The Corded Saga

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  “No. That was usually my mom’s thing…” she trailed off. Although Bailey liked to pretend she didn’t mind being in the dormitory, she’d had a harder time with it initially. She’d quickly put her rose-colored glasses on, but there was a short period of time when they slipped off and she’d let her true feelings show.

  “So, is this dress good enough for you? Can we go to this wondrously exciting event now?” I wouldn’t let things get to me any more than they already had. It was time. I was strong enough to handle anything.

  She smoothed out her dress. “If you go in with that attitude you will have a terrible time.”

  “If I go in with any attitude I’ll have a terrible time. I don’t want to go. It’s an absolutely ridiculous tradition that needs to disappear.” I straightened my shoulders. I tended to hunch over when I was stressed, and that only showed fear. I refused to show how I felt.

  “It’s already disappearing. It’s now only every three years. You’re lucky your eighteenth birthday lined up with a ball year.”

  “Lucky. Yes. That’s the word.” I fought the urge to roll my eyes. That always annoyed her.

  “If you maintain a positive attitude, you may just surprise yourself.”

  And it was time for brutal honesty. “You know I would be okay if you left.”

  “I know you would be, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you.”

  “Why not?” I brushed my hair away from my face. “I want you to be happy, and if partnering off with someone is going to make you happy, you should do it.” I didn’t really think she’d find happiness that way, but who was I to tell her what she wanted or needed? I didn’t want her doing it to me, so I couldn’t do it to her.

  She stood and walked toward me. “We are supposed to stay together.”

  “But we can’t stay together, and both have the happiness we want. There is no way.”

  “Yes, there is.” She took my hands in hers. “We just need to end up with friends. Or even brothers. That’s possible.”

  I didn’t want to destroy her optimism, but I didn’t believe in sugar coating anything. Especially not the bad. No matter what you wrapped around a pill, it was still medicine. “Bailey, you aren’t getting it. I don’t want to be with anyone. I want to remain on my own. Wanting independence isn’t a bad thing. I’m not weak or somehow unworthy because of it.”

  “But the future…” she trailed off again. She was doing that more and more often now.

  “There are plenty of others to see to that. Plus, I can contribute in other ways.” I was worth more than my potential reproductive capacity. Considering what our moms had lived through, Bailey should have understood that, but sometimes it’s impossible to change someone’s mind.

  “They’ll never let you out of here unless you agree to a match. And if you get out you can see your parents.” And she went straight for the jugular so to speak.

  “How do we know? How do we know they are even still out there? We know nothing.” And I wasn’t going to trust blindly in anything.

  “I’m not telling you that you have to fall in love with someone. Let’s be real. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find someone you like well enough and that can get you out of here. You don’t want to stay in the Glen forever.” Bailey was changing tactics.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I know you. I know you are bored with this life.”

  “I am not bored. I’m stir-crazy. There’s a big difference.” I eyed the tiny window on the other side of the room. It was dark outside, so I couldn’t see anything through it, yet I longed to slip through it into the night. Why weren’t we born with wings? It would have made life a whole lot easier.

  Bailey followed my gaze but didn’t comment. “Big difference or not, both would be helped if you were able to leave.”

  “Maybe.” I knew she was right, but that didn’t mean I was going to do this on anyone else’s terms.

  She put her hands on my shoulders. “You don’t have to be afraid.”

  “I’m not afraid,” I shot off immediately while tearing my eyes from the window.

  “You’re afraid of what happens when we get out of here. Of what happens when we see our parents again.”

  “I’m not afraid.” The words felt strange coming from my mouth even though they were words I used often enough.

  “It’s okay to be afraid. It’s normal.”

  “But I’m not afraid,” I argued, feeling the threat of tears building behind my eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter. We’re going.”

  “Then I’m wearing this.” I ran my fingers over the flutter sleeve of my dress.

  “Wear that. It doesn’t matter. At least you made an effort.”

  “I made a real effort,” I mumbled.

  “I heard that.”

  “So? How is you hearing that a bad thing?”

  “I don’t know. You tell me. You were the one who mumbled.”

  “Nothing. Forget I said anything…” Bailey wasn’t the only one taken to trailing off lately.

  Quinn

  The tunnels were far worse than I’d expected. I’d prepared myself for the darkness and heat, but I hadn’t prepared myself for the sensation of being trapped. Or the flashbacks. Even my always prepared sister felt it too.

  “This was a mistake.” Maverick was the first one to voice it out loud.

  “You think?” Kayla mumbled.

  “You are forgetting the alternative.” Bolton pushed on ahead. He seemed to be the only one of us not affected by our decision to leave. He kept on moving forward, only pausing when we reached a new fork in the tunnels. Unfortunately, we’d hit quite a few of them.

  Eventually, the girls had fallen silent. Bailey walked right beside me. Faith clung to Kayla. She wouldn’t let anyone else hold her. I had the idle thought about how she’d be when she finally met her father, whether she’d warm to him, but I kept it to myself. There was absolutely no reason to upset Kayla more than she already was.

