The ARC 03: Fractured

by Alexandra Moody

  ‘Okay,’ she says. ‘If they figure it out, you’ll be first in line, but please don’t put all your hopes into this. The cure is supposed to stop mutations, not get rid of them.’

  ‘Even if it would only stop me from absorbing new talents, I want it.’

  She sighs and gives me a nod. We move to catch up with the others. Sebastian gives me a questioning look, but I merely shake my head. I don’t want to talk about this with him right now.

  ‘How did you stay hidden from the recruiters?’ I ask Jess, in an attempt to draw the attention away from me.

  She glances up at Henry, who has one arm wrapped around her and the other around Lara, and gives him a small smile. ‘Henry was the lead scientist in the ARC and knew about the surface and talents. When he discovered my mutation and realised I was no longer aging, we decided the best course of action would be to bring me to the surface off the records. We couldn’t keep what was happening to me hidden in the ARC.’

  ‘And no one suspected?’

  She shakes her head.

  ‘And you’ll never get old?’ Sebastian asks.

  ‘From what we can tell,’ Henry replies.

  April purses her lips as she watches Jess. ‘I haven’t heard of anyone with anything like it.’

  Jess shrugs. ‘We know so little about these talents, who knows what we’ll see in the future.’

  The thought of what talents are yet to come causes a shiver to run down my spine. I hate to think how they’ll end up if Joseph continues his experiments in the hospital.

  When we reach the fence that borders the air base and start to move across the open plain towards the second hangar, I can hear a soft whimpering noise almost whispered on the wind.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ I ask Sebastian, who shakes his head. The sound was haunting and disturbing enough to make the hairs on my arms stand on end.

  ‘Something’s wrong,’ I whisper to him.

  ‘What?’ he asks.

  ‘I don’t know yet.’

  As we get closer to camp the noise becomes louder and I notice movement up ahead, near to the second hangar we walk through to get to camp. I squint my eyes, concentrating determinedly on my sight, which zooms in on the building.

  ‘Kelsey!’ I gasp, as I catch sight of her standing by the door. I start to run, but Sebastian catches me by the elbow and we blink out of existence, appearing next to her in a second.

  I crouch down beside her and take her small hands in mine. ‘Kels what’s wrong? Why are you out here? Why aren’t you back at camp?’

  Her lower lip quivers and tears run down her face.

  ‘Kelsey?’

  ‘There was a bad man,’ she whispers, so softly you’d need talented hearing to catch it.

  ‘What bad man?’

  She shakes her head, refusing to meet my eyes.

  ‘It’s okay, you can tell me.’

  ‘Shit … Elle!’ Sebastian shouts.

  I pick Kelsey up in my arms and run over to Sebastian who stands at the large open mouth of the hangar. I’m almost to him, when I catch the undeniable scent of smoke in the air. I sprint the last few steps.

  ‘No!’ I scream, as the trees come into view. The forest near the clinic is ablaze, with flames leaping from tree to tree. It appears small now, but looks to be catching quickly. The others catch up to us and gasp as they set their eyes on the fire before us.

  ‘What do we do?’

  ‘C’mon,’ Sebastian says. ‘We need to get closer, make sure everyone’s okay.’

  I leave Kelsey with Lara and her family and we start running in the direction of the fire, which only flares up higher, the closer we get. When we reach the trees we move through them carefully to the camp, avoiding patches that have already caught alight. Soren and April head for the control tent, while Sebastian and I race for the clinic. We are almost there when I catch sight of a column of flames up ahead.

  ‘The clinic is on fire!’ I yell to Sebastian, as I instinctively run faster, desperate to get to the place that holds my friends.

  What if they were caught inside? My stomach turns and my talent pulses under my skin as I think the unthinkable. Without April with us to control me I take deep breaths in through my nose and concentrate on the smell of smoke to calm me. I can’t afford to mess up here.

  As we reach the clinic a wave of relief rushes over me when I see a group of people standing out front of it, keeping back from the blaze. We rush over to them.

  ‘Did everyone get out okay?’ I ask the first doctor we meet.

