I stay on Jackson’s heel and punch him in his chest with the boxing glove. “What the hell do you know about my father?”
Swiping my hand away, as though it’s lent, Jackson says, “I know he cared a great deal about his family and would have wanted me to make sure if anything ever came against you, you’d survive.”
“My father put you up to this?” I take a step away from him. “You befriended me so you could train me?”
Jackson steps behind the punching bag and looks around it as he takes it in his hands. “Will you just kick the damn bag and stop asking so many questions?”
I shove the tip of my shoe against the bag. “There. Kicked it. You and the rest of the guys talk about my father as though he was some mysterious figure. Like if you said his name something bad would happen or your secrets will be revealed.” I shout my father’s name at the top of my lungs, “Teddy Raven.” My voice bounces around the basement, but no magic dust or secret villains pop up. Splaying my arms out at my sides, I say, “Nothing happened.”
Jackson rounds the bag, contempt stuck in his dark eyes. He steps right up to me, his frame towering over mine, shoulders far broader than mine, muscles in his neck jumping from hostility or restraint. His jawbone jumps, and his sigh washes over my face.
I hold my breath, waiting on his next move. I won’t cower away.
Jackson bends near my ear. His lips are so close, I feel their energy radiating between us. Low and nearly inaudible, he says, “They are always listening. Out of our homes and within them. Now, please, stop bringing up your father. When the time is right, you’ll know.”
It’s at this moment I realize my father was far more important than just Teddy Raven. And maybe he ran a double life. Maybe it was something he didn’t want my mother and me to get involved in because he knew we’d end up like him, or worse.
I return to the punching bag, dropping the subject and waiting for Jackson to bring it back up again.
Day in and day out, Jackson and I crowd our time with each other. He’s insistent on teaching me everything there is to know about the dome from his perspective and comparing this to what we were made to believe. We sit in his backyard, on the steps leading down to his basement.
“This,” he points above our heads, “is a prison. They aren’t protecting us. They’re studying us. I’m willing to bet, if we were to get out of this place, the world would be the way we left it. Trees for miles, new faces, different houses on every block, and none of those human-androids walking around, watching over us.”
“But they said—”
Jackson shakes his head. “Ari, you’ve got to stop believing what they say. Everyone doesn’t always have your best interest at heart.”
“But you do, huh?” I snip.
Jackson looks away from me, tossing our last grape into his mouth. “Don’t worry about my heart. Just watch your back.” Rising to his feet, he says, “Let’s go back inside and work on your front kick.”
I grab the bowl and follow him back into his house. “You’re always so angry about everything. Is there anything about this place that makes you happy, considering you’re forced to live here now?”
Jackson turns his attention to me, halfway to the table placed in the corner that holds stacks of papers and blueprints. Briefly, our gazes meet, and his falls to the floor as he says, “Yes.” Grabbing two mitts, he stuffs his hands into them and claps them together. “Let’s go. Three times with the left leg and then the right.”
I drag my feet as I cross the floor, grumbling. “All work and no play makes for a miserable man, Jackson.”
He rolls his eyes.
It’s like this. Days on end, Jackson trains me on how to fight and defend myself. He helps me grow stronger and explore our town in areas beyond city limits. I learn how to avoid cameras and microphones and how to tell where they’re hidden.
Jackson believes that one day, everything will change again, and he isn’t going to be taken by surprise when it does. He believes that one day, we won’t be confined to the dome anymore, and on that day, the people of our small town will wish somebody had warned them and trained them to fight for their freedom.
The shooting stars that are like lights that flash above our heads, he believes those are the aliens. He thinks we’re seeing their arrival, and they will soon affect our planet, not that they already have. Jackson thinks the government putting us in a dome was for preparation. My question to his theory is, why save us? Little old Tulson Valley. Prepare us for what?
“The next phase,” is always his reply, but he like everyone else doesn’t know what that next phase is.
Jackson’s and my time together is long and full of work and lessons. Until one day, it isn’t.
