My heart feels like it stops beating and plummets down into the depths of my stomach. ‘What do you mean?’
He looks away from me. ‘I lied before because I didn’t want to upset you. The first thing I did when I got up here was to try and find Mum and April. I can’t even begin to tell you what I went through to get an answer. I couldn’t find anything on April. It’s almost like she came up here and disappeared. The last thing they had on file was her running away from the dormitories.’
He looks down and I open my mouth to tell him about her, but he continues before I have a chance. ‘I was still trying to get information on my mum, which was so incredibly frustrating. I was getting nowhere, no matter who I asked. Then finally I found someone who could help me.’ He looks at me, pain so transparent in his eyes.
‘Elle, my mum was one of the first to be taken. Her blood result had been incorrect and she wasn’t tainted.’
‘What happened to her?’ He looks away, unable to answer. ‘Sebastian. What happened?’
When he turns to me his face is filled with such loss and despair. The way he looks at me, I know she didn’t survive and there’s no hope for me.
‘She’s dead,’ he barely whispers. I step back from him and grasp my shaking hands to my mouth. ‘But we’ll find a way to stop it from happening to you. We’ll find a cure and you will be fine. We just need to get you somewhere safe.’
‘She can’t be … I can’t be…’ My voice trails off. How can Isabel be dead? I can’t describe the emptiness I feel inside of me. I sink down to the floor and I curl my legs into my chest as angry tears fall down my cheeks. I give in to the torrent of emotions that rage beneath the surface, and allow them to overwhelm me.
I am vaguely aware when Sebastian sits next to me and pulls me into his strong arms, his voice making soft reassuring noises. Why didn’t they tell us? Why did they have to be so secretive? If I’d known the truth I never would’ve escaped and come up here.
‘Elle?’ Sebastian says.
I slowly open my eyes. I feel drained and empty, like the person I am is no longer here. My bones ache in pain and my body feels limp and lifeless.
‘I know you’ve got a lot to take in right now, but we need to get you out of here.’ He turns my face to look at him and keeps a hold of it with his warm hands. Tenderly, he wipes away the tears that stain my cheeks. ‘The time you spend in North Hope will only make you sick quicker. And we can’t let the recruiters catch you. We need to get you back to East Hope, before they realise that you’re here.’
‘What do we do?’ I ask.
His face looks just as lost as mine. ‘First, we have to get you back over the bridge. Untalents aren’t allowed over here and if they got there hands on you … well, let’s just hope they don’t. When we get to East Hope we’ll come up with a plan. I know someone who might be able to help.’
I nod and allow Sebastian to help me to my feet.
A siren sounds overhead, the squeal it makes is so high pitched and loud I have to throw my hands over my ears. ‘What’s the alarm for?’ I yell to Sebastian.
‘We have to go, now.’
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sebastian grabs my hand and pulls me out into the hallway as the siren continues to blare throughout the building. He doesn’t pause as we rush past the other kids, who all have their hands covering their ears to protect them from the piercing noise. One guy calls out to us, asking what the problem is, but Sebastian ignores him completely.
The cold night air hits me like an icy whip across the face as we push through the door that leads outside. I slip my hand out of Sebastian’s and run over to the trees where I’d left Hunter earlier. He’s nowhere to be seen though and there’s absolutely no sign of where he’s gone.
‘Hunter’s not here!’
‘Who?’
I turn back to look at Sebastian. ‘Hunter! He helped me get over the bridge to find you and wouldn’t just leave without me. Where is he?’
Sebastian grabs my hand again and pulls me towards the quad. ‘We can’t waste any time looking for him. Elle, we have to go!’
‘But it’s my fault we’re here.’ I can feel my blood pumping quicker as panic sets in. ‘He’s talented and I can’t let him get caught. We can’t just leave him behind.’
Sebastian pauses for a moment and looks at me directly. ‘If your friend is talented, he’ll be okay. But you won’t be if you’re found, especially since you’re not even tainted. Please Elle, trust me, we have to get you out of here.’
I swallow uncomfortably and nod my head. I can’t believe I’m abandoning another friend, and I feel guilty as hell, but I don’t know what will happen if the recruiters catch me. I have to make it to the east with Sebastian.
As we emerge from the dark shadows that line Sebastian’s building, I feel increasingly unnerved. The quad is bathed in intense white light and completely empty. There’s not a soul in sight.
