EVO Nation Series Trilogy Box Set

by K. J. Chapman

  Fernan rushes forward, almost losing her footing on her bad leg. “Stop! Hold them back! They’re going to crush each other,” she bellows over the screams and cries of the detainees. “We need the Empaths! We need to calm them.”

  In their state of fear and desperation, none hear Fernan’s pleas or feel the subtle effects of the Empaths. Those crammed against the door frames scream out in pain. I daren’t think of those who may have fallen in the stampede.

  I can help. Telling myself the words means little when I think of those who could die on the cusp of liberation from this horrid place. “I can help!” I scream at Fernan. “Get back! Everyone get back!”

  Charging forward, waving my arms to scatter anyone on our side of the hangar, I reach out my telekinesis, grasping at the metal around the doors.

  “Calm down before you kill each other,” I say into the frantic minds of the surging horde. Drawing their attention allows the Empaths to calm their emotions a little more. Even I feel a little less panicky. “Work with us.”

  I pull on the metal until the sides of the door peel back like paper ribbon coiling back on itself. The sound is a terrible mix of grinding metal and creaking structure. The detainees fall through the gaping hole, clambering over each other and pulling each other from the dirt. We all race forward, helping those who can barely stand or those injured in the crush. More of Fernan’s members pile out of the hangar, the seriously hurt or unconscious in their arms.

  “What happened to them?” Fernan asks one man who hoists a skinny woman higher onto his shoulder.

  “We found a few of them in this state. They were strapped to beds and hooked up to god knows what.”

  “We have bigger problems,” Bo interrupts. Her forehead is split and blood coats the left side of her face. She drags two females along the ground by their wrists. They can’t be more than mid-teens and they’re skin is covered in bruises. “There are more. Four guards have locked themselves in a lab of some sort that adjoins the second hangar. There are at least thirty more EVO in there with them… and Vin’s in there too. Access is coded. We need tech support or we don’t stand a chance.”

  “There is no time,” Fernan sighs, running a shaking hand through her hair.

  “We’re not leaving,” Cal hisses. “I’ll take Lorrell’s device in. She could try to access the tech.” He takes the device from Fernan’s belt and clips it onto his own.

  “I’ll go with him,” Cooper offers. “We can’t leave anyone here. Not one of our own. Look at the state of these people.” He gestures to the injured, unconscious girls at Bo’s feet.

  Fernan takes a composing breath, and then grabs her radio. “Detainees loading onto trucks. Thirty EVO remain in a coded lab with six guards. Do we leave or do we attempt rescue? Adam, Vin is in there.”

  “Lorrell says military reinforcements are nine minutes out,” Adam’s voice shouts out of the handset. “Team one is on the way to attempt rescue. Load vehicles.”

  “They can’t get through. We demolished a guard station at the front of the hangar to give us time to get out. They won’t make it around to this side in time,” Bo says, shoulders slumping. “We’ve got nine minutes to get all these people clear.” Tears spill over her cheeks. I’ve never seen this kind of emotion from kick-ass Bo. “We have to leave. Vin would want us to leave.”

  Vin would want us to leave rather than risk everything, but that isn’t the point. We have Lorrell’s device and people willing to go back in. Fernan hollers into the radio. Adam and Rafe holler back. I nudge Cal and flick my head toward the hole I created in the hangar. He nods in understanding, swatting Cooper around the head and silently clueing him in on our plan. Leaving Fernan and Bo arguing into the radio, we race into the hangar.

  TORO 94 grabs me by the scruff. “This is against orders,” he hisses.

  “Your orders are to accompany me, so accompany me,” I snap. “You know this is the best chance that those people have- that Vin has.”

  “Eight minutes,” Cal warns.

