Influence (Influence Series Book 1)

by David R. Bernstein

  “Months of depression and anger took its toll on me,” he admits. “After my parents were taken I rarely left my living unit. I vowed to never use my ability on innocent people again, but it wasn’t until a Magnus recruiter visited our town that I decided to break that vow. I knew Magnus and the Vernon Society had been at war with each other for years. Sitting at home crying myself to sleep each night was not going to get my parents back. I decided the best thing I could do would be to help Magnus take down the Society. It was simple to me at the time. Destroy them, and hope my parents are still alive.”

  I find a free spot next to him on the tree stump and sit. He looks at me with a simple smile. His eyes radiate compassion and his whole being seems to give off a sense of ease. I lean over so I can meet his gaze. “Are you using your push ability on me? I mean… I sense something that I have not felt before.”

  A controlled laugh pushes out as he angles his head toward me. “That’s funny, I was going to say the same thing to you. But I don’t think it’s possible for Influencers to push other Influencers.”

  Even after years of doing the dirty work for Magnus, he still has the look of a kid. His short buzz haircut does little to change this fact. He’s tall and good looking like Farren, but he carries himself differently and I just can’t put my finger on what it is.

  “So tell me, why spend so many years with Magnus only to turn on them like this?” I ask. “Wasn’t the point of joining them to take down the Vernon Society?”

  “Well, when I was first recruited they quickly discovered how effective my push ability was,” he says. “Within months, I was made head Influencer due to my ability to alter the reality of so many people at once. The leadership was so pleased with my skills that they started to focus on expansion rather than taking down the Vernon Society. It became a race to grow the fastest. No longer were they concentrating on tactical battles to cripple them, rather they wanted to push them into a corner and make them insignificant.” His posture stiffens. “Over the last couple of years, Magnus grew so fast because of me that I found myself losing my soul. I couldn’t do it anymore. I lost hope that I would ever get the chance to free my parents from the Vernon Society’s stranglehold. It was an endless cycle of doing evil to justify an ever-fading chance to free them. Magnus became the enemy to me and taking them down became the right thing to do.”

  The conversation seems to drain him a bit and he suggests we head back to the hub. The morning mist has evaporated, exposing a beautiful clear day with sunlight exploding through the trees. The air is so fresh here that it makes you wonder how anyone can bear living in the scorching landscape of Lost Souls. Thinking of this reminds me of Amanda and how we have never been apart for this long before. We would probably be planning our next supply run by now. We always allow for a moment of gorging when we’ve just stocked up. If you just live life looking for the next food opportunity, you risk losing any piece of humanity you have left. Because of this, we always try to make time for a little slice of fun. Besides, it’s one of my favorite things we do. It’s a chance to just enjoy life for a second.

  “If you don’t mind I would like to continue this discussion with the other guys,” he suggests.

  We make our way down the hub entrance and through the corridor that leads to the kitchen. Caiden sits at the small table devouring a handful of ration packs while Farren leans back on the chair across from him. I notice Farren’s rugged scruff. The youth in his face is covered by a day or so of not shaving. Recognizing we’ve returned, Farren quickly stands and offers me his chair. This gesture makes me uncomfortable. I have never been the kind of girl who gets special attention.

  “Okay, guys, it’s time to get down to business,” Jax says with a determined look. “She knows my story, but we need to fill her in about the resistance. I trust her, but I think she needs to know about us if she is going to help. Caiden, can you run down the logistics?”

  “Yes, sir,” he says playfully, wiping crumbs from his mouth. “Our resistance consists of eleven Influencers with varying skill sets; twelve implanted, former Magnus members; and fifty-three, influence-free civilians who are sympathetic to our cause. We have amassed a respectable stockpile of weapons as well as three repurposed electric vehicles. Our leadership consists of the three of us here as well as an Influencer named Maddux Rivers and a high-level Magnus personnel coordinator named Miya Hurley. All resistance members who aren’t infiltrating Magnus are at secure locations waiting for orders.”

