Saving Eden (Original Series book 3)

by Rachel McClellan

  12

  Enfield is crowded when we return, more so than usual. Many Primes and some Originals have gathered together on the green speaking in hushed tones. The nervous energy in the air is suffocating.

  "What's got everyone so worked up?" I ask Tank. Jenna is up ahead, pushing her way through the crowd on her way to command. She doesn't seem to notice or care about the crowds.

  "Rafe must've told them what's coming, but that doesn't seem his style. He likes to keep information well contained." He shakes his head. "This can't be right. Something else is going on."

  I step into the crowd and close my eyes, feeling the warmth of the setting sun on my face. There are voices all around me. I focus my new hearing until individual words came into focus.

  "….escaped…"

  "…it didn't work…"

  "…kill him…."

  I jump in and out of conversations trying to find one that makes sense. That's when I hear it.

  "Colt almost escaped. They're going to kill him."

  My eyes snap open.

  I take off running toward command, not even stopping when Tank calls my name repeatedly. His footsteps aren't far behind. My legs push faster and harder until I am sprinting at a rate faster than ever before, and still I am not tired.

  I shove open the doors to the security building and run down the hall to command, passing even Jenna. She gasps in surprise. I push open the door, not even thinking it might be locked. It is. The lock shatters and the door crashes into the wall behind it.

  Rafe stands, his expression twisting into anger. "We had that locked for a reason."

  Myers is with him. He glances at the dent in the wall from the door and back at me. "Looks like it worked."

  "What happened to Colt?" I blurt.

  Rafe points at the open door. "Get out."

  I square my feet beneath me. "No."

  Rafe rises tall, towering even.

  Myers grabs hold of his arm. "We were just finishing. Call the meeting early. Everyone's anxious to find out what's going on anyway. It's not like they haven't heard the rumors."

  Rafe lowers his eyes to him and slowly returns them to me. "First, don't ever interrupt my meetings again. Second, I'll tell you when everyone else is in the room. And when it's over, you and I are going to do some training. I didn't want to rush you into a mission of this magnitude so soon, but we don't have a choice."

  "To do what?" Jenna asks from behind me.

  I turn around, my face reddening. How much had she heard?

  "Jenna," Myers said, "be a dear and go fetch Tank, Raven, and Jet. There is much to discuss."

  Her eyes flash to mine before she turns and leaves the room.

  Tank is the first one into the room. "What's going on? I heard someone say Colt escaped."

  "He tried," Rafe says, "and failed. Have a seat. We'll be discussing it soon."

  I drum my fingers against my thigh, trying hard to keep my mouth shut until they return. When they enter the room, Jet speaks briefly to me, but Raven ignores me altogether.

  "Some of you may have already heard the rumors," Rafe begins.

  We all look at each other.

  "Our sources can confirm that Colt did indeed try to escape. He managed to make it almost a mile outside of Boston before being apprehended again."

  "At least we know where he is for sure," Raven says. Her voice has a hint of worry in it. I don't think my regular hearing would've caught the difference.

  "We already knew that," Rafe answers.

  She sits up. "Then why haven't we rescued him?"

  "The place is heavily guarded. We had to make sure we were ready." His eyes flash to mine.

  "So are we ready now?" Jet asks.

  "We are. We had plans of attacking the facility in a couple of days, but things have changed now that he got recaptured. We intercepted a communication about thirty minutes ago. Ebony is moving Colt tomorrow night."

  "Where?" Tanks asks.

  "To L.A."

  My heart drops to my stomach. Originals and Primes taken to L.A. are never heard from again. It's a death sentence. "We have to stop it. Let's go to Terratas tonight. We can save him."

  Rafe shakes his head. "Our troops aren't quite ready."

  "We don't need them." I stare at him hard.

  Raven smirks. "Then how exactly do you think we should get him back? There's no way only a handful of us could do it."

  "She's right," Jenna whispers.

  "I can do it," I say firmly.

  Raven laughs out loud.

