The Sphinx Project (6 page)

When we walked into the big building, there were racks of clothes everywhere. I wandered over to the silver frame closest to us, lifting the sleeve of a delicate dress. I scrunched up my nose, letting it drop.

"What's with all the frilly stuff?" Mouse asked, rifling through a similar rack.

"Surely all the bits and pieces hanging off would get in the way?" I turned, hearing footsteps approaching from behind.

"Can I help you? Are you looking for something in particular?" a girl, not much older than us, asked. She ran her eyes over us, an expression similar to the one I often saw Briana wearing spread across her face.

"We're after clothes we can run around in," Mouse said.

The girl's eyes flicked over our dirty clothes, a slight curl twisting her lip. "Sure you are..."

She led the way to the back of the store, where the clothes on the silver hangers were much plainer than those we had been inspecting.

We pored over the garments, selecting four pairs of black pants and four gray T-shirts.

I lifted a thick hooded sweatshirt. "Do you think we should each get one of these?"

"Will we need them? I'm not cold."

"Neither am I, but everyone outside seems to be. They're all wearing jackets."

Mouse stared critically at the garment for a moment. "We probably should, then. We need to blend in."

We took our selections to the counter, where the girl had disappeared to without a word. She looked at us strangely but didn't say anything as she processed our purchase.

"That's ninety-five dollars and thirty-seven cents."

Mouse pulled the folded stack of notes out of her pocket and the girl's eyes grew wide. She slid one of the pieces of paper from the pile, inspected it and placed it on the counter before doing the same with the next five. The girl deposited the notes in her till and counted out some little coins and other notes from the cash register. Mouse took them and folded them back into the wallet.

Shopping in hand, we returned to the car. Briana and Nicole arrived soon after, the former with a stormy expression settled firmly upon her face. She didn't say anything, just selected an apple from the paper bag and bit into it.

I took the driver's seat, navigating through the streets back to the hospital. I parked the car and waited. There, Nicole and I changed seats, since she volunteered to take a turn driving.

I found a magazine in the glove compartment. I'd seen it when I'd been searching for the screwdrivers. It had lots of pictures and told some sort of story about a man with a mechanical suit who flew around saving the day.

By the time Guy came back, Briana and Mouse were silently snoozing in the back seat and Nicole was starting to nod off.

"You all right?" he asked gruffly, climbing in beside Mouse.

"Yeah, we think we got everything," I replied.

"We'll keep going for another hour until we hit the next town. There's a little motel there where we can crash for the night." He looked ready to pass out.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Mouse asked, awake again.

"Yeah, they patched me up." He held out his heavily bandaged arm as if to prove a point. "I told 'em a dog bit me."

He leaned between the front seats and picked up his phone off the dash. "Now, you need to follow this road until you get to the intersection. Go left then take the second right and the next left. Then keep going until you see the sign for the motel."

Sitting back, he flipped open his phone and pressed two buttons before holding it to his ear. He spent the entire hour conversing with someone on the other end of the phone, talking about a cabin out west where we'd be safe until we could get ourselves sorted out in the real world. Even with my enhanced hearing, I couldn't decipher whether he was speaking to a man or woman. The person was using some sort of filter to distort his or her voice.

As Nicole turned to the right, I noticed a motorbike trailing behind us without any lights on. I kept my eyes on it in the rear view mirror until we turned into the parking lot of the motel.

She flicked off the engine and moved to pull the key from the ignition. I reached across, trapping her hand.

"Just wait," I said softly, as if the person on the motorbike could hear us.

We sat silently and waited. Instead of driving down the road, he turned down the next driveway. I saw the shadows move. Whoever it was ducked around the big bush at the end of a long brick wall that shielded the driveway from our view.

"We're being followed." Nicole went to switch the car on again but I gripped her hand more tightly.

"If we go, they're going to keep following us. We need a plan," I said.

"We need another car." Guy's tired eyes made him seem more exhausted than he had before.

