“Chase?”
The blackness consumed me. I tried maneuvering onto my feet, but chains weighed heavily on my cuffed wrists. Groaning, I yanked my arm away from my body, unintentionally causing myself pain. The metal cuffs around my wrist dug deeper, scraping against the already raw skin. Dirt particles flew up in a cloud, making me gag.
“Chase!” I cried out into the vast darkness in front of me. “Are you there? Is anyone there?” My voice echoed inside what I had believed to be an enclosed room without windows.
Warm tears spilled down my cheeks. The silence hovered over me like a rain cloud. Recons had to be responsible. The last thing I had remembered was running with the group, falling, and staring down at Inara’s wound on her head. Is she dead? Did anyone make it out alive?
“Mila…” a male voice spoke quietly somewhere in the room.
I looked to the right, even though I couldn’t see my own breath formulating with each exhale. The room was cold, so cold the tip of my nose hurt. Though the chill made me ache deep into my muscles, I tried to keep focused. The voice spoke again, pain etched in every word.
“Are you hurt? Did they touch you in any way?” he asked.
Chase. Relief swept over my body, warming me from head to toe. “Chase, I’m so happy to hear your voice.” I swallowed, trying to wet my dry throat before I spoke again with my scratchy voice. “I don’t think I was hurt, just my wrists from these cuffs. Are you okay? You sound hurt. I don’t remember anything after the Recons showed up in the dead woods…” I rambled, confusion escalating with each word I spoke.
Chains scraped across the cement floor. “I’m fine, I think.” He moaned, more movement echoed to my left.
I looked in that direction, wishing I could see Chase’s face. Hold him in my arms. Kiss his familiar lips.
“Mila?”
“Yes. I’m here.”
He said, “Recons captured us. They took the other three to a separate room. Last I knew, Tank was badly injured, and Inara…well, I think she’s suffering from a concussion.”
I huffed. “Yep, figures. With her hard headedness she’d definitely survive a grueling impact with a side of a tree.”
Chase laughed, but sadness lingered afterward. “I wish I could see your face.”
Shaking my head, I realized he couldn’t see me. “You wouldn’t want to see these tears, the hopelessness I feel right now. You’re so close yet so far away because of these stupid chains!” I pulled my arms forward, tightening the metal links in the air.
“Stop, Mila,” Chase said in a sharp whisper. “If they come –”
Fluorescent lighting blasted my eyesight. A swarm of Recons shuffled into the room in a singular line. One in particular, massive in size, stepped forward. White boots stood a couple feet from me, the figure’s masked face tilted down at me as if waiting for me to speak first. So I did.
“What the hell do you want from us?” I screamed while jumping to my feet. I failed to stand. Falling backward, my head clashed with the cement wall. “Dammit!”
The masked person laughed deeply. “Are you done, Earth-child?”
“Excuse me?” I gazed up at the helmet covering the face speaking to me. “Who are you people?”
Chase scuffled nearby, forced into a kneeling position by two Recons. “Don't give them the satisfaction of speaking!" He spat at the floor. The Recon to his left elbowed his cheekbone. Chase scowled, pinching his lips tightly together.
I exhaled loudly, afraid they would continue to hurt him. "Please stop..."
Chase laughed. I looked at him, narrowing my eyes. He would get us both killed if he kept up his antics. He stop, sniffed, and wiped beneath his nose with the outside of his hand. Tears welled in his cerulean eyes as he stared across the room at me. Chase was always the strong one, not me. But I had an aching feeling that I had to lift his spirits if we planned to survive.
"Chase," I said, ignoring the Recons who roughly pulled at the collar of his shirt. "We'll be okay. We're gonna' make it to the Draw, and then leave this rotting planet together. Got it? I'm not giving up, so neither can you."
He nodded. No words needed to be spoken. Chase silently understood, and he believed that I could be strong enough for the both of us when he felt that he couldn't.
The Recon, who seemed to be their squad leader, nudged my leg with his boot. "You honestly think you're getting off this planet?" His head tilted back as he laughed hysterically toward the moldy ceiling. Then the shaded part of his masked helmet aimed straight at me. "No, no! You're ours now." He pointed to the other Recons behind him. "Take them both to the Farm. They need a rude awakening."
