Year E2996

Beck

The gate made a creaking sound as the wind blew through the underground realm. Darkness surrounded us with tiny holes in the surface above. A blue tint streamed over Kat's face as she rolled off me and lit her purple fire.

"What is this place?" I asked her, brushing mud from my clothes and walking with her to the giant gate.

"I don't know," she responded with her head propped up and mouth open, watching the droplets of water mist from the roots of the rust grass above. "I have not seen this place before."

Kat gripped the gate, wiggling it, but it didn't budge. A whistle from the breeze and vines caught my attention, and I saw a loose spot.

"Here," I said, creeping and slipping my body between the metal bars.

Kat followed behind me while we tracked our way in her lavender light. The road to the brick building splashed with our shoes, sinking in the sand with every step. The surrounding forest whispered in the shadows while we kept close to one another. Kat's hand gripped mine, tugging down and pointing with the other.

"There," she whispered.

I glanced up from my muddy shoes at shadows leaving the building toward the dark forest away from us. A glow followed them until the gloom took them.

"Let's enter over there," I said and quickened my steps, pulling Kat.

We snuck to the door, wiggling the handle to see no security to enter. The lights blinded us on the inside. I walked a few steps on the floor, seeing the muddy footprints.

"We need to ditch our shoes," Kat said, removing hers and throwing them outside.

I nodded, tossing her my shoes. Removing my shirt, I crawled on the tile floor, cleaning the mud I had already tracked in. My hands did multiple circles up to Kat's feet, and I stopped to smile at her.

Her purple eyes glowed a tint of pink while watching my back before connecting with mine.

Not leaving her eye contact, I stood slowly before her. She smiled with mystery in her expression. My throat seized while I cupped her cheek and removed dirt from below her eye.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway with voices, and we jumped into the room beside us. The dark room hid us as we watched out the door window. Two females in white lab coats walked by. The blue safforian handed the human a briefcase before they exited the building.

"That was too close," Kat whispered.

I spun, leaning my back on the door. Kat switched on the light as rows clicked on above slowly, one by one. The enormous room had thousands of tables with humans and safforians lying on them, tied up with no consciousness.

"Oh, my," Kat gasped, rushing to the first table with a purple female safforian.

She gently placed her fingers on the girl's neck as I rounded the table, grabbing the tablet hanging at the foot's end. Kat brushed the purple hair from the woman's face before glancing at me.

"Is she breathing?"

"Yes."

I clicked on the tablet. "Men of Suits chip project," I read from the area unlocked from me. "Says she is twenty-five with no activity to her brainwaves after placed chip."

Kat snagged the tablet while I turned and looked down at an older man and his grey hair, a human from the Nus. I placed my finger on his neck, feeling the heartbeat at a slow rhythm. Did he choose to leave the massive spaceship or was he forcibly taken from the Nus?

Slowly, I strolled to his feet, tilting the tablet before removing it from the strap. More information on him popped up compared to the purple safforian. His brain movement had a red flag while I clicked the icon.

A blue brain image showed on the screen with red movement, showing me his frontal lobe in control after the placed chip. The note to the side labeled him a freethinker and living marked as red. I slid the image over, seeing red for the low living and reproductive program, but his age marked him down as a low-level job only.

"Do you see this?" Kat asked, moving from one tablet to the next.

She raced to the next and clicked on it until she saw what she wanted to see before rushing at the one beside her. Kat tapped on the screen and dropped the tablet on the bed. Her alarming eyes looked at me with an expression of worry.

"What?" I asked, sliding on the tablet, hoping to see what she saw.

"The hippocampus," she said, scrunching her brows together.

"The what?" I asked, shaking my head, and finally saw a green flag next to the man's brain and the blocked hippocampus. "They are taking all the memories of everyone here and controlling them. We are too late."

"No," Kat exhaled, rushing to the next tablet. "There has to be an answer to getting them back or stopping this from happening."

"Kitty," I sadly said, setting the tablet on the bed and looking at the man on the table.

"Don't say my name that way," he said, pointing at me and running across the room. "We are here and will find the key to bringing this down." She tapped on a tablet before spinning to the next. "Dr. Coachman gave us this clue because he believed in us."

I dropped my shoulders, dragging my feet toward her. "That man didn't give us anything but a scavenger hunt in the forest, hoping we would probably die."

"No!" Kat yelled at me. She froze and glanced at me with swollen eyes. "This is my home, Beck, and I will continue to fight until the leader of this group goes down."

A violet strand of hair fell into her face while the distance between us felt like being floated into space, the pull on my heart to run to her and bring her into my arms until the black hole sucked us in together.

