I slipped out while I still could and headed back to Camp Holloway. Nobody said much on the way back, even though it took almost four hours to make the journey. It was difficult to know what the healers were thinking, they didn’t give much away. I wondered if they were proud or nervous about what they had done. I hoped they swayed on the proud side.
When I thought about Asher, my mind wanted to shut down. Despite breaking Lola’s heart, he was one of the good guys. He helped others, he was a talented musician, an incredible hacker, and I always imagined his future would be nothing but bright. The world was worse off without him in it.
In my mind I said a prayer for him. I hoped he was happy in the hereafter and at peace. When everything was over, I would be able to grieve properly with my friends. But for now, I had to push Asher from my mind and concentrate. I just had to find a way to do that.
So I made my first mission upon returning to find Caden. He was in one of the cabins, playing with his cell phone. “Hey, we’re back.”
His gaze met mine, looking at me with a paler shade of blue than Lochie’s eyes. “Everything go to plan?”
“Perfectly. Have you heard from Lochie?” It was my sole reason for finding him, it had been too dangerous to check in on him personally while in Portview.
Not having any news or a phone of my own was killing me. I played with the watch absentmindedly, thinking of the way Lola had lost Asher. It only made me want to grip onto Lochie even tighter.
“He called to see if you were back yet.”
“You told him what we were doing?” I asked, angry. Lochie needed his rest, he shouldn’t be worried about what we were up to out here in the middle of nowhere.
“He asked where you were,” Caden said defensively, reminding me very much of his cousin. I softened a little. “I’m not a good liar, so I told him the truth. Besides, I didn’t think it was a big secret.”
“It wasn’t. I just prefer he didn’t worry. Was he feeling okay when you spoke with him?”
“He said he felt great. Whatever you did to him…” he opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it and changed his mind. “Thank you. Don’t tell my cousin this, but there would be a lot of people that would miss him if he wasn’t around.”
“Trust me, keeping him around is my highest priority.” I smiled and Caden returned it warmly. I left him and returned back to the mess hall.
Garrick caught me by the arm as I walked past. “Did it go well?”
“Yeah. I saw Ella.” His breath caught in his throat at the mention of her name. “She’s fine. I got the healers to fix her. The rest of her family too, everyone except her dad. He was already gone, I’m sorry.”
He felt the loss, it was right there in his eyes. “Is she doing okay with it? Are they coping?”
“I think so. They’re upset, obviously. But they’ll get better as they get stronger.”
Garrick gave me a warm hug. “Thank you so much for doing that. I…”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. “It’s okay, I know. I told Ella you were safe and would contact her as soon as you could. Caden has a phone if you want to call her.”
He nodded and hurried off, eager to make that call as I suggested. I could understand his urgency. Being apart from your loved ones absolutely sucked. I continued on through the mess hall.
Hayden was jumping out of his skin when I walked through the doors. He was sitting with his friends, enjoying a hot chocolate, while talking animatedly. I slipped onto the seat at the end, curious to know what had got him so riled up. I was finally able to think clearly again now I knew Lochie was alright.
“It’s all here. Finally, we can actually prove what we all knew already. This is really going to happen,” he said as the others nodded with enthusiasm.
“It’s about time,” a guy to his right commented. He earned a round of agreements from the others.
When the excitement died down, I took the opportunity to find out what they were talking about. “What’s going on?”
Hayden’s face lit up like a lighthouse. “Remember how I said we were looking into a mass murder?” I vaguely recalled him saying something to that effect. “Well, some of the group have managed to get the evidence we need to take to the police. They’re not going to be able to deny it. The entire group is going down.”
“I thought you didn’t trust the police,” I said, remembering several conversations I’d had with him in the past. The group normally believed the police were just as corrupt as the criminals.
“We don’t, we’re going to the media too if they don’t do their job.”
“So tell me more about the case,” I urged. It was kind of sad that one of his conspiracy theories was right, but I was glad he would get some sort of vindication for his beliefs.
Hayden explained about the group, an organization suspected of killing hundreds across the country. They had infiltrated them by having a couple of members join and stay under the radar. They had also managed to turn a few of the other members when the views and actions became extreme. It had taken time but those members became trusted, given promotions, and allowed access to sensitive information.
The more Hayden spoke, the more things started ticking in my head. It all sounded familiar, but surely it couldn’t be. The people, the organization, their actions.
He was talking about the Originals.
CHAPTER 17
“The Originals. Yeah, that’s their name,” Hayden confirmed. “Have you heard of them?”
I hadn’t only heard of them, they tried to murder me. The Originals had been the thorn in my side since they first started killing off all the aliens. When they couldn’t kill them personally, they decided to have the general population do it for them by exposing our existence.
“Yeah, I know them,” I replied. “They aren’t just talking about committing mass murder, they’ve already done it. I’m sure they’re the ones who have been infecting everyone with the disease.”
