Steel Lily ARC

by Megan Curd

  She reached her hand out, and I caught it just as it began to fall. Her grip was weak, but I felt the minute squeeze. “Never let anyone take away your hope for a better future. Know what’s worth living—and dying—for.”

  As the words left her lips, a small smile turned the corners of her mouth upward. She looked at Dad. “I’m ready to go home, my love. I’ll save your spot, and wait for you.”

  Her hand went limp.

  “NO!” I screamed as I watched the light leave her eyes, her expression peaceful but far away.

  “It’s too late, Avery, she’s gone.” Legs said as he held me tight and pulled my head to his chest. “The exertion was too much. She’s gone.”

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY

  Tears filled my vision. Not Mom.

  I’d just gotten her back.

  The memories of us laughing, talking late into the night, practicing—everything we’d done for the past week. It’d felt like a dream.

  And now it was just that: a dream and a memory fading away into nothing like smoke on the wind.

  Anguish and fear and fury consumed me.

  This was all Xander’s fault.

  I would kill him if it were the last thing I accomplished on this earth.

  Riggs’s voice bit through the angry buzz in my ears. “Hold on!”

  Legs’s embrace grew stronger and his metal arm bit into my exposed flesh. I gasped in pain as I saw one of his broken metal rods slice my upper arm, leaving behind a crimson stain that quickly dripped down my arm and over the metal components of his own appendage.

  The buggy hit the invisible barrier of the dome and stuttered, the mechanisms fighting against the unseen force. I heard Riggs grunt in frustration, and all of sudden the buggy jerked forward. Fire engulfed the hatch as the buggy pushed through the fortification and caused a torrent of heat to cover us like a blanket.

  The force of the explosion caused Legs to lose his grip on me and we all tumbled toward the front of the carriage, pressing Riggs to the controls. The buggy jolted violently and the snap of metal twisting apart resonated in my bones. Another leg must have been buckled. The carriage swayed to the right and suddenly the ground was coming closer, closer, closer.

  The screech of metal and the screams of my friends filled my ears. The world spun around me in a haze of colors, yells, and smoke. Pandemonium reigned. It was ironic that we would escape the dome only to die right outside the limits.

  Legs groaned and pulled himself out of the ruined buggy, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. Everything hurt, and I was positive my wrist was broken. I hadn’t tried to move anything else out of fear that it would be just as excruciating.

  “Avery?” Dad called.

  “I’m here,” I coughed.

  “Legs?”

  “Ugnhhh…”

  “Jaxon?” Dad role-called.

  “Rainbows and unicorns, as always.”

  “Riggs?”

  I watched as Dad pulled Jaxon from under a large piece of rubble.

  “Riggs?” Dad repeated.

  There was a gurgle, accompanied by Legs shouting. I whipped my head around to find more horror.

  Legs held Riggs aloft in the clutches of his steel hand, his grip so tight that Riggs was kicking and flailing to free himself. Blood trickled down the side of Riggs’s neck, where Legs’s metal fingers bit into his flesh.

  “Make it let go!” Legs yelled. “Make it stop!”

  Dad dropped Jaxon’s limp body and ran to Legs’s side. Riggs’s eyes were bloodshot, a silent scream emitting from his mouth.

  Legs cried out again, looking to Dad for answers. “Why can’t I control it? What’s happening? Make it stop!”

  Dad struggled to pry the metal fingers away from Riggs’s neck. I watched, unable to look away from the grisly scene as Riggs’s attempts to free himself became less and less powerful.

  “Because I don’t take lightly to traitors.” Xander’s voice boomed from all around us. A high-pitched squeal erupted from the speakers as Xander’s voice rang out once more. “Did you really think I’d give Legs the mechanical arm that I built, that I designed, without programming it to murder the treacherous bastard who backstabbed me?”

  I scanned the ground for something—anything—to use to free Riggs from Legs’s sadistic grip. His voice was full of pride and malice as the speakers in the dome hissed from the sheer volume being put out. “That was a gift from me to Riggs, and he betrayed me. I gave him a second chance at life, a second chance with his son, and this is how he repays me? With lies and deceit? He won’t live to boast of becoming a turncoat.”

