Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,209

usefulness, like Josiah,” Huxley added.

“Alright,” I mumbled, still not completely sure what we were doing or how we would get out of this mess.

“Huxley and I will get ready, too,” Kemper added just as Huxley rolled his eyes at the pile of wrinkled suits on the tiled floor. I felt better knowing they would accompany us. “I want to be as close to the signal station as possible should Cavil try anything. Maverick is more of the hacker between us, but I think I found a code to get it to shut down for at least thirty minutes,” Kemper explained.

“What a coincidence,” Huxley began while pulling a lighter from his pocket and igniting it. “I found a way to shut it down indefinitely.” The small flame caused shadows to dance along his jawline while he smiled mischievously.

“No!” Kemper screamed, shocking us all. “Whatever you do, do not try to explode the signal station,” he quickly added.

Kemper ran to the digital screen, momentarily distracting Maverick from his work. “There’s a failsafe at the station. It will automatically send out a signal to anyone wearing a fetter, activating the kill switch. It’s why this is so...difficult. One wrong move, bam. It’ll lock up. It keeps Walkers from tampering with it. Everyone is too scared that it’ll kill them all.”

“There is a four digit code, and I’m about eighty percent sure it’s right, but…”

“Four, seven, nine, six?” I asked, recalling Dominique’s cryptic message in red from earlier.

Everyone turned to look at me in shock.

I felt their hard stares on me as Jules began coughing again. I looked at her sweaty forehead before explaining myself. “Dominique left a code on the wall. I think she’s too...damaged...to escape herself, but I think she wants to watch us try.”

“If she’s known the code, why hasn’t she tried to escape, herself?” Patrick asked incredulously. He had a point. What was keeping her here? We looked around to one another, and it was Allaire who spoke up.

“I’ve heard rumors about all Dominique has endured. Her loyalty is bred by pain and extenuating circumstances. I could go into all the psychological trauma and the repercussions, but the bottom line is—people can’t endure that much without it affecting them. And…” Allaire drifted off before pulling a beaker out of a cabinet and handing it to Maverick. Somehow over the past week, they’d become a well-oiled machine, anticipating each other’s needs and working seamlessly together.

“And what?” I asked, eager to understand.

“And she has a son. Lackley’s son. When Cavil brought her here, she was pregnant. He’s three and he stays in the Walker quarters. She wasn’t sterilized like the others. Lackley wanted to impregnate her. She doesn’t talk about him often. She hopes that if he keeps out of sight, Cavil will forget about him.”

For a moment, all we could hear was the beeping of Jules’ monitors and her shallow breaths. The reality of Dominique’s life sank in, and I couldn’t believe how much she had suffered.

“Cavil wants everything of Lackley’s, and he’ll do everything he can to take it,” Allaire finished.

I got ready in a haze, not really bothering to apply makeup aside from the red lipstick Dominique included in the bag. I wasn’t exactly sure why I put it on, but after hearing her story, it felt more like showing solidarity with her than submitting to Cavil’s will.

Downstairs, the guys were whispering, but they went silent upon seeing me. Huxley and Kemper wore black suits, and my cheeks flushed at how handsome they looked.

“Why are you wearing the Companion lipstick?” Huxley asked.

“It only has power if I allow it to. I know who I am. I know who we are,” I replied. In a lot of ways, the red shade represented the awakening I experienced in Ethros. I wasn’t the same girl from Galla, or even a freed Walker in Dormas. I was an Ethros fighter. I was a combination of all three environments and no longer a victim of status and circumstance.

Huxley bit his lip. He was attracted to my confidence, and I knew that if in a different setting, he would show me just how much he appreciated this new version of myself. But instead, he simply walked towards me and placed a light kiss on my lips, thus making the red stain attach to his. He didn’t attempt to wipe it off. He just smiled, wordlessly showing me that he supported me. That he was willing to let the world know that he was just as