Caloric

“Here, the rest is yours,” Lily said to Phoenyx, passing her what was left of the apple—a core with the slightest bit of fruit left.

Phoenyx took the apple and nibbled what she could. Oh, please let this work so I can get some real food! The desperation alone would be enough to turn her into a vicious ass kicker. She discarded the apple and stood, inviting everyone else to stand up with her.

“Is everyone ready?” she asked. “There’s no turning back once we open that door.” The three of them nodded, then all took in a deep breath. “All right, Skylar, open the bars.”

Skylar turned to the bars dividing the room. Bending and twisting like they were nothing more than oversized twist ties, the bars in front of both cells spread wide apart with a loud metallic whine. Phoenyx stepped out and over the low horizontal bar, then took Lily’s hand to help her out as the boys got out of their cell.

As they approached the door, Phoenyx trembled all over. This was the first time in a week she was able to take more than five steps in any one direction and her legs felt unstable beneath her, loose like overcooked spaghetti. Then there was the fact that they might be walking right into their doom.

“Is there anyone on the other side of the door?” Sebastian whispered to Skylar.

Skylar tilted his head to listen. “There are three people surrounding the door,” he whispered. “One on either side of the door against this wall and one standing a few feet in front of it, against the opposite wall. Sebastian, get on my right, Phoenyx on my left, and Lily—you’re in the middle behind me. Now, as soon as I open that door, be ready to use whatever means necessary. Ready?”

The group got into formation. Skylar took in one last deep breath, then the door quickly unlocked and swung open. The four of them rushed out.

The two men on either side of the door were thrust far backward down either ends of the hall by an invisible force. The man guarding the front of the door raised a large, long black gun. He aimed it at Skylar’s chest and pulled the trigger. What came out was not a bullet but a strange long silver dart with a short, thin tip at one end and a fluffy red feather at the other. The dart slowed and stopped a few inches from Skylar’s chest. It then did an about face and zoomed at the trigger man’s chest, knocking him out almost instantly.

“Everyone, be careful,” Skylar admonished, still and reserved like always, as if he hadn’t just been shot at. “That was a tranquilizer. All of their guns have them.”

“Tr-tranquilizers are v-very unstable,” Lily stuttered, much more shaken but still a river of knowledge. “They affect everyone differently and a-at different rates. Just because they don’t knock you out right away d-doesn’t mean they won’t affect you. We got lucky that it hit him so fast.” She looked in Sebastian’s direction and gasped. “Huh! Sebastian, look out!”

Sebastian spun around in time to face the guard who was flung from his side of the hall earlier and now came at him in a fury. He swung a fist at Sebastian’s head. Sebastian swooped down out of reach, then came back up with his own fist right under the man’s jaw, forcing the man to stumble backward in pain. Sebastian bent his leg up and kicked him in the gut, throwing the man to the floor. When the man was on his back, Sebastian stomped over, ripped the gun away from him, and shot him in the chest.

This one wasn’t going down as easily as the first. Snarling, he lifted himself up and, out of reflex, Sebastian spun the gun in his hands and smashed the butt against the man’s face, knocking him out.

“My element may not be useful in a fight but years of practice on the mean streets of Vegas sure are,” Sebastian said.

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than strong, hard arms bound Phoenyx from behind. Before she knew what was happening, the arms flung her hard against the wall, shooting piercing pain all up and down her right arm where it made contact. She screamed out. She didn’t have time to give in to the pain, for the man came at her again, hands open and aiming for her neck.

She reached up her left hand and intercepted him as quickly as she could, gripping his meaty arm firmly and yelling, “Stop!”

The man froze in an attack stance above her. Trembling and panting, she let go of his arm and crept out from under him, staring at him the whole time. Not a single part of him moved—he wouldn’t even blink. She had compelled him to stop to the fullest meaning of the word. She didn’t even realize she was using her power, it just happened instinctively.

“Are you okay?” Sebastian asked Phoenyx with concern on his face.

The pain shot through her right arm again. She winced and yelped. “No! I think my arm is broken.”

Lily rushed to Phoenyx’s side and gently moved her fingers up and down Phoenyx’s arm. When Lily found the break a few inches above the elbow, Phoenyx cried out again. Lily put her hands lightly around that part of Phoenyx’s arm. Phoenyx felt a funny crawly feeling inside her arm. She imagined her bone reattaching itself and sprouting new fibers to mend the break. In seconds, the pain stopped and it felt as though it never was injured.

“Oh, thank you!” Phoenyx exclaimed, throwing her arms around Lily. “I told you we needed you. You don’t know how much that hurt! I would have been in serious shit if you couldn’t heal me.”

