Harvester of Light Trilogy (Boxed Set)

by S. J. West

  The helicopter lifted off, and I saw Jace step out of the Humvee. He waved to me, and I waved back, hoping our separation wouldn’t last as long as I feared.

  The murky light of day made it possible to survey the remnants of our world as we passed over it.

  “I’m so sick of seeing things like this,” I told Ian as I continued to look out the window, unable to pull my eyes away from the dead earth beneath us.

  “Well, all you have to do is kill the Queen, and we can have the sun back,” Ian said, like it was no big deal.

  “I will kill her,” I told him, no emotion in my voice, just fact.

  I heard Ian snicker beside me. I looked over at him.

  “What?” I asked. “You don’t think I can?”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t think you can. It’s just the way you say it. She’s not just going to kneel down in front of you and ask you to chop her head off, Skye. And even if she did, do you really think you could do it?”

  “I know it won’t be easy,” I admitted, leaning back in my seat next to him. “But I don’t have a lot of other options available to me. I have to do it. You know I do.”

  “Why don’t you let me do it?” Ian suggested. “I actually hate her. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings one bit to chop her head off.”

  “And you think I don’t hate her enough to do it?”

  “No, not enough to kill her. I have a feeling that when the moment comes a voice in the back of your mind will start shouting at you, reminding you she’s your mother.”

  “She’s a monster.”

  “And your mother. Whether you want to admit it or not, there’s a bond there. Can you really see yourself just cutting her head off?”

  “Like I said, I don’t have a choice.”

  Ian sighed. “I wish we could have just shut that stupid shield generator of hers off. Then it wouldn’t matter if she was alive or dead.”

  “We were stupid to think she wouldn’t make it impossible to get to it.”

  Not long after Zoe, Rose, and Simon made their shield, we went to the point of origin of the Queen’s protective dome. Unfortunately, we learned she had the whole area booby-trapped. There were over a hundred nuclear warheads scattered closely around the area ready to go off if anyone tried to come within range of the facility. If you set one off, they would all explode, producing enough nuclear fallout to make what was left of the world uninhabitable. The Queen was no fool. She always planned things out to a T. I just had to find a way to exploit the one weakness I knew she had, and that was her love for me.

  The fact that she loved me was still a bit surreal considering who and what she was. How could the woman who destroyed the world have enough humanity left to love anyone? Yet, I saw her love for me clearly in her eyes that day at the harvesting facility right before the human uprising. She tried to hide it by quickly turning away from me, but I saw it nonetheless.

  She loved me.

  And I wasn’t above using that misguided emotion against her. It seemed she had failed herself by not eliminating the instinct almost all mothers have to love their children. How Lucena Day could love a daughter she barely knew was a mystery, but I welcomed the small miracle because it provided me with a way to save the world.

  “So,” Ian said, “is Jace going to make an honest woman of you or are the two of you just gonna continue living in sin?”

  I looked at Ian and seriously considered the possibility that he had lost his mind. The idea of marriage in the age we lived in tickled some part of me though, and I began to laugh.

  It took me a few minutes to stop laughing and catch my breath.

  “Are you done?” Ian asked me, apparently not finding my outburst the least bit amusing.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, trying to prevent a giggle. “It was just such a stupid question I couldn’t help myself.”

  One side of Ian’s mouth quirked up in a half-smile. “Yeah, you’ll think it’s stupid when your dad asks the same question.”

  This statement sobered me up quickly. “You don’t think he’ll care, do you?”

  “He’s part of the old world, Skye. Of course he’ll care. You’re his only child and a daughter to boot. What father wants to see his daughter shacking up with a guy? Plus, the two of you are responsible for raising Rose and Simon. Heck, even Michael asked me if I thought the two of you would be getting married soon.”

  “But …” I said, having to pause to organize my thoughts. “That’s just so old fashioned. I don’t see what it matters anymore.”

  Ian shrugged. “I’m just letting you know what your father will probably ask and what Jace’s father is already thinking.”

  “Jace and I love each other. Isn’t that enough?”

  “Like I said, they’re part of the old world where people used to get married to show their commitment to one another. Just don’t be surprised if your dad asks about it.”

  Well, it was certainly food for thought. But … seriously? Would our fathers really make marriage a priority considering what needed to be done? It certainly wasn’t at the top of my list.

  Killing the Queen occupied that spot.

  I suddenly realized that was the way I had to think of her to do what needed to be done. She was “the Queen” to me because the title encompassed everything I hated about her. She thought herself better than anyone else. She felt entitled to rule a world she helped destroy. The Queen was the most insane person I had ever met, and I knew she had to be destroyed.

  About three hours later, Sam the pilot said, “Uh, guys, I think you might want to take a look out of the window. You’ll want to see this for yourselves.”

  Ian and I looked out the window on my side of the helicopter. Sam flew us over what looked like an enormous crater in the ground. It had to be half a mile wide and just as deep. The earth was cracked and littered with trees broken in a helter-skelter pattern of death and destruction.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Sam didn’t answer immediately, but finally he said, “It’s where the second Southern Kingdom should be.”

