Two guards jump to their feet, especially at the mention of E4. That's the name of the building that holds all of their weapons. A third guard, however, stays behind, standing behind a long counter.
"This way," I call and hurry outside while I fumble in my front pocket for the Taser.
The two Primes race after me. I run around the corner of the building, and just when I'm out of view from the third guard, I deliberately trip and fall to the ground. The closest guard reaches down to help me up, but before he can touch me, I roll onto my back and shove the Taser into his stomach. A jolt of electricity shoots through his body, knocking him unconscious.
The other guard withdraws a gun from a holster on his hip and points it at me. "What do you think you—"
Link appears from nowhere and shocks him to the ground.
I scramble to my feet. "There's one more inside that didn't follow."
"Go!" Link orders. "I'll hide these bodies and take care of the other one."
"Thanks," I say and hurry the other direction away from the road and toward a group of trees I had spotted earlier.
As soon as I reach the cover of the forest, I run as fast as I can. The sky has turned the color of charcoal on old parchment paper. I know the color well because it reminds me of a letter I read every day up until I was forced from my home in Maine. It was a love letter my father had given my mom on their tenth wedding anniversary. I found it hidden at the bottom of my father's drawer when I was nine. I never told him that I stole it, and he never noticed it was missing.
I don't know why I'm thinking about this letter as I race through the woods. I haven't thought about it in months, but now it's all I can think about.
"We make tough choices every day," my father had written. "Life can't just be about survival. We need to cry and laugh and love each other through these difficult times. These are the things that set us apart from them. My life with you, Scarlet, has been a good one. You and our children have brought me so much joy. I never want to give that up. I promise you I will make a better world for them to live, for you to live in."
There were many more beautiful words, but suddenly they're just gone. The site right before me has shattered them into a thousand pieces, scattering those charcoal words up to the gray sky where I will never recover them again.
31
I'm at the Towers. There are at least a hundred Originals lined up in ten rows. The youngest Original looks to be about eighteen, making me wonder where they've taken the children, if there are any. They’re all barefoot and wearing a single tattered garment that hangs to their bony knees. Many of them are hunched over as if they don't have the strength to stand. The sight is disturbing, but not as horrific as what is happening in front of them.
An older Original woman is on all fours, the back of her gown torn open. My mother stands over her with her hand raised high. In her closed fist, she grips the handle of a thick, leathered bullwhip.
"You have one last chance," she says, her voice sharp. "Tell me where you're hiding the Original!"
Several guards surround the Originals, each of them holding weapons.
The woman at her feet cowers, her whole body shaking, but says nothing.
There's a crack in the air as the bullwhip comes down across the woman's back. The force drops her to her stomach, gasping for air. The crowd winces, including some of the Primes, but not my mother.
My breathing quickens. "Mom?" The word barely crosses my lips. Even though she looks just like my mother, I do not know this woman.
"I need an answer," my mother growls.
"She doesn't know!" a voice calls from the neatly formed lines. "None of us do."
My mother whirls around. "Who said that?"
A tall, well-built man, probably in his late thirties, steps forward. Of all the Originals, he looks the healthiest.
"Jack. I should’ve known." My mother walks over to him. "What do you know about the Original? And don't you dare lie to me."
He lifts his chin a little. "We have had no reports of an Original coming into Enfield. It doesn't even make sense."
"Are you saying our intel is wrong?"
His gaze lowers to hers. "Your intel? Last time I checked, you're an Original just like us."
Without warning, she raises her hand and smacks the handle part of the whip across his face, splitting his lip open.
"Lower yourself," she commands.
The muscles on the sides of Jack's jaw flex.
"Now, or we'll give her your punishment." My mother points to the woman on the ground.
Jack begrudgingly lowers himself to the ground. She raises the whip high above her head.
I can't believe what I'm seeing. I can't believe it's my mother causing so much pain. What did they do to her to make her be so cruel? I know I should be silent until I can find a moment alone with her, but I can't just let this happen.
"Mom!" I yell.
Her arm freezes midair.
"It's me, Sage!"
Very slowly she turns around, her face pale and eyes wide. She blinks several times, staring at me as if I'm a ghost.
"Please stop," I beg her.
A guard moves toward me, but my mother says, "No. I'll talk to her. Take everyone else to containment."
"Containment? Are you sure?" the guard asks.
"Do it!" she snaps, her eyes still focused on me.
Several of the guards move toward the Originals and shove them along. Before Jack rises from the ground, he looks at me. There's something in his eyes, an intensity that makes me shiver. He shakes his head and opens his mouth like he's about to say something, but a guard shoves him instead.
"Are you the Original that snuck in?" my mother asks, her voice soft. The voice I remember.
I nod my head, my chest tightening with a thousand emotions I thought were buried.
"This way," she says. She waits for me to come next to her before she continues forward. I feel her eyes on me as we walk, but I don't dare meet her gaze. Two guards follow behind us.
She leads me to a small building next to the Towers. The only thing I know about it from Stella's map is that the structure is simply called "Management". It's nice inside, really nice with marbled floors in a large entryway and a set of stairs that sweeps up to a second floor. Just beyond the entryway, there's a plush living room with a tall, mantled fireplace.
