Exceptional

by Jess Petosa

  Aden didn’t wait for Ally to exit the transport before he started for a door positioned at one end of the roof. Two Exceptional Guards took a place on either side of her and escorted her behind him, their guns held firmly at their chests. She was led into a dimly lit staircase and down two flights of stairs. They entered through a black door with no markings, stepped across a dark hallway, and walked into a large open room.

  Ally found herself surprised by the stark difference between this room and the ones back at Aden’s home. Almost everything in this room was a dark color, except for the walls, which were painted white. A black rug filled the floor, along with black tables, sofas, and a desk. She realized that she must be in Aden’s office, and it took up at least half of the entire floor. To her right was a wall of windows, which Aden’s desk sat right in front of. To her left was a wall with several doors, which must lead to meeting rooms.

  Aden motioned to the guards. “Go get Dr. Leon and Dr. Axel for me. I want them to meet their newest test subject.”

  “So why come here rather than the Institute?” Ally stepped over to one of the black couches and sat on the back of it, facing Aden.

  He walked over to his desk and pressed a button on the side. A cup appeared from a chute in the wall, steam coming off the contents in it. It was most likely hot tea, a drink favored by many adults. Since it was expensive, their mom only drank it once or twice a year. Aden could probably afford to drink it several times a day.

  “I think it will be more favorable for us to run the tests here. The Institute is busy and filled with teenage Exceptionals all day long, and it lacks the type of security I believe we will require today. I’m also not naïve enough to think that Luke wouldn’t have tried to find us as soon as he arrived. Here, I have much more control.”

  Ally raised one eyebrow. “You don’t think that Luke will figure out what you’ve done? He probably heard, if not saw, the transport.”

  Aden shrugged. “Yes, but it will be much harder for him to gain access to my office. I have no doubts that he will show up here sooner rather than later, and at the right time I will allow him to come up.”

  She decided to change the subject. “These tests you’ll be running. Are they anything like the tests I had at ORC?”

  Aden’s lips paused on his mug and his violet eyes slowly rose to meet hers. “You know, they mentioned that they thought you might be avoiding your medication while at the ORC. And I’m guessing they didn’t do a memory swipe before you left?”

  Ally hadn’t realized there would be a memory swipe, but she was sure Luke had something to do with putting a stop to it. “It might have been overlooked. What I want to know is why you are breeding Ordinarys with Exceptionals.”

  Aden laughed loudly, setting his cup down on his desk. He strode toward Ally and stopped just a foot in front of her. “This is much bigger than you or any of your little Ordinary friends, so I suggest that you drop it.”

  His expression grew so fierce that Ally found herself leaning away from him, any possible response she had caught in her throat. Just when she thought she had recomposed herself enough to speak, the two Exceptional Guards from earlier reentered the room. Behind them came two male Exceptionals, both dressed in long white coats similar to the medical professionals in the ORC.

  “Dr. Leon. Dr. Axel.” Aden greeted them.

  One of them approached Ally immediately. “Hello Allona. I’m Dr. Leon. I am the head of the EGD at the Institute.”

  “EGD?” she asked.

  “Exceptional Genetics Department. I study our DNA, looking for changing patterns or further mutations.” His silver eyes studied hers intently, making her uncomfortable.

  The second Exceptional stepped forward. “And I’m Dr. Axel, head of the Research Department. I’ve spent years looking for a way to recreate the serum that blessed us with Exceptionals, and also ways to keep possible vaccinations at bay. And here, you’ve been right outside our grasp all this time.”

  Ally laughed. “You think I’m the key to your serum?”

  Dr. Axel’s expression never changed. “I hope so.”

  “I’m guessing that I have no choice but to become a test subject for your doctors here,” Ally said as she turned to Aden.

  Aden smiled. “There is always a choice, Ally. But I think I can persuade you into helping us.”

  “So there isn’t a choice.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What will you use to persuade me?”