  He nods. ‘Yes, we all got out of the clinic fine. It was the last place to catch fire. Some of the others in camp weren’t so lucky.’

  I nod grimly, not daring to think of the people who didn’t make it out. Not now. We move past the man and start searching for our friends.

  So many people have ashen faces and cough as they try to clear their lungs from the smoke. I catch sight of Aiden and Jane at the edge of the group. Aiden has her lying on a soft patch of grass and is holding her hand.

  ‘You’re both okay!’ I exclaim, rushing over to him.

  He smiles sadly. ‘Yes, we’re okay.’

  ‘Where’s Will?’ I ask, looking around and expecting to find him nearby.

  His face falls and a small frown comes on his forehead. ‘I’m … I’m not too sure. I thought one of the other doctors got him out.’

  I turn away from Aiden. ‘Will?’ I yell out.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Sebastian asks, rushing over.

  Panic surges through me. ‘Will’s not here.’

  ‘I’m sure he’s fine,’ Sebastian says. He seems confused but, catching the look in my eyes, he nods with understanding. He may be fine, but until I find him, I won’t be.

  ‘Will?’ I yell, louder than before. I rush from person to person asking them if they’ve seen him, but no one has, not since before the fire.

  I stop in front of the clinic. What if he’s still inside? What if somebody missed him?

  ‘Elle, you can’t go in there!’ Sebastian pleads.

  ‘What if he’s in there? What if he’s stuck inside?’

  ‘I’m sure he’s out here.’

  ‘No, you’re not! No one’s seen him since before this started.’

  ‘You can’t go in there, it’s too dangerous,’ he insists.

  I almost agree with him. I almost listen to him, but then I hear a faint cry. One lone and desperate sob from inside the building. It’s so quiet that if you were breathing too loudly you could miss it, but I feel certain of what I’ve heard.

  ‘Elle!’ Sebastian screams as I run towards the burning building. ‘Don’t!’

  His voice tugs at me, begs me not to run inside, but I can’t stop myself. I run to the clinic, ignoring the flames that flare overhead. They spit and hiss as they consume the walls and engulf the roof of the building. Will’s inside, I know it.

  I push through the front door and my eyes immediately begin to water as I enter and the thick black smoke engulfs me. I pull my top up to cover my mouth and nose, but it barely does anything to help me breathe.

  A hand grabs mine causing me to jump.

  ‘Sebastian? What are you doing in here?’ I say, coughing as I inhale a breath of smoke.

  ‘C’mon, we’ll find him quicker together.’

  I nod and together we move forward. Flames cover the walls inside and the heat is as suffocating as the smoke that engulfs us. My lungs burn and my forehead sweats as we continue further inside. Several loose poles have fallen from the ceiling and lay at odd angles across the floor. Sebastian teleports us past one that is blocking the way and I rush over to Will’s bed, but it’s empty.

  ‘Where else would he be?’ Sebastian asks.

  ‘I don’t know, I … the back office. There’s a rat back there he’s obsessed with. He must’ve gone back for it.’

  ‘Right.’ Sebastian grabs my hand and I feel the welcome, biting cold for an all too brief second as he teleports us to the back room.

&nbs
p; ‘Will?’ I yell into the room. It’s so thick with smoke, I can barely breathe and I can’t see anything in here.

  I take a step forward and knock something with my foot. I bend down and see a small cage. I fall to my hands and knees feeling around for Will. He’s got to be here, he’s … a hand. I feel a hand. It’s Will, it has to be.

  ‘I’ve got him!’ I cry out to Sebastian, causing me to cough again. I try to shake Will awake, but he’s out completely. Sebastian crouches next to me and takes Will’s hand.

  ‘I’ll be right back for you,’ he says, before disappearing with Will.

  I grasp onto the cage and try to stand, but I feel weak and sleepy. I close my eyes and try to concentrate on Sebastian. He will be back for me at any second. I just need to hold out until then.

  They’ll be on the grass outside by now. They’ll be able to see the starry night overhead and the blazing inferno that I’m in. The image seems so real; I feel like I could almost reach my hand out and touch it.

