The Corded Saga

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  She looked away. “I don’t think that.”

  “Kayla… you know he tried.” I couldn’t quite believe I was defending Bolton, but when push came to shove he was on our side.

  “I’m worried.” She watched the girls.

  “About him? About us?”

  “About everyone.”

  “Well, right now we have to be grateful the four of us are together. If they took the girls away it would be much worse.”

  “Exactly.” Kayla knelt down in front of them.

  “Or if they separated us. I’m never going through that again.” I’d known when Kayla and I had ended up in different vehicles that we were in for trouble. I’d never been more relieved in my life when she showed up in Central. Not only was I grateful for her saving us, but I was grateful that she was okay. Even if she was often the one protecting me, she would always be my little sister. I cared about her more than she’d ever know.

  I closed my eyes trying to remember how we’d ended up in this room. Instead of memories, remnants of the dream came back. My breathing picked up. It had been so real. So vivid. I hadn’t thought of a man that way since Benjamin. And even then I didn’t dream like that. All my dreams were intense now. The nightmares. And this one. I opened my eyes. “We can’t just sit here.”

  “What did they give us?” Kayla put a hand on the side of her head. “My head is killing me.

  “Who knows. I’m worried about the girls. Do you think it’s bad that they haven’t woken up yet?”

  “I hope not.” Kayla ran her fingers over Faith’s cheek. “I’m torn. I want to wake them so we know for sure they are okay, but once we wake them this is all going to be a whole lot more complicated.”

  “We have to know.” I knelt beside her.

  Bailey stirred before I could do anything. She opened her eyes. “Mama?”

  “Hi, baby. Are you feeling okay?”

  “Sleepy.”

  I nodded. “Me too. Me too.”

  She closed her eyes and yawned.

  “Well, your job was easy,” Kayla teased. “Faith.” She whispered softly. Faith mumbled something and curled up into a tighter ball.

  Kayla nodded. “They are okay.”

  I walked back over to the blind and looked out for the first time. We were high up. The ground looked several floors down.

  “I guess we aren’t climbing out the window, are we?” Kayla pressed her hand to the glass. “Look at all those.” She pointed to three tall buildings. “We must be in a structure like that.”

  “What is this place?”

  “I don’t know. I assume it’s still the Glen, but this definitely feels different from where we were before.”

  “Stay with the girls.” Kayla walked toward the door on the far side of the room.

  “Where are you going? You can’t really leave me with both of them. We stay together.”

  She touched the doorknob. It didn’t turn. “I need to find out more about where we are.”

  “Then we do it together. You need to stop this, Kayla. We are all part of a team. Even if we’re separated from the men, the four of us have to stay together.”

  “I know.” Kayla sighed. “It’s just so hard. I don’t want to put the girls at risk, but I feel like staying puts them at risk too.”

  “They are better off if we stay together. I am right about this. Just this once trust me.”

  “I’ve trusted you plenty of times.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Kayla, please. Now isn’t the time to make up stories.”

  “I have. I trust you. I always do. Just because I act impulsively doesn’t mean I don’t value your sage advice.”

  “Sage advice?” I laughed. “Now I know you are really stretching the truth.”

  She turned her back to the door. “We need a plan.”

  “Yes, we do. So, let’s make this one together.”

  Kayla jumped as the door jangled behind her. We waited, spread out just enough to create a visual barrier between the door and the girls.

  The door opened and Clayton, the bearded man from earlier, walked in. “Good morning again.” He grinned as though there was anything about the situation worth grinning about.

  “Where are the others?” There were so many questions to ask, but that one needed to be answered first. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think about Maverick without thinking about the dream. It was seared in my head.

  “Calm down.” Clayton made a downward motion with his hands.

  “Calm down?” Kayla gasped “You drugged us.”

  “It was nothing dangerous. I assure you.”

  “Nothing dangerous? You gave it to our daughters. Did you know how it would react in children?” Anger surged through me. Messing with me was one thing. Doing anything to the girls was something else entirely. I would do anything to protect them.

  “We knew it was safe.” He craned his neck to look around us. I assumed it was to get a better look at the girls. I moved to the side to block his view.

  “How?” Kayla crossed her arms over her chest. “How could you have known it was safe.”

  “Because it’s been tested.” He gave up trying to look. I’d been successful on one count.

  “On children?” Kayla pressed.

  “It’s been tested and used before. There is nothing to worry about. They are absolutely fine.” He pointed around us toward where the girls slept.

  “You don’t know that. You don’t know if they will still be fine in a few hours.” No one could know. Drugs could have all sorts of side effects. I had convinced myself everything was fine in order to keep calm, but I didn’t really know.

  “They will be. Listen. I understand your concern.” He bowed his head fractionally.

  “You can’t possibly understand our concern.” I struggled to keep my voice low so I wouldn’t wake up the girls.

  “Actually, I can.” He put his hands together as if in prayer. “You aren’t the only parents.”

