The Renegade Shifters Read online

  Rye swished out their shot glasses and refilled them. “Come on in, Bailey. You’re going to want one of these—well, at least one.”

  She reached over and took it, slamming it back and holding it out for a refill. Rye shook his head knowing the truth would not set her free, but piss her the hell off. He filled it again and made his way to the living room, hoping she’d follow.

  Dave came in after they were seated on the couch, and took up the rocking chair on the far end of the fireplace. He stared at the fireplace as if he wanted to disappear in it.

  “Bailey, what I’m going to tell you will seem unlikely, even far-fetched, but I assure you that every word of it is the truth. We have plenty of support for what I’m about to share with you. It is true that we were experimented on against our will.”

  “Well, duh, Rhyzel. I was freaking there, or did you forget?” Her arms stayed folded over her chest.

  “Hang with me, Bailey. Damn, I wish I could go back to calling you your real name.” He sighed. “Anyway, yes, I know you were there. You were part of the experiment. We were being watched the whole time—and manipulated.”

  She narrowed her eyes more as she waited for more information.

  Rye ran a hand down his chiseled jaw and glanced at Dave who only nodded for him to continue. “It’s the who that performed those experiments, that changes the whole story.”

  Bailey’s brows lifted in question, but she held back her speaking, letting Rye continue.

  “Look, it’s true that after I escaped, I searched for you. I didn’t know what the hell happened to us or why. The pod I took crashed and I got the hell away from it as soon as I could. I hitched rides, all I knew to do was run. I kept running for a long time. I was afraid I had some kind of beacon implanted in me. As much as I hate saying this, there is something like that all the experiments have. They injected isotopes that give off a generalized location of any escaped experiments.”

  “Why would the aliens need to track us? To see if we morphed into something new and exciting for them to log into their science projects?” Bailey spat out the words with as much venom as Rye knew she could have. His first reaction was the same, not so long ago.

  He continued. “It gets worse. We were never taken by aliens.”

  She blinked repeatedly, trying to comprehend what he was telling her. “I don’t get what you’re saying. We both were there. We saw them, Rye. What kind of game are you playing on me?” She leapt from the couch glaring at him, arms folded tight against her chest.

  “No, Bailey. Please, hear me out. Let me finish all this, and if you still don’t believe me, we can show you the evidence.”

  She slowly sat back down. Her lips were clenched so tight, they turned white.

  “We were taken by a three-letter government agency. Well, there is more than three letters but it goes by the DGE. The Department of Genetic Engineering. Their official black-labeled title is the Department of Genetic Engineering and Warfare. Their money is almost limitless, being funneled into their department from almost every place you can imagine.”

  “So you’re saying our own government is using aliens to capture us and perform experiments on us? Rye, I’m sorry but I think you’ve been given some bad drugs.”

  “I know, it sounds insane. Trust me, I’ve been where you are. I had to listen to this, too. There are a broad scope of hidden experiments and agendas. It has nothing to do with aliens. There were no aliens aboard the ship. These were actors filling a role. All on government payroll.”

  “How can you say that Rye? When I escaped, I killed two of them! I pulled their bloody heads clean off and threw them across the room!”

  “And I bet you didn’t hang around to inspect them either did you?”

  “I ran the hell out of there and escaped. That’s a no brainer.”

  “I know, Bailey, I know. What we were on was a glorified space station, exclusively designed in order to do the experiments on us without detection… and they thought, without escape. That didn’t work out the way they planned. The human spirit will always take you by surprise.”

  “F—this shit! Are you telling me our own damn government collected us for their war experiments? Do you know how ludicrous that sounds?”

  “That is what made it so brilliant. I know. I was one of the bio engineers they used.” Dave added, his eyes still half-glazed in thought.

  Bailey’s eyes bulged out as her jaw dropped open. “This—all of this, is true?”

  He nodded, “Unfortunately, that is correct.”

