Elite Nation: Book One

by H. A. Rockley

  As they make their way through the empty streets, Guy fills in his assassin colleagues on their journey thus far, including the missile attack on Rostunberg shantytown.

  ‘The attack on the town – you don’t think it was directed at all of you?’ Justin contemplates, thinking it must not have just occurred by chance.

  ‘I can’t see how Chvostek could have known we were there,’ Guy states. ‘He was probably just destroying the town to send message to anyone who opposes his views. To destroy all of those he deems not suitable for his camps and experiments.’

  Justin nods, but something tells him there is more to it than that. He is sure the attack coinciding with the arrival of the assassins and mages to the town could not have merely been by chance.

  ‘A group our size is surely going to be spotted soon,’ Maude says to the male assassins. ‘It’s time we get off the streets.’

  She gestures to a small inn, ‘Viribus’, on the street up ahead.

  Graffiti slurs mar the adjacent wall of the derelict building, revealed in the flickering light of the nearby lamppost.

  The slurs catch Ari’s eye. They are not like the previous ones she’d seen in the other town and village.

  Cull.

  Exterminate.

  Rebirth.

  Then a large mural of a phoenix, encircled by flames blown from its own beak.

  Ari is transfixed by the words, unable to pull her eyes away from them. The village was mostly empty because The Chancellor had ordered a mass cull - so that he may further his plan for the rebirth of the human race as Super Humans.

  A light touch on her shoulder causes her to jump. Shuddering, she turns to see Justin, concern marring his features. Maude knocks on the dated door with the weathered brass-knocker before a small slit at the top of the door opens, revealing a pair of dark brown eyes.

  ‘We are closed.’ The opening closes, and the eyes are again behind the door.

  Maude knocks again and the eyes reappear. ‘We are looking for a night’s stay. We have plenty of bullion for renumeration.’

  The opening closes again and Maude turns to Justin. He shrugs.

  Just as Maude turns to walk away, the small panel opens again, eyes scrutinizing the party of seven, before closing again. There is the heavy clinking of metal and a scraping and then the doors swing open, revealing a tiny man with greying hair, back curved so far forward, his hands dangle beneath his knees. His eyes are magnified by thick spectacles. A blue and white apron sits around his hips, covering his grey slacks. He gestures to the hall before them and Maude walks over the threshold, followed by Justin and the others.

  Ari is surprised to see he is a commoner, like them, rather than Elite or Sub-Elite.

  ‘I’m afraid I only have two rooms left, so you’ll have to bunk,’ the innkeeper says quietly.

  Eyebrows rising, Malik asks, ‘business is thriving then?’

  Hani gives her brother a disapproving look before the innkeeper responds. ‘My inn is one of the only safe-havens left for hundreds of kilometers.’

  ‘You’re harbouring fugitives?’ Malik’s eyebrows have disappeared into his thick black mop.

  The innkeeper narrows his eyes at him, before reaching into his back pocket, ‘is that going to be a problem?’

  Malik takes a tentative step back, shaking his head, hands up in surrender. ‘No, no. Look at us.’ He gestures to his companions. ‘Do we look like we support The Chancellor?’

  With a humph, the innkeeper removes his hand from his back pocket, before leading the party on, ‘this way.’

  They venture down the dark hall, lights flickering on and off, revealing the many portraits of commoners that once lived in harmony with the Elites and Sub-Elites of the area. Soon they emerge onto an open courtyard, an exquisite stone fountain in the centre. The bottom of the fountain is carved in the shape of an upside down cupola, reminding Ari of a blossoming flower. The rest of the fountain is carved into the shape of three women, heads full of curls, gossamer gowns, frolicking together, as if playing in a stream.

  Weathered white stone covers the ground, leading out in a hexagonal shape, to white washed walls, dotted with old-world doors and window frames, with shutters open to the dim-light of the emerging moon.

  Garlands of flowers and decorations made from recycled materials, including what looks like pages of old books, surround the fountain and the walls. A modest cake is wheeled out of the adjacent kitchen and moved into one of the hexagon’s corners.