  “What?” I let his words set in. “Are you saying there are other kids here?” I tried to remember what the man had said about clothing. Hadn’t he implied there weren’t other children?

  “There are some. And we want to bring in more. But that’s not what I’m referring to.”

  “You’re a father?” Kayla questioned. “From Central or…” She trailed off.

  “No.” He shook his head. “In the old-fashioned way.”

  “Where is the child?” Could it really be? I searched his face for evidence that his words were only lies.

  Clayton shook his head. “I wish I knew. They took my wife. And my son. You see we aren’t as different as you think.”

  “Why should we trust you?” He might be telling us this story to make us feel sorry for him. To gain our trust. But trust was a fragile thing.

  “I have no answer to that other than to posit the question, why shouldn’t you trust me?” He rested his chin in his hand.

  “Because you separated us from the others. Because you drugged us.” And the list went on.

  “What if there are good reasons for that?” He tugged on his beard. “Would that change your view of things?”

  “Oh yes. Good reasons.” Kayla rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, these reasons have to do with the importance of rules. Got it.”

  “You both hate rules? Why?” His pensive look returned.

  “Answer our questions first.” Technically he was in control, but that didn’t mean we had to make it easy on him. Going with the flow wasn’t usually the best course of action.

  “What questions? You made a statement.”

  I sighed. “Why did you separate us? Why did you drug us? Now I phrased them as questions. Answer.”

  “I will, but you have to promise to let me explain everything. Don’t interrupt.”

  “We’re not promising you anything.” Kayla shot me a look. As if I was going to disagree with her? Sometimes my sister frustrated me with her lack of faith in me.

  A look resembling awe crossed
Clayton’s face. “You two have a strength I’ve rarely seen.”

  “We hear that a lot.” Kayla yawned.

  “Does that come from your parents? Your upbringing?”

  “Why does any of that matter?” There was no reason for us to explain ourselves. Our past wasn’t of issue.

  “Because it does. Because I believe in the old way of things.”

  “And that’s what you have here?” I tried to follow. This conversation was going nowhere.

  He shook his head. “Not now. Not yet. But one day.”

  “Please explain everything to us.” I looked over at Kayla, hoping she was going to follow my lead. We needed answers, and if that meant humoring this guy and hearing his story then so be it.

  “Did you love her?” Kayla asked. “The mother of your child?”

  “Love.” Clayton rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s an interesting term.”

  “You don’t believe in it?” I knew this question wasn’t the most pertinent, but it was a question I asked myself all the time. Did love exist outside the confines of family? Was there such a thing as true romantic love? And if there had been before, was it gone now? I fought against my feelings for Maverick constantly.

  “It’s not the matter of believing.” Clayton shifted his weight from foot to foot. “It’s the matter of understanding it.”

  “Understanding it? It’s not that complicated. Either you have it or you don’t.”

  “Have you ever been in love?” He inclined his head to the side. “And I don’t mean for your sister and daughter. I mean romantic love.”

  “Yes.” Kayla nodded. “I have.”

  I wondered if she realized the can of worms she’d opened. What if he asked if she was in love with Bolton?

  Clayton nodded. “Very well. The Glen was all my idea. I don’t say that to take credit, I say that so you understand where this all started.”

  Kayla and I exchanged looks. All his idea? And he claimed he wasn’t a leader.

  “Oh?” Kayla gestured for him to continue.

  “I knew other safe havens existed. Pockets. Places outside of the purview of the clubs or Central, but none of them had a greater mission. None of them could see beyond the short-term. I don’t blame them. The short-term is important. Saving even one child is important, but what if we could do more? What if we can change the face of the future?”

  “Does your plan involve getting rid of Central? Because eventually Central or the Traders find every haven.” Kayla frowned. I felt exactly the same way she did.

  “Is that what happened to you? Is that how you ended up here?” Clayton’s voice was softer now.

  “Isn’t this supposed to be your story?” I had no time for this. “Not ours.”

  “But our stories have intersected. That makes it relevant.” He was playing mind-games.

  “If our story is relevant explain the use of the drugs. Separating us. We’ve been waiting patiently for answers. If you can take the time to question us, you can answer those.”

  “Waited patiently?” He tugged on his beard.

  “Yes. We’ve waited very patiently.” I tapped my foot. I didn’t say I was still patient.

  “Is this what you call patient?”

  “Yes.” I stopped tapping. “If you think this is impatient you don’t want to know what the real thing is.”

  He laughed. “Maybe I do.”

  I remained stone-faced. “Nothing we’ve said is funny.”

  “We drugged you because it was the safer option.” He took a seat on an empty bed. Kayla and I moved to continue to block his view of the girls.

  I glanced at Bailey still curled up with Faith. At least they had each other. “Safer option? You mean easier.”

  “Easier?” He raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t say that.”

  “How’d you do it anyway? Did you put something in the water?” Try as I might I couldn’t remember anything. I was careful not to try too hard lest more memories of the dream would come back.

  “Yes.”

  “I knew I tasted something.” Kayla sighed.

