My heart pounded with thrill. My jaw clenched with anger, a fury that was unleashed on every anathema within my proximity. Adrenaline was peaking, regenerated every time an anathema screamed its painful death as I chopped their heads off. These ones were different. They were darker, unlike the lighter ones I had previously experienced. They were just as quick and dangerous, but nothing special. They were nothing I couldn’t handle.

Apparently, my team thought otherwise.

I panted heavily over the last anathema, feeling sweat drench in my armor to later be recycled into water for later. I yanked my laser sword out, which by now looked more black than red with the amount of blood and gore. No matter. Black was just as suitable a color. The anathemas were no longer, and so was my fucking team.

I ran back over to the door, now fully closed, and there was no panel on my side.

“Fuck, Grimes, can you hear me?” I asked through comms. No response. It was static once more, as if the door itself was blocking signals just as bad as the incoming storms. It was possible. It was fucking irritating. I removed my helmet, hoping maybe the door would allow sounds of shouts. Given the state of the five corpses beside me, I doubted it.

“Guys!? Hey, can you hear me?!” I shouted loudly at the top of my lungs.

Nothing. Which meant I was stuck here. In fact, we were stuck here.

The entire reason I stayed behind was because of her. I should have dragged her ass out of there, but I decided to trust her instead. Now, look where it got us?

When I turned around, she was still nowhere to be found. I thought perhaps after the fighting stopped and my shouting, she’d climb out of that little hole. Yet, the entire room remained completely still, despite those stupid black and white projections flashing continuously off the walls.

“Jack?” I asked, hearing no response, “Doctor Deveraux?”

Nothing. Fear began to seize my veins, traveling towards my heart ready to pierce it. No. She couldn’t be dead, I protected her, right? There was a greater fear with her being dead: it was being alone in here. Despite all my experience, all the various alien corpses around me, I knew I couldn’t survive here. Not alone.

“Jacqueline!?” I shouted this time, moving over to that hole. I immediately dragged the frozen anathema away, seeing it had collapsed on top of her. A sigh of relief left my lips as I saw a flash of those green eyes. She looked just as catatonic as the alien, barely breathing because I couldn’t even hear it from her mask. Her helmet was cracked, meaning she’d definitely need another one once we returned. If, we returned.

“Gods, Jack, why didn’t you say something?” I asked, moving to help her out but she immediately shriveled back.

“No, stay back,” she demanded harshly.

“Jack, it’s alright, they’re all gone,” I assured her, reaching forward. She immediately kicked me in the face, the heel of her boot smashing perfectly into my nose. I knew from the stinging sensation and gushing of blood she had broken it upon contact.

“Ow! Fuck! You fucking bitch,” I scowled, using one hand to pinch the bridge of my nose, “get out of there, this is all your fucking fault.”

“Damien, no. Stop,” her voice changed from demanding to pleading, “Get out of here.”

“Not without you-”

“It bit me,” she finally admitted. The revelation stunned me. I stared at her astounded, still feeling blood gush from my nose despite my heart stopping. What? It bit her?

She said nothing more but showed me her arm, one she had hidden with her torso. The light armor and fabric was torn with one good circular bite. Blood gushed from the wound, much worse than my nose. So the thing had latched its jaws into her, meaning she’d turn. No. Fuck. If anyone had to turn, it couldn’t be her.

That stubborn, aggressive perseverance was pounding in my head. I didn’t know what exactly to call it: indomitable human spirit, bravery, or the stupid belief I was untouchable. I could feel it spike in my blood like glucose, filling me with this odd sense of hope that defeated all logical thought. I had to be untouchable, because that would make her untouchable.

“We don’t know what will happen, let me help you out and clean that up,” I calmed my breathing, trying to not let her panic radiate towards me. Someone had to be calm in this situation, and it already wasn’t her.

“Fuck, we know exactly what happens! You and I have both seen it,” she shook her head, not as optimistic as I. She was a pessimist at heart, and right now, she was coming to terms with dying. She slowly slid out, not to start moving but to start taking her datapad and handing it to me.

