Unremarkable (Anything But) (3 page)

The tunnels were dark, damp
with moisture, and cold—not that the cooler temperature bothered him. The smell was another matter entirely. The faint odor of mold that would be barely detectible to a normal person; a fully human person, was heady, rancid, to Christian and all the UDs taking refuge in the underbelly and crevices of the world. But it was something they had to endure, like they had had to tolerate so many other things within the last half a year.

Absently fingering the healed skin beneath his left ear where a GPS chip used to reside before he cut it out, Christian strode through the wet muck of the tunnels, his silvery eyes ready-made flashlights. Sounds echoed in the passageways. It was hard to have a private conversation within them and UDs had abnormal hearing anyway. He heard them minutes before he ever reached them.

“…break out at the Wisconsin facility. He wasn’t sure who they had there, had no idea they were even keeping anyone under lockdown, but it must have been someone important.”

“
Then how did they get out? If they’re so important? They should have been guarded up the rear and then some.”

“
Good question. He said—”

Christian turned the corner and immediately Jax and Dominic straightened, their conversation halting. Both were tall and lanky, muscles hardened and toned from the virus pumping through their veins. Jax had black hair and darker skin while Dominic was brown-haired and pale. Hygiene and looking good weren’t exactly on the top of the survival list and dirt smudges littered their worn, ripped jeans and thin shirts. They looked like all the other UDs—tough, indifferent, unbreakable—because you couldn’t break what had already been broken. They carried weapons; a knife in one boot, another tethered to a hip, not that they particularly needed them.

UDs were quicker and stronger than any human and healed astoundingly fast as well. They were like a manmade weapon for the Army, only as far as they knew the Army hadn’t created them—instead some kind of experiment or virus testing gone haywire at a government lab was the one to thank for that. And now they were hunted, gunned down, locked up, or worse—kept as some kind of pet observed by UDKs for the rest of their sad lives, and all because they had been born.

There was a bitter blackness that swirled through Christian’s body, a never-ending rage with the capacity to destroy any who chose to try to sabotage him, should he let his thin grasp on it unravel. He wanted to. Some days he wondered what was stopping him. The darkness had a name and the name was revenge.

He eyed the men. “What? He said what?”  

“
Christian. We were just—”

Interrupting Dominic, Christian said in a too-calm voice, “Just what? Gossiping about stuff in the tunnels where everyone within hearing distance; and that is a wide range, can listen in on the conversation? Not too smart, is it?”

He closed the distance between them in three long strides, his face inches from Jax’s as he growled, “Do you not remember anything I told you? Or do you just not care?” His eyes flashed to Dominic next. “You should know better.” Christian stepped back. “You both should.”

“
Relax—”

His fingers were bunched around the front of Dominic’s shirt and he slammed him against the rough tunnel wall. “Relax? You’re asking me to relax when every day we breathe is one we have to worry might be our last? When there could be spies among us, even now? Maybe Jax is one. Maybe you are.”

“Ease up, man, he didn’t mean anything by it.”

Jax grabbed Christian’s arm and he shook him off, glaring over his shoulder at him. “You have information to impart, it goes to me, no one else, and it certainly isn’t discussed among the tunnels like high school girls.”

It didn’t matter to Christian that he was only eighteen himself; a high school student as little as six months ago, or that Jax was twenty and Dominic only seventeen. They had to be smart. If they wanted to make it, they had to use their brains. Less than seven months had passed since Christian turned into a freak and that time had torn him apart and built him back into what he now was, what he had to be, and it wasn’t anything to brag about. 

“
Just because you put yourself in charge—” Jax began.

“
I didn’t put myself in charge; I
am
in charge. If you don’t like it, leave. You’re either with me or against me.” Christian’s fingers released the fabric of Dominic’s shirt. “You know the way out of the tunnels. If you go…you forget the way back.”

He stared into two pairs of reflective gray eyes much like his own, and then he shouldered his way past the young men to get to the open area they considered their makeshift home.

There were less than twenty of them; so little compared to all Christian had found over the course of the last six months, and they were all young; ranging from sixteen years old to twenty-eight. Older UDs were withdrawn, resigned to their fate. But not this paltry number of UDs—they were young enough to remember what their lives used to be like—young enough to have hope, to want to fight—young enough to be reckless and take back their rights.

