The Returning Read online

  “Sage,” Kennedy warned, “don’t encourage them.”

  “Don’t listen to her, Sage,” Kane Brant said. “If it riles Kennedy up, then it’s definitely worth it.” Kane was Kennedy’s older cousin, but the two might as well have been siblings the way they bickered. Kane was a trickster through and through. If there was trouble brewing somewhere, he was certain to be at the center of it. Many people had been surprised when he’d been called to join the Seven. He was one of the best warriors in Trylin but a doubter of the way of their people. It seemed unlikely that he would be one of them, but no one would dare argue with the calling.

  Kennedy glared at her cousin and tossed a rolled-up sack at his head.

  Timmons Gilford stepped up next to Kennedy, wrapped his left arm around her petite shoulders, and shook her playfully. “Oh, come on, Kennedy, it’s too early for such seriousness.” Timmons had married Willis’s sister, Eleanor, ten years ago. He claimed to have fallen for her the moment he saw her walk into Trylin City with the Seers. They’d both been only young teenagers then, so he’d waited and pursued until he’d convinced her that she had fallen for him too.

  Kennedy shrugged Timmons off, but she couldn’t hide the tiny grin forming on her lips. Timmons did that to people—made them feel comfortable and free. He was the guy who was instantly friends with everyone in the room.

  “Enough, all of you,” Lucy Carson said through a laugh. “We’ve got to get this camp packed up.” Lucy was Momma Bear, and everyone did as they were told. Willis tossed the thin core of the apple he’d been eating into the brush and moved to roll up his own sleeping mat.

  “Today’s a big day,” Timmons said, voicing out loud what everyone else was thinking.

  He was right. Today they would reach the Authority City. Everything started today. It didn’t take the group long to have everything rounded up and ready to move. They had just finished when they saw Aaron approaching.

  Willis threw his pack into the rear of the single van the group was traveling in, feeling the nervous and excited energy from the rest of the group. Davis stepped up beside him and tossed his bag in as well.

  “It’s go time,” Davis said.

  Willis chuckled and shook his head. “Where do you come up with this stuff?”

  “My dad.”

  “He’s cooler than you, so he gets away with it,” Kennedy said, stepping past Davis. “You, not so much.”

  The rest of the group snickered in amusement as Kennedy moved to jump in the front passenger seat, the others climbing into the vehicle as well.

  Aaron reached them quickly, sharing a knowing smile with Willis before the teacher climbed in the back with the others and Willis into the driver’s seat.

  They rode in silence for a while, all lost to their own thoughts. None of them really knew what was ahead. Trusting the faith they’d honed and the instincts they’d trained was much easier to do when the way was clear.

  Willis saw the massive walls of the Authority City as they approached a thick covering of trees. This looked like a good place to leave their vehicle.

  The Authority City was larger than Willis had imagined. It was an odd sensation to know he’d been here before but to remember nothing about it. Not the large walls that surrounded it or the sky-piercing buildings that seemed to touch the clouds.

  According to the tales of old, the city had once been difficult to penetrate. The strong, barred gates were at one time constantly monitored by the CityWatch Guard with soldiers at every entry point, around-the-clock surveillance of the walls, and patrols that stretched miles outside of the city itself. But since the injection of Genesis, the need for protective measures had lessened.

  Most of the CityWatch’s resources were spent guarding the Genesis Compound that sat northwest of the Authority City. Since it housed all of their scientific advancements, it had become their most precious resource. In fact, the city gates themselves now stood wide open. Willis could see inside clearly from where the group hid among the trees. And not a guard in sight.

  Willis pulled the van to a slow stop under the thick shade of branches and turned the engine off. Everyone climbed out, grabbed what they’d brought, and walked as a unit to the far tree line.

  “So, what’s the plan here?” Davis asked.

  “We’ll take an old yet familiar route in through the underground tunnels,” Aaron said.

  The entire group smiled in unison. They’d heard many stories about the missions of old, many of which had taken place in the tunnels.

  “The ones that run under the city? The old water lines?” Timmons asked. “Are they still accessible?”

  “They should be,” Davis said. He yanked a portable device from his back pocket and Willis just chuckled. Kennedy rolled her eyes before the boy even started talking. “I’ve made some adjustments to this device, but my dad said it should be able to track geological changes in the parameters along the city’s edge, which should give us a pretty clear picture—”

  “Are you going to ramble on like that the entire time?” Kane asked. “Because if so, I volunteer to just walk through the front gate.”

  The others chuckled and Davis shook his head. “Wow, I sounded just like my dad right then, didn’t I?”

  Willis gave Davis an affectionate pat on the back of the boy’s shoulder.

  “Totally,” Sage said.

  “But as we covered already, not as cool,” Kennedy said.

  Willis turned his attention back to Aaron. The teacher appeared calm, thoughtful, his eyes watching the city, moving over the walls. Willis often wondered what Aaron thought about. He was their guide and teacher, a strong voice when the path seemed bleak, and they all knew he was no ordinary man.

  “And once we’re inside,” Willis asked, directing his question toward Aaron, “then what?”