  "Not yet," Rafe says, his voice a warning. "You can't take on that many guards even in your condition."

  Jenna looks at me. "Condition?"

  "We have to try," I insist. "This is our only shot at getting him back!"

  "Actually, it's not," Myers says. "They are taking him to L.A. by train. It's a small one, no more than ten cars."

  "You want us to attack a moving train?" Tank asks.

  "Yes, but only a few of you. The rest of our army will attack Terratas at the same time. I want Ebony and the rest of the Institute to focus on what's happening there."

  "But using an army for just a distraction could cost lives," I counter.

  "It's not just a distraction." Rafe hands me a folder. "They’re manufacturing Fenoquel, and according to our intel, they plan on using it within a few weeks. The place needs to be destroyed. Not only that, but they have the locations of the other labs. The chemical used to make it is hard to obtain, so if we act quickly and destroy what we can, we can stamp it out altogether."

  I look through the papers. There are photos of a lab with dozens of workers. Many of the documents look classified with some of the words blacked out. What I can tell from them is Fenoquel is being created in mass quantities and put into an aerosol form. This makes me ill. The number of people they could harm…

  "How do we attack the train?" Tank asks.

  "I'll lead a team to Terratas," Rafe explains. "Tank, Sage and Jet will intercept the train and extract Colt."

  "Sage?" Jenna says. "That doesn't make sense. Why send her? She's by far our weakest link." Her eyes flash to mine. "No offense."

  "She is not our weakest link. Not even close," Rafe says.

  Myers clears his throat and shifts uncomfortably in his seat. Even I squirm. I'm not ready to share my secret.

  Rafe lifts his eyebrows. "She's more capable than you know."

  Raven snickers. "Um, she can't fight, gets winded on a five-mile run, and gets—"

  "You think you can take her?" Rafe interrupts.

  She laughs.

  "Fine," Rafe says and motions toward me. "If you can pin her, you can go with them to rescue Colt."

  I look from him to Raven. Every part of me wants to fight her, but that would mean revealing myself to the others.

  "You can't be serious?" Jet says. "Raven will kill her!"

  "No, she won't," Tank says.

  Jenna stares at him then glances at me. "What is going on?"

  "You're serious?" Raven asks, cracking her knuckles.

  Rafe looks at her deadpan. "Beat her."

  She rises to her feet. "Gladly. I've been wanting to bring her down a few notches since the day I met her."

  When she lunges for me, I push my feet against the floor sending my chair sliding backward to give me more space to work with. This was going to be worth it. "You guys might want to move."

  I've seen Raven fight. As a Soros, she's good, maybe even as good as Tank, but her bones will shatter under a direct blow. I don't want to take it that far, but I do want to hurt her.

  "This is crazy!" Jet yells. "Stop this now!" He looks from Rafe to Myers, but they don't respond.

  "You stupid Original," Raven snarls. "You've always thought you could be one of us."

  "Just fight me already!"

  Raven lunges for me, but I step out of the way. She is fast, but definitely holding back. She frowns and darts for me again. I easily maneuver out of her way.

  "Are
you going to hit me or what?" I ask.

  She growls and this time doesn't hold back. I barely manage to inhale my next breath before she is upon me. I block her fisted hand before it can hit my face. She tries with her other hand, but again I stop her.

  "What the hell?" Jenna whispers.

  Raven growls louder and begins to throw punches quickly. I block most of them, but when I risk a quick glance at Rafe, she manages to catch me on the left side of my jaw. My whole body lifts upward then collapses hard to the ground. I cough, blood spraying up and onto my face.

  Jet rushes to help me. "I told you this was stupid!"

  I wave him away and jump to my feet. Pain is there, but it's dulled almost as if she has punched me through a pillow.

  "Again," I say.

  Her eyebrows narrow. "You got it."

  She rushes me again, but I meet her half way with surprising speed. I match her blow for blow, dodging, kicking, hitting. It is an exhilarating feeling to fight someone like this. I never could before without getting majorly hurt.

