[REND] 4.3 - A Memorial to Remember

Straight for five minutes. Then, left. Right, straight, another right after two minutes. I think we got on the flyover. Were we stopping for a red light? Didn’t we have another red light back there? This shouldn’t be the flyover near my condo. Was that a turn to the left, or did the SUV just overtake another car?

Okay, I give up. This was impossible.

There was this old movie where the main character got kidnapped, and he memorized the car’s movements. After he escaped from the enemy base, he already knew where he was and called for help. It may be one of those only-in-movies things, but I still tried it out. It distracted me from my awful position.

Even though we were knocked out, supposedly, our kidnappers still bound our hands and feet and blindfolded us. A sensation of static passed over me. The hair on my arms stood on end, and the phone in my pocket heated up. Not sure what they did, but it was probably time to get a new phone.

After that, they threw us into the back seat. First, me. Then, Deen. My tall best friend was on top of me. Hard to breathe with her bumpers squishing my face.

I had to gather every drop of willpower in my body to continue pretending to be unconscious. Physical contact was sooo disgusting. I didn’t like the living warmth of another person. Dead bodies were fine, I supposed. I didn’t have any issue hiding behind a corpse during the Adumbrae attack on the train.

Our kidnappers had been mostly silent except for a brief conversation when they tied us.

“Hey, this blondie is quite the looker,” one of them said. “Unlucky for her to be friends with this one,” he added, likely referring to me.  

“Quite plain lookin’, ain’t she?” commented another scumbag. “Sure we got the right gal?”

“It’s her,” curtly said a third voice. “Now, be quiet. Move before we’re interrupted.”

This disproved my initial theory that these guys wanted to kidnap Deen for ransom or whatnot. They were after me.

Why, though? Mom raked in big at Greaves, but she didn’t have millions to cough up. If it were about money, they should’ve just taken Deen. But it sounded like they took Deen along to have no witnesses for my kidnapping.

My next thought was that this could be connected to Dad’s death. Well, Dad has been dead for nearly a decade. Officially. Not-so-officially, many people, Mom included, believed that Dad was recruited by the Corebring Hive, with a fake death set-up to keep us safe. 

Me? Sure, I’d buy that story. The circumstances surrounding his car accident were funky. Also, there was no body at the funeral. Dad could truly be dead by now, though, killed by an Adumbrae during some mission of the Hive. It wasn’t exactly a safe line of work. If he did end up working for the Corebrings, these kidnappers couldn’t get anything out of me because our family had zero contact with him. They could use me to make Dad betray the Corebrings or something, but I doubted Dad did anything super top secret for the Hive. He wasn’t even a Corebring.

Just a scientist in their secret employ was what Mom believed. She still hadn’t forgiven Dad for leaving us. As for me, I didn’t really care what happened to him.

The Corebring Hive possibility was not possible. That left the Adumbrae connection. Something related to Monday’s attack. Why else would anyone bother to kidnap my cute self?

I should’ve skipped classes that stupid day, I thought.

These kidnappers weren’t sent by the government. The police would’ve invited me to the station. If they knew I was an Adumbrae, the BID would just blast my ass.

Would you look at that, the gossip from Marsh Row turned out to be true. I wasn’t sure if these bastards were actual terrorists, but they certainly were doing something illegal. This could be the people responsible for the mysterious disappearances that Tattoo Sleeves and his friends—may Beanie Twig rest in peace—were talking about. High chance they orchestrated the Adumbrae attack. Maybe I could get an explanation about what happened to me.

Around forty minutes of driving later, the SUV’s tires crunched gravel. We were leaving the road and pulling up into… somewhere. Forty minutes from my condo shouldn’t be too far, under normal traffic circumstances. But because the streets away from downtown were empty because of the memorial service, we traveled faster than normal. I was sure that we were on the edge of the city.

The car doors opened. No sound of vehicles or anything else. Just some birds. We were far from the populated areas. That didn’t narrow down anything, but it showed that these guys were prepared.

“Into a cage. Both of them.” This was the voice of the leader of the kidnappers.

“The same cage, boss?”

“Sure. Bring them in with the rest.”

Another man laughed. “There’s not much of ‘rest’ left with Firio in there playing with them. Most are dead. I think only one’s left.” I hadn’t heard this voice before. Must be a guard of this place.

