EVO Shift: EVO Nation Series: Book Two

by Chapman, K. J

  It’s deserted. There are numerous green hangars, but the doors are wide open. The fencing around the camp is damaged in places, and bits of debris scatter the compacted mud. The deathly silence tells me that there isn’t a single soul remaining. Telepathy is not needed.

  “Where are they?” I scream.

  Leoni climbs the embankment, and stands gasping beside me. Cooper surveys the scene below in confusion.

  “Where are they?” I cry again.

  “They’ve moved locations. How can they move four hundred EVO in less than twenty-four hours?” asks Kesh, talking more to himself than us.

  Running down the incline, I head straight for the gaping hole in the fence and clamber through like a crazed person. My chest throbs uncontrollably, so much that I can barely catch my breath, but I need to do this.

  “Check every building,” I shout.

  “What are you expecting to find?” Leoni calls back. “Teddie, they’re not here. You said so yourself.”

  “They have to have left something- anything.”

  The first hangar is littered with dirty blankets, and I gag on the smell of rotten eggs. Leoni and Kesh follow me in, both covering their noses.

  “Lizzie said something about sedative gas,” Kesh muses. “I reckon they knocked them out, and then transported them somewhere. Something or someone must have spooked them.” He kicks at a blanket, and bends to retrieve a small action man toy. “Those bastards. They held the kids in here.”

  I look around at the squalor. The rotten egg smell is underlined with the smell of urine; wet patches have accumulated along the walls. There are no windows and the only light comes through the open hangar door. Did they have light when the door was closed? A shiver runs the length of my spine. If they were keeping kids like this, how were they treating the adults?

  I leave the hangar and head into another. More of the same scattered blankets, rotten egg smell, and large patches of blood that appear to have been scrubbed clean.

  “They must have left some clues,” I say to Kesh. He rummages through a black rubbish bag. “Look for paperwork.”

  Kesh snorts to himself. “I can tell you right now that we won’t find a shred of evidence here.” He holds open the bag to show me its contents of tatty clothes and shoes. “We shouldn’t be here. What if they’re watching us right now? What if they know about Lizzie’s involvement with us? We need to warn Syndicate.”

  “We’d have had a bullet put in us before we even made it up the lane,” Leoni says from the hangar doorway. “Come off it, Kesh. Grayson knows about this. That’s why he suddenly changed his mind about allowing Teddie to come up here.”

  “He wanted to keep me sweet, so I’d do what he wanted. Of course Lizzie would have known of this.” I say, growling with frustration.

  “But what would have spooked them in the first place?” Kesh asks.

  Cooper appears in the doorway. “I’ve found something.”

  We follow him away from the hangar and toward a gate at the far side of the camp. It’s open, but it looks like it heads to nothing save woodland.

  “Look at the tracks. This gate has been well used. Something has to be through there.” Cooper says. “Are you coming?”

  “Well, we’ve come this far on a wild goose chase,” Kesh says, sighing, and he marches through the gate. “There’s no harm in checking.”

  The ground has been cleared, and a hangar sits alone in the midst of dense trees. The tracks are furrowed deep into the mulch and earth, and lead right up to the door. Unlike the others this one is closed. The ground here isn’t as frosted as back at the camp.

  Leoni takes a second gun from her boot and hands it to Kesh. “You never know,” she says, shrugging. “You better have my back.”

  He takes it and tucks it into his waistband. “Of course.”

  “What about me?” I say.

  “High grade Telekins don’t need guns. Especially ones who can’t shoot worth a damn” she says, pushing passed me.

  “I need something!”

  Leoni sighs, reaches in her bag, and pulls out a small, sheathed blade. “Stick it in your boot and pray you don’t need it.”

  I do as I’m told. I would have much preferred a gun, but I can’t push it with her.

  “Read the area again,” she commands.

  I do much like I did before. This time bracing for the bile to rise in my throat from the rush of their thoughts. It’s amazing how many thoughts can go through a person’s head in a split second. I desperately fight to catch my breath, and push passed their thoughts.

  “Nothing,” I say, feeling physically drained. I have no idea what effect it would have on me if those hangars had been full of people. My brain would have probably exploded.

