by Jackie D
He hadn’t realized how long he’d been staring until he felt a hand on his arm. “Honey?”
He turned to look at his wife, Dorothy. He’d loved her since the first day they’d met in college and had loved her every day since. She was strong, smart, articulate, and beautiful. These were the same traits he now saw in his daughter, and the idea of losing her washed over him again.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to focus on not letting the tears welling up in his eyes fall. “I don’t know how to stop it.”
She wrapped her arm around his. “I don’t think you can. Sometimes, things need to be completely broken to heal, just like our bones.”
“I won’t be able to protect her,” he whispered.
Dorothy put her hand on his cheek. “Did you ever think it will be them who will need protection from her?”
He leaned into her hand, allowing himself this moment. There might not be many more in their future, and he wanted to remember the small bit of beauty left in the world.
Chapter One
Arrow Steele glanced up at the monitor, watching the line seesaw along the screen, marking her heart rate. “Decrease oxygen level to six.”
The soothing and familiar voice of the Computer Analysis Monitoring System answered. “That is not advised. Your current running speed is seven. Lowering the oxygen level in the room could have adverse effects.” The voice had been a constant in her life since the day she was born. It belonged to the artificial intelligence server that monitored the compound. It was affectionately known to everyone as CAM.
“Advisement noted. Please lower the level to six. I need to simulate the western territory air quality.” She had been born for this mission. Arrogance hadn’t placed that thought in her head, nor was it some misguided musing. No, it was something she’d been told since she was old enough to understand words and their implications. Every day of training since her childhood had led to this week. Phoenix One was her destiny. Or that’s what she would call it, if she believed in things like destiny.
Arrow heard the overhead exhaust fans click on as CAM’s voice filled the room. “Oxygen level at nine…eight…seven…six. I have also notified Captain Markinson of your current training session, as he asked me to disengage the track once you have been on it for ninety minutes.”
Arrow shook her head, annoyed with Valor Markinson for once again trying to dictate her training regimen. “CAM, I still outrank Valor. Is your system glitched?” The words were more difficult to choke out than she’d hoped, a direct effect of the decrease in oxygen.
“There is no glitch, Major Steele. General Steele instructed me to notify the captain whenever you step outside safety protocol.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but it was becoming more difficult to breathe by the second. Her hands were beginning to tingle, and her chest burned. She blinked hard and tried to refocus the discomfort she felt on the fact that this was precisely what it would feel like in the western territory, and she needed to be ready. If she couldn’t push her body past its normal limits, what use would she be to Phoenix One? It didn’t matter what her father or Valor thought; she knew what her body was capable of, and she wanted more from it.
An alarm from the sensor pinged, and she looked up. The oxygen level in her body had decreased from ninety-eight to eighty-seven percent. If it dropped to eighty-five, the training session would end automatically. She reached down to her wrist and pushed the glowing blue button, releasing the monitoring bracelet. The monitor stopped beeping at her, and she smiled at her small victory. She’d tossed the bracelet over to the corner of the room when she heard the door slide open, and CAM’s voice announced the entrance of the man now standing in front of her.
“Good morning, General Steele.”
Her father had his arms crossed across his chest, pushing his muscles forward. His jaw clenched, and he was squinting, a positive indication that he was less than thrilled with her.
“You’re being reckless.” His voice was even and controlled.
“I’m training.” Arrow was surprised she managed to muster the ability to get the words out through the burning sensation.
“CAM, terminate the session.”
“Yes, General.”
The track began to slow, and although Arrow’s immediate thought was to say she could do another five minutes, her quivering legs didn’t agree. She tried not to gasp for the air that had started to be pumped back into the room, but her body couldn’t help itself.
“I could’ve gone longer.” She had her hands on her knees and was trying to focus her vision, which had become blotted with small dots.
“What were you thinking? Level six? That’s not an altitude you’ll encounter, much less at the speed you were running.”
She was still bent over. Proper etiquette required her to stand at attention while addressing a general. But this wasn’t just a general; this was her father. She kept her eyes focused on his perfectly shined boots. “I just want to be ready for anything.”
“You’re ready. You’ve been ready. I’m very proud of you.” His voice cracked at the end. Showing emotion had never been a strong suit of her father’s, and she was caught off guard.
She stood and made eye contact. “Thank you.”
She thought for a moment that he was going to hug her. But even as she thought it, she knew it was foolish. She could count on one hand the number of times he had embraced her in all her twenty-eight years. He nodded at her once and walked past her. “You’re due in the control center in forty-five minutes.”
“I know. I’ll be there.”
“See you then.” The door slid open, and he walked out.
Arrow grabbed a towel from the neatly folded pile in the corner of the room. She blotted her face and stared at herself in the mirror. There were still blotchy patches of red on her neck and cheeks.
