“I know where Gray is.”
“Where?”
“They just loaded them onto the train heading for Vesuvius.”
“Why are they keeping them there? What are they going to do with them?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. But it’s not good.”
“We have to do something.”
She smiled. “I have a plan.”
“What?”
“We need to get on the train. I’ve seen it. There are mountains of explosives on it. We need access to those. We need to blow the Greaters off the face of the planet.”
I pulled a blanket around my shoulders. “We can’t just commandeer the train and ride into Vesuvius.”
“No. We can’t. But you can get on board. We’ll figure the rest out later.”
“Me? How would I get on the train?”
“Your mother.”
I shook my head. “She wouldn’t sneak me in. As much as she might be softening, she’s loyal.”
Laney smiled. “Then we use her loyalty against her.”
∞
I lay in the bed dressed in a white nightgown that Laney brought with her. Laney had told Kyan about the plan, but he was the only other person who knew what was happening.
Laney looked at me. “You ready?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m ready. I just hope this works.”
“It will. Kaia loves you. She’ll do anything to help you.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Laney pulled back the blankets and poured the warm cow’s blood between my legs. Not too much and not too little. Just enough. The smell almost made me vomit. My thighs were slippery with crimson and it was soaking in to my nightgown.
She winked. “Good luck, Abby.”
“Thanks.”
And, with that, she ran out the door like a woman possessed. It was time to put on the show of our lives.
Kyan burst through the door with Kaia in tow. “Abby Blue?” His voice was frantic. “Abby!”
“Help, please help.” The words were weak and barely loud enough for him to hear.
“Oh, God. No. Abby?” He rushed toward me.
“Abigail! Oh, no!” My mother pushed him out of her way. She was by my side before I could blink. Hook, line, and sinker. “Where is your healer?” she screamed at Kyan.
Kyan yelled back, “Laney went for her.”
“Will she be able to help her?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I doubt it. I’ve seen this kind of thing before.”
“What happened to the woman?”
“The child inside her died and she did, too, a few days after.” Kyan blinked back tears. Damn, he was good at this.
Kaia let loose of my hand and her fingers began furiously pecking at her comm. Before Evelyn and Laney returned, I had been strapped to some sort of thick plastic board, had a needle shoved in my arm and some sort of plastic bag of water was coolly being forced into my veins. I must have looked nervous. Kaia squeezed my hand as I was hoisted up by the Vesuvian medical team.
I’d only seen them once, the day the boy fell from the tree and broke his arm. Gently, they carried me outside, over, and across the land, to the depot. I was placed on the sleek red train in no time at all.
Kaia did have the pull we were hoping she did. Within the hour, the train’s engine roared to life and we were chuffing south toward the Vesuvian city. My mother had to stay behind, per orders, and I was relieved. I didn’t want her around if things went as planned, let alone if they went wrong. They couldn’t go wrong. This was our one chance at freedom.
I feigned sleep and listened intently to the conversation around me. The four members of the medical team were men. They all agreed that they would be happy to return to their beloved city. I wondered if they would feel the same in a few days or if they would all be looking to the heavens with the eerily vacant stare that death left in its wake.
∞
When the train slowed, I grew nervous, or maybe frightened was the better word for it. Could I really pull this off on my own? The medical team appeared behind a glass door that slid open automatically when they got close enough. I looked up at them and gulped as they surrounded me. One placed the small sleeve around my upper arm and made the blasted thing squeeze the life out of me for the thousandth time.
“We’ve entered the walls of Vesuvius, Lesser.”
Here we go again. I’m not a person with a name, just a Lesser.
I nodded.
The tallest Greater, with a long nose and tiny beaded eyes looked at me and spoke. “We will transport you to a medical facility at once. You will receive better care than you have ever received in your pathetic life.”
Another snorted. “If she was not Lady Kaia’s daughter, she would not even receive this care. She would probably have hemorrhaged and died back in the Village.” He was short and stocky, balding with ruddy cheeks.
Lady Kaia? The other two barely looked at me and certainly didn’t speak. True to their words, when the train slowed to a stop, I was carefully placed onto a wheeled cart and removed from the train. PerTs ran on rails all over the city, much like in Olympus. But where Olympus had been covered in white, Vesuvius was red. The steel of the buildings was even red.
I had thought Olympus was grand. But it wasn’t nearly as enormous as Vesuvius. Red stretched so high into the sky that I imagined one could simply take an elevator into the stormy clouds hovering menacingly above. I guess they hadn’t managed to figure out how to control the weather.
The team wheeled me into a larger PerT, painted red with a large white cross in the center. Soon, we were weaving between enormous buildings toward the medical technicians. I hoped their physicians and technology wouldn’t be able to tell that I’d lied about everything that had brought me here.
The building I was taken to was nondescript, which was strange considering the others around it. But the technology present everywhere else in the city was evident here. Doors slid open automatically; they had elevators. I was taken up a large one to a higher floor, wheeled down a hallway and into a small room where I was hooked up to several machines. Beeps and grumbles sounded from them rhythmically.