“No names,” said Efficient Leader. “That’s the rule.”

“Why bother? They’re all dead meat, even these pretties. Can’t we, you know, have fun with the blondie? Such a waste of that body, know what I’m saying? Firio wouldn’t mind if he didn’t know. He’ll just—argh!”

A muffled thump. A body dropping to the ground? Efficient Leader must’ve hit the creep or something.

We’re going to die? That was what the creep said. I wasn’t even going to grant him a nickname.

What were they going to do to us? I had my Adumbrae superstrength. I could fight back if the situation got too hairy. And I’d kill these pieces of shit.  

Deen was still unconscious. Her gentle exhale brushed my head. Gross. The thought of it. She didn’t actually smell bad. She has this cotton candy perfume or something resistant to the hours we were at the park. The scent also fought back the musky odor of the seats. Probably many other kidnapped victims were here before us.

I felt lighter as they got her off of me. I slumped as someone picked me up next. I brushed my head on the seat to shift my blindfold a bit. I could see the ground covered with small stones. I moved my head to the side—not too much or I’d risk getting found out—and spotted some warehouses. The air smelled cleaner and fresher than in the middle of the city. Cool winds suggested trees around this area.

We were dumped into a large cage and wheeled to the row of warehouses.

Best if I could have some idea of how many enemies there were before I revealed that I was an Adumbrae. I had a tough body and inhuman regeneration, but I was just a Tier One. The lower end of it. A bunch of men with guns could kill me if they focused on my head. The element of surprise was my biggest asset. Not like I had any other big assets, unlike my best friend here.

There was a loud buzz, and metal rattled. A motor groaned to pull up the metal slots of a large commercial garage door, the overhead type. A sharp metallic stench hit me.

I recognized it. Blood. Lots of blood.

They were killing people inside. Why?

And why here? If killing was their goal, there was no need to take us all the way wherever this was. Just shoot me at my condo’s parking area and be done with it. Was there a point to cutting people up that this much blood was spilled?

I tried to peek from my blindfold, but could only see stacks of crates. The stench of death got stronger. There were low growls. Some kind of beast?

The guy pushing the crate brought us to an open area bordered by even more crates. I had a glimpse of cages lining one side before our own cage turned.

There was a distinct change in the sound of the wheels as they rolled over the part of the floor slick with blood.

Oh, there’s a dead body. I continued peeking while my left cheek was on the cold floor of the cage.

A hand over there. Just a hand? There was another hand. An eyeball. Clumps of flesh so mangled I couldn’t identify what they were. Why were they doing it here? Why make a mess of the corpses? Looked like some rabid animal attacked them.

No…

An Adumbrae. That must be the one making the sounds. Being a monster didn’t excuse bad manners. At least, eat these bodies whole.

Would I also be this messy if I lost control of my body? No-no, I can't allow that.

These bastards were feeding people to Adumbrae. It now made sense why they brought me here instead of shooting me in the parking lot.

That brought a lot of questions. Where the hell did they get an Adumbrae? Why were they taking care of it like a pet? More importantly, why take me, specifically? The tattooed dudes of Marsh Row mentioned that only people no one would miss got kidnapped. I didn’t want to toot my own horn, but some people would miss me. Mom would. I was a Cresthorne law student. If I absented classes, someone was bound to check up on me. And what about Deen? There’d be millions of dollars in reward to find her.

Did our kidnappers even check who they got? Likely not. They didn’t even have any inkling I was an Adumbrae. If they didn’t care, they must be so sure they could get away with it. But with what, exactly?

I didn’t get to see the rest of the carnage because we were pushed next to the last cage in the line. Sobbing noises. There was at least one other caged person here. The rest of the cages seemed empty, from the little I could see. Didn’t take a genius what happened to their occupants.

“Jessica… I’m sorry…” cried the man next to us. “I couldn’t do any—huh?” A bit of banging. “Are you bringing more people? You murderers!” Knocking on metal. “Hey, wake up! You, two!”

“Way to go, lover boy!” shouted a man’s voice on a shrill side. I couldn’t place his accent, but there was just something annoying about the way he spoke. I bet he got bullied as a kid. “Not even five minutes after your girlfriend died, and here you are, hitting on new girls. Well, I couldn’t blame you. They got the looks, don’t they?”

