The Genesis Project Prophecy of the Seven (11 page)

CHAPTER
24

Ben sat at his desk, knowing full well he should be up top with the others training and helping others learn and hone their newly found skills.

He rubbed his hands over his face in exhaustion. Bethany walked over to her husband placing her hands on his shoulders slowly attempting to knead away the tension that had been building for the last two days.

Before he had hope, hope in the prophesy, hope in the others of his gifted community coming together in this new world to overcome the Militia.

Now with the recent events he felt lost for the first time in his life.

“Ben, we need to bring everyone together, unite them as a whole instead of seven individuals. They serve a greater cause. I spoke with Lilly, Ben she has been working closely with Ulric. They locked onto Avril Ben.”

Bethany stopped rubbing his shoulders and walked away trying to hide her tears.

“They found her?” Ben asked quietly getting up to go to his wife, wrapping his arms around her slender frame from behind, pulling her to him.

“Yes Ben, but what they found isn’t good at all…this Cora woman has brain washed her, she’s taught her to use her gift in ways I’ve never seen some one use the shielding before. She can manipulate her shield almost like a psiconic. I’m not sure how, but the fact remains that she can do this.”

“Have they seen anything that would give us a clue why she went to her instead of us?” Ben asked.

Bethany broke down, she sank to her knees or would have had Ben not held her up.

“She likes them Ben! She likes what they do. She enjoys torturing people and hearing them scream, she believes in their cause. This…Genesis Project thing. She believes that by choosing them that she won’t ever have to hide who she is like she had to do with us. We’ve lost her Ben… I’ve lost my baby.”

Ben had nothing to say, appalled at what Bethany had revealed to him he knew he needed to see Ulric and Lilly soon.

Ben picked up his hysterical wife cradling her to his chest as he carried her to their bedroom off the side of their personal common rooms.

He gently placed his wife on the bed, covering her. He went around to his side of the bed and crawled up next to his wife pulling her to him, hugging her as she cried until exhaustion overtook her and sleep came.

Ben wiped his tears from his face, gently and quietly sliding out from their bed to find Ulric and Lilly.

He’d never seen Bethany so utterly devastated. Even after the Militia rose to power and gifted everywhere began disappearing.

They still held out hope when people were found in their homes or on the streets dead, especially when Garrett and Avril disappeared and they were forced to flee without them.

They trusted in their children and their knowledge of their gifts and skills, they had always believed that they would survive and find them, but he never imagined this would be the end result.

CHAPTER
25

I loved dusk, almost as much as I loved staring at the stars. I had always wondered how God had created everything.

How he knew the names of each and every one of these brilliant lights that sparkled in the sky, winking as if they had a secret and knew the answers to it all, and if you were patient, they would tell you.

I sat cradling my legs to my chest.

How could she have done this? Been a part of this? I rested my head on my knees and sighed, turning my head toward the building that Cora used as a prison.

I never wanted to be a part of this, what kind of person enjoyed that?

Apparently Cora and her cronies were those type of people.

McKenna stood staring at the prison knowing that if she didn’t prove herself to her sister and her cause soon the prison building would be her home, or she would be the next inside of Cora’s room of horrors.

Soon I would probably own a new piece of jewelry and not the good kind either. Cora used some technology imbued with magic of some kind to suppress gifts, all gifts, essentially turning the person wearing it into a normal human.

McKenna stood, steeling herself as she walked toward her sister’s house. Cora had commandeered it after the takeover of this town, hoping she could see her alone, which was near impossible these days.

Ever since Avril had turned against her family and their rebellion her and Cora were virtually inseparable, pushing McKenna further away from the spot light but also taking her away from her only family.

McKenna sneered, even if Cora was a horrible person, she was still her sister her only person.

Just because she wasn’t like her sister she was being shut out. It wasn’t fair, but then again when had life ever been fair? Maybe it was better that her sister had stopped paying attention to her completely.

I walked up the steps of the massive mansion and started to knock on the door, which opened before I could even begin rapping.

“McKenna, you’ve come to take me up on my offer haven’t you,” Buck said.

McKenna looked at him disgusted, for that’s exactly what he was, disgusting.

Buck was around 5ft 7 only a few inches taller than her, he was scrawny basically a bone bag. He had long brown hair that was always greasy and he smelt as if he’d never taken a bath ever in his life.

His eyes were wild and screamed of evil and demented deeds which ran ramped through his mind. He smiled at my look of horror and disgust at being close to him in any way, showing off his yellow brown broken teeth.

I shivered feeling like bugs were crawling over my skin. “Where is Cora?” I asked in a demanding voice trying to play the part of sister to the all-important General.

“Oh, you know she’s around
,” he said gyrating his hips toward me.

“I need to speak with her, now
,” I demanded ignoring his sexual gestures.

“Come on
, lovie, we both know you want me,” he said as he attempted to reach out and touch me.

I reached inside myself with drawing my baton like weapons made from my psiconic energy, pulling up into a fighting stance, tired of his leers and lewd gestures, tired of Cora and her people, tired of all of them.

I came here to surrender to Cora’s will, or so I had thought, but now I see. I see more clearly now than I ever had.

I was leaving and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. I slapped low and to the left buckling Buck’s right knee bringing my right baton up cracking him across his thick repulsive face laying him out cold.

I let my batons dissipate and kicked him in the face, shoving him back into Cora’s house.

She never kept guards, only Buck and now Avril. Shutting the door and sliding into the shadows moving quickly to the prison. They were all leaving she decided. She wouldn’t flee and leave them here to die the type of death that Cora and Avril had in store for them.