  At one point, I feel a smile spread across my face. I could get used to this.

  "Stop!" Jenna yells.

  I step back, catching Raven's closed fist in my hand. I push it away and look at Jenna.

  Her expression is pained. "You turned yourself into a Prime? When?"

  I want to look away from her, but I force myself to keep looking. I will not feel ashamed for what I did. "After Anthony died. I'm going to save Colt, then all of us are going to stop the Institute once and for all."

  She's staring right through me as if she didn't hear anything I said. "You destroyed your Original DNA, the DNA we’ve been protecting since we met you? Do you know how many people died or almost died trying to protect you? And for what? So you could just shoot yourself up?"

  "It isn't like that. I'm tired of not being able to help."

  I want to add that if I didn't do it, they would've taken Link in my stead. If anything, she might understand that.

  "And you were!" she says, her voice growing louder. "Don't you remember anything Anthony said to you? Your words are powerful! They influence so many people!"

  "We don't need words right now," Tank says.

  Jenna's head snaps his direction. "You stay out of this. You're only saying that because you're grieving, but deep down you know what she did was wrong." She looks back at me. "Anthony would be so disappointed."

  She spits at my feet and walks out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

  I stare after her, my face burning in anger. I'm doing this to save people's lives! I take a few deep breaths, each one filling me with guilt I don't want to feel.

  "You made the right choice," Rafe says and looks at everyone in the room. "And the rest of us will support her decision, right?"

  "I guess," Jet mumbles and sits back down.

  Raven wipes blood from her lips and nods once.

  "I will report to my team tonight," Rafe says. "We’ll prepare tomorrow, then leave at sunset. We only have one shot at this, so let’s not screw it up."

  Raven walks toward the door.

  "You may have lost, but you earned your spot on that train," Rafe calls after her.

  "Whatever." She opens the door and exits.

  Rafe turns to me. "I want to spend several hours with you tomorrow training. I have the impression you were holding back with Raven just now. I want to see what you can do."

  "I'd like to be a part of that," Tank says.

  "Granted."

  "Me too?" Jet asks, his voice hopeful.

  "Not this time," Rafe answers. "I need someone to help organize the teams. I want them going into Terratas in three waves, with a surprise attack from the rear."

  Jet's face falls.

  "I need to get back," Myers says and stands. "I'll be in Boston with Ebony, but I'll keep a close eye on things and let you know her movements when I can."

  "Ebony?" I ask. "What are you doing with her?"

  "I'm the liaison between the Institute and the Government. She requested a meeting with me. I assume it's to discuss the release of Fenoquel into some of the outlying cities. She wants the government's seal of approval to use it. Not like it would stop her if we didn't give it though."

  I shake my head in disgust. "The government knows she’s going to do this and is doing nothing to stop it?"

  "What would you suggest we do? Those in power are older. Without the Institute’s oDNA, we would all contract the Kiss and die." When I open my mouth to yell at him, he quickly says, "I'm simply telling you how they all think and feel. I've lived my life, so when the time comes and my role is no longer needed, I will gladly walk away and finish my days in my small lake house." He inhales deeply. "I look forward to the peace."

  Tanks snorts. "I'm so glad you've gotten to live forty years longer than the rest of us."

  "Enough," Rafe orders. "We have work to do. Sage, Tank, meet me at sunrise at security. I'll take us somewhere we can train. But for now, rest. And no one say anything about Sage being a Prime just yet."

  I glance at him gratefully and leave the room, not waiting for Tank or anyone as I hurry outside. I want to be alone to think about everything that happened, especially what Jenna had said. Anthony might've been disappointed in me, but what choice did I have? If not me, then Link. I saved him, and I'm going to save the others.

  These thoughts should comfort me, but instead, a deep, empty pain clutches my chest. People are going to be upset. I knew this when I made my choice, but maybe not to this extent. Seeing Jenna's face… I lean against a tree for support while I catch my breath, not from any physical exertion, but from an aching heart. I don't want to see the look on my father's face when he realizes what I've done. Colt too.