‘Where is everyone?’ I wonder.
‘In their dorms for mandatory check in.’
Sebastian looks over his shoulder before leading me out into the open space. It’s incredibly difficult to remain calm when we’re so exposed. I desperately want to get back to the cover of darkness.
We’re halfway across when the siren signalling all over the compound stops, leaving the place in deafening silence. My ears ring and all I can hear are our uneven breaths and steady footsteps slapping against the concrete ground.
‘Is it over?’ I ask.
Sebastian shakes his head. ‘Doubtful. If they know you’re here, they won’t stop until they find you. You’re not allowed to be here and they don’t take untalents coming to the north lightly.’
My grip tightens on Sebastian’s hand and I desperately hope Hunter hasn’t been found. If he hasn’t been found it means he left me behind, but I struggle to believe he would do that, which only makes me worry more.
We slip into the darkness down the side of the main house and I’m more at ease once we’re out of the bright lights. The danger is far from over though and every small sound I hear has me nearly jumping out of my skin.
‘How will we get across the bridge?’ I ask Sebastian. ‘What will we do when we’re on the other side?’
‘I’ll explain once we’re closer,’ he responds. ‘We have to focus on getting out of the compound first, before they realise I’m gone. They would’ve shut the main gates by now and the recruiters will be checking the grounds.’
Instead of heading for the main drive, Sebastian veers off the pathway and into the bushes that grow wildly around the edge of the property. We climb and clamber our way through the overgrowth that often scratches my arms and legs, and snags on my clothes.
As I follow Sebastian I try to come to terms with everything I’ve learned tonight. I have to believe we can get to the other side of the river and there’s a way to make me better.
I get a growing feeling Hunter has been found and he’s the reason the alarm was raised. I know he’s talented and capable of looking after himself, but I still worry about him and feel so guilty for leaving him behind. Sebastian didn’t even give me a chance to try and find him.
When we reach the fence Sebastian holds his arm out, stopping me from getting any closer to it. ‘The fence is electric, we can’t touch it.’
I take a closer look at the network of wires. ‘Is it to keep people in or out?’ I wonder.
Sebastian doesn’t hear me. He paces along the fence line, a look of focus and determination on his face.
‘How do we get to the other side?’ I ask.
He seems nervous as he stops pacing and turns to face me. ‘Do you trust me?’
‘Of course.’
He smiles and offers his hands out to me. I place mine in his, feeling the warmth of his skin as he closes his fingers around mine.
‘Now, I need you to close your eyes and keep them shut until I tell you to open them.’
I frown, but do as he says. I want to peek, to see what he’s doin
g and how he somehow believes he can get us to the other side of the fence, but I’m not stupid enough to do so when explicitly told not to. I wait in anticipation for something to happen, but nothing does, until I feel a slight rush of cold air. The moment happens so quickly though, I can’t be certain anything has happened at all.
‘You can open your eyes now,’ he tells me. When I open them I find we’re on the other side of the fence.
‘But how?’
Sebastian smiles at my astonishment. ‘I told you I’m talented…’ He begins to sway on his feet.
I grab his other arm to steady him. ‘Are you okay?’
The smile drops from his face as he touches a finger to his nose to find it bleeding. ‘I’ll be fine in a bit. We should keep moving though.’
I keep a hold of his arm to help him keep upright as we move towards the river. It scares me how pale his skin has gone and how much he struggles to walk. His shoulders are slouched over and his skin has become ice cold.
We’re nearly back at the river when Sebastian stops. He walks purposefully to the edge of the last building, where he is shielded from the view of the bridge. As he peers around the corner, he swears under his breath.
I move up next to him and take a look myself, but I can’t see anything other than a large open square that looks onto the darkened river.
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask Sebastian, stepping back beside him.
‘There’s a whole unit of recruiters on the bridge waiting for us.’
‘Really? I can’t see the bridge because it’s shielded from untalents,’ I explain. ‘What should we do?’
Sebastian swears again and takes another look at the bridge. ‘We’ll have to get as close to the river as possible, then I’ll take us across.’
‘You struggled just moving me past the fence before. How will you take me across a river that wide?’
‘It will be fine,’ he says.
‘Surely we could go to a different spot by the river to try?’
Sebastian shakes his head. ‘If we don’t make it across we need the bridge to land on, otherwise we’ll both drown in the river.’