  Legs gripped the metal arm with his human hand and tried to pry it from the sockets that bolted it in place, his fingernails scrabbling against the welding.

  “Get it off! Get it off and then it’ll stop!”

  There. A piece of metal.

  Xander’s voice boomed. “It’ll stop when Riggs is dead. Which is…now.”

  “No it’s not!”

  I brought the metal down, its weight crashing down with enough force to halfway cut through Legs’s metal arm. Wires sparked and whipped where they were sliced, spraying in all directions. The hand released Riggs as it jerked out of control.

  Riggs hit the ground with a sickening crunch, but I heard him splutter and cough as he pulled oxygen back into his lungs before passing out.

  “Avery Pike, you continue to impress me with your desire to make your lot worse and worse. I will have you back here alive. You and your mother, but the rest will die. And you will watch. Maybe I’ll even have you pull the trigger on Jaxon.”

  Dad couldn’t contain himself. He stood and his voice cracked as he yelled. I turned toward the group, careful to avoid Riggs’s still body. Veins bulged in Dad’s neck and spit flew from his mouth as he yelled out in rage.

  “You killed Regina, but you’ll never have my Avery! Regina and I have spent our lives protecting her from the Resistance, and I won’t stop now. I’ll die before I let you have her!”

  “Regina didn’t die by my hand,” Xander’s voice crackled through the loudspeakers that echoed from the dome. “She died in vain for an Alliance that’s dead. And you, Cole, are now completely useless to me. My soldiers will come for your traitorous group, and you will die.”

  Legs’s metal arm swung to life, landing a solid backhand blow to the side of Dad’s face. I screamed and tried to go to his aid, but Legs’s body was not his own. He looked on in horror as his hand lifted me in the air and I began to choke. He threw me to the ground, and my head struck a rock nearby.

  My vision swam. Just before darkness clouded my sight, new pairs of feet came into view.

  The soldiers had come for us.

  ***

  I awoke with hands poking and prodding me. Cool water ran over my body and left me feeling exposed as the air hit my skin.

  I was naked.

  I tried to pull up, but my arms and legs were strapped to the bed. Panic consumed me.

  Where was I?!

  People cloaked in the white medical coats milled about the room. One woman held a clipboard and kept looking at a computer screen that lit up with numbers and lines while a man pressed his thick fingers against my jugular.

  I was naked, and these people were touching me.

  I screamed. “Let me go! Get off me!”

  “We’ve got a live one, boys!” cried a woman whose voice I didn’t know. Her clipboard clattered to the ground as she threw her entire weight into keeping my upper half pinned to the table. “It’s all right, dear, you’re safe here! We’re just cleaning you up!”

  Her black hair tickled my face as it rained down in sheets around her face, and I spat to keep it out of my mouth. She smelled of cinnamon and vanilla. Not what I’d imagined death would smell like. Even with her reassurance, I bucked and screamed and begged to be left alone. Tears streamed down my face and I blubbered incoherently.

  She hollered over my screeches. “I need sedation!”

  Th
ere was a prick at the crook of my arm. My vision blurred again as the sting of the medicine expanded my vein. The woman’s face began to spin in circles and became a kaleidoscope of colors as the medicine took its toll on me.

  “Don’t kill me,” I slurred.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, honey,” said the woman, her face fading into the blackness. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-ONE

  My second awakening was much less traumatic, as I woke to the sound of birds chirping.

  No, it couldn’t be real. There had to be a track playing somewhere.

  I pushed myself off the plush bed, my hands sinking into the soft sheets and mattress as the duvet fell away. My arms were bare and free of the cuts and bruises I knew should be there. The black shirt that I wore was soft and worn. For a moment I wondered who dressed me, but the curiosity of what happened to my wounds won out. I shoved the covers down to expose my legs and pulled the black pants up to my knees, expecting to find lacerations and half-healed gashes.

