The Marked People

Save Him

Indigo

I wake to find myself blindfolded and bound hand and foot. I keep my breathing steady as I listen. There are people around me, mostly talking about statistics and figures. I'd been hoping I'd metabolize the knock-out drug fast enough that I'd wake up as they were transporting me but they must have given me another sedative once I'd lost consciousness to make sure I stayed under until I was somewhere safe.

"They're going to test this first right?" Someone to my left asks, voice thick with worry.

"Of course they are," someone else snaps. "You really think they're going to altered everyone's DNA without double-checking it won't kill us all? Remember that first time?"

Someone gags, "I didn't see the actual result but I did have to clean up once they moved the body."

I suck in a breath but no one notices. My blood and bone marrow. They've already tried turning someone else with it? And it hadn't worked. That must be why they still want me.

"She's awake."

Anger burns through my veins as I recongise the voice. Winter.

Someone rips my blindfold away and I blink as my eyes adjust to the light. Winter looks at me, half smiling, "Your markings gave you away. Markings don't change colour when someone's unconscious."

I glance at my markings. Light green and yellow. Fear and anger, the two colours I see the most on my skin. 

"Where's Phoenix?" I ask though it comes out as a demand.

Winter steps back, examining me. He walks around me, hands checking the ties on my wrists that keep my bound to the chair. I tug against them and he jerks away for a moment but the binding holds and he's smiling as he walks back into view, "The cable is some of the strongest there is. Even you should have trouble breaking out of it."

I jerk against my restraints again and he shakes his head, "We also gave you a sedative that make muscle movement harder." He looks over to someone holding a datapad, "Speaking of. When is her next injection?"

The woman looks up, "Ten minutes."

He nods in satisfaction, "We're not exactly sure how long the injections will last so we've been giving you one every half hour. Even your metabolism shouldn't be able to absorb them that quickly."

I look round the room trying to find any clue as to where they might be keeping Phoenix. I'm in a lab, white counters line the walls and the examination table has been shove to the side to make way for a machine with wires and canisters dotted around it. People mill around, some checking computer screens as data scroll by while others are looking over the machine, double checking wires are in place.

But no Phoenix. "Where is he?" I growl.

Winter sighs, "We're on the brink of evolution and that's all you care to say. You haven't even asked what your part is in all of this."

"I know why you need me. I'm the only successful hybrid."

Winter nods, "Yes. We'd hoped that once we'd made the cure we could just add it to the blood samples we'd taken from you and placed those in the machine. But unfortunately for the serum to work, it needed a life host in which to combine. You know how Marked people's babies only grow inside a live host? Well the serum is the same. No lab equipment could provide the perfect environment that a life host can. When we discovered that, I knew I had to get you out of New Horizons and keep you somewhere safe until it was time."