I moved closer, seeing her hand rest firmly on her knife, “Easy. Let’s just think for a moment.”

“No time. I need you to kill me,” she insisted, the words shocking me.

“What? You’re fucking joking,” I shook my head. Shit. I’ve killed hundreds of people in my lifetime, some innocent, some deserving of it. I’ve killed people so personally and point blank without so much as blinking. This? I didn’t like the hesitation that creeped into my heart when she had mentioned having to kill her.

“I’d do it myself but...I’ve never killed anything before,” her voice broke, scratchy, full of fear. She didn’t have the bravery to kill herself, if courage could ever be coined with suicide. In some aspects, it was brave. This? It just didn’t feel right.

How could I know what felt right, when all my life had been filled with wrong?

“Look, Garcia left some of his supplies while he retreated. He might have a medical scanner in that bag. Let me check your vitals, fix up that arm, and go from there. Okay?” I asked, slowly walking over to the small duffel bag left behind. Well, at least he had left this here amidst all the chaos. Jack seemed to nod slowly and climb out, a small bit of relief in our anxious hearts. I opened his bag, finding exactly what I needed to patch her up.

I walked back over to her, seeing her lean against the wall, taking deep breaths to calm herself. Her fingers still lingered by her knife and sword, as if at any sign of changing she’d unsheath it and draw the blade across her neck. I pulled the small scanning device over to her, taking a moment to figure out how to compute it before running a scan.

The only negatives that came up in the scan were the bite puncture, blood loss, and crazy high heartbeat.

“You’re good, so far,” I noted.

“Scanner has a more accurate measure in the handle. Remove the cap, there should be a needle. It will provide a more accurate reading,” she insisted, not entirely convinced. I removed the plastic handle like she said, seeing a rather large needle that even made me uncomfortable.

“Uh, where do you want me to-” She ignored my question, grabbing it from me before jabbing it straight into her thigh with a painful groan. When she yanked it back out, her eyes desperately darted to the results. And those results were still the same as they were a minute ago. Despite the results, it didn’t help ease her heart rate.

“Alright, let me clean this up,” I whispered to her, moving to the sleeve to tear it completely and have more access to the wound. She said nothing, staring at the wall behind me as I began to clean the residue of blood to get a clearer picture of what I was working with. I wasn’t a field medic by any means, but I had my fair share of stitching up wounds.

Once the bleeding slowly halted, I prepared the small stitch gun in Garcia’s kit to start pulling the skin together. She flinched slightly, my free hand immediately moving to her thigh to steady her. For once, she didn’t seem to mind the touch. I couldn’t tell what bothered her more, the stitching, or the idea she could turn into those things.

“So, how would you like me to kill you if it comes to that?” I asked, mostly to keep her mind distracted.

She scoffed, looking away for a moment, “You’re the expert at killing. What’s the most painless, easiest for you? You’ll have to cut my head off no matter what, just in case.”

The very thought of that was not appealing whatsoever. I hated her, yes. But…I didn’t actually want to kill her. She hadn’t exactly given me a real reason to.

“I suppose a bullet to the cranium works. Decapitating you now could still keep you alive, momentarily,” I hummed, my hand leaving her thigh to the wrist of her arm, keeping it steady as it finished.

“Alright, so I show signs of turning, just aim for the head. And don’t miss,” she insisted.

“I never miss,” I smirked, before letting that smile falter, “You’re going to be alright. You’re not going to turn into one of those things.”

“What makes you sound so sure?” she asked, genuinely curious at my optimism. She didn’t know if I was just telling this to her to help soften the blow, let her die in peace, or if I meant it. I meant it, she just had a very hard time believing me.

“You said so yourself, these things aren’t zombies. And if they were, then you’d definitely be turning right now,” I teased, seeing she wasn’t amused, “In all honesty, I don’t know. We still don’t know a lot about these things. I suppose if one bite or scratch is all that is needed, we’d be doomed.”

