Gauntlet: Chapter 5

Laughter peeled from the throng and their shadows began to close in. She stared blindly, repeating her mantra like a spell.

She was suddenly yanked away from the encroaching circle and pulled into a dark lane. Darkness flooded her vision as a large hand engulfed hers.

A new voice–familiar somehow–resonated in the black. “Do you want to stay?” he rumbled.

She shook her head numbly. He must have felt it, because he wrapped his hand more tightly around hers.

“Then run.”

He pulled her swiftly down the black street with sure-footed confidence. Her hair streamed behind her and she stumbled to keep up. She found herself laughing, out of breath, from the sheer thrill of it. The sensation of the cool night air on her skin made her feel more alive than ever.

He finally pulled her into some dark doorway. She bent over to ease the painful stitch in her side, still laughing.

Her chin was grabbed and raised, but she didn’t know why. It was too dark to see anything. She wanted to see him, whoever he was. She raised her hand to touch him, but he gripped her wrist and held it down. The action was firm, but strangely gentle.

“Are you going to kiss me?” she breathed. Her chin lifted in almost unconscious anticipation.

The fingers around her wrist flexed. Then she heard an exasperated snort; her arm was abruptly released.

“Time for you to sleep it off,” he murmured.

“But I’m not sleepy,” she protested.

“It’s all right,” the voice soothed. “Sleep.”

Clio closed her eyes.

***

“Mmm…”

Clio rolled over. She pulled the thin sheet up over her shoulder until it was tucked snugly under her chin. She was unwilling to open her eyes just yet, despite the light that penetrated her lids and told her it was daytime. The bed was too comfortable…

Her eyes popped open.

She was in a bed.

Clio abruptly sat up. She didn’t recognize this small room, nor the mysterious bed that had materialized under her. The place was clean; sunlight streamed through an open window that let in a light breeze. A pitcher of water and a glass sat on a small table next to the bed.

She clenched her fingers into the sheets. Flashes of the night before danced through her head.

She tried to piece together a coherent sequence of events from the surreal fragments, but only succeeded in frustrating herself. She could only remember bits and pieces–and none of it made sense.

“Those bastards drugged me again.”

God, she couldn’t be sure if any of what she remembered was real. She couldn’t even be sure how much time had passed; for all she knew she’d been sleeping here for days. If she wasn’t more careful, she’d start believing her whole time in the Gauntlet was a hallucination–that she really had lost it and was actually far away, wearing a straitjacket in some rubber room.

She wasn’t very hungry, though. Maybe some of the food had been real. She looked at the pitcher of water, then to her boots sitting by the wall.

Someone had brought her here. She had no idea why.

“Whatever,” Clio muttered. “I’m not sticking around to find out.” She scowled and got up to put on her boots.

The drugs weren’t completely out of her system yet–lazy contrails of light floated in her peripheral vision, and she still had a strange sense of disconnect with her body. The water was tempting. Her mouth felt like cotton, but she wasn’t voluntarily dosing herself up for their amusement again. She pulled her boots on and headed out.

She didn’t recognize the area. She squinted at the sun and grimly headed east, as she’d been doing all along.

The weird vision effects made her paranoid. She spent too much time jerking her head from side to side, trying to catch imaginary things that seemed to lurk in the corner of her vision. It wasn’t until a few hours later that she felt mostly normal again, though a throbbing headache and low-grade nausea hit her hard.

Clio was more than ready to hole up in one of the cool buildings and rest. She was so distracted by that desire, though, that she didn’t hear footsteps as she turned a corner.

She looked up and stopped dead.

Three intimidating men halted in front of her. They looked as surprised as she felt. Two of them flanked the one in the middle–a tall, young man with tan skin and piercing eyes.

Clio realized, with a sinking feeling, that it was too late to run. When she took an instinctive step backward, they all tensed. Clio swallowed. She felt frozen and tongue-tied, and her stomach crawled with nervous anticipation.

Maybe they’d be friendly…?

The tall man in front didn’t seem pleased by her presence. He was very good-looking, his brown eyes framed by long, thick eyelashes any girl would kill for. He looked her up and down and seemed to find her lacking. His broad shoulders squared.

“What are you doing?” he snapped. “You shouldn’t be here.”

So much for being friendly. In her confused, nauseated state, his rude tone irked her. She threw out her chin as her fear melted into anger.

“I’m just passing through,” she snapped back, frustration getting the better of her. She was so tired of being tossed around by this stupid place. “What are you doing?”

His eyes narrowed. “You should mind your own business,” he said flatly. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “This way is off-limits. Turn here or go back the way you came.”

He spoke with the self-assurance of someone who was usually obeyed. Clio glared.

“Why should I? Who do you think you are?”

He stepped closer. “Someone who knows a lot more than you.”

“Wow, thanks for that detailed explanation.”

He ignored her and crossed his arms over his chest, managing to look bored and irritated at the same time. He loomed over her, still blocking her way.

Clio was torn. If he was telling the truth, then she probably didn’t want to go that way. On the other hand, she couldn’t just go back–she wanted to put space between her and the creepy room she’d woken up in.

Her frustration exploded in her chest. “I have to keep going!” she insisted. “Why can’t I go that way?!”

“Just consider this area private territory and stay out. That’s all you need to know.”

