The Harvested (The Permutation Archives Book 1)

by Kindra Sowder

  “And how do you suppose we do that?” Nero jabbed. “It’s not like we can just walk out of here.”

  “There is a rebellion starting on the outside. We have allies, but I can’t explain it all now. I can explain all of it once we’re on the outside.”

  Julius and Caius both nodded in agreement. They could wait for a full explanation, but what about Nero? He seemed skeptical, and I couldn’t say I blamed him considering everything that had happened since we came to the compound. I couldn’t tell them about the Harvest now. I couldn’t spill the beans yet, but I could tell them what Cato had shown me before dying at my hand. That much I could do.

  “Like I said, Cato showed me something. Something that can make all the difference in how you feel, Nero.” He shot a look at me, and I ignored it. “We all used to go to the edge of the Wall and look at the stars, remember? Sneaking past the checkpoints? One time, we went on our own, and I taught him about the constellations. Then, he showed me so many things that I can’t even begin to explain. War, death, and destruction will be a part of the rest of our lives, but we can change so much of it. We can be heroes. That was what Cato believed in, and his vision of the future proved that we can do it.” I paused, letting the words sink in as he stared at me. “We can save everyone from King.”

  Silence fell over the table as we sat, Nero’s eyes never leaving mine. Something was lingering underneath the surface that I couldn’t help but notice. Something hard. Something rage-filled and unforgiving. I saw hope in the other two men before me, but I wasn’t filled with the same hope, regardless of how it seemed. I still wasn’t entirely sure about being the solution to the problem that was King and his plans. I wasn’t certain about anything, but I had those around me that believed in me. I had Cato, who had shown me a small piece of what I could and would do. How far could I take it?

  “I’m in,” Julius said as he placed his hand on the center of the table in between us, palm down on the cool metal.

  “Me too,” Caius slurred as he put his own on top of Julius’ in the same fashion.

  I put mine on top of theirs and took a chance gaze at Nero, who stared at our supportive hands. The final decision was his to make, and I couldn’t force him to side with us. He was too stubborn for that and if he felt I was in the wrong and I couldn’t be trusted then he would stick to that. The darkness was swallowing him whole, and he wasn’t showing any effort to pull himself out. I wanted to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it seemed it was getting closer with each second no matter how I felt about the role I played in this.

  “Nero?” I questioned, watching him as his face crumbled and grief and anger overtook him. This was beginning to look as if he would punch me in the face all over again, but I didn’t lean away. I left my hand exactly where I had placed it and watched him as he struggled to make a decision. I already knew he wouldn’t come with us, but sometimes people changed their minds, right? Fate wasn’t always set in stone. Or so I heard.

  He began to shake his head, denying the situation entirely as he looked at our hands piled in the one spot on the table in support of the plan. We would escape based on Ryder and Doctor Aserov’s plan, and we would fight to save everyone. That was if I was as strong as everyone believed me to be. There were plenty of people in my corner. If only I could convince myself to stand in it with both feet.

  “I can’t. I just can’t. I can’t believe a word you say. Not after all that has happened. I’m sorry.” He stood up, leaving his tray on the table looking down at all of us with disgust and a tiny bit of unhappiness and said, “You won’t make it out of here. They’re too powerful to let you go without a fight.” His gaze met mine, and I tried not to look away from him, but failed miserably.

  “Are you sure?” Julius asked his brother, a pleading tone in the question.

  Nero nodded, placing a hand on the table next to ours and replied, “I’m sure. Good luck, brother.” Then he walked away, heading in the direction of the cabins that housed all of us, his guard following close behind as instructed. We had no alone time. No privacy unless we were in the semi-private restrooms that were within our quarters. Nothing was truly ours. Not anymore. Not even our power and will. Someone had already laid claim to that as well.

