Redux

by S. A. Stephenson

  ‘This is what all dirty Genics get,’ Kennick said and Kaeds kicked her again. ‘We’re not part of your army, got that?’ She pulled Evie’s head up by the scruff of her hair and slapped her hard around the face when Evie heard others rushing in. There was a lot of shouting and tugging and Evie felt the space around her empty. Her powers were firing around her and she could feel the warmth of them swarm over her in a dim white light. Outside the boundary, she could see a figure crouch down next to her and she felt calmed by their presence and the light dimmed. When she opened her eyes she saw Rook looking at her.

  ‘Evie?’ Rook asked, her voice was barely above a whisper.

  ‘I’m okay,’ Evie said to her and Rook helped her to her feet.

  ‘They could have killed you,’ Rook said.

  ‘It would take more than a couple hot-headed soldiers to do that,’ Evie told her but the aches in her ribs told her some damage had been done. She looked over to the door and saw Adam and Evans enter.

  ‘They’ve been hauled into lock up,’ Adam told her and Evie managed a small smile.

  ‘That should never have happened,’ Evans said.

  ‘Why do it?’ Rook asked.

  ‘Where’s Kit?’ Evans asked. There were too many questions being asked, and Evie’s head was swarming.

  ‘She came to find us,’ Rook told him. ‘Why wasn’t Evie in a more secure location? You know what things have been like since we’ve been here.’

  ‘I know, I apologise, I would have hoped we could have gone five hours without people knowing she was here,’ Evans said as Kit arrived with Lil.

  Evie winced as the pain throbbed, she didn’t want Kit to see her like this, weak and bloodied from a fight that she couldn’t defend herself in. ‘What happened?’ Kit demanded as she pushed her way over to her.

  ‘Jumped up hooligans,’ Adam said.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Evie told her.

  ‘You’re not,’ Kit said as she looked at a particularly nasty cut. ‘I shouldn’t have left you alone.’

  ‘Stop!’ Evie said and the room went quiet. ‘Stop treating me like I’m…I’m some sort of freak,’ she said and pushed her way past them. She didn’t know where she was going, but she could feel the walls begin to close in around her and she needed air, she needed to feel like she could breathe again, do something normal again, be normal again.

  Kit had followed her. ‘Evie, wait!’ She called.

  Evie didn’t know what she was doing but she held her arm up being her as she walked, trying to tell Kit to stay away but instead a force of energy emitted from her palm and sent Kit flying backwards. Evie turned and saw her on the ground. She should go to her, knew she should be instantly regretting what she had done but instead all she could do was keep walking.

  Heading up the rampway to the airfield outside Evie’s anger burned and coursed through her veins like boiling liquid. The pain in her ribs throbbed and tore at her but she ignored it. The cool air greeted her but it wasn’t enough to abate the overwhelming feeling of the world crashing down around her. It was like something was grabbing her throat, cutting off her airwaves and demanding her to stop but she didn’t know what would happen if she did. She rounded the corner and came to the airfield. She collapsed against the fence as she tried to regain her breath but it was as though her body had forgotten how to do so. She fell to her knees as she gasped. She could hear voices in the distance and her instinct told her she needed to get up and run. People here wanted her dead, they weren’t here to help her. She tried to pull herself up but it was as though her body was finally resisting.

  ‘Evie?’ She heard a male voice ask, it sounded familiar. Evans probably.

  ‘Go away,’ she said, she thought she sounded louder than she did, her voice barely came out in a whisper.

  ‘That’s not an option,’ the voice said, they were getting closer now. They came to stand over her and when Evie looked up she saw Evans staring down at her. In a lot of ways he reminded her of her father, proud, protective, refusing to give up. The thought of him made Evie soften a little inside and she huddled against the base of the fence. ‘I don’t deserve your help,’ she said.

  Evans knelt down so he was eye level with her. ‘Look at you,’ he said, she couldn’t see what he did so she wasn’t sure what approach he was taking. ‘You’ve been brought into this world, forced to live by its regime and fought back, now the world is fighting back against you, what are you going to do? Run? Cry? Be a victim? Or are you going to get up, pull yourself together and be the soldier that we need you to be, that Kit needs you to be?’