  Nothing. Not one scratch.

  The birds calling to one another caught my attention, and I scanned the room for the source.

  I wasn’t in the Academy; this room was too simple to exist there. The bed was a simple twin with fresh sheets and blankets. Across the room sat a wooden dresser that was painted a country blue, the paint chipping a bit at the corners as though it had been loved and used for many years. Above it hung a mirror that had a window as its frame, the grid-like pattern still intact and meant to look like a window to the outdoors.

  That’s when I saw it.

  A door with a window to the outside.

  Outside.

  I leapt from the bed, marveling at the fact that nothing hurt. My feet seemed to move on their own accord, and being able to look out of a window mesmerized me.

  I approached cautiously, afraid to step into the direct sunlight that shone in. Dust motes moved like tiny planets in orbit, dancing with one another on their descent to the ground. After a moment of deliberation, I chanced it and extended my hand into the ray of light.

  Warmth blanketed my flesh, but it didn’t burn. No, it felt amazing. I turned my hand over and allowed my palm to embrace the heat as well. Pleased, I stepped into the sunlight and peered out the window.

  A small tree stood outside the window majestically, the green buds of leaves beginning to grow on the tips of the branches.

  I had to touch it.

  I opened the door. The cool wind washed over me, the fresh scents of the outdoors enveloping me. I took a deep breath and smiled as I took my first step onto green grass.

  It was soft under my feet and tickled my toes. I ran my hand along a bush nearby and watched the three little birds that sat in the lower branches of the tree. They preened themselves and chirped happily.

  Real birds.

  Real birds.

  I let out a whoop of delight and danced right there, too excited to stand silently in this new revelation. The birds took flight, and I watched them in awe as they disappeared in the glare of the sun.

  The sun was real, bright and warm; the tree, the birds, the dust motes.

  Earth wasn’t ruined.

  “Excited to know that our whole lives have been lies, huh? I knew you were a couple crayons short of a whole box.”

  I turned to find Jaxon leaning against the doorframe of my room, his arms crossed and his muscles burdening the sleeves of his too tight t-shirt. His dreadlocks fell freely around his ears and his sardonic smile gave me butterflies all over again.

  “I’m excited to know that we’re alive, actually.”

  He flashed an impish grin as he pushed himself off the frame and sauntered over to me, his hands in his pockets. “Give it a minute to soak in, then dwell in the angst of a lie-ridden fifteen years with me again.”

  I laughed and looked around the green yard. “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine,” I gestured back to the building. “Where are we? Not the Academy, obviously.”

  “Obviously,” Jaxon said as he came closer to me, exuding happiness that I had never experienced from him. “The Alliance isn’t dead. Riggs got us to the meeting point. They came to our aid when the buggy collapsed.”

  “And the burned soldiers?”

  “Most of them are dead.”

  “Most of them?”

  Jaxon shrugged, clearly unperturbed by the thought of more soldiers lurking, waiting in the wings for another attack. “Xander called them back when the Alliance made their appearance. He knew they were outnumbered, I guess.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “He wouldn’t let us go like that.” A thought hit me. “Alice’s tracker…”

  “Already taken care of. The Alliance got us out of the line of fire and surgically removed it before they got anywhere near this place.”

  “And this place is?”

  Jaxon’s smile broadened. “Dome Four. Well, right outside of it in the surrounding neighborhoods, actually.”

  My mouth dropped. “You’re kidding me!”

  “Nope. Seems like you were in the heart of the Alliance the entire time. Go figure.”

  “My parents…”

  “Your dad is in the men’s wing. Right next door to me, actually.”

  As pain constricted my heart from losing Mom, I thought of Riggs. “Jaxon, your dad…”

  “Apparently still has a streak of goodness somewhere in that creepy shell of his.”

  I stood there in shock for a moment, surprised to hear Jaxon say that. I could tell he was fighting back tears. He stared at the wooden floor, and I understood why. It was easier to stave off tears if you weren’t looking at someone who cared about you.