  Aden nodded at the Exceptional Guards and they disappeared into the hall. The doctors stepped aside and Aden went back to his desk, so it appeared as though she was going to have to wait for whatever the persuasion was. Just a few minutes later a shuffling sound came from the hall. A woman yelped and Ally heard a male voice curse, most likely at one of the Guards.

  She froze. Her heart beat so loud and fast that it sounded loud enough to be right between her ears rather that in her chest. She counted the agonizing seconds it took the Guards to reach the doors and watched in horror as they pushed her mother and Stosh into the room.

  “So, Ally,” Aden said from a reclined position in his chair, “Are you going to choose to help us?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  It took Ally’s mother and Stosh a moment to realize where they were, and who they were looking at.

  “Ally?” her mother whispered.

  Ally ran forward and embraced her family all at once, tears slipping down her cheeks and soaking Stosh’s shirt. She pulled back and smiled, feeling as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She thought she would never see them again, and here they were, standing right in front of her. She noticed that Stosh wouldn’t look at her, his expression hard and his gaze fixated on the wall behind them. Her mother took her hand, squeezing it tightly within her own.

  There was so much she wanted to say to them, but she didn’t have time to form the words. Aden cleared his throat from his desk, a smug expression on his face.

  “What are they doing here?” Ally turned to face him.

  When I heard about the incident at the Warehouse last night, I thought that maybe bringing your family in would help you be more compliant.”

  “What do you want?” she said through gritted teeth.

  “First, I want some answers. Then, I want you to comply with the tests my team of doctors are going to put you through over the next couple days. They may not all be very… pleasant.”

  “Of course not,” Ally shook her head. “I’ll do it. You just have to promise not to harm them, and to send them back to the settlement when this is all over.”

  “Sure,” Aden responded, but something flickered in his eyes. He didn’t like being told what to do. Ally knew that things had to be done on his terms, but she had to take a chance. She didn’t miss the fact that he hadn’t exactly promised her anything.

  He stood, grabbed a fresh cup of hot tea, and led them to the other end of the room. They were ushered through a doorway and into a small meeting room, which was set up with a table in the middle with a dozen chairs surrounding it. Ally, Stosh, and their mother sat on one side of the table, while Aden and the doctors sat on the other.

  “We’ll start with you, Stosh,” Aden leaned forward, his eyes narrowing as he scrutinized Ally’s brother. “Dr. Leon?” he added.

  The doctor stood and walked around the table, sitting in one of the empty chairs next to Stosh. Ally could read her brother, and knew that he was moments away from losing it. His hands were clenched into fists by his side, and small veins stood up along his neck. She placed her hand on his arm, hoping the gesture would help him relax.

  Ally was worried about him. He looked thinner than he had before she had left, and sometime recently he had used sheers to give himself a very bad buzz cut. It was so short that he could almost fit in with the other Exceptionals boys here. Of course, she had changed as well. She was thinner, from her time at the ORC, and there was the big change she hadn’t announced yet. She was an Exceptional. Maybe that was why he could
barely look at her right now, or why her mother was still sobbing to herself: Aden had told them about her abilities.

  “He isn’t one of us,” Dr. Leon finally said, looking very disappointed. Aden and Dr. Axel wore similar expressions on their face.

  “What do you mean one of you?” Stosh growled. “We’re all human.”

  Ally squeezed Stosh’s arm, giving him a silent warning.

  “What Dr. Leon meant to say is that you are not an Exceptional, like your sister here,” Aden spoke in an annoyingly calm voice.

  “So it’s true,” Stosh finally faced Ally, looking at her directly for the first time since they were reunited. “You’re an Exceptional?”

  Ally swallowed back tears, nodding her head. “At least, we think so.”

  Aden ignored their private conversation and moved on. “And you, Luella,” he addressed Ally’s mother. “You are obviously not an Exceptional, which means either Ally is not your daughter, or you’ve been telling her lies about her father.”

