Maddie wondered how Saylan had fared. She prayed she did okay. This macabre type of training could transform a person into something they didn’t want to be. Maddie would have nightmares for a long time over this. The worst part of it all was she never saw the people that were doing the torturing.
The infirmary released Maddie two days later. They forced her to undergo psychological testing to make certain she suffered no long term effects from her torture session. They determined she was of sound mind, and after several counseling sessions, they allowed her to leave, with one stipulation: she had to promise that if she felt herself headed toward that edgy place she had briefly visited, she must return to counseling. The healers wanted to make sure she hadn’t been damaged from the session.
Maddie searched for Saylan. She heard while she was in the infirmary that Saylan had made it through most of the water torture before they released her. She had been shaken up badly, and like Maddie, felt she lost a bit of herself during that session.
They caught up with each other right before dinner, and they collapsed in each other’s arms. They both agreed it was horrific, and they hoped that they would never have to suffer through anything like that again. Maddie calmed Saylan’s fears about not making it through the whole session. Maddie assured her no one did, other than herself, but she didn’t admit that to Saylan.
In retrospect, she wasn’t sure how she withstood it. It must have been her prior experience with Darryl Carter that helped. Her psychologist told her that the mind could adapt to sessions like these. The more sessions one endured, the better they became at dealing with them. The mind was the key to all of this; if you could control your mind, you could survive this kind of torture. It was specifically designed to break the mind versus the body.
With their sessions on covert missions behind them, they were nearing the end of their training. Maddie was looking forward to her graduation from the academy. She was ready to be with Rayn—totally and completely as his mate. She missed him dreadfully and could not keep her mind off of him. She contacted him daily, and she sensed he was aware of her thoughts. She didn’t want to bring it up though, because if she did, she was afraid he would insist on them joining immediately. She had to finish her training first.
She could barely wait to inhale the fragrance of his essence, to run her fingers through his fabulous hair, and to touch his lips, but mostly, she wanted to gaze into his lovely eyes and to feel his arms around her. It had been too long, nearly a year since they had seen each other.
The Vesturions were not making much progress in thwarting the war with the Xanthians. It was progressing down a road that no one cared to discuss, but it seemed impossible not to. Rayn was up to his eyeballs in his leadership role, commandeering the Guardians on Earth. They had created quite an impressive plan to protect Earth, and their army was strategically placed to intercept any invaders. It required constant vigilance of the Milky Way Galaxy, and they ran frequent surveillance of their security systems.
Rayn had seemed excessively tired lately, and Maddie knew he took his responsibilities very seriously and worked harder than anyone that reported to him. He was in need of some time off, and Maddie had a plan for him.
She would go to Earth and bring him back for her graduation. It would be a surprise, but he could stay on Vesturon for several days and get his badly needed rest and relaxation. Then Maddie would go back to Earth with him and assist him in his duties. Her Commander had assured her that she would be assigned as Rayn’s second in command, and Rowan had also suggested this.
Maddie was in the locker room of the exercise facility, adrift in her happy thoughts of Rayn when she was shoved from behind. Before she could react, she felt a sting on her neck. Then the room started tilting, and she became wonky headed. She tried to grab onto something to keep her from falling, but she couldn’t move. Then, the darkness came.
Maddie felt the blaring sunlight piercing her eyelids like a thousand stilettos. She blinked several times attempting to bring her vision into focus. Her head was throbbing like a drum in a marching band. Boom boom, boom boom. Vertigo ruled; she couldn’t seem to focus on anything without extreme dizziness overwhelming her. She suddenly felt ill and rolled to her side, retching. After she emptied the contents of her stomach, which wasn’t much, she tried to wipe her mouth with her sleeve, only to discover her hands were bound.
What is going on? Where am I? Her thoughts were fuzzy and thick with fog.
Her first inclination led her to believe she had been thrown into another training mission, but why would they tie her hands? Maybe it was an attempt at a syndicated kidnapping. No, she quickly deduced it couldn’t be that, because the Academy wouldn’t send her anywhere outside without water or the ability to collect it somehow. That was their rule.