  I knew that Nero wouldn’t side with us; the people that he knew his entire life that had always stood by him when he needed them, but it still hurt watching him turn away from us. Where would he turn if he turned anywhere at all? Would he change sides completely? Would he fall to the way-side to fight against the change? Did he want to lose everything that made him who he was? Did he want that for his brother? That was how it seemed when he decided against us at that moment, and I felt the knife in my back twist even deeper.

  Chapter 29

  We were all prepared to leave, but I hadn’t thought it would be that soon. The same night that Nero left us behind in the dining hall was the same night Ryder and Doctor Aserov had gotten the signal. It was time to leave that place behind and lead the largest revolution that the United States had seen in one hundred years.

  I was lying in bed, fully dressed, shoes on, and cuddled underneath the blanket. Always be prepared. It was a good rule of thumb that I decided I would live by from then on. I heard the sound of the aura falling and soft footfalls of military issue boots walking toward the head of my bed. A hand grazed my cheek and then moved to my shoulder to shake me awake. I opened my eyes to see Ryder’s not even an inch away from mine, startling me.

  “It’s time,” he whispered as he pulled my blankets back, exposing the red scrubs and shoes. He grinned and said, “Are you clairvoyant now or something?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. Just felt I needed to be prepared for anything, and I was right. Where are the others?”

  “They’re right outside the room waiting for us. I grabbed them first. Now we just need to leave. Everything is in place, and we should be good to go.” We stalked out of the room and met the other two on the opposite side of the threshold just as Ryder said. One person was missing.

  “Where’s Doctor Aserov?” I asked. I didn’t see her anywhere, and I was beginning to worry. As if I wasn’t anxious enough. My heart was hammering against my chest, and I was already perspiring.

  “She’s coming. We will be meeting her on the way out. She has a few more loose ends to tie up, and we’ll be out of here.” He smiled at me then, his cocky grin showing that he was extremely pleased with the plan and knew it would succeed. How must it feel to be that confident in something? Because I wasn’t. Not in the least, but we had to try.

  “Not meaning to interrupt, but maybe we should be on the way out?” Julius hissed in our direction.

  “All right, let’s go,” Ryder whispered in return, cocking his head to the side to show which direction we would be going in. “Follow the green line. As Mila has already figured out, it leads outside. We’ll come up to a couple auras, but Doctor Aserov has timed them to go down in intervals, so we have to be as fast and as quiet as we can, okay?”

  We all responded with a curt nod and followed his lead, letting him take us down the twists and the turns that made up the compound. The green line was taking us in so many directions, I wasn’t sure we were headed toward an exit, even though that was what that line stood for. Outside. But what would be there to greet us? It was too quiet, and as Nero had said, they wouldn’t let us out that easily. Something was wrong. I felt it deep within me—in my muscles and my bones. Even the thudding of my heart felt incorrect. Ryder was out in front of us, gun out and ready for anything, so I picked up my speed just enough to walk beside him instead of behind him.

  “Ryder?”

  “Yes, Mila,” he responded.

  “This doesn’t feel right. Something’s wrong,” I whispered. I believed those words with everything that was in me, and I felt he should know what I was feeling. My instincts had been off the mark recently, but the feeling was so strong I couldn’t remain quiet.

  He slowed down as he moved against the wall
and then came to a stop. He was going to trust my word. A sigh of relief left my lips in a rush. That was when I noticed we were twenty feet from the first of three auras that would cross our path. We just needed to wait for it to drop. Julius and Caius stopped along with us, a questioning look on their faces that said it all.

  “What’s wrong?” Julius questioned. His brows furrowed, and his muscles tensed.

  “Something doesn’t feel right,” I answered.

  “Doesn’t feel right, how?” Caius asked. He wore the same expression but tinged with skepticism.

  “I can’t explain it, but something feels off.” No one believed me. They all wanted out, and I was stopping our progress. “I can’t put my finger on it.”