  I feel a tugging sensation in my belly button and my skin feels tingly all over. I’m hit by a sudden, brief sensation of freezing cold and when I open my eyes I’m outside, standing beside Sebastian with the rat cage in my hands.

  ‘You came back for me,’ I say, smiling deliriously before staggering forward unsteadily on my feet.

  Sebastian wraps his hand around my arm to support me and rubs my back softly. ‘Actually, you decided not to wait.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ I say, turning to look at him. His face is out of focus and my vision is blurry. ‘Is Will okay?’ I ask, shaking my head in an attempt to clear my vision.

  ‘He’ll be just fine thanks to you.’ Sebastian’s voice sounds distant as he answers, as my attention is caught by something on the side of the clinic building.

  ‘Do you see that?’ I say, staggering as I try to maintain my feet. I collapse down onto the ground as darkness encircles me, dragging my consciousness towards sleep. But before I pass out I see it clearly; words on the side of the building that have been shaped by the very flames that destroy it.

  ‘You froze my house, I’ll burn yours.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  ‘Elle? Can you hear me?’

  I groan and try to open my eyes, but I still feel trapped in sleep. My body is so tired it almost tingles with exhaustion.

  ‘Elle?’

  ‘She’ll probably be groggy for a while,’ another voice says.

  My senses slowly awaken. My throat burns and I’m overcome by the hubbub of voices surrounding me. It’s hard to ignore the cacophony of sounds that fight for attention in my mind.

  ‘Where am I?’ I croak, slowly blinking my eyes open and attempting to sit up.

  ‘You’re in one of the hangars,’ Sebastian says, squeezing my hand. My ears draw in on the sound of his voice, lessening the overly loud ambient noises that try to overwhelm me.

  ‘How do you feel?’ he asks, holding a glass of water out to me. Seeing the liquid inside makes me realise how desperately thirsty I am.

  ‘Water…’ I rasp. Sebastian lifts the glass to my lips and I greedily drink the cool water inside. It only helps calm the pain in my throat for a moment, but it’s better than nothing. When I’ve drained the glass I look up at him. ‘I feel like someone’s hit me with a car and pushed a hot poker down my throat, but I’ll live.’

  I look around the room at all the people camped out inside. Most are talking quietly amongst themselves and some are sleeping on the ground using spare clothes as pillows. There’s a strong undercurrent of loss in the room and I can almost feel it rubbing against my skin.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Don’t you remember? There was a fire.’ Aiden’s voice is soothing, but I can see there’s worry in his eyes at my forgetfulness.

  ‘The fire, of course.’ I rub my eyes as images of the fire flash through my thoughts. ‘Do we know how it started? Is everyone okay?’

  Sebastian glances uneasily at Aiden. ‘It was Joseph, that’s all we know for the moment. He took M before it all started.’

  ‘He took M?’ They both nod. ‘But how did he find us? I thought we were safe here.’ I look between the two of them, but they seem uncertain.

  Sebastian blows out a long sigh and rubs his forehead. ‘April thinks they got the information from someone who was working on the inside. Either a mole here, or they could have found and interrogated one of our people who have been placed undercover in the government. She’s called everyone back in and if anyone’s missing…’

  ‘They’ll go straight to the top of the suspect list,’ I finish for him.

  ‘Exactly,’ Sebastian replies.

  ‘Do you have any idea where they took M?’

  ‘No, but we’ll find out and get him back.’

  I take another sip of water to cool my throat and look around the room for my friends. Lara is sitting in the corner with Kelsey, while her parents walk around helping people who were injured in the fire. April’s talking heatedly with Soren by the entrance of the hangar, but there’s one face I can’t spot anywhere.

  ‘Where’s Will?’ I ask.

  Sebastian hesitates and looks to Aiden for a response.

  ‘He still hasn’t woken up,’ Aiden says.

  ‘He’s going to be okay, right?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he replies. ‘He inhaled a lot of smoke before you got him out and we haven’t got the equipment we need to help him. It all went in the fire. It’s going to be a matter of waiting.’

  ‘Surely there’s something…’ My voice trails off as Aiden shakes his head sadly. ‘Can I see him?’

  ‘You need more rest.’

