Elite Nation: Book One

by H. A. Rockley

  Ari’s heart sinks as she figures out that Mei-Ling was right.

  There really is no way to escape.

  They are on an island far from the mainland.

  ‘Nora and Jonah,’ Mei-Ling explains, whilst looking out over the limestone brick wall to the blue waves, thrashing on the sharp rocks below, ‘Eli.. he pushed them over the edge one night, without a second thought. They had an argument about us.’

  Ari looks back at her, puzzled, and Mei-Ling continues, ‘They wanted us to be used in their Army, to wipe out the Founding Family’s enemies - those amassing underground - and anyone else who seems a threat. But Eli had other ideas – he is.. unhinged. He sees us as a collector’s item. The Mages, he calls us. He plans to collect us all and use us in ways I don’t even know yet.’

  Ari gazes out at the waves crashing on the ominous rocks below.

  ‘We must find a way out of here. I will not be a collector’s item for anyone. And I will not let him get his hands on my sister.’

  Mei-Ling shakes her head, tears starting to form in her dark-brown eyes, ‘my sister and I have tried. It is impossible.’

  ‘It is not impossible,’ Ari reveals, ‘I have a power growing inside me – one that I need to learn to harness. Even Eli has no idea I possess it. Once I master it, we will find our way out.’

  Sighing, Mei-Ling nods once before she leads Ari back towards the Palace hallways.

  Chapter SEVENTEEN

  ‘How are you holding up?’ Xavier asks Kaley, as he takes a seat next to her at the long metal table in the mess hall.

  Kaley sighs a long sigh before answering, ‘I just feel so hopeless and useless. I feel like I should be up there, looking for Arielle. But instead I’m stuck down here, twiddling my thumbs and not able to help in any way, stuck with all these.. people.’ She looks sidelong at the others on the same table.

  ‘We’re not so bad,’ Xavier laughs with a wink, ‘I’m sure you’ll find us all to be quite charming eventually.’

  Kaley doesn’t respond but instead bows here head as she pushes around the dregs of her sloppy porridge at the bottom of her cold metal bowl.

  ‘Look,’ Xavier says in a hush, ‘would you feel better if you helped Guy and I with the hunt for your sister?’

  ‘Really?’ Kaley looks up from her stale oats, blue eyes glinting in the warm light of the mess hall. ‘You would do that? You’d let me help? I would be so grateful.’

  All of a sudden, to Xavier’s pleasant surprise, she throws her arms around him and gives him a tight squeeze.

  ‘Well I must warn you,’ Xavier says as he pulls away from Kaley, ‘it’s not all glamorous. I mean, it’s a little boring, to be honest. All we’re doing is sifting through thousands of hours of security footage, trying to gather clues.’

  Kaley stands, still grinning, ‘I don’t care. I’m just so happy to be useful for once.’

  She hugs Xavier once more before leaving, almost a skip in her step. He glances after her, slightly blushing as he gets back to his breakfast.

  ◆◆◆

  ‘Project La Vie,’ Maude mutters to herself as she and Justin scope out the last floor of the weapons laboratory.

  She pours over the hundreds of broken computers glowing and buzzing, as their screens flicker in the dark, trying to find any clue as to what had happened here.

  ‘Over here,’ Justin calls and Maude hurries over.

  He scrolls through a folder, he’d opened on one of the computers that survived the destruction that had occurred just hours before.

  ‘Project La Vie,’ he reads, as he opens and scrolls through the document labeled with the code name.

  The document reveals plans for The Republique military to obtain The Mages, a number of commoners who live in the outside world, with genetic mutations giving them the power to heal and manipulate the earth and elements. There are ten in total, two with the power to create and manipulate fire, two with wind, two with water, two with earth and two healers – Arielle and Kaley.

  ‘It looks like they had some of these Mages,’ Maude says as she looks over Justin’s shoulder at the screen, casting a bluish glow over their faces.

  ‘There’s a tick under the two fire beings and a tick under the female wind and male water beings.’