  “How about we wait to see if this aura drops before we decide something’s wrong. Not saying I don’t trust your judgment, but we’re on a clock and if we wait too long, we’ll miss our window.” He paused, licking his lips as he thought. “If something is going to happen then it’ll happen either way, right? Plus, it’s too late to turn back. It’s now or never.”

  All of us exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. He was right. Now or never. If we got caught or someone had other plans, then it would happen no matter what we decided to do. There were other explanations for the sensation. The white lights were turned off, so only the blue were lighting our way, which was typical for lights out. It was also quiet.

  Even at night, the compound was a flurry of activity because doctors and military men were still making their rounds. There was no one, but I also had never been to this section of the facility so maybe this area was always a little quieter. I was sure Ryder would say it wasn’t normal if he had thought so. Still, there was something that didn’t feel right to me, but how many times could I scream that the sky was falling before no one believed me?

  After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, the first aura dropped. Everything appeared to be in order as far as the plan went, but how many auras could drop like that without alerting someone that something was amiss? Possibly three. Maybe that was the reason that was our chosen route of escape.

  We ran as quietly as our shoes would allow and all four of us crossed the aura’s threshold just in time, it rising back into place not even one second after the last foot crossed it. Ryder took one hand off his handgun and encircled mine with it, pulling me along with him as we made our silent way to the next aura that came down just in time for us to round another corner. There was a fluttering sensation of nerves in my stomach, and a solid pit had formed there, the apprehension of what I still felt as we moved through the compound toward our freedom slithering inside of my gut like a snake.

  Within mere moments, we were finally standing by the last of the three auras, waiting for it to fall into place within the floor. The intervals seemed to be set for five minutes, giving us plenty of time to get there and cross it before it rose up again. My legs were shaking and tired from exertion, and I was sweating so profusely my shirt was sticking to me, causing my hair to do the same on my forehead. We were all extremely out of shape except for Ryder. His military training took care of that.

  Five minutes came and went. Dread filled me. Something wasn’t right. Not at all, and I had predicted it.

  “What’s happening?” Caius probed, his breath coming in short gasps as we stood there just waiting for the next step. The aura was the last before we reached the door leading out and into the green I had once spied outside, but it wasn’t opening to let us through.

  “I don’t know,” Ryder answered.

  “Something’s wrong,” I reiterated. “I told you something was wrong.”

  “All right, Mila, we got it. You were right. Now, what do we do?”

  Julius was exasperated, and I could tell he was beginning to wonder if he had made the right decision. He turned to Ryder who was perplexed, staring at the shimmering blue aura before us as if it had betrayed him.

  “Ryder,” I hissed as I jerked his arm, his hand still clasped in mine and slicked with sweat. No response. “Ryder, please. What do we do?” The terror was rising within me. He seemed to snap out of it once he heard it in my voice as if he heard something we hadn’t.

  “Run,” he cried. He let go of my hand and pushed me against the nearest wall, a bullet colliding with the aura that I had just been standing beside.

  A scream exploded from between my lips as it ricocheted off the aura and grazed my arm, the burning pain spreading through the limb so quickly it took my breath away. Blood poured from the wound and down my arm in a massive river. It was going to need stitches. I took in the scene as gunshots rang out around me. I was the only one hit, and Ryder was unloading a clip on a soldier who was on the ground, trying to crawl away from the barrage of bullets impacting his body.

  Caius was on the floor attempting to defend himself from a soldier on top of him, beating him to a bloody pulp. Then I saw Julius, standing above a soldier whose bulletproof vest was sizzling, steam reaching into the air like a hand searching for mercy. The man pulled his handgun and pointed it at Julius, only for Julius to reach out with his hand, the very center of his flesh opening up and spilling a liquid from the inside of it. I had never seen him do this before. I wasn’t even aware of what his ability was, and I had a feeling I was about to find out.

  The liquid steamed as it shot onto the man’s gun, splashing his face in the process. The metal of the weapon began to melt away, and it was then that I knew what it was. Acid. The man’s pathetic attempts to fire it failed, the acid burning the chamber of the gun away within seconds and spreading down toward the grip.