  “Well… uh… That sounds good, I guess.” I start chewing on my bottom lip.

  All this rebellion talk makes me uncomfortable. Never before have I been involved in anything this important. I really don’t know what I should say.

  “I know this is a lot to absorb, Kay,” Farren says as he touches my shoulder. “We hope you are willing to help us.”

  “Listen, Kaylin,” Jax says as he moves to Farren’s side. “You’ve seen what sector groups like Magnus do. Amanda’s freewill is being stripped away as we speak. People all over this region suffer every day at the hands of these evil bastards. None of them, including Amanda, deserve that kind of life.”

  Jax’s words show why he is the leader of this resistance. He understands more than anyone that greed and the lust for power only lead to suffering for the innocent.

  Caiden sits across the table waiting for my reaction. Jax falls back to the wall next to the kitchen door; his eyes scan everyone in the room. Farren removes his hand from my shoulder and rests it firmly on his side. I suppose this is what it would be like to be the shiny new toy on Christmas morning. Not that I have ever had a Christmas morning—or any holiday, for that matter.

  “What do you expect me to do for this resistance?” I ask.

  “We need your powerful push ability to help crush Magnus’ stranglehold on the area,” Caiden says, fists clenched on the table.

  “We need your help to free the people controlled by Magnus,” Jax says giving Caiden a stern glare. “Your level of involvement is completely up to you, Kaylin.”

  “Kay,” Farren says in a reassuring voice. “It’s not going to be easy, but if we don’t make a stand now, no one will.”

  Images of those young shelter bullies barely breathing and bludgeoned lying in pools of their own blood fill my thoughts. As that memory recedes, that awful night we were confronted by the evil Harvesters jumps to the forefront. The way I was able to make them turn on each other gives me chills. That night didn’t even compare to the horror I felt when I unleashed wild animals on the Magnus security forces who were hunting me down. The image of the mauled and trampled victims strewn across the forest floor burns the back of my mind. How can I use my push ability again? I’m not an Influencer—I’m a heartless killer. I have spilled enough blood. I just can’t do it again. That is when I think of Amanda, alone and forced to live a shortened life of backbreaking labor. She will never be free again. She will be stripped of the chance to experience a full and untethered life. Already filled with so much loss and devastation, she doesn’t deserve any more.

  “Okay, I’m in, under one condition,” I say. “We have to rescue Amanda first.”

  9

  PUSH RADAR

  I WISH WE could go back outside. The Walton hub is located in such a beautiful area with all these lush trees, and the fresh air feels so nice with every breath. Jax thinks it would be best if we keep our meetings inside to avoid Magnus patrols. I can’t remember a time I’ve had to be inside this much. It’s making me nervous and jumpy. Life was familiar when Amanda and I were wandering Lost Souls. There’s nothing fun about the unknown with my current situation. The thought of joining this resistance without all the details on how we plan to take down the evil Magnus Order is frightening, but the only thing on my mind right now is Amanda.

  The guys are planning her rescue and my head is spinning. I’m not designed for the war strategizing that Caiden seems to live for. He is going on about a full-on strike on Hawthorne, but Farren is convinced that w
ould be a mistake. A stealth mission with just a few people is his plan, but Caiden is fighting hard for his more aggressive option.

  “Caiden, you know I love you, man, but I think Farren is right,” Jax says. “A full-on attack on Hawthorne would leave us unprepared for our Talas objective. Once we move on the central hub, our embedded operatives will have to be pulled out. We aren’t ready for that yet.”

  Earlier, Jax told me he’s still acting as the head Influencer, but he and the others plan to leave at the very last minute so Magnus would be scrambling to fill the gaps. A major attack like what Caiden is pushing for would signal the start of everything.

  “Jax, you need to get back before they start suspecting something,” Farren says as he grabs an expired protein bar from the small pantry in the corner of the room. “Kaylin, Caiden, and I can meet up with Maddux on the way back to Hawthorne. We will be in and out in fifteen minutes.”