  “Should be?” I asked, feeling my heart constrict inside my chest, like someone had just physically reached a hand inside my chest and squeezed it. “Is it supposed to look like a big crater in the ground?”

  “No,” Sam said. “It’s been destroyed.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Take us down,” I ordered.

  “Skye …” Ian began, concern in his voice.

  “Take us down!” I screamed.

  I could feel Ian’s need to reach out and comfort me, but I didn’t want it. I didn’t need it. He seemed to sense that and sat back in his seat instead, giving me time to process what had happened.

  Sam didn’t ask any questions or make any comments about my order. He simply landed us near the ridge of the massive crater. When I stepped out of the helicopter, I could physically feel the stillness of the place. It was the same quiet you feel when you walk into a cemetery. The air seemed stale, unmoving. I walked over to the edge of the crater, hoping to see something that might awaken me from yet another nightmare in a life that seemed filled with them.

  Broken trees and cracked earth marked the place where the second Southern Kingdom had apparently once been. What would have caused it to cave in on itself?

  Sam and Ian came to stand on either side of me to peer at the devastation.

  “What would have caused this to happen?” I asked.

  “Doc Riley told me this place had the same safety precautions as the first facility,” Ian said. “Except it didn’t have nuclear warheads around the perimeter, just regular bombs.”

  “But the outsiders couldn’t have tripped the auto-destruct this time,” I reasoned, remembering that the council sacrificed the outsiders to the Harvesters at their outpost inside Stone Mountain. “If they didn’t do it, who did?”

  I knew the answer to my own question before Sam even said, “Harvesters.”

  “But if the Queen’s already been h
ere,” Ian said, “why would she send Lawrence to tell you she was coming down here to get your father? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “No,” I replied, staring at the hole in the ground as realization dawned. “It makes perfect sense.”

  How could I have been so stupid?

  “We have to go back,” I told them, running for the helicopter, not giving either of them time to ask me any questions.

  Sam got us back into the air in record time.

  “What are you thinking?” Ian asked me as Sam flew us back to camp.

  “I’m thinking she wanted me out of the way so she could attack Michael and the rest of them.”

  “But we took care of her strike team.”

  “How many Harvesters would you say came in?”

  “Maybe a hundred.”

  “Why send in only a hundred when she could have sent in thousands?”

  Ian sat and thought about it. “To send you a message.”

  “A message that would ensure I left. Why take me out of the equation?”

  Ian thought about it for a moment and quickly came to the same conclusion I had.

  “So you wouldn’t get hurt when the real attack began,” he said, hanging his head. “Damn. We should have seen that.”

  I sat back in my seat and sighed.

  “She didn‘t only want me out of harm’s way,” I said, closing my eyes and feeling like I was on the verge of completely losing it. “I’m not there to protect Jace and the kids either. She must have known I wouldn’t let her take them without forcing her to kill me first.”

  “But Michael was getting ready to move everyone to the new camp when we left,” Ian reminded me. “Plus he sent scouts out to make sure she didn’t have any Harvesters waiting outside the perimeter of the compound for some type of ambush like that. He found a few of her scouts, but Michael’s people took them out pretty quick.”

  “Then we’re missing something, Ian. She wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of sending Lawrence and sacrificing her soldiers for no reason. She never does anything without it serving a specific purpose.”

  I could tell from the look on Ian’s face he knew I was right. We were missing an important piece to the Queen’s plan. But what?

  We both fell silent for a while. I tried to concentrate on the hum of the helicopter blades to clear my mind, but found it a futile act.

  “Are you all right?” Ian finally asked me.

  I didn’t have to ask him to clarify his question. I knew what he asking.

  “My father wasn‘t down there when the bombs went off,” I replied, opening my eyes to look over at him.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because she would have gotten him out of there before it happened. The Queen will use whatever she can against me to bend me to her will. She wants her obedient daughter back. What better way to do that than to use the safety of the people I love against me?”

  “You think anyone else made it out alive?”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because Simon mentioned Kirk and Teegan. He knows them in the future, so they must have made it out. I think Doc Riley might have made it out too. Rose always seemed to have a lot of confidence in her, like she knew her.”

  Ian nodded, seeing the logic in what I said.

  It was midafternoon when we reached camp again. Sam had to land to refuel, but we could see from the air that the compound was deserted.

  “They have to be at the new camp by now,” Ian said as we sat in the helicopter waiting for Sam to fill the helicopter’s tank.

  “I haven‘t been there yet,” I admitted. “How far is it?”

  “Shouldn’t take us more than an hour in the air.”

  I began to nervously tap a fisted hand against my thigh, running through scenario after scenario in my mind, attempting to figure out the plans of a mad woman.

  “What are we missing, Ian? I thought for sure we’d get here and find everyone dead or on the brink of it.”

  Ian sighed heavily. “I don‘t know what we‘re missing. But let’s not worry about it until we get to the new camp.”