  “So you got the flash drive to work?”

  “Yeah. Sari made quick work of it when she woke up.”

  “And Legs? Everyone?”

  Jaxon’s eyes darkened. “Everyone’s fine. The Alliance took good care of us. As for Legs, they got the arm off. He hasn’t come out of his room since. Refuses to eat most of the time.”

  I hesitated before asking my next question, unsure how to word it. “Do you hate him?”

  Jaxon looked at me, surprised. “Hate him? For what? Being a pawn of Xander’s? I was too; taken in by him, fooled to believe he was looking out for me. I can’t hate Legs for something that I was guilty of. I don’t have time for hate in my heart anymore, Avery.”

  His sage-like insight surprised me. I wasn’t sure I’d be as reasonable if the tables were turned. “And your brother? The soldier?”

  Jaxon sighed. “I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, but either way, he’s not on our side. Xander has him under his thumb like the rest of the ruined Alliance army.”

  “I never thought someone could be so evil, especially Xander. He had us all fooled. How could he get so malevolent?”

  “Sari thinks it’s all on the flash drive,” Jaxon said sadly. “There are a couple files she hasn’t hacked into, but she said it looks like Riggs gave us a lot of information on Xander and the Resistance. Riggs is still under sedation. Doctors said it’s better to let him heal without waking him up. That arm did a number on him,” Jaxon sighed. “The flash drive is a good start to what our next steps should be. Sari will probably have all the files opened by the end of the week. She’s scary when she’s determined.”

  I laughed. “That’s true,” I said, then paused. It sounded like they’d had time to get things going, which made me wonder how long we’d been here. “How long has it been since we arrived?”

  “Three days.”

  So I’d been asleep for three days. I patted my body down. “Where are all our injuries?”

  Jaxon’s face was a mixture of emotions. “It seems that Dome Four isn’t frugal because they’re poor, they’re frugal because they save up for times of need. They have all the technology, all the medicine they could ever need—for the dome and for us. Our injuries were supposedly easy to fix. The Alliance is strong, but they’re also smart. They understand that the Earth isn’t s
omething you can abuse. They’re trying to make it inhabitable again.”

  I pointed skyward, where real clouds dotted the sky. “Looks like they’re doing a good job.”

  “Yeah, but it’s a far cry from ready. We’ll still have to go underground some days because of the carbon levels or the UV rays being too dangerous. And with the resistance doing everything they can to abuse resources…”

  “It makes my job more important,” I finished.

  He nodded. “That’s why Xander wanted to figure out how to duplicate your gift. Endless resources, bottled up in the human body. He could abuse the earth without ramification if he could keep using humans.”

  I shuddered at the thought of being used like cattle, then discarded when my usefulness had ended. “What’s his end goal, do you think?”

  “According to the videos that Dad has? One world regime, with him at the head. He’s power hungry, and keeping people resigned to the domes keeps him in power. When people know there’s hope for a future, they’re dangerous. Keep them oppressed, keep them thinking that all they have is all there is, and he can control them. He’s corrupted Dome Seven. We don’t know how far his reach is yet.”

  The thought scared me. Could a single person manipulate us as an entire body? “And the Alliance wants to stop it, right?”

  Jaxon nodded.

  Resolve rose inside me at the thought of my mother dying for the Alliance to continue. “We need to fight with them.”

  Jaxon’s smiled broadened. “I was wondering when you’d say that. You’re kind of the poster child for our merry little band of rebels now. Your mother was one of the leaders in the Alliance, and they want you to fill her spot.”

  “They?”

  “The Alliance leaders. I’ve only met one, and her name is Alexandra, but everyone calls her Lexie.” Jaxon explained. “But from what I hear, you tried to buck her off the bed when you first came to in the compound.”

  I blushed. Of course I’d try to take out someone that was leading the Alliance.

  Jaxon put a hand on my waist. He brushed the dreads out of his face with the other, his blue eyes shining in the sunlight. “She thought it was great, by the way. Said you already remind her of your mother.”