“Sam!” a voice hissed in the darkness.
I stirred, rubbing my eyes. My shoulder and hip ached from the hard floor I’d been sleeping on. This was my second night in here. Slowly sitting up, I glanced around, but the room was too black to make anything out. After spending the entire day before waiting for one of the howling beasts to finally break free and tear me to shreds, I decided Kory’s idea of scaring Sammy out of me was simply to leave me here. Surrounded by vicious bugs and an unconscious Blake.
Trying to muffle out the awful bug noises, I’d wrapped my arms around my head and apparently fallen asleep. Now, straining to make anything out in the lightless room, I wondered if I’d only dreamt of someone calling my name. With only eerie silence greeting me, I weighed out my options. Either those bugs finally crashed after tormenting me all day, or they aren’t in here anymore.
At the last thought, I clutched at the bars and whispered, “Blake.”
“Sam? Is that you?” he immediately responded.
“Yes, it’s me!” I practically shouted back in my excitement. “You’re awake, finally!”
“Are you okay?” we both asked each other at the same time.
As soon as we’d both established that we were both unharmed, Blake asked, “How long have I been out?”
“Since last night. I was freaking out; I thought you’d never wake up!”
“No kidding. Wonder what they knocked me out with… Where are we anyway?”
“You don’t remember anything?”
“No. They injected me with something as soon as we left the beach. I’d been prepared for a butt-whipping, not to wake up two days later in some kind of a cage.”
“Oh. Well, you got the cage part right. Here, reach through the bars.” I extended my hand out and was elated to feel his fingers grasping for me in the dark. We grabbed one another’s hands.
“We are locked in with…” I said, letting my voice drop. In all my excitement to discover Blake awake, I’d forgotten about the fact the Defenders might be listening in right now. “The bugs Kory hasn’t given Sammy’s… or… my blood to.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean the ones Kory hasn’t injected?”
Realizing I had a lot to explain, I rushed into what had happened, trying to fill him in with every detail I could. From the difference between the unchanged Defenders and Kalepe, to how the ancients were here and Kate was not. When he asked what went wrong with my cover, I hated admitting that the Defenders had figured it out and told Kory, who then tried to torture Sammy out of me.
“I’m going to kill him,” Blake growled in the dark.
“Maybe Kory’s right. Sammy should be here, not me,” I admitted, giving into the feeling of defeat. Our present predicament did seem pretty dismal.
“What on earth are you talking about, Sam?” The anger behind his words was hard to miss.
“Blake, look at us. We’re in cages. Kory’s psychotic. I don’t know; maybe Sammy can find a way out of here.”
“Sammy wouldn’t help any of us if she were here. She’d probably go off and develop a new serum, leaving us with a thousand new problems to solve. She doesn’t care about you, Sam. She’s just as psycho as Kory.”
Blake’s words felt like he’d reached across the bars and slapped me. Gasping, I shrunk back, pulling my hand away. Logically, I knew he was probably right, but Kalepe’s words had stirred up the desire to trust Sammy all over again. Was it so wrong I still wanted her to be the good guy?
“Sam, what happened?” he asked, not understanding my actions.
“Nothing,” I said, trying to rein in the sudden anger flooding me. Ironic, since just yesterday, I’d decided nothing mattered more to me than Blake, including Sammy. Frustrated with myself, I took a deep breath and went to try again.
“Sorry,” he said before I could get a word out. “I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings. You know I’m not talking about you, Sam, right? Sammy is different than you.”
I swallowed back the desire to repeat what Kalepe had said to me. Surrendering myself to her was not the answer. Besides, last I checked, bugs weren’t exactly sages of wisdom.
“I know, Blake. Sorry I got upset. I’m just so confused right now. Nothing makes sense. Like where is Kate in all this? Kory made it sound like she’s never been involved at all. And,” I added, “the ancients acted really weird when Kory found out they’d seen Sammy.”
“Yeah, maybe they weren’t as happy to comply as Kory thought,” Blake whispered. “Think Sammy really went to see them about healing the both of you?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But one thing I do know from being here, Sammy’s blood made all the difference in these bugs. Kalepe isn’t the same, Blake. Kory told him to basically torture me to get Sammy to come out, and he refused.”