“Please put your monitoring device back on, Major Steele,” CAM said.
Arrow grabbed the small bracelet from the corner of the room and put it back on her wrist. “You didn’t have to call the general. I would’ve stopped eventually.”
“General Steele asked for your location. I gave it to him as well as an update on your activity.”
Arrow was in the process of stripping the clothes from her body, but she paused, surprised by this information. “How often does he check on me?” She wasn’t aware that her father was all that concerned with her day-to-day happenings.
“Two to three times a day.”
She tapped the monitor on the shower, dictating the temperature she wanted the water to be, along with the combination of soap she wanted to be included. “I didn’t realize he cared that much.”
She didn’t expect CAM to answer. She’d been speaking to herself. “You’re one of two Guardians assigned to Phoenix One. Your whereabouts and happenings are of the utmost importance.”
This clarification made much more sense than the idea her father was concerned about her. It was about the mission. It was always about the mission. She hadn’t picked it for herself, but now she believed that had she been given a choice like others in the colony, she would have taken it. There had been two Guardians assigned to Phoenix One before her and Valor. They had retired from their positions ten years ago when she and Valor were old enough to relieve them. Arrow wasn’t sure how they did it, since she couldn’t imagine a life outside of this.
The shower was hot and relaxing, precisely the combination she was seeking. She ran a rag over her chest and arms. The soap and cloth momentarily hid the tattoos on her arms that signified her place in the world. Her upper left arm wore the insignia of the Guardian class, Level One. On the right, her barcode. They were used to identify her—the Guardian insignia to her people and the barcode to her enemy. The Hand of God had perfected the brutal art of stripping away a person’s uniqueness, which was what the barcode intended to achieve, and was given to every person at birth. But her Guardian insignia was a beacon of hope and safety for the people who entr
usted her with their lives. To the Hand of God, it meant she was tasked with keeping the peace. But to anyone else, Level One Guardians were the keepers of the Phoenix.
“Arrow?” The voice echoed through the shower area.
She wiped away the condensation on the glass. “Hey, Valor. You checking up on me too?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall. “Well, you do stupid things sometimes. But no, I wasn’t checking on you. I figured we could head up to control center together.”
She turned the shower off and grabbed the towel off the hook, then wrapped it around her body. She stepped out of the steaming cube and looked up at Valor. He towered over her five-foot-six frame by a full nine inches. He had smooth black skin and a dimple in his left cheek. His slow and easy smile was reassuring and welcome.
She turned her back to him and pulled her underwear up under her towel. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
She heard him move around and then sit down, the squeaking material giving away his position. “Not really. I feel like we’ve been waiting for this day our entire lives.”
She tucked her shirt into her pants and sat down to tie her boots. “It feels that way because it’s true.”
He leaned forward in his chair, his hands in perfect steeples. “Do you ever wish we had been Twos or Threes, maybe even just villagers?”
She faced the mirror and put her hat on and straightened it. “No, never.”
He walked over to her, his face behind her in the mirror. “I knew you’d say that.”
She tucked away the tiny bit of hair that stuck out under her hat. “Then why’d you ask?”
“Because your confidence gives me confidence.”
She turned to face him. She reached up and placed her hands on his broad, muscular shoulders. “There’s no one better trained for this than us. We’ve been preparing for this since the day we could hold a weapon.”
He shook his head. “You started even before that.”
She smiled at him and shrugged. “True. Sometimes I think my parents had me just for this purpose.”
“I’d like to argue with you, but I think you’re right.”
She put her forearm out, an indication for him to bump it with his own. They’d practiced this friendly and straightforward maneuver since they were children. It was something they shared only with each other. He bumped her arm with his. “We’ve got this.”
* * *
Arrow had never seen so many people in the control center. There were people buzzing around every piece of equipment. The main screen took up forty feet of the front wall and typically had the locations and happenings of the Hand of God and its soldiers. Today, it listed all the necessary characteristics of the Phoenix Project and its status. There was always at least one general in the room tasked with the watch for six hours at a time. Today, all twelve generals were in the room. Four from Guardian One, four from Guardian Two, and four from Guardian Three.
Arrow and Valor found seats next to each other in the gallery and awaited further instructions. The door beeped and slid open. “Attention on deck,” said a voice from another corner of the room.
CAM’s voice made the official declaration. “Good afternoon, Madam President.”
Macy Steele was smart, compassionate, capable, and beautiful. She was the best person Arrow had ever met, and she would’ve told anyone that, even if she wasn’t her mother. She was six years into her term as president of the Resistance and her people adored her, but none more than Arrow. She made eye contact with Arrow and winked as she made her way to the front of the room.