  Kesh forces the door open. It’s loud, the clash of metal on metal echoing through the trees. If there is anyone here we’ve lost the element of surprise.

  Inside the hangar there are rows and rows of hospital gurneys. I feel sick. I’ve only ever seen a scene like this once before and that was on the footage of Adam’s TORO conditioning.

  “This is a TORO maintenance hangar,” I say, my voice shaking. “What is that smell?”

  It isn’t a rotten egg smell. It’s something different; a burning, barbecue smell. Leoni heads back outside and shines her torch through the trees, illuminating smoke hanging thickly in the air.

  Cooper is the first to venture through the trees. I hang back; something niggles at me, telling me that I don’t want to head down there. He yells out, and then comes back into view with his arm across his mouth and nose. It’s rare to see Cooper affected in such a way. He leans forward with his hands on his knees, fighting the urge to vomit.

  “Stay there, Teddie,” he shouts.

  Why would he say that? Why would he single me out specifically? My feet are moving in time with my heart pounding in my chest. I push Cooper aside and the horror I’m faced with burns into my retinas. At least twenty TORO are stacked in a crooked pyramid and are burnt and smoking beyond recognition. I know they’re TORO because bits of grey fabric remain intact and military grade boots stick out from the pile.

  “Holy shit.” Kesh recoils from the sight, and pukes.

  Leoni stands motionless.

  “Check them,” I shout. “Check every last one of them.” I start moving the charred bodies, studying their faces, scared of what I might find. Sticky flesh comes away on my hands, but I continue to lug the corpses from the stack.

  Cooper pulls me away. “Get away from here and wait. I’ll check them, okay?”

  “Every last one,” I sob.

  As I turn around, Leoni and Kesh stand with their hands in the air and guns trained at their heads.

  More people appear from around the hangar, all pointing guns, and all looking intimidating. I should’ve been continuously reading the area. I should have tried harder with my telepathy, but I was scared, and now I’ve endangered Leoni, Kesh, and Cooper.

  “Drop your weapons on the floor.” A woman walks to the front of the group. Her hair is shaved short and dyed a peroxide blonde. “Now, assholes.”

  Cooper lowers his gun. “She’s unarmed,” he says, nodding toward me.

  “I reckon she’s E.N.C,” I whisper to Cooper.

  “What happened here?” Cooper asks the woman.

  “I said drop your weapons.”

  “And he said I don’t have anything to drop.” I’m not one hundred percent sure what I’m doing, but I need to do something. “So, you’re E.N.C? We’ve been waiting for you guys to show your faces.”

  She shifts uneasily. “You have, huh?” The crowd of members behind her murmur to each other, but never let their guard down.

  “My friend asked you what happened here,” I say, keeping a level voice. “Where have the Norms moved the EVO, and why the hell is there a TORO barbeque on the go?” I let anger contort my voice. The only thing these people listen to is power. I have to sound powerful. I tut, shaking my head disapprovingly. “Please tell m
e you at least know where they’ve taken them? God, this is piss take. We’re being outwitted by the Norms. This is not how he wanted it to be. He’d be ashamed at all of us. He didn’t die for the Norms to win!”

  “Who didn’t?” The woman asks. I can sense the tension from the group.

  Leoni gives me a nod. She understands where I’m going with this. “My Dad. Oh yeah, sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m Theyda Woodman.”

  Every person in the group lowers their gun instantly. Leoni and Kesh are picked from the floor, and the guys marking them shake their hands in way of an apology.

  The woman shakes my hand. “I’m Bo. I met your Dad once, although, I never knew I was talking to the leader of the E.N.C. I’m sorry for your loss. He did a great service to EVO everywhere.”

  “Thank you,” I say, feeling sick to my stomach.

  She stands closer to me, so only I can hear her words. “I’m not denying any of it. We have let the Norms get the better of us, but these guys are tired, and most of them have lost good friends and family in the riots or through the detention centres and fight houses. They need to believe they’re making a difference.”

  Is this woman for real? They’re not making a difference. They’re the cause of all this shit.

