The whole of the human race is at stake. It's either them or us, but between the two, full obliteration is a definite.
The 'jump' is tearing me apart. She's tearing me apart. I am torn between two girls and two dimensions, and I am in need of more t...
I rip my eyes open. There's something over my head and my mouth – a sack and duct tape. My hands are zip-tied behind my back and I'm sitting on the leather seats of a moving car. Did they really just kidnap me? Well, shit. My dad's gonna be fuming. He wanted me to behave and now I just got myself kidnapped heading down to the HQ of an unknown location. I'm going to be grounded for life and I'm most likely gonna haveta repeat Year 12. I try to scream but it all comes out as a muffled mess.
I don't know how long we had been moving for but the vehicle eventually comes to a halt. The potato sack of a bag is yanked off my head. I am greeted by one of Nika's men. He's big and bald with prison tatts all over his body and looks to be of Spanish descent.
"We have your friend," he says coolly with a thick accent, polishing away at his serrated spay. "Valentina, is it?" he lifts his head to make eye contact with me.
How on earth did they manage to get a hold of Carmen?!
"She's definitely a screamer," he smirks.
And as if on cue, screams erupt from outside of the car. Carmen's being dragged across the gravel. I yell, well try to, louder. The guard in front of me just finds it all too entertaining. When the screaming becomes faint, he hauls my ass outta the SUV.
He snips the zip ties with his blades and places handcuffs on me instead. I'm in the middle of a dessert. There's a one-way road and then just nothing. Something from the ground in front of us lifts into the air. It's like a doorway with a staircase leading down. It's NOIR HQ. This has to be it. They went underground in the middle of the Australian outback just like the article said.
They take me underground.
"Dean," Nika greets me in a vast open space. "I apologise about the sedation and restraints, however, you can never be too careful."
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"You mean drugged and handcuffed," I correct, she really is the biggest bitch.
"Hm," she smiles before giving a curt nod to the guard that's with me.
He unlocks the handcuffs and I rub at my wrists. The lights above reflect off a shiny silver object. A man is taking a small briefcase somewhere. On the surface of the briefcase says, 'Q-Y-Z-X-01'. So it's true, Nika never lied. They have the capsules and it's right there. This whole place is a big sterile factory. People walking around in hazmat suits and clipboards. I am then dragged into a conference room and the doors slam shut after me.
"D-Dean?"
I lift my head. "Carmen!"
She rushes over to me and jumps into my arms. For a moment, I didn't know what to do. Carmen's here because of me. Igot her into this mess and now I have to get her out of it.
"Babe, are you okay? Did they hurt you?" I pull her away for a sec.
I examine her face. There's a tiny cut above her left eyebrow. I lick my thumb and smudge away the dried-up blood. Soaked eyelashes and glossy eyes gaze back at me. I hate seeing her like this. I clench my jaw and shake my head in mad anger.
I wrap my arms around her tightly. "Don't worry, Carmen, I won't let them hurt you again."
❖
30 minutes later, the door swings open.
"Hello," Nika greets us again with her arms folded behind her back. "We thought if we left you kids in here alone for a while, you would perhaps spill all those lil secrets that you have stored up in there," she taps at her temple.
"We don't have any secrets," I utter concisely.
"Seemingly," she arches an eyebrow. "Look, Dean, all I want to know is who else has the quantum leaps – that's all."
"And then you'll let us go?" Carmen asks softly.
"I'll think about it," Nika smiles like she's someone's mother.
"No one else," I answer for the both of us. "I swear it."
"That's what the other one said," she sighs.
"'Other one'?" Carmen repeats.
"A story for another time, hun," then Nika steps aside and two of her men walk in. "Let me know when you lot are ready to talk," she leaves us alone with them.
The same guard that escorted me grabs me by the neck and pins me against the ceramic wall. I grab his thick wrists, tryna loosen his choking grip.
"Mirar," he snarls.
The second guard, he's white, looks to be Russian, but has less muscle mass compared to the one that has me pinned. He creeps up to Carmen like a predator. Carmen screams and runs around the office boardroom table. I grunt, tryna free myself but don't have enough fucking strength to do so. The man yanks Carmen back by the elbow and aggressively bends her over the table. Carmen squirms around but the man firmly holds her down by the nape of her neck.
"Don't you dare fucking touch her!" I seethe, pushing my body off the wall before I get slammed harder against it.
"Get off me!" Carmen shrieks.
The Russian man just sniffs her hair, holding her in place with a big smirk playing on his face.
"Mirar o hablar," the Spanish guard says to me. "Watch or speak," he translates.
"I already fucking told you!" I fume. "We don't know anyone else! It's just us! I swear it!"
"Not good enough," he breathes into my face and all I smell is beef jerky. "Mirar."
The Russian claws away at Carmen's jeans. The buttons at the front rip apart and they land on the table like pearls.
"Dean!" she screams my name.
My name, me, I'm supposed to help her. But I fucking can't. I'm fucking cemented. "Please!" I beg. "Leave her out of this. She ain't do nothing wrong."
"Hablar!"
The Russian starts yanking at Carmen's jeans, trying to pull them off of her. But Carmen puts up a good fight. She resists and resists and even elbows him in the eye which aggravates him more and he slams her head back down on the table. I groan and push and try to fight back at this bull in front of me.
"Hablar."
"We don't fucking know anyone else! I FUCKING swear it! Just get your fucken hands off of her!"
