by Angela White
4
They spent the night in the bunker with the kids.
There were roughly three dozen who hadn’t fled, ages ten to fifteen, and while they didn’t avoid each other, it was clear they weren’t a close group. They didn’t talk or joke like normal kids, but they didn’t fight either, and the cleanup of the ground floor was done without anyone ordering it. The bodies were dragged outside, the blood scrubbed up, and the food served. Injured kids were placed on cots near the door to be grabbed quickly if they needed to run, and all the while, Alexa spent time with them.
Not normal time of comfort and encouragement, it was more like a line of subjects waiting to see the King. They sat in a small circle around her, and she answered each one of their requests in a tone that held Edward mesmerized. She had no intentions of staying to care for them or even getting them settled somewhere, and yet these kids acted like she was their savior. What was he missing?
“She’s an Alpha.”
It came from the twins and was spoken in an arrogant tone that said he knew nothing about the quest he’d joined.
Edward gave a soft snort. “Clearly. Is it okay to ask?”
The twins turned eyes to Alexa, who looked up, and then nodded. She went back to the current child’s request to learn fire-making, and the twins gestured toward a quieter area in the corner. Edward followed slowly.
“An Alpha is a direct descendant of Christ.”
Edward blinked at the name… and then frowned. “Some joke.”
The Twins were clearly used to that response. “The War came because someone found out the governments always knew. It had to be covered up.”
Edward was shaking his head. “The War of 2012 was a terrorist…”
“No!”
The silent double shout shut his mouth and opened his ears. The pain that their anger caused was like the nauseating jab of a headache, and he vowed not to experience it again.
“Descendants of the Master have been hunted throughout history. They’ve given birth to Oil Barons, Presidents, and death with a human face. To keep control and achieve their own ends, they destroyed the world.”
Edward felt the truth behind it (how could he not with those blazing voices in his head?), but his heart still protested such complete betrayal. “That can’t be.”
Other kids had come to their table, listening to both the spoken and mental words, and the Twins looked around. Edward got the sense it was as painful for them to say as it was for him to hear.
“They could have stopped the fighting and death at any time. All they had to do was bring us together with an Alpha.”
Forgetting his protest in eagerness to know more about Alexa, he leaned forward. ”Like what you did today with her?”
“That was a very small show of what we can do together. It’s why they don’t usually keep us in the same place.”
“Usually?”
“Sometimes they have one in the room with us… when we’re doing things.”
“So it’s stronger?” he asked, drawn into the mystery of it.
The Twins scowled, causing him to lean quickly back.
“So the Alphas don’t kill them all like we’ve done here today. They remind us constantly that they hold others like us across the world and a rebellion would cause their deaths.”
“As it may now that we’ve risen up.”
It was a low mutter from one of the other kids at their table, and the twins turned furious eyes toward the older boy. “The Alpha ordered it. You will not question!”
The taller teenager bowed his head immediately at the reprimand, “My sorry!”
Edward was in shock, but not so much that his brain had ceased to make connections. “You two are Alphas.”
The twins didn’t sound as young anymore as they looked back at him with their fiery eyes. “We are Betas. We serve the Alpha when we come of age. Usually mental gifts like ours only come then, but She chose to give them to us early for our wisdom.”
And your help, Edward thought, forgetting.
Both twins gave a scornful grunt. “She did not need the help of untrained children. She chose to give us justice.” They turned toward Alexa simultaneously. “And we are honored.”
Edward sat back, trying to soak it all in. After what he’d seen today, it was hard to deny. His mind wanted to insist, but that wasn’t the way things were in this new world. These sudden, brutal changes had come to this land so fast, it was hard to adjust… but he’d be with Alexa. He stiffened. Alexa was an Alpha. Could she read his mind, too?
As soon as he had the thought, she looked over at him and raised a brow. Will that be a problem?
He flushed, shaking is head. No. After all this, it would take more than mindreading to get rid of him.
The twins giggled at the exchange. “That’s also because she’s an Alpha.”
“Mindreading?”
They laughed again, words much too old for their small bodies. “The attraction. Alphas are meant to bring people together.”
“Like the world would need after an apocalypse…” he murmured, eyes returning to Alexa. “Is that her job?”
The Twins clearly knew, but a quick look from the warrior woman held them silent. Whatever the answer was, she didn’t want him to know. Edward switched his line of questioning.
“Will you guys be all right here? Do you have anything you need done before we go?”
“We will fend for ourselves.”
It was a curt response, and he understood that freedom meant a great deal to these abused kids. He didn’t want to believe the government had held them hostage based on their DNA, had sacrificed the world to keep control of their discovery. Why would they deny the world peace to keep the hate alive?
“Because peace comes with no tangible power. They cannot use it to line their pockets or increase their importance,” Alexa stated, moving their way. “To create a perfect weapon though, that is control in endless amounts.”
