Conflicted (The Corded Saga Book 3)

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  “We have no plans to remain here long.” I met her eyes. “None at all.”

  “Sometimes plans change.” She turned on her heel and started down the hall.

  The man pointed at us and then at her. He said nothing.

  We all exchanged glances. We would be leaving as soon as we possibly could.

  Seventeen

  Mason

  The children spilled out from everywhere. Maybe a dozen. Maybe a dozen and a third. It was hard to tell because the shock of seeing them set me off balance. Children had become such a rarity that seeing even a few of them together seemed unnatural somehow. Like they were a mirage.

  “Look at them,” Addison spoke under her breath. “How are there so many? They did find a cure.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.” Denver wasn’t the only clone out there. Technically that might be what they were. But they were children, and we had to find out more.

  “Well, no matter what we have to engage them. Find out who they are.” Addison’s eyes were wide. “There has got to be some explanation.”

  “That’s why we’re here.” Benji adjusted his gear belt. “To find out. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  “I’m glad we didn’t have our guns out.” Addison clasped her hands together in front of her. “Even without them out I think we scared them.”

  “We can’t train our guns on kids, no matter who they are.” Isin looked around at our group, as if making sure we all agreed.

  We each nodded. No matter how awful things were, we needed to hold onto a semblance of a moral code. Kids, clones or not, were innocents.

  We continued toward the kids. Slower now. Without asking, I knew I wasn’t the only one trying to process what we were seeing. How did this fit with all the dead bodies we had seen? Why were the kids living in the middle of the desert? The questions were endless.

  The kids for their part just stared at us, as though they’d never seen anything like us before. Or maybe it was just Addison. But if they existed there had to be women. Unless I was right and these were more clones.

  We were within a few feet of them. It was immediately apparent that these children were wearing rags for clothing, as if they were poor and had nothing. Dirt clung to their clothing and skin. It looked like they hadn’t bathed in weeks or even longer.

  “Where are your parents?” Addison asked, still using a soft voice. “Or other adults?”

  The kids said nothing. They only stared.

  “Aren’t there any adults here?” I asked, trying to model my voice on Addison—I didn’t want to scare them any more than they already were.

  The first boy nodded. “There was one.”

  Was? As in past tense?

  “Can we see him?” Thomas stepped forward in front of the rest of us.

  The boy shook his head. “He isn’t here.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He left and never came back.”

  “How long ago was that?” Addison asked.

  “A long time.”

  “And you have been here all alone since?” Addison’s voice cracked.

  “Together.” He nodded and stretched out his arms to refer to the other kids.

  “Do you live in there?” I pointed to the thatched roof building.

  He nodded. “Yes. And others like it.”

  “Okay.” I thought fast. Finding a colony of unsupervised children had been the farthest thing from my expectations when we climbed over the wall. “May we come inside? We have been traveling for a long time.”

  “Do you have food? Water?” The boy asked. So far he was the only one who spoke.

  “These poor children.” Addison froze beside me.

  “We can’t leave them here. That is clear.” Benji pulled out a canteen and walked toward the spokesman. “We have some water and food. And we can find more.”

  The boy nodded again.

  Benji held out his canteen. The boy stared at it for a moment before he took it. I waited for him to take a sip, but he didn’t. Instead, he walked over to the smallest of the children, a boy that looked barely old enough to be walking. The first boy placed the canteen in the young boy’s hands and helped him drink.

  Something broke in me. Or maybe something was born. Here was a kid left to die in the desert. He was finally given water and instead of keeping it for himself he gave it to the youngest of his group. I’d never seen such selfless behavior before. Well, besides Kayla sacrificing her freedom for her sister, but my guess was these boys weren’t related. This wasn’t about familial bonds. It was something else entirely.

  We all pulled out our canteens and started to distribute. It was risky. We might run out of water before we could make it a new water source. These children might be sick, and we might be opening ourselves up to disease. But none of that mattered.

  “Come.” The boy gestured for us to head to the thatched building. I exchanged glances with Thomas. He nodded. We headed toward the building.

  He pushed open the door, and we stepped inside.

  The one large room was filthy. Scraps of clothing and what was probably once food riddled the floor. There were a few large pillows on the floor and a table top without legs, but otherwise there was no furniture.

  “These children are living this way?” Addison walked further into the room. “This is horrible. I thought kids had it bad back home.”

  “Where did the man go?” I turned back to the original boy. “Why did he leave?”

  “What’s your name?” Addison asked him. It was the question we probably should have asked in the beginning, but we’d all been in such a state of shock.

  “Name?” The boy narrowed his eyes.

  “What are you called?” I tried to explain in a different way.

  The boy shrugged.

  “What about you?” Addison walked up to a young girl. “What is your name?”

  The girl took several large steps away from her.

  “Do any of you have names?” Thomas asked. “How do you refer to each other?”

  The kids exchanged looks but said nothing.

  “They live out here alone in squalor and have no names. This is getting weirder and weirder.”

  “No kidding.” Benji flipped through some of the mess on the ground. “There has to be more to this place.”

