The Skylar Experiment : The "X" in Apex

Chapter Nineteen - Blood and Chocolate

The hostile chick from the cafeteria dragged in a moaning, lethargic boy. He was pale, like someone blew chalk powder over his contorted face.

Their footsteps tarred blood on the floor. I led them to the kitchen, the girl shouting for something to sit on. A roasted scent wafted in the air as they passed by. I pulled out a recliner chair from the closet so he could almost lie down. She dropped him heavily, panting.

"What's going on?" I asked, wondering if I should call an ambulance. Ambulances probably didn't even cover this area.

"I need scissors." The girl barely noted the weapon lowered at my side.

I swallowed and found a pair tucked into a drawer, then handed it over. She seized the guy's shirt and cut it up from bottom to top as I watched, uneasy. When she split the jacket open, I wanted to gag.

There was a hole in the boy's chest. A black, charred hole sluiced with dark blood and veins popping out like chords. The skin around it was damaged.

"Towel," she demanded, looking at me for the first time.

I ran to the nearest bathroom, running back to offer one so she could ball it over the hole. I wanted to scream for answers but kept my mouth sewed shut. She tapped the boy's cheek.

"Stay with me, Ben. Don't close your eyes." The girl turned to me once more, lips pressed with contempt, as if wishing she didn't have to speak to me. "Take out whatever's sweet in your fridge. Ice cream, chocolate, fruit, you name it. And call Luc, tell him he better get his ass down here."

Gritting my teeth, I executed her orders. Ben looked like he'd pass out any second. He moaned in pain whenever his companion changed the spot on the towel, making my stomach queasy. She tried to force some food down his throat, which I found ridiculous.

Luc showed up in ten short minutes and swooshed alongside Ben in a blur. He exchanged a brief look with the girl as she stepped back.

A second later, he started the healing mojo again. He placed his palms on the agonizing boy's shoulders and closed his eyes. The light emanated from his hands, slow and peaceful, flowing down Ben's chest, glowing underneath his skin.

I stood witness behind the counter, feeling like I was too much. When it was over, Ben's head flopped and he grunted incoherent words. The gaping space had been closed, with only a sunken patch of skin to demonstrate there had been some kind of trauma.

Luc's eyes hit the gun left on the counter. Question marks floated in them, then they roamed all over me.

"Devin, what happened?" he asked.

"We spread out," the girl explained while I tasked myself with replacing the gun in its cabinet, one ear focused on them. "I took one side and he took another to cover more ground. Then I saw lights in the distance and heard screaming, so I headed over to see what Ben was doing."

"And? How did he get like this?"

"It was an ambush," groaned Ben. "I heard shouts. I found a dead body. One of those parasites was lurking, then two, then three, then... Together they make one hell of a light beam—singed right through me."

I stepped forward, my breath stalling. "You found a body?"

All three heads turned in sync as if I had no right to talk.

Devin's upper lip curled. "How about you let us get to that point, little—"

"Hey," Luc urged. "Priorities."

Devin clucked her tongue. "It's obvious that they're getting impatient. They're making other victims if little miss princess over here is under security lock-down."