Edward nodded in acceptance. It fit together too well for it to be anything but the truth. He’d scorned the rumors before and stood in loyal defense of his country, but he’d been blind. His faith in America was unfounded.
“Not so. Your faith in its leaders was unfounded, but you haven’t had that for a while now, anyway,” Alexa informed him without mercy. “The ideal of freedom is one we support. This country was built on its blood and tears, and we shall shed both in our quest to see it survive.”
5
Morning came with sounds Edward hadn’t heard since childhood. Shouts, laughs, bangs and slams. The kids are up.
He smiled at the thought. He wasn’t fond of children, but those twins were handy. When bedtime came, all they’d done was send a calm look around, and the room had been deserted in seconds. He assumed the others didn’t mind following, but he wasn’t sure either. The Alpha bond was something he guessed you had to feel to understand. He certainly didn’t, but after witnessing what these kids could do, he had accepted they were dangerous.
The government had known it, taking them one by one with heavy force, or breeding them in the labs so that some of these bright-eyed youngsters had never once seen the outside world. Even during the move to the new complex, they’d been knocked out to keep them from making any mental calls for help. Edward assumed the bunkers were lined with something that kept their calls in, but hadn’t thought to ask last night.
Being here, in a government complex again, should have been a nightmare for him. Instead, it had been enlightening and powerful. When they left, it would be hard to walk away. How had Alexa been able to do it?
He thought about the Twins saying she hadn’t really needed their help; she’d been giving them justice. If that were true, then she hadn’t needed his help either. Why hadn’t she set them free before? And why had she come for him first if she didn’t need the help?
Those were the questions he asked as soon as he slid onto the bench across from her. He waited while a quick look from her cleared the table.
/> Alexa’s tone was even. “Only once more.”
He nodded, understanding his own training was about to really begin. There would be no open questioning after this.
“When they keep us drugged, we get very weak. Calls have no strength to penetrate walls, fire only flickers. On medication, they can control our gifts in mild doses. Between experiments, we are put back to sleep. When I escaped, my condition was the worst it’s ever been. I needed time to regain my mental clarity… and energy from a willing source.”
His eyes went to hers, and his mind replayed their meeting, that vivid bolt of blue light. She’d… recharged from him. Understanding fell into place. These were carriers of the light. They couldn’t feed from an unclean source like those holding them captive, and it kept them weak, under control. Now, these kids would be able to seek out new energy sources and regain their own health.
Alexa smiled patiently. “We are His descendants, and He needed his people… as we do. Without others to love us, to follow us, we are desolate. With those things, we have enough hope to save the world.”
His eyes met hers. “That’s the true quest.”
Alexa’s face became a determined wall he didn’t doubt. “We were born to this time and place to help rebuild and fix the errors of the past. The War was our fresh start. We need only take it.”
“And Safe Haven?”
He eyes darkened with a powerful longing. “Holds the key to it all.”
“Adrian. Adrian. Adrian.”
The younger kids chanted it, drawing Alexa’s attention. She smiled generously, sending a wave of light through the room. “Yes. With Adrian, we will create a future to be lived in, not just survived. We will prosper and fill this dead world with our love.”
6
Leaving was just as hard for Edward as he’d thought it would be. His protective heart demanded he stay until each of these fragile-looking children had someone to care for their needs, and he lingered in the doorway that Alexa had already gone through. Here, he could help. Out there with her, he was only a food-source. Finally understanding it came with a sickening feeling of being raised for the slaughter.
The children looked back without expressions, letting him make his own choice. If he wanted to stay, he was welcome. He had come with Alexa, and that gave him the right, but…
“Would you stay, Horseman, or go with me? Make your choice now.”
Her tone wasn’t unkind, and he looked over the kids again, searching harder. Did they want him to stay?
“No… and yes.” Alexa began moving away from him. “You are a connection to me, but you are also a killer, and they fear that rubbing off. You have little use to them except as someone to train or entertain.”
Flushing, Edward spun on her. “And what am I to you beyond an energy source and servant?”
The warrior woman stopped, slowly turned to look at him with glowing blue eyes that promised he already held value to her. “A dangerous tool to be wielded against the darkness.”
Alexa didn’t use her gift, waiting, letting him make his own choices. To sacrifice his life for these children’s safety was not unworthy at all, and that he felt the same need, won more of her respect.
Edward glanced back to find the crowded room behind him now empty. He hadn’t heard them leave, and it made his choice. Clearly, they were stronger than he was giving them credit for. They would be a fascination to be delighted in for sure, but would he look at the night sky and still long to be at Alexa’s side?
Yes. They’d only been together for days, and he already knew more about the world than he had before. Life with her would always be hard, thrilling, exhilarating… real.
The fighter pulled up his hood and stepped out of the bunker door with grim excitement filling his stomach. He’d just chosen to leave these children to follow Alexa to his death. The first heavy guilt-cord settled onto his shoulders, and he held his head up in response. Her goals were worthy. She wasn’t settling for helping one group of kids – she wanted to save them all, and that could only happen when they found Safe Haven.
