Rebellion (2 page)

My blood freezes at her tone. She's going to order me to kill Gavin. It's what we've been expecting. It's also the moment I've been dreading. The true test to see if the other side of myself—the Conditioned Enforcer part of me—is wiped out, or at least destroyed enough that I can refuse a direct order.

Father's convinced that this won't even be an issue for me. I've been able to resist her orders before. And the hard reset caused by leaving Elysium in the first place should have erased enough of the old programming.

She glances over at me and I fight the urge to look down. An Enforcer wouldn't. I keep my eyes focused on Gavin.

She stares at me so long, I start to worry she knows who I am. If anyone here knew who I was, it would be her. It's why I've kept my distance and made sure the hood, and its shadow, covered my face. But she's my adoptive mom, and a mother always knows her child.

This was a mistake. I should have listened to Asher and Gavin, not Father. I should have taken more time to hatch a better plan. One that wasn't so bold and risky.

But then she surprises me by saying, “Take him to the Detainment Center. This time I'm going to get answers from him, whether or not he wants to give them to me.” She waves me toward him.

Trying not to show my relief that the plan is working, I pocket the gun, then reach down and yank Gavin to his feet. He fights me as I drag him from the room. I'm slightly worried that I'm hurting him as he struggles against me. But I can't do anything less or Mother will suspect something. We're lucky she hasn't already. But, as expected and hoped for, Mother follows as I drag him across the marble floors of the Palace Wing and then over to the concrete of Sector Two and the Detainment Center.

So far everything has gone as planned, and that worries me. Nothing ever goes as planned. There's always bound to be mistakes. But this is going so smoothly I
know
something's wrong.

It doesn't take long to figure it out. My stomach flips when we step into the Detainment Center.

There's no one here. There's supposed to be members of the Underground waiting to help us subdue Mother and remove her from Elysium. There's supposed to be backup.

For a moment I think something must have changed in the plans, but Gavin stiffens when he sees the empty room. Even from my less than ideal vantage point as I drag him to the cell door, I can see his eyes darting all over the room as if he's expecting the people that are supposed to be here to jump out of some hidden crevice.

I don't know exactly what to do, so I keep walking, then turn at the glass door of the cell, as if waiting for someone to open it. That's when I notice that Mother has stopped at the door to the Detainment Center. She's smiling at me.

Not
Gavin.

Me!

My stomach doesn't just sink; it drops.

She knew the entire time and we fell into her trap like rats.

At least I can be grateful that Asher and Father got away. With only Gavin to protect from Mother, I can do this. I might have to kill her to do it, but if it's a choice between her and Gavin, I don't even have to think about it.

She starts clapping. “Well done, Evelyn. I was beginning to worry that you weren't going to pass.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Gavin demands. His entire posture has changed from the defiant one he'd had before, to angry and protective as he steps a little in front of me. But when his hand takes mine, it trembles a little and I know he's just as afraid as I am.

Mother scoffs. “You didn't think I'd let my daughter just walk out of Elysium, did you?”

“I'm
not
your daughter.”

“Of course you are.” She sighs. “I raised you. Loved you.”

“What you did wasn't love.”

“You'll see it my way soon.” She purses her lips. “But now we have a problem. You brought
two
Surface Dwellers back with you. That wasn't part of the plan. We only need one.”

Mother steps to the side and out of the doorway, revealing a group of people standing behind her. Two Enforcers rush into the room. One levels a pistol at Gavin, but before I can protect him, my body erupts with a million tiny fires. My screams echo throughout the tiny room as I collapse into a mass of writhing muscles on the hard concrete floor.

I know exactly what's happening; I've felt it before. Every time Dr. Friar brainwashed me with some new memory. Or when Mother wanted to punish me for some wrongdoing—intentional or not. But it had always followed an injection of the nanite serum. I don't understand how it's happening now. My ears ring from my screams and even though my vision tunnels, I can see Gavin struggling to get to me, until an Enforcer hits him over the head with the butt of her gun and he joins me on the floor.