  Once we were airborne again, I tried to do what Ian suggested. But how could I not worry? I had a bad feeling things were very wrong, and it didn’t take long for me to find out that my instincts were right.

  Just as we reached the area where the new camp was, a pillar of black smoke welcomed us. None of us said anything. Sam circled the compound, but there was very little movement on the ground, just a few people scattered far and wide who seemed to be wandering around aimlessly.

  “I thought you said Michael killed all of the Queen’s scouts,” I said to Ian.

  “He did.”

  “Then how did she find the new camp?” I asked, on the verge of becoming hysterical.

  Ian was silent as we both stared down at what was left of the compound Michael had moved his entire group to. Almost all of the buildings were damaged in some way and most had been set ablaze. We could see a few survivors on the ground helping the injured, but it was evident to me not many were left alive after the Queen’s attack.

  Sam set the helicopter down in the middle of a street where a few people could be seen walking around. Ian and I jumped out of the helicopter to find out what exactly happened. I grabbed the sleeve of a wandering woman who didn’t even seem to notice we were there. When she turned to look at me, I could tell she was in shock. Her eyes were unfocused and glazed over.

  I slapped her.

  Her eyes focused on me.

  “What happened?” I demanded, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her.

  “The Queen came,” the woman said, the glaze over her expression fading slightly.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  The woman nodded.

  “Do you know where Jace or Michael is?”

  The woman shook her head.

  “All I saw were the Harvesters,” she said, her eyes beginning to glaze over again. “There were so many of them. They looked like ants covering us. Ants. Thousands of ants.”

  I let her go, seeing that she would be completely useless to me. She was too far gone. The woman turned away from us and continued her walk to nowhere.

  “Come on,” Ian said as he started to walk down the street in the opposite direction of the woman, “we should start in your new home. Maybe by some miracle Jace and the kids are there.”

  We ran down the street as fast as we could. I had to follow Ian because I had no idea where the house was.

  I wasn’t allowed to come to the new camp while it was being established.

  Some of Michael’s people didn’t trust me. I was the Queen’s daughter after all. I still had a Harvester chip buried deep within my brain. Add in the fact that I hadn’t regained my humanity via the Cain virus like most of them had, I couldn’t blame Michael’s people for remaining suspicious of me. If the shoe had been on the other foot, I probably wouldn’t have trusted me either.

  When the new camp was set up, it was decided I would stay in the old camp until it was time to make the move complete. I simply considered it a morale measure and tried to not take it personally. Plus, I didn’t care for the way some of the people in Michael’s group looked at me, like I was the one to blame for the way the world was. The sins of my biological mother seemed determined to haunt me no matter where I turned.

  Jace kept me grounded though. Whenever I felt my temper get the better of me, I would simply look at him and feel it ebb away almost instantly. He was my constant. The one piece of my life my sanity depended on. Without him, I feared what might become of me. It was almost like the love I felt for him kept me tethered to my humanity. If I lost him. …

  I decided not to consider the alternative and ran a little faster.

  As we ran down the street of houses on the old abandoned air force base, I knew which house Jace had been setting up for us even before Ian ran up to it.

  It was a sweet looking two story home with l
ight gray siding and a small front porch with white posts and a guard rail. It had a black door and black shutters. But the way I knew it was the one Jace had been working on for us was because of the field of wheat growing beside it. Jace must have asked Ava to help it grow because it was at least knee high. I wanted to cry at the thoughtfulness but didn’t. My first priority was finding Jace and the kids. Without them, the wheat field would be nothing more than a sad reminder of what could have been.

  Ian burst into the front door yelling Jace’s name.

  I was right behind him, surveying the interior quickly but seeing only a furnished living room and no signs of life.

  “Ian, run!”

  It was Michael’s voice. He was close, but we couldn’t see him. We walked over to the open kitchen area connected to the living room and found Jace’s father lying in a pool of his own blood behind the kitchen island. He had his hand pressed against a wound on his left side and his back propped against the island. I immediately knelt down and made him move his hand so I could find his wound and evaluate the damage.

  “Get out of here, Skye,” Michael said weakly, barely able to stay conscience. “He’s here for you.”

  I looked up to meet Michael’s eyes, but he had already passed out either from blood loss or pain or possibly both.

  I pressed the palm of my right hand against Michael’s wound to heal it.

  “Damn it,” I heard Ian mutter beside me.

  Ian slowly raised his hands in the air while looking at someone on the other side of the kitchen island.

  “Stand up, Skye,” I heard a familiar voice order harshly.

  I lingered over Michael’s wound, wanting to heal it as much as I could before I stood.

  A shot was fired, hitting Ian directly in the left shoulder, causing him to fall to his knees and scream out in pain while he clutched at the wound.

  “I said stand up, Skye! Don‘t make me say it again!”

  I stood with my hands raised in the air and met the half-crazed eyes of Freddy.

  Freddy stood with his gun pointed directly at Ian’s head.

  “God, you’re a pain in the ass,” Freddy muttered to me. “I should have just killed you when I had the chance back in Alliance.”