I gasped, pushing my body against the jagged cement wall. The two Recons next to Chase released him, freeing his wrists from the chains. They tugged beneath his arms, lifting him onto his legs. As they walked by, I tried my hardest not to scream out for Chase. Fight back! Kill them! Do whatever it takes to stay alive! But I remained pressed against the wall, rendered silent. All the strength I thought possible of me deflated from a single word.
Farm.
I haven't heard of this place. What could it possibly be? Animals? People?
"Earth-child," the man spoke above me. I looked up, squeezing my eyes against the bright fluorescent light beaming off of his shiny white helmet.
I asked, "Why do you keep calling me that, like your not from this damned planet or something!"
He held out his prodigious gloved hand. "Come with me."
Hesitant at first, I held out my chained hand and wrist. The Recon unlatched the cuff. I watched the metal links clanked onto the floor, pushing up dust and dirt into the air. Grabbing my upper arm roughly, he pulled me off the floor. I wobbled at first from dehydration. Gaining my composure, I allowed him to lead me from the dank room.
Closed shiny steel doors lined the walls of the long hallway. We turned a corner, walked for what felt like forever. Doors on my left and on my right - doors that I guessed led to more holding cells. The Recon leading me noticed my distraction as I slowed. He gripped onto my arm harder, making me cry out in pain.
"If you don't want pain, then get moving!" he said with a snarl.
I stared at him, wishing I knew who was beneath the helmet. "Where are we?"
He continued to look forward. His boots hit the ground with a thud on each step he took. "Beneath Steel City."
The Recon's clipped answer angered me. I pulled back, stopping in my tracks. "Hold on a second! You're telling me we're underground, beneath a city now swarming with bottom-feeders?"
He nodded.
"That's all I get? A stupid nod from you?"
He nodded, of course, and pulled me forward with him as we walked toward a door dead on.
"Whoa! We're going up?" I said as the Recon opened the door after pushing numbers into a keypad. "I'm not going up there! Bottom-feeders - "
His head turned my way. "Do you always talk this much, Earth-child?"
I grumbled, slamming my palm against the door to block the Recon from moving toward the steps.
"I'm not going up there," I repeated with fervor.
Cold metal from the tip of his weapon pressed against the skin beneath my chin. I lifted my head, staring at the ceiling. The Recon leaned in, grabbing a fistful of my shirt. Kicking the door open, he forced me to move toward the stairwell. I nearly tripped, staggering to stay on my feet.
"Please," I said, trying to beg my way of the situation. "Take me to Chase! I can't - I can't do this without him!" My body trembled as he lifted me in the air, placing me on the first step. "He's all I have left. I swear to cooperate if you take me to him."
"Go," the Recon said.
He nudged me forward, and so I went. Climbing step after step, there had to have been hundreds of them. By the time we reached the top, I was out of breath and my thigh muscles burned in agony. Ahead, a rusted piped ladder attached to the wall led to a round, metal door in the ceiling.
"Climb," said the Recon, pushing me forward.
I stumbled toward the ladder, wrapping each finger around the chilled piping. Looking back, the Recon stood still with his weapon pointing in my direction. Inhaling, I turned away, looking up at the closed door.
"Where does it lead?" I said, wondering if bottom-feeders would capture me on the other side. "Is this Farm you speak of the infected? Is this how I will die?"
The Recon's boots stomped behind me, the tip of his gun pressed between my shoulder blades. "Climb!" he said.
Tears came too easily. I began to climb. Once I reached the top, I unlatched the door and swung the heavy lid open. Sunlight burst onto my face, blinding me for a moment. Taking another step, my head emerged, revealing a field of greenery. Grass so tall, it would reach my knees.
"How?" I said close to a whisper. "How could this be?"
People are scattered across the field, tending to the vegetation. Hundreds of them, even...Chase.
I climbed out and fell to the ground, feeling the lush greenery between my fingers. The smell of cleanliness and purity tantalized my nostrils. Moving from the ground would be a sin, but I had to get to Chase - to the others.
Standing, I brushed my pants free from blades of grass and smiled.
"So this is the Farm?" I said out loud to no one.