  We walked to the back of the room and saw nothing else. I turned back to the original boy. “Where are the other buildings?”

  He nodded. “Come.” He ran outside. I followed behind, assuming the others would follow.

  He led the way across the sand before coming to a stop in front of a building that looked entirely different from the first. It was made of stone. He pointed to the door. “Open.”

  “Okay.” I met Thomas’s eye before I pulled on the door handle.

  The door didn’t budge. I pulled on it harder, and this time the door nudged slightly. I tried it even harder, this time it moved enough for me to get a look inside.

  “A lab.” I slipped my hands between the door and the frame and pried it open.

  “Not just any lab.” Benji moved next to me.

  “This is Central’s work.”

  “Central? What are they doing on this side of the wall?” Addison asked. “It makes no sense. Why have a wall at all?”

  “One of these days we’re going to stop expecting anything to make sense.” Thomas pushed passed us and entered the room.

  Eighteen

  Maverick

  We were in danger. There was no question about that. And that meant I’d failed somehow. I’d failed to protect the woman I loved. I’d also broken my promise to Mason. For the second part, I was doubtful he’d ever know, but the guilt was still there. Promises were still promises even if the person you made them to was dead.

  I had to find a way to get us all out of the Glen and to a safer place. If a safer place even existed. As hard as I tried to hold onto hope, it was slipping away as the days ticked by. I was beginning to wonder if our entire lives w
ould be spent on the run. But I knew those thoughts wouldn’t help us. I needed to stay strong and alert.

  “We will be sleeping in one room.” I didn’t blink as I stared down Darla. “I don’t care what excuses you give.”

  “Is it impossible for you to have some trust?” The woman’s face was stern, and heavy bags hung below her eyes.

  “We give trust when it is earned.” And even then, it remained limited. Sometimes, especially when it came to Quinn and Bolton, it was hard to even trust each other.

  “Think of those children. The longer you argue with me, the longer it will be before they can get some proper rest.

  “They are resting fine right now. They will not move to a bedroom unless we are all allowed to stay together.” Quinn’s arm brushed against mine.

  “Fine. You want to continue with your stubborn behavior?” Darla frowned. “I am tired and done with this. Stay together.” She threw open the door to a darkened room. “You will find what you need in here. But just because you are allowed to stay together tonight, doesn’t mean you will be allowed to do it moving forward.”

  I said nothing and neither did the others. None of us were going to give in. We each exchanged glances before stepping inside the door. Within seconds the door slammed closed behind us, and a lock clicked into place.

  I tried the knob, already knowing it wouldn’t budge.

  “They locked us in here.” Kayla sat down on one of the cots that were spaced equidistantly in the room. “There is no good reason for that.”

  “There is no good reason for anything they’ve done since we arrived here.” I stood with my back to the door surveying the dark room. A small candelabra set on a table was the only illumination. At least we had that.

  Quinn sat on the bed closest to Kayla, carefully laying Bailey out. “Even the whole contamination thing is a joke. Diseases go far beyond the clothes we are wearing.”

  “Exactly. They wanted to separate us.” Bolton paced the room. “And the reason for that can’t be good.”

  “No. We can’t let them succeed.” Kayla stretched out beside Faith, curling her body around her small daughter. Kayla often worried that she was failing Faith, that she wasn’t living up to the expectations of motherhood, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. The girl, much like Bailey, was lucky to have the mother she did. Not that I knew much about mothers. I’d never known mine.

  “Absolutely not.” I may have failed in keeping everyone safe so far, but that didn’t mean I was going to let things get worse.

  “What do you think their end game is?” Bolton paused his pacing. “What do they want us for?”

  “You mean what do they want them for?” I nodded toward the women and girls. I was far past mincing words. Quinn and Kayla knew the realities better than anyone.

  “I’m sticking with we because we are one unit. If we insist on that we will be safer.” Bolton made a good point. At times his impulsiveness drove me crazy, but he was a good one to have on our side.

  “Agreed.” Quinn leaned back on her hands. “No more fighting.”

  “No more fighting.” Bolton echoed her.

  Bailey stirred beside Quinn.

  “You should get some sleep.” I nodded in her direction. “We have no idea what the morning will bring.”

  “We have no idea what tonight will bring. Or any day.” It was always disarming when Quinn talked in a defeatist tone. I’d grown used to her optimism, and it was often contagious. I missed it now.

  “True, but sleep is helpful.” And there was no reason for all of us to forego it.

  “I can do first watch.” Kayla sat up. “Even the few minutes of lying down has been helpful.”

  “Faith is sleeping. Stay with her.” I spoke gently, hoping she’d just accept it and get some rest. She’d been carrying her daughter all day. I couldn’t imagine how tired she was. “You can take over later. We don’t even have many hours left before morning.”

  “We have no idea what time it is.” Bolton walked along the back wall of the room. “It’s unnerving.”

  “No. We don’t. But night can only last so long. We all know that.” Kayla ran her hand over the stiff grey bedspread.

