Chapter 5

Andena was pacing around in her small apartment not knowing what to do with her excess energy. She desperately wanted to feel useful. After her two incredibly successful adventures she craved more excitement.

She wanted more!

More excitement and more of Lunn’s gorgeous body. She needed to find an excuse to visit his quarters again and her mind went back to the moment when the two vines had tried to puncture her with their thorns. Andena wondered if those vines were still there because she wondered whether it was possible that the thorns could have administered a sedative drug. She knew that if she took them to Lunn that there was a strong chance that he would offer to help her. It was a perfect plan because one thing would inevitably lead to another and it shouldn’t be difficult to wind up back in his bed again.

The problem that she faced right now was how to find a safe way of transporting the vines to Lunn’s quarters. She needed a tube of some sort, one that was sturdy enough and would enable her to store the vines safely. With a smile, she rushed to her cupboard and found her old battered aluminium roll in which her drawings were stored. She emptied the pipe by tumbling the drawings on to her bed. It was the perfect way to get the vines to Lunn without being detected.

There was still plenty of time before the curfew kicked in and it didn’t take her long to get to the corner of the road. Unfortunately, there didn’t appear to be any way of walking towards the field without being detected. She wondered why it was so busy, but then she realised it was the end of the afternoon shift. There were four small factories in the street and there was a steady flow of women walking back to the residential areas. Luckily Andena’s clothes were as scruffy as theirs which made it possible for her to blend easily into the noisy crowd.

As she walked aimlessly up and down with the constant stream of women, it exhausted her patience to wait until she could pick up her pace and stroll towards the field. Constantly checking to ensure that she hadn’t been followed, she sprinted towards the field and to her delight both vines were still lying on the road. When she was approximately fifty feet from the field, she took her binoculars from her pocket and studied the fence. As she had expected the cut she had made in the gorse was not there anymore. Now she was completely sure that there was something special about those fields.

Lunn had told her the previous night about the horrors that lay beyond the fence, and to be honest, it hadn’t surprised her all that much. Apart from the fact that the people who had been captured, looked like they were enjoying their stay. She always had her suspicions that something was very wrong with those fields. Now that she had seen that it was all clear, she walked towards the vines. While keeping a safe distance, she carefully walked around them. They appeared to be sturdy rods and had clearly lost some fluid on the tarmac. There were some significantly darker spots on the tarmac directly under the ends of the vines but to her surprise, the cuts that she had made seemed to have been covered up. It was as if the vines had sealed the ends preventing the loss of more fluid.

Andena used her roll to separate the vines and she waited for a minute, to see whether or not, the vines would react to the separation, but they just lay there like two sturdy branches. Squatting down she slowly moved towards one of the vines and lifted it with her thumb and index finger close to the thorn. She reckoned that, in the same way, that you should grab a venomous snake just behind its head, it would be the safest way to get the vines into the roll. She was surprised how light the vine was and that she could slide it effortlessly into the tube. Even the second vine, which she had to turn a bit, slid into the roll without any problems.

Andena sighed with relief when she finally closed the roll. The lid had a special seal to make sure that your paper and drawings remained in a pristine condition. Now the seal would protect Andena from any unexpected tricks the vines might choose to deploy. So far her little project had gone perfectly, although she noticed that her fingers were a little bit sticky.

She chastised herself for not using any protection when she had picked up the vines. However, she quickly set her concerns to one side because she was feeling perfectly okay. In fact, she would go as far as to say that she felt wonderful and was looking forward to surprising Lunn with her little present. It was still light, and she wanted to see Lunn’s face when she presented him with the vines.

Her heart was beating a little faster as she remembered his warm embrace and it made her walk a bit quicker to his quarters. She was wondering what he would do if she asked him to spend the night with her. It wasn’t long before she was standing in front of the door to Lunn’s quarters. She was always surprised at how easy it was to enter his place. It looked like he never bothered to lock his door.

Trembling with anticipation, she was surprised when the door didn’t budge. She tried again but the door failed to open, and the only thing she could do was knock at the door. When he still didn’t respond, in spite of her knocking three times on the metal door, she angrily started kicking it. She was truly pissed off and was going to have to rush home to ensure that she was home before the curfew.

