“Doesn’t matter. These are the rules of our group, and they are set in stone.” I walked forward, forcing my heel hard into the ground before pouncing yards in front of them. Mag might have been the strongest, but I was taking charge. What Adeline did was her business.
I cocked my head back to tell them one more thing. “We’re here to make sure she is safe. Let her make a choice, for once in her goddamn life.”
After I said that, it was silent. They weren’t mad. Maybe a little salty, but not mad. Even when the urge to interfere was at its strongest, we would have to wait.
The exit was near the greenhouse, directly in the center of the thirty-six neatly built rows. Inside building number eighteen, there was a door within some of the overgrown grass and shrubbery. Donovan was the one who took the initiative to build the houses. The plan was to start a new life and to expand our discoveries. We had it in our heads we could find a way back. For years, we searched, often getting lost within our own heads if a hallucination storm passed through our edge of the realm. Eventually, Donovan found it.
It was a small plot of land near the edge of the Iron Peaks Mountain, named for its luminescent glow. In fact, if you stared at the cliffs for too long, you’d swear you could see it reflect like metal. That’s what tipped Donovan off, but the small plot was inconspicuous and innocent looking.
Back then, this realm was desolate and empty. There wasn’t a plant or animal in sight. However, the soil was damp and fresh, a fertile ground for seedlings to hatch. As an experiment, he planted some seed he brought along wherever he went. After, he continued on with us following his lead.
We found something out there. Something dark and sinister. A large, black pool glowed before us, liquid spinning counterclockwise. The three of us shared glances, but we didn’t dare enter it, worrying our bodies and brains could not handle the trip. Donovan stepped forward first and dropped a single seed inside. When nothing happened, we decided to wait. We made camp about a mile away and settled for the night. When we woke up, we saw it.
I never designed a way out, but there it was. An altar made of the whitest marble stood in front of us, almost as if it were an entity itself. There was no telling how it got there, but that didn’t faze us. We had seen the levels of insanity this realm offered. It was almost like it was trying to tell us something.
Years passed, and still, we did not dare touch it or get near the large slab of stone. The CIA still hadn’t figured out how to harness pure energy from this place. As far as we knew, the obelisk was another trick, a way to connect us together so they could keep experimenting. Eventually, we gave into our aching curiosity. Well, Mag did.
He knelt before it. He placed his hand on the sleek marble but, of course, nothing happened. But he could hear a buzzing coming from within. The rest of us eventually followed, but we were like cavemen reacting to fire for the first time. This moment was our first light of inspiration after seeing Adeline, the young girl who broke our chains and set us free. Together, we fell to our knees and touched the stone. It was so smooth that, as soon as I touched it, the hairs on my neck stood up.
And the buzzing grew louder.
Day after day, the sound filtered through the valley. We stayed, huddled around its base. As the days wore on, we started to build. Without the privilege of time, I was not sure how long this project took us to finish, but we dedicated our lives to it. In an act of humility, we planted more seeds around the strange obelisk.
And the rains came in. And the seedlings sprouted. And the land took to feeding us. And I got to watch my world grow into something real. It was both magical and regretful at the same time.
The obelisk never disappeared like the other irrational buildings and odd structures we had seen come and go, and the humming began to slow until it was hardly audible. I held my ear against the side and felt the cold connection to another place. Home. But so different. I could hear the liveliness, strange dialects. I could hear the hum of modern technology. It was a different world that inspired me, but anything was better than this place. The only problem was the sound was losing volume.
We didn’t have the keys to any of this, but Adeline would run to it. That, we all hoped for. It was the only way to freedom.
“Our way out of this hellhole,” Mag said. “It’s our only way out.”
“It’s a piece of rock,” I replied and started to pack a few things for the trek, falling away from my visions of the past. I was so tired of wandering through the darkness. I wanted to settle down and be a fucking normal human being. A family, all to ourselves. But I still wondered how we could even leave. We were freaks. Abominations of God. We had no home anymore.