"And we need to get into it without him realizing," Briana piped up, stating the obvious.

The front of the motel was devoid of any sign of life. Apart from the main reception, all of the windows were dark, and except for our car, the parking lot was empty.

"Wait here," Guy said, moving to push his door open.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Pretending to check in. It'll make them think we haven't seen them and give me a reason to scout around the back."

He walked to the reception door and pushed it open. It didn't take long; he came out again in less than five minutes.

"Drive the car around the back," he said, sliding in.

Nicole started the engine again, maneuvering the car around the corner of the building.

"There are no guests. All of the keys were still on their hooks." I surveyed the empty space behind the building. "We're going to have to try another way to get away without them noticing."

The multi-level building in front of me gave me an idea. "I'll do it."

The other three didn't argue. I climbed out of the car and went around to the trunk. Finding my bag, I yanked it open and extracted a silver canister.

Shutting the trunk silently, I climbed on top of the station wagon and sprang from the car to the roof of the building. I caught the gutter pipe overhanging the second floor before hoisting myself onto the old tiles.

Slinking across the old roof, I crouched low so no one could see me from the road. I moved carefully to the opposite side of the building where I'd noticed the eves overhung a tall stone wall. With every step, I tested the roof with my foot before putting my whole weight on it; some of the tiles were old and worn, and I really didn't want to fall through them.

I lowered myself down from the roof onto the narrow row of bricks. Pausing, I listened carefully. I couldn't hear any heart beat, but there was a strange, irregular sound coming from the direction of the bike.

I dropped silently to the soft grass beneath and tiptoed toward the dark shadow of the motorbike.

A sweet smell drifted from behind me. It was like the flowers Mom used to keep in a glass on our little kitchen table. Pausing near the tree, I heard a slight rustle. Something brushed against an extended branch behind me.

I spun around punching at where I judged the mystery person to be, but not fast enough. Whoever it was caught my arm, twisting it behind my back. The canister slipped from my hand. Moving with the momentum, I swung my elbow up into the person's jaw, turning farther than he or she was anticipating.

I managed to escape momentarily, but a hand caught hold of my hair as I attempted to put distance between us. The nails were long, scratching at my scalp. An arm snaked around the back of my neck, tucking me into a headlock.

Pressed to the side of the person's body I could feel feminine curves, even though her muscles were hard.

I swung my left elbow into the woman's stomach to see if it would dislodge her. It didn't. I pulled down on the arm with my right hand, trying to give myself a little room to breathe. I squeezed my other hand between us then reached backwards over my head.

I stretched until I reached my assailant's face. I dug my thumb into her nasal septum, the cartilaginous wall separating the nostrils—it would have hurt, a lot. She didn't loosen her hold. I clawed two of my fingers and gouged at her eyes instead. The woman let go with a yelp.

Her grip loosened, I punched her in the stomach again. She let go of me completely and I dropped to the ground, lunging for the canister. I reached it, clutched it tightly between my hands and depressing the button, spinning to face my attacker again.

I held my breath as the gas deployed.

Whoever she was dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Certain she was out cold, I took my finger off the button. She lay still, giving me my first chance to study her.

I yanked up the sleeve of her left arm, displaying an array of dots tattooed on the inside of her wrist. To anyone else, it would have seemed like twenty-seven random marks. I wasn't just anyone else.

I could recognize those two constellations as easily as I could identify any letter of the alphabet. Adorning her wrist were the stars of Leo and Virgo, identical to those in the night sky. They were replicated on my wrist and each of the other girls'.

The sign of the Sphinx Project.

Leaving her where she lay, I turned, sprinting back to the car.

"Drive!" I commanded, climbing inside.

"Where to?" Nicole asked, glancing at Guy in the rear-view mirror.

"Head back to the last intersection and go left, then left again," he said.

He pulled a book of maps out of a pocket on the back of Nicole's seat, leafing through it until he found the right page. "You're going there." he handed it to me, pointing out the exact location.