UDs didn’t sweat, didn’t really have any kind of smell to them, which was fortunate, given their close quarters and lack of showers. They sat and stood in groups, most quiet, some making halfhearted attempts at conversation. They didn’t really have a lot to talk about other than the obvious: So when did you turn? When did you cut out the chip? Do you think you’ll die tomorrow? Yeah, not exactly great conversation topics. They couldn’t talk about what they’d wanted to do with their lives pre-turn and they couldn’t talk about what they hoped to do with their lives post-turn. They were stuck at an impasse; unable to move back, impossible to move forward.

One young woman caught Christian’s eye and stood, making her way over to him. Julianna Valenti was nineteen, tall and slim with shoulder-length chestnut hair, and silvery eyes, but then, they all had those. UDs and UDKs were the only ones who could see the glow of them; to anyone else, they were simply gray. Christian hadn’t even known he could see the silver light to them until he’d removed the chip from his neck, which had him wondering what else that tracking device was. They had been camouflaged from one another. UDs passed each other by all the time without even knowing it, but now Christian, and those with him, could detect others like them with a glance.

Juli, as she’d told him to call her when they’d first made acquaintance, glided gracefully toward him. She was a dancer, or had been, before. She had also been the first to form an alliance with him. Born and raised in Iowa on a farm, now relocated to the underground of Wisconsin, to say she’d been through a culture shock was misleading. They were all adapting to less than desirable circumstances. Supplies were minimal and that was okay—UDs didn’t eat or drink much, so they didn’t need to relieve themselves much either. 

“What did you find out, Christian?”

He sighed, showing his back to the curious eyes of the mass of UDs. “I couldn’t find any.”

“You couldn’t find any, or you found some, but they said no?”

“
Same thing.”

Moving to stand next to him, Juli said, “No, not the same thing. If there are only eighteen of us, what will we accomplish? We’ll be killed and all of this will be for nothing. We can’t fight with so few beside us. Most of the UDs—they’re too scared to stand up for themselves. At least
we’re
here, even if we are also scared.”

“
That’s the difference between you and them; you’re scared, but you’re still here.”

Her eyes zeroed in on his face. “And you’re not?”

“Not what?”

“
Scared.”

“
No,” he said shortly. “I’m not.”

Juli’s fingers trailed down the damp stone of the wall, her eyes following the motion. “You’re not scared because you have nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose, you make sacrifices others are not willing to make.” She gave him a sidelong glance. “How can you have no one, nothing?”

He looked down at his black boots. He had a mother, a father, a younger brother and sister, but Christian wouldn’t let himself think of them. It hurt too much. Now and then a memory crept into his subconscious and with it the pain of profound loss, but he was always quick to slam up the mental barrier that separated the life he used to have from the one he now had. They were dead to him, not because he wanted them to be, but because they had to be for him to be able to endure his reality.

Choosing to ignore her last comment, he said, “We’ll find more UDs willing to stand beside us. I have confidence in that.”

“I hope so. But what if it doesn’t happen? What if it is just us?”

“
If it comes to that, at least we will have fought.” His eyes slid to her face and away. “We can be proud of that.”

Juli scoffed. “Pride doesn’t get you far when you’re not breathing. And our families? We’ll be dead to them as well and it will have been for nothing.”

Tight-lipped, he glared at her. “We are already dead to them. The second we transitioned, the people we used to be died.”

“
Not where it counts. Not for me.” She swallowed, her eyes unwavering from his. Juli put a hand on his bicep and he tensed. “We agreed to be with you for a reason, Christian. You gave us something, you gave
me
something.”

His throat worked. “What?”

“Hope.” Her hand fell away. “Don’t make us regret it. Be our leader, but be fair. Be fearless, but not reckless. And
you
don’t give up hope either. Because the only time you’ve really lost yourself or become unfixable is when you lose that.”

Another bit of information to sidestep. “We’ll find more, Juli. We just have to search harder, in more areas. We haven’t been together that long. It takes time to build an army. And patience.”

His words were meant to reassure, but Juli didn’t look convinced. “You heard Dominic and Jax talking?”

Christian scowled, looking over his shoulder. Eyes weren’t on them, but ears were. “Part of it. Let’s take a walk.”