  A chill ran up Ally’s spine. She hadn’t had time to think about what this meant for her family, or what the truth behind her abilities might be. She had momentarily worried about Stosh’s fate, but that had been it. He was her brother; she knew it. Forget the fact that they looked and acted exactly alike, but she could feel it deep within. They had a bond only twins could share.

  Their mother grew quiet, her gaze stuck on Aden’s. Ally could see how he might have a powerful effect on someone who hadn’t been around Exceptionals much in the past several years. But her mother sat up straighter and rubbed the tears from underneath her eyes.

  “He was one of your Guards, passing through the settlement to gather volunteers. There was a snowstorm that year, and whiteout conditions stalled the caravan from moving through.” Ally tightened her grip on her Stosh’s arm. “We were asked to take in Guards if we had the room, and I did at the time. I think you can figure the rest out, Aden.”

  Ally wanted to cheer on her mom for using his first name so loosely, and with a tone of contempt, but she remained silent. The story her mother told made the butterflies in her stomach take flight. What details was her mother leaving out? What exactly happened that night with the Exceptional Guard?

  “Interesting,” was all Aden could respond with. “You fell pregnant with twins, and one turned out an Ordinary, and the other an Exceptional.”

  The doctors had both pulled out porta-comps and were typing in information at a dizzying pace. Ally noticed that Stosh was watching them with growing interest.

  “That still doesn’t explain why Ally hasn’t exhibited any abilities until now.”

  Their mother kept her gaze on Aden, shrugging her shoulders. “Isn’t that what your tests will find out?”

  Aden gave a humorless grin, his hand dipping into his pocket. He pulled out a small handgun, something Ally had only seen a few times in her life. The Settlement leaders were each given one in case of an emergency. She had only seen Po use it once, and that was when a wild bear entered the settlement and couldn’t be coaxed out. He ended up shooting the bear three times, killing it.

  Aden smirked. “You see, I have a theory. One that is going to disappoint my colleagues here, but would be a simple explanation for all of this.” Dr. Leon and Dr. Axel looked just as confused as Ally felt. “I think that you used something to suppress the genetic mutations that are currently turning Ally into an Exceptional.”

  Their mother leaned back in her chair, her face turning as white as the walls. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Aden frowned. “I think you do. Long ago, when SS-16 was first created, a scientist was able to discover a vaccine that would cure the infected of the side effects. But what was there to cure? Look at us. We are faster, stronger, and thriving with out wars and famine. The vaccine was destroyed, but there are rumors that the formula was hidden and eventually Ordinarys figured out how to reproduce it. Do you know anything about that?”

  Their mother leaned forward. “I only know what you just recited to me. My father used to tell me that same story when I was younger.”

  Aden turned the gun over in her hands, inspecting it for a moment. “I have many abilities, Luella, and one of them happens to be reading people.”

  He raised the gun and pointed it at their mother’s head. Stosh jumped from his chair and leaned across the table, almost managing to grab hold of Aden’s throat before one of the doctors used a porta-comp to slam him on the back of the head. Stosh fell limp on the table. Ally attempted to jump in front of her mother but a Guard swept into the room and took a hold of her, locking her into his arms. She willed her Exceptional powers to make an appearance, like they did in a similar situation the night before, but she felt no vibrating energy. No heat coursing through her veins.

  “She doesn’t know anything, Aden. What are you doing? You promised you would keep them safe,” Ally managed to yell out before the Guard placed a hand over her mouth.

  Aden laughed. “I don’t make promises, Ally, and I definitely don’t take orders. We are going to do this my way. Now, Luella…”

  Ally’s mother sat there in silence, playing with the hem of her black shirt. Her light hair fell in curled ribbons around her face, and her lashes glistened with the remainder of tears from earlier.

  “I know nothing,” she whispered.

  Ally wasn’t sure what brought the memory to her mind at that moment, but she figured it had something to do with the sight of Aden putting his finger over the trigger of the gun. He wouldn’t kill her, would he? The gun was just a display. A show to scare them. If he really wanted to harm her, he would most likely use his abilities. The answer became clear in an instant, and considering she had even talked to Luke about this, she was surprised neither one of them had thought of it last night.

