Delivered: A Young Adult Dystopian Romance (The State Series Book 7)

by M. J. Kaestli

  Freya sucked air threw her teeth. “No, I don’t buy it. Our population is miniscule compared to what it used to be. And you have at least one greenhouse operational for your work crews.”

  “We send them freeze-dried meals.” Devina smirked. “The only garden in the dome is the one we planted; Lewis’ food source.”

  “No.” Freya’s mind raced. “You wouldn’t send pre-made meals like that. It would be too wasteful.”

  “So is having greenhouse workers and cooks for a few work crews,” Devina shot back. “Face it. You’ll starve.”

  Freya’s eyelids pressed closed. “Even if there isn’t enough food production inside the dome, we can just as easily go outside and hunt.”

  Devina pursed her lips. “Really? You think your people can just wander outside the dome to get food? What about the military that will arrive shortly? That’s a lot of pressure for one little hunting trip. Once our patrols arrive, every person who tries to step foot outside the dome will be shot. The dome may protect you from our military, but only if you stay inside.”

  The monitor suddenly switched off and Freya spun around and saw Aakil standing there with a tablet in hand. “Did you do that?”

  He shrugged. “I think we got as much information out of her as we’re going to get. She was just stalling.”

  “I can’t believe you hung up on her,” Freya said, with a heavy sigh.

  Colin leaned toward Aakil. “I hope you did because as the Chief Scientific Advisor, you have a plan.”

  Aakil raised his eyebrows. “Well, first thing first, I think we should bring the Goddess of Botany on a tour of the place. We need to take inventory, see what we can grow and what we brought with us. Let’s figure out exactly where we’re at so we can establish rationing, immediately.”

  All the moisture evaporated from her mouth. It felt like only minutes ago that Aakil opposed forming a committee, and now he wanted to enforce rations. For such a rapid change of heart, it meant that he believed Devina. They were at risk of dying, having never even started their war.

  ***

  Freya’s white fingertips pressed firmly against the table. “Before we go running in all directions, let’s just stop and think for a minute here.”

  “Agreed,” Colin said. “If we start running around to each greenhouse, we might miss an opportunity here, which is exactly what she wants.”

  “What can we possibly do?” Aakil asked. “We already cleaned out everything worth taking from Idaho. And I don’t know how many people we’ve got total, but we brought a lot of food. Are we sure there’s really a problem? We’ll just hunt a buck or two for good measure. Problem solved.”

  “Aakil,” Freya began. “Do you know how long it will take them to travel here from the mountain? How long do we have?”

  Aakil sighed. “Well, if my memory serves me correctly, I’d say about three hours—if she was telling the truth and hadn’t already responded to the silent alarm. If they had, who knows. They could show up at any moment.”

  Colin nodded. “Right. Can we all agree that sending people out to hunt is our best option right now?”

  “Yes,” Gwen and Aakil said in unison, but Freya wasn’t so sure.

  “But those hunters have a greater chance of getting killed than we have of them finding big game so quickly.”

  Aakil bit his bottom lip. “Okay. But what if we go to Idaho instead? I think that might be the safest location to hunt.”

  Colin shook his head. “At least here, they will drive up in their big trucks and we’ll see them coming. But an airstrike, we’d have seconds to get back through the transport device, if we heard them coming at all.”

  Gwen held her hands in the air. “Okay. So, either we risk our hunters getting killed, or we all die of starvation. The point is, we aren’t all going to make it through this. I don’t care what you guys decide, I’m taking a team of my best hunters back home. Right now. The sooner we do this, the better chance we have of getting some meat. I know the terrain and feel my chances are better there than they are here. So, if you guys want to keep talking about this, feel free.”

  Gwen pushed back in her seat and stood from the table. Freya had always known Gwen was strong but seeing her step up like that was overwhelming.

  “Thank you, Gwen.” Freya swallowed her raw emotion. “I appreciate you volunteering.”

  Aakil jumped up. “I’ll come help with the transport device.”

  “Gwen,” Colin said. “If you hear anything, and I mean anything, run. Just run and get back here.”

  She gripped Colin’s shoulder, and just as quickly turned and fled the State House at a jog with Aakil at her heels.

  Freya looked down at her empty hands. “Let’s hope the High Council thinks you were alone in Idaho. I’m glad you stayed off camera.”

  Colin rubbed his face, suddenly looking exhausted. “So, if we aren’t hunting, then what do we do?”

  Nausea stirred in her core. She knew exactly what they needed to do, she just wished they had thought of it before they made the call. “I think we need to head back to the Security hub, so you can show me inside each greenhouse. I can see if any of them look promising, and we’ll make a plan from there. I mean, why have our population settled here if there is a flourishing greenhouse on the other end of the dome?”

