by Jess Petosa
EXCEPTIONAL
BOOK ONE
by
Jess Petosa
Copyright - 2012 by Jess Petosa
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, people, or places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are simply products of the author’s imagination, and any similarity to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any way whatsoever without written consent from the author.
Dedicated to Brooke & Molly, for being my shining lights
And to BoSh, for pushing me further than I ever thought I could go.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Epilogue
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prologue
In the year 2022, the United States government began experimenting with gene mutations. They set up a lab in South America and hand picked a team of scientists to work on the project. Their primary objective was to create a serum that would enhance the skills of a special ops team in the military, hopefully by way of strength and speed. In 2024, they would succeed in creating an injection of just this type. They called it SS-16. SS standing for Super Serum and 16 standing for the number of attempts it took to succeed.
What they would not foresee was that the serum they had created would evolve the human DNA past the desired result. At first it appeared to work as expected; the men were faster and stronger than any other humans in the world. But strange things started happening in the weeks that followed. One man burst into flames in the middle of the night, and when his squad was finally able to put the fire out, they found him unharmed. Another man found that he could move objects short distances just by pointing his hands at them.
The squad was quarantined on the base as the scientists attempted to figure out what had gone wrong, but one by one the scientists started to exhibit similar symptoms as the soldiers had. Blood work showed that the scientists had the same genetic code as those who had been injected with SS-16. It was then that they realized that they had created not just a serum, but also an airborne virus.
By the time these conclusions were drawn it was too late. Others across the base were exhibiting symptoms of SS-16 and several had already left on leave to travel home to the states. The virus spread like wildfire and was quickly labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization. There were no remedies for the sickness, or suggestions for avoiding infection. Leaders around the world told civilians to settle in and prepare for the worst, each hoping that somehow their countries would be passed over by the virus.
In the end, no country, city, or town was overlooked. A good portion of the world’s population died in the first year because their bodies rejected the change, and enough had perished that the human race become an endangered species. Of the survivors, more than half were found to be immune. Their bodies never changed and their genetic work up came back SS-16 free.
One scientist was able to create a vaccine before the virus took his life, having worked day and night through the pain of the change. The vaccine suppressed the genetic mutation of the virus and held it at bay, as long as the infected human being took it once, by injection, every six months. The vaccine was easily reproducible and could have cured millions, but the infected caught wind and ordered the vaccine destroyed. In such a short time, they had already grown accustomed to their new strength and abilities, and refused to return to normal.
Governments broke down, countries lost communication, and entire cities fell to rubble from riots and misuse. Three U.S. cities remained standing in the end: Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia. But eventually no one would remember their names or what set them apart from other cities. All that had indentified these cities as what they were would be lost and forgotten.
The surviving infected, who would soon title themselves as Exceptionals, rebuilt with what they had left. They organized themselves into their own class and settled into the cities, getting the electric factories and other important businesses back up and running. Together, they learned to control their new abilities and use them in ways that would help advance their new society. They grew taller and stronger, and if anyone had doubts about someone being Exceptional, they could just look at a person’s eyes. All Exceptionals had violet eyes. The strongest Exceptionals rose into leadership positions, while the others settled into intermediate jobs that were still vital to make the cities run.
As for the immune --who were titled Ordinarys-- they were banished to the suburbs to farm, make textiles for the City, or even work in the production of steel and lumber. Some were given homes within the cities and hired on to do meager jobs like janitorial and cooking work. Life picked up a normal pace and despite the obvious separation between the Exceptionals and Ordinarys; everyone managed to live in peace. Slowly, the population began to increase and the fate of the country no longer looked dismal.
But as time passed things became dangerous for the Ordinarys. In the Midwestern City, a new Exceptional leader came into power a century and a half after the release of SS-16. He increased watch over the Ordinarys, placing Exceptional Guard patrols in each settlement to insure that adequate work was being done. Fifteen years into his reign, he enacted the Ordinary Volunteer Program. It allowed the Exceptionals to come to each settlement outside the city once a year and gather volunteers of teenagers and young adults. It was said that these groups of Ordinarys were taken into the City and were placed into new jobs, being given a better life then they had in the settlements. If no one volunteered for the task, the Exceptionals would be allowed to gather Ordinarys against their will, and bring them into the City by force. There were always enough volunteers from each settlement though, since most Ordinarys grew up with a fierce curiosity about the City. No one questioned the law, and no one questioned the City leader. They knew one thing for certain; once an Ordinary entered the City, they never returned.
Chapter One
175 A.V.
“Ally, Wait up!”
