Chapter 7: Run-time, Part 2

They laid there trying to catch their breath before Jack broke their contact and rolled to the side.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I'm a Delta Six," she said breathily, "it's one of the newer enhancements bred into Deltas. There aren't many with the gene yet."

"Well go Deltas, lucky me." He turned to her. "I knew I would get that roll in the hay," he said with a grin, brushing away a strand of burgundy hair that was plastered to her face.

Alex scowled at him. Luck had nothing to do with it, he engineered this with that damned pearl device. She stared up at the high ceiling laced in cobwebs. Through the window, light from the sunrise lit the room. Particles of dust danced in the sunlight streaming through the window. The creek bubbled merrily as it spun the large wheel. The smell of seared flesh came flooding back into her senses suddenly and she gagged.

Jack propped his lean frame up with an elbow facing her. He reached out and put a big paw on her thigh. Alex snatched it, but he held firm.

"Haven't you had enough?" she asked.

"Yes, but we don't want little mutant hybrid half breeds running around, do we?

"Humans and hyrbids can't have children together," Alex said, pushing his hand away.

"True, but don't you want to be safe anyway?"

Alex released his hand. She didn't want to be carrying around his bear spawn anyway. "Alright, do it."

"You have to hold really still, this may hurt a little."

His hand slid up her inner thigh and then he slipped two fingers in her. She felt a stream of burning fire inside her that quickly grew to pain. She squeezed her eyes shut. It was over quickly and he pulled his hand away.

"Okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Hey, look at your shoulder."

Jack tilted his head to look at the knife wound that was no longer there. "Would you look at that? It actually works."

"What works?"

"It's called the Link, that metal thing that we ate. It makes our auras match, letting us share energy. Whenever we're close, we use each other's energy to heal. It looks like it is also working on your eye, it's almost completely healed."

Alex gingerly touched her left eye. It felt like a week old bruise instead of a fresh deck in the face. "Neat. What's the down side?"

"Uh- We will always be able to tell where each other is at. We're Linked."

Alex pushed up off the floor. Her mind whirled at that thought. This fool would always be able to find her? She would be trapped again, like before. Her breathing quickened as she fought panic.

"Does it wear off?" Alex asked as she picked up her scattered clothing.

"Not as far as I know. Is there something wrong?"

"Being your prisoner wasn't in the deal." Her words were heated as she hooked her bra back on.

"It didn't really seem like a down side at the time. We were pretty much backed into a corner."

"A corner that you put us in."

"Look, miss huffy pants, I saved your ass. Don't go all ballistic on me." Anger slithered into his voice losing its twang.

Alex shot him a dangerous look and finished dressing. She stepped over several dead Alphas and stomped down the stairs.

They could have run. Why didn't they just run? Now she was going to be chased by this man and never be free. She'd never be able to be with her dear Lexi with this grizzly. She felt sick to her stomach. She couldn't think of life without her. A memory flashed her bright blonde hair and pretty smile. It made her heart hurt. She couldn't leave her there, not in that building.

Alex clenched her teeth. She had to make it to Panther City, to the Bio-tech building. Link or not, grizzly or not, she had to rescue Lexi.

The rickety wheelhouse door creaked at her touch. Spare traces of sunlight filtered above the barren mountains, lighting her path as Alex trekked back to the house. She gathered her things in silence, contemplating her new arrangement with the grizzly.

Jack showed up with only pants and shoes on. "We are going to have to leave quickly and take as much as we can. Now that this storehouse has been found, it can't be used again," he said.

Alex didn't reply. She finished packing her things and then raided the cabinets for supplies.

Jack pulled a black T-shirt over his head. It compressed his furry chest hair down revealing a muscular physique. Alex forced her eyes away. That liquid fire started to bubble slowly under the surface, but she pushed it back down. She had to stay in control. Her anger was making her more volatile, just as his anger swept away that fake accent.

Alex found a spare pack in the closet which she filled up with various canned and dried food. From outside, she heard a clang followed by, "Shit!"

Jack stormed through the door. "They broke the bike, there's no way I can fix it."

"What about the car they came in?"

"We can use it only if you can make it past their touch powered ID scanner. Do you know how to do that?"

"If they are anything like the transports back home, it will self-destruct when bypassed."

"So that strikes using a dead guy to get the van started. I guess we're going boating."

Alex raised her eyebrows inquisitively.