  “Do you think I’m not tired? Do you think I haven’t lost people? The difference is I’m not being a whiney bitch about it.”

  Bo coughs in her throat and sucks her teeth before giving me a curt nod, and gestures for us to follow her.

  “Rein it in,” whispers Cooper. “Be a bitch, but be an E.N.C bitch.”

  “What’s the plan now?” I whisper.

  He scoffs. “I don’t know? I’m following your lead.”

  Leoni and Kesh are shoved into one van, and Bo ushers Cooper and I into a second.

  Bo takes my arm before I can climb in. “We’re all in this together, you know?”

  “I know. I’ve had a long day. I was unprofessional,” I say. Unprofessional? What the hell kind of profession is this?

  Bo seems appeased. “We got here a little late, but we did over run the last convoy. It was a solo, armoured truck with seven marines and two prisoners- a female and a male EVO. They must be important to the Norms otherwise they’d have been transported with the rest of the prisoners. We have taken them off of the Norms hands and sent them ahead to our base.”

  My heart leaps into my throat. “Was the male a black guy with green eyes?” Please say yes, please say yes.

  Bo shrugs. “He was black, but I can’t say I paid any attention to his eye colour. He is pretty banged up. Built like a brick shit house though.”

  “That’s him,” I shriek, banging on the side of the other van. “They have Adam,” I shout to Leoni. “We’ve found him.”

  Bo’s lips turn down in contemplation. “Is that why you were here?”

  “Just take me to him- right now.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  One hour turns to two, and Bo hasn’t spoken a word for the entire journey. I fidget in my seat, much to Cooper’s annoyance. We lost sight of Leoni and Kesh’s van about an hour ago. Clearly their driver isn’t such a wet blanket as ours. Jeez, just being in the presence of these people makes me mean. I’m sure it’s an illness. Or there is the alternative- this shit is rubbing off on me.

  “How much longer?” I snap. Bo starts, grinding her teeth in annoyance. “We must be somewhere in Devon by now.”

  “Somerset,” she states. “We have to keep off the main roads as much as we can. We’ll be arriving shortly.”

  A radio crackles into life. “Eyes peeled. There’s some kind of drone in the sky approximately five miles south of base. The Kesh guy tuned in and says there is a signal transmitting nearby. It has to be military or Tagger.”

  “Got ya,” says our driver into the receiver.

  Bo sits forward whispering something to him, setting my teeth on edge. As she sits back down, she grips her gun a little tighter. “That was the other van. So, your friend, Kesh, is a Technokin? We can use him for sure.”

  “I’m sure you can.” I say.

  Bo stiffens in her seat. “Do you have a problem with me?”

  Cooper elbows me. “She’s a bitch to everyone. Don’t flatter yourself.” Bo returns to staring out the window. “What’s a Tagger anyways?” Cooper asks her, changing the subject.

  She scratches the side of her head with her gun. “Taggers are what we call the ass-wipes who capture EVO on behalf of the government. They’re essentially bounty hunters. They run the fight houses. Now, I know you’ve heard of them.”

  “I’ve heard them mentioned.”

  “Where the hell have you been? Taggers run EVO fight houses. They capture and fight EVO for entertainment. Rich Norms bet a load of cash, and the Taggers make a load of money. The government turn a blind eye as long as they turn over any EVO kids. They use DNA and brain scanners to determine EVO from Norms, and then they fight the EVO with defensive, dangerous abilities. The rest get handed over to the detention centres. They get paid per head. They see us as nothing more than dogs. Are your abilities Tagger worthy?” she asks.

  “Telekin and Pyrokin,” I reply. “You?”

  “Ergokin,” she says,

  “The same as Isa- as my Dad,” I say to her, forcing a smile. Isaac’s Ergokinesis had unnatural strength. If Bo can manipulate energy to a fraction of Isaac’s power, then she’s a force to reckon with.

  “There’s the drone,” the driver calls.

  We watch a zephyr type craft no bigger than a car drift slowly through the air. Its light outer shell is hard to distinguish against the cloudy sky, but it has a black box of some sort suspended below it.

  “What do you reckon it is?” one of the E.N.C members asks Bo.