  Ally screamed into the hand of the Guard, trying to get Aden’s attention.

  Aden nodded and the guard lifted his hand.

  “Shots,” she gasped out. “Every six months we received a shot.”

  She and Stosh had been due to receive a shot around the time she was taken into the City.

  Ally’s mother shot her a fearful look, her eyes wide. “Ally—”

  “Quiet,” Aden snapped.

  “There is this man, David,” Ally spoke quickly. “He lives in the Wilderness, and we would visit him twice a year. He would give both my brother and I a shot. Our mother told us it was to keep away sickness and help us grow up healthy, but we were also told to keep it a secret.”

  Most of the story was the truth, except for the name and location of the man. David had been her grandfather’s name, and he died over ten years ago. But Aden seemed so focused on the information that she hoped he didn’t feel any doubt at her words. The last thing she needed was for Aden to tear through her settlement on a wild rampage, looking for this man.

  “Where in the Wilderness?” Aden’s eyes were glowing.

  “Five miles west of our settlement. There is a large pond with a wooden shack at the end. He lives there.” There was a pond, and there also happened to be a wooden shack, but no one had lived there in years. It was used as a resting place on summer days spent swimming in the cool water, so there would at least be some signs of life to throw Aden’s Guards off for a bit.

  “See how easy that was,” Aden responded.

  Ally took a deep breath, relieved that she had remembered the shots, and saved her mother’s life. But just as the relief entered her body, Aden raised the gun higher and pulled the trigger, putting a bullet right between her mother’s eyes.

  WHEN ALLY AND STOSH turned ten, their mother let them travel into the woods on their own for the first time. They had each been out several times with groups of Ordinarys, training for their assigned tasks, but never just the two of them. The first thing Ally did was climb one of the tallest trees, giggling as she returned to the ground covered in sap and pine needles. Stosh chose to stay on the ground, instead, choosing to hunt for pinecones.

  �
��Climb a tree with me, Stosh,” Ally picked up a small pinecone and threw it at him, hitting him square in the back.

  “What if I fall?” He gazed upward, taking in the height of the tree.

  “You won’t fall, I’ll be right there with you!” she giggled.

  But he did fall. He fell fifteen feet from the tree, landing in a bed of pine needles below. By the time Ally got to the bottom of the tree, Stosh was jumping around and grasping his wrist. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was screaming.

  “I told you! I told you!” he shouted as he took off running toward the settlement.

  That night, after the doctor set Stosh’s broken wrist, their mother sat and rocked Stosh to sleep. She whispered softly in his ear and ran her fingers through his hair. After she had put him to bed and came back to sit by the fire, Ally crouched by her side.

  “Does this mean we won’t be allowed in the woods anymore, Mother?” She looked at her feet.

  Her mother laughed. “Of course you’ll be allowed back in the woods, Allona. Accidents happen, and with time you’ll learn to prevent them.”

  “So, I’m not in trouble,” she asked, looking up.

  Her mother smiled. “Not at all. Just… be more careful with your brother. He is more fragile than you know. You are my strong and courageous one, Allona. One day you’ll move mountains.”

  The memory faded into darkness.

  ALLY HAD TO BE SEDATED in order for them to get her under control. After Aden had shot her mother in head, she felt a familiar vibrating feeling in her arms. She ripped herself from the Guards hold and raised her hands toward Aden, pushing all the energy she had out of herself and toward him. He blocked the attack easily, something she should have seen coming, and Dr. Axel was by her side a moment later. He stuck a needle in her arm, and the rest of the details were fuzzy.

  Now she was lying on a cold, metal table in a large room with an echo. She knew it echoed because she screamed until her throat was raw and her voice was little more than a rasp. Beside her, Stosh laid on a similar table. He still hadn’t woken up from the blow to his head, but Ally could see the rise and fall of his chest as he took breath after breath. At least she didn’t lose her whole family today.