Efferent

Chapter 34

"No!" Blaise screamed, "No, Amelia!" His eyes reddened as tears threatened to tear through his barriers.

Clark stood over her body, head bent as his arms hung limply by his sides. He tilted his head to the side, as if wondering why she was no longer living. He gazed around the room, taking in Travis laying unconscious on his cot by the exit, Blaise who stood still against the wall, and me, on my knees in the corner of the room.

Damp tears fell down my cheeks, leaving them cold as I choked on the gag with each sob. I wailed loudly, my heart and lungs screaming out in pain, and yet I was reduced to muffled cries and silent tears.

Clark tapped his foot once, and crouched lowly to the ground, as I increased my pitched, unable to look away from Amelia's still body, her hair pooled around her sharply angled neck.

His dark eyes whipped towards me, and I screamed into the cloth, scrambling as far back against the wall as I could. His eyes shuttered closed and he inhaled sharply, before scrambling across the tile towards the corner where I was chained.

"Ardyn!" Blaise called, but my eyes refused to leave those of my approaching predator. He radiated a killer's instinct, his red hand leaving a stretched trail across the white floor as he trailed it along the tile. "Ardyn!" Blaise shouted once more, "Break away, Ardyn!"

"I canmpht!" I shouted back, "I canmpht!"

"You can!" Blaise tried again, "Please do not make me watch." His voice cracked.

"Stop!" A voice called commandingly from the corner! "You can not continue!" Walter looked as if he had aged a decade in ten minutes, his aged featured growing older by the second as his wrinkles deepened and hair went greyer with his fear.

"You must stop this at once! I will not stand for it!" He called once more. Clark, his body still crouched and aimed at me, turned his head and growled at Dr. Ross. Walter stumbled backwards. "Stop!" He backed further into the corner, and as if sensing his fear, Clark began stalking towards him. I heaved a sob in relief.

"Ardyn," Blaise called, "Loosen your chains, Ardyn. They are not locked, only tied and tangled."

I pulled myself to my feet, my arms stretching between the chains tightly fastened to the wall behind me. Hurriedly, I wound them over and over, and found more slack, but Clark was tiring of his hunt. He was waiting to pounce, killing for sport, but I knew that his patience would wear thin any day.

"I'm out!" Blaise whispered across the room, approaching me quickly. With his eyes glued to Clark he silently undid my gag and wiped at my eyes before pulling at the chains. The clinking resonated throughout the room, and I held my breath, turning my head to see if Clark had noticed.

Walter was pinned in the corner, eyes wide. Clark's black eyes were pointed directly at me. He blinked, eyes shifting slowly towards the chains held in Blaise's grasp, and sobbed softly as he turned fully to face us.

"Get behind me," Blaise grit out through a clenched jaw. "And stay there." Clark edged further towards the room, ready to pounce. Blaise angled his body to pin my behind him as far back into the corner as I would fit.

Clark growled. Blaise crouched down, as if he would tackle him. "Clark," I cried out pleading, "Please! Do not do this!" Whether he heard me and ignored my protests, or simply did not understand them he seemed to advance faster. "Blaise, run." I shook his shoulder, trying to push him towards the exit. "Run! Save yourself!"

"You are far too valuable for me to just desert you." He repeated what Travis had said from earlier, and immediately my eyes flew to the cot in the corner of the room.

Travis was gone. "Blaise," I shook his shoulder, but he ignored me, "Blaise, where is he?"

"He who?"

"Travis? Where did he go? He was still going through the transition when they took u-."

"I am busy here, Ardyn." Blaise growled, as Clark approached skillfully. Despite the oncoming predator, I scanned the room. Walter was gone too.

"Blaise, I think that something is going on."

"Ardyn, I am bu-."

Clark pounced, springing from his feet with a snarl belonging to a feral cat, but fell to the floor silent. I exhaled loudly, a cross between a sigh and a scream. "O-Oh my god!" I clutched at Blaise's arm. "What just happened?"

"I thought that too," An unfamiliar baritone perked up. I looked up, to see a dark haired soldier. "When I first found your friend here, tied to a bed." He gestured to Travis, who stood on his own two feet, slightly pale, eyes wide, but with a small smile originating from relief painted onto his features.

I rushed forward, clutching at him tightly. "I thought you were dead! That he had killed you without me knowing." I sobbed.

He brushed down my hair and I pulled away to look at him, and the stranger who was currently wiping off a needle in his camouflaged pant leg. "Who are you?" I looked to Clark's limp body, and stifled a cry. "Did you kill him?"

"Me? No." the soldier answered with a chuckle. "He is heavily sedated. For most people with a dosage that high it could have been fatal, but you Efferent have a way of springing up from the dead." He shook

"Efferent?" Blaise interjected, "How did you know we were Efferent?"

"I assumed that was why you were here." The man shrugged. "In the clinic, I mean. I have met people like you before."

"People like us?" Travis asked. "Who do you mean?"

"Who else could I mean?" the soldier checked Clark's pulse, bending over. "Help me tie him up on that cot. As much as I would like to think that we have a few hours before this killer wakes up, It is better to be safe then sorry."

"I am sorry," I reitereated, slouching towards the floor and clutching at the wall."But who are you?"

"And how did you get in here?" Blaise added.

"And who did you mean?" Travis finished.

"The name is James," He saluted sarcastically, before hooking an arm underneath Clark and looking at us expectantly, "And if you want any answers at all before he wakes up and kills you, I suggest you help me move him to the cot."

"But-." I wanted to continue.

"Ah!" James exclaimed, "The rest can wait."