I looked through the papers, not understanding most of they were saying, then froze when I saw the name at the top of one.
Project lightning- Misty- assumed age four.
“And this?” I held it up, watching each of them read the headline. Harvey squinted her eyes, and Max looked confused, but Levi dropped his gaze. “Levi?”
He cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair, then took a deep breath before looking back at me.
“There is something I found, but I’m not sure you want to see it,” he said and waited. I raised my eyebrows and flicked the paper.
“Of course I want to see it, is this about me?” I asked but I knew, deep down I think I’d always known. There was something about me that had always felt strange, different like I didn’t quite fit in with the others. My memories never made sense, and the flashbacks I had were always different. There would be times I could recall the way the families looked, and other times I’d see myself strapped to a metal table. But I never knew if they were real, and if so, what they meant.
“Look at page forty-six,” he said and leaned forward. “I have no idea if it’s you or not. That’s why I hadn’t said anything.”
I flipped through them until I found it, and then I sat. I scanned the words from the top to the bottom, but there wasn’t much there. It said the girl was taken during toddler years, and through intense testing, showed signs of electrical manipulation. They forced her power out, knowing doing so could kill a kid so young, but they wanted to test it. They strapped her down and shot currents through her body, recording the way she absorbed it. They pushed the limits and planned to push harder, but she’d gone missing before they'd been able to finish.
The bile rose in my throat but I pushed it down and masked my face with a smile.
“Nope, not me.” I met their eyes, knowing at least Max didn’t believe me. He could sense a lie, and we both knew I was lying.
“I don’t understand how they can change a humans DNA,” Harvey said and drummed her fingers on the table. She was wearing all black, and her braids were tied in a knot on the top of her head. “Who in their right mind would do this? Do they think they can play God and not have any consequences?”
“I don’t know, but they were able to create a strain that attached itself to a human, giving them the capability to withstand more than the average man. Some of them even began showing signs of powers similar to the nephilim they’d taken from.”
“I don’t see how they’ve gotten away with it for so long and not been caught.” Max didn’t usually voice his opinions around anyone but me, so I was surprised when he joined in the conversation. But he was right, it was shocking how long it’d been going on.
“They get away with it because the people in charge want them to. Of course the government wants control over everything, and what leader wouldn’t want an army of super soldiers? Especially now the world is full of nephilim and we still have demons roaming around, they want the reassurance they can protect themselves,” Levi said and closed his computer.
“Yeah, but to steal people from their lives and take their blood? That’s pushing it, don’t ya think?” Harvey pushed her chair back and walked to the sink to fill up a glass of water.
“Would you be a willing patient? Knowing they were going to poke and prod and take your blood? Would you sign up for them to test you past your limits and push you until you broke, just so they could see how far that was?” I asked, and shuffled the pages back in the folder. I raised my head and looked from each of them, then settled on Max.
“What they’ve done is wrong, and now they have our parents and are doing who knows what to them. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to find them. I can’t sit around here hoping they make it out okay, and waiting until it’s too late.”
“You know I’m going with you,” Max said and moved closer, taking his spot behind me.
“I’m coming, too,” Harvey said and set the glass in the sink.
“Well, it’s not like you guys would be able to get in the building without me hacking their alarms.” Levi crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. “But I need a believable lie for my parents.”
We packed the truck and planned to meet an hour later, giving me a chance to talk to Ezra before we left. Max and I went to Eddie and Beth’s and found him in the backyard playing with water balloons. Ezra ran to us when we walked outside and attached himself to my neck.
“I thought you left me,” he said in my ear and tightened his hold.
“I’d never leave without saying goodbye, Ezra.” I sat him down and nodded at Beth, who was making her way over to us.
“You’re going,” she said, and it wasn’t a question. She looked from me to Max, then to Ezra. Patting him on the head, she asked if he’d go inside for a minute. He agreed but sulked all the inside before peeking his head through the curtain to spy.
