Ari looks to the assassin, finally learning his name. ‘Justin Carey,’ he says, quietly.
‘Why are we here?’ Ari asks, still not convinced she can trust these people before her. ‘Are you selling us to the Founding Family?’
Maude chuckles, ‘No, no we are not. Do we look like we work for the Founding Family to you?’
‘I don’t know what to think,’ Ari admits, quietly, looking sideways at Kaley.
Kaley keeps her eyes focused forwards, away from the three people in front of her and definitely not looking once at Ari.
‘We are the good guys,’ says Xavier jovially, pointing his thumbs towards his chest, ‘Don’t worry.’
‘Then why are we still bound like prisoners?’ Ari protests, wrists smarting on the ropes bound around them.
‘You can trust us,’ Justin says, quietly.
‘But..,’ Ari starts before Maude cuts her off.
‘Yes, you can trust us,’ Maude adds. ‘But we are not sure we can trust you two.’
The five of them sit in silence for a short while and before long the van starts to slow, as it turns a corner and comes to a stop. The doors open and standing at the foot of the van is the driver, small in stature, with dirty-blonde hair and drooping eyes. Without a word he opens the doors wide and leaves to the nearby abandoned building.
As Ari emerges, hands still bound behind her back, she looks around to find the van, parked in the dirt driveway of a dilapidated building with green-blue paint peeling from the walls, exposing the limestone brick beneath. A large sign sits, above the old-style dirty glass sliding doors, left side falling towards the ground. The words painted in white, scrawled on the faded blue: Republique Morgue Services.
Scattered in the distance, amongst other abandoned buildings are the carcasses of old vehicles, rusted over hundreds of years. One such vehicle stands out to Ari - a long body, rusted to the point she does not know if it once had a colour, with empty windows, and multiple seats of metal set in two rows.
‘Quick,’ says Maude, as she ushers Ari inside with the others.
The mint-green walls of the Morgue make Ari feel slightly sick just to look upon them. The lights from beams above flicker on and off. Three large metal tables sit in the middle of the cold room, a row of metal doors on the far wall, and a trough on the adjacent wall. Ari shudders to think what sits behind the metal doors.
‘We stay here for the night before moving at dawn,’ Justin addresses his companions.
◆◆◆
Ari, still in her dirty Holy-Oaks uniform, sits on the floor on bedding she had found in a cupboard in a small room annexed off from the main morgue room. Sitting nearby, in her white silk robe, is Kaley, hands bound behind her back, head bowed and eyes closed.
Maude approaches them, still in her leather suit and takes a seat across from Ari. ‘So what’s your deal?’ she asks, gesturing towards Ari and Kaley.
‘We are Healers,’ Ari starts, ‘and we were working at The Holly-Oaks Centre.’
‘I already know that,’ Maude says, ‘I mean, what’s up with you two?’
‘I..,’ Ari does not know how to explain what has happened between her and her friend, but then something tweaks with what Maude had said. ‘What do you mean you already know?’
‘Well part of our mission was to get you two out of that City,’ Maude says, matter-of-factly.
‘What? You mean, Justin was at The Holly-Oaks Centre for me?’ Ari asks, feeling betrayed, for the second time that day.
‘Well, yes,’ Maude nods. ‘I mean, you’re both very valuable, to both sides, and we couldn’t let you end up in the wrong hands. That’s why I was feigning being a buyer for the Founding Family. I’d been playing that role for months now. And I played it pretty well.’
‘But why would Justin lie about it?’ Ari starts to feel the fury bubbling in her veins, like she did before Monsieur Chavez met his untimely demise.
‘There were other parts to the mission,’ Maude says, shrugging her shoulders, ‘And I suppose he didn’t want you to know that we needed you two, until we were in the clear.’
Ari continues to feel the bubbling rage inside her, and as her hands start to shake, her nails draw blood from her palms. Suddenly, there is a flash of light and her binds are melted away, freeing her hands. Everyone is suddenly keenly watching Ari as she looks to her hands, rage now subsided, eyes wide with wonder and fear. What had she just done?