Ally paused in a clearing, listening to the sound her brother made as he crashed through the brush behind her.
“Stosh, wild hogs would make less noise than that. This is why I wanted to leave you home.”
Stosh shot her an irritated look. “If you didn’t move so fast, I wouldn’t have to crash through trees to catch up with you.”
He took a moment to pick pine needles out of his hair. Dark locks fell into his eyes as his hands searched the remainder of his heavy mop.
“Besides, I don’t see why we have to be so quiet. We aren’t hunting, and we are no where near the boundary.”
Ally lowered her voice. “It’s caravan day.”
Stosh’s mouth fell open. “I forgot. And you drug us out into the woods. Mother would kill you if she knew.”
“I know. I just want to watch.”
Stosh crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ve seen the caravan once a
year for the past twenty years, Al.”
“Yes, but only from right outside of our home. I want to see what it looks like once it has already collected from a settlement. Don’t you?”
He threw his hands in the air and walked toward the dirt road that lay a few yards to the north. “Where will we watch from?”
Ally looked upward. “The trees.”
TEN MINUTES LATER they were situated twenty feet off the ground in a strong oak tree. Amazingly, they were able to find a branch that would hold both of them. Stosh had suggested that they choose separate trees so that if one of them was spotted, they wouldn’t both be in trouble. But Ally waved him off.
“We aren’t technically doing anything wrong,” she pointed out.
“Then why are we hiding?”
“In case they decide they could use a few more Ordinarys.”
“Good point,” Stosh said as he looked down at the ground.
“Here they come.” Ally pointed up the road where a black truck was headed toward them. A dozen Exceptional guards flanked it, their military grade guns held out in front of them.
She never got used to the sight of the Guards from the city. They were all Exceptionals and rumored to be bred into their position, standing at least 7 feet tall with their muscular bodies and violet eyes. There were also rumors that they had night vision, could see for over a mile, and could hear at twice the volume level that an Ordinary did. Ally believed it all.
The back of the truck was open so as it passed below them, Ally could make out the dozen Ordinarys within. They were sitting in a semi-circle around the back of the truck. Some were laughing with their neighbor, probably friends that had volunteered with them. A few stared off into the woods, their gazes distant. Some Ordinarys left the settlements due to abusive families, loneliness, or pressure from others. Ally wondered if anyone ever truly regretted it and tried to take back the choice they had made before arriving at the entrance into the City. The Exceptionals would never let them return to the settlement. Volunteering was absolute.
When she and Stosh were younger, they used to play a game where they pretended they lived an extravagant life in the City. She was always an Exceptional, and Stosh was her Ordinary cook. He acted overly sensitive to her touch, since she was supposed to be unbelievably strong, and gave in to her every wish and command. Sometimes she would offer him the part of Exceptional, but he never took her up on it. He always told her that she played the part too well for anyone else to do it. Ally had thought more than once about volunteering, and had come very close when the last caravan came through, but her mother and Stosh needed her here.
After the caravan moved on, and they were sure that the Exceptionals were far away, she and Stosh climbed down the tree carefully.
“I wonder what settlement that was. Could you make out their markings? I think we were too high up.” Stosh brushed dirt off his pants. “And another thing, if their senses are so superior, wouldn’t they have realized we were up in the trees?”
“Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live in the City, Stosh?” Ally ignored his questions.
“Not this again,” he said as he rolled his eyes. “I don’t think it is as grand as they say, or wouldn’t we all go?”
Ally shrugged. “They limit the amount of volunteers they take each year, so not everyone could go, even if they wanted to. Plus, no one comes back to tell any stories about the City, so we don’t even know what it is like.”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t you at least think it would be an interesting place to live?”
“I like where we live now.” Stosh stomped off in the direction of their settlement, leaving Ally standing in the soft underbrush of the tree.
WHEN THE CARAVAN came through a settlement, the Ordinarys were required to sit inside their homes and wait for an Exceptional to come inside and ask for any volunteers. The process could take a few hours, and no one was permitted to step outside until the caravan had left the settlement. It wasn’t until that evening that they discovered who had volunteered to leave for the City.
The caravan had come through Ally and Stosh’s settlement several months ago, so they had more than half a year before it came back. Ally and her best friend had made a pact that they would volunteer that year, the year of their eighteenth birthdays. But when the Exceptional came into their home, she could feel Stosh’s eyes boring a hole through the back of her head. He knew what she was about to do and that alone made her hold her tongue. Later that night, she found out that her best friend had volunteered, and Ally realized that she had betrayed her. She had said that she would volunteer, and now her best friend would be going into the City alone.