  Evie thought back to her time in the cell with Galen, when she had told her that she was a soldier of her army. Evie frowned. ‘I’m Galen’s soldier,’ she said. ‘I’m Galen’s Genic, Galen’s scientist, Galen’s everything. I’ve been trying to live a life free from her but really she’s been controlling everything all along, and now that she’s gone she’s still controlling it all. I’m going to a whole other country because of her, people want me dead because of her, I don’t have my own life…because of her. What’s the point in fighting? What’s the point in this war if she’s still going to be on top even in death?’

  ‘The point is, is that we don’t give up,’ Evans said. ‘Ever. We keep fighting because the minute we stop is the minute she wins.’

  ‘I’ve been fighting for too long,’ Evie said. ‘Been part of this for too long and it’s taken everything from me, if I keep fighting what else will it take? Kit? Our friends? Our freedom? Our lives?’

  ‘But if you keep fighting what will it give you?’ Evans asked. ‘You’ll be able to have that freedom you and so many others want, you’ll be able to control your powers and find a future in this world. And I’m not having anyone on my crew give up, so you either get up now, or you stay down and you keep getting beaten down till you can’t get up anymore. Is that how you want to be remembered? Is that what you want your family’s legacy to be, that you were the one who could have helped end it but you chose instead to give up? We’re going to be right beside you every step of the way, you didn’t kill Galen because you fancied yourself a hero, you killed Galen for the greater good so that a better life can proceed what she put in place and I will not let you feel sorry or guilty because of it. We’ve all killed people, we’ve all taken lives that weren’t ours to take, but that’s a sacrifice we have to choose and a choice we have to live with every day.’

  Something changed in Evie, she could sense a switch taking place and as her emotions became calmer she let Evans help her to her feet. ‘I’ve spent my whole life having infusions and not using my powers that sometimes they become so strong I don’t know how to properly control them,’ she said. ‘It’s like they take over who I am and make me a different person, I had training when I was younger and can do the basics but anything more than that and it’s like I’m responsible for something I didn’t want or think of doing. I didn’t intend on killing Galen that day, but my powers took over and made it so I did. How can they do that?’ She asked.

  ‘Powers grow with age, particularly during adolescence, if you had your powers subverted when you were a teenager you likely never got to experience them as your body and mind grew so it’s catching up. Or it could be that it’s in touch with forces we don’t know about,’ he said, his voice getting lower and concern growing on his face.

  ‘Genic power comes from forces beyond our solar system,’ Evie said, remembering her speech at the University, which felt like an age ago. ‘Could that mean they’re coming back?’ She asked.

  Evans face seemed to grow paler but was saved from answering as the others came round the corner and stopped, cautiously eyeing the scene. ‘It’s okay,’ Evans told them.

  Evie took a step forward, there was a strength now in the way she moved, a determination that hadn’t been there before. Kit walked forward to her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said and all Kit did in response was hug her and hold onto her. And at that moment, that was all she needed.

 
Chapter Four

  Kit had lingered behind with Evie as they walked back to the bunk. She took her hand in her own and gave Evie’s hand a reassuring squeeze when she saw she was still shaking.

  ‘They said it’ll take around seven hours to get to London tonight,’ she was desperately trying to find easy conversation while they were around the others.

  ‘Are we going by helicopter?’ Evie asked.

  ‘No, they’ve fixed up a plane that’s going to take us, it’s too far with one of the choppers,’ she said. ‘It’ll be the first international flight in years so people are taking extra precautions.’

  ‘Should we be nervous?’ Evie asked.

  Kit could see her bottom lip twitching and her eyes kept looking away from her, Kit wanted to take the nerves away but knew there was only so much she could do. ‘I think we’ll be fine. Are you going to be okay?’ She asked her.

  ‘I’ve been thinking I should see if they have any infusions, just to help control things while we’re away,’ she couldn’t meet Kit’s eyes, this wasn’t like them, they had changed so much in such a short amount of time and it was making Kit’s stomach churn.