Then, just as my vision almost completely fades, the pain stops as suddenly as it began.

Every single muscle in my body is pulled taut. To even think about moving is a fresh agony, and I'm still whimpering from the memory of the pain, but at least the raging inferno in my body has been doused. Gavin lies on the floor next to me, a trickle of blood seeping from the cut the Enforcer gave him. He seems to be out cold. I try to push myself up to at least crawl to him, but my arms can't even handle that little amount of pressure and I collapse onto the ground again.

The sound of more tussling comes from the doorway and I glance over in horror to see Asher struggling with another Enforcer. The one who saw me in the Palace Wing.

That's why she smiled. Why she let me know she was there. She'd known the whole time. And apparently so did Mother.

Mother crouches down next to me. “I wish you wouldn't have done that, Evelyn. You were doing so well. I hoped not to have to use your nanos like that again, but it's for your own good.” She pats my cheek. I have the quick thought that if I could move, I'd rip her arm from her body. She turns to the Enforcer looking down at Gavin. “Pick him up.” Once the Enforcer does, Mother smiles at me. “It's too bad he hasn't learned how to control his emotions better. I believe he would have made an acceptable match for you.”

I don't really pay attention to what she's saying. I'm starting to get the feeling back in my muscles, but I don't move. I don't want to waste the energy I have. I need it to get to my pistol. I have to get Asher and Gavin out of here.

She turns to Asher. “This one, though.” She smiles at him. “He reminds me of Timothy.” She looks down at me. “Do you remember him, dear?”

I glare at her. There are no words to describe the amount of hate I feel for her in this instant. “I remember you had him killed so you could Couple me with that
Guard
.”

“Ah, yes. A mistake on my part. I should have just let you Couple with Timothy. The Guard was an unfortunate failure and had to be put down after he attacked one of my Enforcers.”

“Put down? Like a dog?” Asher asks. The incredulous tone to his voice makes me want to laugh. Of course she killed him, then dismissed him like he was some sick animal she was putting out of its misery.

All of her experiments with the Guards were a failure then. How can someone be so callous? “How can you be like this? How can people be nothing more than toys to you that you just throw away when you break them?” My voice cracks just thinking about how many lives she's destroyed.

“They were broken to begin with. I'm trying to fix them.” She shrugs. “You should be grateful.”

The feeling is almost completely back in my legs. If I can just move them without her seeing me, I could knock out the Enforcer next to me and then grab Mother. If I held her hostage, she'd
have
to let Asher go. Other people may be disposable, but
she
isn't.

“Bitch,” Asher spits at her.

She immediately stands and walks toward Asher, giving me the opportunity to make my move. I jump up and shove the Enforcer leaning over Gavin aside, wincing when she hits the wall and crumples to the floor.

Oops
, I think, but wrench the gun from her hand and swing around to grab Mother. She'd make a better hostage anyway. Even though I hold the gun against her temple, Mother laughs.

“You can't do it.” Her voice sounds almost like she's singing it. “You can't kill me. I'm Mother.”

I merely lift an eyebrow at the other Enforcer and cock the gun. “Wanna try me?” Mother stops laughing. “Let Asher go.”

The Enforcer glances at Mother, then at me. Just before she releases him, something crosses her eyes. The look she gives me next is almost an apology as she shoves Asher at me. He knocks into me so hard I fall, losing my grip on Mother. I hear the sound of a gunshot, just milliseconds before I hit the ground. My head bounces off the concrete, and Asher falls on top of me, still as death.

 

C
HAPTER
T
WO

At least in this place—a place I'd equate more to hell than the heaven the name suggests; A place where god himself has abandoned us—it seems that Mother Nature has blessed us with one last gift. A place to hide and gather in that not even mother knows.