  Aaron smiled slightly. “You’ll know.” He paused and everyone waited as his expression softened and became almost sympathetic. “Remember, regardless of what’s to come, you were all handpicked for this. Chosen by the Father to return to the city and remind the people where they came from.”

  His voice was somber, his words almost a riddle, as was common with Aaron, but they contained weighty truth that was both welcoming and terrifying. The group digested each word, each of them understanding that the journey ahead would not be easy.

  Willis’s mind drifted again to thoughts of Elise. The fear and panic he’d seen in her eyes. He looked once more to the towering walls that surrounded the sleeping city. He didn’t know what he and his friends would face, but he imagined they would be tested in the days to come. And he hoped for the sake of the city that they wouldn’t lose their faith.

  8

  The screeching of moving metal bars roused Elise from her sleep. She opened her eyes to see a blur of dark movement and felt the strong grip of hands on her arms as she was hoisted into a standing position. Like a punch to her gut, Elise realized what was happening. They had come to take her to her execution.

  As it had the night before, her body’s instinctual resistance kicked in and she struggled against the guards’ holds. But just like every time she resisted, it did no good. She was only inflicting pain into her muscles with no possible outcome other than what was already laid out before her. Death.

  She couldn’t fight the tears, didn’t really see any point in trying. Her arms were yanked behind her and her wrists secured together tightly before she was dragged from her cell. She was then pushed back up the way she’d been brought down, up a narrow stairway and across a hall she didn’t recognize, but this time she was taken out through a door and loaded into a black CityWatch transport.

  Her mind registered that she was most likely being transported to the Genesis Compound. Everything significant happened there. Outside the city, but always affecting the city. Not that her death would affect much of anything; most people didn’t even know she existed and wouldn’t care much if she was alive or dead even if they did know. The Genesis Serum made sure that only what
mattered to the city mattered to the people.

  An envelope of pain opened up in Elise’s chest. She wondered if Jesse would be there. She had expected him to come see her, save her somehow or at least explain what had warranted her sudden execution. But she’d heard nothing from him. Her only ally in this world had abandoned her, making her question whether they had ever actually been allies at all.

  She had been kept in the Capitol Building her whole life because she was unusable, uninjectable. Yet moments of happiness had existed, and they were all connected to Jesse. He’d taught her about the Histories of this city, mentored her in archery, given her attention and a relationship that she lacked with everyone else. He was the closest thing to family she’d ever experienced, yet even he had now abandoned her. Just as her parents once had, and just as the world was about to do now.

  The drive to the Genesis Compound zipped by. They were pulling up nearly as soon as they’d left. Or at least that’s how it seemed. Elise’s mind wrapped itself in agony over the ending of all things. She was surprised to be mourning never seeing her room again, or reading her books, or sitting in the Capitol gardens. Those seemed like such trivial things to miss, but then they were really the only things she’d ever had other than her relationship with Jesse, their conversations and shared moments. Moments that had convinced her someone cared about her but clearly had just been more lies her mind told to help her cope with being utterly alone.

  The vehicle pulled to a jerking stop, and Elise was quickly escorted out of the transport and into the Genesis Compound. The building was surrounded by CityWatch guards, vehicles scattered all about. Lines of children who had reached the appropriate age to be given the Genesis Serum filed out of the vans. She watched their playful faces, saw the light and curiosity in their eyes. They’d be different when they came out. Like-minded and cold. Changed for the betterment of the community.

  Elise couldn’t help but wish yet again that she had been able to be changed. She wouldn’t be going to the slaughter now if she had been normal. Her parents wouldn’t have left her. She’d understand what her purpose was in life. Instead she found herself here, being led inside to die.

  Remember who you are.

  Elise felt the voice call to her heart, but she shut it out. Her mind had led her into false traps of hope before. She wouldn’t let it do that to her here. The voice continued to whisper to her, to beckon her to a place that almost felt warm, but she ignored it. The guards led her into a small elevator and up to the second floor, then down a stark white hallway to the last door on the left.

  Inside the room was a single chair, clean and sterile. Two men in white lab coats stood, one on either side, waiting for her. A tall, thin machine stood to the right of the chair, a sliver against the whiteness of the room. Long wires hung from the bottom, and a screen softly beeped in its center. This was the device that was going to end her life.

  Her skin went cold as her heart raged inside her chest. The inevitability of it all made her eerily still. As if moving would somehow make this real instead of just a nightmare. The guards pulled her forward, causing reality to crash through any protective barrier she’d momentarily created, and her heart slowed as her body went numb.

  She didn’t feel the chair under her as she was pushed onto it, didn’t feel the thick straps as they were yanked across her arms, didn’t feel the needles attached to the ends of the wires as they were slid beneath her skin, didn’t feel the touch of the doctors as they worked, probing and prodding, preparing her for the end. Her mind had gone vacant, her ears filled with cotton so the sounds in the room were muffled, her eyes clouded so that everywhere she looked she saw only through haze. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Yet somewhere deep within the most hidden place of her soul, a voice still echoed:

  Remember who you are.

  You are chosen for this.

  The light is within you.

  “We are nearly ready,” said a voice through the muffle.