“You can do better than that, Ari!” Jackson smacks the side of the punching bag as I throw punch after punch against worn leather that’s slathered in black tape and my sweat. He steps from behind the bag. “Maybe you need to see what it feels like to punch flesh.”
He’s riding me hard today, forcing me to push my tired body to its limits, and I’m ready to pass out.
I throw a punch at his face. He snatches me by my wrist and yanks me forward as he’s twisting me around. He throws his arms around me, and his constricting hold is hard to break free of.
I twist my upper body and try to move my secured arms against his hold. “I can’t break free,” I grunt, trying again, but there’s no use. “You got me.”
Calmly, as his arms push further around me into an embrace that’s less evasive, he earnestly utters, “I know.” And asks, “Forever?”
His heart is pounding so hard in his chest, I can feel it against my back. A triple thud, quicker than I’ve ever felt a heartbeat. My breaths were thrashing against my fist, inches beneath my chin. Jackson exhales once and then holds his breath, maybe to calm his racing heart.
Slightly turning my head, I meet his dark eyes. My gaze drops to his lips and then away as I say, “Your heart is beating erratically.”
“I know,” he says weakly.
“But why?”
Jackson breathes. “It’s trying to feel you.” He holds me tighter and drops his chin on my shoulder. “I think it might want you too.”
I break out of his arms and cross the room to a table nearest the wall that holds a lot of his workout equipment. Bands, a few light weights, boxing gloves, and towels. I snatch up a towel and rub it across my forehead. I’ve waited months to hear him say this, but I’m not ready for it. Not after what I’ve learned about this prison and the hell that may come upon it. “I don’t know what it feels like to be wanted.”
“Yes, you do.” Jackson reclaims his spot behind me. “For the past six months, you’ve felt what it’s like to be wanted. Don’t make me ask again.”
I twist around, brows knit. “Ask what?”
Relaxing the muscles in his face, he stares at me with so much seriousness. He licks his lips and says again, “Forever?”
I look away from him, as I say, “For now.”
“That’s good enough.” He leaves me, going back to the bag. “Tomorrow, I’ll earn forever.” When he makes it to the bag, he nods for me to come over, and I go.
From then on, Jackson and I own every morning, afternoon, and evening. He even started going to school, though we only have one semester left until graduation. But we no longer talk about whatever is going on in or outside the dome. His insecurities fade, and I fall in love.
Chapter Five
I lift my gaze to the line of soldiers, avoiding their eyes as mine slices over the five of them. Uncertainty rumbles in my stomach, causing my hands to shake. “What?” I shrug. “I’m giving you everything you’re asking me for.”
“What’s the story behind your father?” Commander Fields asks.
Shrugging, as convincingly as I can, I say, “I don’t know. Jackson didn’t let me in on that part of his life. After the day we finally acknowledged we had feelings for each other, he became even more secretive. He became a d
ifferent person altogether. He changed from worrying to settling for the way things are. He breathed differently, evenly, as though contentment had finally rested in him. And we never thought twice about this place or our trouble.”
Jackson made me promise once to never risk my life for him. That I was more important because my father thought I held the key to breaking through and changing this new way of life for us. Jackson sees in me the ability to lead a revolution, and that’s why he trained me.
“Are you lying to us, Ari?”
Gaze on my hands, I shake my head. My silence seems to reveal my inner thoughts, and Commander Fields crosses the floor. A hissing sound follows a click, and Commander Fields sets his helmet on the table. In the chair sat across from me on the other side of the table, he sits and slips on a pair of mirrored sunglasses.
His body is still encased in his exoskeleton armor suit, and he rakes his shielded hand through his gray hair. “You know a lot more than you’re informing, Ari Raven.” Out of the helmet, his voice is lighter, less hollow. He almost sounds pleasant, trustworthy, but I know better. “I understand your loyalty to your friends and family. Last chance.”
Last chance, huh?