They? He was including me in the same group as Deen? Wow. I might spare him.

“Let them go!” said the man next to us.

I shifted a bit to get a view of him. Medium-built, bland-looking. Actually, I wasn’t sure how he looked because his face was covered in bruises, and he had a cut lip. I’d call him Bruised Lover; he must’ve fought to save his girlfriend. Kudos to him. Hard to find good guys nowadays.

“Oh, I’ll let them go, alright. Just like your girlfriend. Then, we’ll see how far they can run. Your girlfriend didn’t get very far.”

“Murderous freaks!” shouted Bruised Lover.

“But before that, those girls need to answer some questions. Wake them up, Bigsby.”

Rattling noises. A side of our cage opened. This wasn’t the time to attack. Later, they’d let me out to get eaten by an Adumbrae—I had to wait for that because I hadn’t gotten any information yet.

A shadow covered me. I narrowed my eyes to slits. This must be Bigsby. I liked his nickname.

He bent over Deen. A syringe? Was that chemical supposed to counteract the tranquilizer? After injecting Deen, he grabbed my arm and pulled me close. That needle would break against my skin.

I groaned and mumbled, “Wha-what…?”

“You awake?” grumbled Bigsby. “Huh, those darts ain’t workin’ so well, don’t they?” He shut the cage as I pretended to struggle pushing myself up. “One’s already awake, boss! Other’s gonna come too soon.”

I removed my blindfold and surveyed the corpses torn to pieces on the floor. Fascinating. Several feet away, a severed head stared at our cage; one of its eyeballs was hanging out of its socket. Ribs flared out from a red mush a few feet from the head. There was a limbless torso over there, dripping blood from its stumps. Some legs and arms that way. Not sure if they belonged to the stumpy corpse.

Must be six or seven people killed. The scene was gorier than what I had witnessed during the Adumbrae attack. I had a hard time tearing my eyes away.

On the other side of the dead bodies stood a lanky, tall man with a leather vest and a purple mohawk. He was flanked by a muscular goon. Add in the humongous Bigsby, and there were three enemies in this warehouse. Even if they had guns, I could get the jump on one of them and use that body as a shield.

The problem was the Adumbrae. Was it in that sci-fi-looking canister behind Purple Mohawk? I couldn’t spare the brain power to think of a better nickname for him.

“Wakey, wakey, girls!” Purple Mohawk spread his arms.

“Whe-where am I?” I screamed and pointed at the corpses. “What are those? Oh my god!” I was getting pretty good at screaming. Was this a good enough reaction? I quickly took shallow breaths while adding a fake sob. I added hyperventilating to my repertoire of reactions. Not sure how accurate this was.

Deen stirred beside me. She coughed as she sat up. “Erind? What’s…? Yuck! This stench!”

Deen opened her eyes. She froze as she stared at the shredded corpses and pools of blood. She then opened her trembling mouth, as if about to scream. Only squeaky sounds came out. Color drained out of her face as she started to shake.

“Mother Core’s Grace,” she whispered. “What the—urgk!” She spewed out vomit on the floor.

Gross! I stopped myself from saying that out loud. It wasn’t just a one-time projectile. Deen hugged her stomach as she continued to gag and puke. Some of it splashed onto me. I grabbed my right hand with my left to prevent myself from hitting her. I’d need infinite showers to get her grossness off of me.

At least, Deen didn’t have breakfast or I’d be seriously pissed right now with this mess.

That said, amazing reaction from her. Nine out of ten. I hadn’t thought of making myself puke. Hadn’t tried it. But I bet I could do it. Not now, though. I’d look like a copycat.  

I rubbed her back. “De-Deen…” I just went with generic crying. I had already turned on the waterworks. “Wha-what’s going to… happen… to us?” I dialed it up to bawling, coupled with difficulty breathing. Once I was crying, it was easy to intensify it.

Deen’s expression suddenly turned super serious. Hatred like I’ve never seen before flashed her face as she wiped her lips. It was like a switch changed her into a different person. She hugged me as she scrambled to the back of the cage, dragging me along. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded of Purple Mohawk.