by Eliza Green
Dom increased the speed as he aimed for the entrance. It would either have a barrier or it wouldn’t.
Anya’s breaths shortened to fine points. If this didn’t work, little would protect them from the kickback. Dom couldn’t have looked more nervous if he tried. He kept his wide-eyed gaze ahead. Anya rattled out a breath as the entrance grew closer.
The wheels of the truck hit a bump designed to slow vehicles down. The truck skidded to the left, and their speed slowed. Dom righted the truck and launched it at the open entrance. A screech built up in Anya’s throat. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the impact.
But it never came. She opened her eyes to see Dom still driving. Along the central road. Inside Praesidium. They had made it. A laugh bubbled out of her. Dom screeched to a halt next to a tag machine just past the Business District. Anya checked behind her to see the other trucks filing in. The barrier was down. She looked ahead of her, her chest still tight with stress.
The place was too quiet. Where was the welcome party?
‘This doesn’t feel right,’ she said, huffing out her stress.
Dom loosened his stiff posture, but only a little. ‘No it doesn’t.’
A knock on the window startled them both. It was Jacob.
They climbed out of the truck. Three dozen armed soldiers filled the spaces between the vehicles.
Anya and Dom gathered with Charlie, Vanessa, Jacob and Carissa.
‘Where’s the resistance?’ asked Dom.
Jacob shook his head. ‘I thought there’d be an army waiting for us.’
Anya had dreaded this moment, but to get revenge on the Collective, this was where she needed to be. If her parents’ deaths had pushed her out of reality, Jason’s death had pushed her back into it.
In truth, that had already happened with the return of her memories from Arcis. Knowing the Collective had forced her through nine floors of hell, all while she had to watch her friends die, was reason enough to make it pay.
But standing in this city, she felt as empty as the city looked.
Dom handed her a weapon. One of the revolvers, for defensive purposes only. He carried a more lethal weapon: the Disruptor. But it only worked by stealing the power from the machines. Without any power present, the gun was currently empty.
Sheila, June, Imogen, Kaylie and Thomas got out of their respective trucks. Kaylie instructed her team to set up a defensive arc.
Anya walked along the central road, putting a little distance between them and the trucks. A high wall stood to one side of them; the entrance to a large, three-tiered accommodation block lay to the other. It felt strange to be back in the city while free.
To her left, inset into the wall, was the door they’d used to escape from the underground tunnels. In the distance, a large, white building sat taller than the rest.
‘It’s the Learning Centre,’ said Carissa.
Anya frowned. ‘What’s in there?’
‘There’s a download/upload room. But it’s also where the Collective live, or rather where its program does.’
Anya examined the building at the heart of Praesidium. With no sun and no barrier, the plain, white exterior looked duller than she remembered. In fact, the entire place looked flat.
‘Do you think they’re still in there?’
Carissa shrugged. ‘I can’t sense them.’
Jacob came to stand next to her. He cupped his hand over his eyes and looked into the distance. ‘That doesn’t mean anything, miss. You’ve disconnected yourself from the Collective.’
‘But I can still hear Quintus.’
That was news to Anya.
Jacob looked down at her, apparently not shocked by the news. ‘Was it your memory or was it him?’
Carissa blushed. ‘I don’t know. It sounded new.’
‘What did he say? Tell me.’
Carissa shifted on the spot, as if uncomfortable. ‘He wants me to come home. But he said that same thing to me on the battlefield, so I can’t be sure it wasn’t a replay.’
Jacob patted her on the back. ‘It’s okay.’ He frowned at the Learning Centre. ‘We’ll be okay.’
At one time, Anya would have blamed the Copies for everything. But the more time she spent with Carissa, the more she saw that the girl had only been following orders. Humans were to blame for this mess. They’d blindly followed the Collective inside Essention. Anya had permitted it to enrol her in Arcis and she’d lost her memories because of it. If humans followed less and took action more, perhaps this world would be a different one today.
