Final Extraction by Julie Trettel

Vada

Chapter 16

 

 

 

I’d been with the Raglan for a long time, pretty much all of my adult life, and things had never been this bad.

They kept us all in the one room. We were told we would be taken out twenty at a time every thirty minutes as they rotated us through. What that meant, I didn’t know, but those that went before me returned in starched white coveralls that only added to the creepy factor.

When my turn came, Lucy and little Vada along with Jake were among my group. Out of the room we were told to use the bathroom and that if we went inside the room, we’d be whipped for causing unsanitary living conditions. There were more than three hundred of us so it came out to roughly once every eight hours. Doable for a healthy adult, but we had a lot of young children in the mix too, the odds were they would be the ones to suffer the most. No one dared complain though.

We all felt the change in the air. This time things were different than any holding we’d ever experienced.

After the bathroom, we were escorted to an exam room. They took a blood sample and went through the basics of weight, height, blood pressure, and temperature while recording the info into a file on a table. Then they hooked us up to some monitors and made us run through some sort of obstacle course. I had no idea what they were looking for. It all seemed over the top and a little insane.

“Okay, good. Now remove your garments and shift,” one of the men said.

Everyone obeyed except me, Jake, and little Vada who ran over and hugged my leg tightly as her mother became a bear right before her eyes.

I leaned down and picked her up as I cradled her to me.

“I said, strip and shift.”

When none of us made a move to do so, he became irritated.

“Are you deaf?”

“No, human. I can’t shift.”

The man spit on Jake’s feet. “Traitor. Is this you’re traitorous family?”

“Sure,” he said completely unfazed.

“Vada, shift,” one of the women pleaded.

“You know I won’t.”

“He’s going to make you this time,” she warned, practically begging me to just do it.

“He’s tried before,”

“Please, Vada.”

“No,” I said defiantly.

“Suit yourself,” the man said.

I couldn’t recall seeing him around before, but he clearly had a sadistic streak. As he grinned at me and pushed me towards the door. I quickly passed over little Vada to Jake who shot me a sympathetic look. I would not submit to their demands no matter what they did to me.

“This one won’t shift,” he said as he shoved me through the door to come face-to-face with Trevor Daniels.

Trevor frowned and shook his head. “This is getting old, Vada.”

I shrugged. “Do what you want to me. I don’t care. I will not cave.”

“You know, it makes me even more curious what you are. Why the secrecy? It shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I’ve seen shifters of nearly every kind by now. Do you really believe you’re something special?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”

“Then save us both the time and just show me.”

“It’s not going to happen. So do whatever you feel you have to do, but I will not submit. We’ve been through this before. We both know how this is going to play out.”

He grinned. “I’ve got a few new toys and ideas since our last battle of wills, Vada. Are you certain this is what you want?”

I raised my chin in defiance.

“Very well. Just remember, you brought this on yourself.”

Before I could even react, he slammed a needle into my arm. I screamed out in pain as the serum he shot me with burned through my veins.

He leaned down and whispered. “You see, I don’t really care what you are. All I want is to save my mother. She has cancer. I’ve been studying it my entire adult life searching for a cure to save her. What have I got to show for it? Nothing but a synthesized version of her cancer, and now you have it. One thing is for sure, you’re going to die. Shift and attempt to let whatever your stupid beast inside is heal you, and maybe stand a chance of surviving this, or suffer as she does until you die.”

I was shaking all over and felt more violated than ever. I stubbornly stood up. “Then I will die.”

“Suit yourself,” he said a little too calmly. “But just know, I’m about to inject every single shifter I own until I find the one that can cure this.”

My teeth were gritted so tightly I feared I might crack a tooth.

“Oh, and Vada? That goes for that genetic experiment out there that they named after you.”

I closed my eyes as my nails bit into the palms of my fisted hands.

“Filthy animals,” he spat as I turned to leave.

“The only true animal around here, is you.”

Trevor’s laughter rang in my ears as I left him and was escorted back to the holding room.

“Are you okay?”

I was shaking all over and couldn’t talk. I wasn’t sure if it was from the disease he’d just infected me with or from sheer fury that he’d done it.

“Come here.” Jake pulled me into his arms and held me close. “What happened?”

“We can’t wait for Silas. We have to get them out of here,” I told him when I finally found my voice.

“What happened?”

I knew I couldn’t speak it out loud. If everyone started to panic, I didn’t know what would happen.

I looked away and found Jax.

Jax, can you hear me?

Yeah, Vada, what’s up? Are you okay?

No, I’m not. I need you to explain some things to Jake, but you can’t freak out over what I’m about to say. Can you do that?

Of course. What happened?

