All American Rejects (Users #3) by Stacy, Jennifer Buck Page B

the wind out of him, and Carter grabbed his stomach as he gasped for air.
    "They're done." Carter heard Alaric proclaim, but he wasn't done, not yet.
    Coughing, Carter rolled over to his hands and knees, stumbled to get up, and finally rose back to his feet.
    "Come on you bastard," Carter said between deep breaths. "Come on!"
    Alaric casually stepped over to stand in front of Carter. "I said you were done."
    "Get fucked!" Carter threw a feeble punch aimed for Alaric's chin, but Alaric shifted his head to one side, avoiding the blow.
    Carter didn't even see the punch, a devastating upper cut that Alaric put right under Carter's jaw. Next thing he knew, Carter was flying backward through the air. Everything was black.
    "Get Barber and Ryker." Carter heard Alaric, despite not being able to see him. "Leave the other two."

Chapter 12
     
    Barber rubbed his aching head before he could even open his eyes. When he did finally open them, he didn't like what he saw. He blinked a number of times, just to make sure it was real. He was laid out on a hard surface, and there was a sheet of glass between him and the outside world. He looked up, but there was only more glass, except for the very top of the cylinder where a tube connected with the glass. He guessed that it was for ventilation of some sort.
    Slowly, Barber sat up and he yelled in pain as the pounding in his head got worse. He gripped the sides of his face and found dried blood running from his ears down onto his cheeks. The vein on the side of his head pulsed painfully. The last thing he remembered was being on top of Stella, stabbing her repeatedly, and then her letting out a scream that blasted him through the air. Everything after that was a blur.
    Something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Startled, he turned and placed both hands palm down against the glass and peered out through his translucent cage. Sitting calmly in a glass cylinder was Ryker. He had his legs crossed and his hands in his lap as if nothing were wrong with this scenario.
    "Ryker!" Barber called, but the man didn't even flinch. "Ryker!" The sound of his voice reverberated throughout the glass tube he was in. Finally, as if Ryker could feel Barber's eyes on him, the man turned his head slightly to look over at him.
    Ryker's lips moved as if he was saying something, but Barber heard nothing. He wondered if his ears were damaged much worse than he had originally thought, or if the glass tubes were really sound proof. Ryker said something again, stopped, and looked around confused as if he were finally catching on to the fact that Barber couldn't hear a damn word he was saying.
    Barber slammed his palms against the glass, but nothing happened. His skin ripped as one of his bony spikes tore through the back of his wrist. He made a fist and punched the spike into the glass, but again nothing happened. Not even a scratch.
    Ryker shook his head and pressed down the air with his right hand in a motion that told Barber to calm down. Barber fell back against the glass and slid down to a sitting position. He placed his hands on his knees, hung his head, and let out a sigh. They were trapped.
    A flash of white passing in front of the glass caught his attention. Barber looked up to find a man in a white lab coat, carrying a clipboard and pen, staring at him. The man looked at him as if he were an alien creature, something to be studied and ultimately dissected. The man scribbled something down on the board and moved away. Barber watched him go, and as he did, he peered out past the man in the lab coat, past Ryker, and beyond to examine their surroundings.
    There were dozens of empty glass tubes lined up against the far wall, and he very suddenly came to the realization that they were probably not always empty. As it struck him he knew that, at one point, they more than likely held their now dead friends in them, and that at any moment, he could be joining them in the pile of bodies. A pile which, no