She lifted her gun, glad to have chosen a side that cared enough to fight.
But still, the empty city chilled her. Their group walked towards the Learning Centre. Anya glanced at the accommodation block to their right and the apartments that appeared to be vacant. Dom appeared at her side suddenly. She jumped in fright.
She was doing that a lot lately.
‘You okay?’ he asked. ‘You look a little on edge.’
‘Yeah. Just don’t like being back here. You?’
His gaze swept the accommodation. ‘Yeah.’
Sharp movement from inside the block startled her. She stopped just as Rover growled low and deep. A dozen Copies streamed out of the building, all armed, all running at them.
‘This is an ambush!’ yelled Dom. ‘Fall back!’
But their trucks were a half a kilometre away.
Between them and the vehicles were four wolves that had not travelled with them.
6
Dom
Dom jerked back at the sight of the Copies. He didn’t remember much about this city. From the time he’d arrived to his departure, everything had been hazy. But one Copy had stuck in his mind. One of his guards, who’d not only treated him poorly, but also pretended his mother, Mariella, was still alive.
Yeah, he remembered him all right. And now that Copy was running at him. Not just one, but twelve of him. Each version of his prison guard wore the same sneer on his face.
‘Everyone, fan out!’ he ordered.
If they couldn’t get to the trucks, they’d have to fight.
The Copies fired at them.
Kaylie shouted to her team and they fired back, long enough for Rover to get into position and provide them with cover. The bullets bounced off his exterior. Jacob and Carissa cowered behind him. Rover’s mate did the same as him, facing off against Copies she’d once listened to. Charlie and Vanessa hid behind her. Dom didn’t have the firepower to help them. He hoped he wouldn’t need it.
Dom’s nemesis came running at him. He couldn’t tell which one was the Copy he’d battled with. Did it matter? In his eyes, they were all the same.
His gaze flicked to a cowering Carissa, eyes set wide, and Rover and his mate defending her. Okay, maybe not all the machines were the same. He checked for Anya. She and June had merged with the line of soldiers, their revolvers poised and ready. Sheila and Imogen, too. Thomas crouched low with the Atomiser, which was capable of punching a hole in Praesidium’s tech. Rebel soldiers hit the Copies with blasts from their Electro Guns. The electricity bounced off some kind of personal shield the Copies wore. But not all of them appeared to have one. Two went down.
Kaylie and her team were driving forward.
Thomas kept low as he shuffled closer to Dom. Dom raised the Disruptor, drawing the spent energy out of the air to charge it.
‘Use the Atomiser to punch a hole in their shields,’ he said to Thomas.
Sheila and Imogen slipped back behind the soldiers, who had fanned out. They were attempting to sneak up on the Copies, who were huddled in groups of three. One from each group appeared to hold what looked like a shield, while another fired around it. Anya popped off a shot at one of the Copies. It bounced off the front of the shield before hitting the Copy’s outstretched arm. Dom’s former guard jerked his arm back.
The purpose of the bullets wasn’t to kill; it was to distract. Thomas aimed the Atomiser at one shield and fired. A hole appeared in th
e shimmering, transparent barrier. Before the Copies could refocus, Dom fired the partial energy from the Disruptor at the shield; it hit the guard. He reversed the action on the gun and sucked the Copy’s energy plus that of the shield back inside the weapon.
Now, he had real power. The trio of guards regrouped and huddled behind the remaining shields. Dom wondered which one was his actual guard. Many Copies lived in this city. What was the purpose of replicating just one?
To create an infinite army, perhaps?
Kaylie and her team fired their Electro Guns at the enemy. It gave Sheila and Imogen time to pick up the discarded weapons belonging to the Copies. Kaylie and her team tossed their spent weapons on the ground and kept firing with active ones.
Dom took cover behind a tall, white tag station. Thomas stayed with him.
‘Hit their shields again and I’ll blast them with the Disruptor.’
Thomas nodded. His fingers were white from clutching the Atomiser too tight.