Jack waited as the stitching finally completed, saying nothing further for the moment. I made sure to reclean the wound, her body growing numb at it all before I wrapped it with bandages. Hopefully, these anathemas couldn’t sense blood like sharks, otherwise this wound was just one giant tracking device. As soon as I pulled away, I heard her stab herself again with that needle.

As before, the same result, minus the blood loss. She was fine.

Her eyes glanced up at me and I was unable to decipher her emotions, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I asked.

“You know what for. I put your team at risk, I should have pulled out sooner, data be damned,” she explained.

“My team should have stayed. Our job is to protect you, and we could very well fail at that today,” I shook my head. I wanted to be angry at her, to shake her shoulders and tell her what a fucking idiot she was. I just couldn’t. Yes, this was her fault, but I didn’t want her potential last thoughts to be such.

“Whatever happens, promise me you’ll take this datapad back with you,” she insisted, looking at me directly in the eyes, “Promise?”

“Yeah, yeah. I promise, Jacqueline,” I nodded. She didn’t seem upset that I called her by her full name. She probably didn’t even realize I had said it. Beautiful name, so beautiful I felt like she shouldn’t keep it shortened.

She attempted to stand up and I rose to my feet, standing by if she needed help. Her body language alone showed she had no intention of grasping my arms for balance. She steadied herself for a moment, taking a deep breath. Then, I saw those eyes of her flutter with confusion and exhaustion. Her body immediately went limp, feinting forward before I caught her in my arms.

“Shit. Jack, stay with me,” I felt panic begin to set in. I curled her body gently, making sure she was even still alive. Her heart rate was still fast, but not dangerously so. She showed no signs of turning. Maybe she just fainted from the stress her own thoughts had turned into.

Now what?

I could leave her here, find a place to hide her. If she turned while I was out, so be it. I could come back for her datapad another time, she’d live…as an anathema. She wouldn’t want that, though. Who would want to roam the rest of their lives as some brainless alien? No. I couldn’t leave her here. That was the most logical solution, but I wasn’t going to take that risk.

I slowly secured my gear with one arm, making sure to pack Garcia’s supplies back up too before attaching that to my pack. Once everything was ready to go, I slowly lifted Jack to rest on my left shoulder. She was much lighter than I thought, even with her gear and supplies. My right hand carried my rifle, leveled with the surface. If she showed signs of turning, thrashing into her evolutionary state, I could easily drop her and finish her off.

“Ok, now the question is…east or west?” I muttered to myself. The anathemas came from the east tunnel, so my instinct was to go westward.

I didn’t know how much time had passed walking through the dark. The only light I had was attached to my rifle, acting as both an accurate area of fire, but also a flashlight. Jack stirred a few times in her unconscious state, but not enough to cause much concern. The longer she spent draped over my shoulder without turning, the more comfortable and cocky I felt that she wasn’t going to transform.

Tunnels turned into rooms, which turned into more tunnels. I made sure to record as much as I could, since I didn’t bother to explore and Jack could review this footage later for anything important. I was just trying to use my sense of direction to get back to the surface and care not for any details around me. Surely there were other cave entrances the other Districts used. Finding one of those would be better than lingering down here.

Eventually I had to take a break, finding a small room almost equivalent to barracks. Hard black steel beds protruded from the walls, evenly spaced to allow room to dump our gear.. I placed Jack on one, my fingers touching her pulse to find it still steady before brushing some hair from her eyes. There was a temptation to let my fingers drape over her mask, pry gently at the seams and remove it entirely. Would she even wake up?

No. I couldn’t invade her privacy like that. I couldn’t carry her all this way, stitch her wounds, attempt to protect her and damage her trust. We had very little, but it still existed. Removing that mask, and her finding out about it was worse than even thinking about killing her. She’d probably try to kill me and I wouldn’t blame her.

I focused on cleaning the blood from my nose and lips, wincing every time my fingers touched near the bridge. She smashed my nose pretty damn good. Despite hurting me, there was something admirable about it. It was partially the reason why I firmly believed she wouldn’t change. She was a fighter, not of the same equivalence as me on a physical level. She was a survivor. That was a better term to use. She’d fight to survive, and to me that was all that mattered.