It wasn’t long before the sterile room’s door slid open with a whoosh and a female Greater marched over to my bedside. Her midnight hair was slicked back in a severe bun, pulling the skin of her middle-aged face taught.
A warm smile formed on her lips. “I am Vivian. I have been assigned to check your medical status.” Her dark eyes were nearly hidden by large plastic-looking glasses; similar to those that some of the Greaters in Olympus had worn.
“Why do you wear those glasses?”
She smiled slightly. “When the rings spread across our irises, it makes some people’s eyes more sensitive to light, especially to the sun. Many people simply choose to wear these for comfort. Others choose to wear them because it seems fashionable. There are many new styles of UV blockers available now.”
“Oh.”
She wheeled a tiny table over toward me and began typing things into a small computer. “You are very interesting, Abigail Kelley.”
“Yeah. So I’ve heard.”
Vivian laughed. “You are a mixture of Greater and Lesser, and likely the first of many given the predicament that we Greaters find ourselves in at present.”
“You think they will allow Lessers and Greaters to...”
Her eyes grew wide. “No. I did not mean to insinuate that the two groups would consort. I honestly do not know what will happen in the future, but Greaters will need the help of Lessers to continue their race. It is as simple as that. Without Lessers, the Greaters cannot reproduce. They will die out, as the current generation of Greater females are completely sterile. We’ve checked all female children in Vesuvius and are confident that none will ever be capable of reproduction.”
“So, you intend to steal the Lesser eggs like Olympus did?”
Vivian’s delicate, pale fingers stilled and hovered over
the keys. “I do not think that our city’s leaders intend to steal anything from you, or any other Lesser. I believe they mean to ask for your help. They will be forthcoming and honest with you and with the Greaters who might benefit from receiving Lesser egg implantations.”
I pulled the thin white sheet up over my shoulders. It was freezing in that room. She stared at me as if expecting me to say something. What would I say? Well, sure you can have my eggs as long as you ask nicely? No. I don’t think so.
Vivian suddenly walked to the other side of my bed and wheeled a large white plastic machine to my side. “Would you like to see your baby? Perhaps know whether it is a boy or girl? Our technology is state-of-the-art.”
“I’m not very far along, according to the healer in my village.”
She motioned to my stomach. “May I?”
I nodded and lowered the sheet. She tucked it around my legs and lifted the fabric over my stomach. Vivian grabbed a bottle and squirted warm blue gel onto my abdomen and pressed a button on the machine. A loud echo of static flooded the room. I looked around nervously. “It is the machine. Soon you will hear the beat of your child’s heart.”
“I will?”
She smiled and nodded slightly, moving the flat probe over my stomach. Soon, it sounded as if hooves were beating the ground. Bump, bump. Bump, bump. The sound was loud and strong. Tears flooded my eyes. “Is that her?”
“Yes. That is your child’s heartbeat. It is strong and very healthy. Perfectly normal for this point in gestation.”
“What is gestation?”
“Your pregnancy. It is normal for this point in your pregnancy.” Her motherly smile was very comforting for some reason. I wished Lulu could hear her heartbeat. My baby girl.
“Do you want to know the child’s gender?”
“It’s a girl.”
She smiled and nodded. “It’s early, but it does look as if she will be female. Our machine can predict these things from early on based upon hormonal fluctuations deep within your womb.”
“The machine can do that?”
“Oh, yes. It predicts much more. She will be born healthy. There are no birth defects present. You have nothing to worry about. I am not sure why you had a bleeding spell, but sometimes those things do happen, even in normal pregnancies. Do not worry for her. She is perfect.”
Perfect. My baby was perfect.
“Would you like to see her?”
“Yes. Please.” My throat was clogged with thick tears.
She pushed a few buttons and moved the probe around. A screen on the wall flashed to life and there she was, my perfect little girl. I could see everything. I expected a shadow or a vague photograph, but this was stunning. I could see tiny fingers and toes forming. She twisted and showed her back. “She’s sucking her thumb!”
The woman laughed. “Yes! Babies often form habits in the womb that will follow them into the world. She will likely suck her thumb after birth. I will take measurements and we will monitor you both for a few days. I believe you both will be fine, Abigail Kelley.”
“Thank you.”
“You are due in only a few months.” She said, smiling sweetly.
“No. That can’t be right. I’m only a couple of months along.”
She shook her head. “Greater gestation is much shorter. It looks like you have taken that trait from your mother’s genetics. Your baby will be here at the end of spring or early in the summer season.
My heart hammered in my chest, almost matching the rhythm set forth by the beating of my baby girl’s heart. A few months? She’ll be here in a few months. I’ll be a mother in a few months.
She bent close and whispered. “I know your mother and father.”
“My father?”
“Kaia is your mother and Adam Kelley is your father.”
“He’s a Lesser.”
Vivian whispered low. “I know. They are still very much in love.”
“They are?”
She nodded. “Would you like a photograph of your child?”
“Yes, please.” Tears burst from my eyes again. I couldn’t tear my eyes from the wall. I just watched her squirm and roll. The bubbles I thought were gas weren’t gas at all. It was my baby bean. I loved her so much, I thought my heart might just swell up and burst.