Ally caught up with Stosh and they jogged the one-mile distance back to the settlement. As they drew closer, the familiar scent of roasted meat filled the air, making Ally’s stomach rumble. She hadn’t eaten lunch today since she had been so focused on finding the caravan. She hadn’t even been sure that it would be there, but she had heard stories from some of her older friends who claimed they had watched it pass from above. And the caravans always came through on the first Monday of each month.
This was also the day that the city allowed the settlements to keep a certain amount of extra meat to cook for a feast. It was said to be a thank you from the Exceptionals for the settlements allowing some of their own to move to the City. But some of the elder Ordinaries called it hogwash, a word that Ally always giggled at as a little girl. They said that Exceptionals didn’t care enough to say thank you to the Ordinarys, and that there was something else going on with the volunteers. Ally’s neighbor, Mr. Ryde, said that the Ordinarys were no more than cattle to the Exceptionals. Easy to herd around, butchered when necessary, and easily reproduced. Stosh thought that he was borderline insane.
“There you two are!” Their mother hurried toward them just as they stepped onto the packed dirt road that ran through the settlement.
“Stosh, you are needed with the wood cutters. The fire is getting low. Allona, come; let me brush out your hair.” Their mother looked Ally over. “You were climbing trees again, weren’t you?”
Ally’s mother shuffled her off toward their home while Stosh took off in the opposite direction. Their settlement had once been a private neighborhood of some sort; at least that is what their ancestors had called it. Many of the houses were in ruins, but others had been maintained and inhabited by the remaining Ordinarys. The houses were modest and just enough for what they needed. Each home held two to three families, and in total there were over a hundred homes in their settlement. There were other settlements dotted along the suburbs of the city, packed in tightly with people. Some Ordinarys dwelled far out in what they called the Wilderness, but by doing that they gave up the right to have help from the Exceptionals in times of need.
“Look at this mess,” Ally’s mother said as she grabbed a brush from the drawer. “Let’s see what I can do with this.”
She worked quickly but gently through the knots in Ally’s hair.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“Stosh and I saw a caravan pass today.” Ally made sure to leave out the part about how they had purposely found a caravan to watch.
The brush paused in her hair for a moment and she could see her mother’s expression tighten in the stained mirror.
“You should have walked away, Allona.”
“I wasn’t going to volunteer.”
“I know,” her mother responded. Somehow Ally didn’t believe that she did.
“There.” Her mother patted her shoulder. Ally’s long, dark hair now hung in soft waves down her back, stopping just at her elbows. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She had the same moss colored eyes as her brother and the same high cheekbones. While Stosh was on the thicker side from his time spent chopping trees in the woods, Ally was leaner. She had tightly packed muscle from her days of climbing trees and running through the woods, but her job as food gatherer didn’t leave her much r
oom for bulking up.
“Now go wash your hands and change your clothes for the feast.”
Ally stood and walked down the hall to the room she shared with her mother. Their house had four bedrooms and they shared it with one other family: a mother, father, and two little girls. Generally, the sets of parents had their own rooms and then the same sex children each shared a room, but Ally didn’t want to sleep in the same room with the little girls. Since her father hadn’t been around since Ally was born, her mother had no issue sharing a room with her.
She changed into a simple pair of black pants and a black long sleeved shirt. They made their own clothes here in the settlement, with textiles they bought from the city. Everyone wore similar outfits day by day, except for those who wore special uniforms for their occupations. It was said that there was once a day when people had whole rooms full of clothes and shoes. Dresses, pants, and all sorts of things. Now the only time men and women dressed up was on their wedding day. Each civilian had three pairs of pants, three pairs of shirts, and three pairs of undergarments to call their own. Some women would sew extra clothes with left over fabric and make a dress or a billowy skirt, but the desired effect went unnoticed. It was easier to work and function in pants.
Stosh returned an hour after he was sent to chop wood, announcing that the feast would begin in a little over an hour.
“They were almost completely out of wood! I have no idea what Po would do with out me,” he said with a grin.
The City appointed one man from each settlement to step into a leadership role, rotating someone new in every ten years. Po had been chosen to run their settlement four years ago, and had proven to be a wise and efficient leader. Their main output for the City was wood, so he made sure that production ran smoothly and set-up the times for the City to receive their shipments. There were talks that Stosh would be his successor one day, since Po had no sons of his own. That was another reason Ally believed Stosh would never willingly go to the City.