  I watch as the drone crosses over our path. Cooper leans over me to get a better view, and then there is the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life. For a moment, my ears ring with a disorienting screech, and then we’re rolling. The seatbelt cuts into my chest, and the air is knocked out of my lungs. We come to a stop upside down, and I hang painfully against the belt. Cooper twists beside me, undoing his seatbelt and falling awkwardly onto his head and shoulders. His head is bleeding, but I’m not sure from where. He grabs the knife from the hilt at Bo’s waist and slices at my belt. I fall to the roof in a tangle of limbs, not knowing which way is up, or my ass from my elbow.

  Bo groans. “Taggers.” She reaches passed the driver to the radio. “We’re tagged. Change frequencies. Do not respond.”

  A canister is launched through the window, landing in front of me. White smoke spews from it, choking us.

  “Teddie, it’s gas,” Cooper shouts, pulling his shirt over his nose.

  I can feel myself drifting. Bo struggles to kick out the door, but her movements slow and she falls limp. Cooper holds his large hand firmly over my mouth and nose until he too falls still beside me.

  I’m being pulled from the van, and although pain smarts at my stitches, I don’t have control of my body to cry out. I try to focus, but my mind is drifting.

  “Fifty says these guys are E.N.C,” says the Tagger, lugging me to another vehicle.

  ***

  The glint of light against metal bars comes in and out of focus. I’m sat upright, my head lolling on my chest. I force myself fully awake and find I’m staring into the face of a Tagger. He looks to be in his mid-thirties with short black hair and one of those neatly trimmed bum fluff goatees. The man with him is severely overweight and his blonde hair looks as greasy as hell. Large sweat patches stain his underarms and produce a horrendous stink. He looks younger; mid-twenties at a guess.

  Goatee throws a dressing through the bars. He nods toward an unconscious Cooper. The pair of them walks off without a single word. Cooper is slumped in an uncomfortable position on the floor with blood covering the majority of his face from the nasty gash along his hairline.

  Bo is awake- sat against the wall- staring at her wrist. “They must reckon we’d be ashamed of
this. I’m proud of who I am and what I can do.” She spits the words at nothing.

  I’m aware of a stinging pain from my own wrist. My head is still fuzzy, but I lift my wrist to my face and focus on the scarred skin. The word EVO has been branded on my wrist and looks blistered and angry. The heavy weight on my shoulders is familiar and the memory leaves an acidic taste in my mouth. I run my fingers along the collar as thoughts of Facility One swim in my mind.

  I crawl across the floor to Cooper and try to lift him into a better position. He’s like a dead weight. Bo finally gets up and gives me a hand. They both wear collars.

  “I heard them talking. They call those drones Hunters. They read kinetic energy rises within a mile radius. The government has commissioned hundreds of thousands of them. I’m guessing that when your mate Kesh tuned in to it, it alerted the Taggers that EVO were in the area. He pretty much handed us to them on a plate.”

  “He didn’t know,” I snap. “Anyway, you haven’t exactly been discreet.”

  Bo glares at me, but doesn’t respond. She sits back down against the wall and stares out of the bars.

  “How long have I been out?”

  She shrugs. “I think it’s early morning now.” She gestures toward a narrow window beside the staircase. The glass is filthy, but I can see it is dark outside.

  I call Cooper’s name and slap at his cheek. He stirs, groaning in pain and grasping at his head.

  “Well, this is just brilliant,” he seethes.

  I peel the back off the dressing and attempt to stick it over his wound, but he swats my hand away, snatching the dressing out of my fingers.

  “I’ll get it,” he snaps, eyeing his brand with a mild curiosity.

  I return to my spot on the floor. The three of us are in this together, but sat at opposite ends of the cell. It could be worse; I could be in a cell with strangers. Better the devil you know, right? Only, I hardly know either of them well.

  The sound of coughing, shuffling, and voices carry through the cells. I can’t see anyone or any other cells, but I know they’re there. More EVO trapped like us by people set on hurting us for money. There is an open space leading to the stairwell, and the only source of light comes from an exposed bulb hanging in the centre.