CHAPTER 26

Everyone watched in awe as Reighlyn spared with her Dad. The only weapon she’d ever tried out had been the bow and that wasn’t long ago.

While she excelled at that during training everyday mastering it perfectly, watching her with the staff was nothing short of amazing.

Jasper stood by with Blaine, who both stood gaping, mouths wide open as Reighlyn planted her six foot staff into the ground, vaulting herself over her father, twisting her body perfectly in midair to bring herself up behind her dad.

Breaking her staff into twin three foot batons, she struck out it was hard to follow their fight, but everyone tried.

Dillon held his sword and dagger; he anticipated her moves perfectly, turning to intercept the batons.

Cracking sounds of metal striking metal rang out loud and repeatedly as they stuck, ducked, and spun into intricate defensive and offensive maneuvers.

Their mock battle seemed to go on forever until Dillon stuck hard sending one of Reighlyn’s batons flying away leaving her open and thusly ending the mock battle.

Reighlyn laughed falling to the ground thoroughly soaked in sweat and exhausted.

She had only just begun training with the staff/batons earlier that day and she seemed to have gotten the hang of it for the most part.

She hadn’t won against her dad, but this was her first try, so she’d cut herself a little slack especially considering her dad had like, massive amounts of military training and experience.

“I am astonished at how well you’ve picked up on this.” Her dad smiled down at her.

“D’Crey blood runs deep in those veins,” Dillon said proudly.

Reighlyn laughed as her dad pulled her to her feet. “I’m just excited I’m going to be able to defend myself…now if I could do all that and use my gifts I’d be happy
,” Reighlyn said.

Dillion hugged her, it felt good to hug him to know that he was really there in the flesh and it wasn’t just a dream.

She sighed letting her dad hold onto her for another minute before going to pick up her batons when she realized no one else was practicing.

There were no sounds of gifts being used, or arrows zipping through the air, no grunts and clangs of swords.

Because everyone had stopped to watch their mock fight, self-consciousness flooded through Reighlyn at the sight of everyone standing around them.

  “Dad? Why is everyone staring?” I asked as I walked back with my weapons.

“Because you are amazing,” Dillon laughed shaking Reighlyn’s shoulder as he did.

“They knew you were the one, the leader of the seven by the prophecy and your gifts, but now they know that they know that they know. You know.” He laughed again, boisterously at his quirk, knowing his daughter was still clueless and possibly more confused.

“They’re enamored and impressed by your prowess, Reighlyn, even though they’d witnessed your gifts at the battle; they hadn’t thought you were physically up to par. Now they all see you in a completely different light,” Dillion said proudly.

“Oh
,” was all I could say, finally getting it.

I looked around at the faces surrounding us spotting a more than a few people I still hadn’t met, and more than a few I had only just met, and then there was Jasper.

Our eyes locked, we stared at each other for a few moments before I turned away from him. I still hadn’t figured out what to do with my feelings for him or Garrett and it upset me.

Dillon seeing a change come over her followed her line of sight and made a mental not to speak with Blaine and Jasper.

Wondering what was going on with his daughter. “Go grab yourself a snack and a bath, maybe we can take a walk before dinner,” Dillon said. “You did so well today, sweetheart.”

I smiled. “I’d love that Daddy
,” I said.

I started heading back toward the caves, I turned back to my dad squeezing him in a hug that not only caught him off guard but brought tears to his eyes, and never had he imagined she would welcome him back with open arms, but neither had he imagined Rowan would either.

He squeezed her just as hard kissing her on the forehead smiling at their unspoken words as she turned to go back inside the cave dwelling they called home.

CHAPTER
27

Slowly and calmly I made my way down the corridors, trying not to make much noise as I came up on the last set of guards in place, I needed the element of surprise on my side, these guards held the key to the anti-gift device Cora had placed on every prisoner.

I had to be quick, I had no idea how long the guards I knocked out toward the front would actually be out and there were over 100 prisoners here in the facility.

I was close now.

I could hear them talking. I reached my hand to the wall, drawing a line of psiconic energy and pulling it open allowing me to see through a thin veil.

I counted five guards, no big deal. I ripped the veil wider, wide enough for me to climb through.

I could feel it closing up behind me as I walked through the veil toward the guards, I pushed out my batons, re-creating them with my energy, and rushed out of the wall catching them all off guard without their weapons. The real issue was they didn’t need weapons, they were gifted.

I took out the closest guard to me, knocking him out of the fight quickly. I brought my baton back in a vicious back hand toward the second guard, charging it with electricity as I did, hitting him in the ribs, releasing the energy as it connected.

I didn’t take the time to watch him fall as I felt heat building up behind me.

I dove forward and to my left trying to literally get out of the line of fire as massive flames burst past me singing my back and my hair as I bounced on the ground.

I pulled myself forward toward a desk for cover when the desk lifted and smashed down on my back. I shoved it off with a psiconic blast shattering the desk into a thousand pieces of shrapnel, rolling to my side jumping to my feet I charged the remaining three guards, throwing one of my batons made from my psiconic energy, it passed the remaining three guards ripping open and extra dimensional veil right behind them.

I got to my feet slamming them with a psiconic shield, shoving them into the dimensional tear. I called my energy back re-shaping a baton once again.

I walked over to a metal box hanging on the wall, smashing the lock off, grabbing the circular jade green stone object from within; letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

I giggled a little feeling free for the first time in my life.

I looked down at the smooth jade object in my hand and ran down the hall, running for their freedom as much as my own. It was time to free the prisoners.