  ‘This way,’ the innkeeper says, as he hurries across the courtyard to the north-east door. He gestures towards the two neighbouring doors, ‘your rooms for the night.’

  He quickly unlocks them with a press of his finger on the electronic panel, before opening one of the doors, to reveal a modestly furbished room, equipped with two bunk-beds, with minimal bedding and a small door leading to a tiny washroom.

  Before leaving in a rush, the innkeeper advises the group on a small wedding occurring that night.

  ‘I do hope we are not too rowdy, but this was the only way we could have some semblance of a real wedding for my grand-daughter,’ he says, apologetically, as he shakes Justin’s hand.

  ‘A wedding?’ Delta beams. ‘Oh, how I love weddings!’

  The innkeeper looks the group over once more before he says, almost regretfully, ‘you are all, of course, welcome to attend as guests.’

  Delta lets out a high-pitch squeal and the others nod, stating if they weren’t too tired, then perhaps they may make an appearance and thanked him for the invite before moving to their rooms, males and females separate.

  Glancing around the room, Ari, takes in the dull green walls, plain except for a small lopsided painting of a golden flower with blue stamens. Delta inspects the washroom, whilst Hani sits on the bottom bunk of the bed to the right side of the room. Maude kicks off her boots and climbs to the top bunk, before laying down and staring up at the ceiling.

  Before Ari could bring up her mangled hand again, not wanting to dredge up any memories of her torture in The Chancellor’s laboratory, Maude feigns sleep. Not wanting to disturb the others and missing her sister, Ari climbs into the top bunk of the other bed, and turns to stare at the dull green wall.

  Chapter THIRTY-NINE

  After what seemed like hours of trying to fall asleep, music starts to float through the room window.

  Raucous laughter fills the night, as the music grows louder. A tune that Ari has never heard before – happy and upbeat, reminding her of a life she might’ve lived before she was given up by her parents for a life of slavery to The Elites. The music drowns out her thoughts and she starts to tap her feet. Without thinking, she climbs down the metal rungs of the bunk bed, bare feet touching the vinyl floor with a light thud. Still wearing the black outfit given to her by Guy, she rinses her face in the washroom, and quickly runs her hands through her brunette tresses.

  A girl with a gaunt face and messy hair stares back at her from the dirty mirror. She pinches her cheeks with a thumb and forefinger, and her usual rosy glow returns.

  As she makes to leave the room, a voice whispers in the darkness, ‘where are you going?’

  Delta is awake.

  Ari turns towards the water-mage’s voice, ‘I thought I’ll see what a wedding is like.’

  There is silence before a loud thud and suddenly the voice is much closer. ‘You’ve never been to a wedding before?’

  Searching the darkness for the blonde girl, Ari whispers back, ‘no, never.’

  ‘Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go.’

  ‘Wait for me,’ a melodic voice chimes, before Hani joins them.

  Hesitating for a moment, Ari places a finger on the electronic panel and the door clicks open, revealing bright lights and beautiful music.

  Delta rushes past her and, barefoot, twirls in a circle on the spot, white-blonde hair, catching the moonlight. Ari laughs as she watches on.

  The courtyard is full of wedding guests, dancing around the
fountain, laughing and drinking and being merry. The innkeeper stands near the fountain, deep in conversation with a young man who towers over him, wearing an ill-fitting suit of black with grey pinstripes and a tiny flower made from a book page fastened to his right lapel. Standing not too far away, is a slight woman, with rose-gold locks, falling in barrel curls around her freckled face. She wears a white-lace dress, simple yet elegant, falling to her calves.

  The bride was beautiful.

  ‘Shall we invite the boys?’ Hani asks the others.

  Before Ari could answer, Delta waltzes away, mingling with the dancing crowd, as if she knew them all personally. Ari nods to Hani and they both approach the neighbouring door. Just as she was about to knock, the door opens and Justin stands on the threshold, grinning down at Ari.