I glanced at my datapad, not having any good connection to my team. Instead I just reviewed the various files of targets on my list. The one that stood out the most was a District Three scientist, last location unknown. It sounded like he wasn’t in communication with the rest of his district, so to me he was probably dead. The only thing recognizable about him was a dragon tattoo across his neck. If I found a corpse like that, I’d mark him off the list as killed in action.

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I must have dozed off in a slight restful sleep, because when I woke up, I heard small grunts and the sounds of a puncture. Despite closed eyes, my fingers danced to the handle of my blade, knowing I might have to use it as soon as my eyes opened. Instead of finding an anathema, I found Jack standing up, now puncturing the needle into her stomach for a more accurate measure.

She got her reading within seconds, and despite that, plunged the needle back in. She was going birderline insane, medically anxious. It didn’t matter what those readings said. She wouldn’t stop until it told her exactly what she was expecting: immediate death. I rose from my little sleeping spot, not even noticed by her as she kept staring at the screen. As soon as I got close enough, I grabbed the kit from her before throwing it harshly into the wall. The machine shattered, just like the illusion behind her eyes.

“I…what did you just do!?” she asked, glancing at me.

“If you would have turned you would have done it already,” I explained, “Stop fucking hurting yourself. You’ve punctured yourself so much, you have more holes than a fucking sponge.”

She remained silent, taking a deep breath. It was then she finally began to really take hold of her surroundings, “Where are we?”

“No clue, I didn’t really pay attention to where we were going,” I shrugged, “figured we’d find a way out eventually, loop around back to those various tunnels at our starting point.”

“And you haven’t heard from anyone?” she asked.

“No. Have you?” I returned the question, despite knowing her answer was the same as mine, “I think this place jams communication in a lot of parts.”

“I think it is the material this is all made out of. Once we figure that out, we can strengthen our signal strength in hopes of penetrating it,” she sighed. I could already see her brain return to its logical state, going to calculations and heartlessness.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” I began to pack up, knowing we should keep moving. Movement was survival in a place like this.

“For what?”

“Uh, clearly saving your life, not leaving you behind,” I scoffed, wondering why she wasn’t the least bit grateful. It’s almost like she wanted to fucking turn into an anathema.

“I thought that was your job,” she crossed her arms, those dangerous thin eyebrows of hers narrowing. Well, it seems like she was back to her sneering, healthy ways.

“I mean, it is. But I could have left you there and waited for the team to open those doors another time, or you know, let you get bit again,” I insisted, “I thought you’d be more appreciative, but your tone suggests otherwise.”

“You should have left me there. Now, we have no idea where we are with limited supplies and information, no reconnaissance, and I’m stuck in all of this with you,” she rolled her eyes.

“I mean if the roles were reversed-”

“I would have left you there,” she interrupted me.

“Wow, you really are heartless,” I pointed out, which she definitely took personally.

“You’re the one with no fucking feelings, Damien. Or if you do have any, it’s joy at utter chaos. Admit it, you enjoy it when things fall apart around you. You relish, delight in it. Despite your team cowardly fleeing, despite me disobeying your orders and getting bit…you liked it. No, you loved it,” she spat.

And she was right. That was what made my lip twitch in response. She was right that I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the highs and lows, my heart racing before stopping and repeating the process over and over again. I enjoyed hearing those anathemas scream. I enjoyed the idea of Jack suffering, of hearing her grunt in frustration or pain. I just hadn’t enjoyed the thought of having to kill her myself.

“Mm, I should have killed you when you first offered it,” I smirked. I could see her green eyes blink in fear, her hand reaching for her sword in hesitation. “But I like it when my victims squirm. You surrendered far too easily to the idea of death.”

“You’re despicable,” she whispered, “You call yourself a protector and yet-”

“I protected you. Now, I’m debating on doing it again,” I scowled, soon stopping at the sound of movements. I immediately turned to the door, which had no panels or lock to it. Immediately three bodies moved in, heavily armored, rifles pointed at myself and Jack. I aimed my rifle at them, taking steps back to let my body cover Jack’s.