—
E
LI'S
DIARY

Gavin

There's nothing like waking up from a concussion. I've had enough of them in my lifetime that waking up is the easy part. After that? Yeah, I'd rather have stayed knocked out.

Bright red-and-black lights flash in front of my closed eyes when I move my head. That's only a small part of the agony ripping through me, but I force myself to open my eyes. I'm immediately confused.

Where the hell am I?

The ceiling is red rock. As is the wall immediately to my left. Moving at all is a fresh torment in my poor head, but I shove myself to a sitting position. My head spins and I have to press my forehead to my knees.

“Easy,” a voice I don't recognize says.

“What the fuck happened? Where am I?”

The voice has an accent I can't quite place. But it does remind me of one of the villains in a pre-war movie I saw once. The one with the spy and his fancy cars.

“You're in the Caverns. We rescued you after Mother tried to have you killed.”

It all comes back then in almost as painful an explosion as being hit. “Evie! Where's Evie?” I jerk my whole body around and slide off whatever I'm lying on to stumble around like a zombie.

We're not safe here. Mother knows everything. She's probably already here. I have to find Evie.

“Sit down before you hurt yourself,” the woman commands. It doesn't take much for her to push me back down on what I see now is a cot. My head spins so much I feel nauseated. Even though the room itself is fairly dark, it's still too bright as lights flash behind my eyes. I lean forward, placing my head between my knees to rest my forehead on my palms.

We're not safe here. We need to leave.

“You took a hard hit, Gavin Hunter. Luckily your head seems to be harder than the walls around here.”

I peek through my fingers at the person talking. I'd have said she was from Elysium, but her eyes are hazel and her skin is olive-toned. Her clothes are ratty—even more so than the villagers' from my Surface town—and covered in dirt. She's pretty and petite, even despite the wrinkles and silver hair. Like Evie, though, there's a hardness to her that says despite her small stature, she could easily defend herself.

“Do you work for Mother?”

She laughs. “No.”

“Then why are you here?”

I take another sweep of her body to see if I can see any telltale signs of a weapon. I see none. Not even so much as a bulge that shouldn't be there, which, considering how sickly thin she is, should be obvious. I give the room another once-over, but the only thing I see is a black medical bag in the corner. I'd get to it before she does, so I'm not worried at the moment. Careful? Yes. But not worried.

“I am Nadia. I live here. I'm part of the Underground. What there is of it.” She gives me a wry smile. “I'm a doctor here. Well, the closest thing they have to it in the Caverns. Father is never here and he's busy with … someone else, right now. So, you're stuck with me. And I need to make sure your head is still as hard as it was when you started your foolhardy mission this morning.”

I relax a little at her being a part of the Underground, but I'm still wary. Just because she said it, doesn't mean it's true. And even if she doesn't work for Mother, Mother knows everything. She knows where we are. She's going to come for us. She's going to finish what she started.

“I need Evie.” Why won't she tell me what happened to Evie?

“You'll see the girl in just a minute. Right now you need to rest.”

She reaches for my shoulder, but I grab her wrist. It surprises me how fragile the bones feel. It's that underlying strength throwing me off again. “Please. Just tell me. Is she all right?”

“Stubborn as a mule,” she mutters, just loud enough for me to hear it. She sighs, then says, louder, “I'll take you to her, but you
must
let me examine you after that.” She helps me to stand and then walks away, leaving me to limp out the door of the room after her.

I realize the minute we step outside the room that I'm really not in Elysium anymore. Where I am is impossible to tell. A quick glance to my left shows the shell of what could possibly be the beginnings of another area like Sector Two. There's half-constructed buildings, none of which have glass in the windows or roofs—it reminds me of the propaganda videos they showed us in school of what a city looked like after an atomic blast. The pathway down the middle of the buildings looks like some sort of railway track.

“Where am I? How did I get here?”

“We call it the Caverns.”

I give her a look. While a name is nice, it is absolutely the least helpful information I've gotten yet.