Escape to Eden

by Rachel McClellan

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  His jaw flexes.

  “You’re all that matters, Sage.” He reaches into his back pocket. “Take this.” He shoves a small, metal device into my hand. His fingers linger over mine, making the pain in my body just an annoying distraction.

  “I have to go help the others,” he says.

  I latch onto his hand. I don’t want him to go. It’s so selfish of me, but I don’t. The feeling overwhelms me, bringing tears to my eyes, especially when I see sweat dotting every pore on his face. Some of it is tinged with blood.

  “Please don’t go,” I say.

  Colt brings his forehead down to mine. “You could never truly love me if I stayed.”

  He kisses me hard on the mouth before pushing off the ground and flying into the air, leaving me crying after him . . . for all of two seconds before I mentally slap myself. I have to get up there to help.

  All around me is a sheer cliff wall, but a long way down the beach the cliff lessens. I take off running, more like skipping, since the pain is intense, but I mentally push past it. The metal sphere Colt gave me is cold against my tightened hand. Hurry!

  I curse him several times. Why didn’t he take the oDNA? Sure, he just saved my life, but in exchange for his own?

  Up ahead I spot four figures. I squint hard through the snowflakes landing on my eyelashes. One of them is Max. The other is Jenna. They are talking to two adults near the shore. They must be the Originals we are supposed to meet. They turn toward me, and Jenna waves her arms back and forth.

  The beach is rocky here, slowing my progress. Not much further and I’ll be able to work my way back to the fight.

  A loud explosion goes off behind me, shaking the ground, and I almost stumble. I glance behind me. Smoke at the top of the cliffs billows into the sky. My heart lurches inside my chest, and my gut twists something awful.

  I run faster.

  The only pain I feel now is in my heart.

  I begin to cut up a steep, yet passable, incline to the top when Jenna calls my name. At first I ignore her and continue to climb, but then she yells again. She sounds frantic. I glance back at her.

  She’s waving her arms along with the other two adults. Max is sitting on the ground. Something must be wrong.

  I change directions and scramble down the rocky face to run toward Max. There’s not enough time. If I could stop the earth’s rotation if only for five minutes, I could save everyone I love.

  But time has no master.

  I’m gasping for air by the time I reach Max. I go straight to him and ignore the others.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  Max shrugs his shoulders.

  “What’s this about, Jenna? I have to get back to help the others. You should come too.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” a deep voice says behind me.

  I turn around. My first thought is that he’s the oldest man I’ve ever seen. His hair is almost all gray, but his face appears younger. Only a few wrinkles gather at the corners of his eyes.

  “I mean no disrespect, sir, but I’m going back.”

  “You can’t,” the woman next to him says. She looks younger, but would still be considered old by many Primes. “The Institute will have this place surrounded within five minutes. We have to get you and your brother out of here right now. It’s your only chance.”

  “But we can’t just leave them!” I turn to Jenna, my eyes wide, my expression pleading. “Jenna?”

  She exhales. “You have to go, Patch. Take Max. I’ll go help the others.”

  “But Colt—”

  “I know. I saw him. Don’t worry about him. He’s a survivor.”

  A bubbling sound in the ocean draws my attention. A ways off the beach, in deeper waters, a submarine emerges.

  The older man takes hold of my arm. “Let’s go.”

  I knock his hand away. “Don’t touch me!”

  “Sage,” Jenna says, using my real name for the first time, “think about Max.”

  My eyes lower to my brother. He’s staring up at me, his eyes matching the blue of the ocean’s water. He’s taken his shoes off and has buried his toes in the sand, just like he used to do before our lives changed forever. When things were simpler.

  “We can’t waste any more time,” the man says. “We’re leaving with or without you, but it’s your choice.”

  “Please,” the woman says. “Come be with your kind. There’s a good life waiting for you.”

  Good life? The words twist inside me all kinds of wrong.

  Max stands and takes my hand. I follow his gaze across the ocean that seems to go on forever. At the horizon, sunlight breaks through the grays and blacks of the snowstorm. Max smiles.

  “Is this what you really want?” I ask.

  My new seemingly clear-minded brother nods.

  It’s hard to say the words, knowing I’m leaving without checking on the others, but I say them anyway. For Max.

  “Let’s go.” I look back at Jenna.

  “I don’t hug,” Jenna says like she thinks I was going to try. I was.

  “Take care of yourself,” I say to her. “And please take care of the others.”

  “I will.”

  After I pocket the device Colt gave me into the waterproof pocket in my pants, Max and I step into the ocean to go after the man and the woman. The water is cold as it fills my shoes. I pick up Max to keep him from getting wet for as long as possible.

  “My name is Audrey,” the older woman says over her shoulder. “And that’s Tom.”

  Tom is already past the waves and swimming to the submarine whose latch is now open.