There wasn’t a set of instructions we could follow to get out either. And with Zane in the picture, I was starting to visualize the worst of outcomes. Our final death day was looming on the horizon. They’d finally close my world off, but what would happen to our souls?
Donovan stood and packed his things alongside me. It was quiet near our tent, and every time we heard the wind howl in the distance, we both looked to see a sign. “You’re right, you know,” Donovan said, after settling his things and zipping his old pack.
“Yeah? About what?” I asked, feeling the strain start to set in. All of this was about to change. She would find Zane, and then what? Would she leave us all behind? Fuck. She had to leave us. I constantly went through the runaround in my head, and it brought me to one conclusion. We had to make sure she got out, but Zane would have to stay. Then, she could tell our story. She could warn future generations. Maybe it wouldn’t bring about change, but at least people would know what happened to us.
“You’re right to think they’ll kill us,” Donovan said. “The people in the modern world... they wouldn’t understand.”
I swallowed and tried not to look in his eyes, but I couldn’t take not telling him the truth. So I just said it. “We have to stay, Donovan. This is our home. We can’t go back to Earth.”
My lungs felt heavier than a sack of potatoes. I could barely breathe, and the more it hit me, the less I knew how to continue forward with all of this. Maybe it would be better to stay back instead of intervening. She didn’t need us anymore.
Donovan pointed his finger into the night sky where all of the stars shone as brightly as they did on earth. “All my life, I wanted to explore the solar system.” He spun his finger around and let it drop to the ground. “There’s nothing to explore, to know or find out about that’s greater than what we were given. It was greed to think we could understand it better than ourselves.”
“We are it,” Mag said. “Our minds shaped this place. Wouldn’t doubt if our minds somehow shaped this whole damn universe. But I’m not much of a spiritual guru, and metaphysics hurts my brain, so fuck thinking about it.”
“Whatever it is, it’s time to end it,” I admitted. “But Zane must stay with us. He can’t chase her back through the gateway.”
Mag checked his belt and satchel before going. A look of worry dragged on his face. “My blade has been taken,” he groaned.
“Zane?” Donovan asked.
Mag closed his eyes and focused. “No,” he murmured. “She took it.”
“How can you know?” Cadmar asked.
Mag’s eyes opened, red and targeted. ”She’s not going there to say hello. She’s going there to kill him. We have to hurry.”
And as we gathered the rest of our things, I saw a dark cloud form on the horizon, at the precise location of the greenhouses. It was time to watch this place go up in flames.
12
Adeline
It was only a few more steps forward before I could see the faint outline of the white buildings in the distance. I had seen this image before, in my dream that pushed me to set Zane free. Well, he was still in this realm’s cage, most likely more lost than he even knew, and I was going to do my best to fix the damage that had already been done. He wouldn’t hurt them. No, because I was going to get him out of here and stay behind foreve
r.
I reached the top of the mountainside, and the trail began to thin out into nothing but loose rocks. The greenhouses were closer. I kept walking, managing to stay low to the ground. Though the area was completely quiet, I suddenly had a bad feeling about being there.
I started to get a little paranoid. What if Zane wasn’t the only one who’d followed me in? What if my team was here, waiting for me with higher command from back in D.C? Dark thoughts came into my mind, but I quickly brushed them off before they could sink into my subconscious.
I got down to the rows of greenhouses. They were crude, made out of old wood and crumbling cement. The three of them had done a good job at making so many despite the circumstances. They really had tried to create a home here.
As I passed in between, I analyzed at the various types of plants. There were tomatoes that looked like pumpkins, lettuce that grew as big and wild as bushes, and tropical plants with the most wonderful and elaborate spikes surrounding a bright and gorgeous type of fruit. They had the makings of something different here, and I was sure I could offer my own expertise.