She was still feeling annoyed as she hastily prepared something to eat. Her plan was to retreat to her secret place where she would examine the vines without the risk of getting caught. She was confident in her ability to complete this task by herself and told herself that she didn’t need Lunn! While she was eating her simple dinner, she remembered to get her set of scalpels ready for use.

Her secret place was just opposite her apartment, and she had to pass through the airlock to get there. She knew how to overrule the security and bypass the alarm at the airlock. The last time she had been there she had stayed for about an hour before her headache became impossible to ignore. It was a small room with a small desk next to the window frame which was only covered with foil. There was nothing to be gained from bringing a canister of oxygen because the seals of the window frame had basically rotted away.

After placing her flashlight into the holder, she neatly laid the set of knives on top of the desk. She knew she was about to conduct a dangerous investigation and she probably shouldn’t do it, but she couldn’t care less at that moment. She had to prove to herself she was smart enough to do this research. With trembling hands she opened the seal of the roll and carefully removed the lid.

So far so good: nothing had happened, and the vines were still as rigid as before. She let them slide down onto her desk and turned them in such a way that the sharp thorns were facing away from her. Andena was both fascinated and excited that she was finally going to get a close look. She was amazed to see how smooth the surface of the vine was and that the grey colour was a mix of different thin stripes. There were all kinds of different colours intertwined with thicker black lines.

Andena was mesmerised by the way in which the patterns gave the vine its lively grey colour. The soft lustre made the vine seem as though it were made of silk while in reality, it was a thin layer of a somewhat sticky wax. She was tracing one of the thicker black lines with her finger and was wondering what the inside of the vine would look like. As she was tracing the stick with her finger, she saw something moving in the corner of her left eye. Slowly turning her head sideways she saw the lines slowly turning towards her and was horrified to discover that the thorn had turned itself upwards.

This could not be happening! How was it possible for a dead and sturdy vine to suddenly become so flexible? Before she could fathom what was happening she felt the vine latch onto her arm while coiling around her wrist and the next instant, she felt a wonderfully warm tingling sensation spreading over her body.

She gasped knowing that she was doomed.

It was over!

Andena was starting to feel dizzy, as she slowly collapsed against the window she heard the cracking of the seal which had become brittle.

She became even more euphoric when the second wave of bliss shot up from her leg. Andena sighed knowing that she had lost the fight but she didn’t care anymore because she loved how she felt.

Then another tingling sensation soared through her relaxed body and when it reached her head, the darkness was upon her. She was too far gone to realise that the bottom of the window frame had given away and that she had started to slip through the gap. Her boot prevented her from falling for a few seconds until her ankle twisted a little and her lifeless body fell like a ragdoll from the nine hundredth level.

Lunn was travelling up in the lift to Andena’s apartment. He had managed to overrule the control panel, and as such, it now wouldn’t stop until it reached the designated destination. He hated the fact that he was the one that had to deliver the bad news to Andena by telling her that she was no longer on his team. He had considered ignoring Danette’s demand, but her input and the massive amount of work she had done for the group was too valuable to ignore. He was going to have to hold his hands up and admit to Andena that he had messed up. Deep in thought, it was a moment or two before he realised that the lift had stopped. Gathering his wits, he walked in silence along the narrow hall to Andena’s small apartment.

He felt rotten having to be the one to shatter her dreams: especially when she had given up her ordinary life to be part of their elite group. He sighed, aware that she was unlikely to ever forgive him for this. He knew he was on the verge of losing one of the best recruits he ever had, and that made him angry. If it hadn’t been for the damned aphrodisiac and the fact that Andena had carelessly left her thong in his bedroom, then Danette would never have found out about their fling. Sometimes life could be extremely unfair. He breathed out forcefully. He knew it was time to face facts and start showing some leadership. Straightening his back he knocked softly but firmly on the door. He waited for a while and then knocked louder when Andena didn’t respond. Perhaps she was simply reluctant to answer her door to strangers. After he had knocked for the third time, he called out in a clear voice. “Andena. It’s me! Lunn.”