It was only a hunch but I knew for sure it wasn’t the aliens who had poisoned the water. Considering the Originals were the ones blaming us, it had to be them orchestrating it all – deflecting the blame as far away from themselves as possible. It was a perfect frame job.
Hayden’s eyebrows raised to the roof. “The information we have is a bit dated, I thought we would be able to stop them in time. Are you sure?”
“It’s a gut feeling. Can I have a look at your evidence?”
“It sounds like you’d better.” Hayden led me out to his van. In a homemade wooden box bolted to the floor were piles of papers. He stepped aside. “It’s all yours. Just lock it up when you’re done.” The key fell into my open palm.
Using a flashlight, I huddled in the van and started reading. Hayden and his group had put together so much information I thought my head was going to explode. He must have been working on it for months, if not years.
Page after page, the memos exchanged between members of the Originals painted a bleak picture. They spoke in code but said the same things often enough to create a pattern – especially when you knew what they were up to.
The disease was referred to as the gift. They were going to gift the population and frame the aberrations – the aliens. They revealed us not because they wanted to get rid of us. They ultimately wanted someone they could use as a scapegoat, a group that could readily be hated for their difference.
But they couldn’t make it obvious. They couldn’t just tell people to hate us. They had to prove it, make it seem like they were legitimately challenging us. They put on a show for not only their lower members who didn’t know about the end game, but for the people too. When just hurting us wasn’t enough, they started the legal fight through politics.
We were a smokescreen too. While everyone was so busy worrying about all the evil aliens trying to take over the world, they toiled in the background. They worked on their plan, plugging any holes and making sure they would succeed.
The Originals’ goal
was to be the last men standing. They wanted to wipe out the majority of the population because they believed the world was too overpopulated. They wanted to start again from the ground up. Their members would be the only ones left – they were the only ones with the cure for the disease.
The Originals didn’t know about our healing powers, I was certain of that. It was the only thing that would bring their plan down, which is exactly what it was going to do. The Originals poisoned humans, the aliens were going to restore them.
The Truconians’ natural immunity to the disease had to be a fluke. I remembered how quickly they had accused us of spreading the disease on purpose when they realized we weren’t getting sick. They had been the first to point it out and the accusations had been rampant afterwards.
They weren’t worried about us not getting sick, they didn’t expect us to survive imprisonment or trial by public opinion. If the authorities didn’t kill us, then the vigilantes would. Either way we wouldn’t be a problem to them for long once we had served our purpose.
I wished Hayden and I had spoken about this months ago. So much could have been avoided if we knew what the other was up to.
A lot of the information was staring at me in black and white. The rest of the gaps I could fill in with what I knew about the Originals. I wasn’t entirely sure how much Hayden and his group had put together in detail but the information I held would definitely help in convincing the authorities.
However, from what I knew about the Originals, their reach dipped right into those very authorities. It was a waste of time going to the police, they needed to go directly to the media. We could play the same game as the Originals. Their first stop in the alien smear campaign was the evening news, we needed to make the exact same move.
Except we shouldn’t focus on the Originals. Not yet, we needed to be smarter about it. I placed everything back into the box and secured the lock. Hayden was sitting on a bomb, the information could all too easily be lost. It would be near impossible to prove our case without it.
I returned Hayden’s key and pulled him aside, needing to speak to him privately. I filled him in on everything I had pieced together, giving him a much clearer picture than he ever expected to have about the Originals.
His eyes grew wider the longer I spoke. He thought he was dealing with a mass murder. What he was really dealing with was genocide on a worldwide scale – bigger than anything that had ever happened before.
When I finished, he only had one question for me. “Are you sure?”
“Think about it, Hayden. You know the aliens didn’t cause that disease. If we didn’t, then who did? It all makes sense the Originals would be behind it.” I hadn’t been able to put a motive behind their plan until I read the documents. I always suspected they were behind it, but why would they want to kill all the humans in the world? Their belief that Earth was overpopulated and straining for resources put that piece of the puzzle into place.
Hayden started nodding slowly, his eyes darting around as he thought about it. “There are some very convincing theories going around about the world’s population. The belief we are overpopulated is more common than you’d think. So what do we do now?”
“We have to beat the Originals at their own game. Are you in?” I asked, holding my breath.
Much to his credit, Hayden didn’t even hesitate. “Tell me the plan, Ame. You have my utmost attention.”
It was all I needed.
Hayden and I worked out a strategy for the next two hours. We recruited those we needed before finally bedding down the details.
We would start in the morning at the first sign of the sun. Until then, I was exhausted. I retired to the same cabin I had the previous night and found my temporary bed. When I fell asleep, it was in the comfort that it was close to all being over.
I was on a mission the next morning. I was up before Lochie’s alarm went off and before anyone else in the camp. Even the guys on duty had dozed off, which should have been alarming but I barely paid any attention.