  He nodded, but she could tell that not a speck of optimism flickered inside of him. “I can do that. But I think there’s something more pressing we need to take care of. We need to gather those supplies Gwen brought over and put them somewhere safe. Then we need to talk to one of the dome workers and gather their freeze-dried meals.”

  Freya’s skin blanched. “You think we need to control the supplies we have.”

  He let out a dry, sarcastic laugh. “You know, Aakil said to me once that he got why the State were such dicks. I don’t want to police our food supply, but I see no other option. People don’t tend to act in the best interest of the group.”

  Freya pressed her eyes tightly closed. “This already all feels too familiar.”

  “In more ways than you realize.”

  It was true, Freya had slept through most of the conflicts amongst the colony. She may not have experienced them, but she knew that those conflicts sprung from one group of people, not while trying to merge multiple groups into one.

  Chapter 29

  Gwen

  Her heart thundered in her chest. There was no time for hesitation. She trusted her hunters. Trust was imperative with starvation on the line, but extra hunters could acquire enough meat to turn this war in their favor.

  “I’ve got a team of my best hunters ready,” Gwen said. “I’m just asking if any of your men would like to join us.”

  Samuel squinted. The effect darkened his deep blue eyes. “Do we have to go now? We haven’t yet settled into our apartments.”

  “Yes. The State knows we’re here, and soon Idaho won’t be available to us. I know that you all are used to eating meat, and we don’t have any inside the dome. This is it. We go in, get as much game as possible, and hope it lasts us a while.”

  Samuel scratched his large hand at his stubbly cheek. “Yeah, I guess if we’re going to be stuck in here, we should at least have some meat.”

  Gwen started to breathe again. “Okay, we’re leaving immediately. So, if anyone is handy, grab them. We’re treating this trip as though the State could launch an attack at any time. There will be no dawdling. We get in, go for the best game we can get, and get back. Bows only.”

  He nodded halfheartedly. “I’ll go talk to some of my men.”

  He walked off at an agonizingly slow pace. Gwen spun around to Aakil, wide eyed.

  “Hey, why don’t you get a head start with your girls, and I’ll send them through after. Who knows, you might get lucky and have a few bucks lounging near the transport device. Then you can make them drag through the meat.”

  She took a deep breath, trying to break through the ice shards in her chest. “Yes, let’s do that.”


  They jogged together through the atrium to the transport device where Gwen’s team stood by. “All right, ladies. We’re going ahead, and Aakil will send the men after. Remember, quick kill shots; we aren’t here for sport. Take your shot, bind the legs and drag the carcass immediately back here. Be on high alert for any strange sounds.”

  From her peripheral vision, Gwen could see the bright lights spark to life behind her. She turned around, looking Aakil in the eyes. He looked as nervous as she felt. In this space, only the pair of them really knew what was at stake.

  “We go through, bows drawn. Fire at the first target you see. Let’s go!” Gwen yelled, then laced an arrow in her bow.

  She looked back at Aakil, who gave her a curt nod. With a deep breath, she ran through to the other side.

  The bright lights were blinding. If the weightless feeling wasn’t enough to disorient her, her feet’s sudden contact with the ground met her with a wave of dizziness. Despite the disorienting sensations, she kept pumping her legs.

  The immediate area surrounding her was devastatingly void of any wildlife. She had hoped wild game would explore freely in their absence. Disappointing, but she knew the first location they would try for their hunt.

  Once she had put some distance between her and the device, she slowed to a lighter pace. Moving quickly was an asset, but she didn’t want her heavy footfall to scare off their next meal.

  Her pace shortened, and she looked over her shoulder to catch sight of her team. They were all in perfect formation behind her, and she even caught a glance of a man coming through the transport device further behind. She quietly signaled to Laura and her other two hunters before leading them up the hill. They slowed their pace, hunching their shoulders closer to the ground. As they passed over the hill’s peak, she had a clear shot of the field. Empty.

  “Dammit!” She hunched over, struggling to catch her breath.

  “Gwen,” Laura said. “Don’t worry. We just got here. We’ll get something. I’ll go set the traps.”

  Gwen righted her posture. “No traps. No time. Large game only.”

  “What? But what if we don’t see any today?”

  “Yeah,” another woman with ginger hair chimed in. “We’ve always caught something when we set the traps before bed. So, let’s just go set them, and then we can take it easy and look for a buck near the stream.”

  “We aren’t spending the night,” Gwen answered through gritted teeth. She glanced at Laura who looked away, pinching her lips together.

  The other woman narrowed her eyes. “Are you really that freaked out they’ll come for us? Way out here!”

  Gwen gave Laura a knowing look, since she had also seen the colony destroyed.

  “I’m with Gwen on this one.” Laura said. “I’ve seen what they do to innocent people. I don’t want to stay here longer than we have to.”

