Shai Soi

Chapter 34

We must've crawled for five hours before we saw anything other than metal. The first grate opened into what looked like a training room. It was half the size of a football field complete with weights in one corner, what looked like an actual rocky cliff, a lake-sized swimming pool and...was that a tree? A gigantic tree my whole freshman year could link arms around stood firm in the middle of the room. What on earth would they need a training room like that?

Come on, Bec. Nathaniel nudged me with his tail. I started forward, a light half blinding me for a second. I looked back through the grate. The light came from something sparkling among broken twigs. It looked like glass. Bec, are you okay?

Yeah, I'm fine. I shook my head. Just distracted and excited I guess. I got that feeling again. The burning at the back of my neck. Something about that glass...

The next grate led to a lab. Both Nathaniel and I halted. This was the place of my nightmares. Like what I'd imagined, tables with leather straps to hold down test subjects, white washed walls and so many sharp, pointy utensils littering tables. Thank goodness none of them looked used. The door inside opened and I inwardly cringed. Two Numahi with doctor's coats and masks wheeled in a cart stacked with glass vials filled with... dark red liquid. 

If I were in human form, I would've thrown up and given away our position. I shrank away. N-Nathaniel... please tell  me that isn't what I think it is.

It's exactly what you think it is.

The doctors took tray off of tray  and set in on a table top next to a big machine connected to a computer and printer. They unloaded the rest of the cart. The last tray one Numahi picked up hit the edge of the cart and two vials tipped out of the container and shattered against the floor. Red sprayed everywhere standing out against the white tables and counters and the white stone floor. I shuddered against Nathaniel's side.

The Numah cursed and grabbed a towel. She started wiping the liquid off her shoes. "Nice job, Darlene. You know how long it took to get these samples? Freda already lost a finger," commented the other doctor.

The female Namuh, Darlene, snarled. "It's just a little bit of blood. Just shoot them with the guns until they comply."

The man chuckled. " 'Dangerous'. Yeah, until you put them in those cells they roll over and show their bellies. Come on, we gotta get these sampled before she comes down." They ceased talking and got to work sorting the vials and putting them in white slots in what I guessed was the blood test machine. Darlene starting pressing a series of buttons.

Nathaniel's side elongated against mine. His bumpy green skin melted into smooth black scales. The marking on the back on his hood glowed with its own light. Nathaniel, what are you doing?

 His dark eyes glinted. They're testing blood. Even if we get everyone out of here they'll just use the blood to find us again. We have to stop them before the information goes on file.

I felt the boiling determination of his shara and knew I couldn't stop him if I wanted to. Not that I wanted to in the first place, but any number of things could go wrong. The doctors could've had those guns or something to capture escaped shai. They could raise an alarm before we could stop them. Anything could happen.

Nathaniel, I slithered in front of him now a rattlesnake. Wait, we should scout the area before-

A series of beeps dinged from the blood test. Nathaniel slid past me. We can't wait. He fell through the grate's slots and landed with a loud thump. The doctors turned.

Oh, what the heck. I broke through the air duct and slammed into the doctors as a lion. The man hit his head against the machine and passed out cold. Darlene tried crawling to the door but I lunged and held her neck in between my jaws.

"Well, that works." Nathaniel came up to the doctor. He knelt beside us. "Don't move or my friend will tear out your esophagus." I growled for emphasis but both of us knew I wouldn't do such a thing. You couldn't tell by the way Nathaniel talked.

Her coratid artery throbbed. I loosened the pressure of my teeth. I didn't want any more bloodshed. The fur in between my toes was already sticky with the blood from the broken vials.

"Where are the others?"

"I don't know what others you're referring to."

"Don't patronize me," Nathaniel snapped. "Where are the people you're holding captive?"

I couldn't see her face from my position but I felt the vibration of a scoff. "There are no people in those cells only beasts."

Nathaniel ripped her throat from my mouth and slammed her against the wall. Darlene's dark brown eyes bugged out of her head. "They are not the beasts you should worry about."

Nathaniel. I didn't like the way his teeth gnashed together or the fury swimming behind his eyes. Like liquid turbulence.

He looked at me and let me push a sense of calm into his shara. He inhaled through his nose and released the breath through his mouth.

The sound hummed in my ear along with a mechanic whirring sound. At first I thought it was the blood test machine, but the man hadn't started running tests before I knocked him into the power button. No, the noise came from behind us. It sounded like the cameras that monitored Martin's Grocery store.

Nathaniel the camera! He followed my gaze until he saw it. A white camera pivoting around the room focused its lens on us. Nathaniel lept forward and slammed his fist into the glass. The red light went dead.

Something rustled to my left. I turned in time to see the Namuh doctor reached a red button on the wall and pressed it. Immediately, metal shutters snapped over the windows and over the broken air duct grate. We were trapped.