Blake let out a low whistle. “Really?” he asked.
“Really. Which makes me wonder if Kory got mad at him since I haven’t seen him since he brought me here. Other Defenders came to bring us food.”
“Wait, there’s food in here?” Blake croaked. “Why didn’t you start with that?”
I laughed, realizing how ravenous he must be. He’d been unconscious for almost two full days. I could hear him rummaging around his little cell.
“There should be a tin bowl, near the front of the cage,” I offered, just as the sound of metal ricocheting to the floor sounded.
“Crap,” he muttered. “What the hell, I’m starving.”
Poor guy. He’s probably licking the spilled taro and yams off the floor.
“So you know what this means, Blake, right?” I asked, hearing the sound of him licking his fingers.
“Mm?” he hummed back at me as I heard the sound of the bowl scraping against the floor. “Just trying to get some of this back into the bowl. I don’t even want to think about how disgusting this floor is,” he muttered.
I grinned, wishing I could see him, but sure he’d be embarrassed if I could. “It means,” I continued, “that we can do the same thing for Jaxon. He can be in control again.” His rummaging stopped. “I’ve seen it, Blake. Kalepe isn’t the same. The Defenders down by the beach, the ones who’ve brought the food, they aren’t the same.”
“Sam.” There was something defeated in his tone. “Jaxon has had your blood already. Remember? And it hasn’t helped.”
“Then there’s something more to it. We just aren’t seeing the bigger picture yet. I’m telling you there has to be a way for Jaxon to behave like these Defenders do.”
“These Defenders,” Blake spat the word out, “aren’t as innocent and wonderful as you think, Sam. They follow Kory.”
“Not all of them do,” I retorted.
“Okay, so maybe one or two don’t, but most of them follow Kory with blind devotion. They could be made to do anything. Which is why…” He stopped short, and I waited. “They have to be destroyed.”
“What? No! No way, Blake.”
“Sam, I know it sounds horrible, but it’s the truth.”
“No. They can be reasoned with. They’re still people! They just wanted to do the right thing. Be soldiers to help keep order. You can’t just kill them. It’d be genocide!”
“You’re sounding like you believe Kory’s crap, Sam.”
“Not even close. Kory, on the other hand, you can have. He’s the one pulling the strings here, Blake. Don’t destroy the puppets, kill the puppeteer.” Even as I said it, I knew my analogy sounded ridiculous.
“Kill the puppeteer?” he repeated, and then chuckled softly. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Okay, so say we do off Kory, you think that will solve everything?”
“Uh… well, no. But it’d make me feel a lot better.”
Blake’s laugh deepened, and then he sighed. “Me too.”
We both sat there for a moment, perhaps not ready to argue with each other again. I was still so relieved he was alive. I wished I could throw myself in his arms, instead of hackle him about what we should do about Kory and his bug army.
Killing the Defenders was wrong. That much I was certain of. What drove me bonkers was that I couldn’t shake the feeling the solution to this was somewhere in the back of my mind, niggling at me. Tickling my conscience, begging me to listen.
Sammy, if that’s you, you better just show up, because I’m pretty much out of ideas.
A little shocked at my own willingness to let her in, I cleared my throat. “Well, I guess you and I can argue for the rest of our lives, however short they may be, about what’s best to do with the Defenders. Because we can’t do a darn thing about it stuck in here.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Blake’s voice dropped to where I could barely hear him. “It’s not by accident we’re in here. I’ve got a plan.”
“You do?” I wished I could see his face, gauge if he was being serious or just trying to make me feel better.
“Yes. Did you think I’d really sit around and wait for you to come back after you left with Kory?”
I stared at the blackness between us, frustrated the room had no windows. “Um, I guess I did. You really have a plan?”
“Of course I do. I’m seriously offended you think the Irukas could catch me that easily.”
Hearing the cockiness in Blake’s voice, I couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe he’s telling the truth! Maybe all hope isn’t lost! “Okay, okay. Just tell me what’s going on. How are we getting out of here?”
“We’re not,” he said.