“Whoa whoa! Easy there, gentlemen!” I shouted, “Lower your fucking guns!”

An unintelligible language broke through the point man’s mask, none of the three lowering their guns or showing any sign of doing so. It was certainly a language I didn’t understand, which made me wonder if they could understand my own.

The words repeated again, like an authoritative order to most likely surrender. Yeah, fuck no.

Their armor was brown, like the color of Jack’s favorite morning coffee. I knew from my intelligence reports on District Two that their uniforms and weapons were as such. Yeah, and the Oceanica language on their armor confirmed that as well. Shit.

Eventually, one pulled out a little black box from their hip, pointing it towards us before repeating the commands. It automatically translated: Let the woman go.

“Hey, she’s with me!” I answered protectively. I could feel Jack’s thin fingers clasped around my belt, as if not wanting me to move a step further away from her.

Is this man hurting you?

Jack heard the words, taking deep and calming breaths that were heavily noticeable before she spoke, in clearly broken and nervous Oceanica. I had no idea what she said, as the box didn’t seem to translate her words to me. I wondered what she would do. Surely she wouldn’t be so stupid as to go with them?!

Lower your guns and come with us.

“Absolutely fucking not,” I laughed, “I’ll keep my weapons, if it’s all the same to you. You let us go, and we will make our way back to our camp.”

It is not safe here. Doctor Deveraux-

How the fuck did they know who she was?!

“Back up, back up right now!” I shouted protectively, “Leave her the fuck alone!”

“Damien…Damien, I think they’re friendly,” Jack whispered quietly, trying to nudge at me.

“Friendly? I have three gun barrels pointed at my fucking head. They’re not friendly,” I shook my head. I shouldn’t even be taking this risk in trying to talk to them. I could easily take down the three of them but…if they pulled the trigger, Jacqueline was in their line of fire. She’d be shot, and with her lack of armor it wouldn’t help her at all.

Doctor, you will not be harmed.

“Don’t believe that bullshit, Jack,” I whispered back to her.

Jack said something back, and whatever she said had all three men shocked and alert. She repeated again, this time for me to hear, “I’ve been bitten. You can’t take me with you.”

One bite?

Jack nodded, squeezing her grip on my belt. For what exactly, I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t tell if she was afraid that they'd kill her on the spot. Now me, I wouldn’t have admitted to such a thing. It might be good if they wanted us as prisoners, and therefore let us go. Or, they’d kill her on the spot for even admitting such a thing.

She showed them the wrappings on her arm, indicating it wasn’t a deep bite but it still was a bite nonetheless.

What about the ass?

“That’ll be ‘asshole’, actually. I don’t think that translated well,” I smirked, still keeping my gun steady and breathing focused. My finger still lingered on the trigger, ready to fire if necessary.

“Damien, lower your gun,” Jack demanded me.

“Absolutely fucking not. Do you understand what will happen if we go with them? It’s an absolute intelligence issue, not to mention, nobody in our team knows where we are!” I argued, my tone alone making the three in front high on alert, “They know who you are, I’m not taking that chance.”

“They could have scientists. We could learn more from them,” she argued, much more politely than I did.

“I’m calling the shots here,” I insisted, hearing her sigh. I would much rather take the risk of shooting these three than surrender to them. Jack would very much choose the opposite. That was how we differed. Maybe in both scenarios alone, we’d survive on our own terms. Together? It didn’t seem possible.

“Damien please,” she slowly let go of my belt, letting her hand rest on my backside, just underneath a plate of armor to feel her soft touch. It was almost just enough to hesitate.

Oceanica was heard, but this time I noticed the box had been removed and whatever was said wasn’t translated. Jack removed her hand, taking a step back.

“Wait, stop! Don’t-!” Jack shouted before one of them pulled the trigger. Immediately I felt an electrical pulse shock me into submission, making me drop my weapons and fall to my knees. My mind immediately knew what had happened, they had stunned me. I supposed it was better than getting shot lethally in front of her. One of their agents immediately walked over to Jack, grabbing her wrist. They dragged her out of there, almost unwillingly as she kept her eyes on me, as if worried for me.

