Freeze: A Dystopian Urban Fantasy Military Romance (The Great Keeper Series Book 1)

by Adelaide Walsh

  “Everything was so simple back then,” John sighed.

  “It was, wasn’t it? All we had to do was follow instructions and pass tests. Now we have all these responsibilities.”

  “Are you, Captain Dana Reeves, actually complaining about your responsibilities?”

  Dana laughed, “It’s just that sometimes I wish everyone didn’t expect me to have the solutions to all our problems. Even Lieutenant Blade seems to think I should have everything figured out.”

  “And you don’t?”

  “You know I don’t.”

  “You definitely seem like you do. In the Savvy meetings and even in bed, you always sound so sure about what needs to be done.”

  “I can’t believe you just compared a Savvy meeting with a sex session,” Dana said, amused.

  John turned red, “Well, I mean you’re always so confident. It’s like you were born to be in your position. And yet here you are, doubting yourself.”

  Dana sighed and took John by the hand. They sat down on a nearby bench.

  “I doubt myself all the time, John. For one thing, I didn’t see the Christmas attack coming. For another, it seems like this war is dragging on and on. Who am I to think I’ll be the one to end it?”

  “You could be.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You know our history. According to folklore, every generation has a hero or heroine. It’s always someone who is ready to put the wellbeing of others above their own. Someone truly self-sacrificing and just. You managed to pull us out of the rut that we’ve been in ever since the last major conflict. Morale is high again. The academy is turning out some of the best graduates even Blade has ever seen. Don’t you see, Dana? We’re building up to a victory.”

  “You really think that this next offensive will be successful.”

  “We can’t afford to think we’ll fail, can we?”

  “No,” Dana said, squeezing his hand, “We can’t.”

  Chapter 2

  Wondering how she could possibly know what he had done, he stumbled toward a cupboard in a corner of the large living room. He felt grateful the meeting was over. They had all gone. Retrieving a bottle of brandy from the cupboard, he consoled himself with the notion that she probably sensed something but didn’t actually know anything.

  A cold draught blew through the castle as Blade stood in his living room. He raised his glass of brandy to his lips, savoring the bitter liquid as he rolled it around on his tongue. It was careless of him to be drinking when he needed to be alert and in charge of his senses at all times. But he was in no state to be reasonable. The events of the night before- a full moon night he would never forget- slowly paraded through his brain one after another like a funeral procession. The course of his life had changed in a matter of minutes. Blade could not help but marvel at the service he had given over the course of his fifty-nine-year life. All that hard work just so he could meet a disgraceful end.

  As he paced around the room, Blade caught sight of a drop of water accelerating through the air and towards the floor.

  “Damn this leaky roof…,” he muttered to himself.

  He’d have to call someone to see to it later today. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he laughed at himself. If only he could keep worrying about leaky ceilings and counteroffensives instead of this mess he had gotten himself into. Finding a chair nearby, he settled himself and let his thoughts drift to the old days.

  “And there she is,” Ms. Amelia had said back then as she pointed Dana out from a group of children reciting the Periodic Table of Elements.

  “I’d like to talk to her.”

  “What is your interest in her?” Ms. Amelia said, baffled.

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” Blade answered mysteriously.

  Ms. Amelia eyed the man standing before her. He wore a navy blue uniform with a Chinese collar that suited his fit body perfectly. On his left chest, just above his heart, were four platinum badges showing his Great Keeper status. The first was shaped like a leaf, showing that his primary ability was to control earth -the ground, the vegetation that was rooted in the soil, the volcanoes on the surface of the earth included. The second was in the form of a drop of water, the next a whirlwind and the last, a wooden torch set alight. Blade wore black shoes that never seemed to lose their shine, even when he had been walking in the forest. At five foot six inches, he was not necessarily an imposing figure. But his eyes made up for that. They were gray, set under his furrowed brown brows and gave him the air of a serious commander wise beyond his years. He had no interests other than the welfare of Espérer and the Journeymen. He had no time for love affairs or challenging his fellow Keepers to duels just for the fun of it. He could usually be found at the training arena, strengthening his body, or under the shade of an outdoor café, reading a book to keep his mind sharp. He was reliable and strong. People felt safe around him.

  So when, on that day many years ago, he asked to see Dana, Ms. Amelia fetched the little girl and handed her over.

  “Hello, little girl,” Blade said as he bent to look Dana in the eye.

  Dana kept silent, in awe of the great man she had heard of. Most of the battles they had won against Biolance so far had been led by Blade.

  “I want to be just like you when I grow up,” Dana finally said.

  Blade felt his features stretching to accommodate a smile, something they rarely did.

  “You will be much stronger than I am, little girl.”

  “Thank you. But how can you tell?” Dana asked, always the one to say what she was thinking.

  Blade simply produced a spherical platinum pendant he had forged himself. It had longitudinal and latitudinal lines on it, as if it represented planet Earth. A gold chain ran through it and it shimmered in the sunshine as Blade fastened the pendant and chain around Dana’s neck.

  “Wear this always to remember this day,” Blade said so seriously that Dana nodded and asked no more questions.