  ‘So whoever stole the weapons and captured Madame Chavez, must have also taken these guys,’ Justin says, as he scrolls through the rest of the document. ‘Did you know there were more of them? I mean, not just Arielle and Kaley?’

  Maude shakes her head, ‘I had no idea.’ She thinks for a moment, ‘Do you think the Colonel knew? And he wanted us to destroy them along with this place?’

  Justin contemplates this for a while. Surely the Colonel wouldn’t have sanctioned a hit on innocent people who were captured by The Elites, and forced to work for their army.

  Or would he?

  ◆◆◆

  After confirming the ballistic missiles, rocket launchers, and other weapons had indeed been stolen, and the Weapons Factory’s Leader nowhere to be found, Justin and Maude continued with their mission’s directive. The explosion rocked the night sky as the assassins brought the facility down with their plastic explosives. As they walk back towards The City center, they discuss the note and who their new enemy might be.

  ‘How can all those Elite Slaves suddenly disappear without a trace?’ Maude questions, as she looks down at the rushed scrawl on the crumpled piece of paper in her gloved hand.

  ‘They must’ve been taken with the weapons,’ Justin shrugs.

  Sirens blare in the distance as The Elite Guard Squadron’s cars race towards the fiery ball that once was The Weapons Factory. Lights flash nearby and the two assassins swiftly move into the gloomy alleyway to their right. Crouching close to the ground, Justin pulls the hood of his cloak closer over his face, enshrouding it further in deep shadow. As the lights pass into the distance and sirens die out, he and Maude move onwards to the other side of the city, where Justin is sure he’ll get some answers.

  ◆◆◆

  Pouring over the security video footage again, Xavier and Guy watch every second in slow motion, trying to find any clues to the kidnapping of Arielle.

  Kaley sits by Xavier, watching with furrowed brows as the video rolls through the daily routine of every inhabitant of The Underground headquarters. They’d be at it for hours after breakfast, not breaking for more than a few minutes to attend to their basic needs.

  Suddenly, Kaley notices her sister wandering the halls the night before she went missing, looking about the various rooms and offices in the left wing of the headquarters. She comes across a glass office, a door is opened and a harried man emerges, almost bumping into her. Ari enters. Xavier switches to the Media Room camera footage and Ari is seen staring at the multiple screens at the far end of the office before a woman at a glass desk with purple spectacles interrupts her. They exchange pleasantries before Ari leaves and continues on her way down the hall of offices.

  ‘Who is that?’ Kaley asks Xavier, as he pauses on the blonde woman.

  Xavier replies, ‘Julie Emdur. She’s the Chief Media Advisor to the Colonel.’

  Kaley frowns as she peers more closely at the woman on the screen and Xavier un-pauses the video. He is about to cut back to the hall where Ari has exited when Kaley stops him. ‘Wait,’ she calls, placing a staying hand on Xavier’s, ‘why is she moving to the door?’ Julie follows Ari out of the office, keeping her distance from the Healer. Xavier cuts back to the hall where Ari exited but Julie is not in view. He cuts back to the Media Room footage and notices a shadow near the blind spot of the doorway.

  ‘Looks like she’s watching Ari from the door,’ he says, puzzled. After a few minutes the blonde woman returns to her desk and closes down the floating screens in front of her. Glancing around the room to ensure she is alone, she then clicks on her wrist communicator and speaks in hushed tones to someone on the other end.

  ‘Do you think she was somehow involved in Ari’s disappearance?’
Kaley asks, as she continues to watch the woman on the screen talk into the communicator.

  Xavier shrugs, ‘can’t imagine why she would be involved.’

  Guy joins the two as they contemplate the possibility of an Underground citizen betraying Ari and the greater cause.

  ‘It is possible,’ he acknowledges. ‘I also found her near The Zoo, the night that Ari disappeared.’