  “Although this night has lasted forever.” Quinn wasn’t talking about the actual evening. She was talking about life as we knew it.

  “We need to make a plan.” Kayla remained sitting up. “We can’t just sit back and wait for things to happen.”

  “We need more information to make a plan.” Bolton ran his hand along the wall as if searching for something. “What are our exit options? How many people do they have living here?”

  “What kind of weapons they have?” I added to his list. It was going to become a rather long list. We knew so little.

  “I can’t believe they didn’t search your bag.” Kayla pointed to the bag Bolton still carried. “That’s what so weird. They were so worried about some things and not others.”

  “That tells me they have weapons that would put anything I have to shame.” Bolton turned toward us, abandoning his search of the wall. “Otherwise they would have been concerned. I can’t come up with another possibility.”

  “Which is frightening.” Quinn barely whispered.

  “What about this isn’t frightening?” Kayla lay back down. “Every part of this place feels off and uncomfortable.”

  “I don’t believe this room has no windows,” Bolton turned back toward the wall. He was no digging his fingers into the dark siding.

  “Why not?” I asked. I didn’t doubt him, but I wasn’t sure what made him so sure.

  “Because this building is old. It was built long before things changed. People built windows back then.”

  He was speaking of a time long before I was born. It was hard to even picture it. “They must have done a really good job covering the windows up. Or the light is too faint to give us a real view of things.” I wanted to check out the wall myself, but it felt safer to remain by the door. I wanted to stay between the girls and the unknown people in this place.

  “You need to sleep.” I glanced over at Bolton. “You too. We can take turns with watch.”

  “Are you sure? You can stay awake?” There was no accusation in his voice.

  “I will.” There was no way I was letting them down again.

  I stayed right where I was for the first while, finally allowing myself to lean back against the wall. I was exhausted, and I knew an attempt to sit down would likely end up with me sleeping. That couldn’t happen. If it became too much for me I’d wake up Bolton.

  Having no sense of time made things much more difficult. I didn’t know how many hours had passed, nor how many more hours we had before morning. I needed sleep. I could pretend otherwise, but I wasn’t going to be at my best if I didn’t do something soon. I headed over to where Bolton slept. I’d just pushed on his shoulder when I heard the lock click.

  Bolton bolted up and grabbed his bag. He blinked a few times but didn’t say a word.

  The door opened and two men walked in. Both were dressed in the same grey clothing as the others.

  “What do you want?” Bolton stood up.

  “Hello? Is that a way to welcome your hosts?” One of the men smiled. His dark hair was cut short, but he wore a heavy beard.

  “Hosts? You mean wardens?” Bolton had woken up revving to go.

  “You think you’re prisoners?” The first man frowned. So far the other man had not said or done anything aside from rubbing his bald head. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “What’s ridiculous is you thinking you can treat us this way.” Bolton wasn’t the only one who was annoyed. Anger had been stirring inside me since we arrived, and my growing exhaustion was only making it worse.

  Both Kayla and Quinn were sitting up by now, looking between their daughters and the men at the door.

  “But I am treating you this way, aren’t I?” The man’s smile grew.

  “What do you want? There has to be a reason you barged in here at thi
s hour.” And it was time we found out what it was. There was no reason to put off the inevitable.

  “Do you even know what hour it is?” The second man finally spoke. He had an accent, one I’d never heard before.

  “No. I don’t. But what does that matter?” Bolton scowled.

  “It is morning. We are here to wake you up.” The first man’s smile had disappeared.

  “Wake us up?” Kayla snapped. “Right.”

  “Yes. And to welcome you. I was regrettably sleeping when you arrived.” He walked over to where Quinn and Bailey sat. “Hello. I hope your stay has been pleasant so far.”

  I felt a growl develop deep inside me.

  “Pleasant? Not exactly.” She pulled Bailey into her arms. Bailey blinked a few times before closing her eyes and snuggling into Quinn’s chest.

  “Is there a problem?” The first man softened his voice as he addressed her. “Anything I can do to help?”

  “We will not be separated.” Quinn’s eyes were dark and cold.

  “We have no interest in separating a mother from her child.” He held out his hand. “Here let me start this over. My name is Clayton, and this is Michael.” He nodded toward the other man. “You are safe here, and we promise not to separate you from your children.”

  “None of us want to be separated.” She stared him down.

  “And you will still see one another, but women and men must live separately here in the Glen.”

  “Why? Why do they have to live separately?” Kayla asked.

  He walked over to Kayla. “It’s good to ask questions. I like that.”

  “I ask the questions that need to be asked.” Her blond hair was rumpled from sleep, and it gave her an almost wild look.

  “Which is a good thing.” He nodded.

  “Yes. What is the answer? Why do you make men and women live separately?”

  “Just because you ask questions doesn’t mean you will get answers.” Clayton’s eyes twinkled in the low light. Was he enjoying this? My anger grew. I was tired of feeling out of control. I was tired of having to answer to others. I felt weak, and it was the worst feeling possible.