  As Blade sat now in the comfort of his cold home, he took another sip of cold brandy. It wouldn’t be long before the decomposing body in the forest gave him away. He tried to imagine the look on Dana’s face when she found out what he had done. But when the image began to materialize in his mind’s eye, he quickly flushed it down his throat with the brandy.

  PART II

  THE JOURNEYMEN

  Chapter 3

  The footsteps came crunching down the gravel as the sun rose over the city of Metz. Exhausted from her graveyard shift, Rosie twisted the door knob and let herself into the house she had grown up in. Heading towards Simone’s room to check on her, she heaved a tired sigh and wondered if she could live like this for the rest of her life. But, at twenty-three, her job as a caterer at Biolance was finally secure. After spending the last five years of her life proving that she could provide the scientists who worked around the clock good food and stellar customer service, they had awarded her a one hundred year contract. She couldn’t wait until daybreak so that she could tell her parents they would soon be moving away from the outskirts of Metz, the rough part of town where most people lived in dilapidated housing and scavenged for food and clothing in the dumpsters of the richer Central Metz. Finally, her father could stop lending his body as an experimental subject in exchange for money. As she stealthily cracked the door of her little sister Simone’s room open, she felt a hand touch her shoulder and jumped.

  “Shhh, it’s only me,” her mother said.

  “Oh, thank heavens it’s you. Mom, what are you doing up so early?”

  “I thought you were your father. He hasn’t come home yet.”

  “But he should have been home hours ago.”

  Rosie’s mother seemed worried as she pulled her daughter into the main bedroom, shaking her head as if under some type of spell. They sat at the edge of the bed, rubbing their hands together as much for comfort as to stave off the cold.

  “Something has happened to him.”

  “We don’t know that,
Mom. Maybe he got delayed at the lab.”

  “I told him he shouldn’t get involved in those experiments. He just keeps getting weaker and weaker. They’re killing him, treating him like a lab rat.”

  Rosie looked across at her mother, feeling helpless. She could think of no way of finding out what had happened to her father. All they could do was wait.

  “Well, he won’t need to work as a lab rat anymore,” Rosie said, trying to cheer her mother up, “I’ve just landed a hundred year contract.”

  Rosie’s mother looked over at her daughter, “Really?”

  “Really.”

  For as long as she could remember, Sophie had been pushing Rosie to go after her dreams and not let the constant disappointments ordinary citizens of Outer Metz faced. But now, as she looked at her daughter, she saw what a hopeless feat it all was.

  “Aren’t you happy for me, Mom?” Rosie asked, confused.

  “Of course I am. We’re finally getting out of this place and because of you. I’m proud of you.”

  “But?”

  “But you were competing for that contract with your best friend. As it is you both were earning enough only to buy supplies and couldn’t afford to help out at home or pay for an education. Now he’s back to square one. His family has lost out on an opportunity to live a better life. It’s a harsh world we live in. He’ll be signing up as a lab rat next, won’t he?”

  “There are other opportunities,” Rosie said.

  “You know that’s barely true. Only educated Journeymen can become lawyers and profit from all those intellectual property battles we have now. Or scientists and engineers, who conduct experiments on people like us.”

  “Well those people need to eat too. And they need all sorts of services that ‘people like us’ can provide.”

  Sophie looked at her daughter and sighed, “Rosie, don’t you see? You… We are part of a vicious cycle that won’t stop until you stop trying to work the system and start fighting it.”

  “How can you say that, Mom? You know we’d only end up dead. Anyway, am I not the one who’s supposed to be talking about revolutions and changing things? If I’m content with the way things are, why aren’t you?”

  “Because I grew up in a different time. When there was hope and so much to look forward to. When the unemployment rate was less than ten percent instead of ninety. They make sure it’s high just so that people willingly become research subjects. Back then, we thought things were bad. We didn’t realize how lucky we were or how much worse things could get. Maybe the Keepers can bring those times back.”

  Rosie couldn’t help but look over at her mother in disbelief.

  “Mom, no one will bring those times back. The Journeymen are too busy trying to survive and the Keepers don’t seem to be helping. So what if they can lift rocks and change the weather? How effective has that ever been against genetically altered soldiers and sound strategies? And why are we talking about all this now when Dad is missing?”

  “Because I know he’s not coming back.”

  Rosie couldn’t help but wonder if her mother had finally lost it. She had been under a lot of pressure lately, what with her father’s health deteriorating.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not crazy,” Sophie said calmly.

  “I know. It’s just… Well, how do you know he’s not coming back?”

  Sophie rubbed her cold hands together, bringing them to her lips to warm them with her breath.

  “I know because this house isn’t usually so cold.”

  Chapter 4

  Rosie lay shivering in her bed, unable to fall asleep. Her mother and brother lay beside her. Only Simone was sleeping, oblivious to his mother and sister’s uneasiness. Sophie had piled all the blankets that they had over them and they lay side by side to keep warm. It would be time to get up soon. But the two women could barely keep their eyes shut as they contemplated their future and what this would mean for all the other Journeymen, not to mention the Keepers.