‘This is crazy,’ I say. ‘Can’t we wait here until they’re gone?’
‘No, we can’t. You can’t stay here any longer and I won’t have you end up like my mum. This place is not safe for you.’
‘Is East Hope any safer? They think I’m a level one and plan to move me to the west. The only reason they haven’t found me already is because the GPS on my cuff has been deactivated, and that will only last until tomorrow.’
‘You won’t get the help you need in the west. The east is our only option. We’ll deal with your cuff once we’re there.’
I nod and face the square. ‘How do we do this?’
‘We’re going to have to run as close to the bridge as we can get. Then when I yell, “Now,” you need to stop as still as you can and close your eyes so I can transport us to the other side.’
‘And you think this will work?’
Sebastian huffs out a long breath before he responds, it billows out like a small pocket of steam in the frosty air around us. ‘It’s our only chance, so it has to.’
I take a hold of his hand and squeeze it. ‘If anything happens…’
‘I won’t let it,’ he replies, squeezing my hand back. He glances around the corner to look at the bridge one last time. ‘Are you ready?’
‘Yes,’ I respond, my voice quieter and less certain than I’d intended.
‘Okay, run!’
He launches himself around the corner pulling me with him. The river flows steadily before us and I push myself to run faster, to try and keep up with him as we sprint towards the bridge that only Sebastian can see.
Our feet slap loudly against the concrete ground and the muscles in my legs burn, as I will them to move as fast as they can through the cold night air. My lungs sting, allowing only shallow, frosty gasps down my narrowing throat.
There’s shouting up ahead coming from the invisible bridge, and one by one, recruiters emerge by the shore, as though popping into existence from thin air. They are already running as they appear and their feet thunder across the pavement as the group of them descend on us.
‘Now!’ Sebastian yells. He stops running and I jarringly halt next to him. I try to become as still as possible as I shut my eyes and wait for the biting cold that tells me we’re gone. But the cold doesn’t come, and the pounding footsteps sound closer and closer.
After several moments, I open my eyes and turn to Sebastian to see what’s going on, but as I do he disappears. His hand vanishes from mine and I am left completely alone.
Before I can consider running from the recruiters, or even lifting my hands in surrender, I feel a sharp pain in my arm. I look down and see a dart sticking out of my skin. I wrench the thing out quickly, but already I can feel its effects as my world becomes distorted.
A man approaches me and I throw my arms out, attempting to shove him away, but several others grab hold of me roughly. I kick and scream, and try to get them off of me, but they’re all so strong and my vision is becoming more and more blurred.
A set of hands grab my wrists like manacles and I glare up at a burly woman who stands before me. I desperately try to escape from her grasp, but her hands feel as firm as iron. Her face lurches in and out of focus as I struggle.
‘You can’t do this,’ I slur, my tongue feeling heavy in my mouth. ‘Where are you taking me?’
I fail to catch her answer though, as the edges of my vision begin to blacken and my world plunges into darkness.
END OF BOOK TWO
Elle has discovered a horrifying truth about why she never should have left the ARC. What will happen when the recruiters uncover this too?
See what happens in the next instalment of The ARC:
Fractured
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Thank you for reading Talented! If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on the site where you purchased this book. As an indie author, it really helps me and I love to receive feedback from my readers.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to you, the reader. You are the reason I write and I am so pleased you enjoyed Tainted and decided to continue with Elle’s story in Talented. I hope you have enjoyed reading both books as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Thank you to everyone who has posted reviews and used social media to help promote the series. I appreciate each and every review and post, and my success is in large part a result of your endorsement.
I wish to thank my friends who have read and loved The ARC series. Your enthusiasm is contagious and you are the best advocates for my work.
This book would not have been possible without the encouragement of my family. I am so lucky to have the support of such amazing individuals.
Finally, to Pete, your contribution has been immeasurable. You inspire me to be a better writer each and every day—not to mention, when my writing sucks you fix it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALEXANDRA MOODY is an Australian author who currently resides in London. She studied Law and Commerce in her hometown, Adelaide, before going on to spend several years living abroad in Canada and the UK. She is a serious dog-lover, double-black-diamond snowboarder and has a love/hate relationship with the gym. She can often be found on Twitter and Facebook, or you can visit her website at alexandramoody.com for further details on upcoming projects.
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The ARC 02: Talented Page 19