  “Yet the alternative may be far better than this.” We didn’t know what we’d left behind. That was the problem. We’d left in fear, the way we always left, but it was sloppy, and it was dangerous.

  “Yes, because you wanted me to be the sacrificial lamb and go out and check,” Bolton called over his shoulder. “I know why you suggested that, Quinn.”

  “You don’t.” I knew what he was implying. “Don’t get confused here. I don’t hate you.”

  “But you wish I weren’t around.” Bolton kept trudging forward.

  “That’s not true either.” I was too tired for this argument. “Don’t pretend to understand me.”

  “Okay. That’s enough.” Maverick put his hands out, one toward each of us.

  “No. It’s not.” Bolton stopped. “It’s not enough.”

  “What do you want me to say?” If I wasn’t careful I was going to say something I regretted.

  “I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to understand that I’m not going anywhere. And I want you to understand that you should be thanking me for saving Kayla, not punishing me for loving her.”

  “Loving her?” I gasped. Had he really said those words out loud?

  “Yes. Why is that so hard for you to understand?”

  “Let’s keep moving.” Kayla adjusted Faith in her arms, making sure she was mostly on her hip. I was sure her arms and back were aching, but I didn’t offer to hold Faith again.

  “That’s all you are going to say?” Bolton wrung his hands at his sides. Maybe the tunnels were getting to him too. Or maybe he was finally facing reality.

  “What is it you want to hear?” Kayla looked right at him, looking deep into his eyes.

  Bolton shook his head. “I can’t even with you two.”

  “Then don’t.” I shrugged.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “Then what’s the point of being so argumentative?” We were wasting our breath and our energy.

  “You tried to get me to leave. I’m tr
ying to help all of you, yet you are trying to get rid of me.” His eyes were wide, but there was no anger. Just hurt.

  I did my best to deescalate the situation. “In the end, only two lives here matter. We all know whose they are.”

  “It’s not only their lives that matter.” Maverick watched me carefully. “Please remember that.”

  “But they have to come first. They are so young.”

  “As are you.” Maverick lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “I’m not picking sides here. I’m not agreeing with Bolton, but right now we need to stick together. We have no idea what we’re going to face next.”

  “Or how we are getting out of here.” Kayla slipped around the still frozen Bolton and took the lead.

  “You shouldn’t be first. At least not if you are holding Faith.” I added that part before she could snap at me about underestimating her.

  “Faith doesn’t want to be held by anyone else.” Kayla sped up. So much for listening to me.

  “I don’t see why Kayla can’t lead.” Bolton stayed right behind her.

  “See that’s my problem with you. You don’t care.”

  “No, I put my trust in Kayla. As you should too.” He didn’t even turn around.

  “Stop!” Kayla snapped. “Stop this now. Do any of you actually want to get out of here? Because I do! We’ve been down here for hours. What happens if it becomes days? Weeks? Sure, we have food for now, but it can’t last forever. We need to keep moving.”

  “You’re right.” I knew she was correct. Anything I needed to say to Bolton could be said later. “Let’s go.”

  We continued through the tunnels. I tried to ignore the uncomfortable tightness in my chest. I ended up carrying Bailey most of the time. She was getting heavier, but she was my daughter. I would do what I had to for her.

  “You know I can hold her. She doesn’t mind.” Maverick put a gentle hand on my arms.

  “I know that.”

  “Then why haven’t you asked me to?”

  “Why haven’t you offered?” I volleyed back.

  “I’m offering now.”

  “I want Faith.” Bailey pushed out of arms and darted ahead to catch up with Kayla. “Faith.”

  I listened to her prattle on. She still barely talked unless it was to her little cousin. I hoped that maybe they could have a sister-like relationship similar to Kayla and me. I certainly wasn’t planning on giving her more siblings. I never wanted to bring more innocents into our horrible world.

  “We must have missed an exit somewhere,” I said what we were all thinking. Kayla had foreseen our future. The hours had indeed become days. And then weeks. We’d taken to sleeping in a huddle while taking turns keeping watch.

  Bailey was taking it in stride, which filled me with a deep sadness. She shouldn’t have been—but after having been through so much in her short life, this was just another setback to her. Faith cried. She had spent her whole life at the camp. She hadn’t known fear before, and she was learning it now.

  “I know, but do we dare double back?” Maverick asked.

  “Shouldn’t you have special skills to help us with this, Maverick? Didn’t they make you all into weapons?” Kayla stopped short after we hit another fork in the tunnel.

  Maverick shrugged. “I don’t know what skills I have.”

  “Now would be a really good time to figure that out.” Kayla set Faith down and knelt beside her.

  “Wawa.” Faith’s words echoed off the low ceiling.

  “We are almost out of water, baby,” Kayla spoke in a soothing voice. “We will find more soon.”

  “No. Wawa.” Faith pointed to the right. “Wawa.”

  “Is she trying to say there is water that way?” Bolton asked.

  “How could she possibly know that?” I knew my words came out harsher than intended, but I was hot, tired, and thirsty. I’d been giving almost all of my portion of the supplies to Faith.