"A boat. It floats on the water. I thought you would know that one," Jack said.

"We travel under the water, not on the water."

"Well, I hope you know how to swim."

Alex glared at him. "Of course I know how to swim."

"Well alright then. Where are we heading?" Jack asked.

"To the east coast."

"We still have a long way ahead of us. Of course, if you give me the file, I can give a better idea as to where exactly on the east coast we will be going."

"No."

"Just tell me the continent region and city of the lab so I know about where to go."

She cocked her head to the side, mentally scanning through the file. "Panther City in the South Eastern Peninsula. Is that enough?"

"That's a start."

"So where is this boat at?" she asked and heaved the heavy spare pack over one shoulder.

"On the other side of the wheelhouse. Let me pack my stuff from the motorcycle and I'll meet you back there."

Alex wrapped her scarf around her head and put on her sunglasses before she headed out the back door. The heavy extra pack weighed her down significantly. When she reached the spot, she saw a blue tarp covering what she thought must be the boat. Alex set the heavy pack down and pulled the tarp off. Beneath it was an aluminum boat with two wooden oars, two benches that swiveled to the side, four metal adjustable poles, and two orange lifejackets.

Jack came around the corner of the wheelhouse. He had his leather jacket zipped up to his chest and had traded his motorcycle helmet for a black ball cap with sunglasses perched on top. His long tangled hair puffed up around the edge of the hat.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"I guess so."

Jack positioned all the packs in the back of the boat and covered them with the tarp. He untied his hiking boots and threw them in the boat. After rolling up his jeans, he squatted down level with the boat and leaned into it until it slid across the sand down into the river. He offered a hand out to Alex.

"I don't know about this," she said, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. "What if we fall in, isn't the water up here acidic?"

"The creek is only like a meter and a half deep. The acid in the creek is watered down. At most, it will give you a bad rash. You'll be fine." He grabbed her hand and propelled her into the boat. "Sit down in the front," he directed, pointing to the bench.

Jack pushed the boat off into the rushing creek and then jumped. The boat rocked back and forth as he did. Alex gripped the bench until her knuckles turned white. The current pushed and the little silver boat sped up.

"Relax, it's not going to tip just as long as you keep your weight in the center of the boat," Jack said. He dipped a paddle in the water, pushing them further from the bank.

The current carried the boat faster and faster down the river. The breeze whipped her braid over her shoulder. She sat facing Jack, but kept looking back over her shoulder at the rising sun beyond the spiked tops of the withered trees. There was a thick layer of purple reflecting off the clouds just above the mountains.

"I don't think I've actually ever seen the sun before," Alex said with wonder. "The clouds always cover it up."

Jack looked over her shoulder at the sunrise with a smile. "For whatever reason, the night is almost always clear and the days are always cloudy. Sunrise and sunset is about the only time you ever really get to see it. Didn't you see it yesterday morning?"

"No, you woke me up after sunrise and my back was facing the west coast during sunset. These are actually the first two days I have ever been on the surface."

"Oh, sorry." He smiled. "Those are the best times of day. So beautiful. Can you actually believe that it didn't used to be locked behind the clouds? There used to be actual weather. Somedays it was cloudy and other days it was clear."

"What happened?"

"They don't teach that in hybrid school do they?" Jack asked. After Alex shook her head, he continued, "They tried to cover up what they did. All these combustion engines and coal power plants along with the deforestation of the entire planet caused a runaway greenhouse effect."

That jogged something from Alex's memory from her childhood academic courses. "Like Venus?"

Jack smiled. "Yes, like Venus, but not as severe. I am glad to see they taught you something in school."

Jack was actually starting to sound smart. For the first time, he wasn't driving her up the wall. The way he spoke before must have been a disguise and Alex wondered what had changed to make him drop that stupid accent.

"So the hybrids did this?"

"Well not completely. It started when everyone was still humans, before the upper class started modifying themselves. After the rich people started to transform into hybrids, they left us with the mess and went down into the sea."

The boat drifted down the creek for an hour. It rocked gently back and forth. Slowly, the night's events started to creep up on her and she suddenly felt very tired. Her head started to fall. She caught it and blinked, trying to stay awake.

"Why don't you just take a nap, doll, you're making me sleepy."

Jack handed her the blanket from her pack. Alex curled up on the floor of the boat using the blanket as a pillow and fell asleep.