The sound of a voice being cut off caused him to stiffen and tilt his head. He grabbed the hunting knife from the waistband of his pants, his motions fluid, well-honed. The blade was large and sharp enough to cut through bone. Christian put a finger to his lips as his eyes met Juli’s and signaled what he was going to do. Giving a sharp nod, Juli confirmed she understood. She moved to stand before the group of fugitives like a protective mama bear and Christian felt a twinge inside.

He molded himself to the wall, his heart slowly pounding, his breaths even as he slid along it.

“I have better training than you,” was whispered across the expanse, but on the other side of the wall.

Christian froze and tried to duck around the corner, but not soon enough. A hand, small and pale, punched him in the throat. The struggle to breathe was immediate. Something pointy was slammed hard into his back, knocking him to his knees, and then a boot said hello to his chin. Loudly.

“Bested by a female—a small one, and a UDK at that. Tsk tsk. What will your groupies think?” she cooed.

Voices, frantic and angry, rose behind him, but his attention was trained on Jax and Dominic. Both were out cold or dead. They had to be knocked unconscious. There was no blood, so he ruled death out. That knowledge was so surprising he couldn’t adjust to it, though the proof was evident in their prone forms.

His eyes slowly lifted, trailing up black stretch pants, a pink top much too big for her slim frame, and landing on large brown eyes. Her jaw was tight, eyes flashing with determination. Her short, light brown hair was messier than usual, bangs hanging in her eyes. Up and down her chest heaved as she sucked air through her lungs. She smelled faintly of cigarettes and gum, like she’d had each within the last week, but not any more recent than that.

“
Natasha,” he greeted in a mild tone.

Lips twisted with a snarl, she trained a gun on him and cocked it. “Don’t say my name like we’re friends or anything else.”

“Christian!” Juli moved for him and Natasha turned her weapon on her.

“
Stop!” Christian lowered his voice and concentrated on keeping it even. “Juli, stop where you are. Don’t move.” His eyes never left the UDK’s face. “How did you find us?”

“
It wasn’t easy.”

“
And now that you’ve found us? Are you going to kill us?”

Hesitation flashed across Natasha’s face, and with it, indecision. It was gone almost immediately, replaced by a coldness she had always tried too hard to produce. “I won’t have to. If I found you, the others won’t be too far behind.”

Hands up, Christian slowly stood. “What did you do to Jax and Dominic?”
Keep her talking, just keep her talking.

Natasha snorted. “I knocked them out. You guys need better training.”

His jaw tightened. “We have
no
training. All we know, all we learn, we figure out on our own. We’re the garbage, remember? We don’t exactly get the same privileges as you.”

An indecipherable gleam entered her eyes. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Why are you here?” he demanded.

“
Christian, you’re wasting your breath trying to talk to her. She’s toying with us, and when she’s done, she’s going to shoot us,” Juli said from behind him.

The gun wavered.

Christian’s eyes narrowed as he watched Natasha’s shaking arm. “Are there even bullets in it?” He took a step toward her and the gun swung to his head.

“Stay back!”

“
I don’t think there are. What is your motive?”

Natasha’s throat worked as she tried to swallow and Christian could smell her fear, potent and bitter. “I said, stay back.”

“Christian!” Panic raised Juli’s voice.

“
Or what? You’ll shoot?” He stopped when the barrel of the gun was touching his chest. “Go on then. Shoot.” Christian stared into her eyes. “Only you watch me while you pull the trigger.”

“
You won’t die, if I shoot you,” she whispered. “You’ll heal.”

“
So what’s stopping you then? Give it a try.”

“
You’ll only die if you’re shot in the brain.”

The gun lifted to his forehead and Christian tried not to flinch. It clicked, his eyes watching hers widen in horror, and he moved. One hand grabbed the gun and twisted, the other slammed into her chest with enough force to send her into the wall a few feet away. Natasha slid to the dirty, damp ground, her head bowed as shivers swept through her small frame. She didn’t look brave or vindictive anymore; she looked like a lost, scared little girl.

“Next time, make sure it has bullets.” Christian put the safety on the gun before shoving it into the waistband of his pants.

His eyes found Brett and Dylan Roth, brothers both turned UDs, a rare occurrence. The odds of two siblings having the disease were almost unheard of. “Tie her up. She’s coming with us.”