Then, where was she, and how did she get here? She tried to think back at what happened, but she became extremely dizzy again. She felt like she was on a carnival ride spinning out of control with no end in sight.
She lay still for a few moments, hoping the vertigo would end. Her vision remained blurry, and she had a strong metallic taste in her mouth. Her thoughts veered to last thing she remembered. It was feeling a stinging sensation, like a needle in her neck, then darkness. She was in the locker room when someone hit her from behind, knocking her forward, and then she felt something piercing the skin of her neck. She ascertained that she had been drugged, but why?
She began to feel the beginnings of anxiety grip her, so she forced herself to take some deep, calming breaths. Square breathing…inhale to a count of four, hold for four, exhale to a count of four, hold for four, and repeat. It had worked like a charm for her when she had been held in the sensory deprivation cell. She soon felt its calming effects. That was good. She needed her wits about her.
Once she felt in control of her emotions, she tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The only conclusion she could formulate was Ondine…again. That woman was very possibly going to be the death of her.
Ondine must have drugged her and then dumped her here. But where was she, she wondered?
Maddie opened her eyes again and took in her surroundings. She was not happy at what she observed—thick brush, dense forest, and stifling heat. The obvious conclusion was the Unforgiving Forest. Could Ondine be that cruel?
Maddie lifted her head and prayed her dizziness was permanently gone. She shook her head back and forth to make certain it wouldn’t return. Yes, the worst of it was gone, leaving behind its slight remnants, making it more of an annoyance than anything. She sat up, and that was when she noticed the note.
Taped to her shirt was a small piece of paper that read, “Let’s see how good you are now, hotshot.”
Definitely Ondine! Great, just great! Here she was, stuck in this God forsaken place, without sensored clothing, no water or purifying equipment, and barefoot, of all things. Ondine had stripped her of everything, leaving her in her sports bra, cami, and panties. If she didn’t freeze to death tonight, she would soon be dead from lack of water. She needed a plan, and fast.
First order of business was to get her hands and feet free. They had used thermal plastic, a type of material that was impervious to heat. There would be no melting it off. She had no knife or sharp object to use either. She scanned her locale for a sharp rock. Her eyes landed on something she might be able to use. It looked like a bone fragment of some kind. It apparently belonged to some long dead creature that had suffered a fracture because one end of the bone was sharp and pointy. If it was strong enough, maybe she could poke a hole in the plastic and try to break it that way.
Maddie had to rely on patience, of which she had very little, to accomplish this task. She had to hold the bone between both of her hands and carefully stab it into the plastic repeatedly. Half way through her task, she became frustrated and began looking around for something else that might be a better option. The only things her eyes landed on were more pieces of bone, similar to the one she was using. So she went back to work on the plastic. After jabbing, tugging, and stabbing at the bindings, she was finally able to get her legs free, leaving her ankles bruised and bloody. Now the dilemma was how could she hold that bone to use it on the plastic binding her hands? She didn’t think her mouth and teeth were strong enough to push the bone all the way through the plastic. When she got back to the Academy, she was going to kill Ondine, even if it meant her own expulsion. Ondine had goon too far this time.
She scanned the area around her again, just to make sure she didn’t miss anything. Again, only bones. It occurred to her just how many bones there were. They were strewn everywhere around her. It looked like she was in a graveyard of sorts, except no one had gone to the trouble of burying what had died. She decided it might be in her best interests to get out of there, and hopefully, in her travels, she could find something more effective to get rid of her bindings and figure out her location as well.
She was in a clearing surrounded by dense brush. She decided to poke her head through to see if there was an easy way out. She found an overgrown trail, so she pushed through the brush and started following it. She rounded a curve and found herself on the edge of an egg-filled nest. She dared not continue in that direction. Maddie fervently hoped that whatever those eggs belonged to stayed away long enough for her to put a good bit of distance between them. The eggs were large, so the mother of them would be even larger. With that thought, Maddie started jogging in the opposite direction. She didn’t get far before her nose picked up on a putrid odor. Maddie’s olfactory sense had become supremely sensitive since living on Vesturon. Her vision may not be as acute as other Vesturions, but her sense of smell was off the charts. What was heading her way was disgusting by anyone’s measure.