"In here," she says when I stop moving, too stunned by my surroundings. I've never been in such a nice home before.
I cross the entry to a large office. She stops two guards from coming in behind us.
"Wait out here, please," she orders. "We'll be fine."
As soon as the door closes, she whirls around, her expression as gentle as when I was a child, and throws her arms around me. "Oh my sweet baby! I never thought I would see you again!"
I don't mean to hug her back or to enjoy being in her arms, not without answers anyway, but I can't help it. My mother is alive and holding me!
After a moment, she pulls away. Her eyes glisten with tears. "Max. Where's Max? Is he safe?"
I smile and nod, blinking back my own tears. "He's being well taken care of."
"Where? I want to see him." The familiarity of her smile warms my heart.
"At Eden. And he's happy and incredibly smart, Mom."
She smiles again. "I'm so glad. You look well too."
At this, I frown. The frown turns to full on tears. The pain of everything I have endured the last couple of weeks finally catches up to me. I nearly collapse to the floor, but my mother catches me in her arms.
"What is it, Sweetie?" She strokes the back of my hair.
Before I answer, I ask, "Why were you hurting those people out there?"
Her chest rises big and falls. She pulls away so she can see my eyes. "Horrible things are happening here. If I don't play my part, they will hurt not only me, but the others, in more ways then you could ever imagine. I hate what I did. You have to believe me."
Tears spill over my lids. I
don't know if I do understand, but I get the fear of pain. "It's okay, Mom. It's over. I'm going to get you out of here."
Her eyes widen in fear and glance around frantically. "I can't leave! They will kill me, kill others!"
I take hold of her arms. "Look at me. It's over. Do you understand?"
Her eyes search mine, almost as if she's trying to discern if I'm telling the truth, her own daughter. I understand what Stella meant now. It has to be me to convince her. She wouldn't have believed anyone else.
"Is it really true?" she whispers.
I smile and nod through tears that well up again.
"Are you okay, Sage? Did something happen to you?"
I bury myself into her chest, tears and words spilling fast through a sea of emotions. "Oh, Mom. It was so scary. I woke up at the Institute with no memory of who I was. Max was in the room next to me, and I didn't even know him. I left him, Mom!" I sniff hard.
"Shh," she coos, rubbing my back. "But everything worked out, right? You said he's at Eden. Did you go with him?"
I pull away. "Eventually we made it. Some really good Primes helped us. It was hard, though. People died." I swallow. "I nearly died."
"I'm so glad you're okay." She smiles kindly. "I always wanted to go to Eden, but I never knew where it was. Your father promised he would take me there one day, but, obviously, that didn't happen."
I take hold of her hand. "Well it's happening now. I'll get you there. I promise."
"Is it far?"
"Not by air, which is how we'll be going. I bet we can get you to Purgatory Island by tonight and you can see Max. I can't wait to see the expression on his face!"
She laughs, her eyes tearing again. "How did you find me? I can't imagine how difficult it must've been."
"Stella was at Eden. Do you remember her?"
"Of course! She was my very dear friend. How is she?"
"She's good." I dry my eyes with the back of my hand. "How did you get here, Mom?"
She clears her throat. "I want to tell you everything, really I do, but first I must know, you said 'we' earlier. How many are helping in my escape? We need to be careful."
My lips turn upward. "We're not here to save just you. We're here for all the Originals. As soon as the electrical field is shut off, HOPE is going to storm this place!"
"Really?" Her eyes narrow. "When?"
"Maybe now. My friend Link is doing it as we speak."
She straightens and looks around, her face pinched.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
Her eyes come back to me. "I'm glad you've come. It's not the timing I would've chosen, but it is what it is." She walks to the door and opens it. To the nearest guard she says, "Our program is ending. We've been comprised."
"What program?" I ask, as the guard rushes away.
She moves back to me and takes hold of my shoulders. "There are things you don't understand, nor could you possibly understand unless you come with me."
"Where?"
"Away from here. Now." Her face is hard and callous again..
I step away from her. Her hands fall from my shoulders. "I can't just leave. There are people here who need our help!"
She grabs a bag from within a cupboard and opens a drawer. "Nonsense. They are already whispers of death." She snatches a stack of files and places them inside the bag. "You will come with me."
"I won't."
She stretches upward and the way she does it, so authoritative-like, has me imagining that bullwhip in her hand again.
"Listen," she says, "I don't know what foolish ideas your father has put in your head, but they're wrong. Society is doomed, both Primes and Originals, but if you come with me, you'll learn about a new life, a more perfect one. Everything I've done the last several years has been for you and Max, including sending Stella to find and convince you to come to me. I would've done it myself, but I was needed here."
"Stella? But she's been living at Eden for years." My insides begin to tremble, especially when I realize she's saying all of this in front of the other guard who looks mildly amused and not at all concerned.
My mother huffs. "That's because I thought your father would take you kids there after I left, but he obviously didn't, despite us receiving intel to the contrary. He tricked us. I assumed since I hadn't seen you that Stella never made it to Eden at all, possibly even died trying to get there. I had given up hope, but then Ebony told me she had captured you. She was going to bring you to me, you know. Both the first and the second time." She stops moving and looks up at me, chuckling. "You really are a clever girl."
