Colin really did choose to leave me, she realized. He had a choice, and he didn’t choose me. If she had not been so cruel to him in the beginning, he would still be there. When she thought that she was being cleverer than the State, she in fact drove off the only male she could have ever loved. If he had decided near the end that he didn’t want to leave, she would never know, nor did it really matter. It wouldn’t make a difference now. It was too late. Could he have asked to stay in the end, or was it all just an act? He may have been flawed, have done some things she would have thought to be unforgivable, but then why did she miss him so deeply?
All she could do right then was just sit and stare blankly. Her vision was not quite in focus. It felt almost as though she was sleeping with her eyes open. She didn’t even know whether she had the strength to get up and go back to the house. Would they come looking for me if I stayed the night?
She turned her head to the side, nestling into the tree. Movement in her peripheral vision eventually snapped her out of her hazy state. There was a group of people on the other side of the dome. At first it struck her as odd Victor had not mentioned that workers would be on the other side, especially when he had a habit of removing her from being near temporary workers. She figured it must be a team of scientists, taking soil and water samples, testing the air quality.
They seemed to be feeling along the glass wall, kicking at the base, pressing the glass with their hands. She watched them contently, with curiosity, until she noticed they were not wearing protective suits. That exact moment it struck her—they should not be here; this is wrong—they started to strike the glass. It started with their fists, then one slammed into the glass with their shoulder. The group gave up on their attempt, and moved back, and another raised a long metal bar. He struck the glass once—it did not break, but sent a loud reverberating echo through the grounds.
Freya froze with fear—panic coursed through her. This was definitely wrong. She slowly turned her hand over; the tablet was still securely strapped there. With her heart pounding in her ears and throat, she maneuvered the GPS locater on the tablet and pushed on her location. The tablet popped up with options: record data for this location or send a message about this location. She simply typed in the word emergency, and sent the message to both Victor and Security. Within two seconds, Security had patched through to the tablet.
“Freya 117, state your emergency,” a voice said on the tablet.
She jumped so high she almost threw the tablet in the field, or would have, if it had not been securely strapped to her hand. Freya cupped her hand over her mouth to keep herself from crying out. Her eyes shot back over to the people on the other side. They stopped their attempt at breaking the glass and pressed closer to the dome, looking around inside. Luckily, the grass was high—only her head protruded above it. She slouched down to make sure that she could not be seen. Once lying in the grass, she found the volume on the tablet and turned it down.
“There are people outside trying to break into the dome,” she whispered while she held the tablet to her mouth.
“Roger that. Are you in a safe place? Can you tell me how many people you see?” he asked in a softer tone.
“I think there are five or six. They are not wearing protective suits and were hitting the glass with some sort of bar or rod or something. I am lying in the grass. I don’t know if they can see me,” she whispered back.
“Freya, don’t move a single muscle. That is a direct order. Do you copy?” The voice had changed to a different voice. It sounded familiar. “Freya, do you copy?”
“Yes. I won’t move,” she said.
“This is James speaking, Freya. We have several teams headed straight for them. One team is coming from inside the house to extract you.”
Freya took his command literally. She lay there stiff as a board with the tablet resting on her face, afraid to move her arms down to her sides—perhaps even the motion of the grass around her could be her undoing. Even her eyes were closed tightly. Controlling her breathing was all she could think about. If they broke through, she didn’t want anything to give away her location. She laid there for what felt like an eternity, her heart pounding in an alarming rhythm.
Suddenly there was a chaos of sounds. It was like nothing she had ever heard before: a rhythmic thumping from high above and a rustling sound in the grass beside her. She would have screamed except a hand, which seemed to appear out of thin air, covered her mouth.
There was a man wearing something that she had never seen before. His uniform looked like a mixture of greens, as if he were trying to blend in with plants. He had a mask over his face that matched the rest of his body. The only part of his face that she could see was his deep brown eyes. He kept a hand on her mouth to silence her, and she saw that as he lay in the grass beside her, his other hand held a gun.
Freya looked over to where the men had been on the other side of the dome. That was when she saw a helicopter for the first time. She, of course, had seen pictures of them and learned about them in history class, but she didn’t know they still existed. The fear she had been feeling turned to wonder at seeing this magical looking machine in the air. As it got near to the ground, the men previously trying to break into the dome ran in different directions.
The helicopter touched down, only long enough for about ten people in hazmat suits to jump out. They were holding large guns and chased after the perpetrators. The helicopter swiftly lifted back up into the air, and then hovered above the scene. A muffled voice came through the dome, being broadcast from the helicopter. The soldiers were telling the men to stop running or they would be shot on sight.
