Page 148 of Juniper Unraveling

With the clock spinning down the minutes, Six delivers me from of the depths of hell. We reach the dark stairwell, lit only by the incessant blink of a red light.

“Lockdown will commence in T-minus one minute. Prepare for decontamination protocol. Lockdown will commence in T-minus one minute.”

A sense of urgency beats in my chest, as Rhys descends the stairs, the echo of screams from below rippling along my spine. At the landing, two figures sit hunched in the shadows, and as the light blinks, I can just make out the legs of a Legion soldier in his black uniform sticking out between them. A wet tearing sound hits the pit of my stomach, as Rhys takes careful steps around them, keeping to the edge of the railing. One turns, it’s eyes glowing white, face deformed by poorly-sewn patches of skin, and it lurches.

It swipes out at a mangled hand at me.

“Oh, God!” I squeeze Rhys’s neck, muscles burning with tension, and hold my breath.

Rhys bats its hand away, snarling at the alpha, and a vibration rumbles from his throat. One I’ve never heard before—a low guttural sound, like a growl, followed by the familiar click.

The alpha flinches, lowering its gaze, and instead of attacking, it turns back to its food.

A shaky exhale seeps past my lips as we continue on down the stairs.

Slamming through the door of the first floor, we’re greeted by a macabre scene of Legion soldiers who must’ve been called in. Their bodies are torn and bloodied, lying in heaps and discarded body parts across the floor.

Two alphas charge toward us, like dogs catching wind of fresh meat.

I slip Albert’s gun into Rhys’s hand wrapped beneath my legs, and my body shifts just high enough for him to aim before he fires two shots to their skulls. Dead on.

Their heads jerk back and they collapse.

Another alpha approaches, emaciated and coated in so much blood it’s nearly impossible to make out its face, baring its teeth.

Rhys boots it into the wall so hard, it sounds as if its skull cracked on impact.

The alpha slides down the wall, creating a trail of blood, and falls to a slump.

Down the hallway, gunshots and screams indicate some of the soldiers are still alive.

“Lockdown will commence in T-minus thirty seconds. Prepare for decontamination protocol. Lockdown will commence in T-minus thirty seconds. Thirty-nine. Thirty-eight. Thirty-seven …”

Carrying me in his arms, Rhys jogs down the hallway, toward the exit.

Everything around me slows. Slower. Slower.

The surrounding sounds mute to silence, and I stare up at him, taking in the tight clench of his jaw, the blood on his skin, the determination burning in his eyes, undeterred by the terrifying creatures that would easily annihilate me, if given the chance.

That’s why Calico wanted him. To turn him into a weapon they could control, a savage who could walk among the Ragers and kill at their command.

The deadliest monster in this hellish place.

I don’t know if we’ll make it out alive. If I’ll be locked here, where my nightmares flourish. If we die, we die together—a small measure of comfort amid the horror and chaos threatening to pull us under, while the clock ticks off the seconds.

I won’t die alone.

Shouts breach the sounds of blood rushing through my ears, diverting my gaze to the soldiers, a half dozen of them, emerging from the darkness at the end of the hallway. A bone-chilling screech drowns out their cries for help. They run toward us, reaching out, their hands and faces covered in blood. Behind them, frightening creatures with pale, translucent skin trail behind on all fours, some climbing the walls to get to the soldiers, their bodies more deformed than the alphas, like wild animals that were once human.

The mutations.

The terror in the soldiers’ eyes sends a shudder through my body.

I tuck my head into Rhys neck, praying that we make it out.

A force hits my arm as we crash through the exit.

“Two. One. Lockdown.”