‘How’d you do that?’ Justin comes around the corner, bow pointed towards Ari’s heart.
‘I don’t..’ Ari looks up to find herself face-to-face with Justin’s bow and arrow, and she starts to become angry again, ‘Why are you pointing that at me?’
Justin does not respond to her question, but asks again, ‘How did you do that?’
‘You can’t hurt me,’ Ari says indignantly, getting to her feet, ‘You said it yourselves - we are both valuable to you, as Healers.’
‘Yes, Healers,’ Justin elaborates, arrow still cocked and pointed at Ari’s heart. ‘How did you break out of your binds?’
Fists clenched by her sides, Ari shakes her head, ‘I don’t know.’
‘Tell us, Arielle,’ Justin insists. ‘What are you hiding?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ari says again. ‘I don’t know!’ She pushes her fists forwards towards Justin and he falls backwards, choking, face turning blue.
Ari is suddenly brought back to the scene before her.
What has she done?
She is a Healer. She does not hurt others.
Without thinking, she runs forwards, kneeling by Justin’s side and moves Maude and Xavier aside. She places her hands above Justin as he starts to gasp and fight for breath. Maude lunges towards Ari, thinking she is about to finish him off when Kaley yell’s ‘No!’
Everyone turns to look at the bald woman with the crying blue eyes, stunned to hear her finally speak.
‘Let her help him,’ she says, quieter, ‘Let her heal him.’
Ari concentrates as the energy flows like gossamer threads from her fingertips and into the dying body before her. She sees the damage she has done to the assassin - cells dying, melting. Her energy starts to make these cells whole again and, slowly, Justin’s colour returns to normal, his breathing slows and evens out. With a heavy sigh, Ari sits back on her haunches and looks down. Justin’s eyes flutter before they shoot open. He sits up abruptly and immediately places a hand to his head.
‘Damn girl,’ he rasps, ‘You have an arm on you.’
Ari looks back at him, sheepishly, ‘I’m so sorry - I don’t know what happened. I didn’t mean to hurt you.’
‘I know,’ Justin rasps, as he leans back on his elbows. ‘I know. But we need you to keep that power of yours in check.’
Ari nods hastily, ‘I promise to be careful.’
CHAPTER NINE
Night has fallen and Ari lies on old sheets, staring up at the ceiling of The Morgue.
Wearing a pair of sea-green scrubs she’d found in a linen skip, she listens to the slow rise and fall of breath from Maude who sleeps nearby. From the other side of the room she can hear the loud snoring of Xavier. She is not sure where Justin has disappeared. The other member of this unruly group, Guy LaRoche, has taken first watch outside. Ari rolls over to her side and finds Kaley is also awake, turned towards her, eyes sad.
They stare at each other, not speaking for some time. As Ari is about to roll the other way, Kaley apologises, ‘I’m sorry.’
Ari does not respond, but rolls onto her back, looking up towards the ceiling.
‘I felt I had no choice,’ Kaley continues, softly, ‘I did not know what else to do. I was getting these dreams.. these memories.. about my past. Our past.’
Ari looks back towards Kaley, knowing what she would say next. Kaley recounts the visions she had been seeing that day at The Holly-Oaks Centre - before everything changed. Visions of a life outside The Republique walls, near a stream, with grass and trees. They had been sold - she and Ari. Sold
by their parents. She and Ari were sisters. The Elites had come to town and threatened harm on everyone unless they gave up the two Healers. Their town was one of the last to flourish after The War of the Ages, where radiation had killed off most of the Earth but not where they had lived. Promised money and Ascension to Elite Status, their parents sold them - Arielle and Kaley - to The Elite woman, whom they came to call Matron. Tears stream down Ari’s face, as Kaley continues to recount what had happened to the two sisters - after they were taken, their town was razed to the ground, fire set to all the homes, the town-centre, the market-place. Choking on the thick smoke, the two children, aged three and four, cried for their parents who had sold them into slavery, for money and status only to perish in the ensuing fire.