I should say something. I know I should, but I can't seem to form the words.
"I'm glad you're here, Sage. Your timing couldn't be more perfect for what's to come."
"What are you talking about? What's going to happen to everyone?"
She glances at the guard. "Take her."
I scramble away from him, but there's nowhere to go inside the enclosed room. He takes hold of my arm. I swing my left fist up to his face, but he catches it and laughs.
"She's a lot like you, Scarlet," he says.
"Which isn't necessarily a good thing," my mother responds. "Let's go."
She walks through the doorway and out of the house. I yell and fight the guard as much as I can, but his grip is immoveable, and my repeated blows do nothing to him. I reach for the Taser in my pocket, but somehow he guesses what I'm about to do and knocks my hand away. The Taser slides across the marbled floor and out of my reach. The only thing that sort of put me on a level playing field against a Prime is now gone.
Outside there are no Originals, but then I remember what my mother had said about taking them to containment. I swivel my head around until I spot the brown building known as the Containment Facility. It's an ugly structure just like the word, and it makes me nauseous.
Three guards run past us with their weapons drawn. In the distance, I spot many more.
"Where are they going?" I ask.
My mother, who so far has ignored my cries for help, says, "To stop the invaders."
"But they're my friends!"
"You'll find new ones," she says. "Besides, once you learn what we've been doing here, you'll see that you won't need friends, and you'll be happier for it."
She stops at the door of a large, long building. It takes me a second to remember what it is, as I can't stop thinking about Colt and the others. They've lost their element of surprise, thanks to me. I'm afraid many of them will die.
She presses a button on the wall. The ceiling at the top of the nearest bay slides open, filling the space with gray light. Dark clouds have taken over the sky. A storm is coming.
I kick at the guard, trying desperately to get free.
He shakes me until my teeth rattle. "Hold still, girlie."
My mother approaches a small hovercraft. A door opens and a ramp lowers. Before she climbs in, she says to the guard, "There's nothing more we can do. Terminate containment."
"Terminate?" I gasp. "Are you going to hurt those people?"
At the guard, she motions her head toward the ramp. "Get her on board and then carry out my orders."
The guard drags me forward. I fight as much as I can, but it's useless.
Just then there's a huge explosion that shakes the ground. The suddenness is enough for the guard to loosen his grip on me. I take advantage of the distraction and jerk my arm free. I'm sprinting away before he can stop me.
"Leave her," my mother calls after him. She says something else, but I'm too far gone to hear what.
I sprint as fast as I can toward containment until my legs burn as much as my lungs. I grind my teeth together. Keep moving!
Containment is a large gymnasium-like building connected to the rear of the towers. I don't know its purpose, and I fear to find out. There is smoke in the distance. Part of me wants to go in that direction, but I'm the only one who knows about the Originals being in immediate danger.
I round a corner next to the towers a
nd skid to a stop. An abnormally tall guard stands in front of a wide metal door.
He sneers at the site of me. "You're the girl who messed everything up."
His eyes are silver and with his black and blue-striped hair, I recognize him as a Dresden. I don't know how I'm going to fight him without the Taser. There is a knife in my backpack, but there's no way I'll be able to get to it in time. Words are all I have left.
"It's over," I say, trying to catch my breath. "We've risen against the Institute. They're finished."
He laughs long and loud. "Are you kidding me? You think just because you've breached Enfield that you've won? This is just the tip of the iceberg, lady."
This was not a response I was expecting. Between this revelation and what my mother told me, I'm not sure about anything anymore. The only thing I do know is there are a bunch of Originals behind that metal door who need help.
"Your buddies are getting hurt out there," I say. "You better go help them."
He folds his arm to his chest. "I don't have any buddies. Besides, my orders are clear."
"Please let the Originals go," I beg. "They are innocent."
"What they are is dead. You will be too if you don't leave now."
"I can't do that."
We stare at each other for a long moment.
"Fine," he says. "Why don't you come let them out yourself?" He steps to the side. "I'll even open the door for you."
"Do it now."
"No. You come over here, and I'll open it."
"I don't trust you."
He shrugs. "Whatever. No skin off my back."
I'm running out of time. There's no way I can beat him in hand-to-hand combat. My only hope is that I can somehow trick him when I go to the door, maybe even knock him out.
I take a step toward him, my mind running a million different scenarios. None of them are promising. I choose the best one.
As I approach, I slide my hand up the shoulder strap of the backpack. "Open the door."
"Sure, Babe. Whatever you say." He slides his security card into a keypad. The door clicks and opens a mere inch. He motions me forward. "Save your friends."
Just as I reach it, I shrug the backpack off my shoulders and swing it at the guard's face. He dodges, but I still manage to clip his jaw. I swing again, but this time he's ready. He catches my arm and spins me to his chest. I keep a tight grip on my backpack. Whatever happens, I know I can't lose it. It contains my only weapon, even if it's zipped tight within the bag.
Escape from Eden (Original Series book 2) Page 22