  Jax agrees that he should get back to start preparations for the next stage. After some brief goodbyes, Jax leaves and we start gathering supplies to head out soon. It’s still early morning and we only have a few hours to travel to get back to Hawthorne. This will leave plenty of time to plan things out.

  Tucked away in a small metal cabinet, in one of the rooms on the far side of the Walton hub’s lower levels, Caiden pulls out a silver pistol and hands it to me as if I am one of his eager soldiers. My push ability has been the only weapon Amanda and I have ever needed. A gun just draws negative attention, and that is one thing we avoided more than anything else. I’m deadly enough as it is; I don’t need any more killing options at my disposal.

  “I’ll pass,” I say, handing back the gun. “Sorry, it’s just not my style.”

  I hope I played that off cool. I don’t want to look like some scared little girl to these guys.

  “Yeah, I guess you don’t need one.” Caiden grins. “From what I’ve heard, you are pretty badass with those mind powers.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I say sarcastically. “Come on, let’s see if Farren is ready to go.”

  We find Farren back in the kitchen and begin to assess our gear. He seems to be more serious now that we have a mission at hand. He barely acknowledges me and just goes about his business. After several minutes of him shifting and moving things around, I ask, “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I just don’t want to put you in danger again, that’s all. You have to promise me that you’ll stay back and do what I say, okay?”

  He truly looks concerned about me. It feels nice, but I’m not sure why he would be. According to him, his number-one priority has always been to take down Magnus in order to keep his family safe.

  “Okay, but just so you know, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get Amanda out of there.”

  “I know,” he says. “But you have to understand, we can’t just send an untrained––”

  “An untrained what—girl?” I snap.

  “Fighter. I was going to say fighter.”

  “Oh… sorry,” I say, diverting my eyes from him.

  Maybe he cares for me as a person or maybe he just doesn’t want to lose his new weapon. I’m not quite sure.

  He thrusts his pack over his shoulder and leads us down the dim corridor and out of the hub. We enter the clearing to find it has warmed up quite a bit in the hour or so since Jax left to return to Talas. Caiden takes the lead as we head into the lush forest. He tells us we will have to travel west to a camp at the base of the mountains that’s about an hour away. It lies in a gap inside the Magnus network of hubs, just out of the reach of the group’s Influencers and security patrols. There we will meet up with Maddux, who will help us rescue Amanda from the Hawthorne hub.

  As we walk on a faint trail that splinters through the woods, I match Farren’s pace and ask, “So tell me about Maddux, who is he?”

  “Maddux is a real good guy,” he says. “He joined the resistance a few months ago and has been recruiting other Influencers for us. He’s originally from the coastal communities.”

  Amanda and I heard about pockets of people who would move from beach to beach. They would stock up on food and supplies and then move on to the next spot. The coastal areas are way too close to the Harvester-infested inner cities. These large cities were overrun by the worst of humanity shortly after the collapse of society. Now they are just corroded shells with very little water and food. The only things that thrive are the deviants who run all about causing trouble. The sector groups have stayed out of the coastlines for good reason. If there is one thing worse than a sector group, it would be the ruthless Harvesters. The coastal communities have mastered the art of staying on the move, always clinging close to the resource-rich shorelines.

  “How did he find you guys?” I ask.

  “He was tired of being on the move all the time,” he says, sidestepping loose rocks on the trail. “He ventured out looking for others like himself. Influencers who wanted to use their ability to create a free and functional society.” He dabs the sweat from his brow with his sleeve before continuing. “Jax and I found him while we were looking for people sympathetic to our cause. He’s been huge for our recruiting process due to his ability.”

  “What is it exactly that he can do?”

  “It’s pretty cool if I say so myself,” Farren says. “He can sense a person’s emotional state. Like if they are angry or plotting something or even if they are depressed and losing hope. Things like that. Even better, he can feel when Influencers are using their push ability nearby. Basically, he’s a Push radar.”