‘This is why I did what I did,’ Kaley admits. ‘I felt I had no other choice. Our own parents hated us. We were sold into slavery. What did I have to lose?’ She chokes back a sob, ‘Then I was harmed by that.. that Elite Chavez, and I was discarded to the brothel like a piece of trash. All my life, I’ve been treated like rubbish, forced into slavery, towards those people. I don’t want this life anymore.’
Heart breaking, Ari extends her hand towards Kaley, taking her hand in her own.
Her sister.
Somehow, deep down, she always knew they had a bond stronger than friendship.
A bond forged in blood.
‘We will be okay,’ Ari whispers to her sister, ‘I promise.’
◆◆◆
Daylight cuts through the dusty windows of the morgue, dividing the room into various sized strips of sunlight and shadow. Everyone is up and organising their next move. Ari and Kaley, both wearing scrubs from the morgue, finish a small breakfast of oat bars and dried fruit. A small television broadcasts an address for the new Chancellor, who was sworn into the position last night. As he takes the podium, Chancellor Chvostek talks about the future of The New World.
‘We have been facing tough times,’ he spits, ‘Tough times. And we need to make changes for the benefit of our future generations.’
Applause.
‘We must rid the Earth of the scum and breed a new type of human race - one who will not perish with the frailty of age or sickness, a Super-Human or Super-Elite, so that the human race may continue as a Superior species.’
More Applause.
‘The Elites in Power have let things slide for too long – they have allowed fringe groups to flourish, and allowed those like us, to fall behind and start to suffer, while they sit in their Palaces and revel in their fortunes. Resources are dwindling. Money is decreasing. Why? Because of the scum of the Earth-’
Ari turns off the television with a heavy sigh.
She and Kaley join the assassins, who are gathered around one of the metal tables of The Morgue, pouring over a digital map. The map hovers above the table, revealing the whole City from the centre to the abandoned outskirts, where they currently hide. Justin touches the left outer edge of the map and that area expands. He uses a finger to rotate it 180 degrees.
‘We travel via the Great Eastern Highway, to The Eastern Gate, where we’ll be met by Elite Guards, here and here,’ he points along the Highway, ‘As we move forwards, we leave the van at The Eastern Graveyard and head on foot towards The Abandoned Caves and then through to The Underground.’
‘The Underground?’ Ari joins the group, Kaley following close behind.
‘They are who we work for,’ explains Xavier, ‘The Underground are a resistance force that has been building for the last fifteen years.’
‘So we’re leaving The Republique walls?’ Ari continues, ‘But what about the rest of the mission? Madame Chavez and the Weapons Factory?’
‘Our new priority is to deliver you both,’ Justin gestures to Ari and Kaley, ‘Safe to The Underground. Then we continue with the mission to dismantle The Republique’s weapons industry.’
‘And how are we escaping without getting caught? I mean surely Guards will be swarming the streets after the assassination of the Chancellor,’ Ari asks the group.
‘About that,’ Maude looks sheepish, ‘I’m afraid you’re not going to like it.’
◆◆◆
The van travels Eastbound towards the Graveyard as planned and Ari lies quietly, shuddering from the disgust and the cold of the dead person lying on top of her. In order to smuggle the two Healers and three assassins out of The City, they have all hidden inside the body bags of the dead Sub-Elites they found in The Morgue freezers.
Xavier sits in the driver seat, disguised with a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and white lab coat with the insignia of the Founding Family on the right lapel. Even though Ari is currently lying under the corpse of a dead Sub-Elite woman, she feels Xavier got the worst end of the deal - having to go through two Guard checkpoints without getting caught.
The others lay quiet and still as the van comes to the first checkpoint, and the doors open. Ari hears muffled voices outside the body bag as the Elite Guards inspect the back of the van. Suddenly a voice becomes louder and clearer as the zip of her body bag is partly undone. Ari holds her breath as she stares ahead at the grey skin of the corpse on top of her. In what feels like an eternity, the Guard moves away and she is shrouded in darkness again as the zip is closed. She hears the sound of the van doors closing and soon the rumbling of the van engine before they are on the move again.