  The five of us - the ones who were to do nothing more than be present - are the ones running back into the lion’s den. Only this time, the lions know we’re coming.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Once we make it passed the generators and storage areas at the back of the hangar, we step into what appears to be the holding areas. Cooper is the first to comment on the conditions and the overwhelming smell within the hangar. It’s not unlike the hangars we found at the deserted centre where Adam and Yana were held; the place where I first met Bo. The only difference is the segregation via metal cages. At least six separate areas are cordoned off for whatever reason. Perhaps to keep males and females separate, or to differentiate ability strength. Who knows? All I see now is a piss and shit covered floor, threadbare blankets, rubbish, and infection central. No wonder they wanted out so badly.

  Large tubes hang over each cage, and scattered around the floor are pellets that look like long, rabbit food pellets.

  “Is that how they have been feeding them?” I ask.

  My question is ignored, and Cal gestures me forward, pointing at the rubble that blocks the front of the hangar. “Clear a path,” he orders.

  Blasting my telekinesis directly at the rubble, it blows away from the entrance like paper in wind.

  Cal shakes his head in disbelief just like he did at the wall, but doesn’t mention the strength of my ability. “Seven minutes,” he calls.

  Guns poised and struggling to see through the excessive amount of smoke and dust in the air, we race out of the hangar after Cal. The crackle of flames is intense, the only thing louder is my heartbeat in my ears.

  “Over there,” says TORO 94, pointing to the second hangar. It is protruding plumes of smoke, but any fire must be within its belly. “There must have been a connecting tunnel of some sort that attached the hangar to that building. It’s burnt away now.”

  Reaching out my telepathy, I absorb the pulsing, terrified auras within the building.

  “Vin?”

  “Teddie, what the hell? You should be clear of this place by now.”

  “And leave Casanova behind? Never!” I feign light-heartedness to ease his growing fear. “Update me.”

  “The four guards are crapping themselves. They haven’t looked to harm us, just locked themselves in here with us. You won’t get in without the code, and destroying the door will bring the building down on top of us.”

  “That’s the building, and Vin’s still alive. The guards are running scared, they’re not interested in the detainees, just trying to hole up until reinforcements arrive. We have a real shot at this.”

  Cal removes Lorrell’s device from his belt, and we sprint across the tarmac to the building, avoiding a burst of flames from the hangar. The building creaks and groans as the hot air rises and the metal contorts in the heat.

  TORO 94 drops in front of me, grasping at his cheek. Lunging onto his knee, he raises his gun and shoots a lone soldier running toward us kamikaze style. The soldier folds backward like a rag doll and tumbles into flames. He’s dead, but I still have to look away.

  “Just a skim,” TORO 94 confirms. A slice across his cheek shows how close he came to death’s door. “Eyes peeled.”

  “Teddie, you have six minutes,” Adam’s voice penetrates my mind. I can sense the reprimand on his tongue, but he staves it off, opting to focus on the task as it now stands.

  “We’re on it,” I reassure him. My physical exertion is apparent even in my mind-talk. “Are the detainees on the move?”

  “Yes, don’t worry about that. Get Vin and the others back here in six minutes. I have Lorrell on my VIDI screen. Tell Cal to get the device as close to the control panel as possible.”

  Stopping shy of the intimidating, reinforced door, I link with Vin once more. “We’re outside. Be ready.”

  “Lorrell says to get the device close to the main control panel,” I tell Cal. His hand trembles slightly as he places the square box over the panel. In mere sec
onds, there is a hissing noise and smoke pours from the panel.

  “That’s one way to do it.” Cooper clicks his neck ready for battle. “Your missus certainly has style.”

  “And taste,” Cal adds, pushing Cooper away.

  The door slides open with a loud clunk. Shouts and hollers inside are accompanied by gun shots in our direction. The five of us scatter behind the wall.

  There is a commotion inside and a few strangled cries. Poking my head around the wall, I see all four guards with their hands in the air. Vin and some scruffy, ill looking EVO have their guns trained on their heads.

  “When I said be ready,” I laugh at Vin.

  He cringes at my robotic voice through the synth mask. “Had to do my bit, Warrior Queen.”

  “Don’t kill us,” one of the guards blub.

  Cal pushes him forward. “It’s your lucky day. We’re in need of witnesses. Now, move your asses. We have four minutes,” he tells Vin and the bewildered EVO.