  I stood, clutching my arm against the wound, trying to staunch the flow with my hand as best as I could, still leaving small drops of it on the white floor as I took a few steps forward. My eyes moved back to Caius, still in a defensive posture on the floor as the soldier hit him relentlessly. I didn’t want to use my power. Not after Cato, but I had to stop this before more soldiers made their way to our location.

  I took off at a sprint, hoping to reach them before it was too late and another person I cared about lost their life to this madness. Once I was within arm’s reach, I threw my fist into his face, sending him tumbling to the ground and leaving a smear of my fresh blood on his cheek. Anger blossomed into his face, red spreading down into his neck.

  He launched himself at me from the floor, pushing me into the wall behind me, hands grasping for my throat as my stitches made contact with the solid surface. I felt the stitches push into my scalp, but no pulling or breaking threads. There was an instant of relief until a knee jammed into my gut, causing me to retch as I collapsed to the ground onto my knees. A sharp intake of breath and the pain was gone, becoming a distant memory as the adrenaline flowed through my veins. I felt a part of me snap on the inside. Something primal. Something deadly.

  I let every ounce of rage and fear take over my body, the power building inside of me as I knelt in front of my abuser. A whistle of air as a fist pushed through it, bent on hitting its target, but I could feel and hear it coming. With an animal cry, I stood, my clenched fist slicing up through the air to land square on the underside of his chin in an uppercut.

  The soldier stumbled back a couple of steps but kept coming, spitting blood and saliva onto the ground from where he seemed to have bitten the inside of his cheek because of the blow. There was something about him that I couldn’t figure out. Then I saw it. His eyes flashed bright amber, and something shifted behind them. He was one of us, but which side had he started out on?

  “Is that all you got, little girl?” he taunted as he wiped a rivulet of blood from the corner of his lips with the back of his hand.

  My arm still burned from the pain of the grazing bullet, but I didn’t care. It was too late to go back, and the entire experience had awoken something inside of me that I couldn’t even begin to explain, but I did know that I was going to use it.

  “I’m just getting started,” I replied. I cracked my neck and rotated my uninjured arm,
letting the power flow and ebb through the muscles and bones. My flesh felt as if it was on fire and vibrating with it, humming silently through my entire body. The pain in my injured arm was a distant throb as the sensation overtook me, begging to be set free from its cage.

  Before then, I thought I had seen it all. That was until I watched as the bones inside of his face began to shift like tectonic plates underneath his flesh. I knew what side he had started out on, and his betrayal surged through me like a tidal wave. I hadn’t known him or seen him before now, but he had too fine of a control over his power for it to have been transplanted into him. My fists clenched and unclenched as he moved toward me, anger at his blatant treachery toward his people causing me to see red like a raging bull. He was on me within mere seconds, launching his assault as his entire body began to shift. My fist was inches away from his face when his hand wrapped around it, stopping me from hitting my target, his muscles, bones and flesh moving around my stiff body. What was he?

  His face began to change shape as the monster inside of him started to emerge, the humanity on the outside morphing and disappearing as I watched with fascination. All I could hear were the sounds of my friends and Ryder fighting for their lives. Julius had stepped in to help Ryder. Caius was plastered against the wall with terror as he watched the soldier I had saved him from.

  “Bravo! Bravo,” a voice sounded from within the dimness, and clapping started between the two words.

  We all stopped and turned to see King walking toward us, four soldiers behind him with guns drawn and aimed straight at us and a red laser dot pointed at the center of my chest.

  “Now, that’s enough, Damian. Pull back.”

  The man in front of me let go of my hand and took a couple of steps back, his bones ceasing their shift. He looked like himself again even though the amber in his irises was still present as he stared at me. King continued to walk toward me, his movements as graceful as a tiger and his gaze just as dangerous. He stopped directly in front of me, never taking his eyes away from my face as he spoke.