“Oh.” Ellie suffered a moment of confusion. “Of course.”
She knew something had to be wrong. Breeze led her toward the bathroom, which stumped her more. Rusty and Kit waited by the door. Breeze shoved it open and Ellie followed her inside. Sunshine checked stalls to make sure they weren’t in use.
“All clear,” Sunshine announced. “We are alone.”
Ellie glanced over her shoulder as the door closed to find Rusty and Kit blocked the exit. Ellie shifted her attention to Breeze. “What is going on?”
Breeze sighed. “You can’t leave the dorm without one of us with you. I want you to sleep inside my room or one of us will stay inside yours. You are to never be without one of us near you.”
“Um…why?” Ellie arched her eyebrows as she glanced at each woman.
Breeze held her attention with a frown. “Fury is outside again. We didn’t want to frighten you but we’ve seen him examining the building on many occasions. Last night he came closer and we suspect he is testing the security to find a way inside.”
Shock rolled through Ellie. “Why would he do that?”
A loud alarm suddenly started to blast out sharp warnings, startling all five women. Ellie knew it wasn’t the fire alarm, the pitch was too high. It was the lockdown signal. She moved fast, fleeing the bathroom. Kit and Rusty were ahead of her as she ran to the front door but no one stood there attempting to break in. The alarm continued to scream. Ellie turned and saw a dozen New Species women rush toward her.
“Lockdown,” Ellie yelled. “Go.”
Ellie moved and grabbed the emergency phone from the wall. It rang once before someone at the security building answered. “This is Ellie Brower from the women’s dorm. What is going on?” She made sure the door had automatically locked by giving it a tug.
“We have a breach,” the security guard yelled over the phone, their fear apparent. “One of those activists groups have broken through the main gate. We have forces headed your way but make sure your women are secure and the doors are closed.”
“Son of a bitch,” Ellie ground out. She slammed the phone down and spun around to discover some of the women were still there.
“It’s those crazy assholes who have been protesting outside the gates about—” She pressed her lips together, finding no polite way to finish that sentence. “Go lock yourselves inside your rooms please. The main gate has been breached but security is on the way. We’ll be absolutely safe inside.”
Breeze cursed. “It’s the humans who think we should be killed, isn’t it?”
Ellie couldn’t deny it so she didn’t try. “They’re stupid. They should go home and wait for their alien spaceships to come get their crazy asses because I don’t count them as human. They should go back to their own planet and leave ours alone.”
Sunshine snorted as she strolled away. “I’ll be in my room then.”
Breeze showed her anger by wrinkling her nose. “We will wait here with you.”
Ellie shook her head. “You know its protocol to go to your rooms. I’ll be fine. I need to stand here to man the door in case some of our women need to be let inside. Some are still out there on the way back from school. Those assholes busted through the main gate and they might have guns. I want you safe. My job is to stay here and it’s yours to go upstairs.”
Breeze hesitated.
“Please? I’m fine,” Ellie swore.
Breeze jerked her head toward the women who still stood there, indicating they should go. Ellie blew out the deep breath she’d held, relieved, while she watched them head for the stairs. They avoided the elevators that wouldn’t work with the alarms triggered. She faced the door to stare outside, spotting nothing out of the ordinary.
She hated activists who targeted the New Species Organization. Ever since the news outlets had broken the story about the research testing-facility survivors, some hate groups had popped up, claiming the victims were nothing but animals, ones they believed didn’t have rights and should be destroyed. Ellie clenched her teeth. The only animals who needed put down, in her opinion, were the ones who threatened the well-being of New Species.
Ellie tensed when she heard an engine race up the street. She saw one of the security cars drive around a corner too fast, another vehicle following it—a large pickup truck that appeared to have been converted into a want-to-be tank. On the side of the truck the word “Hunters” had been spray painted childishly in bright red. Ellie watched in horror as the truck rammed the much smaller security car, causing it to lose control and fishtail. The tires on the smaller vehicle hit the curb, came to an abrupt halt in front of the building, and the truck locked up behind it. Ellie gaped at the sight of guns when two jeans-clad men jumped from the back of the truck. Worse, she saw the back door of the security vehicle thrown open and two women sprinted toward Ellie.
The two security guards who exited the car pulled their weapons and gunfire erupted. The men from the truck dived behind it and returned fire, giving the women time to run to the dorm. Ellie’s hands shook badly as she gripped the door and prayed hard for the sisters, Blue and Sky, to reach her safely. Ellie threw her weight against the door she’d opened and pressed her body tight against the glass to get out of the way of the two large women who barreled through the open doorway.
“Go to your rooms,” Ellie ordered them. She slammed the door closed and jerked on it to make certain the automatic locks engaged. When the door didn’t budge, she released it and lunged for the phone on the wall.
It was dead.
Ellie reeled, horrified. The intruders laughed and two of them high-fived each other. They turned to face the