She stood at the podium placed there for today’s announcement. Typically, there would be cameras hovering in the air to broadcast her remarks. But today, they couldn’t risk the possibility of the transmission being intercepted. Over the years, their scrambling abilities had become almost impenetrable. But almost wasn’t good enough for today.
Her mother put her hands on the podium, and Arrow knew they were folded together. This was her mom’s normal speaking position. Her face was calm and comforting, the epitome of class and reliability. She saw her gaze travel over to her father, who was sitting in the front row to her left. He beamed at her, just as proud of her as Arrow.
“Thank you all for coming. Today, we gather for the realization of a promise. A promise that was made to all of us sixty-seven years ago. The Resistance was created out of necessity. A necessity for a free people, a fair and just government, and a country that sought to heal, to help, and to be a beacon of hope for the rest of the world. The government that calls itself the Hand of God is the antithesis of everything we hold dear and even of its very name. Our parents and grandparents saw the need to create a force that would stand up to this evil, with the conviction that only a free society can offer. Today, we take a step toward bringing that promise to fruition. The success of the Phoenix Project will be the bridge to bring us together once again. It will no longer be us versus them. We’ll be one people once more. We’ll be met with confusion and disbelief, but we can’t let that deter us from our goals. Our people will no longer stand on the outside. We’ll no longer be kept from our relatives within the Hand of God, and we’ll no longer remain in the shadows. Today will mark the beginning of a reckoning and the starting point of a prophecy spoken by the last real president the United States ever had, Daniel Trapp. It is all of you in this room who make this possible. You’re the heart and soul of the Resistance, and I’m going to let you get to work. I just wanted to personally thank you for what you’re doing. A grateful colony thanks you, and eventually, a grateful nation.”
Her mother’s remarks were met with a burst of applause. The typically stoic people in the room were smiling and smacking each other on the back. It was the first time in Arrow’s life where she could taste the excitement in the air. It was heavy and sweet. It sat in her mouth like something that could be chewed on and enjoyed. She knew the road ahead of them was long and undoubtedly dangerous, but it did nothing to sour the excitement of the right now. The world was about to change.
Chapter Two
Kaelyn Trapp knew she was awake, but she couldn’t move a single muscle in her body. Voices were coming in and out of the room, and the light shifted behind her eyelids. The blanket draped over her was heavy and hot. It wasn’t like any heat she’d ever felt. She understood that it was warm enough to create sweat, but there was none. She wanted to understand why, but her brain wasn’t allowing her to put the pieces together. The soft lull of the beeping monitors was pushing her back to sleep, but she was desperately fighting the sensation.
Sleep was on the verge of claiming her. She knew she was losing the fight when she heard her. It was a voice she recognized, but she didn’t know from where. The voice was moving closer. The person attached to the voice knew her name; the person even seemed to know her. Kaelyn wanted desperately to open her eyes to this familiarity. She willed her body to work.
“Kaelyn, whenever you’re ready, we’re here waiting,” said the familiar voice.
Kaelyn sifted through her memory. It wasn’t her mother, and it wasn’t any of her female friends. She needed to know. She pushed and willed her eyes to open. Then slowly, more light started to slip in. The light hurt. It was bright, harsh, and unwelcoming. She must have worn the pain on her face because the voice spoke again.
“Turn down the lights,” she said.
Then, Kaelyn felt her eyes blink. She couldn’t make them focus yet, but they were blinking. Then a thirst she’d never felt before consumed her. She felt as if she’d been in a desert for a hundred years. Her throat, chest, and even her tongue hurt. She wanted to ask for water, but she couldn’t make her mouth move to form words. The stickiness clung to her cheeks and tongue, making it impossible to vocalize her need.
She heard movement next to her, and then a straw was in her mouth. Her body responded with muscle memory, sucking down all the cool liquid the straw would offer. When the slurping sound started, the straw was
removed from her mouth, only to be back a few moments later with more marvelous water. The blurry images of the room were starting to take shape, her focus becoming sharper. She saw the person holding the cup and straw to her mouth.
“That’s all I can give you for now.”
Kaelyn didn’t know how she did it, but she felt her head nod her understanding. Her vision was becoming clearer now, and she could see the woman in front of her. She wore a uniform that Kaelyn didn’t recognize. It was all black with unfamiliar insignias sewn on the collar and sleeves. Kaelyn decided to focus on the face, hoping there’d be something familiar there instead. The woman had short black hair, cut the way a man would wear it. Her eyes looked like a storm, gray and full of energy. Her lips started to turn up in a smile clearly intended for Kaelyn.
Kaelyn looked down at the woman’s nametag and managed to repeat the word she read. “Steele.”
Steele’s smile widened, and her slightly tanned skin showed bits of red at her cheeks. “Yes, that’s right. I’m Major Arrow Steele, and I’m the Guardian assigned to you.”