  Kit was uneasy at the idea, infusions had been used on them so much growing up it was like they were a quick fix to experience some form of normality when right now they should be embracing what they were going through. ‘I think you need to let yourself feel what you need to with your powers, suppressing it will just make it worse when it becomes active,’ she hoped Evie could grasp what she was saying to her.

  But Evie didn’t reply and remained quiet, their hands finally dropped apart when they got back to the bunker. It was as though Kit had been met with a wall that she couldn’t break through and she was against a timer that was telling her things would get worse if she couldn’t get through to Evie. She wanted an answer, needed to find one, but they were interrupted when they saw President Cerkis was stood waiting for them.

  ‘Your aircraft is ready to load in the hanger,’ she said.

  ‘You’re going already?’ Rook asked.

  ‘We’ll be back before you know it,’ Kit hugged her tightly. ‘And you’ve got plenty of work to do to keep you busy.’

  ‘We’ll find Canaan,’ Rook assured her. Kit saw Evie shift in her feet but Jack wasn’t mentioned and Kit chose to quickly skip over it. Things were awkward enough and she didn’t want to make it worse.

  ‘We’ll see you really soon,’ she said to Rook and the pair hugged. ‘Till then you’ll have Adam, Lil and everyone else here, so you don’t need to miss us too much.’

  Rook didn’t say anything and as Kit caught sight of the tears in the corner of her eyes, there was nothing that needed to be said.

  They made their way to the aircraft and Kit stood and gaped at what she saw. She had been used to helicopters and jets, but nothing on the scale of what she was seeing. The craft was much longer, it’s wingspan was larger and made humans look like mere ants. Its white shell spanned the length of the hanger, small windows lined up along the outside in neat little rows and the two large engines under the wings were unlike anything she had seen.

  ‘Whoa,’ she heard Evie say next to her. ‘How is that thing going to stay in the air?’

  ‘Thermodynamics,’ Rook answered, Kit saw her equally looking at the plane in amazement. ‘How come we’ve not been able to use this technology before?’ She asked.

  ‘Because of Galen’s laws,’ Evans told her. ‘There used to be thousands of these things in the US, but Galen had them all decommissioned and destroyed. Only a few were kept.’

  ‘How does she fly?’ Kit asked.

  Evans smiled at her. ‘That’s the fun part, we get to test her out.’

  ‘You mean we’re flying to another country on an aircraft that hasn’t been tested yet?’ Evie asked. Kit could see her face turn pale and her hands trembling.

  ‘Lucky,’ Rook noted.

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ Kit assured her.

  ‘We’ve got some of the best military pilots on board,’ Evans assured her but Kit could see she wasn’t convinced. ‘We need to board,’ Evans told them and they said their goodbyes and headed for the plane.

  Evie’s legs wobbled under her as she climbed up the stairs to the entrance of the plane. She had experience of flying before, and she didn’t think it was the journey that bothered her but what was to come on the other side. If the new council didn’t want to help her then how long did she have before she was turned over to the angry mob or worse? Not knowing had always churned her stomach, Jack had often called her a control freak but working under Galen had made her think over everything a thousand times over before she was certain she was right. She had seen what could happen when something went wrong and releasing control to someone else filled every sense of her with nervous shaking that she couldn’t think clearly.

  When they stepped onto the plane she saw six seating areas had been installed with cream leather chairs, tables nestled in the middle of each area and there were military staff already on board. The men and women went quiet when they saw her and Evie felt a twinge of pain in her side from her last beating. She wondered how many of them thought like Kaeds and Kennick but to her surprise, they got to their feet and in a perfectly executed motion they crossed their arms over their chest before quickly lowering their arms to their side and Evie looked at them curiously.

  ‘They’re telling you they’re not your enemy,’ Kit whispered to her.

  Evie gave them a small nod of thanks and followed Evans to the back of the plane where they took their seats. ‘You two should rest as much as you can before we get to London,’ he told them. ‘We’ve got around eight hours in the air and when we land it’ll be all systems go.’

  ‘Are we expecting a friendly welcome?’ Evie asked.