Edward caught up quickly, falling into the place she’d put him for the trip here. She didn’t wave or even look at the kids as they stared from the upper windows and neither did he. The quest had truly begun now. There was no turning back.
7
“Attention!”
The static-filled radio blared through the truck of soldiers scouting the edges of the mountain for signs of Alexa.
“There has been a level 5 breach of compound K! All troops are required to report to the nearest base immediately!”
Corbin froze. K was their compound, the one he’d denied Rab the safety of.
Level 5. No survivors.
The radio crunched again. “Report all sightings of captives directly to base!”
Corbin’s hand wasn’t quite steady as he turned the radio off. All the work he’d done there! All his potions!
Driving, Shane opened his mouth to question.
Protecting his new friend from Corbin’s wild rage, Rab shook his head. It was a result of the experiments to a degree, but mostly, the Commander was ill. He had been all along. How else could he be such a monster to children?
Struggling to accept it, Corbin already had no intentions of going back to the nearest base. Alexa wouldn’t stay with the kids. She’d done it to send him a message, to tell him that he wouldn’t stand in the way of the quest… but she’d also made a mistake, hadn’t she? All those kids would be easy to find, and they would have new information, wouldn’t they?
Corbin’s sudden, harsh laughter spilled out, surprising the listening men. When Corbin laughed, it meant death was coming. They instinctively began to prepare for it - checking weapons and gear.
“Take me to compound K, but don’t use main roads. We’ll see how many of her children we can round up.”
Four
May, 2016
1
Before the War, he had been afraid… of roller coasters.
Daniel realized it with a start, allowing the quiet dirt bike to come to a slow stop on the twisting incline. Scarred and gouged from his reckless lifestyle, his sweaty legs braced the bike easily despite the angle. Set into the side of a mountain, Suicide Cliff was no easy ride, and there was really only one way down, from this far up.
“I hated amusement parks!”
It was a minor revelation compared to the others he’d made since the war, to what he was about to do, but for a California boy whose family had run a carnival, it was a door to understanding the past that brought him to this point of no return. He didn’t care about the result, only wanted to understand why he was doing it, before it was done.
Daniel and his family, all nine of them, owned the Ocean Walk Carnival. It had been great most of the time. He’d learned to do the performances his parents and older siblings wanted him to, and eventually developed his own skill to contribute to the family legacy - stunts.
There wasn’t a bike on the planet that Daniel couldn’t ride. He’d been on them all during his years in the public view… and grown reckless as the thrill faded. He’d been hurt more times than he could remember, but it had never stopped him. There was little in life that Daniel had feared before the War. From flaming hoops to long gaps over cars, he’d jumped anything they put in his path… but he had been terrified of roller coasters.
“Why?” he asked crankily of the complete darkness among the scraggily trees and sharp boulders. “It wasn’t the height…”
Daniel got the dirt bike rolling again, not being particularly careful on the two foot trial that was blazed in the stone. Where he was headed, careful didn’t matter.
“Was it being out of my comfort zone?” he wondered suddenly, aware of a tiny humming sound coming from the west, but not looking that way. The Wastelands made odd noises, often. It wasn’t a reason for concern on a good day. On this night, it mattered even less. If the final gates had fallen, his end would come quicker, that’s all.
; Unfazed by the thought, Daniel sped up again, and went back to his mental dissection. Why had he hated roller coasters? His brothers and sisters had spent their work breaks in line for the biggest one that they maintained - always filling the dinner table with tales of how they’d rode the front car of the Python with their arms held high…
Daniel had never done that. Every time he got in that front seat, (or any of those behind it) his stomach knotted up and he worried over being sick before the short ride could end. His armpits dripped sweat, and the nervous gas had the other kids laughing, teasing. When the car chugged up the hill, finally reaching the summit, the best he could manage was a weak yell with his eyes closed and his hands clenched tightly around the lap-rail. It had been a large source of embarrassment during his childhood… then humiliation, as he grew older.
“The Dare-devil’s afraid of a little thing like riding a roller coaster! Ha-ha!”
Daniel pushed the bike faster around the last hairpin turn, letting gravity carry him through it. Gravity was something he could count on to always be there, something he would experience in a just a minute more.
“It wasn’t the idea of falling, or the death waiting if the coaster flew off the rails...”
Daniel found the answer as he neared the summit, the small, clear area where he planned to end his life.
“It was control!”
If he had been driving the coaster, it wouldn’t have haunted him, but because he could only raise his arms to whatever the Python wanted to dish out, he was captive, unable to even do that. He hadn’t been able to surrender control.
Daniel slowed the bike as he reached the almost level ground at the top of the cliff. He didn’t see the mysterious beauty of the glowing apocalypse sky, nor the shadowy forms of two people walking steadily toward him from the west. All the biker saw was freedom from his torment.