Her eyes stayed on the helicopter until she heard several thunderous sounds rattle through the air. Even though she couldn’t see any of the men on the ground, she could not stomach the thought of seeing someone die. Freya turned her head to face the other direction; she didn’t want to see any of this. More shots were fired off, her entire body wincing and twitching with each reverberation, and then the thumping sound of the helicopter began to silence as it flew away.
The man lying in the grass beside her removed his hand from her mouth.
“Are you okay, miss? Have you been hurt?”
Freya did not answer; she just nodded but kept lying in the grass. This entire episode had left her completely exhausted—her heart still beating at an irregular pace. The man who had laid with her got up, and to her surprise, so did six other men who had surrounded her. He helped her to her feet and then began to gently guide her back to the State house.
Freya’s legs trembled; she could hardly support her own body weight. Two of the men walked up beside her and put their arms around her to stabilize her balance. The closer they got to the house, the harder it was for her to breathe. Although she was not harmed, the shock and fear from what had just happened made her entire body tremble. Sobs started to rise to the surface. As soon as she began to cry, one of the men simply swept her up in his arms as though she weighed no more than a feather, and he carried her to safety.
Something about getting carried like that made her think of Colin. It was exactly what he would have done—just picked her up and carried her in his strong arms. The thought would have made her cry even harder if it were possible. All she wanted right now was for Colin to hold her and tell her that he would protect her, but she couldn’t have that. She could only let this stranger hold her and take comfort in his arms. When they had moved past the tree line, Chastity screamed and ran toward them, with Victor shortly behind her.
“Is she hurt? What happened?” Chastity asked in a frantic voice.
“She is not harmed, ma’am, just in shock,” he replied.
Once she heard Freya was not hurt, Chastity tried to hug her while in the arms of the military officer. He gave her a moment to gain control of her emotions before he pushed on toward the house. He carried her right to the apartment and placed her down on the sofa. He turned and wordlessly saluted Victor, and then headed out the
door.
Chastity switched the sofa into a bed, but stood back and let Victor be the one to get close. He grabbed onto Freya’s hand and gently pushed her disheveled hair out of her eyes with his other hand.
“You did so good today, Freya. I am so proud of you,” he said softly while giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. “A lot of people could have been hurt today if it were not for you.” He paused. “I have requested something from the doctors to help you sleep tonight. I do need you to talk to James tomorrow to tell him everything that you saw, but I think you should sleep first.”
Chastity appeared beside the bed with a very familiar box of medication. Freya took it without question and drank it quickly. It was not long before the haze clouded her mind, the muscles in her body relaxed. She did not put up any fight, or let her mind wonder—she graciously gave into the power of the medication, and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 5
Chastity woke Freya up the next morning. There was no urgency in her mannerism; she was soft and gentle with her. She guided Freya to the shower and made sure she ate and got dressed. Freya started to wonder whether she would ever live independent of Chastity, or whether she would need someone to take care of her forever. If someone had told Freya that she was going to grow up to be a pathetic mess who couldn’t even shower on her own, she would have thought they were crazy. She was an adult who was in need of constant adult supervision. No wonder I wasn’t chosen for reproduction, she surmised.
The medication from the previous night had left her groggy. She had a shower, but did not feel the need to be fast or do a particularly good job of washing. Chastity stood at the door with free time clothing when she finished up. Freya gave her a questioning look but Chastity simply handed the pile off and turned around. It was obvious by the choice of clothing selected that she was not expected to report in for civil duty today. She knew better than to press the issue, and her body was unusually fatigued.
Freya ate breakfast, took her medication, and then Chastity guided her over to Victor’s office. He was not currently in his office, which was strange for this hour, so she sat down next to Chastity and waited. After some time had passed, Victor and James walked in. Chastity greeted both of them and then took a seat farther down from her. Somehow, Chastity moving away made her nervous, like a mother abandoning their child.
No one bothered with any type of pleasantries, as much as they were well acquainted, this was no social call. There had been a severe breach of security, and so close in proximity to the head of State himself—it was no surprise that James skipped over polite or idle chit-chat, wanting to get straight to the heart of the matter.
“Freya, I know that you are still probably in shock, but I need you to tell me everything that you saw yesterday,” James said in a gentle, soothing voice.
Freya simply nodded but did not speak. She didn’t know whether anything she saw would be of value to him.
“The first thing I need to know is how good of a look you got at those men. Did they see you or speak to you?”
“No, I didn’t get a good look, and I don’t know if they saw me or not.” She shook her head. “I was tired, so I decided to sit down with my back against a tree. The grass is pretty high, and I wasn’t actually that close to where they were. I just looked over and saw them. I knew something was wrong when they weren’t in protective suits. Then I saw them hit the glass. I just slid down lower to make sure they couldn’t see me, and alerted everybody.”