  “Then how did you get out of there?” Bailey’s brows furrowed.

  “Medical. They wouldn’t let anyone return to Earth until we finished all the experiments unless it was critical. Being in the lab, it wasn’t difficult for me to mix ingredients to mimic kidney failure. I got a pass to return to Earth to go to the hospital. From there I went into hiding. They’re looking for me too, probably harder than they’re searching for the two of you.”

  “I don’t even—I mean how could you take part in this?” Bailey spat the words out.

  “Look, none of us involved thought it was going to go this far. We had tests to run on rats! It was never explained they were going to do this to humans. It turned my stomach when I found out. Did you ever go through the whole space center? There are closed labs that go on forever. We had no idea they were using this technology on humans. Why the hell do you think I went to such lengths to get out of there and contact my sources to work on getting everyone back and decode them?”

  “Okay, slow down there. I don’t know anything about what you’re planning. Before now I thought you were just a roommate to Rye.” Her anger was hardly contained as she flipped her head towards Rye and glared.

  “Bailey, you know how the government works. They don’t ask for volunteers, it’s been this way throughout history. Do you know how many of our own military was toyed with in the past? The radiation they’d expose them to, the chemicals? This is just their latest attempt to be a world dominator by ruining our lives. Dave’s got all the evidence. He downloaded as much as he could on a USB drive and brought it with him. He’s set up a site on the internet, a way to find shapeshifters and help them.”

  “Oh my god, Rye! Is that what you were doing? Using his information to round up all of us Shifters? I can’t believe I trusted you, let you into my life and the lives of my friends. This whole thing is a set up.”

  “No, Bailey, no it isn’t. I was shocked to run into you at the club. I swear it. But I’ve never been happier to see anyone in my life. Believe me on that, at least.”

  She sat on the couch shaking her head. It was too much information to grasp the enormity of it and try to sort out the bad guys and the good guys. Rye was a good guy, wasn’t he? She shook her head and clasped it with both hands. She just didn’t know anymore what to believe.

  After a long pause of sobering quiet, Bailey asked, “What is it you guys were planning to do to the Shifters? Is this what you were talking about when you asked if I’d change back if I could?”

  Rye cleared his throat. “Something like that. We haven’t gotten there yet, but we will.”

  “You said the people died of your cure. I don’t know about you, but that’s a solid no for me. And just to make things clear, Rye. You can’t just presume every Shifter you meet is one of the experiments. Take Geoff, for instance. He’s a vampire and has been one for hundreds of years. That, in case you didn’t know, was long before space exploration and space centers.” She huffed and folded her arms across her chest, anger setting deep within her bones.

  “Um, that isn’t true.” Dave interjected. “Geoff, is really Raymond Dewinski of Flat Bend, Idaho. Part of the transition from human to Shifter was the memory erasing and the injection of false memories. He will always think he is Geoff and an ancient soul, until he receives treatment.”

  “Why should I believe this crap? Tell me? I mean, I’ve already been experimented with. Perhaps this is simply phase two. What do you peopl
e do, jack with us until we go insane?”

  “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we go with Dave through the tunnel to where he parked his car and have him take us to one of his places where he can show you the evidence. Would that help?” Rye tried to put his arm over her shoulders, but she shrugged it off.

  She was torn between wanting to shift and tear apart the room and everyone in it, versus being curious enough to want to see what kind of evidence they actually had. She expelled a gut-deep sigh and nodded her head.

  Dave rubbed the deep furrows between his brows and stood to walk over to the precise book that would trigger their exit. He gave an involuntary shudder, remembering the moments before when they were all in the tunnel. Beads of sweat peppered his upper lip where stubbles formed from the long day.

  He descended the stairway first and waited at the next opening behind the mirror. As soon as he saw them following, he slipped through the opening and walked ahead of them. He wanted to run to the end of the tunnel, but controlled the urge. Of all the shapeshifters he knew about, Bailey was the one that worried him the most. And she was the one that could cause the most damage in the least amount of time. His thoughts flew through his head—he didn’t think he even had any of the DNA splicing that was used for her. His mind brainstormed on how they’d release her from Shifter form … if they could convince her it was the right thing to do.

