Underland(32)

She started shivering and began to flex her fingers and run her hands through her damp hair. Her specter floated a few feet from her, bobbing gently in the air, waiting to come if bidden. Kira gave the girl an ugly glare, before giving in and motioning her over to finish her job.

The iridescent specter smiled brightly and whisked behind her to run a comb through her hair. The light, ethereal fingers brushing against her scalp felt way more comforting than she’d expected. When was the last time someone had brushed her hair?

Her father. Just remembering him brought stinging tears to her eyes. She quickly wiped them away.

When the specter was done styling her hair, she handed Kira a mirror. Her hair was pulled away from her face into a high ponytail. Thin, little braids had been softly interwoven into her hair and down her ponytail. It gave her the appearance of being both soft and hard. Kira liked it.

A tall woman came in and addressed the runners, giving them the order of the events for the afternoon. All first time runners were to follow her out the door. Kira got in line behind a small bear-creature and was ushered into a large bunker.

There, a tall green man with horns poked, prodded, measured and photographed her, entering everything into a tablet. He put a tourniquet around her arm and pulled out a syringe.

“What are you doing?” Kira asked.

“Taking a blood sample.”

“What for?” She winced when he pricked her skin and had to look away while the syringe slowly filled with her deep red blood.

“We run a test, check for impurities, see if anyone has had any genetic enhancements.” He smiled, revealing pointed incisors.

“Really?”

The doctor snorted and shook his head. “No, not really. You’re a new champion, so we take your stats and enter them into our computer. We also use your DNA to help identify the remains.” He pulled out the needle and capped the vile of blood, wrote on it with a pen, and laid it down on the tray next to a lot of other filled samples. “If there are any left, that is.”

Her eyes followed the vial and she read the label on her blood.

Race: Human

Name: Kira Lier

Owner: Remus Carthage

Blood Type: O+

Her stomach fought and tried to eject what little was inside, but she gritted her teeth and stared the doctor down.

“You won’t need it.” Totally feigning bravado, but he visibly squirmed under her dead eye scrutiny.

“Okay then, I need it for everyone else,” he replied and looked away.

A loud scream erupted from across the room as one of the doctors flew across the room and slammed into a wall of cabinets. He slid onto the ground and didn’t stir.

Kira scanned the direction of the growing crowd, and watched as nurses and doctors fled from one particular corner, where a large panicked beast fought the staff with the needles. He picked up his examining table and tossed it. Her heart stopped as the metal examining table flew in her direction. She dropped to the ground but the young doctor standing next to her didn’t. Another victim.

Kira crawled along the ground seeking shelter from the manic monster attacking anyone in his wake. An alarm sounded and doors slammed, locking them inside. Kira could see the horned doctor motioning feebly towards her. She hesitated, debated leaving him, but a fragment of human compassion flickered. She scooted toward the doctor, keeping one eye on the possible threat from across the room.

It was bad, he wasn’t going to survive. She could tell his lung was punctured, but he didn’t seem to care. He just kept waving with his fingers towards the vials of blood scattered unbroken on the floor. Searching, searching for one in particular. Finally, he found what he was looking for and held it to his chest.

“You ducked.” He laughed and started to choke.

“You didn’t.” She tried to smile back but couldn’t.

“But you’re human.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious.”

“You’re fast. Take it.” He handed her the vial.

“What is it?”

“Everlasting life,” he smiled wanly, his eyes losing clarity. “Or at least healing.”

“That’s okay, this life sucks. Why would I want to live it forever?”

“Which is exactly why you should have it. It’s unicorn blood.”

“Nope, if it’s that great, you take it. You’re the one who needs it.” She forced the tube back into his hand.

Instead, he shook his head and pushed back and closed her hands tight around the vial.

“No. You ducked.” And then without further instructions or clues, he died.

Kira stared at the doctor, waiting to feel grief at his death, but since she didn’t know him, there wasn’t any. Grabbing the vial, she glanced at it briefly to see it was filled with a pearlescent ooze. She tilted it and it caught the light—it had a gold tint in it.

Screaming continued in the background, and soldiers busted into the room with black uniforms and helmets with long Tasers on rods. Someone reached a far wall and pulled a switch.

The room went black. A high pitched screech of pain rang out as the soldiers subdued the monster in question. Only the green glow from the soldier’s night vision helmets alerted anyone to any movement. Every few moments, the electric blue light of the Taser sticks illuminated the nightmare.

She barely had the vial in her hand, when a searing jolt shot through her entire body. Paralyzing pain erupted, and her muscles spasmed as she crumpled to the floor. The vial rolled across the floor, crushed under the black boots of the soldier who’d shocked her.