“Any time,” Lily said in faux nonchalance. “Just, please, no one else get hurt.”

Sebastian and Phoenyx laughed nervously.

Skylar bent to pick up the gun from the unconscious man and handed the gun to Lily. “You need one of these more than any of us.”

Taken aback, Lily accepted it with quivering hands. She looked awkward holding it.

“What are we going to do with him?” Sebastian asked, gesturing to the still statuesque attacker.

Phoenyx turned to the man and put her hand on him again.

“Relax now,” she commanded.

The man lowered his arms and shoulders and stood in a relaxed position. He looked at her as if she were the only person on the planet who mattered.

“Tell me your name,” she ordered.

“Bruce Livingston,” he answered enthusiastically.

Angry for the fact that he attacked her and broke her arm, she felt some form of penance was necessary. “Bruce, I want you to slap yourself in the face as hard as you possibly can.”

Without pause, he lifted his hand and slapped the side of his face with a loud clap! His hand left his cheek bright pink, which soon turned to red.

“Good,” she said. “Now, you are going to lead us out of here in the safest route possible. If anyone gets in our way, you will defend each and every one of us with your life.” She tightened her grip on his arm and let her will flood into him as she spoke. “Got it?”

“Yes, mistress” Bruce said devotedly.

She rolled her eyes. “My name is Phoenyx. Now, come on and get us out of here.” She let go of his arm.

Bruce nodded and headed for the hall to the left, gun raised and ready to shoot. As they followed, stepping over the man Sebastian knocked out, Sebastian said to her, “You’re so hot when you take control like that.” He slipped her a quick peck on the cheek. Funny how such a simple thing as a kiss on the cheek could give her the pip in her step she needed right now.

The hallways they walked through were all made out of cobblestone—the floors, the walls, the ceiling. Every threshold was an archway, making Phoenyx certain this was all quite old. Not to mention that what illuminated the hallways were lanterns with actual flames in them rather than light bulbs; it made everything so dim after days with the blinding fluorescents overhead that she could hardly see her nose in front of her face. They passed by more cement doors like the one that kept them prisoner. She wondered who else was kept down here.

“Where are you taking us?” she asked Bruce, keeping pace behind him.

“To the stairs,” he replied.

“The stairs?” Lily asked.

“Yes, we are three stories underground,” Bruce said. “We will go up three flights of stairs, all of which are not consecutive so we have a lot of walking to do, then we take the service passage to the kitchen where we will go out through the back. The kitchen only operates for dinner so there shouldn’t be anyone there for several hours.”

“Are there many more guards like you?” Phoenyx asked.

“Yes, there are thirty-seven security guards patrolling the premises. With the ritual tomorrow, members from all over the world have come. As soon as someone realizes you are out, they will all come after us.”

“Well, then I guess we’d better be quick,” she said. “Just for curiosity’s sake, where are we?”

“The Four Corners Lodge,” he answered.

“Yeah, we kinda gathered that,” Sebastian said. “Where is the lodge located?”

“Salt Lake City, Utah,” Bruce said.

“We’re in frickin’ Utah?” Sebastian exclaimed. “That’s like a nine hour drive from Vegas, and even longer from LA and Seattle.”

“Salt Lake City?” Phoenyx asked.

“Yes, the Lodge is one of the oldest buildings in town,” Bruce said. “Well, the underground tunnels connected to it, anyway. The above ground stories have been an ongoing work in progress.”

She was going to ask more questions about the cult or whatever they called it but, at the end of the hall, a man emerged. When he saw them, he turned the other way and ran out of sight.

“Stop him,” Skylar shouted. “He’s going to alert the others that we’ve escaped!”

“It’s too late for that,” Bruce said as Phoenyx and Sebastian braced themselves to run after him. “We all have ear-pieces; he’s already reporting your escape. We have to move, quickly!”

Their pace turned into a jog as they zigzagged through the hallways. They made it to a narrow stairway of carved stone. They hurried, pausing at the threshold to make sure the coast was clear. When Bruce decided it was safe, they rushed into the hall with him at the front of the pack. As soon as they turned the corner, they ran into a group of guards heading their way, all of whom raised their guns instantly and shot at them.

“No,” Skylar shouted and threw his hand out in front of him. With that, a roar of wind rushed at the attackers, throwing them hard against the wall behind them. The darts they shot at the escapees deflected back their way and hit them not long after.

“Quick, back this way!” Bruce barked, herding them in the direction they had come and through another series of passages. Then he turned into a niche and opened a door. “In here. They won’t expect us to go this way.”

“Why is that?” Phoenyx asked as they ran in after him. “Oh,” she said, faltering as she saw where they were, an answer no long required.