Electro Gun shots from the Copies hit a couple of soldiers who hadn’t moved fast enough. They went down. The enemy moved in, but Anya and June popped off shots at their heads to keep them back. Behind him, Dom heard an exchange of growls and a ‘Carissa, get back!’ from Jacob. He turned to see the wolves that had blocked their retreat to the trucks were moving in. Rover and his mate snapped and snarled at the unwelcome visitors. The wolves launched themselves at each other in a weird display of dominance.
He faced forwards. One of the Copy guards had broken off from the pack and was almost at him. A light shimmer from his personal shield distorted his face.
Rattled, Dom raised the Disruptor and set it to fire, but a blast of electricity near his fingers forced him to drop the gun. Thomas scrabbled back from the danger.
‘I thought it was you,’ the Copy said with a sneer.
His prison guard. It had to be.
The other Copies moved in on the others’ location. He heard a scream. Female. His eyes searched the crowd, but the guard blocked his view. Thomas raised the Atomiser.
The Copy flicked his gaze to him. ‘I wouldn’t do that. I’ve got a gun on him.’
Thomas lowered the Atomiser.
Dom clutched his arm, the one that the blast had hit. The one without the tech in it. ‘I didn’t expect you to still be here. Where is everyone?’
‘Gone.’
‘Really?’
‘Would I lie to you?’ he drawled.
Dom lunged for the spare gun in his waistband, but his ex-guard blasted the ground. The electricity bounced around and hit his metal arm, making a weird, twanging noise.
‘Ah, yes, I forgot about that,’ the Copy said. ‘I hoped the infection might have killed you, but I suspected it hadn’t.’
Seeing his prison guard again stirred up his worst memories, but all Dom felt for him right then was pity. At least Dom had his freedom.
He smiled.
That only angered his former guard. ‘What are you smiling at, Original?’
‘I’m just wondering why the Collective chose you to copy, chose you to put your life on the line to stop us.’
The Copy sneered in response. ‘I volunteered.’
That made Dom laugh. ‘Really? The Collective likes to protect its best assets. If you were one, you wouldn’t be here. Did you use that crude machine to make copies of yourself?’
The guard’s sneer lifted the edges of his mouth. He glanced back. ‘Looks like your team is on the back foot.’
Dom saw the fight was almost over, but it wasn’t his team that was losing. Rover and his mate were managing to keep the connected wolves back.
A sharp sting caught his leg, sending him to his knees. His former guard lorded over him, looking ready to finish the job he’d tried to do while Dom was prisoner.
‘I volunteered for this because I wanted to be the one to kill you.’
He pressed his finger down on the release trigger. Dom reached up and grabbed the end of the gun. With a strength he had yet to test, he ripped the gun from the Copy’s iron grip and tossed it away. The guard stared at him, wide-eyed. Dom got to his feet and tore the shield away. He grabbed the Copy’s neck and pushed him back against the tag machine.
His mother appeared to him. She was standing beside him, telling him everything would be okay. She told him to squeeze harder. So he did.
The Copy’s mouth fell open. He looked as though he was struggling for air.
These things aren’t real.
Dom’s fingers dug into the Copy’s soft flesh. That was the only part that truly disturbed him: how real these things felt. It reminded him of Anya’s Copy and her almost-successful attempts to seduce him.
Dom blinked and shook his head. Mariella stayed with him, whispering, ‘Keep going, my child. You’re almost there.’
He didn’t believe his mother wanted him to kill another. Even at the end, his father had not destroyed her goodness, but he had definitely destroyed Dom’s.
The Copy became his father, Carlo. He continued to squeeze.
A warm hand on his arm broke him free of his obsession. He blinked.
‘Let him go, Dom.’ It was Charlie. Jacob and Vanessa were with him. ‘He’s not worth it.’
Dom glanced at the Copies to see they’d been dealt with, except for this one.
He refocused on his former guard. ‘I have to. I need to.’
Carlo refused to die. He lived on in his angry son.
