The New Wave: Book 3 in The Generation Series

by E S Richards

  “Well if he’s a Gen 4...” Zac started to speak, but Zahyra cut him off quickly.

  “Does he look like an advanced mutant to you, really?”

  Zac shrugged again at her question, unwilling to make eye contact with Cain who was watching carefully. “Guess not, but you had to know that was procedure.”

  “Procedure maybe,” Zahyra sighed, “but pertinent? I don’t think so. Anyway, that’s not even the worst part of it. When they found out I was a Zero things got even worse.”

  Zac listened closely as Zahyra began to recount her tale of the safe haven properly. She told him about how she was separated from Asher as well – although still leaving out all the details about him. Instead she focused on herself, on the T128 trial she was forced to do and the things she overheard during her time there.

  She described the experiments she had been a part of, how they had frozen her, boiled her and then yes, almost killed her when they tried to take her bone marrow. All the while Zac listened carefully, interrupting only when necessary to ask for more information.

  His brow furrowed when Zahyra spoke about the safe haven wanting to weaponize the results of her T128 trial and then flattened again when he realised she was speaking about the new weapon which could strip mutants of their mutations. Zac was of course aware of the new weapon, with many of them being used in their attack on the warped settlement earlier that day. He informed Zahyra they were calling them Tocsix’ and she wondered whether that was what the letter T stood for in her trial.

  As she reached the end of her story, skipping over a few details about how they had managed to escape she could tell Zac had been affected by it. He appeared to be more considerate of why she had left the safe haven but she could tell he still wasn’t convinced about it being an evil and dangerous place.

  “So,” he said eventually, clearing his throat slightly. “I can understand why you don’t want to go back there. What you had to go through sounds awful and I’m sorry for that, I really had no idea. But what I don’t understand is why your brother has gone back now? You haven’t told me anything about him, about his story. What you’ve said sounds bad; I’m not denying that. But I can still see how it sort of balances out with all the good that they’re doing – don’t you?”

  Zahyra couldn’t believe it. Zac was still taking the side of the safe haven. He was still defending them; even after everything she had just told him. Maybe she had been wrong about him all along; maybe Zac was a perfect safe haven soldier.

  “You might as well tell him you know.”

  “What?” Zahyra stepped around slightly, turning to look at Cain. He had remained silent while she told Zac her story, quietly leaning back against another tree trunk while sipping a bottle of water.

  “About Asher,” Cain continued. “You might as well tell him. He’s with us now and he’s not going back to the safe haven, not unless we all are and I don’t see that happening for a long time. So you might as well tell him, trust me when I say there’s no way he can make this worse.”

  Zahyra felt a little hurt by Cain’s words. There was an edge to his voice that made her realise just how truly unhappy he was that Zac had ended up with the two of them. She cast him a look of apology, trying to get into her eyes how much she regretted it and how she wished it was just the two of them as well. A sympathetic smile was all she got in return before Cain’s gaze returned to the floor.

  “He’s right I guess.” Zac’s voice drew Zahyra’s gaze back the other way. “I’m not going anywhere, so you might as well tell me. What happened to your brother Zahyra?”

  This time when Zahyra spoke Zac really listened. She could tell she was getting through to him, his facial expressions giving away his shock at what the safe haven had done. He began shaking his head slightly when she explained that Asher had returned to the facility only days ago to learn more about his Gen 6 mutation but that something bad must have happened for him to reveal the location of the warped settlement. Her throat constricted and grew dry as she talked about her younger brother, wishing more than anything in the world that he could be with her in that moment.

  Silence echoed through the forest once Zahyra was finished, Zac’s face morphing from a look of shock, to realisation to panic. Then he locked his eyes onto Zahyra’s and climbed steadily to his feet.

  “You might want to sit down now,” he said softly. “I think I do have some information that you want to hear.”

  Chapter 13 – Zahyra

  Zahyra swapped places with Zac cautiously, moving to occupy the small tree stump he had been sat on. Cain shuffled over to her side also, although still avoided eye contact with her. She was starting to get a little irritated with how he was acting. He’d admitted himself they didn’t have any other choice but to bring Zac with them, he might as well try and get on with it now.

  “What is it?”

  “Well,” Zac started, putting his hands into his pockets awkwardly. “I hadn’t really put any thought into it until you mentioned your brother, but I think the facility might be trying to make more of him. Well, more boys like him I mean. More Gen 6 mutants.”

  Zahyra’s eyes grew wide. “How do you mean?”

  “A couple of kids I knew in the facility went missing a few weeks ago. Apparently they were born in the facility: twins. Their mother arrived heavily pregnant and died during childbirth, so they’ve been raised in the facility their whole life. But last I heard, they went down for their Turning Age Ceremony, because although we don’t rule our lives by our mutations in the safe haven, it’s still important to know what everyone’s rankings are, if only as a precaution. Anyway, they went down for their ceremony, but they never returned.