I scoff, flicking my gaze to my left and back. The room is bright, but the black suits of the soldiers cast a soft shadow on the white walls.
Leaning against the backrest of my chair, my blink is slow. My façade changes once I push my childish anecdotes aside. It’s time I stopped playing with these narcissistic assholes.
“Hey, I know you have Jackson. So why don’t you cut the shit and tell me why I’m really here?” I slam my hand on the table. “Stop trying to milk me for information I can’t give you.”
Commander Fields’ left eyebrow rises, perking up over his sunglasses. He cracks a grin. “Bring her in,” he says in an orderly voice.
Nothing within the room changes. I rotate in my chair. A soldier taps a panel that blends in with the white plaster, dialing in a three-digit code. This entire time, the wall behind me was in fact a door.
To my left, where I thought the wall continued, light flickers behind a foggy glass window. The fog snaps away, making it clear to see inside, and another room is revealed.
I jump to my feet and race to the window, slapping the glass at my approach. “Mom! Gloria!” They don’t react to my call. I whip around to Commander Fields. “What are you doing with them?” I shout, face burning with anger.
“Sit.” A soldier, whom I didn’t hear approach, says from behind me.
Backing to my seat, I keep my eyes on my mother and sister. Their gazes roam the room where they’re accompanied by a leather sofa, wooden table, and a large stuffed dinosaur sitting in the corner. My sister’s gaze lingers on it for a bit as I assume she wonders where she is. They hold each other’s shivering bodies as they scan the room, fear streaming tears from their eyes. Gloria’s lips part, and Mom’s mouth moves in a hushing motion. Gloria’s burning red cheeks and glossy green eyes tell me though they’ve been left alone, she fears it’s not a good sign.
I wait, breaths growing heavier by the second. “I... I,” I stutter. “I’m telling you the truth.” I tear my gaze away from my family to look at Commander Fields, but quickly shift my attention back to them before my next words peep from me. “Jackson was the world to me. I was everything to Jackson. He would want me to tell you, if only to keep us safe. I’ve told you the truth.”
“We will make sure of that,” Commander Fields informs. “The mother,” he says, flicking his wrist. “Hold back the girl.”
Prongs rise from the tile floor and wrap around my frightened sister’s arms. She screams for our mother to help her as she’s yanked away to a corner of the room. Mother’s reaching for her but jumps back as a large cord with a needle head shoots up from the floor. Electric currents spark from the tip of the needle. It rises, high near the ceiling, my scrambling mother in its sight as she’s shuffling across the floor on her butt, scooting toward the wood table for protection. She gets beneath it.
Unfazed by her cowering, the cord strikes fast as light, charging through the air with silver currents sparking off its needle head. Through the table, it cracks the wood and dives through her temple. Electric currents charge through her until smoke flows from her eyes and mouth.
I fall from the chair, hunched over on my knees, regurgitating as screams cut from my throat.
Commander Fields crosses his arms and nods toward the glass window. “Now the girl.”
On my feet, I slam my hands down on the table. “Please, no! Not my sister.” I look at him head on, seeing my reflection in his glasses.
Slowly, he shakes his head.
I look back to the room. The needle-headed cord is already charging for her.
I look away, gaze on the silver, matte table. Sorrowfully, I utter, “I told you I don’t know where Jackson is.” My tears splash on its surface. “You took him. You didn’t have to kill my family.”
Commander Fields stands and puts on his helmet. There’s a heavy sigh, one that’s annoyed and satisfied. “Where you’re going, you won’t remember her, anyway. Clean her,” he instructs his minions. “Get this trash out of my sight and make sure she’s ready for the doctor.”
I’m snatched to my feet by my shoulders, heels sliding across the floor as they drag me to the door. “Wait. Don’t erase me. I’ll find Jackson and get the detail you need. Don’t make me forget.” I can’t forget him.
“We know you’ll find him,” Commander Fields says with a smile.