  ‘I’ll be fine. Where is he?’ I persist.

  ‘I’ll take you there now.’

  Sebastian helps stand me up and I use him for support as I follow Aiden. We walk to the back of the room, where Will is lying on a stretcher that has been placed on the ground. He is so still as he lies there, his chest barely rising to breathe. His face and clothes are smudged with ash, and he looks vulnerable and alone.

  I sit down next to him and take his hand in mine. I’ve seen him sleeping so many times before and he looks no different now. He seems like he could wake up at any moment.

  ‘I’m monitoring him closely and I’ll need to do another examination of you in a while. I’ll be back to check on you both in a bit,’ Aiden says, turning to leave. Sebastian squeezes my shoulder and follows him, leaving us alone.

  I want to say something comforting to Will, I want to tell him everything is going to be alright, but the words fail to come to me. So, instead, I sit there simply being with him, holding his hand tightly in mine, waiting for him to wake up.

  Someone shakes my shoulder and I jerk upwards from where my head was resting on Will’s lap. I hadn’t realised I’d fallen asleep. Will’s hand is still firmly in mine, but it feels colder now, harder.

  ‘Will?’ I ask, but he is still firmly asleep.

  ‘Elle?’ I look over my shoulder in response to find Aiden there.

  ‘Sorry, I know I shouldn’t have fallen asleep,’ I say, ‘but I was so tired. Have you given Will his check up yet? How is he?’

  Aiden kneels down next to me and takes a hold of my shoulder. ‘Elle, he’s gone.’

  ‘What do you mean he’s gone?’ The words don’t make sense. He’s right here. I’m holding his hand. He hasn’t gone anywhere. My blood runs cold as the words start to make sense. ‘No…’

  I turn back to face Will and take a hold of his arm, shaking it gently. ‘Will? You have to wake up now.’ His body holds stiff though. ‘C’mon, you have to wake up!’ I urge him more forcefully.

  ‘Elle, he’s not going to wake up,’ Aiden says. He’s trying to talk sense into me, I know he is, but I don’t want to hear it.

  ‘No!’ I yell at him. ‘C’mon Will, please wake up, please.’ My body starts to shake and tears slowly trickle down my cheeks. A breeze seems to pick up inside the room, buffeting my clothes against my b
ody and whipping my hair around my face. It whisks around the two of us, like a slowly building storm that gathers momentum with us in the eye of it.

  ‘Can someone get April in here?’ I hear Aiden yell, but the sound is muted and my ears are filled with a blocked ringing noise as adrenaline and pain surges through my body. Strong gusts push and pull at me, whipping violently across my skin, but I barely notice them. My attention is focused solely on the small boy lying so still before me.

  I don’t understand how he can be gone. He looks completely fine. There doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with him, he just looks like he’s sleeping. I look down at his cold hand in mine. It’s no longer simply cold, but frozen in my grasp.

  I gasp and yank my hand from his. ‘No … no, no, no. What have I done?’

  ‘Elle, it’s okay,’ someone says.

  I shake my head and wipe the tears under my eyes. ‘I’m so sorry Will.’

  ‘It’s not working, I can’t control her,’ April says, from behind me.

  I whip my head around to look at her, but the total fear I see in her eyes shocks me, and awakens me from the sea of emotions I am drowning in. The wind stops and the world becomes silent in its wake.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she asks me, her voice unusually timid.

  I nod and wipe my cheeks with the back of my hands. My shoulders slouch and I wrap my arms around my body as I glance back at Will. ‘He’s gone.’

  April nods and her eyes drop to the floor. ‘He’s gone.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  We hold a small funeral for Will the following afternoon. No one in the camp knew him, besides our small group. They never got the chance to. The sun shines brightly overhead as we lower his body into the ground.

  ‘He would love the spot you picked,’ April says to me, as we stand and watch the boys who are just about finished shovelling dirt onto his grave. The trees in this area of forest have lush, green leaves and bright blue wild flowers bloom all over the grass that grows in the small meadow.

  ‘I found it when I went for a walk a few days ago,’ I say, smiling sadly. ‘Once he was better, I planned to bring him here as a surprise.’