They were in a large square room with a very tall vaulted ceiling. The floor was made of blocks of stones, with a mosaic of different colored marble in the middle to make a huge version of the symbol their captors wore. This room looked as old as the passages they’d been running through, except for a few terrifying modern accessories. Sitting on top of the giant mosaic symbol were four hospital style gurneys, complete with arm, leg, and chest restraint straps. Each was topped with a metal helmet connected to wires dangling down and grouping up next to an altar-looking thing with a giant lever on the top.

All four of the prisoners stopped cold and stared in horror at their surroundings.

“This is where you were going to do it,” Sebastian said, aghast.

“These were going to be our death beds,” Skylar said.

“Oh, my God!” Lily gasped.

Instinctively, Phoenyx turned to comfort Lily but was stopped by a detail she should have noticed before—a dart was stuck in Lily’s shoulder.

“Oh no, Lily,” Phoenyx said in a defeated tone as she pulled the dart out.

Lily’s eyes widened in fear as she stared at the dart in Phoenyx’s hand. They were filled with a look of doom, a realization that death was so very close.

“It must have somehow gotten through when I deflected them just now,” Skylar said.

“What do we do?” Lily whimpered. “When this stuff takes effect, I’ll be dead weight.”

“I can carry you,” Bruce said. “Phoenyx, you’ll have to take her gun.”

“Okay, good plan,” Phoenyx said. “It’s gonna be okay, Lily. We’re gonna get you out of here in no time. Then we’ll get you to a hospital. Everything is going to be okay, I promise.”

Lily nodded, her face puckering.

“Come on, let’s go,” Bruce said.

Phoenyx took the gun from Lily. They ran across the torture room and through another door into another hallway. By the time they got into the hall, Lily stumbled and fell to her knees.

“Shit; she won’t make it any farther,” Phoenyx said, swooping under one of Lily’s arms and pulling her up with her shoulders. “Bruce, you have to take her now. Can you still shoot that thing with one hand?”

“Of course,” he said. He picked Lily up and threw her limp little body over his right shoulder, holding the gun in his left hand.

“Phoenyx,” Lily murmured, her voice soft and sleepy.

“Lily?” Phoenyx asked, lifting up Lily’s face. She was already gone. “I’m going to get you out of here,” Phoenyx promised, letting Lily’s face down slowly. “All right, let’s go,” she said to the others.

They made it to the second stairway, narrowly dodging a small band of guards who descended just before and went down the opposite hallway. They ran up.

“The last staircase is a straight shot down the hall,” Bruce said. “Then the service entrance is the swinging white door to the far left once we are on the ground floor.”

They made it up the stairs and onto the last underground floor. Immediately a shot was fired from the left. A guard waited for them against the wall of the staircase entrance. He shot a dart into Bruce’s neck. Bruce swiftly turned and shot back at him. Skylar threw an air burst at him but not before the guard fired a final shot back. Skylar wasn’t fast enough to stop the dart from zooming into his chest.

“The prisoners are on B1.” The guard coughed as he pressed the bud in his ear.

Skylar and Bruce yanked out their darts. Bruce went to the guard and kicked him in the head. The resulting crack insinuated that the guard was now dead.

“They’re all headed this way now,” Bruce said, covering his own ear-piece to listen. “Most of them are below us. If we move quickly, we might have a chance before the tranks kick in.”

“No,” Skylar said. “Phoenyx, Sebastian, you two have to go on without us.”

“No,” Phoenyx rejected the idea.

“No, I’m not leaving without you,” Sebastian asserted.

“You have to,” Skylar said. “With Bruce, Lily, and me shot, there’s no way we’re all getting out of here together. They can’t perform the ritual without all four of us. As long as at least one of us gets away, they can’t kill us yet. You two get out and get help, then come back for us. It’s the only way.”

“I promised Lily—” Phoenyx began.

“The only way to keep your promise is to go now,” Skylar yelled. “We don’t have time to argue. Bruce and I will hold them off with the time we have left.”

Phoenyx bit her lip, struggling to make a decision.

“You said the service entrance is on the far left after the stairs?” Phoenyx asked Bruce begrudgingly.

“Yes, then the kitchen is the last door on the right,” he said.

“Okay. Take good care of my friends,” she ordered.

“With my life,” he said, putting his free fist over his heart. Then he set Lily down gently and faced the stairway entrance, ready to fight.

“Skylar—” Sebastian said.

“See you when you get back,” Skylar cut him off. “Since I won’t be there to watch your back, try not to get into any trouble while you’re gone. I don’t wanna be kept waiting down here because you got yourself arrested.” He smiled a good-bye smile, then turned his back on them and faced the stairs.