  “Well, where the hell did all the bucks go?” The ginger woman threw out her hands dramatically. “They’re usually a nuisance.”

  It suddenly struck Gwen what was wrong. “The transport device spooked them. A strange sound. Sudden bright beam of light. I think we best head to the stream and hunker down with good cover in the bushes.”

  They all turned to head down the hill toward the stream. As the transport device came back into view, Gwen looked around, trying to see where those men from Hope had gone off to. She had expected they would either follow her team or stay by the transport device.

  Finally, she spotted that they had headed in the opposite direction. She couldn’t decide if that tactic was smart or dumb, yet it irritated her all the same. Spreading out could increase their chances, but if they had to suddenly evacuate, they were less likely to make it through with their kills.

  They’ve never been here before. Why would they think they know better?

  There was something about Samuel; she already didn’t like him. He seemed to feel that the authority he had over his army extended inside the dome, and possibly even over her and her team.

  She stayed on course. If those men found something on their own, great. And if she got something, her team could handle dragging it back to the transport device without their help.

  Together, her team worked their way down to the stream near the smokehouse. They all stepped lightly, hoping to avoid scaring off any possible wildlife with heavy footfalls. Before long, they arrived and wordlessly spread out to cover more ground.

  Gwen picked a tree and leaned her back against it. It would help provide a small amount of camouflage while she waited for the gurgling stream to lure some decent game their way.

  In any good hunt, Gwen felt her ears were as important as her eyes. But today, she didn’t listen for snapping twigs or clomping hooves, but something artificial. A loud buzz. A whistle. Anything. But the thunderous volume of her pounding heart drown out any gentle nature sounds.

  She shot a quick glance around, searching for her peers. They had all disappeared behind some form of vegetation, concealing their presents from her darting gaze. This was taking forever. To distract her frantic mind, she ran over hunting experiences of the past, trying to remember other occurrences of the game being sparse.

  She closed her eyes, working to pull her strength into her core.

  We have plenty of time. The State is going to focus on the dome, not the location they spotted one person.

  She opened her eyes again and peeked around the tree in the opposite direction. Her breath hitched as she saw a deer cautiously approach the burbling stream.

  Gwen shifted her body slowly, drew her bow, and took aim. She held the arrow taught, taking the time to ensure her breath was steady. Her aim precise.

  Bang.

  The buck took off before Gwen’s mind could process the noise. Her eyes immediately widened, her chest constricted, and she screamed, “Run!”

  Her vision blurred out of focus and her feet scurried along the muddy trail. Her mind was void of thought, only conscious of the rhythmic thundering in her chest. She ran and ran, until she found herself in the clearing, looking at the bright lights of the transport device.

  As her team caught up to her, Gwen scanned the scenery for a likely source of the stark, unnatural sound. She could see movement in the distance. As her vision focused, she knew it was the other hunting party. Gwen ran toward them. She didn’t have to travel far before discovering the noise’s source: guns.

  She wanted to yell, scream, grab them by their collars and smash their heads against a tree.

  How can they be so stupid!

  It was difficult to resist the urge to yell at them, but it would only further the damage they had done—if it wasn’t already too late. Her original hopes of shooting an animal close to the transport device were gone. Now, they’d have to walk for miles, making their return trip harder, take longer, lowering their chances of acquiring multiple bucks.

  One of the men saw them approaching. He lifted his rifle over his head, waving it around while he hollered and swayed his hips in celebration.

  Several images flickered through Gwen’s mind, all involving murder. “What the hell are you guys doing?”

  The other men turned to face her. One of them threw their hands in the air. “We got one!”

  She gasped in a breath before responding. “Get that animal through the transport device. Immediately. And leave your guns inside the dome!”

  “What?” Samuel grimaced. “We got this buck with one clean shot. Why would we leave these beauties behind?” He lifted his firearm to his lips and kissed it.

  Gwen’s jaw clamped shut, and her nostrils flared.

  Laura stepped forward. “Yeah, and we were seconds from getting a good shot in ourselves, till you scared it off, and probably every animal within a 5-mile radius. So, get it back to the dome and stop all your hollering while you’re at it. We need more meat.”

  They didn’t look impressed at Laura’s scolding, but silently walked off toward their kill. They tied the legs and together hoisted it between them.


  “Damn,” Gwen muttered. “Just a foul.”

  Laura put a hand on her arm. “It’s more than what we had. Let’s just make sure they get it back through, then let’s try again, without their help.”

  They followed behind the men as they brought their kill through the transport device. Once the men were gone, Gwen turned to her girls. “Okay, let’s break into two teams. Laura and I will go West by the trees, and you two try back at the stream. We’ll go now, you two wait for the men, make sure they left their guns behind, and make them stay by the transport device. Their job is the help drag our kills back to the dome. And remind them to keep it down.”