  As the two others look over the footage Guy had saved, Kaley is all too convinced that this woman played some part in the abduction of her sister. Julie is seen to be walking a few metres behind Ari, the night she was captured, occasionally stopping to greet other members of The Underground, before intermittently whispering into her wrist communicator, whilst looking in the direction Ari went. Guy cuts to the footage outside The Zoo. Ari enters and less than five minutes later, Julie appears near the entrance. She glances around the vicinity, before moving out of shot of the camera. Suddenly, the vision becomes static and the video is lost.

  ‘Well, that pretty much confirms it,’ Xavier admits, ‘we need to let The Colonel know at once. Guy, you take the guards to the Media Office and make sure Julie does not leave. I’ll brief The Colonel on what we’ve found.’

  Guy nods and leaves the room.

  Xavier looks to Kaley. ‘Seems like you were good luck for us today – we’d been pouring over all this footage for days and not found anything remotely suspicious and today, we’ve all but found our culprit.’

  Kaley beams back at him, feeling her heart swell just a tiny bit with the hope her sister might be found and that life might just get a tiny bit better. His figure is slight, dressed in the

  Chapter EIGHTEEN

  Ari has a sense of déjà vu as she sits in Eli’s room, hands hovering above his body, as he lay in his king size bed.

  Despite the room not looking anything like the healing chambers of The Holly Oaks Centre, with its walls covered in elaborately decorated wallpaper of emerald green with tiny yellow snakes all over, lavish carpets of a deep burgundy, and decorated ceiling with motifs of The Elites who came to be in this Palace years before, being forced into healing an Elite had Ari remembering back to when her life was so different to how it was now.

  Back then she had no idea that her only friend was also her only family. She did not know the assassins, Justin, Maude, Xavier and Guy, or that a resistance group was amassing with a force growing stronger by the day.

  Eli lays still, eyes closed, breathing evenly as he waits for Ari’s power to start healing his many deformities. Although Ari had planned to only try tap into her other power – her darker power – and not at all attempt to heal the Elite in front of her, curiosity as to why he is the way he is got the better of her. The energy flows from her core, through her veins and out through her fingertips and palms, entering the being before her. She sees the cells and DNA with multiple mutations, gene repetitions, insertions and deletions, all defects he has had since birth. Eli opens his eyes slowly to find Ari squinting hers shut, brows furrowed in concentration.

  ‘So what’s the verdict?’ he asks.

  Ari shakes her head as she probes deeper, trying to find anything that could have possibly been healed, if she had actually been willing. She gives up and opens her eyes. Unsure as to why she decides to tell him the truth, she explains there is no healing him. ‘I’m sorry,’ she concedes, ‘but my power cannot heal genetic mutations that were built into you from conception – I can only fix those problems that occur with ageing or for other reasons, like radiation exposure.’

  Eli’s face starts to turn a ruddy shade, as he props himself on his elbows and glares into Ari’s face, ‘Do not lie to me, commoner. You agreed to this and I have let you roam the Palace and the Gardens freely. Do you want me to take these privileges away? Shall I keep you locked up with my other Collector’s items?’

  Deciding to continue with her plan of tapping into her more destructive power, Ari stares back at Eli and responds, ‘very well, I will try my best and heal what I can.’

  Apparently happy with this response, Eli lies back down and closes his eyes.

  ‘You may continue.’

  With a huff, Ari places her hands back into position just inches from Eli’s torso. She fights internally, struggling for that rage and dark power she discovered she had only days ago, when she accidentally hurt Justin.

  Justin.

  Ari’s mind wanders as she thinks back to her first meeting with the assassin and the few moments she’s had with him afterwards. She hopes he and the other assassins are taking care of her vulnerable sister and are safe, back underground.

  ◆◆◆

  Justin and Maude take the sewers to the South side of the City. Here, most buildings have been abandoned, as the Elites moved into the inner city precinct in the North, and the commoners were moved out into the various ghettos surrounding The Republique, or taken into slavery. As a result, most of the buildings lay in disrepair with antiques from the Old War surrounding them in the dirty, desolate streets.

  They exit the sewers from a man-hole and walk now in the moonlight radiating from above, no chance of being spotted, as The Elites very rarely venture this far from their cozy mansions. They make their way around the rusted out cars of yore towards the end of cobblestone street, avoiding the divots of raised stone.