We drove until long after dark before stopping again. We found the old motel immediately after we crossed into Atlanta and stopped in for the night. Guy chose a card from his wallet and handed it across the counter to the elderly woman on the other side. She peered at us curiously but didn't say anything.

The room was small, but it was enough. Nicole and I volunteered to take the double bed, Guy and Briana took the bunk beds and Mouse camped out on a low cot.

We rationed out the food, but Guy waved his aside, opting instead to crash straight onto his bed. He hadn't even pushed back the covers before falling into a deep sleep. He looked ill, his skin pale with a sheen of sweat coating his forehead.

Chapter Eight

A piercing scream ripped through the darkness, rocking me awake in an instant. Bolting upright, it was easy to identify the origin of the sound—Guy was thrashing on his bed.

Throwing back the covers, I ran to his side. I took him firmly by the shoulders and shook. He woke immediately. His bloodshot eyes were wild. They frantically scanned the room, searching for whatever haunted his dreams.

Moments passed, which judging from his expression, seemed longer to him than they were. Eventually he relaxed. Sitting up, he scrubbed his uninjured hand across his face. His body dripped with perspiration, his skin even paler than before.

Nicole flicked the switch, illuminating the bare bulb suspended in the middle of the ceiling. Guy shielded his eyes, pulling back into the shadow of the bunk as if the brightness blinded him.

Mouse was sitting up in her cot and Briana hung over the edge of her bunk.

"Ugh, turn that thing off, will ya?" he mumbled. "It was nothing, a bad dream. Go back to sleep."

We didn't protest. The room once again fell into darkness and Nicole climbed back into bed. I couldn't sleep though; Guy's labored breathing worried me. Something was very wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I scratched at my arm as a weird trembling twitch raced along my muscles.

Lying in bed, thoughts raced around my head, unbidden. I didn't like them, not one bit. The differences between the Guy we escaped with, the one we'd known for most of our lives, and the one across the room from me now, were already obvious. They were small and could be blamed on any number of things, but after today they worried me a lot. Those creatures looked like they used to be human—what if the bite had done something to him?

Trying not to disturb Nicole, I climbed out of bed and retrieved the sword from where I'd dumped my bag. For the rest of the night I sat at the edge of our mattress, watching and listening, the weapon held tight between my hands.

Would I actually be able to use the sword if the worst came to pass?

As the hours passed, Guy's breathing slowed. Not by much, perhaps by about twenty percent, but I could definitely hear the difference. He began secreting a strange scent too. By the time I woke Nicole at dawn, his skin seemed to have tightened over his features.

I didn't say much except that she needed to watch him while I showered. She gave a barely perceivable nod, taking the sword in hand and claiming my post. She seemed as worried as I felt.

I took my time under the stream of hot water, enjoying the heat cascading down my back and the motel's free shampoo. It smelled fruity and sweet. I didn't have to worry about any jerks watching, nor did I fear they might turn the water off on me because I took more than the three-minute allowance.

Another twitch surprised me when I twisted the tap to stop the glorious flow of water. This time it danced along the length of my upper leg. I attempted to massage it away, digging my thumb into the fleshy part of my thigh. It went away several seconds later.

I found the clothes we had bought yesterday, pulling them on before pushing my feet into my old sneakers. The moment I'd finished tying the laces, a growling noise drifted from below my feet.

I rushed to the door and wrenched it open. The girls were on their feet, but Guy hadn't moved a muscle.

The quake wasn't as big as the one that had destroyed the labs, but it still wasn't fun. The entire room shook. The floorboards rippled, several bent too far and fractured. It didn't last long and disappeared as quickly as it had come.

As the rumbling faded to silence, Guy awoke. His eyes opened, gliding into a wide-eyed, glassy stare. He blinked and peered around the room, expression darkening upon noticing us. He was leering at me, although I wasn't exactly sure what he was seeing.