  Nearly ready. Suddenly Elise’s heart resumed pumping like a speeding locomotive and her entire body trembled. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want this to be her end. Moments ago the room had seemed hidden beneath a sense of thick numbness, but it now felt like it was blazing with intensity. Every sound was louder than it should be, every object crisp and clear, her skin on fire, her blood pounding violently, her mind twisting in circles. Tears rushed down her cheeks and she gasped for air. She couldn’t die; she wasn’t ready.

  “We need to get her calm before we can start,” one of the doctors said.

  The single guard inside the room started his approach toward her, and it only roused more hysteria within her. And through it all the voice never left.

  Remember who you are.

  The light is within you.

  The voice inside her grew in volume and it ignited a spark of light inside her chest. Small at first, it began to spread out into all parts of her. The fire in her skin turned into a buzzing electricity and she began to cry out as the light covered her completely.

  “Get control of her!”

  Hands connected with her skin and suddenly the room changed. A different kind of haze covered the room, and everything froze. Cries of anguish echoed somewhere in the distance, but the images exploding across Elise’s mind captured her attention. The room melted away to a forest, and Elise saw the guard she recognized as Sam walking with a group—a young man with curly black hair, another younger, leaner one with a goofy grin elbowing a short girl who could have been the guard’s twin except for her small size, looking unimpressed by them all as they traveled.

  Another image shot across her vision. They were underground now, in a large tunnel of sorts. Tents were set up all over, fires burning, women laughing, and children running. The large guard was there again, as were those who had been with him before. Eating around a table, joking, teasing.

  More changes. Now a boy she didn’t recognize, holding the hand of a beautiful woman, their eyes filled with love. A proposal. An acceptance.

  Change: a young girl standing beside a gravestone, tears streaming down her face.

  Change: a couple yelling, a glass being thrown against the wall.

  Change.

  Image after image flooded Elise’s mind. Places she’d never been, people she’d never seen. Memories—but other people’s memories.

  Her mind ached as each new image flashed like lightning across her brain. The light inside her chest was flowing down into her arms and legs, warming through to her bones, the familiar voice echoing as each picture in her mind changed.

  The light is within you.

  Help them see.

  The anguished cries that had been distant suddenly broke through the haze and assaulted her. “Stop, stop, stop!” someone screamed.

  Elise inhaled and felt the energy that had been flowing through her diminish, the room falling back into normalcy. A severe pounding made her brain feel like mush. All her strength had faded, yet her heart was still trying to pulse out of her chest, her skin buzzing, her lungs aching for air. She was still strapped to the chair. On the ground around her were both doctors and the guard, Sam. All three were moaning in pain, clutching their skulls, rambling about nothing and crying in agony.

  The door at the end of the room opened slowly, and several more guards entered with weapons raised. Behind them another man entered, one Elise knew, and a shiver ran the length of her spine at the sight of him. Dr. Reynard. He looked at the three figures wriggling in pain on the ground, then glanced back up at her, and she saw a dangerous look flash across his eyes. She gulped in air, her body trembling as the effects of what had just happened started to take root.

  What had happened? The Scientist’s eyes never left hers as the group of CityWatch guards slowly crossed the room and saw to their own.

  Remember who you are.

  Something ticked inside her heart, and although Elise wasn’t sure what would happen next, she suddenly became very aware that nothing was ever g
oing to be the same. Her head swam, her eyes became heavy, and then her vision turned as black as if someone had pumped straight exhaustion into her veins, and her world went dark.

  9

  Remko sat at the worn and unfinished wooden table. Old familiar faces greeted him: Ramses and Wire to his right, Kate, Smith, and Eleanor to his left. New faces that had become familiar were also present. Dalen and Cece Avery, Sage’s parents; Alisha Cost; her son Keen; and Peter Holts. All five represented original Trylin families. Together the eleven of them acted as a council of sorts. They only met occasionally to address any serious issues that might have developed in the city or to enhance the city’s way of life, but for the most part, the city ran smoothly without the need for a governing presence.

  Today was simply a routine gathering. It had been several days since Aaron and the chosen Seven had gone, and everyone had agreed that it would be good to meet and see where people’s heads and, most importantly, their hearts were. The waiting was supposed to be easy, free from stress until word of a change in the Authority City finally came. That had always been the dream, at least. Remko knew better. There was usually a storm before there was a calm.

  Dalen Avery usually ran the meetings, going through a list of routine topics: resources, education, health, etc. Remko tried to listen but found himself distracted by his own thoughts. The weight of the future was heavy, and Remko had felt its constant pressure for days now. He could see anxiety in Carrington as well. Truth be told, neither of them were sleeping well. They were both caught up in nagging thoughts of trouble, whether from the past or about what was to come. They knew that worrying over where they had been or where they were going did them no good, but remembering truth in the fog was hardly ever easy.

  Dalen finished the normal list and opened the floor for additional topics of discussion. Remko realigned his focus, trying to be present. Before anyone else could speak, Brock Avery, Dalen’s teenage boy, opened the door and strode into the meeting room. His face was worried. He panted as if he’d been running and took a moment to catch his breath.