Harvester of Light Trilogy (Boxed Set)

by S. J. West

  “Lux,” she said, her voice desperate for hope, “did you find anything that can help?”

  “Yeah, this girl can heal her.” Lux looked back at me as I stepped off the last step onto the cabin floor. “Uh, what’s your name by the way?”

  “Skye,” I told them.

  Lux looked back at the woman. “Skye can heal her wound for us.”

  “You seem a bit young to be a doctor,” the woman commented, eyeing me warily.

  “I’m not a doctor,” I told her. “But I can heal your daughter’s wound if you’ll let me.”

  “And how do you plan to do that if you’re not a doctor? Are you some sort of miracle worker?” the woman asked as a joke.

  “I have a … gift,” I said. “I have the power to heal people.”

  The woman looked to Lux like she thought maybe I was off my rocker or some sort of charlatan looking to make a quick buck.

  “It’s true,” Lux said, nodding her head in affirmation of my claim. “I’ve seen it. Let her try, Martha. We don’t have anything to lose and everything to gain.”

  Martha hesitated for just a moment before nodding and taking a step away from her daughter, silently giving me permission to come closer.

  I stood motionless as the face of the girl was revealed to me.

  The base of her twin blond pigtails were wrapped with pink silk ribbons tied in perfect bows. Her pale, flawless skin was a mask of death. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest as tears spilled unhindered from my eyes. I stared at the little girl who I first met trapped inside her own son’s protective shield only to be awakened into a world she would sacrifice everything for. A girl who would in time become one of my best friends and grow into a woman who would provide us a way to salvation.

  I looked at Zoe and wept.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “What’s wrong?” Lux asked me, worried by my reaction. “Is she too far gone? Will your power not work on her?”

  Without taking precious seconds to answer, I walked up to the table and handed Rose to Zoe’s mother, not for one second worrying about her safety in the other woman’s arms. Martha was her grandmother after all.

  I yanked the white sheet off of Zoe’s body and threw it to the floor. I pulled up her shirt and peeled back the white gauze bandage covering the wound in her abdomen. They’d been able to keep it clean but not much else. I placed both my hands over the wound and felt my healing power kick in without even having to think about it. It had become second nature to me now. All I had to do was see the wound and my power immediately activated, knowing what to do without me having to concentrate on the miracle of my unique power. Within a few short minutes, I knew the wound had been healed. I pulled my hands away from where the bullet hole had been to find it completely healed, not even a scar remained.

  “My god,” I heard Martha say breathlessly, “how did you do that?”

  I ignored the question and looked up at Zoe’s face. I reached out and traced the side of her cheek with the tips of my fingers, wishing I could talk to my friend just one more time. She looked almost exactly like the first time I met her, small and innocent. I prayed she would open her eyes and look at me. I desperately wanted just one more minute with her, even though I knew in this time line I would be a stranger to her. But I didn’t care. I just wanted to be with her one last time.

  It was strange to think how entwined our lives were. Fate always seemed to pull us together when we needed each other the most. It couldn’t just be coincidence that Ash brought me back to this particular point in time, this particular city, just by random chance. Perhaps there was a higher power somewhere in the universe guiding us, forever making us a part of each other’s lives.

  I waited patiently to see if Zoe would open her eyes, but she didn’t. Her breathing was steadier now though, and I could only assume her body still needed time to recover from the shock it had sustained from the gunshot wound.

  “She’ll be fine,” I told Lux and Martha, letting my hand fall back to my side and giving up on being reunited with Zoe, even in this small way.

  “Thank you,” Martha said on the brink of tears, holding Rose in the crook of her arm and absently rocking her like it was just second nature to do such a thing with a baby. “I don’t know how you did it, and I don’t really need to know, but I owe you everything for saving my baby.”

  “Why isn’t she waking up?” Lux asked.

  “I healed the wound, but her body is probably still in shock,” I answered. “I think she just needs some time to rest.”

  Martha handed Rose back to me.

  “I should go tell Joe,” Martha said, leaning down to kiss her daughter on the forehead.

  Before she left to go up to the deck, Martha did something completely unexpected and turned toward me to give me a kiss on the cheek.

  “Thank you. Thank you so much. You’re a gift from God.”

  Not really, I thought to myself. I wondered what Martha would think if she knew I was actually a miracle of the genetically engineered variety, just like her daughter was. I glanced down at her protruding stomach and wondered if the child within her womb had been naturally conceived or if the Queen had been allowed to tamper with it as well.

  I would have asked, but it’s not exactly a question you pop on strangers.

  While Martha was on deck telling her husband about the small miracle I had been able to perform, Lux asked, “Why did you start crying when you saw Zoe? It almost seemed like you knew who she was.”

  I shook my head. “If I told you, I doubt you would believe me. It’s probably better if you don’t know everything about me, Lux.”

  Lux shrugged her shoulders. “Keep your secrets. I’m just glad I found you. I guess it was fate.”

  Fate. There was that word again. It seemed like everything in my life had been leading me toward something. I could only assume that something involved the death of the Queen. What else would provide the world with the new beginning it so desperately needed? I just hoped when the time came to do what had to be done I wouldn’t fail. I couldn’t fail. Too much had been sacrificed for me to even consider failure as an option.