  The people on the Green have nearly doubled. Everyone wants to know about Colt. He has become the revolution’s symbol of strength and freedom: a forbidden Prime who defied all odds simply by making it to adulthood then ended up leading a rebellion. It's a story they all want to be a part of.

  I stay with them for a time, hovering near the edges. People come and talk to me, giving their condolences. I smile and hug. They've gotten good at human contact, something people didn't do even a year ago. Now they can't seem to stop. They crave the interaction.

  Darkness falls. Rafe comes out, calling for certain groups to come forward. I listen in on their plans at first, but then focus my hearing elsewhere. I don't want to think about how many of them might get hurt. This is war, I remind myself, grinding my jaw together.

  Eventually, people begin to leave the Green. Part of me was hoping I'd see Jenna. Maybe I could explain to her that I had been trying to save Link, but deep down I know that isn't necessarily true. I wanted to hurt Ebony and the Institute, and I couldn't do it as an Original.

  I am the last to leave the Green, deliberately taking my time before I go see my father. I don't want to tell him just yet what I have done. It could break his heart.

  When enough time has passed, I walk to his lab and listen through the door. Everything is quiet. I gently open it and peer inside. There is a single light at the end of the hall leading to the lab. Again, there are no sounds, except… I focus harder. The rhythmic sounds of someone breathing deeply.

  I creep down the hall and open the door. A lamp on a long counter is turned on, but the ceiling lights are off. No one is there. I check the small room off the lab where I often find my father. He is there fast asleep on a cot. I relax and exhale a breath.

  Reaching inside a nearby desk, I quickly scribble a note telling him I will see him tomorrow and that I’m sorry I missed him. I peek in on him one last time before leaving. I love my father. He does so much for so many people. And he has done this without becoming a Prime. I swallow guiltily.

  Sleep doesn't come easy that night. I share a small cabin with Jenna, but she never shows up. I wake up and peek outside. It’s still dark, but the sky is graying. The sun will rise soon.

  I dress quickly and slip outside. There's a
chill in the air that normally would leave goose bumps on my skin, but the cold doesn't bother me at all. If anything, it invigorates me. I jog toward security. Tank is already there, looking up at the star-filled sky.

  "Do you think we’ll ever see him again?" he asks, not looking at me.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Anthony believed in God, in an afterlife. If he's right, then we will see him again."

  I shrug. "I don't think about things like that because it makes me mad."

  His eyes drop to mine. "Why?"

  "Because if there is a God, why does he allow all of this suffering?"

  "Suffering makes us stronger," a voice says from the darkness. Rafe steps out wearing a form-fitting black outfit. It looks similar to what I've seen the government soldiers wear. "Are you ready to go?"

  I look around. "Where's your car?"

  "We're running. I assume you'll have no trouble keeping up?"

  I nod, sudden adrenaline coursing through me. If suffering really did make us stronger, than I was more than ready to take whatever he could throw at me. I needed to be as strong as possible to save Colt.

  13

  Rafe sprints forward, but he doesn't go in the direction of the gates. Instead, he cuts through the forest, weaving in and out of the trees.

  I keep up easily even though I'm running faster than ever before. Tank's behind me. He chuckles, and I can't help but laugh too. The feeling of the air rushing past me as if I'm flying makes me feel invincible.

  Just up ahead is the enormous wall surrounding Enfield. My heart beats fast when I realize that Rafe isn't slowing down. In one giant leap, he clears the wall to the other side. I skid to a stop. I can't do that, can I?

  "Don't stop!" Tank says as he passes me. He also leaps over the wall with plenty of room to clear.

  I puff air quickly between my lips. I can do this. I sprint forward as fast as I can then just before I reach the wall, I push upward. The motion is awkward but I'm lifting up and over, but I don't clear it like the others. My right foot clips the top of the wall sending me spiraling down. I hit the ground hard. Air explodes from my lungs, and it takes me a few seconds to catch my breath.