She handed me a strip of several of the photographs of baby bean. “I will tell your father you are here.”
“Thank you.”
Squeezing my shoulder, Vivian stood up and left the room. It was quiet, but I had the memory of her heartbeat to keep me company. And the amazing strip of pictures, amber in hue showing the tiny baby growing inside me.
The screen of the computer she had been working on was still illuminated. My eyes scanned the tiny print.
Subject: Abigail Kelley
Procedure: Implantation of Uterine Tracking Device and Artificial Insemination
Male Donor:
The screen went black before I could read any more. Kaia said all the medical records died along with Olympus. She either lied or was misinformed. Either way, I doubted I would ever know who my child’s biological father was. It seemed like the world didn’t want me to know. Maybe it didn’t matter anyway. It was a very good possibility that the donor was dead now anyway.
My back was getting stiff from laying in the bed. I’d shifted from side to side, rearranged pillows and blankets. Nothing helped. Finally, I sat up. As I looked around, the whoosh of the door opening caught my attention. A middle-aged gentlemen stepped into the room. His sand-colored hair was the first thing I noticed. He wasn’t dressed like a Greater, or a Lesser for that matter. He was wearing some sort of strange, red jumpsuit. It wasn’t tight or anything like Julia’s, but stretched from neck to ankle.
He smiled at me and removed his glasses. My heart took flight. I was looking at Lulu’s chameleon eyes again. This man was her brother. He was my father.
He didn’t stop, just glided toward me, and crushed me in a hug. “Baby girl,” he said, choking on his own sob. “I had no idea.”
“About Lulu?”
He pulled back slightly. “Yes. I am so sorry. About everything. Your mother filled me in on a lot.”
“How is it that you are with Kaia? She is a Greater.”
“It has not always been so. When we first arrived, we had to separate. She worked diligently to gain a position of power within Vesuvius. Now that she has that power, let’s just say that many things are overlooked. We can be together and open about our relationship now.”
Gray’s face popped into my mind. “I need some help. And I know we just met, but I don’t know who else to ask.”
His expression grew serious and I could see the toll time had taken on his face. Thank goodness his laugh lines were the deepest wrinkles present. I hoped he had been happy. “What do you need, Abby?”
I laughed. “Kaia always calls me Abigail. Lulu called me Abby and so do you.”
“Your mother named you. She loved the name Abigail. Sometimes she would get angry with me for shortening your name. Lulu and I were very much alike.” His sad smile pierced my heart. He missed his sister as much as I did.
“On the train, they brought three Olympian prisoners. What will happen to them?”
“They will be held for trial most likely.”
“For what crimes? They did nothing wrong.”
“I truly do not know, but I can find out.”
I gulped and asked the question I feared the most. “Will they be beheaded?”
Adam Kelley looked taken aback. “No. We do not condone violence in Vesuvius. The worst criminals are imprisoned for the remainder of their natural lives.”
I shook my head. He was brainwashed. He had no idea what Vesuvius was capable of and without that knowledge, would never help me.
“Could you do me one favor?”
“Of course.”
“Send Kaia a comm and ask her what Vesuvius did to Olympus.”
“I know that they imprisoned their leader and his
son, Abby, and I am aware of your affections for the young man.”
I lowered my voice. “Olympus is gone. It was wiped off the face of the earth.”
My father tensed and stilled. “How?”
“Vesuvius. Those three are the only survivors that I know of.”
His eyes searched my own. “Are you certain of this?”
I nodded. “Yes. I’m one hundred percent certain. I barely got out alive myself. They sent me in to retrieve the other Lesser girls. Vesuvius now manages our village. They manage all the Lesser villages now that there are no other Greaters to compete with. Everything is theirs.”
Please understand what I’m saying!
“I will contact your mother. Please do not worry for the safety of the Olympians. I will personally see to it.”
“Thank you.”
“You will be released from care tomorrow. I have been assigned as your host. I will come and collect you and your belongings midday tomorrow.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Adam, er, Dad.”
“Dad?” He smiled. “I’ve waited fifteen years to hear you say that again.”
∞
At noon the following day, Adam Kelley showed up to “collect me,” as promised. I had been given a strange papery red gown to wear home as my clothing had been discarded. My father laughed as we walked down the long hallway toward the elevator box. “You squeak when you walk, Abby.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just tell me you can get your hands on something nicer than those jumpsuits you wear. I don’t think those are much better.”
He laughed. “I do not squeak though.”
I gave him a look and it made him laugh even louder.
He led me to a PerT and punched something into the small board beside the automatic door. Soon, we were zipping through Vesuvius at break-neck speeds. When the PerT finally slowed, we were outside the city. Row after row of redbrick houses lined the streets. Exiting the PerT, we continued to walk along a narrow pathway until we came to a stop. Adam extended his arm. “This is our house, Abby.”
Our house? How long did he expect me to stay?
I smiled and accepted his proffered elbow. The house looked like all the others. It was a rectangular, one story, brick-faced structure that lacked windows. That was strange.
Resist (The Harvest Saga Book 2) Page 18