‘No, you don’t,’ said Charlie. ‘Don’t let your time here turn you into one of them.’
Dom blinked again. ‘You want to let him go?’
The guard’s eyes were closing, but a flicker of hope was lodged in them.
‘No, we’ll lock him up. We might need him.’
Dom released his hand, remembering why they were here. The Copy coughed and rubbed his throat. Like he was a real person.
Dom stepped back from him. He buried his anger caused by memories of his dead father, and remembered who he was. A leader.
A leader didn’t waste time on the smaller things. Or the smaller people.
He glared at the guard. ‘Where are the prisoners?’
His nemesis smiled. ‘What prisoners?’
‘The ones who were brought here. Jerome and Alex.’
The Copy shrugged.
Dom waved his hand at him and turned away. ‘You’d better get him out of my sight, Charlie, before I kill him.’
Rebel soldiers restrained the remaining Copies. Dom saw bodies on the ground. His heart seized with fear until he saw Anya was okay. He breathed out. June was with her. They were staring down at the fallen.
His gaze flicked to June, who was holding her belly. ‘And we should get June to the medical facility now.’
Charlie touched Dom’s shoulder. ‘We will. But not everyone made it, son.’
7
Anya
Just twelve Copies and four Guardians against three dozen rebel soldiers and two wolves? That was a fight the Copies could never have won.
Rover and his mate pushed the wolves back, but before Thomas and Dom could use the Atomiser and the Disruptor, they ran off. Rebel soldiers picked themselves up from the dirt. Six were dead.
Charlie said something to Dom. His eyes searched the scene frantically. Anya met his gaze, then looked down at Kaylie’s body. June stood next to her, equally shocked.
Dom strode over to their location. He stopped cold when he saw the bodies of those who’d fought to keep everyone safe.
‘I’m sorry, Dom,’ said Anya. ‘I know she was your friend.’
Dom hunkered down next to the half dozen soldiers who’d been unlucky. Including Kaylie.
He stared at her for a long moment. Then he stroked her face gently. ‘I’m glad to have known you, soldier.’
His expression hardened as he stood up.
A lump rose in Anya’s throat. There was too much death. She picked up the spare Electro Guns the dead soldiers had dropped, checking the power indicator on the side of each. She
’d used one of these in a timed maze on the fifth floor of Arcis. They’d been told to shoot holographic discs. She’d shot something else that day: Warren. Anya sensed that his parents abandoning him had turned him cold, but he’d redeemed himself a little in the end. He’d tried to save her brother. She pretended there had been nothing in it for him, no redemption—that it was just a selfless act.
Dom rubbed June’s arm. ‘We need to get you to the medical facility, now. I’ll ask the soldiers to collect our dead. The wolves will protect them while they do. We’ll bury them once you’re stable.’
The Copies were down, but Jacob manually disabled eleven of them by pressing a button at the back of their neck and accessing an open panel there.
Good to know.
A few of the soldiers kept the remaining Copy guard under control. They only needed one to enter any building in Praesidium—the one Dom was currently flashing eye daggers at. Anya could only guess the story there.
A section of their team pressed on to the medical facility. Vanessa walked ahead with June, Jacob and Carissa.
‘Is it safe to bring one of the Copies with us?’ she asked Jacob. ‘What if he’s connected, like the others?’
Jacob shook his head. ‘We need him active, in case we need to access off-limit areas.’
He looked back at Dom, who was following behind the soldiers in control of the Copy guard.
‘This one stays with us,’ Dom snapped.
‘Lucky me,’ the Copy quipped.
Dom swatted him across the top of his head and shoved him on.
Anya wasn’t sure how Dom had been able to tell the twelve Copies apart, but this one had rattled him enough that he’d just tried to kill him.
The lack of resistance bothered Anya. Twelve Copies and a few Guardians? Was that really all there was between them and the medical facility? Everyone moved more cautiously than before. If another attack happened, they would be ready.
Dom dropped back to walk beside her, constantly scanning the area.
