Ryker gave a single nod of his head.
I slowly moved forward, careful to avoid his cold touch. Akello fell into step beside me. “You hurt?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Mentally, probably. Physically, I’m fine.”
He smiled, draping an arm over my shoulders. Akello opened his mouth to say something when the words died on his tongue as we came to a stop, looking through a glass wall. On the other side were shifters, frozen in their hybrid forms. They looked like soldiers lined up in rows, their heads down and eyes closed. Coming out of the backs of their necks were wires that connected them to the ceiling.
A lump formed in my throat as I stared.
“The Aves’ observation might have been right,” Taranis said quietly on my other side. “They’re programmed.”
“They’re living, aren’t they?” I asked.
“Hard to say,” Akello answered.
“See what you can find for vital monitors, Koa,” Tyrus said.
“Looking now,” a voice in the radio said, who I assumed was Koa.
“There should be… dozens,” Tyrus said.
“Bingo,” Lazarus said, and we all turned. He was several dozen paces down the hall, staring through another pane of windows, his hands flat on them. I was almost afraid to look. But I followed, Akello’s arm still firmly around me. It wasn’t just for my comfort. He was shook, too.
This glass window stretched the entire length of the rest of the corridor, looking into interconnected rooms. Inside were various states of… humans. And monsters. Sometimes, two in a room—one of each.
They were bloody and cut open. Tubes, wires, and harnesses coming off them. Monitors showed they were alive, but they weren’t moving. Their eyes closed. The human in front of me was covered in what looked like burns.
Further down, the room was in tatters. The monster lay in a heap on the floor in the far corner. Glass was broken. A dead body in a lab coat close by.
“Turn around,” someone whispered.
As if possessed, I did. Bile rose in my stomach as I looked at what resembled a science fiction novel. Large liquid filled cylinders with embryos in various states suspended.
“They’re breeding something new,” Plum murmured.
This can’t be real. It was too sick.
“They can’t control the monsters that exist, so they make ones they can,” Zilan said in disgust. “What happens when they break through their leashes? They’re creating new monsters that they’ll later destroy.”
“This is sick,” Lazarus muttered. “What the actual fuck?!”
“You don’t understand.”
We spun at the voice. A man stood in the doorway at the end of the hall we hadn’t made it to yet. I wasn’t sure he was aware of the monster behind him, though. The dragon, coiling, eyes a hot fire that danced in the darkness.
“What don’t we understand?” Bastian asked, his voice calm and chilling. Ryker’s black arms reached for the man.
The man looked at them warily. “That can’t be controlled,” he said, pointing at Ryker with a frown. “These can be. With a beast compelled to complete obedience, there will be order in the world.”
He stepped aside as one of Ryker’s arms toyed with his hair. There was no doubt that he was afraid of the nightmare. Of the situation he found himself in.
“Are you the mastermind behind this fucked up place?” Saar asked. His voice hard.
The man rolled his eyes. “Of course, not. I’m just a worker.”
“Who has no issues with sending some species to extinction while creating other apex predators,” Bastian said.
He shrugged. “I understand that there are ethical and moral dilemmas on both sides.”