  “I didn’t notice at first. It’s a big place; you’re bound to go a few days without seeing people from time to time. But then other people started asking about them too. The official verdict was that they’d been deemed unsuitable for housing and removed from the facility, but neither of them ever showed any sign of any mutation. You said that was the same with your brother right? He acted like a Zero until his true mutation was revealed at his Turning Age Ceremony? What if that’s happened to Jonny and Dylan too?

  “Thinking about it, when the twins’ verdict was revealed there were quite a few of the older members who said that it had happened before. Young boys deemed unsuitable when they’d never acted like a mutant. This could have been going on for years for all we know. What if,” Zac paused, “what if the safe haven are making an army? Gathering boys they’ve turned into Gen 6 mutants and keeping them secret from everyone else. Did your brother ever mention seeing any other boys while he was in there? Did he speak of anyone else like him?”

  “No never,” Zahyra breathed, stunned by Zac’s revelation. “He was kept alone the whole time, well, aside from our father working with him. I never saw any signs of other boys down in the labs though, or any information about them on the screens.”

  “They’ll have hidden it very well if that is what they’re doing,” Zac replied. “If word got out into the facility that the safe haven were taking boys, taking people’s children... they would lose all control of the place for sure.”

  “How confident are you,” Cain finally spoke up, “that these twins were not identified as advanced mutants? Are you sure the verdict of them being unsuitable for housing couldn’t be true?”

  “Well I’m not 100%,” Zac mused, looking slightly annoyed by Cain’s question. “But I’d certainly never seen them display any mutant tendencies, neither had anyone else for all I know. It seems a little suspicious though, don’t you think? A pair of boys going missing after their Turning Age Ceremonies; especially after what I’ve now learnt about what the safe haven has done to Asher. In fact, the more I think about it the more I believe they will have done the same to Jonny and Dylan. They were born in the facility. Surely they would have been perfect candidates.”

  “We have to go back.”

  “What?”

  “We have to go back,” Zah
yra repeated. “We have to get Asher out of there. Jonny and Dylan too if we can, and any other boys they could have. They’re creating a New-Wave of mutants, Cain, that’s what they called it. After all we’ve seen from the safe haven, surely you know this can’t be good?”

  “We can’t just go back there though!” Cain argued fiercely. “It’s too dangerous, you said so yourself. You almost died in there Zahyra, I’m not going to put you in that kind of danger again.”

  “But Asher’s in there!”

  “I know,” the fire in Cain’s voice died slightly. “And I’m sorry for that. But we can’t just run back into the safe haven without thinking everything through. We don’t even know if what Zac is telling us is true. It’s a good theory, but at the moment that’s all it is: a theory.”

  Zahyra looked at Cain desperately. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing from him but as she took a moment to let his words sink in she knew he was right. It was just unbearable to think of what the safe haven might be doing to her brother and these other boys.

  In her mind she wasn’t agreeing with Cain because she didn’t believe Zac. She was certain the safe haven would have changed more than just Asher into a Gen 6; they could’ve done it to hundreds of boys. What she did agree to though was that it was too dangerous to just turn up out of the blue. She would get back into the safe haven, she would get her brother back, but she was going to have to think about it first. She needed to make sure that when she returned, it would be for the very last time.

  “So, what do we do now?”

  Zac’s question bothered Zahyra. She wanted to shout at him. Scream at both him and Cain that they had to get back to the safe haven and save the boys. But she had just reasoned with herself that they needed to wait first, which meant that in reality she had no idea what they should do.

  She was reminded of the days she had spent in the forest with Cain before. Creeping about amongst the trees and waiting for the right opportunity to free Asher from the mutant camp. She shuddered at how history was almost repeating itself. Herself and Cain forced to find a way to rescue her brother from some inexplicable evil. She’d never thought she would wish for Asher to be back in that mutant camp, but compared so what she was imagining happening to him at the safe haven, an army of advanced mutants seemed almost like a vacation.

  “Do you have any other information we can use?” Cain turned to Zac, addressing the boy properly for the first time since they had met. “Like the reason for your raid on the warped settlement today? Anything else suspicious that has been going on in the safe haven?”

  “Not really,” Zac looked down at the floor, pushing wet leaves around nervously with his right foot. “I only got into the red band a couple of weeks ago when they lost a lot of soldiers. Now I know that was as a result of your escape from the facility, but that doesn’t really matter. Since then I’ve just been training. Today was my first time outside of the facility since I arrived there. Aside from the boys going missing I can’t think of anything strange that has happened.”

  “What about the reason for your attack today?” Cain pushed further, mining for any shred of information. “They must have told you something more about it?”

  “Only that we were going on a raid and we were to disarm any advanced mutants. I was just on perimeter watch though, so I wasn’t given the sensitive information about the real purpose of it. I just heard the rumours about there being something the safe haven needed within the settlement, but I have no idea what.”

  Cain sighed loudly. “That could literally be anything.”

  “People.”

  Cain looked up at Zahyra.