I took a deep breath. Trevor injected me with a synthetic version of the cancer his mother is battling.

“What? No!” Jax said out loud.

I shot him a stern look.

Oops, sorry. Is that even possible?

I don’t know, but that’s what he told me. I need you to explain that to Jake.

He nodded.

“Don’t freak out, okay?” I whispered to Jake.

I knew the second Jax got into his head because Jake’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He nodded and then opened his arms to me. I trusted Jake more than just about anyone. I went to him and tried desperately not to cry on his shoulder.

I must have been thinking that, too because I suspected Jax told him as much.

“We’re going to figure something out. I know you’re scared, but I’m here. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

Geez, Vada, you could have at least warned the poor guy first. I thought he knew. He’s kind of freaking out but doesn’t want you to know that.

I chuckled softly.

It’s you’re secret. It’s not my place to tell anyone.

Thanks. I appreciate that. I haven’t had the greatest luck exposing my, uh, gift to others.

Can you tell him one more thing, without freaking out?

No promises, but I’ll try.

I took a deep breath hoping he didn’t completely freak out. Trevor is going to inject it in every shifter here in hopes that one of us will shift and cure the cancer. Tell him we can’t wait around, we need to form a plan to get us all out of here before that happens or we’re all dead.

I pulled away from Jake to see Jax’s reaction. He looked like he was going to hyperventilate.

“Breathe, Jax. It’s okay.”

“I’ll get word out,” Jake whispered.

I nodded.

He still has help on the inside. Martin. You can trust Martin.

Good to know. Thanks, Jax. I’ve always liked Martin. But no matter what they do to you, you cannot tell them about this, not about me, or what I told you, and definitely not about Martin.

I know. I got this. But you should know that Jake’s wounds are infected. He’s putting up a good front, but he’s not doing well. One of the hyenas has been sniffing around him too. He can smell the wounds and sense his weakness.

The door opened again and the room went silent.

“Vada, let’s go?”

“What? Why? It’s not my turn again so soon.”

“Let’s go,” the nurse said again.

Jake and Jax stared at me with concern, awaiting my order to act.

Relax, it’s fine, I told Jax who relayed the message to Jake.

She escorted me down the hall and into an exam room. Much to my surprise, Martin came in with my chart pulled up on his tablet.

“Hello, Vada. Trevor tells me you aren’t feeling well.”

I groaned. “I’m fine… for now at least.”

“Shifters rarely get sick. Why do you think you’re unwell?”

I stared at him in shock. “He didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” he asked clinically as he started checking me over.

“Trevor injected me with a synthetic version of the same cancer his mother is battling.”

Martin froze. “Come again?”

“You heard me correctly.”

“He wouldn’t?”

“He did, and I imagine he’s looking for your confirmation that it took.”

Martin genuinely looked worried.

I looked around the room cautiously.

“There’s no cameras or microphones in here. I scanned it personally when I heard you were coming in,” he told me.

I nodded, not surprised after learning he was working with Silas.

“He’s going to inject them all. He told me. We can’t let that happen. I need you to get word to Silas. It’s too late for me, but he can still help me save the others.”

“Do you have any idea how apeshit crazy Silas is going to go when he hears this?”

“I have a suspicion,” I told him calmly. I was still trying not to freak out myself and I knew that having Silas near would only heighten my emotions and make it all the harder not to breakdown.

“Let’s take a look and see what we’re dealing with.”

“Do you know what to look for?”

He hesitated but then nodded.

“I’m going to need to run a CT scan. That will at least give us a start towards confirming this.”

“Okay.”

“Are you claustrophobic?”

“Certainly wouldn’t have lasted this long around here if I was.”

He chuckled. “Good point. Give me a few minutes to make the arrangements.”

“Okay.”

He left me alone. I was struggling not to cry. I’d never been so scared in my entire life. Could a shifter even have cancer? I’d never heard of anything like that happening before. That was one of the reasons Trevor had turned to us looking for a cure.

So was this all just some sick joke or had he found a weakness in our immune systems that would allow it?

I was going to drive myself insane until I had the results in either confirming or denying Trevor had done what he said he had.

It felt like forever waiting in that room for Martin to return.

When I didn’t think I could take it any longer, he finally came back.

“Sorry. I had a few things to handle.” He closed the door behind him. “Silas is about to tear this place apart.”

My heart fluttered. “You got through to him?”

“He would have ripped my head off if he learned about this after the fact.”

“You knew?”

“I came in to protect you. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

I gulped and nodded, unsure of what to say to that.

“He’s coming?” I finally managed to ask.

“He is. He was already in route, I don’t know how he knew, but now he’s bringing the wrath of hell with him.”