The next checkpoint is the same - van doors open, Guards inspecting the back. This time Guy’s and Maude’s body bags are opened. Ari still holds her breath, praying that everything goes smoothly. Again, she hears the doors close and the van continues on.
Hours later, Ari feels numb to her fingers and toes. She can see her breath curling in front of her in the slight van light, peeking through the zipper of the body bag. Hoping they arrive soon before she catches hypothermia, the van comes to its last stop.
They made it.
They have arrived at The Graveyard.
◆◆◆
Xavier drives through an unmanned booth, swiping the card he found at the abandoned morgue, identifying him as Doctor Lingard, a Pathologist with a delivery for The Graveyard, since the abandoned morgue is due for demolition. The van is ushered through an electric boom gate, which fizzles into the air as they are allowed through.
The van parks behind an old stone building scattered amongst multiple broken bricks and graves. Waiting for the sun to set, so they can move under the cover of darkness, Ari holds her breath again as the van doors open and the zipper of the body bag is removed. She exhales when she sees Xavier’s smiling face. They all emerge from their respective body bags and sneak out behind the back of the van.
Moving between the various headstones - some immaculate, white marble with engraved names and dates, others broken limestone and slate, with weeds around the edges - the group moves silently and swiftly. As they move around the perimeter of the fenced graveyard, they come across a flattened portion in the wooden fence, broken down over the years. One by one, they crawl through the small opening to the other side, ending up outside the Eastern wall of The City. A spotlight from a nearby sentry tower moves through the barren grounds, and the six of them stop in their tracks. The spotlight passes overhead, and they stand still, hiding in the shadow of the fence. Once the light has moved a safe distance, they continue towards The Abandoned Caves.
◆◆◆
The terrain is dry without a weed or plant in sight. Ari struggles to see exactly where they are going, often tripping over rocks and losing her footing in broad ditches. The moon is a sliver of silver in the sky, shedding almost no light on the travelling party below. There is no wind tonight and the air feels thick and dry in Ari’s throat as they run and run. She turns back to check where her sister is. Kaley has started to fall behind, struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. Ari slows and waits for her sister to catch up to her. They walk for a while in silence, whilst the others continue on in front.
‘How are you doing?’ Ari asks, peering ahead into the dark
ness.
Kaley shrugs, ‘I don’t know. I feel numb.’
Ari puts her arm around her sister and they continue on into the darkness.
CHAPTER TEN
After what seems like hours, they finally come to the mouth of The Abandoned Caves.
Maude, Guy and Justin each take out a glow-light, which they crack, illuminating the darkness with a bluish glow. They enter the cave with Xavier and The Healers on their heels.
The cave is cold and damp, with the smell of stale water. There is the echo of a drip, drip, drip in the distance, growing louder as they move deeper into the cave. The blue glow of the glow-lights illuminate the cave walls, revealing streams of water moving slowly towards the uneven ground. They continue deeper into the cave and stalactites and stalagmites start to appear, waxy white and yellowed, reminding Ari of the faces of The Elite Clients she used to serve.
The cave path winds around a large pillar of stone and waxy material, and ends in a small tunnel. One by one, led by Justin and finishing with Xavier, they enter, crouching low. Ari starts to feel claustrophobic as they reach the middle portion of the tunnel where it is at its narrowest point. Here, they have to move on their abdomens, dragging themselves forwards. Ari stops, breathing quicker and quicker and head starting to spin. Kaley looks back towards her and gives her an encouraging nod. Ari slows her breathing and closes her eyes briefly before she carries on.
They emerge from the tunnel and enter a larger recess in the cave. A small lake sits in the middle, like black glass, the edges glowing blue with bioluminescent algae. The reflection off the black lake casts moving shadows on the stalactite ceiling above.
‘We camp here for the night,’ says Justin, to Ari’s relief. She was starting to feel the exhaustion of the day’s events.
Elite Nation: Book One Page 5