I tried to get up and fight the stun, to bark at them to get their filthy hands off her. Yet it was no use. My eyes grew heavy and I knew if I continued to fight this sensation, it would only worsen the symptoms. I collapsed in a heap, only hearing Jack’s words of Oceanica breaking through before falling into utter silence.

—

I woke up to the sounds of feet scuffling in dirt, different from the echoing sounds of boots on metal I was used to. My eyes shot open, finding myself resting on a thin blanket in what looked like a scrapped fabric tent. Not just a tent, an emergency one at that given the markings. Where the fuck was I?

I slowly rose to my feet, finding my supplies and weapons were confiscated. They weren’t smart enough to remove the medium sized rock from the ground, which fit perfectly in my hand as an improvised weapon. Once I felt more composed, I knew I had to figure out what this exact situation was. I slowly peered out from the slit in the tent, seeing exactly where we were.

We were clearly still in the underground compound of Colony Negative. The only reason there was dirt here was because this area had been built into the surrounding mountains, the cave walls above us with no entrance or exit in sight. It was an encampment of fifty personnel, maybe more. They all seemed to not care for me, or rather looked more interested in whatever work they were doing.

Jack had been right. Most of them looked like scientists and not agents. The question was, what were they doing here? Why didn’t they handcuff me?

Most importantly, where was Jack?

I slowly walked around, hoping someone would take notice or I could get someone’s attention. Nobody seemed to care. If anything, they looked at me as if I was getting in the way. I moved away from the tent further into their little camp, only to see a few agents with firearms guarding a walled off section, transparent with glass.

Inside that giant opaque room was an anathema, drooling and snarling at the glass. It would occasionally slam its entire body, hoping to cause a crack in its containment but it was no use. That thing was locked up tight, and easier to study that way. So, they managed to trap one, somehow. My heart stopped again for what felt like the third time alone today.

Jack. What if that was Jack?

“Shit. No fucking way,” I whispered to myself, walking up to those guards, “Hey! Who is that?! Is that Jack!? Doctor Deveraux?”

The guards stared at me in utter confusion. Those eyes glared down at me with befuddlement, before turning into belittlement. Whomever I was to them, I wasn’t important. That fucking irked me. I stared at the giant red button behind them, presumably the release to letting this anathema out of its prison.

If that was Jack, she didn’t deserve to be locked up in there. She deserved freedom, most of all, a painless death. I couldn’t stand the thought of that being her, contained in glass to be studied, prodded, and tested on. No. Fuck no, I couldn’t let that happen to her. I had lived a life of such torment. Nobody was deserving of such, most of all Jacqueline.

“Hey! Is someone going to answer me!?” I shouted, still not getting a response. How the hell could I speak to someone that didn’t understand me? I suppose in the only language I could: violence.

I threw the rock with precise velocity, watching it cut into the guard’s head as he grunted in pain. The other guard immediately proceeded to tackle me, not bothering to shoot. I guess I wasn’t important enough to kill, which was something he’d later regret. We wrestled in the dirt, the man trying to use the element of surprise and body weight against mine. But it was clear when I began positioning my feet to grapple for a takedown, this guard was not experienced in a fight like this.

I easily got behind him, my arm wrapping around his neck and letting my bicep squeeze to apply a choking pressure. The other guard immediately pointed his gun, although he couldn’t shoot me without hurting his friend in the process.

“Easy…easy,” a voice broke out, one I could understand. I peered over the guard's shoulder, seeing an aged man approaching. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the other guard to lower his gun away from me. When he stepped closer, I could see the visible dragon tattoo on his neck.

So, this is what remained of District Two…and my next target.

“You must be Agent Rok, right? Damien Rok,” the man asked.

“Where is Jacqueline!?” I demanded, wanting nothing more than to break the fragile neck between my arms.