  I allowed myself the luxury of looking at Zoe, but felt the edges of the hole she left in my heart burn with grief. I missed her. I desperately wanted my friend back.

  Rose waved one of her small hands at me as if trying to remind me she was still there. I looked down at her and realized Zoe hadn’t completely left me. She had gifted me with small bits of herself in Rose and Simon. As I stared into Rose’s eyes, I felt the bond between us strengthen with this new realization.

  “She’s so beautiful,” Martha said as she made her way back down the steps leading from the deck. “She reminds me of how Zoe looked when she was a baby, same beautifully curious blue eyes.”

  I looked back down at Rose and saw her looking up at me, smiling and moving her hands in the air like she was happy to have my full attention.

  “I hope we somehow win this war,” Martha said to me. “Our babies deserve happy lives.”

  I nodded in agreement, looking into Rose’s eyes and promising, “You’ll have a free and happy life, no matter what the cost.”

  “I hope you can keep that promise,” Martha said. “I fear the cost may be high though. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen?”

  I met Martha’s gaze and said, “I am.”

  Martha nodded. “Good. Keep hold of that strength, Skye. I’m afraid you’ll need it to stay sane in the days to come if they don’t find a way to stop the Harvesters soon.”

  I felt an urge to tell Martha what her family’s destiny was, but didn’t. I realized it was the same dilemma Ash must have to face every time he traveled back in time to see his parents. If I said too much, I could change the past. But would that be such a bad thing? I wasn’t sure. The only problem was the fact that I knew what the future held, and I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the dawning of the sun from truly happening in my time line. If I
told Martha her family would soon be sent to a breeding camp and that a nuke would destroy everyone there except for Zoe, would she even believe me? Would there be a point in telling her such a thing if it couldn’t be changed? The world was at war. I seriously doubted there was anything I could do at this point in the past that would change the events of my present for the better.

  Martha invited us to stay to eat with her while we waited for Zoe to wake up. To my surprise, Lux pulled out some T-bone steaks from her backpack. I couldn’t remember the last time I had steak. For so many years my daily consumption of food mostly consisted of whatever canned items Ash and I could scavenge. Though you had to be careful with what you ate. Even canned foods could go bad, but most seemed to be able to last longer than their posted expiration dates.

  Lux and Martha set about cooking the steaks, baked potatoes, and fresh salad.

  While they cooked, I couldn’t help but stare at Zoe as she continued to sleep. She looked almost exactly like I remembered her the first time we met.

  “How old is Zoe?” I asked Martha.

  “She’ll be seven in a couple of months,” Martha told me, wiping her hands with a kitchen towel as she came to stand beside me. “How old is … what’s the baby’s name?”

  “Rose,” I told her. “She’s only four months old. Have you picked out a name for your baby yet?”

  “Piper,” Martha said with a smile on her face as she rubbed her protruding belly, “Piper McIntosh.”

  As I looked at Martha, I suddenly realized I would never be able to have a child of my own. The Queen had stolen that opportunity from me like she had stolen most everything else in the world. I felt a hollowness inside, an incompleteness. I began to feel sorry for myself, but most of all I began to feel like I was cheating Jace. He would never be able to have a child of his own if he stayed with me and if anyone in this world was built to be a father, it was him. He was a natural with both Rose and Simon, but he would never get the opportunity to love a child of his own.

  Martha looked at Rose. “You sure can tell she loves you. Her face just lights up when she looks at you. You love your mommy, don’t you baby Rose?”

  Rose gurgled and squealed in response.

  I looked down at Rose cradled in my arms. She was looking straight at me like she understood the question Martha had just asked. Was it possible that even at this young of an age she thought of me as her mother? It didn’t seem likely. She probably just associated me with the place her next meal would be coming from. Speaking of which. …

  “Do you have any milk I can feed her?” I asked Martha.

  “I think I have better than that,” she said, walking to a separate compartment at the bow of the boat.

  I saw an unmade bed past the door she went through. When she came back out, she had a white plastic Walmart bag in her hands.

  “We brought some things with us for when Piper decides she wants to be born,” she explained to me with a smile.

  The bag was filled with a cornucopia of baby supplies. There was a small package of diapers, wipes, baby formula, a bottle, and even a package of pacifiers. Martha showed me how to mix the dry mix baby formula, and Rose gulped it down like it was nectar from the gods. After I burped her, she promptly went to sleep in my arms. Martha brought out a white wicker bassinet from the bedroom for Rose to sleep in while we ate the steak meal she and Lux had prepared.

  “How long have you guys been out here on the lake?” I asked, taking a bite of the steak, which practically melted in my mouth it was so tender.

  “About a month I think. We used to live by Lake Oneida near Syracuse,” Martha said, bringing to mind Zoe telling me she had been born in Syracuse. “When things started to get bad, we packed up this boat and followed the canals and rivers until we got here. We’re hoping to make our way farther north, where it’s less populated. Maybe we can find somewhere to hide out until the war is over.”

  “You’re not going to stay and fight?” I asked.

