeing regret there. She knew what that meant. If she couldn’t walk, then he would leave her. She was one person. Insignificant if what they were there for would save thousands, perhaps more. The thought made her cold, and she stiffed, straightening her back with a nod. Kersten wasn’t sure she could live up to that promise, but she would try. Staying here was not an option, even if he did leave without her.

Despite the situation they found themselves in, he grinned in approval at her resolve, patting her cheek and tossing her another suit.

“I figured as much. You’re a stubborn, bullheaded sort. It may save you, it may get you killed, but no one can say you didn’t try, right?” he spoke as he worked to seal up her wounds quickly. He did it with expert grace, and though each spot still ached dully, it’d be hard to see where he had removed the pieces.

“You said they got to me. What do you mean? What were those things?” Kersten asked quietly as she motioned for him to turn around as she peeled off yet another suit and into a new one. At this point, she’d save time doing this entire mission naked. The thought made her snicker, and as she shouldered the rest of the uniform on, she felt Leander’s hand against her side, pulling the rest of the zipper up. It surprised her, and she jumped slightly with a glance over her shoulder, but was a little too disoriented still to give him a good smack.

“You find that funny?” he asked quietly, his breath warm against the side of her face, patting her side once she was all zipped up.

“Another thought entirely. Now stop trying to change the subject,” Kersten said sternly, elbowing him out of her personal space. Close up, she could appreciate that charcoal gaze, that dimpled smile, and the how soft those curls hung against the side of his face. Sadly, she didn’t have time or patience for distractions.

“Hm,” he said as he handed off the bags she had been carrying, taking his own and nodding toward the other side of the room, not waiting for her as he started off.

Shouldering their weight again, Kersten took a deep breath to center herself, snatched up their coordinates cube, and hurried after him. Surprisingly she did feel much better than she had moments before, and she wondered if the things he had taken out of her had anything to do with it. When she stepped at his side, he had the pieces in the palm of his hand, rolling them about curiously.

“That’s not an answer,” Kersten said a little impatiently as she looked above them again, realizing for the first time she couldn’t find the light source of the expansive room they had been in.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” he sighed, and reached out his free hand to a panel on the wall. Though the device looked like it hadn’t been used in decades, the moment his palm touched it, a current of blue expanded from where his hand pressed in a line around the door. It pulsed a faint blue, similar to how he had looked earlier, when then were topside, trying to get in.

“What are you doing to it?” she asked, suddenly distracted as she heard gears begin to shift, and the door broke free of its seal. The air that escaped it was hot and musty, and she coughed, waving some of the dust from her face. Blinking particles out of her eyes and off her lashes, she glanced over his shoulder and into the dark room, far too curious to be frightened.

“Opening the door, what does it look like?” he grinned over his shoulder at her, reaching over to turn over his hand into her palm, dumping out all the things he had taken from under her skin“A present. Come on, let’s go,” and without waiting, he disappeared into the darkness again.

“Shit, stop doing that!” she cursed, following after him. The moment she had stepped over the threshold, the door groaned as it slid back close, a series of clicks baring their way back out, “Great…” Kersten breathed into the darkness. She squinted, trying to adjust her eyes into the inky blackness around them, feeling for the wall at either side of her. She could feel the little pieces of metal and glass in her hand, but hardly see it in front of her face until her eyes were attracted to the small patches of light starting to dimly illuminate from Leander’s suit, then her own.

It was a tight space, a tunnel of some kind. Unlike the one before, the walls were smooth and made out of some kind of pale hued rock. They walked in silence, the bottoms of their boots echoing in the small space, the sound of shifting fabric as they walked, but little else. Kersten started feeling claustrophobic the more they walked, which only fueled her temper at the lack of answers he had given to her.

Pocketing the pieces, she reached out and took a handful of the back of Leander’s suit, suddenly jerking him backwards and against the wall. She must have caught him off guard, because he stumbled into it, landing hard against the stone as she came against him with her forearm under his throat.

“I think it’s about time you act like a partner, and let me know what the hell is going on. I think I have earned that respect!” Kersten growled softly to him, narrowing bright eyes.

Shock turned to amusement, and he seemed to humor her as he tilt his head back at the force of her arm, holding his hands up in surrender. She could even feel his muscles relax against her as he gave in.

“You really are an aggressive one, Powell,” he chuckled, but gagged on it when she put more pressure on his throat, “This is no way to have a conversation,” he grinned, making her bristle.

“Conversation! There has barely been conversation since this began. When you aren’t ripping things out of my body, you are dragging me into dark, foreboding hell holes, or knocking me out. We aren’t cavemen, Leander Draven! I refuse to go any further until you tell me something. So help me, I’ll radio every living being within the closest five planet systems…” she threatened, grinding her teeth.

For a moment, he just watched her – those dark orbs examining her face, her mouth, her eyes. She wasn’t sure whether he was bored or contemplating, and she shoved away from him and started walking the way they were going without another word, fuming.

She didn’t wait to see if he’d follow her. She didn’t care. None of what was happening was making any sense, and though she thought herself to be a logical and analytical person, she was having a hard time processing everything. In such a short amount of time, so much had happened. She cursed at herself for jumping into it as she fiddled with the small cube in her hand, trying to make sense of the map in front of her. Kersten could hardly see the thing in the dim light, not understanding how to even activate the thing. She was ready to smash it into one of the walls next to her head, but just tucked it under her arm and marched on.

“Kersten, please stop,” Leander suddenly said behind her. She hadn’t even heard his steps, and gasped when he took her by the wrist and swung her around to face him. Tilting her head up to him, she set her teeth stubbornly, but didn’t pull away, waiting for his explanation.

He smiled at the look on her face, reaching up to pat her on the cheek but she stopped his hand, “Don’t patronize me, Leander! I didn’t realize being head of a Silent Division means they took your tongue. I wonder what else they took,” she said acidly, glancing between his legs with a mild smirk.

“You’ll never understand what they took from me, Kersten. And the sacrifices I had to make to get here,” he said coldly, stepping forward to close the distance between them until her back was up against the wall now.

She lifted her chin defiantly, but said nothing more. Kersten hadn’t even heard of the Silent Division until today, of course she wouldn’t know about the sacrifices he had made.

“I need you to trust me,” he said after a moment, grabbing her upper arms in a firm, but gentle grip, “I know that means very little to you, but I have to show you before I can tell you.”

“You are the most infuriating man I have ever met,” Kersten said through gritted teeth, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, “So I am to follow you blindly? Don’t be ridiculous.”

He perked a brow at that, grinning slightly, “I’m an commanding arm of this corporation you so adore. Your job is to follow orders, is it not?”

Leander had her there, and she bit the inside of her mouth to keep from responding. Her pride wouldn’t let her, but he was right. She had been so caught up in everything, that she had threw most of her training out the window. Kersten was good at this. She was well studied on technology, languages, navigation, analysing, decryption. This level of adventure and unknown should be exciting for her, and here she was making a scene.

“Perhaps E.L.O.S. was incorrect about you,” he said after a moment, looking disappointed as he released her and started back down the hall.