“She is resting,” he answered simply, one that was truthful by the look in his eyes. So, the alien behind me that had excitedly jumped with all the action and violence wasn’t her. I couldn’t help but exhale a sigh of relief, one he seemed to notice. “Oh, you thought that was her? Tsk, no. Deveraux is tough, tougher than most. You can let my soldier go now.”

I did so, hesitantly. Immediately upon doing so, he turned me over, face first in the dirt. My hands were forced to my backside, feeling handcuffs immediately applied to my wrists. Fuck. I should have known better. Wincing in the dirt, I could see eager steps rushing over. A lot of them were now scientists and various District Two personnel that had previously ignored my existence.

“He’s with me!” Jack’s scratchy, masked voice shouted over all the noise. I glanced up, dirt catching in one eye, but the other trying to get a look at her. She still wore her armor from the hip below. From the top, she only wore a white tank top, presumably just the layer beneath her uniform. Her bite was covered in a new bandage, which made me assume these men had investigated the bite themselves and recleaned her wound.

The man with the dragon tattoo heard her words, glancing back at me. For an odd reason, he respected Jacqueline. It was as if they knew each other, working side by side sometime in the past. Yet, Jack looked at him as the authority figure, for the time being.

“Please, uncuff him. He will not harm anyone else,” Jack insisted for me.

“You vouched for him earlier with the same plea, yet he assaulted my guards,” the elder man hummed.

Jack gave me a disapproving glare, which only made me smirk against the dirt.

“I can attest to his character. He was only trying to find me. He won’t harm anyone else. I swear to it,” Jack assured, walking over to me. There was hesitation with those around me, before the man barked commands in Oceanica. Finally, I felt sweet freedom from those tight cuffs which luckily hadn’t been on me long. I never liked being handcuffed. My thick wrists and shoulders absolutely hated them.

I rose to my feet, seeing Jack’s eyes slowly glance over my body as if to make sure I was alright. I immediately took her wrist gently, glancing at her bite before looking into her eyes.

“Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?” I asked, knowing that a lot of the people around here were men. And men like these could do horrible things to a woman like her, with nobody to hold them accountable. Clearly, the scientist in charge admired her, but I had to ensure nobody hurt her. If so, this whole camp was going to burn.

Especially the one with the tattoo, my new target.

“They didn’t do anything. I’m okay,” she nodded, briefly letting her hand cover mine. I almost wished I wasn’t wearing gloves, so that I could feel the softness of her touch.

“And the bite?”

“You were right,” she painfully admitted, yet her hand remained, “They were also adamant I wouldn’t turn. Is your nose feeling better?”

I laughed softly at that, “No.”

“Good,” the cheekbones under her eyes rose with what I assumed due to her smiling, “Now, I think we’re safe for now. These men might have some answers I’m looking for. I know you have a knack for not trusting strangers and I’m not asking you to. I’m asking you to trust me. Can you do that? We might get out of here in one piece. It might not turn into an alliance but…if we leave here with more knowledge than we came with, I’ll take it as a win.”

“Yes,” I answered, knowing at this moment I had to, “I know all about winning.”

“Good. Now, promise you’ll be on your best behavior like a good boy?” She teased.

My eyes drifted behind her, vision honing and focusing on that red button. I might not only be able to take out my target, but the remnants of District Two as well. Now that…that was a tempting proposition. That was the chaos that held more pleasure than a fucking orgasm.

“Yes, Doctor,” I smiled wearily, seeing her eyes soften in response. If she wasn’t wearing that mask, I would assume she was still smiling underneath. She looked just as relieved that I was okay as well. Odd, given a few hours ago she was scowling at me. Our relationship was definitely a coin toss. But I took her words from earlier as stress induced, borderline mania. Once someone else, more scientific, confirmed with her that she’d live, she returned back to her normalcy.

Yeah. The plan was already beginning to form in my head. I just had to ensure that Jacqueline got what she wanted. This was how we had to inadvertently work as a team to achieve our unknown goals to one another. This was how we’d both win. She’d get what she wanted, I had to make damn sure of it before I destroyed it all. Permanently.