Chapter Forty~ Lexa ~I spoke quickly even though I had gone over the plan with S and Jax a thousand times. “You need to try and get into the labs. Show where we were kept. The battle will be one thing but show how they treated us. Why we ran is just as important if not more. Are you sure you don’t need me to go?” “Yes,” S sighed as she packed her backpack with extra rations and clothes. “Do you even know how to work a camera, E?” I sighed too. “No.” I replied. “I’ve never seen one. Except for in the lab.” “You can’t run from this, E. Besides, your ability to manipulate energy will be put to use way better here.” She tried to comfort me. “I really don’t want to stay here,” I confided. “S, your dad already is trying to kill you. We were both in the city just the other day. What if going back is a trap?” “It was your idea, E,” She reminded me. “You said we need exposure. This is how we do it. And you being flippy floppy on the whole thing is just annoying me.”I hated when my own
Chapter Forty-One ~ Aspen ~ Jax and I moved quickly through the dense crowd. We hadn’t talked much on the way here. There was just too much at stake. It was a lot to take in, and neither of us really knew how to handle it. I’d gone into autopilot mode, and I wasn’t planning on turning it off until all of us were safe and this was all over. It’s how I’d survived this long, and I could only hope that it would get me through this too. The market was packed. It was both relieving and incredibly strange to be surrounded by technology again. And modern clothes. I had forgotten how behind E and the guys were. Jax suddenly placed a hand against my bicep, and I stopped walking. “That’s her.” He gestured to a woman leaning casually against a fresh produce stand, and I moved toward her without hesitation. This conversation needed to happen as quickly as possible. There was no telling when the attack would arrive. They could already be there. “Excuse me?” I tried to keep the urgency ou
Prologue~ Lexa ~It was a normal day. My mom was working downstairs, and I was upstairs in S’s room. We were playing with dolls like we did every day. S always had the best dolls. She was rich, and my mother and I, well we lived in a shack in the woods. So, needless to say, I enjoyed coming with her to work every day. And like any big moment about to happen, there was no way to know what would come next. So, when the sirens went off, I grabbed S’s hand and we ran down the stairs together. It wasn’t till we reached the bottom, did some grab me, yanking me away from S.“She should die with her mother!” I heard someone yell, along with a chorus of agreements as they pushed me around a crowd that scared me.
Chapter One~ Aspen ~“Are you ready?”It was an easy question, but one I didn’t know the answer to. Was I ready now? No, not really. Would I ever be? I didn’t know. All I knew was that being honest wasn’t an option. Not being prepared was even less acceptable.“Yeah, dad.” I let a small sigh slip. “I’m ready.”He nodded in approval and squared his shoulders. He was shutting off any last glimmering speck of humanity inside himself before walking through those doors. Did I need to do the same? Could I? They were still people, even if they were sick. He was always so cold when talking about them. I thought maybe they could use some ge
Chapter Two: ~ Lexa ~ “Mom? You’re not trying to cook again, are you?” I heard a familiar voice call out, as I spun a steak knife in and out of my own fingers. It wasn’t as balanced as one of my throwing knives, but still, it felt comfortable to be spinning. As comfortable as one could be when they were at death’s doorstep. “What the hell do you want?” S exclaimed in surprise and horror, sizing me up. I smiled, slightly. “Good to see you, S. It’s been a long time.” People always told me I was too good at my job. I was too good at being cold. Too good at being friendly. Too good at being whatever it was I needed to be. But no one really understood that this was how we survive. The
Chapter Three~ Aspen ~I stood there, stuck in my spot as I heard the back door slam behind her. I simply couldn’t move as I processed our heated conversation. Where the hell did she even come from? I wish she could see that there was nothing to worry about. If her friend was in our hands, he was on the right track. Soon, he would be cured and could move on with his life. He would be better for it. Still the panicked, desperate look in her eyes had me on edge.If she had come all this way, after so long, just to ask for my help when she knew she wasn’t going to get it, she had to be out of options. I was shocked enough from seeing her after so long, but to hear that she has such a negative impression of my family, of me
Chapter Four ~ Lexa ~ We sat around our little unsteady table, laughing like we did most nights. There was barely enough food to fend off our hunger, and what we could save, we had to; winter was coming. Sooner or later food would become even scarcer. It wasn’t like we had any money to just go to the market, like the people who lived outside our woods. It wasn’t like we could get jobs. Not in this country. We were all wanted. Every single one of us within these woods. We all had escaped prosecution. We all had a kill order on us. But we chose to live our lives unafraid. Me, Jaxon, Grey, and Will had all made the decision a long time ago that we were our people’s first defense. Many of the people we were protecting were grown-ups. But they were scared, so they let kids take over. Grey’s little
Chapter Five ~ Aspen ~ I was completely exhausted, practically falling over where I stood. It had taken way longer to find the shack Will mentioned than I thought it would. At this point, the sun was long gone. And I was in deep trouble. I’d told dad I would return his key card in only a few minutes, and now it had been hours. I didn’t know if he’d be worried, or angry, or both. Either way, I didn’t plan on seeing him any time soon to find out. “What do you mean you know where he is?” The guy to my left, the one who’d rudely pointed a weapon at me upon opening the door, asked with an edge. I rubbed my arm where he’d held it moments before. I didn’t blame them for being hostile. I was actually quite shocked at E’s kindness aft