  Chapter 13

  It was quiet in the tunnel. Rye associated it with the quiet before the storm. He remembered well his first days after learning the truth. He wanted to strike back at those, his own government, that had turned his life upside down. When he’d escaped, it was right before Bailey had her first transformation. He had wondered what it would be. Even then, he’d never have guessed it could be what she now carried, that dragon DNA sequence. How? Where could they have had something like that stored? Then he remembered hearing of all those storage facilities with top-secret items stored. What else did they have down those long, hidden corridors?

  Bailey trudged along slightly behind Rye with her mind in turmoil. It was bad enough thinking they’d been abducted by aliens, but now? They tell her it was by her own damn government. She growled low in her throat, but it was enough for Rye to turn his head back and glance at her. It had taken her awhile to shove the thoughts of alien tampering aside and simply ride the wave of fury burning within her. Now though, now she’d see evidence of what the government had done to their own people for the purpose of being some kind of war machine. Who the hell comes up with this shit? Somebody is going to pay, and pay dearly.

  Dave couldn’t get to the end of the tunnel fast enough. In the front of his mind was the image of a dragon locked in the tunnel with him. He didn’t care that Rye thought of Bailey as just a girl. He’d seen for himself. All the movies painted dragons as ferocious, fire breathing beasts. Nothing could make him want to get out of the tunnel quicker than the image burned behind his eyelids.

  He didn’t hesitate as he approached the grate. He slid his hand through the open links and swiveled the chain and padlock where he could reach it. Inserting the key, the lock clicked open. He shoved the grate open and stood aside, allowing Rye and then Bailey to ease their way out into the park. He swiftly relocked the grate into its original position as he motioned for them to follow him to where he parked his car.

  A thought just flashed across Bailey’s mind. “Hey, you said you came from Selzor!”

  Rye’s forehead creased in deep furrows. “Yeah?”

  “Well, that indicated you were picked up somewhere else in the universe.”

  He snorted a half laugh before he covered his mouth, trying to hold the rest of it back. “Uh, sorry about that, I guess I should have known it sounded a bit strange, but let me assure you, if you are ever in Tennessee and travel down through the backwoods, you may find yourself in the town of Selzor.”

  Bailey stopped walking and stared blankly at him before shaking her head at her own misinterpretation. “So, do any of you know why we were targeted? I mean, I know I don’t have some special forces training or anything to be a glorified war pawn.”

  A deep sigh heaved from Dave’s chest. “You really don’t want that answer.”

  “I sure as shit do. What is it about me, or even Rye, that makes us so special?”

  He scratched his neck, along a long row of tiny moles. “What made the people so special is that you had no families to report you missing. What I’ve pieced together from the information I swiped is there were twenty or so targets that were selected for experimentation. Twenty people that this agency had kept tabs on for the minimum of six months to learn their contacts and where they went. From my understanding, the twenty targets were a refined list. Others were dropped off the list by one thing or another, usually by making contact with long lost family or suddenly deciding to join mainstream America again and join the workforce. Then, of course, the three of us escaped. I have no idea the full extent of their captives.”

  “Oh.” Bailey lips pursed in thought. “We were deemed expendable. That’s what you’re saying, right?”

  “From the data I’ve collected, that seems to be the accurate correlation.” Dave dropped his head, removed his thick-lensed glasses, pinching the top of the bridge of his nose. He dreaded going through this with every recovered person. While he was looking at the data, they were numbers—experiments if you will. Now, they were real live people—and angry with every right to be. That is why he fled and went into hiding. He wanted to put a stop to this… not only to stop it, but to topple the perpetrators of this fiasco.