“Come on,” Phoenyx urged Sebastian. She took his hand and squeezed it tight. They ran down the long, straight hallway together.

She felt his reluctance at leaving Skylar, because it was the same as her own. Neither of them could bear the thought of leaving Skylar and Lily behind but they had to. They were going to get out and find help. They would go to the police station and report this deranged fraternity and come back with a handful of cops, guns blazing. All these psychos would be arrested. Then the four of them could go home.

They ran up the final staircase and through a door leading to a wide open reception hall of modern architecture, with white stuccoed walls and red carpeting. The room was empty.

“The white door!” Sebastian said to Phoenyx, frantically pointing and pulling her to the swinging door to their left.

They pushed the door open and peered down the hall. Then they sprinted down the slippery white linoleum, past windows that let in the first real sunlight they’d seen in so long, to the last door on the right.

They charged into the kitchen, sliding on the slippery floor to the right into a rack of pots as they did so. The pots clanged and rattled obnoxiously, alerting a man washing dishes at the sink against the wall in the center of the room to their presence. The man turned to them, as if expecting to see someone else—another guard perhaps—and his eyes and mouth popped open when he saw it was them. He dropped his dishes and put his hands up in surrender.

Sebastian thrust his arm out toward the sink full of steaming water. The water leapt up and splashed the man in the face, turning his skin instantly red. The man screamed in pain from the heat and ran, blind and bumbling, to the exit door at the back of the kitchen, showing them right where to go. They were almost out!

Phoenyx leapt over the first counter top in her way. Before Sebastian could follow, she heard a shot from behind her and turned around. A black clad guard stood in the doorway, anchoring the swinging door with his gun aimed at Sebastian. A dart stuck out of Sebastian’s chest. He pulled it out and swung up a fast leg to kick the gun out of the guard’s hands. Angered, the guard dove at Sebastian and tackled him to the floor.

“No,” Phoenyx yelled, lifting herself back up over the counter to rescue him.

Sebastian groaned between struggles. “Get out!”

She stopped dead. Leaving Sebastian behind was the absolute last thing she wanted to do. Her heart wouldn’t let her. She stared at Sebastian and his combatant for a few very slow seconds, caught between wanting to save him and wanting to get help.

“Go,” Sebastian yelled at her, gaining an upper hand against his assailant.

His words took control of her body and she ran for the exit, hating herself with every step. She would come back for him—for all of them.

She ran headlong for the door at the back with the red glaring exit sign above it beckoning her. She hurtled over counters, past baking racks, and finally shoved the door open. Fresh air crashed into her face like a wave on the shore. Sunlight flooded the outside world and enveloped her—welcoming her.

Her feet were on paved black tar—a parking lot with nothing but a dumpster in sight before the brick wall that only barely separated this horrible place from the rest of the world. She darted to the dumpster, slammed the lid down closed, and heaved herself on top of it to jump over the wall.

She landed on an alley of dirt. She made it! She was free! She took a moment to let the endorphins flood as she reveled in her liberation. It never felt so good to be outside, to breathe in cool fresh air, to feel dirt on her hands.

She stood and dusted herself off. Now she had to get to the police. She ran out of the alley and onto a sidewalk alongside a main road. She looked up and down the road, trying to decide which direction to go, which direction might lead to the police station.

Then, not too far down, she spotted a police car parked on the side of the street. What luck! She thanked her lucky stars as she ran to the cop car.

The front passenger window was down and the officer in the driver’s seat was drinking a cup of coffee and reading a newspaper.

“Officer, I need your help!” She panted, placing her hands on the window sill to brace herself as she tried to catch her breath.

The officer put down his newspaper and looked at her with a startled expression.

“Geez, you scared the crap out of me,” he said. “What’s the problem, miss?”

“That lodge down the street.” She panted. “They’re all crazy! They had me and my friends locked up for days. I escaped but my friends are still trapped in there. Please, you have to believe me!”

He looked at her for a minute, mulling over what she said. She wasn’t sure if he believed her or not.

“All right, I’ll take you to the station and we’ll sort this out,” he said. He leaned over and opened the passenger door. “Get in.”

She slid in and closed the door.

“Thank you so much!” she gushed as she pulled her seat belt on. “You don’t know how terrified we’ve been.”

Suddenly, all the doors locked.

The sound made her pause and she looked sideways at the cop. Before she could stop him, his left hand pushed a wet rag up to her face, covering her nose and mouth. She instinctively grabbed his hand, ready to will him to stop but her frantic breathing only sucked in the chloroform faster. She passed out.