  She is taken slightly aback by his stunning smile and suddenly loses the ability to speak. She mumbles a few words, trying to string a sentence together but Hani saves her, ‘we wanted to know if you boys wanted to join the party?’

  Justin turns back to the dark room, and before long Malik, River and Guy emerge into the courtyard.

  ◆◆◆

  Hani and River talk to another young commoner couple at the far end of the courtyard. Delta spins and spins, legs taking her around the fountain as she dances the beat of the music, Malik watching her in awe. Guy leans against a courtyard wall, appearing to be quite bored.

  The newly weds wander between the revelers, greeting them, hugging them and planting a kiss on their cheeks. They make their way to Ari and Justin who sit on the fountain edge, watching the scene unfold before them.

  Every now and then, Justin would glance at the healer sitting beside him, before returning his gaze on the wedding guests.

  ‘Thank you for sharing in our special day,’ the bride grins, taking Ari’s hand between her own.

  Grinning back at her, Ari replies, ‘thank you for allowing us to be a part of such a joyous event.’

  ‘Are you passing through?’ The groom asks, seeming a bit more reserved than his new bride.

  Justin nods slightly, ‘we leave back home in the morning.’

  A sad smile crosses the bride’s face, ‘home.. oh, how I miss that word. Our home was destroyed when The Chancellor took most of our villagers away. We fled to my grandfather’s inn, along with the other survivors of our village.’ She looks around at the wedding guests. ‘I guess this is our home now.’

  Ari’s brows furrow in sadness, as she looks out to all the party goers, realising they were all displaced. The music changes, an upbeat and high tempo beat, and the bride grabs her groom and launches into a dance, moving from side to side, keeping in time with music.

  ‘Shall we?’ Justin stands and reaches out a hand to Ari, an expression of tentative hope on his face.

  Taking his hand, Ari jumps up and follows him to the dance floor. He places a hand around her waist and takes her right hand in his own. She places her other hand on his broad shoulder, and looks up into his amber eyes, as they move a few steps to the right and then to the left. They move as one around the other dancers, around the fountain, keeping up with the tempo of the music, which gets faster and faster as they dance in the moonlight beating down on them all.

  Justin cannot believe that in a world as dark and desolate as this one, that he would happen across such a creature as Ari. A woman so delicate, yet so tough; with powers for destruction but also healing. A woman who has a heart so full and willing to love, and always seeing the best in everyone. Someone who cares about others, strangers and always wanting to help the downtrodden.

  Beautiful and strong.

  Ari loses herself in the music and suddenly, it is only she and Justin, and the world is not ruled by Elites, a deranged mad-man is not trying to rebirth the human race, and her sister is alive and well.

  Her sister.

  Kaley.

  Ari suddenly stops dancing as thoughts of her sister come rushing into her mind, threatening to overwhelm her. She was having a good time, for the first time in a very long time, and her sister was sick. Poisoned. Dying.

  ‘Ari? Are you okay?’ Justin lifts her chin up to look into her brown eyes.

  Ari pulls away from him, and turns back to the fountain, taking a seat on the cold stone. ‘It’s Kaley.’

  Justin nods before sitting beside her and she buries her head in his shoulder. They sit like this for a long while, not saying a word, but knowing what each one wants to say.

  ◆◆◆

  The wedding party continues with no sign of winding down. Guy approaches Justin and Ari, a looks of concern on his face.

  ‘What is it?’ Justin asks, cautiously, as he untwines himself from Ari.

  ‘I have received some information from The Colonel that Almanach is soon to be overrun by The Chancellor’s forces. We need to move – now.’

  Justin stands abruptly, ‘what? They’re coming here?’

  Guy nods, before heading back to their room, ‘gather the others. We need to go.’

  Turning back to Ari, before he could say anything more, she stands and nods, ‘I’ll get the girls. But we can’t just leave all these people to The Chancellor’s army.’

  Justin sighs heavily, ‘there’s not much we can do.’

  ‘We must warn them,’ Ari pleads.