The food at the camp was basic, anything Caden could grab in bulk for cheap. I forced down some muesli – no milk, just the dry cereal – and waited.
Hayden staggered out after twenty minutes, looking sleepy while trying to tame his messy hair with his hand. It didn’t work. “Morning.”
“Morning. Are you ready to get started?” I asked eagerly. We were wasting time. I felt every second tick by like I had a giant clock looming over my head. It wasn’t my life at stake now but millions of others.
Hayden came to a halt at the sink, looking out into the trees. “Give me a minute to wake up and then I’m all yours.”
I gave him thirty seconds.
We took his cell phone into one of the unused cabins and checked the lighting – good enough. We weren’t exactly making an award winning movie, but it felt just as important.
“Do you know what you’re going to say?” Hayden asked, like I hadn’t gone through it a million times in my head already.
“It’s memorized. Just hit record.” I waited again as he found a way to prop the phone up so he didn’t have to rely on his hands to keep it steady.
“All yours,” he declared. The phone beeped as it started recording.
“Hello, my name is Amery Jones and I am a Truconian. Some information has been kept from you about the people from my planet. Information that is vital for your survival.”
I looked at Hayden for some guidance, he gave me a nod of encouragement.
“We have abilities. Some of us have the power to heal. Those healing powers work on humans and can cure the disease that is plaguing the human population.”
Gosh, I hoped it sounded okay. I needed it to sound kind and helpful, rather than arrogant and knowing. It was so difficult to convey it over a recorded video.
I continued anyway. “Yesterday several of the healers amongst us cured humans. We have also infused certain areas with the healing powers. It would be our honor to cure all the human race of the disease.”
I paused, hoping I would have all their attention by now. “But we will only do this on one condition. We want to speak with the authorities and explain a few things, clear our name. And I will only speak with Special Agent Robert Bower. Rob, please call the number that has been texted to you this morning.”
Hayden switched the recorder off. “That was great. Do you want to add anything else?”
I shook my head, there was no time. Better to keep it short and simple so the media outlets could play it all rather than have it edited down to fit the sound bites.
“Send it,” I confirmed.
He did just that. Emailing the file to every media outlet we could find, there was nothing more we could do than text Rob Hayden’s phone number.
And then there was the waiting. There was no guarantee the news stations would play the video. There was a good chance someone inside the Originals would kill the story. It could also be traced back to Camp Holloway and we could be arrested if someone recognized enough of the surroundings.
But all of that was worth it if it meant people stopped dying. Releasing the Truconians from responsibility was an added benefit but not the main purpose. I wanted us to be free, but the humans were a more pressing issue.
The wait was torturous. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. The longer nothing happened, the more certain I was that the video had been killed. With the Originals’ reach, it wouldn’t have surprised me. They were capable of murder on a massive scale, they were capable of deleting a few files.
Hayden’s phone pinged in the painful silence. My heart stopped. “What is it?”
He checked the screen, tapping away while I held my breath. “We’ve got a hit. News of the People are playing the video. It’s their lead story!”
We both jumped off the beds and hugged, shocked that it was actually happening. If one media outlet was playing the video, that meant it was out there. The Originals couldn’t kill the story now. I wondered if they realized they were on
a slippery slope. It wouldn’t be long until all their horrible acts were exposed for the world to see.
But Rob still hadn’t called. I knew the Department monitored news feeds. They knew most things before they were ever published on the internet or broadcast over the television waves. They should definitely have known about the video by now, which meant Rob was purposefully not calling.
Without Rob, anything could be happening. “You’re sure they can’t follow the signal back to the camp?” I asked nervously. If the Department was quiet, that normally meant they were up to something.
“I routed it through proxy servers and disguised the IP several times. There are so many layers of security that not even an expert hacker could find us,” Hayden replied, with pride running through his voice. It somewhat reassured me. He took anonymity seriously.
The phone rang, making my heart stop. Hayden picked it up without looking at the screen. “Hello?”
I perched on the edge of the bed, waiting to be handed the phone. I could talk to Rob, sort everything out. It was exactly what we wanted. And needed.
“Oh, it’s you…. Yeah, but I can’t talk right now. We’re waiting on a call from someone.” I shrunk back onto the bed, it wasn’t Rob. “I’ll call you later… I promise… Bye.” He clicked off. “Sorry, it was a friend.”
The waiting began all over again. I tried to formulate a backup plan. Considering Rob obviously wasn’t going to call, we had to think of something else. The humans needed healing. The infused water supply would only save those in the area. The whole world was infected, which meant they needed to be healed on a huge scale. For that, we needed help. Rob’s help. But that apparently wasn’t going to happen.
We could dispatch the healers around to different countries, but they would probably be on some no-flight list and be arrested the moment they tried to board a plane. Any other forms of transportation would be too slow.
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