  Martha laughed. “Do I look like a fighter? I’m barely able to keep my family alive, much less find a way to defeat the Harvesters. We’ve got armies for that. If they can’t do it, I feel pretty confident I can’t either. No, I’m taking my family somewhere safe until this whole thing blows over.”

  “But what if it doesn’t blow over?” I asked. “What if the Harvesters take control of the world?”

  “Then we’re all as good as dead,” Martha said bluntly.

  I couldn’t argue that she wasn’t right. But I knew what awaited her in the future. She would never find a safe haven. She and her family would be taken by the Harvesters sometime soon if Zoe’s current age was any indication. She wasn’t much older than she was now when Jace and I found her under Simon’s protective shield.

  “What about you?” Martha asked me. “What are your plans?”

  “Find a way to get back home,” I told her, “and fight.”

  “I would imagine with your gift you’ll be very useful in this war,” Martha said. “If I was like you, I might think about fighting too. But I’m only one person. I don’t see what I could do to help.”

  “By yourself, nothing,” I told her. “But with an army beside you, everything.”

  A series of gunshots could be heard coming from the exterior of the boat.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Martha and Lux, quickly picking Rose up from the bassinet.

  “Looks like the Harvesters have found us,” Martha said, standing from her seat beside me.

  Lux stood and went to Martha, giving her a quick hug.

  “It was nice knowing you,” Lux told her. “I hope we can find each other again one day.”

  “You take care of yourself, Lux.”

  “Come on,” Lux said to me, “we’ve got to get a move on.”

  Martha looked at me. “I wish you luck in your fight, Skye. Please try to keep yourself safe.”

  “I will,” I told her.

  I had to do one thing before I left. I walked over to Zoe and kissed her on the forehead.

  “See you soon,” I whispered in her ear, taking precious seconds to look at my friend one last time before following Lux up onto deck.

  It was nighttime now, and I could see the lights of boats out in the distance quickly approaching our location.

  “Catch you later, Joe,” Lux said, giving the burly man a hug.

  “You take care, Lux.”

  Joe looked at me and extended a hand in my direction.

  “You take care of yourself, Skye. And thank you for what you did for my Zoe.”

  I nodded and shook his hand.

  I didn’t have time to tell him saving Zoe’s life was just as much for me as it was for him and Martha. She was one of the few people in my life I could call friend. And I hoped by some miracle I would be able to see her again one day.

  I followed Lux back onto her boat. She immediately went to the helm and pushed a button to lift the anchor. The engines roared to life, and we set off across the lake to the west. The other five boats dispersed into different directions, like this particular evacuation plan had been in place for a while. It made sense to split up. Depending on how many boats the Harvesters had, they could only follow so many of us.

  “Where are we heading?” I asked Lux.

  “Niagara Falls. We should be able to find some transportation there.” My parents and I vacationed there before the war started. Just the idea of going there brought back fond memories of that trip.

  I kept glancing behind us as we made our getaway to see if any of the Harvester boats were following us but saw no telltale lights of their pursuit.

  It didn’t take us long to reach the Niagara River. Lux seemed to know where she was going, and strangely enough I trusted her. I wasn’t really the trusting type, but for some reason I knew Lux would do her best to get us to safety.

  “Niagara was cleared about a month ago,” Lux told me. “It should pretty much be a ghost town by now.”

  Lux pulled the boat up to a shor
t wood dock by a walkway that ran in front of a restaurant that resembled a mushroom in structure. The bottom half of it looked to be made of cement with a circular wooden structure built on top of it.

  Lux grabbed her backpack and went below deck for a few minutes. I could hear her rummaging around and banging cabinet doors in her haste. When she came back up, she had an extra backpack with her.

  “Do you think you can carry this bag on your back?” she asked me.

  I nodded and took the bag from her hands. I laid Rose down on the table while I adjusted the straps over my shoulders.

  “Ready,” I said to Lux, picking Rose up.

  Lux’s eyes traveled around the boat.

  “This will probably be the last time I see her,” she said.

  I could tell Lux wasn’t only saying good-bye to the boat, but also to the memories she shared with her parents on it. It was another piece of them she would be forced to leave behind.

  “Let’s go,” Lux said, heading out to the stern. “We should be able to find a car or something out in the parking lot.”

  I followed Lux off the boat and down the short dock. We walked past the mushroom-shaped restaurant and found a parking lot with a few abandoned vehicles across the street from the marina. After a short search, Lux found a little red Toyota Matrix that still had the keys in the ignition and half of a tank of gas.

  “Where should we go?” Lux asked me.

  “South,” I told her, not even having to think about it. “As far south as we can safely get, anyway.”

  “Everybody and their brother is trying to head down south,” Lux said, sounding reluctant to go in that direction.

  “Trust me when I tell you we need to get as far southeast of here as we can.”

  I didn’t know how to tell Lux that only a small section of the United States would survive the war. I didn’t want to take Lux any farther north because I wasn’t sure how far the Queen’s protective shield would go once raised. I felt sure Ash would come to get me and Rose at some point, but in the meantime, I wanted to make sure Lux was as far south as she could get.