  “She couldn’t.” Kayla ran her hand over Faith’s hair. “I don’t think. But why not let her help us with this decision? None of us are doing a good job so far.”

  “Agreed.” Bolton started down the right tunnel.

  I really hoped Faith had guessed right.

  Mason

  “We have no idea who these people are.” Addison paced the small space under the threadbare overhang. It had been less than twenty minutes after meeting Thomas, but it already felt like an eternity. So many plans were made. So many possibilities floated. Yet there we were still standing on the same side of the wall.

  “Well, we know who Thomas is.” I still couldn’t quite believe we’d run into him, but the population of our world was shrinking. There weren’t all that many of us left—particularly those who weren’t working for Central either directly or indirectly.

  “Or we think we do. Technically we can’t know for sure.” Addison stopped pacing, and instead began fidgeting with the gold bracelet she’d been wearing since Denver presented it to her right before he left.

  “You really think he’s faking it?” I might have thought the same thing if I hadn’t seen parts of Kayla in him. His cheeks, the curve of his nose. Family lines were so few and far between; it was impossible to ignore them when you saw them.

  Addison sighed. “No. I don’t.”

  “I don’t either. And they have the same nose.”

  She laughed. “Nose? Really, Mason?”

  “Yes. And cheeks. Don’t laugh. If you’d looked at him more closely you would have seen it too.”

  “You have her face memorized.” It wasn’t a question.

  I answered anyway. “I do.” I had everything about her memorized.

  “That’s sweet.” She spun the bracelet around her wrist. “But kind of annoying. I mean despite everything, you still really care that much. I don’t see how it’s possible.”

  I shrugged. “Possible or not, it is.”

  Addison stopped turning the bracelet. “We can’t put this off much longer.”

  “No, we can’t.” We used those words so often, talking about time as if it were the most precious commodity. And maybe it was. So much could happen in any space of time. The possibilities only multiplied the more time you gave. I tried not to think of the possibilities of what might have happened to Kayla in my absence. My survival and strength depended on believing she was okay. Most of the time it also depended on my believing she was waiting for me—but I understood that I would not and could not blame her if she wasn’t. From her perspective it would be very hard to believe I was still alive or coming back.

  “We go in with them?” Addison pulled me out of my thoughts about Kayla. It was so easy to fall into a trance—picturing her eyes. Her lips. Remembering the feel of her skin.

  I nodded. “I can’t come up with another plan that sounds any better, can you?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I can’t. Everything else seems even more reckless than usual.”

  “This is still reckless. Completely reckless. Make no mistake about it.” I don’t know why I felt the need to remind her about that, but I did. Maybe I wanted to give her one more chance to change her mind—but changing her mind wasn’t going to protect her. Nothing was.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t.” Addison rolled back her shoulders and walked over to where Thomas and a few other men talked.

  We were no longer alone, but that didn’t make facing the wall any easier. Thomas and his men had no explanation for the silence, or better put, the death, of every Central force member we found. Of course, our new acquaintances could have been lying, but something about their words rang true. Either way, we needed to work with them if we hoped to accomplish anything.

  “Have you made up your mind?” Thomas sauntered over. He looked so much older than his age. He was the youngest of the three siblings, but the years had most certainly aged him. They had aged all of us.

  “Yes. We will join you.”

  “Excellent.” Thomas angled himself so he was looking at both us and the wall. �
�We don’t know what we will find on the other side of the wall, but it’s a chance we have to take.”

  “Exactly.” Addison nodded. Her doubts about Thomas seemed to have disappeared or been brushed aside.

  “Just because they are dead on this side doesn’t mean they’ll be dead on the other.” A lanky teenage boy walked over.

  “Isin, you missed the introductions. This is Mason and Addison.” He pointed to each of us as he listed our names. “They know my sisters.”

  “Really?” His eyes widened. “Are they as pretty as he says?”

  I answered immediately. “Kayla is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

  “Prettier than her?” Isin’s eyes zeroed in on Addison. “Because I can’t really believe that.”

  Addison rolled her eyes. “Please. I’m probably the only girl you’ve ever seen.”

  “Not the only…” he trailed off.

  “But one of the only.”

  “I’ve met two others.”

  Addison’s lips twisted into a smile. “Okay, so lay off the fake flattery.”

  “It’s not fake. You are beautiful.” He tilted his head to the side. “Honest.”

  “Isin, was it?” I knew his name, but sometimes it helps to make someone think you didn’t quite care enough to internalize it the first time. “Just stop it. She’s not in the mood.”

  Addison frowned. “I don’t need you jumping in.”

  “No, you don’t. But we’re wasting time.” We were always wasting time. “All this talk of Kayla just makes me more motivated to get things done so we can get back.”

  Addison chuckled. “Not that he’s crazy about her or anything.”

  “Who’s wasting time now?” Thomas’s voice had a scolding tone.

  Point taken. “What’s the plan?”

  “We need to find a weakness in the force field.” Thomas pointed to what appeared to be a brick wall that reached up toward the sky. We all knew it was more than that. A brick wall would be incredibly easy to knock down. A force field not so much.