“I can’t stop you, and I won’t try to,” Beth said and grabbed each of our hands. “But you must promise to be careful. You are both very young and have been through so much already. I’d hate to see either of you hurt again.”
“We will,” I said and Max nodded.
“Your families will not be happy to see you.” She looked off to the side of the house and back to us. “You better go before the others get here. They are meeting to decide what to do, and are planning to travel there within a couple days. Eddie wanted to leave already, but it wasn’t possible without shutting the school down, and that would cause a mass panic. It might not be the right choice, but I won’t stop you. I can’t say the same about them.”
She was right, I knew with complete certainty they would stop us. They’d tie us up and lock us in the basement before letting us travel across the country and walk into danger. Maybe we should stay home and let them take care of it, but something deep inside me was saying it wasn’t right. A voice in my head telling me they didn’t have time for us to wait, and if we wanted to save them, we needed to do it ourselves.
Maybe the voice was my young mind being too impulsive, but maybe it wasn’t. I wasn’t willing to chance it.
I said goodbye to Ezra and told him I’d be back soon. He begged me to stay, afraid I was going to disappear the way Andi had, but Beth helped calm him down. I promised I’d bring them home, knowing I shouldn’t be promising him something I wasn’t sure I could keep, but I couldn’t help myself. He needed some reassurance, and it was all I could offer him at the moment. I just hoped I wasn’t going to let him down.
Chapter sixteen
Max
After we left Ezra, we went back to my house to meet the others. They were waiting when we got there, both carrying two full bags.
“How long do you think this trip is going to be?” Misty asked and laughed, helping Harvey toss her massive bag in the back.
“Who knows, but I wanted to be prepared.”
“And I needed to bring some equipment unless you think you can disarm their system on your own,” Levi said and carefully placed his stuff in the corner, then used the other bags to support them.
After getting settled in the truck, I handed Misty the print-out of the directions, and head toward the highway. Most of the country was the same as it had been before, but not all of it. There were ghost towns and deserted buildings everywhere. Some of the highways had been destroyed years ago, either from bombs or natural disasters, and not many of them had been rebuilt. We made sure to mark the roads we could take, and avoid any dark areas where there were known to be demon. A fight with darkness was the last thing we needed.
After a few hours on the road, we were all getting restless. Harvey and Levi spent most of the time talking in the backseat, quietly enough we couldn’t hear them. And Misty had been staring out her window the majority of the time. I wanted to ask her about the lie she’d told, and find out why she’d told it. Was she the girl the file was talking about? The little kid who’d been testing and forced to endure things no kid should?
I knew she’d had a bad childh
ood, it was something we’d shared, but what that paper said was more than I’d imagined. I couldn’t begin to understand what the pain must have been like. It made me want to hurt anyone involved, to give them the pain they’d given her.
Was that was she was thinking about? The past she’d been keeping from me?
I reached over and linked her hand with mine, knowing it was something I shouldn’t be doing, but not wanting her to feel alone. She tightened her grip but didn’t look from the window.
A few hours later the sun was starting to set and the road was beginning to blur. Harvey and Levi were passed out in the back, snoring and tossing limbs around everywhere. Misty was still quiet, more so than she normally was, and it was getting to me.
“Are you going to talk at all?” I snapped and then closed my eyes. I wasn’t angry with her, but the drive was making me irritable.
“You okay?” she asked and leaned over the consul, peering up at me through her long lashes, and blinking tears from her big blue eyes. I sighed.
“I’m fine,” I said and glanced at her before focusing back on the road. “You wanna tell me why you lied earlier?” I hadn’t planned on asking, and I knew I was too harsh with my tone by the way she flinched. I should have apologized, but I didn’t, I was too tired and grouchy to admit I was out of line. And honestly, I was a bit annoyed by the fact she didn’t trust me with the truth. She’d had hours to tell me about it, but chose to shut down and stay in her own bubble.
“What do you want to know, Max?”
“Everything,” I said and gripped the wheel, knowing I was the one lying now.