I wanted to explore more and see all of the exotic things they had grown, but I quickly noticed the smell of burning and was taken away from my childlike wonder. I walked toward the scent, searched the sky for a sign of the fire. I could see the smoke, and it took no time at all for the flames to rise high into the air. One of the greenhouses. I broke out running, knowing Zane was behind it.
“Zane!” I ran so fucking fast I could barely keep the sight of the plants that blurred past and behind me. My muscles carried me farther and faster than my usual speed. I barely had the chance to breathe. When I saw him standing in the center of the area, staring at the flames like he was the devil himself, I stopped.
He turned his head and gazed at me. In his hand was a large gasoline canister, which he soon tossed into the rising flames. “Zane,” I said, catching my breath but still startled. “I know everything.”
He wiped his hands clean but didn’t move far from the fire. “This must be done, Addie,” he said, regaining his human conviction. But he was on the wrong side. What I found out couldn’t be unlearned. Everything had changed.
“You’d leave me to die?” I asked.
For the last time, every memory ran through me. I could feel the excitement I’d felt with him again. I could remember his smell. I remembered our laughter and the connection that seemed so strong.
“I’m not against you, Addie,” he said, reaching out for me. The fire spread to the other greenhouses, forming a large horseshoe of flame around us.
“If you cared, you would tell the world what happened. You’d let them live,” I cried.
“Give it up,” he sighed. The building beside him collapsed alongside others. The ground shuddered from the crash. “This place was a mistake. Come with me. Back to our home. Make your father proud.”
More of the buildings fell to the earth’s floor, and all of the rich and new vegetation, plants that could have possibly been brought back to Earth and cloned for our benefit, perished in the flames. As the buildings dropped into oblivion, only a few structures remained. The one I had my eyes set on was the giant marble obelisk. The stone emanated a strange color and drew me in. I started to walk toward it, just like I walked toward the mirror in my vision, but Zane screamed, “Do not move. If you do, you will snare them here forever.”
“The source,” I whispered, and a smile spread across my face. It was just how the natives explained the myths. The beasts of this realm were to guard the stone tablet. The tablet granted the wish. Except, they were wrong. There was no wishing. There was only one way out, and once it was used, the place would implode and forever be a vacuum.
Zane had stolen the battery. He’d powered it last night when I was screaming my cunt off with ecstasy. I cursed, knowing I could have stopped him. All of us could have, but we wanted one last celebration. Love was worth so much, and Zane didn’t seem as capable.
“How long do we have?” I asked.
“Fifteen, twenty minutes? Who the fuck knows? All I know is I am under strict orders to bring you back with me,” he said.
“And then what?”
He was silent. They would arrest me, skip the trial, and throw me in solitary. Just another loon to silence. It would have been such an easy sell.
“Just come with me,” he said, refusing to answer the question.
I inched forward. I knew the right thing to do, but I couldn’t make up my mind. If I stayed here, would I lose myself to insanity as they said? I was positive I would. However, what was going to happen once I stepped through the gateway with Zane on my back?
Despite his worried cries to get me to stop, I walked toward the glowing monument. It started to hum and shake, causing my vision to skew in front of me. I ran my hand in front of my face and watched my fingers trail through a swath of color. I was getting closer, and everything was starting to fall apart. The flames rose higher but nothing mattered anymore. The obelisk’s appearance felt like a warning. It was untamable.
Slowly, the hum and violent vibration rose in volume and intensity, piercing my eardrums. I fell to the ground, clutching my ears and screaming, though I could not hear anything except for what the slab of stone broadcast. Suddenly, I could hear the sounds of my home, the lively chirping of birds on a spring day, the warmth of the sunlight against my naked body. I was so close. All I had to do was keep moving forward.
But I wouldn’t pass through. Not without them, the people I had fallen in love with. I stood, arms outstretched, bowing to the power of it all. I couldn’t understand it. I wasn’t made to, and that was okay. This place was a reflection of all of us, and if it had to be destroyed, I would be the one to give my life to that cause.
