Twisted Metal Heart - Eve Langlais Page 0,28
drone wasn’t in the air long. They could move quickly if the conditions cooperated. When they didn’t, the ball design hit the ground and rolled without killing its passengers.
She emerged with shuffling feet into a place of concrete and vehicles. The stone wall of the dome rose high overhead and arched, the shimmering panels forming a shield against any toxic dust that might be floating around.
Toxic dust. A lie put out by the Enclave to scare the citizens into accepting their fate, because who knew what would happen if they knew the world wasn’t a poisonous place?
The Centurions grabbed her by an arm on each side, lifted, and carried her to the gate. She went through numerous levels of decontamination before finally being allowed entry. It seemed extreme, and yet the queen insisted the Incubaii Domes, which provided future Enclave members and citizens, do their utmost to prevent catastrophe.
She was brought to an office, not on the top floor as you’d expect but the first level. It had no windows, only a massive desk and seamless white walls. The woman behind it didn’t seem familiar.
The Centurions planted Riella’s ass in a chair and left. She waited, pretending indifference.
The game of who would speak first began. It lasted a while before the woman finally said, “I expected someone much uglier.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“On the contrary.” A wide smile. “Your face will make it easier to accomplish the deed.”
“Because we wouldn’t want to ruin the rape experience for anyone.”
“It’s actually more about trying to use as few artificial stimulants as possible. Let’s see the arm.”
Riella hugged it closer instead. “I’m not a freak on display.”
She still remembered the visit to the zoo, the strange animals, many of them hybrids of the ancient ones. And the humans who weren’t so human anymore. The way everyone gawked at them and exclaimed over their differences. Meanwhile, she’d felt pity for the man with the tail who curled it around a woman holding a small child. They seemed pitiful until the trio bared fangs and then threw themselves at the glass.
Monsters. Deviants. Anyone who wasn’t perfect was grouped in their number.
“You seem to be under the impression you have a choice here. The queen warned you would be obstinate. She said, and I quote, ‘Arianne, do what you must to make that stubborn daughter of mine obedient.’ Being a loyal earl, I obey my queen.” The woman stood and walked from behind her desk, bringing with her a simple rod. Nothing else.
Yet Riella trembled because she recognized it. She’d helped design it. Not on purpose. Her teacher tricked her.
“You want to see my arm. Here.” She pushed the sleeve to her elbow, showing off the gleaming metal.
It didn’t halt the advance of the earl. “You should have obeyed the first time!” The rod reached out.
Closing her eyes and bracing didn’t prepare for the pain that followed. Searing, screaming pain.
To think she’d created the rod because of an assignment.
“For your next task, you are to create something that will aid in the following situation.” Professor M pointed to the suspended hologram where a video played.
The footage jumped, the camera appearing to be set upon someone’s head. A worker in a sewer as it turned out. He and another person faced off against a rat with bright red eyes and teeth longer than a finger.
A gun fired, and the bullet missed the rat. They fired again and again, but in the end, the workers went down screaming. In the next video, new workers used a sword and a citizen for the sanitation department lost his leg. The rat survived in each case.
The task? Create a tool to protect the workers.
The others in the class created weapons to kill, but they required accuracy. Left behind a mess. One by one, they showed off their solution.
Then it was Riella’s turn to present her weapon.
“A rod?” her teacher mocked. “You going to whack them with it?”
“Right now, we’re making them angry killing them. What if, instead, they learned to fear the pain we inflict?” was her reply.
It worked as expected. Even on its creator.
By the time the earl was done, Riella sobbed on the floor.
“I’m glad we had a chance to talk. Keep in mind, if you refuse to obey again, then I will give you another lesson.”
The Centurions entered and dragged her from the floor. She endured more cleansing that involved a hair trim and her nails buffed. She was dressed in the white robe of a Madre and subjected to