  ‘I’ll warn the innkeeper,’ Justin agrees, ‘get the others and wake Maude.’

  Justin pays the innkeeper the bullion they owe and tells him of the incoming threat. The innkeeper thanks him profusely, before making his way around the courtyard, warning his guests of the imminent peril.

  On returning to the room, Ari finds Maude is awake, sitting cross-legged on the vinyl floor. She looks up and Ari is certain there were tears in her amethyst eyes.

  ‘We need to go,’ Ari says quietly.

  Without question, Maude nods, rising from the floor and follows Ari out into the courtyard, which has quickly become deserted.

  ◆◆◆

  Now kilometers from the ‘Viribus Inn’, the group hide in the shadows of the buildings of the Village, following the path mapped out by Guy, leading them to The Underground. They come across a manhole in a deserted street, which they silently enter, slipping into the darkness below.

  Looking through his map, Guy explains the fastest route through the sewers to The Underground, before they continue through the dark tunnels.

  As they walk in silence, Ari notices Maude seems distant with her mind focused somewhere else and Ari is reminded of her tears hours earlier.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she asks her.

  It takes a few minutes before Maude answers, ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘Are you sure? You don’t look fine.’ Ari looks to her damaged hand. ‘We can talk about it,’ she says, softer, gentler.

  Fire burns in Maude’s eyes as she relives the torture she was forced to endure at the hands of The Chancellor’s bitch doctor – Cecelia Hadrad. What she wouldn’t do to get her revenge on that woman..

  ‘Maude?’

  ‘Bloody hell, Ari,’ Maude snaps, ‘I said I’m fine. Let it go.’

  Slightly hurt at her friend’s response, Ari nods, before falling back, and allowing the redhead to move on.

  Maude feels somewhat guilty for how she reacted but the thought of having to explain everything she went through – the hormonal treatments, the painful harvesting of her viable eggs, the scientists draining her of her blood until she was almost a living corpse, so that they would have her DNA to manipulate – she just couldn’t do it.

  And last thing she wanted was for anyone to feel pity on her.

  She was an assassin.

  A strong woman warrior.

  A sharpshooter.

  She has made hundreds of kills from afar – all without ever being caught.

  Well, she used to be a sharpshooter.

  Her right hand throbs with pain, as the bones try to knit together, despite them not setting in the right position. She would never be a sharpshooter again – her shooting hand w
as ruined. Even the healing powers of her friend would be no use – they could heal damaged DNA of cells due to ageing, mutations, poisons. A hand and wrist fractured in a thousand pieces – that would be an injury she would never come back from.

  Justin interrupts her thoughts. ‘Maude,’ he says, softly.

  She looks up at her assassin friend, before realising she had stopped in her tracks, her breathing coming fast and uneven.

  Without another word he gestures with his head towards the others who venture deeper into the sewer tunnels. He understood what she was going through. He had daily nightmares himself, reliving his own ordeal as The Chancellor’s guinea pig – where he was injected with vials of unknown substances. Some would cause his body to feel like it was burning all over, encompassed in a blanket of fire. Others would make him feel as if he was frozen, his body temperature falling so low, he could feel his mind starting to slow, his heart beating only occasionally, and he wanted to sleep.

  Sleep forever.

  But then he would see Arielle.

  Her rosy cheeks.

  Her big brown eyes.

  And her smile. The most dazzling smile he has ever known.

  He glances back at Ari, who is deep in conversation with Hani. He catches her eye and she gives him one of those smiles he can’t get enough of.

  He rubs the right side of his neck, remembering the thousands of needles that had been injected into his jugular vein. He had no idea what they had been testing on him or what they had been doing with the gallons of blood they had siphoned from him.

  There is shuffling up ahead and he tenses, as he turns to those behind him, eyes wide, urging them to stand still. Guy, Malik and River had already passed out of his line of sight, the blue glow of their light no longer visible.

  The shuffling grows louder, followed by a yell and then a splash.

  Someone else was down here in the bowels of Almanach Village.

  Chapter FORTY