  “That’s pretty cool,” I say, managing to stay a half step behind him.

  Time appears to slow as we make our way down a brutal, narrow trail. I’m sure we’ve been walking for more than an hour now. The forest thins as we reach the lower elevations. The mighty evergreen trees that towered over us now make way for a variety of smaller brush and vegetation. My knees ache as we move down a steep hillside that leads to a small clearing. Caiden points toward a rocky outcrop that covers the far edge of the hill. Several tents and tattered wooden structures are set up near a large cave opening. People are milling about working on different projects. A few people are patching torn outfits while others clean weapons. There are even children running around the camp.

  “What is this place?” I ask Caiden. “Are these people all part of the resistance?”

  “Yup,” he says. “This is one of five camps we have spread over the sector. To be on the safe side, we don’t want everyone located in the same place. Everyone is preparing for the war, or…I mean… the confrontation.”

  It’s obvious what he’s trying to do by using softer words, but I can tell it’s hard for him to hold back his excitement.

  This resistance is much bigger and more organized than I thought it was. The reality of the situation is sinking in now and it feels overwhelming, but all I need to do is think of Amanda and my focus snaps back into place.

  People stare at us as we pass their tents. Children grab the hands of the nearest adult while others simply stop their work to soak us in. I watch their eyes and notice they’re only looking at me, the new girl. People taking notice of me was always the first indication that Amanda and I needed to leave. Avoiding suspicion was a never-ending part of our existence before we met Farren.

  We head toward the cave opening when a guy with a black Mohawk and tattoos all over his exposed skin comes out of the darkness. “Welcome. I’m so glad you made it here safely. You must be Kaylin. My name is Maddux. Come on in and get something to eat and drink.”

  His well-mannered attitude doesn’t fit his tatted and gritty appearance. He is older than a lot of the Influencers I know, but not by much—most likely in his early twenties. His hair is pitch black and his skin appears to be deeply tanned by the sun. Tribal markings cover the sides of his closely buzzed head, revealing a possible Native American heritage. The straight strands of his narrow Mohawk flop from side to side as he moves.

  We ente
r the large cave to find makeshift bedding all along the base of the walls. This cavernous space looks like it can shelter at least a dozen people. With the tents outside and the beds in here, there must be twenty or more people on site at the camp. We’re led to the back of the cave, where we find a small table with some unfamiliar tech devices on it, all surrounded by metal folding chairs.

  “Welcome to South Camp,” Maddux says.

  “Thanks,” I say.

  “We got your message this morning,” he says, shifting his attention to Farren. “So it looks like someone needs to be rescued?”

  Farren is just about to detail his plan when a tall woman enters the cave. Her wavy dark hair is neatly gathered in a ponytail that reaches down to her backside. The most striking thing about her is the white tattoos that intricately spiral up and down her dark skin. She’s beautiful like the girls on the cover of those old clothing magazines. She struts up to Maddux and puts her arm around his waist.

  “Maddy, you didn’t tell me we were going to have visitors so soon.”

  “Hey, babe,” Maddux says with a huge smile. “Guys, this special gal is Ava Reed. I found this superhero taking on Harvesters in old Los Angeles a little over a month ago. She was looking to do some good with her ability and decided to join us. Now she is my beautiful, super queen.”

  “So you’re an Influencer,” Caiden says. “What can you do?”

  Ava turns to Caiden, her eyes intense. Stepping toward him, she gets within inches of his face and replies, “I specialize in the fear of the weak. There is something about the feeling of a person in terror that excites me. I intensify what haunts people the most and use it against them.”

  Caiden struggles to maintain his tough-guy appearance as he steps back.

  A creepy smile stretches from corner to corner. She then closes her eyes and mutters, “I smell your fear and… it smells like body odor.”

  Maddux and Ava burst into laughter as Caiden looks on, confused. Farren and I catch on and laugh as well.