I’m yanked out of the room and forced down a bright hallway. My sneakers squeak across the glass tile floor as they drag me to a room labeled, Road 22. It’s a room I’ve only heard about from someone who had claimed to be here once but got free. We didn’t believe them. People ranted on about crazy schemes all the time, so we took it as a load of manure. If his stories are true, this is the last place on earth I want to end up. Who I am today, I may not know her tomorrow.
Chapter Six
The collar of my shirt chokes me as the soldier drags me backward. We enter a bright room with monitors and glass cabinets. They lift me off my feet and slam me onto a bed pad placed on top of a stretcher. It reacts under the impact, squeaking as it bounces beneath me.
I kick my legs and fling my arms, trying to keep the soldiers at bay. “Stop! Please don’t do this!”
They rip off my shirt, exposing my stomach. Snatching my arms to my sides and yanking my ankles downwards to straighten my legs, they try to strap me down. I flap about like a fish out of water. My heart’s pounding, and sweat drenches my flesh.
It’s over, Ari. You’ll wake up from this no longer Ari Raven. Forget about Jackson. Mother and Gloria are gone. Forget about Dad. You’ve lost if you don’t break out of here.
I squeeze my eyes shut and take a deep breath.
A man says, “Hurry and get this over with, Dr. Glauser.” Something snaps like the rim of a latex glove meeting someone’s wrist. “The boss needs her transformed ASAP, and I’ve got lunch in thirty.”
It’s my queue. With all my might, I yank my limbs to my center, ball my fists, and thrust out my arms and feet, kicking and punching anyone around me.
The doctor, dressed in green scrubs and goggles strapped around his head, stumbles back from my jab to his chest. The two soldiers are retracting the short distance from my kicks that forced them away.
I jump away from their attempt to snatch me, flipping off the mattress. The stretcher scoots as I do, and I notice it has wheels. I shove it against the soldiers’ stomachs and race from Road 22.
If they want me, they’ll have to work harder than this.
I bust into the hallway, heading left. I hit a fork, quickly deciphering if I should head left or right. They look the same, long white halls. Nerves shake my legs, and I bounce on toes ready to shoot off either direction.
Right.
I flee, going unfollowed. I hit a dead end with only a white door to my left. The knob is platinum, lit from
the ceiling, shining brightly against its sphere. I take it in my hand, taken aback by its warmth.
I pull open the door, cautiously step in, and tug it closed behind me.
I halt. The hairs rise on the back of my neck. A gasp expels air from my lungs, and I whip around to go back into the hall, but the door has locked.
What have I walked into?
Glass windows are on both sides of the long hall, looking into compact rooms holding abnormal creatures. The tip of my sneaker drags across the floor as I warily approach the first window on my left.
Within the room, an animal-like creature, a gorilla’s body with a head that is a cross between a lion and human, sits in the middle of the floor. Instead of the lion’s muzzle, its nose and mouth are of a man, but the eyes belong to a lion and the mane make up the rest of the face.
Inside the room, grass lines the floor, two trees are in a corner, and water streams down the walls. The creation stares at me, never moving. It just lets me study it. Stare at it.
My stomach turns, and I resist the urge to gag as I wrap my arms around my middle. “They’re experimenting with…” I look to my right, at the human child, trembling in the middle of the floor. “With humans and animals?” The child doesn’t look toward the window. Their back is to me. They sit with their knees drawn to their chest in a room filled with white flakes. Maybe snow, which explains why they tremble. An uneasy feeling sinks in my stomach and turns my knees to jello. I hurry along, not wanting to wait for them to turn around. “What are they trying to create?”
In the next window is a slender creature, with long legs and arms, made up of rubber looking flesh. Beneath its flesh are glitter-looking components churning through it like lava. Black, big narrowed eyes stare at the glass. Within its eyes is reflected the window. Maybe that’s why the Gorilla-lion-man didn’t acknowledge me. It was staring at its reflection, not me.
The Separation Trilogy Box Set: Books 1 -3 Page 91