  Eventually, the bedside clock struck seven. As it screamed for them to wake up, Rosie reached over and turned it off. She had a long day ahead of her, cooking for the scientists at Biolance. Her mother stayed with Simone, homeschooling her all day. It was something she would be doing only until the end of the year. Metz’s Ministry of Education was abolishing homeschooling as of the following year.

  “And the indoctrination begins,” Rosie’s father, Maximilian, used to say whenever they talked about Simone’s education.

  “Maybe we could move to Dijon. Things are still quite old-fashioned there. It’s a far cry from the ‘tech capital’ that we live in now,” Sophie would say.

  “Was there really once just one Ministry of Education? For the whole country?” Simone would ask.

  They would all pitch in to answer Simone’s questions, only too happy to talk about the old days.

  “She’s ten years old, after all. The world she knows is very different from how things were back then. We really should move,” Maximilian would say.

  But they hadn’t moved. And now, Maximilian was gone.

  Rosie got up from bed, grabbed a towel and made for the bathroom. Reaching for the toothpaste, she removed the lid and squeezed a pea-sized portion on her toothbrush. She brushed quickly, warding off the tears that kept threatening to bring her to her knees. As she pulled off her pajamas, Rosie thought about her father and the last time she had seen him. She had been on her way out, heading for work. He seemed proud as she slung her bag over her shoulder and jumped into the truck that carried her and her best friend Joseph’s supplies.

  “Well, Joseph, it has been nice knowing my daughter has someone to look out for her but of course we all know she’ll win that contract. We should start a business together, fixing up these old houses,” Maximilian joked.

  “You should do that. You could call it ‘Maximilian and Daughters’,” Joseph would reply good-naturedly.

  They both knew very few -if any- in the outskirts of Metz would afford the services of ‘Maximilian and Daughters’ but the humor helped them through tough times. Now, as she stepped into the shower, Rosie let the tears run down her cheeks. She rubbed the bar of soap against a course cloth as piercing sobs wracked her body. Her limbs were on autopilot as she rubbed the lathered cloth over her face and arms, around her neck and between her breasts. By the time she reached her legs, she crouched down on the floor and curled into a ball -unable to move. Something told her she would never see her father again. But how could she live with the reality of that? It had always been her consolation that she would get the contract and would move him out of the ghetto into a safer and healthier Central Metz. And just when she was able to do that, he disappears. A wave of anger washed over her at the injustice of it all. Who had done this to her and her family? It dawned on her that she could find out and bring whoever it was to justice. The water from the showerhead fell over her body as she sat on the floor of the shower, back against the wall and feet pressed against the floor. Her ginger hair reached past her shoulder in fiery wavelets as she made up her mind. Yes, she would find out who had done it.

  Chapter 5

  Sophie had just seen Rosie off to work and cleared the breakfast dishes when she took Simone by the hand, leading her to the police station in Central Metz. Not far from the technology district and research parks, it distinctly gave off the impression that it was there for the white collar workers that surrounded it. The exterior consisted of sheets of curved, silver steel perched on blue glass walls. Maximilian had always said the structure reminded him of a fashionable test tube with a steel belt around its waist. As Sophie and Simone made their way through the revolving doors, they were met by the sight of suit-clad men and women with perfectly starched shirts and briefcases swinging from their hands. People in this part of town always seemed to walk around with briefcases. Sophie usually wondered what that was all about whenever she came to central Metz but today her mind was in a different place.

  Hurrying towards a po
liceman stationed behind a counter, Sophie cleared her throat.

  “Excuse me, I’d like to report a missing person.”

  “Hello, Madam, how are you?” the policeman said sarcastically.

  Sophie blushed, embarrassed by her rudeness.

  “I’m fine thank you. I’d like to report a missing person.”

  “Age?” the policeman said, pulling out an electronic tablet.

  “Fifty-nine,” Sophie said.

  “When last did you see this person?”

  “Yesterday.”

  The policeman put the tablet down.

  “Madam, we cannot act on this report until this person ---.”

  “…my husband,” Sophie said resolutely.

  “…your husband has been missing for at least 48 hours.”

  “Yes, I know. But this is different.”

  The policeman sighed as if he could hardly stand the tedium of his job.

  “How is it different, Madam?”

  Sophie looked down at Simone, who was preoccupied by a Black German Shepherd standing not too far away from them.

  “He has been killed by a Keeper,” Sophie whispered, leaning forward so that the policeman could hear her.

  The policeman immediately grabbed the tablet and seemed to have come alive at this news.

  “How do you know that, Madam? You just said your husband is missing.”

  “Well, I don’t know where he… his body... is but I know he has been killed.”

  The policeman rolled his eyes.

  “Madam ---.”

  “The house is freezing cold. Much more than usual. His spirit has left our home. I know that when a Keeper kills a human being, all the things that made it feel like that person is there are left without that…feeling. His clothes don’t feel like his clothes anymore. There is no familiar scent about them. His things look brand new as if he never used them. And there is frost lining the ceiling of our bedroom. We had to sleep in my eldest daughter’s room. All the signs are there. It’s like his memory has been wiped off the face of the earth.”