  “People,” she repeated. “Think about it: all the safe haven have ever wanted to do is advance somehow. If it was Asher that revealed the location of the warped settlement and let’s face it, it almost certainly was, then they will have known we were there. That I was there. And there were more Zero’s in the settlement than I’ve ever seen anywhere else. The safe haven will have come for me. Come for the other Zeros.” Zahyra gasped suddenly. “And the boys! There were so many boys who lived there around Asher’s age. He went to school with them. Hung out with them. He could’ve given the safe haven information about them as well. We have no way of knowing how many boys the safe haven has managed to turn into mutants. There could be hundreds of them Cain.”

  Silence followed Zahyra’s revelation. Speaking it out loud only made her believe the theory more and believing the theory desperately made her want to find a way back into the safe haven. She could see Cain’s mind was working furiously trying to figure out the same thing.

  Zac still looked in awe by the whole thing, disbelieving that he could have lived in a place for so long without realising its true intentions. She felt sorry for him in a way, knowing that if she had arrived on similar terms to his she wouldn’t be any the wiser. But she was now and she couldn’t just sit around and wait for something to happen with all her newfound knowledge.

  “Okay.” Cain’s voice was barely above a whisper but Zahyra heard it loud and clear. She looked over to him with a glint of hope in her eyes offering him a smile, which thankfully he returned.

  “We’ll find a way to get back to the safe haven and get Asher out of there. And the boys you knew as well, Zac. But first I think we need to go back to the settlement, see what’s happened there. Do you have any idea whether the safe haven will have left by now?”

  Zac thought for a moment. “I should think so. They don’t like the red band to be out much after dark anymore and it’s a fair few hours’ drive back to the facility. Once they got what they needed I think they would’ve left. The debrief was supposed to be at 1900h tonight so,” Zac paused to look down at his timekeep, one of the only things Zahyra probably missed about the safe haven.

  “Oh,” he shook his head in annoyance. “It’s stopped working. But either way, I think they should be gone by now.”

  “Let’s give it another hour,” Cain decided in reply. “See if we can find anything to eat in the meantime.”

  “There are some berries down by the stream,” Zac spoke up and pointed off to the left of him. “Over there. I can smell them.”

  “Brilliant,” Cain replied, although nothing about his tone of voice made him sound cheerful about it. Without another word he set of in the direction Zac was pointing, his gaze only lingering over Zahyra’s for a moment.

  As she followed him she couldn’t help but feel confused. It was good news, of course, that Cain had agreed they could try and find a way back into the safe haven. Great news, in fact. But the reality of them working out exactly how to do it was still a harsh one.

  She was also worried about what they were going to find back at the warped settlement. From what she had witnessed it had been carnage. The red band were killing pretty much everyone, although she guessed a fair few must have been rounded up and spared, the women and children perhaps, if they were lower developed mutants. Some may have also been taken back to the safe haven, if they were the targets of their raid.

  Zahyra had no idea how the safe haven felt about warped mutants but as she remembered the prejudice many of their members carried she didn’t imagine great things. The young boys in the camp were whom she was most concerned about. But knew only time would tell her what had happened there and prayed there would at least be someone left alive.

  When Zahyra eventually returned to the warped settlement just over an hour later, no amount of speculation could have prepared her for what she found.

  They re-entered the settlement through the hole in the wall Cain had made. Herself and Cain carried their rifles, armed and ready to shoot. Zac’s rifle was slung over Cain’s shoulder; the pair of them agreeing to his annoyance that he couldn’t be trusted to carry a weapon yet.

  They needn’t have worried about defending themselves however. An eerie silence hung over the settlement as they moved through it, heading in the direction of the main hall first. A few fires were still burning along the streets an
d Zahyra recoiled in horror as she noticed bodies that were being consumed by the flames. Then the smell came. The rotten stench of burning human flesh. She saw Zac physically grimace as the smell assaulted his mutated nostrils, his eyes scrunching up from the effect.

  Zahyra wondered who had moved the bodies into the flames, still yet to see anyone alive. The entire population of the settlement appeared to be either dead or missing, equally as many lying lifeless outside of the fires as there were in them.

  They passed their new home; a place Zahyra was sure they would now abandon very shortly and eventually reached the door to the main hall. Cain made a sign to Zahyra with his fist for her to wait outside while he took in a deep breath and stepped inside, his weapon poised to shoot. A few seconds later his face appeared again, beckoning her to come inside.

  The sight inside was perhaps even sadder than that of outside, even despite the absence of death. Occupying the entire main hall were just four people: Vincent, the council member who had first welcomed them into the warped settlement, two middle aged women, neither of whom Zahyra recognised and a young girl, no more than five or six years old.

  The four of them looked up at their entrance, their faces hopeful at the sight of new arrivals. Upon a lack of any resounding recognition the two women pulled their eyes back to the floor, their quiet sobs starting up again. Vincent however rose to his feet, reaching for a gun that lay propped up on a chair beside him.

  “What is he doing here?” He shouted across the hall, startling the women and child by his outburst, none of them having noticed Zac’s safe haven uniform.

  “It’s okay, Vincent,” Zahyra spoke slowly, raising her hands out in front of her. “He’s not one of them. He didn’t play any part in this.”

  “I’m not stupid,” Vincent called back. “He’s wearing the uniform. He’s responsible for what they did.”