A severe roar rang out behind us. Mag, Cadmar, Donovan. They were searching for me now, and their primal instincts must have kicked in. They would find me, and everything would finally come to an end.
I reached into my bag and pulled out something I had nearly forgotten about until that moment, a small detonation device, made with metal scraps, enough gunpowder, and a limited knowledge of bomb making. I didn’t even know if it worked, but I might have soon found out.
“Don’t come any closer,” I said. “I’ll blow the gate and trap us here forever.”
“No!” Zane lunged and threw his body on top of mine. He grabbed my hair and pulled back, jamming his kneecap into the center of my back as I kicked to break free. I winced in pain, but I did not cry or give up the detonation device. I held it close to my heart and suffered his abuse, knowing my men would come for me.
Pinning me to the floor, Zane leaned over me, repulsing me to no end. His teeth ground together with absolute rage. “Your father was right,” he groaned. “You are nothing but a worthless whore.”
I kept my hands around the device. “My father knew nothing. He died with no achievements. He was fired from his position, lost my mother, and, in the end, he never got to say goodbye to me.”
“Did you ever stop to think he didn’t give a damn about you? That, maybe I was the only one who ever did?” he asked.
I couldn’t hold myself back. I spat in his face and managed to get a leg up and kick him directly in the jaw. He fell to the dirt, startled but not knocked out. I could have run into the portal, leaving Zane to a life of insanity and darkness forever, but I ran in the other direction, through the rows of flames and demolished buildings.
Progress, destroyed. My sense of self, completely gone. This place was a ticking time bomb.
I still had Mag’s blade, so when I got to the back of the area, I ran into one of the buildings and took it from my pocket, stalling to catch my breath. I could hear their footsteps in the distance, running to find me, but I had considerable miles on them, and Zane was more cunning than I had ever imagined. I moved toward the back of the greenhouse. The fires were spreading, and I knew it wasn’t the smartest place to end up in, but I had no other choice. The mountain nearby was bare
and provided very little cover. I just had to wait it out. They would be here. They had to come.
I found it easy to hide within the thick shrubby plants, and the air seemed to rejuvenate me. As I huddled within the plants, the greenery looked and even felt familiar, oddly enough. I took the leaf of the thick plant and rubbed a piece on the back of my hand, waiting to see if an allergic reaction would do me in. When there was no inflammation or sting, I held it to my nose and smelled it. Somehow, I recognized it almost instantly. It was the plant Mag gave me in the bath. It healed my cuts and bruises pretty darn fast.
Without thinking, I pocketed some of the plant and hastily glanced through the dense leaves. I could hear them searching for me. They were gaining ground. Unfortunately, Zane was even closer.
“Addie. Darling.” His voice carried unusual gravel as he stepped around the building. This journey had weakened him more than I had. This fact gave me some hope, but it didn’t mean I would get out in time. At this point, the fire had spread around the entire area. I tried to glance through the loose foundation, but all I could see was a bright orange. My pores began to sweat from the surrounding heat.
Please. Don’t let him find me.
“C’mon. Do you really think I’m going to give up after all of this time?” he laughed. “Story time. Remember the first time you told me we belonged together? You were right. We do. We belong together. Forever. Till death do us part, eh, Addie? Remember? All of our plans?”
He was insane. Beyond fucking mental. I closed my eyes and placed my head against my kneecaps, sucking in quiet breaths of air. I hoped he couldn’t hear me.
“We were so in love,” he continued, a wildly self-obsessed monologue I am sure he had been waiting to give for years. “So in love. The only love, right, Addie?” He jumped forward, in front of some plants. I wasn’t sitting there, but I was close by.
“The funny part about it was I actually believed in you,” he said, a rare admission, despite his malicious intent. “I thought you could change the world. Hell, I thought we both could. Together.”
Primal: A Dark Sci-Fi Reverse Harem Romance (Alpha Unknown Book 1) Page 14