  We set off at a run, heading back the way we came. The five of us and Vin train our guns on the guards who snivel and grovel, but run as asked.

  “Not in there,” one guard shouts as Cal directs him into the hangar.

  “Yes, in there,” Cal growls, pressing the barrel of the gun between his shoulder blades.

  The guard holds his hands above his head, desperately trying to seem non-threatening. Trying and succeeding. These men are genuinely scared. “The hangar is compromised. The explosion your people set off damaged the structure. Look.”

  He points to the left side of the hangar. A large hole has eaten one of the corners. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I certainly heard the hangar groaning in warning.

  “There’s no other way to get back in time,” TORO 48 shouts over the creaking metal. The smoke has thickened to such an extent that we have to cover our noses and mouths with our sleeves.

  Coughing back the burning in my throat, I take it upon myself to shout instructions. “We have no choice. Detainees first. If the building goes, I can brace it. I’ve done it with a barn, I can do it with some sheets of metal.” My lie is blatant, but I can hope that I have it in me. Most of what I have accomplished is aided by a little bit of luck. Okay, a hell of a lot of luck. “Didn’t you hear me? Detainees first!” I bellow, scaring everyone into action. “And run… fast.”

  The building almost seems to sway in front of my eyes as the smoke wafts around me in drifts. Another deafening screeching and grinding of metal sees everyone pushing that little harder. I can see the light at the far end of the hangar. I know that Adam is waiting. Just one final push and we’ve done it. I’ve done it.

  “Teddie, the hangar is collapsing!” Adam shouts into my mind.

  “Get out of there!” Rafe’s voice follows straight after.

  There’s still about fifty yards between us and the other side. The ground shakes and the air shifts as the metal structure starts to fall behind me. Everyone looks back over their shoulders with utter terror on their faces.

  “Keep going!” I scream. They can’t hear me over the crescendo. Halting in my tracks, I turn to see the building falling around my ears. “Just run!” I yell, telepathically

  I simultaneously blast my telekinesis toward the falling structure and throw Cal, Cooper, and the others clear of the hangar in a tumbling mass of bodies. They’ll be bruised, but alive.

  “Hold on!” Adam shouts, this time, not in my mind. He’s sprinting toward me- toward the tumbling metal.

  The pressure inside my head is excruciating, building with the weight of the structure as it collapses piece by piece. I feel some relief as he takes a share of the weight. It’s still more than either of us can withstand for much longer. We’re strong, but this is an ask.

  “Take my hand!” he yells, skidding to a stop beside me.

  As soon as our hands touch, that same overwhelming surge of power fills me up passed the point of brimming, a force so strong I could scream out in both agony and ecstasy. The air ripples around us, pulsing as if it is a living, breathing spirit. The telekinesis bursts free of us, pushing the air like a wave away from our bodies. The warbling, epic noise that compares to nothing I have ever heard rings in my ears. The hangar is launched away on the wave of telekinesis, and at the same moment, Adam and I are catapulted backward and clear of the hangar.

  When I finally lift my head, I see Fernan flat on her back, her cane stuck in the dirt a few metres away.

  “No, the link doesn’t heighten their abilities, they said. Just what you see, they said,” Fernan grumbles, hoisting herself from the dirt. “Well, screw me sideways. Understatement of the century.”

  “We have to move!” Rafe calls, rushing forward to help the detainees to their feet. “Everyone in the truck.”

  Only one truck remains, but it’s enough to hold us. Fernan, Rafe, and Bo have remained behind for us, but thankfully, the rest are not in sight. The four guards quiver and cower in a huddle on the floor.

  Rafe hands me a tranq gun and some of Lorrell’s stickers. “Do what needs to be done, Kiddo.”

  The guards recoil from me as I approach. “You saved us. You won’t kill us,” one guard cries.

  “Hurry it up, Leason,” Fernan barks.

  “You’re right, I’m not going to kill you,” I say through the synth mask. “You are going to be sedated, and when you wake, we will be long gone. However, you have a message to pass on.”