  “Can the boy swim?” Audrey asks.

  “He’ll do fine.”

  A small swell reaches my thighs. The sea is calm today, soothing the storm raging inside me. I feel like such a traitor, leaving the others like this.

  Tom reaches the submarine and yells to someone inside. A small flotation device appears at the top. He takes it with one arm and tosses it to Audrey, who’s already swimming.

  She pushes it toward me. “Use this.”

  The water is at my chest when I grab it. I don’t think I’ll need it, but as soon as I start swimming, a searing pain in my ribs stops me. I grab onto the tube along with Max and kick hard.

  There’s no sign of Jenna behind me. Or anyone else. Even the smoke’s gone. It’s like they never existed.

  Audrey has one hand on the black submarine and the other is stretched toward me. I take it, and she pulls us aboard.

  “Climb in,” she says. “There are warm clothes and blankets down below. I’m a nurse and will take a look at your wounds when you’re ready.”

  “Thank you,” I say. Because it’s too difficult for me to lift Max, I’m about to ask for help, but Max scrambles by me and climbs up and into the hatch all on his own.

  The inside of the sub is surprisingly large. There are four sections divided up by narrow metal doors. Audrey leads us back to an octagonal-shaped room with bunk beds all around. She hands us each a prepared bundle.

  “There’s a shower room to your left,” she says. “Take your time. Your new world is going to take some getting used to, but you’ll fit right in. I promise.”

  “You want to go first?” I ask Max after Audrey leaves.

  He nods and cradles the cotton bundle to his chest and walks to the bathroom, but I stop him.

  “Wait a second, Max.” I take three steps to him and lightly take hold of his chin, tilting it up toward me. His blue eyes look directly into mine. There is no avoidance, no shifting, no awkwardness. “What happened to you?”

  He shrugs and turns back around. I stare after him as he disappears behind a closed door. Should I worry? Maybe this is only temporary, moments of clarity brought on by the stress of our situation.

  While Max showers, I retrieve Colt’s device from my pocket and study it. It looks to be some kind of earpiece. I push it into my ear and suck in air at the sound of
Colt’s voice.

  “Sage,” he says, “if you’re listening to this, then that means you’re safe and on your way to Eden.” He takes a deep breath. “And I probably won’t see you ever again.”

  I drop to the nearest bed, my legs weak. He is silent for several seconds. Wind blows in the background like he’s recording while flying.

  He starts up again. “I only have a few minutes since I just found out the Institute somehow discovered your location. I just hope I get to you in time.”

  The wind picks up so he speaks louder. “What you did to me earlier, I get why you tricked me, but I don’t know your motives. Did you mean anything you said or were you just saying it so I’d get the injections because you’re a good person and you would do it for anyone? Did the kiss mean anything? I may never know.”

  He hesitates. “But that’s okay. I know how I feel about you, and I can admit it now. You changed me, Sage. You gave me back my humanity and for that I will be forever grateful.

  “I have to tell you something I overheard. I debated on whether or not you should know, but if it were me, I’d want to know. When I was coming to, I heard your father say to one of the other scientists that he gave Max some kind of injection. He said he was trying to make him better. This made me mad so when he came near me, I decked him hard.”

  My father injected Max? Acid churns in my stomach.

  Colt keeps speaking, “I know he’s your father and all, and he was going to help me, but I couldn’t stop myself. Besides, there’s nothing he could’ve done to convince me to get those injections anyway. Not until I saw you safely to Eden, even if it meant my life.” He swallows hard. “Which may just happen, but I’m okay with that. You see, Sage, I began dying the day I was born. The world held nothing for me. No parents, no siblings, no friends. No love. My heart was sealed shut like so many others.

  “But then I met you. I knew there was something different about you the moment I saw you. I thought it was because you were an Original, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that it was much more than that. There was this fire in your eyes, a burning passion for life. And then you spoke of compassion and hope. Two things no one speaks about, let alone believes in.”

  He’s quiet again. His silence makes the beating of my heart louder.

  “I know the next time I see you will be my last,” he says. “If I mean anything at all to you, I want you to promise me that you will live a long life in Eden. That you will discover a world you hoped this one would be. And I promise you that if I survive this last journey, I will return to your father and get those injections, if he’ll still have me. If, by some higher power, I’m allowed to survive the Kiss, I swear I will bring back hope to this world. A world that maybe you can return to one day. Who knows? Maybe we will see each other again.” His voice grows quiet. “I hope so.”

  “Goodbye, Sage.”

  I listen to the recording a little longer to be sure there’s nothing else. There isn’t. I remove it from my ear and push it back into my pocket.

  The air in the submarine is cold. I take a shaky breath, several of them, and drop my head into my hands. An ache twists my heart, and I don’t think it will ever right itself.

  Max comes out then and rests his hands on the top of my head.

  “Sage,” he says.