  A tavern, known as The Harlot’s Fodder, sits in the cul-de-sac at the end of Fairweather Road. Raucous laughter can be heard before the lights issuing from the many tinted glass windows can be seen spewing out onto the road below. Justin and Maude replace their masks, revealing only their eyes under their hoods, before they enter the double wooden doors.

  The tavern is the only establishment in The Rebuplique frequented by all types of folk – Elites, who are often in disguise for fear of being seen in such an institution, Sub-Elites; usually the guards of the many businesses and other franchises of the Elites, and commoners from the surrounding ghettos and occasionally far-distant towns. Despite all types of people visiting the tavern, intermingling does not occur, with sections cordoned off for each class.

  Justin and Maude cross the threshold and suddenly all eyes of The Harlot’s Fodder’s patrons are on them. Unperturbed, the two assassins approach the bar at the far end. A weasely-looking man stands behind the bar, eyeing the assassins as they near, as he dries off the grimy glass in his hands with a dirty rag.

  ‘I don’t want no trouble,’ the Sub-Elite barman barks.

  ‘You will have no trouble if you give us what we want,’ Justin mutters back, eyes boring into the barman.

  The barman looks him and Maude over once before yielding, ‘Rex Dawson is out the back.’ He gestures with a thumb over his shoulder.

  Justin nods once before making his way around the bar, to the old-style wooden door to the right, Maude following close behind, all eyes of the tavern-folk still on their backs.

  Behind an antique wooden table, in a high-back leather chair of burgundy with brass studs, sits a miserly man with a beaked nose and small squinty eyes, pulled up with the years of nip and tuck work he has had. His broad fish-like mouth curls into a smile as the two assassins enter.

  ‘Well if it isn’t my old friends, the Assassins of The Underground,’ he leers, hands clasped on the table in front of him, nails painted a fluorescent yellow. ‘How may I help you this time?’

  Justin removes a small metal canister of bullion from his cloak and tosses it onto the table before him.

  ‘Payment of one million bullion for information.’

  Eyeing the canister greedily, Rex licks his lips then clicks his tongue, ‘well that would depend on the information you want.’

  ‘Tell us about the hit on The Weapons Factory,’ Justin demands, arms folded in front of him.

  Rex laughs, ‘what makes you think I would know anything about that?’

  ‘Tell us what you know, Sub-Elite scum,’ Maude hisses, hand resting on the pistol at her left hip.

  ‘Keep your guard-dog on its leash,’ Rex spits a
t Justin. ‘I will tell you what you want to know.’

  ‘Except?’ Justin knows Rex all too well to know he would not give up precious information so easily.

  ‘Except,’ Rex continues, ‘one million is not nearly enough.’

  Without a word, Justin removes another canister from his cloak and tosses onto the table.

  ‘Won’t you have a seat,’ Rex asks, sweetly, gesturing to the two leather armchairs before him.

  Justin and Maude make no move towards sitting.

  ‘Very well,’ Rex continues, slightly annoyed, ‘suit yourselves. What I know is quite disturbing if you believe it has merit. The Chancellor, since ascending to the position, has made it his mission to rid the World of anyone he sees as unfit to contribute to future generations. Now this does not include only commoners such as your wondrous selves, no. This also includes those like myself, and everyone out there,’ he gestures towards the door leading to the disorderly patrons of the tavern.

  ‘Yes,’ he continues, ‘Sub-Elites and Elites are also on his hit-list, much like they were on your own,’ he nods to Justin, ‘for reasons unknown to me. All I know is that his rantings are not just that of a madman but that of a leader with a plan for genocide.’

  ‘And so how is this linked to The Weapons Factory?’ Justin asks, not understanding the association.

  Rex looks between Justin and Maude. ‘Don’t you see? It was made to look like The Underground resistance forces hit The Factory, taking the weapons for their own arsenal. Of course, if you believe the rumours, then The Chancellor has the weapons including the Top-Secret weapons that were in development for The Founding Family.’