  The man’s brow furrows. “We are grateful to you for saving… hang on a minute, did she call you Leason?”

  I shoot two of the guards with the tranq darts, leaving only two to collaborate on their encounter. Removing my mask, I squat down to their eye level. They both gasp audibly, mouths agape, eyes as wide as full moons.

  “Towley has quite an imagination,” I say, gently. “He creates monsters to keep you up at night, but here’s some food for thought, who is more dangerous, Frankenstein’s monster or Dr. Frankenstein himself.”

  “Tick tock, Kiddo,” shouts Rafe from the truck.

  I shoot them both with the darts, slap a sticker onto one of their chests, and then run through the hole in the wall, sticking another to the crumbling brickwork on my way out.

  My work here is done.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The stressful, fraught journey consists of Cal driving as fast as he physically can over the uneven ground, and me trying not to pass out. Adam has paled, and his silence assures me that he feels the same way too.

  We made it away before the reinforcements arrived at the centre, but technically, I’ve stayed behind. It’s my name that will be muttered when those guards wake, and my ghost that shall haunt the demolished hangars. It’s my name that will get back to Towley. Will he believe it to be true or a hoax?

  Adam takes my hand and holds it in his lap. Tonight, things didn’t go down quite as he had planned, and I expect ear ache because of it. It’s not like I mind. I did what was right, and I did it knowing that I was capable. It feels good to prove myself to everyone.

  “Are you doing alright, Teddie?” Cal calls back over his shoulder, offering a small smile.

  Even Cal has had a change of heart toward me.

  “Yeah, just thinking,” I say.

  Adam squeezes my hand tighter.

  “Not killing those guards lends sympathy to your name,” Rafe says, patting my knee.

  Fernan agrees. “The next step is Non-EVO civilians. If Towley sees truth in it, he can easily shut up a couple of guards, but mass civilians… that will be a stretch, even for him.”

  “Can we just get back to base in one piece before we start talking about the next step?” Resting my head on Adam’s shoulder, I close my eyes and zone out.

  “We need to talk with Rafe and Fernan about what happened in that hangar,” he says telepathically.

  I nod. “Just not tonight.”

  ***

  Nothing seems any better in the cold light of day. That’s why they call it the cold light of day. Yes, seeing the deta
inees pottering about the tents, some even smiling, makes last night worth it, but by now, word will have no doubt got back to Towley that a girl resembling Theyda Leason - who claimed the name - was behind the raid on the detention centre. What does that mean for me, for all of us?

  It’s still weird having people I don’t know greet me by name. Granted, they all call me Theyda because that’s all they know, but I feel like a celebrity wandering around the camp and chapel. Eyes follow me everywhere, whispers follow along with them.

  “Leason!” Cal calls from the treeline. He sits atop an upturned bucket, cleaning his guns. “How are you doing this morning?”

  “A bit sore,” I say, rubbing the nasty bruise that has popped up on my shoulder. “You?”

  “No rest for the wicked.”

  “Are they still in the meeting?” I ask.

  Cal nods. “From what I hear, they’re organising a transport for us all to Shift Headquarters. Those who can’t or won’t fight are going to Syndicate.”

  “Transport to Cornwall? That’s a risk.”

  He shrugs and hands me a piece of gun. “Everything’s a risk nowadays, but what does Fernan do with a group of EVO who can’t fight? Nah, better off getting them down to Grayson James.”

  “I don’t think Grayson has the room or the supplies to take them.”

  “That’s his problem.”

  I suppose it is. A safe haven is a safe haven. You can’t turn people away because you’ve reached your quota. Handing Cal back the piece of gun, I take a seat on the mossy grass beside him and watch him work in silence. After a few minutes, he lowers his cloth and straightens his back.

  “I see why you were so pissed before. You’re capable of taking care of yourself, and they’re wrapping you up in bubble-wrap. I saw Teddie Leason last night and I was impressed. I’m just putting that out there.”