"Okay." I nodded. "Let's keep going. We will find the leader and stop the Men of Suits."

Heels clicking on the floor in the hallway had Kat and I glancing at the door. We froze when the handle moved, but stopped when a male voice chattered. I rushed to Kat, grabbing her wrist. I focused on the door in the back of the massive room, but she stopped me, yanking back at my arm.

"We don't have time," she whispered before crawling onto an empty table.

My eyes widened when she closed hers, and I spun around to see another table a few down from hers. The door opened across the room, and a lady and a man with matching white robes walked in. Their gaze was on the tablets in their hands, not seeing me jump onto my empty spot and position myself flat.

"We have a one hundred percent block of the hippocampus in this room," the man's voice said from across the room.

I kept my eyes closed, slowly breathing while listening to their footsteps. The female's heels told me every step she did, a scary pace closer. Her perfume filled my senses with roses and chemicals. She hummed while I peeked a little to see the man on a computer in the front and her examining the tablets one by one.

"This one had the most movement," she said, glancing at the man. "Please place human eight five eight into the red zone so we can test other methods. We are far from activating Men of Suits if we get too many red flags."

I closed my eyes tight when the man looked at her. "That's because we relied on a nut job like Dr. Coachman," he said with a low chuckle.

"That nut job could take you apart and put you back together with a bug brain in your skull. I wouldn't be talking shit."

The man laughed harder while his deep voice echoed around the silent, vast room. Her heels clicked to the table beside mine, stopping quickly before moving onto mine. Vibrations from her long nails dancing on my table reverberated to my soul, freezing me with fear.

"This one looks too young for this section," she said, tapping her heels. "Where is the human specimen tablet?"

My heart beat in my chest to the point of hurt. A sweat drop trailed down my forehead toward my outer cheek. Her heels circled the table like a shark ready to kill.

"Hey, shithead!" she yelled, slamming her fist on the table, causing me to tense. "Where did you put the tablet? You have misplaced these too much! I hate working with idiots."

Her heels stomped away. "You oughta be cleaning the floors," she said, slamming the door.

"Stuck up, bitch," the man said, following her out the door.

I sat up quickly, jumping from the table and grabbing Kat. We ran toward the door we had entered, seeing shadows walking our way.

"This way," Kat said, tugging on my arm.

She guided me back to her table and climbed back on it. I almost protested, but she stood, trying to reach the vents above.

"Perfect."

I climbed up with her, wrapping my arms around her hips with my face on her belly. She unlatched the metal cover and pulled herself into the narrow vents. With my hands gripping tight on, I hauled myself to Kat.

"Hurry," she whispered, while we heard voices entering the room.

"Got it," I replied, latching the vent.

Kat and I let out a breath of relief, relaxing our shoulders. We peeked through the vent slits, seeing new white robed people. They checked the tablet like the others.

"I think it's time to tell an adult, Kat." Glancing at her, she had already been watching me. "Maybe Ray could help."

"You might be right," she whispered. "I was so scared when that woman was at your table. I don't know what I would do if I ever lost you."

I smirked, feeling the heat from her body leaning against me in the narrow space. Her face was only inches from mine, with the eyes of pure, everlasting love.

"You won't lose me," I replied, glancing at her lips. "I mean, I left my mother on the Nus so I could be with you."

Her giggle vibrated in my torso as she shook her head.

"What did you tell my mom?" I asked.

"I told her I would and had loved you for many lives. When my time comes again to rest inside the ground of Safforia, I will be born again and find your soul for another time, but you are for me, and my heart for you." She paused and glanced at my lips. "The past, present, and—"

I leaned in, cupping my hands on her cheeks. With my lips on hers, she lost her sentence. My hand slid into her hair as warmth filled my head, losing all thoughts of anything else. Like the bugs on Safforia, my stomach fluttered with joy, glowing heat, and static.

Her kiss was like jumping into the black hole of fear, but the other side had a grass field full of purple summer phlox and allium. Floating above the flowers with only fingertips dancing in the pedals of wine, with every touch melting into mulberry liquid.

Kat pulled away while I longed for more. She giggled, glancing down. I tilted her chin up, leaving a quick peck on her lips.

"I love you, Kitty," I whispered. "And I had loved you for many lives."

A glow from the vent ahead shined into the dark tunnels. Kat crawled beside me while we quickly crept to the opening. Voices sounded around us as the smell of pineapple melon filled my senses, the familiar scent while we peaked at the ones below. My jaw dropped with a gasp.

"No," Kat expressed with sadness. "It can't be."

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