Bloodline

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

I had no fucking idea what I was doing.

After a visit to the beach, and once again regretting my consumption of the cheese pastry thing, because I was hungry just a few hours later, I realized I had no idea where to start on my search for Thirteen.

I was in a strange city, a strange new world. I didn't speak all the languages spoken around here, had no idea how to maneuver a city, no idea where to begin to look for the compound itself. I had no idea where to start. Should I just start looking for the compound itself? How did I do that when I had no resources at my disposal? And I couldn't very well just find a computer and search how to look for top secret facilities. That's not how shit worked.

So I found myself sitting on a bench on the wooden walkway that went along the beach. I sighed, burying my face in my heads before sitting back on the bench, tilting my head up to glare at the sky, wishing it had all of the answers, but the damn thing didn't even have clouds, so what the fuck was I even looking at? Was I supposed to ask someone? What if they turned me over to my genetic carriers?

That was a whole other issue to deal with.

I had to move through the realm without alerting them to my presence, or Thirteen's. If they were to find us, they'd kill us, or worse. I had no idea what to expect from them, just what I'd been told, which was the fact that they were terrifying monstrosities.

I looked around, then rolled my eyes.

Yeah... If they were so terrible, why did they live in fucking paradise?

Sighing heavily, I heaved myself to my feet and looked around once more. I was getting hungry, but doubted anyone would spare change for food, or another vendor would happily give me something for free. Frustrated, I started walking again, hoping to come across something that would help me on my search for Thirteen, or food. At this rate, food was beginning to take first place.

I quickly came to hate the temperature of this realm. It was far too hot. The air was too thick, too humid. By the time mid-afternoon rolled around, I felt like I was just wearing my sweat as a second skin. Of course, no one else seemed to be having this issue because they were dressed for the weather in shorts and tank tops or bikinis. Meanwhile, I was trudging around in all back with long sleeves and pants. I probably looked insane.

I continued along the outer edge of the city, not sure how I felt about going further in. I didn't want to get insanely lost among all the buildings and people. Plus, the compound wouldn't be in the inner city. The compound would require privacy and lots of land. If anything, it was probably out in the jungle somewhere, which was a whole other issue.

I'd never been in a jungle before. I had no idea what to expect, aside from what I'd learned in classes, which was shit about poisonous plants, venomous snakes, monstrous big cats, quick sand. All that fun stuff was not on my list of sightseeing, no thanks.

So I needed to figure out how to get through the jungle, how to find this compound, how to get in and out as quickly and quietly as possible. Afterwards... Afterwards, we'd go to the ocean, I decided. That's what I would do. I would take Thirteen to the ocean, then to the vendor who gave me the cheese pastry, and... After? I had no idea. I'd never thought about it. I hadn't really thought beyond the whole rescue plan. And even that was a rough list of events, not an actual plan.

Shaking my head, I rounded a corner with the intention to try and find some food, only to fail to pay attention to where I was going and slammed into a rock solid chest, collapsing back on the ground.

Cursing, I jerked my head up to glare at the source of my headache. A muscular male with hair so dark it was practically black, shaved on the sides, longer on top, eyes so blue they glowed... Wait, he seemed familiar somehow.