  “Yet you drank it.”

  “Sometimes we don’t have a choice in what we do. We have to do it.” She rubbed the back of her head again. I worried that her head was hurting more than mine. My headache was already fading away.

  “You’ll have some choices now.”

  “Oh? Will we?” I sounded like Kayla with all the sarcasm.

  “Yes. We all have power in the Glen.”

  “Power. Right.” Kayla put a hand on her hip. “I’m sure.”

  “I understand your skepticism. You have lived lives that encouraged that attitude. But those lives are over.”

  “We aren’t staying long.” Kayla crossed her legs at the ankles.

  “Why not?” He said it so simply. As though he didn’t have an agenda even though he quite clearly did.

  “Because we won’t be.” Kayla stared him down.

  “That isn’t an answer. Where is it you are going? What are you searching for? Or is it not a place but a person?”

  Kayla paled. He’d hit the nail on the head when it came to her. I knew she was searching for a safe place, just like the rest of us, but she’d always be searching for Mason.

  I answered for her. “Where we are heading is none of your business.”

  “It is our business so we can help you get there.”

  “We don’t need your help.” Kayla snapped.

  “No? You planned to leave the way you came? Through the dirty water?”

  “No. We will find a new way.” She raised her chin.

  “The is no other way. We are protected here.”

  “There is always another way.” Now wasn’t the time to give up.

  “Not here.” Clayton shook his head. “The sooner you face that fact the better.”

  He wasn’t just talking about the way out. He was letting us know we had no choice but to follow his rules.

  Kayla stomped her foot. “No. I haven’t come this far, fought this hard, to be trapped.”

  “You aren’t trapped. You are finally free. Free to make good choices for once. Not just for you but for your children.”

  “I’m sorry you do not have your child with you, but that does not mean I’m going to turn over any control over my own.” I gritted my teeth.

  “Nor do we expect you to. Your girls are still with you, are they not?”

  “You drugged them. That was not something we agreed to.” There was no way I was putting any trust in this man or anyone else at the Glen for that matter.

  “And that will never happen again.” Clayton gazed into my eyes. “You have my word.”

  “And why would your word mean anything to us?” Kayla said exactly what I was thinking.

  “It won’t now, but it will eventually.”

  Kayla shook her head. “It won’t.”

  “How can you know that already?” His face reddened.

  His growing frustration didn’t deter Kayla. “Where are the others?”

  “The men?” Clayton asked as if there was anyone else we would be asking about.

  “Yes.” She scowled.

  “In the men’s area.”

  “You are a man, yet you are here,” I pointed out.

  “To visit. Not to stay.”

  “Then why can’t they visit?”

  “They will once they get set into their new jobs.”

  “Jobs?” I asked with surprise. I was relieved he hadn’t said he’d kicked them out. But jobs? I wasn’t expecting that.

  “One is a doctor. One a farmer. Both are valuable here.”

  “How do you know what they are?” I couldn’t imagine the men would have shared much willingly. They were likely frantic about our whereabouts.

  “It was easy enough to discern.”

  “And what of us?” Kayla clasped her hands together in front of her. “Have you discerned our value?”

  “Your value? You both know you are valuable on many levels.
But you are both farmers as well, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” Kayla nodded.

  “Then you can work in the fields.” Then he turned to me. “Or you can make clothing if you prefer.”

  “How did you know—”

  “As I said. None of this is hard to discern. “If your daughters are ready, I would be happy to give you a tour.”

  Kayla rocked back on her heels. “We won’t be staying long enough to need a tour.”

  “Oh yes. How could I forget? Then take a tour so you can learn from what we have here.”

  “We don’t need to learn—”

  “We would love a tour.” I cut Kayla off. A tour is what we needed. We might find Bolton and Maverick that way. Or another way out. Both were things that needed to happen soon.

  Kayla

  On the surface, the Glen was exactly what we’d thought. A commune trying to fly under the radar of Central and the traders. In some ways, it felt like a much bigger version of where we’d left, but in other ways, I immediately knew it was something different.

  There were distinct sections just like Clayton had explained. Some were for living. Some for working. There was an entire medical complex—the area where Maverick would likely be spending the vast majority of his time. There were also acres upon acres of fields and orchards. A military and weapons center, as well as a textile area. It took several days to finish our complete tour of the entire place, and I nearly flash-backed to my tour of the club. Everything was so organized and separate. Just as it had been there. It reminded me that no matter what, humanity found the same ways to survive. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was good or bad. And it made me miss Mason even more than I did already.

  Thankfully by the end of the second day of touring we had found both Bolton and Maverick.

  “Kayla!” Bolton yelled out my name the second we reached the military zone where he was working. He tossed down a pack of something, and luckily all it did was make a clinking sound. With weapons one never knew.

  “Bolton.” Without really thinking about it I ran toward him, holding Faith tightly in my arms.

  The other men- and noticeably women, I’d never seen quite so many in the same place before—working inside turned to look at us. I ignored them. I had more important things to worry about than the other workers.