“How can it be private territory? Do you own it? Isn’t this still the Gauntlet?”

“Stop being unreasonable,” he returned in a clipped tone.

“I am not unreasonable!” Clio threw up her hands. “You’re just a player here, right? Well, so am I, and I have to go this way!”

He expelled a sharp breath. “You don’t know anything,” he murmured as he threw a subtle signal to the men behind him. His two goons moved closer. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Clio’s pulse began to race. She took a step back.

The man suddenly cocked his head and went very still. After a moment, Clio heard it, too–the sound of boots marching on asphalt.

She gasped when he grabbed her arm. He pulled her swiftly away from the open promenade and into the concealing shelter of a side street.

“Let go!” she hissed. “What are you–”

Clio ended up against the brick wall with a hand clamped over her mouth. The sound of marching got louder, so she didn’t struggle. Only then did she realize that the other two guys hadn’t followed them.

She heard voices, sharp and cold. The marching stopped and indistinct words were exchanged. The hand over her mouth pressed harder; she glared up at the man, but he just narrowed his dark eyes in warning.

After a few moments, the marching resumed. Not long after that, the two missing men finally joined them in the alley. They nodded at their leader–if that was what he was.

He let out a breath. He released her and stepped back.

“Who were they?” Clio asked.

“Grays,” he said offhandedly. He jerked his chin at her, indicating that she should follow him down the narrow street.

She burned with irritation. After a moment’s hesitation, she ran after him.

“But who–”

“They’re headquartered in the town center,” he said, cutting her off. “There’s an ugly, square building you can’t miss. Stay away from it if you know what’s good for you.”

A sharp whistle drew his attention to the far end of the alley, where the two men stood guard. He stopped in his tracks.

“Last chance,” he warned. “Leave now, or they’ll get their hands on you.”

“But–”

“Do you want your mind tampered with?”

Clio’s eyes widened. “Is that what they do?”

“Go or don’t,” he replied. “It’s up to you.” He sounded as if he was done with the conversation.

Clio took a faltering step away, and then another, but she stopped and clenched her fists again. “Where am I supposed to go?” she demanded.

“That’s your problem.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for nothing!” Clio spun on her heel, tacking on an “Ass!” under her breath.

Apparently, he heard it–he even gave a short laugh. Clio looked over her shoulder.

“Just stay on the perimeter, as close to the outer walls as you can. Keep your eyes open.” He dropped a significant glance to her arm; Clio tensed, her hand wrapping around the wrist where her charm bracelet dangled.

“They say fortune favors the fool,” he murmured.

He motioned to his companions. He jogged after them, out of the alley, and the three turned out of sight. Clio stared angrily.

“I made it this far, jerk!” she called lamely. She knew he was well out of hearing range.

Sure, she’d had help, but still. The average person would have curled up in a little ball after seeing half of what she had. She’d been doing pretty damn well, right?

The sound of approaching, synchronized footsteps convinced her that now was not the time to ignore advice out of spite.

She ran the other way.

***

Clio cupped her hands above her eyes to lessen the glare from the sun. A small group of people passed in front of the building she hid in.

Their nondescript clothes were an ugly gray and looked vaguely like some sort of uniform–button-down shirts and pants tucked into black boots. They walked in a tight formation, looking straight ahead.

Grays? she wondered. She got a good look at their faces as they passed, then immediately she wished she hadn’t.

They could only be described as creepy. Their expressions were eerily blank, and they seemed more like windup dolls than living people. It made her think of the droolers, only with more coordination, and she wondered if there was any connection.

But these people seemed more…more something. Higher functioning, maybe, which almost made it worse. She expected mindless people to shuffle around aimlessly–not march around like living robots. It made her wonder about whoever was programming them.

She shuddered. That guy had mentioned tampering. This place could be so sick.

She got a bad shock when the group stopped abruptly. They peeled off from each other to head for the vacant buildings on either side of the road. It looked like a systematic search. For her?

Did that guy sell me out?!

One of the blank-faced men was headed right for her.

Clio’s heart rose up in her throat. She ran through the building and out the back.

She didn’t stop until she’d put several blocks behind her. When she inched along a wall and peeked, panting, around a corner, her stomach sank.

The streets were barricaded with fences and human guards–if she could call those creepy robots “human.” Even the building entrances along the line of the blockade were secured or guarded.

She knew she needed to backtrack through the streets and come up with a different plan. When it got dark, she could try to slip through. She would just have to hole up somewhere and wait…

But when she backed around a corner to hide from a patrolling group, she didn’t pay attention to what was behind her. She turned, then froze.

Another group of men–wearing darker uniforms and acting much more coherent–chatted in a loose circle on the street. One of them turned and looked right at her.

Stupid, Clio!

He gave a shout. She took off running.

They must have really been searching for her–every street she ducked into was swarming with gray soldiers, like ants that had crawled out of the cracks in the cement. When someone grabbed her, she kicked and screamed, but several more swarmed in until she was drowning in gray.

“Don’t… NO!”

She was hefted up by two men in the darker uniforms and dragged through the streets. They ignored her curses and any attempts to talk–they just frog-marched her under the fancy arch that fronted the town square.

On the far side was an imposing, ugly building. She was sure it was the one she’d been warned against.

“Dammit!” she cried in frustration.

Proceed to Chapter 5, page 3–>