  I look up at him. “I don’t know what Father did to you, but I do like hearing you speak.”

  He smiles and then opens his mouth like he wants to say more, but nothing comes.

  “It’s okay,” I say. “It will come in time.”

  He throws his arm around me, giving me a tight hug.

  I return it with just as much feeling.

  “We’re going to be okay, Max.” And I mean it.

  We will go to Eden where I will recover and where Max will be happy and safe.

  But then I will return.

  Somehow I will find a way to take down the Institute. All I need to do is find the right curtain and tear it down to expose the filth beyond the shine.

  I will not live my life confined to a secret island. I will not live my life without love. And I will not live my life in a world without hope.

  I’d rather die.

  THE END

  pDNA (prime DNA): DNA that has been eradicated of all impurities. In addition, pDNA can be altered to give any human their desired traits, i.e. height, strength, physical characteristics, etc.

  Prime: A human with pDNA.

  oDNA (original DNA): DNA from a human that has not been altered in any way.

  Original: A human with pure DNA who has never had an injection of pDNA.

  Techhead: A Prime with extreme intelligence. They are defined by abnormally long foreheads and tall height. They do not function well under chaotic situations, which can be used against them. Techheads control the majority of the world’s technology as well as medical knowledge. Because of this, they are the governing force.

  Noc: A rare Prime with the ability to fly and see well in the dark. Nocturnal pDNA injections were outlawed by the Institute decades ago, but the offspring from some Nocs survived.

  Canine: A Prime with an insatiable desire for blood. Once they taste the blood, they can track their victim anywhere. They are identified by their yellow eyes and sharp claws. Only known weakness is an aversion to bright lights.

  Junk: Primes who became addicted to all kinds of pDNA injections. Over time, they mutated into smaller creatures void of any kind of human reasoning. The Institute attempted to eradicate them, but they took refuge into the city’s tunnels.

  Rhine: A prime with all-black eyes and distinguishable spikes on their head. They don’t tire easily and can endure long stretches of physical activity. They have excellent hearing.

  Titan: An abnormally tall Prime with massive muscles and low intelligence. The majority of them work as soldiers for the Institute. Characterized by narrow, black eyes and unusually small legs.

  Mudder: One of the stronger Primes with excellent fighting skills. Eye color varies, but they can be defined by their high cheekbones and narrow jaws. Their only weakness is they tire easily.

  Speeder: The fastest of all the Primes, characterized by one green eye and one brown. No known weaknesses.

  Ray: A Prime with a photographic memory and distinguishable lilac-colored eyes.

  Dresden: Tall, strong Primes who are trained in combat on account of their size and natural abilities. They can also jump unnaturally high. Defining mark is black hair with a blue stripe in the middle.

  Spotter: A Prime who has the ability to sense poor health in others through an abnormal sense of smell. They are characterized by all-white eyes.

  Serpen: An unusually thin Prime with snake DNA. Their spit contains poison that is toxic to others. They do not function well in the cold.

  Peccarian: They have thick skulls and leather-like skin, making them hard to kill. Characterized by abnormally large heads. Tissue is softest beneath their chin.

  Trix: A Prime with all-black eyes and dark hair. Their bones and joints can be stretched unnaturally, but not for long periods of time.

  Purgatory Island: An island off the state of New York. It was used as a prison for Primes, but was later shut down when the world’s population declined. It is overrun with severely mutated animals and some Primes. The Institute still uses it occasionally for Primes they consider to be violent criminals. HOPE also secretly uses the island as a refuge for Originals.

  Eden: A sanctuary for Originals hidden on Purgatory Island. It was built by Sean Radkey, Sage’s grandfather, forty years ago.

  HOPE (Helping Originals Protect Eden): A movement started by William Radkey in an effort to protect Originals and Eden. They believe Originals are their future and must be protected at all costs.

  “Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.”

  Winston Churchill

  Rachel McClellan is the author of the bestselling Devil Series and the young adult Fractured Light trilogy
. When she’s not in her writing lair, she’s partying with her husband and four crazy, yet lovable, children. Rachel’s love for storytelling began as a child when the moon first possessed the night. For when the lights went out, her imagination painted a whole new world. And what a scary world it was . . .

  © 2016 Rachel McClellan

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, whether by graphic, visual, electronic, film, microfilm, tape recording, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, places, and dialogue are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. The opinions and views expressed herein belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of Cedar Fort, Inc. Permission for the use of sources, graphics, and photos is also solely the responsibility of the author.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-4621-2587-6

  Published by Sweetwater Books, an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc.

  2373 W. 700 S., Springville, UT 84663

  Distributed by Cedar Fort, Inc. www.cedarfort.com

  Cover design by Rebecca J. Greenwood

  Cover design © 2016 Cedar Fort, Inc.

  Edited and typeset by Justin Greer