“If you saw any of those people again, do you think you would recognize them?” James asked, his body leaned slightly toward her in anticipation of her response.
“No. I wasn’t close enough to see their faces. I can’t be entirely sure that they were all men, come to think of it.”
“So you are certain that they did not see you?”
“I can’t say for certain, but I don’t think they could have. I was low in the grass already. If they knew someone was there, I don’t think they would have chosen that spot to break the glass.”
Victor let out an audible sigh.
Freya wondered for a moment whether he was disappointed that she couldn’t help them out more. “Besides, I didn’t get a clear look at them, so even if they saw me, I don’t think they could have gotten a good look at me.”
“Well, that is good news,” Victor said quietly, almost more to himself.
“I’m sorry that I can’t help you more. That is all I saw,” she said.
“Freya, this was not about us needing information from you to help us. We were able to catch all of them but one. We were more concerned about your safety. If that one person was able to communicate your identity to the rebellion, we could not guarantee your safety. If no one knew you were there, they might think that they set off an alarm or were seen by Security themselves. I assure you, we will be alarming and setting up cameras around all areas of the dome. I am hoping that the one person who escaped would have perished due to a lack of proper protection from the environment,” James explained.
Freya was surprised that this thought had never crossed her mind. When she first saw the group, she did notice they were not in proper suits, but once the attack started and her fear took over, she never once thought of what happened to those people after—or if it could ever affect her in any way.
So many questions flooded her mind. How had they gotten out there to begin with? How long could a person survive out there? What did they possibly hope to accomplish? Would a small hole in the dome be enough to kill everyone? Or was access to the State house their objective? Freya had been living and working in this house long enough to know one thing for certain: she should not ask. This matter was far beyond her need to know, and so asking questions would just make her look scared, which would only lead to more concern from Chastity and Victor. It could even land her in a medical clinic.
“I never considered that they might have seen me and that I could be in danger,” she said to James.
“I am relieved to hear you had no contact with them. They very well could have not seen you. I would still like to advise that you don’t leave the State house unless through proper channels.” He nodded to Victor. “I don’t want you to take any risks until we have either apprehended him, or have found a body.” James stood. “There are no words to express the gratitude of the State for what you did, Freya. Your actions have been well documented. You will be rewarded for this.”
James gave a slight bow to Freya—something she simply didn’t know how to respond to. She was a greenhouse worker, and he held a position of authority. It would not be commonplace for such an action. He turned to Victor, giving his head a nod, and silently left the room.
Freya sat quietly for a moment, waiting for Victor or Chastity to say something. They both sat and looked at her as though they were waiting for her to speak.
“It’s not like I leave this place anyway,” she said.
Victor gave a half laugh and shook his head. “Well, that may be true, but that is going to change.” He gave Chastity a knowing look. “We had been discussing a certain element of your training, and in light of what just happened, we both feel it imperative to move forward. There are secret tunnels, usually reserved for myself or the military, but we can move you through them until James can ensure your safety.”
“Why? Where do I have to go?” she asked. “Isn’t my training just reading a bunch of stuff on the tablet?”
“No, not all of it,” answered Chastity. “We need to take you through some training of a more physical nature. If you feel up to the challenge, I would like to take you there today.”
Freya could not imagine what type of physical training was required of her. She did not feel particularly energetic or in an adventurous mood, but it had been quite some time since she had set foot outside of the State house. The mere concept of hidden tunnels sent a sort of thrill through her. That thrill was the first thing she had felt other than despair since Colin had left.
“Okay,” Freya replied
simply. She was afraid if she said more, she would change her mind. This was an adventure, exactly what she needed to lift her spirits.
“You never cease to amaze me, Freya,” Victor said with an affectionate tone. His eyes swelled with pride as he looked at her.
She simply nodded at his kind words, and looked back to Chastity in anticipation.
“Come along then,” said Chastity.
Freya had no idea what to expect, or where they would be going. Part of her was almost disappointed, or perhaps a little confused—Chastity led her simply to the door next to Victor’s office. Chastity scanned in and they walked into what appeared to be a small apartment. The room was very underwhelming; it was just like any other individual living apartment.
Chastity moved a throw rug, which exposed a trapdoor in the floor. She opened it and gestured for Freya to start down the stairs. Freya stood for a moment, looking down at the black hole in the floor, apprehensive about where it would lead. As she took her first step, lights automatically flickered on. Freya couldn’t help but to notice that the air was different down here, more humid yet stale. Before she had reached the bottom of the stairs, Chastity began her descent as well, closing the trapdoor behind them. There was a long corridor at the bottom of the stairs where Freya waited for Chastity.
Conflicted: Book Two of the State Series Page 5