  ‘I’d say lukewarm,’ Evans replied. ‘While they’re happy there’s one less dictator in the world, they’re less happy to have to try and work out where to go from here, especially now there’s a new race of humans involved.’

  Evie’s stomach tightened a little as she sat back in the chair and tried to relax. Kit took her hand, a small gesture that meant so much to them lately. Small moments of togetherness in a world that felt like it was tearing them apart was a relief, no matter how brief. ‘Whatever happens,’ Evie told her. ‘I’m ready for a fight and ready to show them that Genics deserve a place in this world and we’re determined to be equal with humans.’

  Kit gave her a small smile but remained quiet as the plane roared into life. The hanger doors opened and they began to taxi along the runway. There was audible chatter from others on the plane, excitement at creating history for the first time since they were invaded. It felt like something was changing, something was bringing them back into a world that they had been so separate from for so long. Evie looked out of the window and as the plane took off her stomach flew to the back of the seat but as her body became used to the acceleration it settled and she watched as the world below her floated away to the clouds.

  Kit was leaving everything she knew behind her. Again. Last time was when she had to escape from Volt, and now, while she wasn’t escaping, it was still like she was running from something and it didn’t settle well with her. Lil hadn’t looked happy at the idea either, being apart for too long made them both nervous, and going to London was stepping into a world that they didn’t know but Kit had learned long ago that the smallest amount of hope was something to cling onto. If the people in England could help them then it was a chance she had to take. But stepping onto that plane, stepping away from everything she knew, took more than she thought it would ever have. She regained control of her emotions as she found them well inside her. Jolts of energy were flowing down her arms, something that she was still getting used to but she couldn’t do anything about it now and did her best to try and suppress what was happening to her.

  As she stepped into the plane, she saw it was smaller on the inside than she was expecting. She walked into the main cabin where she saw
two chairs that had been transformed into beds, on the other side was a pod of desks and chairs. Further down the aisle were rows of seats that were filled with soldiers who looked at Kit and Evie curiously. Evans guided them to the back of the plane where it was a little less full. ‘This is us for takeoff,’ he said. ‘When we’re in the air, you’re welcome to use the beds and the pods,’ he said.

  ‘Why are there so many soldiers with us?’ Kit asked as she took the window seat.

  ‘We need extra protection,’ Evans said. ‘They’re mostly Genics, but can show the Council in London that we have a sophisticated army who’s ready to strike when they’re needed.’

  ‘So they’re a showpiece?’ Evie asked as she took the middle seat.

  ‘Maybe don’t tell them that,’ Evans said. ‘Takeoff’s going to be a strange experience but we’ll be in the air before you know it.’

  Evans left them to get settled and Kit watched as Evie buckled herself into the seat and tried to relax as she settled back in the seat. ‘What do you think London’s going to be like?’ She asked.

  Evie was quiet for a moment. ‘I think it’s a place of hope,’ she said. ‘They haven’t lived through a Galen government as we have so things must be different over there.’

  ‘What if it’s worse?’ Kit asked.

  Evie looked at her and took her hand and Kit saw her give her a small smile. ‘But what if it’s better?’ She asked.

  Kit wanted to believe that she was right and as she heard the engine whir below them she looked out the window as Fort Isa began to roll past them. The plane then began to taxi and as it roared into the air, Kit grasped onto the arm, her heart beating as she tried to prepare herself for what was to come.

  As the jet roared underneath, Evie felt her stomach plummet and squeezed her eyes shut. She had been in jets a handful of times but somehow this seemed worse. All she could do was sit in her chair and go through the motions. This could be the last trip she takes, how are they going to be able to fly for such a long time? It was as though suddenly her mind was thinking all the absurd thoughts it could and she couldn’t control it. She opened her eyes, thinking she was the only one freaking out but the others didn’t seem to be faring much better. Evie could hear the sounds of retching, the smell of stomach bile growing in the air. She looked out the window and saw white below, the world has disappeared to a realm of clouds and it was as though every worried thought suddenly fell away, she excitedly tugged on Kit’s arm to get her to open her eyes. ‘Look,’ she said and pointed out of the window. ‘I’ve never flown this high, have you?’ She asked.