Maddie was clearly at a disadvantage with her hands bound. She didn’t know what was approaching her, but she decided that she would rather keep it that way. She picked up her speed, hoping to find a tree to climb that would afford her some protection.
Suddenly, she heard the creature roar, and then the brush behind her started crashing down. She did a quick scan of the trees to see if there were any possibilities, but no such luck. At about that time, she felt a searing pain across her midsection and looked down to see a clawed tentacle wrapped around her waist. She went to grab it, but before she had a chance, whatever it belonged to started dragging her backwards.
Maddie spun around, intending to kick it, but she was so shocked her reactions were ripped from her. Her eyes beheld the most disgusting thing she had ever seen. The beast was large, well over 6 feet tall, and slimy. It was light gray with a multitude of ulcer like sores covering its entirety, and it had a huge humped head. Several tentacles whipped out from the middle of it. They were horrid with huge claws at the end of them. It had two tiny-clawed arms and an enormous mouth that was gaping open. Out of its mouth slid a set of mandibles with giant fangs. Its mouth reminded Maddie of the creature from the movie Alien.
Maddie was horrified. The tentacle that had grabbed and dragged her was still holding her tightly. She was bleeding profusely from the wound it had inflicted, but she didn’t know how to make it release her. It continued to drag her closer to it, and its smell was so disgusting that Maddie started to gag. Its jaws were snapping at her, and Maddie doubted her ability to survive this encounter.
Maddie started struggling. She did not want this beast to be the last thing she saw in this life. She took her fists and pounded them against the tentacle that was wrapped around her. She kept smashing it repeatedly. The beast began roaring, and another tentacle whipped around Maddie, clamping her arms down against her, rendering them immobile. The creature continued to drag Maddie until they were back to the bone-filled clearing. It deposited Maddie there, releasing its tentacles from her. Maddie assessed her wounds, discovering they weren’t life threatening. It seemed this thing wanted her to stay here.
Maddie surveyed the area again. Things started to fall into place, but Maddie didn’t like where her thoughts were headed. If this clearing had all these bones in it, could it be a place this creature brought its prey? If so, Maddie was definitely its dinner. She had to find a way out of here and fast.
She needed a weapon. She looked around for another sharp bone until she found one. She slid it in the elastic of her panties. At least it was something. If she could stab it in the eye, it could give her some precious time, and maybe, if she was lucky, she could find a tree. But then what? Again, no food, water, warm clothing for the night, or shoes. Yep, she was majorly screwed.
The creature ambled around her, eyeing her. Maddie didn’t know if or when it would attack. With all of those tentacles whipping around in every direction, it would be nearly impossible to avoid at least one or two of them. Her chances of getting slashed by those claws were running at one hundred percent. Maddie attempted to lift the creature using her telekinetic powers, but since she was in The Unforgiving Forest, her powers were all but blocked. The best she could do was raise a small rock—not much help there.
She kept a wary eye on the beast, trying to figure out a way to escape. The best defense was a good offense, so she plopped herself down on her butt, intending to use her legs if necessary. Perhaps she could find a vulnerable place on the creature and give it a bone breaking kick. She was hoping she could figure something out quickly. Darkness would soon be descending, and she knew her chances of survival in the freezing temperatures would be greatly diminished.
Maddie decided to make a break for it again. She hopped to her feet and took off. She got about thirty feet, when the thing whipped its tentacle out and lassoed her around both of her thighs, forcing her to the ground. The searing pain wrenched a cry from her lips. She began writhing on the ground, until the pain started to ease. When she got a good look at her legs, she knew she would never make it out of here. Both of her quadriceps had deep, ugly lacerations across them. Maddie wasn’t even sure if her legs could support her, the pain was that intense. She tried to stand, but she crashed to her knees instead. She looked down to see the blood running down her legs and dripping onto the ground.