  “So, let me get this straight. They picked us because we were loners. We chose a different life from the standard. You already told me about Geoff. Are you saying that Marlow and Linken are part of the experiments? They have shown me,” she paused to include Rye, “they’ve shown us elaborate tunnel systems to hundreds of Shifters. If they aren’t part of the experiments, then where did they all come from?”

  Dave dug his fists into his eyes as if he could rub out everything. “I only have a few tapes I copied, but in those tapes it made me aware of the elaborate mind-bending games they incorporated. Your memories have been altered. They implanted information for you to believe is true. The tunnels have long been there, under the city. All it required them to do was to add a few special symbols to make the tunnels appear to be more than storm channels. Geoff, for instance, thinks he is somewhat of a King of vampires. As far as I’m aware, he is the only one of his kind.”

  Once inside the car, it grew quiet again. They drove the roads in silence until they reached a house far from the grinding noise of Los Angeles. Dirt filtered around the windows leaving dust clouds behind them on the road that led back to a farm-style house with an old, dilapidated barn off to the side of it. Dave pulled inside the barn and drove all the way to the back. He motioned Bailey and Rye further back and reached towards a workbench. Then, he hit a trigger underneath it to move a stand of hay bales in front of the car, blocking it from view.

  “Impressive,” Rye commented.

  Dave quirked an eyebrow. “No, but get ready to be really impressed.” It was the first time Bailey remembered ever seeing him smile. It was a smirk mostly, but it did make her eager to see what else he had in store for them.

  Along the back wall stood a work table filled with tools left strewn across the surface to gather dust mixed with stray odds and ends, with wayward strands of hay nestled between them. Dave seemed to ponder the tools as Rye and Bailey approached the bench. Then with a devious smile, he pushed against one leg of the table. It opened a doorway hidden by the wall of harnesses and horse grooming tools. It was a narrow door, which when shut, clicked to the backside of the board and baton trimmed wall.

  Dave slid through the opening first, moving to one side so the others could enter. Bailey’s eyes roved over the small enclosure, not much wider than the three of them standing side-by-side. He turned the interior light sideways. With a jerk they began descending into the grou
nd. Bailey grabbed hold of Rye’s arm, startled. His whole body seemed to relax, having her close to him again. The ride seemed to go on for a long time. Perhaps it was because it moved painfully slow, or because Bailey’s heart hammered faster than the platform moving them into unknown realms.

  It jerked to a stop. Their eyes focused where the sidewall disappeared, next to where Dave stood. He stepped off to a small concrete platform and walked down three steps, waiting for the others to catch up. Bailey’s mouth gaped as she scanned all the equipment in the hidden basement. Beakers stood with rows upon rows of glass vials, some holding liquids and some with powdery substances in them. Along the back wall stood a long steel table with two desktop computers and another laptop computer. It was reminiscent of a chemistry lab she’d seen long ago in her days of academia, back when she was young and eager to change the world. It was like a lifetime ago, she thought.

  “Come back to the computers, there are things on here you should see, both of you.” Echoing footsteps curled up to their ears as they followed him. He leaned over the laptop and quickly powered it on. It was password protected by an Iris scanner. He swiveled to the desktop computer and turned it on, allowing it to scan his iris before his fingers tapped in rapid motion. The screen showed several files in manila-like folders. He clicked on the top file and stepped aside.

  “Have a seat, Bailey. Rye, sorry I don’t have another chair down here. Just stand and watch.” Dave moved to the far edge of the table, crossed his arms over his chest and absentmindedly started pulling on his lip, waiting for them to see what they missed while aboard the space center.

  His eyes flinched shut the first time Bailey gasped—he knew it was only the beginning of the horror story contained in those files. These were the direct films from the space station itself. The ever-watchful hidden eyes had recorded everything that happened in all the rooms that housed their experiments. Adding insult to injury, behind the mirror in each of the rooms were men dressed in military attire, full of brass and buttons—smirking while the experiments were performed on their captives.