“I don’t think you mean that,” she said and slid her hand over mine, prying my fingers loose. “After all this is over, I promise to tell you my story. What I can remember of it anyway.”
I grunted and she chuckled, which irritated me more.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” she whispered and turned on the radio. She starting humming to the music, then grabbed my hand and used it like a microphone to belt out the chorus.
The tension in my shoulders released, and when I looked at her I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. She was giving me her cheesy one, and I loved her a little more for it.
“I don’t want you to be mad at me for something I can’t control and have a hard time remembering. Honestly, I wasn’t sure my memories were even real until I saw it on paper,” she said, and her smile faded.
“I’m not mad at you, Misty. I would never be mad at you for something like that,” I said and pulled her hand to my lips, kissing the back of it in a way I’d not done since we were younger. “The drive is getting to me and it’s hard for me to know someone hurt you.”
“You want me to drive?” she asked and grinned, knowing I never let anyone behind the wheel of my truck.
“Do you mind?” I asked and smirked when her jaw dropped.
We pulled over and switched out, but before she could hop in, I grabbed her and pulled her in for a hug. Wrapping my arms around her tightly and breathing her in like I’d been wanted to do for so long, but have refused to.
“I’m always here for you,” I whispered and kissed the top of her head. My heart was pounding and beating along with hers.
“And I’m here for you too, Max,” she said and raised her face to look at me. My eyes searched hers before glancing at her lips. “I’ll always be here for you.”
She smiled and patted my cheek, breaking the spell I was under, and brought me back to reality. The place I knew better than to touch her like that, and I definitely knew better than to look at her mouth like I wanted to kiss her.
Someone was shaking me and I jerked up ready to defend myself, only to be brought face to face with Misty.
“We’re here,” she said and pointed out the windshield.
I hadn’t meant to fall asleep, and it took me a minute to remember where I was. We were in my truck headed to NBRC to find our parents, we traveled all day and half the night, I let Misty drive. Someone cleared their throat, reminding me Levi and Harvey were with us. I shook my head and opened my door, taking in a deep breath and spinning to scan in our surrounding. Nothing but a broken road and dirt, other than off in the distance where we could see flickers of light.
“Do we want to do this now?” Levi asked and started shuffling through his bags, pulling out his laptop and a long antenna I assumed he used to get a signal.
“Yes, we should go in before morning,” Misty said and stretched her arms over her head, making her tank top ride up her stomach. I looked away. “Hopefully there will be fewer guards.”
I nodded and Harvey voiced her agreement from the back seat, where she was changing out of the pj’s she’d worn for the ride. I crossed my arms and tried to focus on the building. It was far enough away that we couldn’t see much other than the spotlights, but from the photos Levi had found, I knew we’d have a wall or gate to get through.
After he got everything together, we took off walking through the desert and stopped a few hundred yards from the entrance. Levi knelt down and started tapping on his laptop, and Misty backed away enough to make sure she didn’t interfere. It wasn’t something she’d done in a long time, not since we were kids and she’d had less control, but she was still cautious around technology. Especially Levi’s, who was more attached to his stuff than any sane person should be.
“You have four minutes to make it inside before everything shuts down, and if they have a generator, it won’t be long until their alarm is sounded.”
Chapter seventeen
Misty
We took off as soon as Levi gave the green light, running quickly and silently, the way we’d been taught. I pointed to the two guards on the left and then at Max, who nodded. And one on the right for Harvey, who grunted in response. I planned on taking the two in the middle that were blocking our way inside.
The minute Levi shut their power off, the guards were on alert, and we were there. I wrapped my power around them like a whip and shocked them until they dropped. Harvey took hers in the air and threw him a few yards behind us, where he fell and didn’t get back up. Max slipped behind his, and hit their pressure points at the same time, knocking them both out within seconds.
“That wasn’t bad,” Harvey said and jogged toward me in front of the gate.
“Yeah, let’s not jinx ourselves.” Max walked passed us and pushed it open.
The inside was a basic courtyard, minus the grass, and was split down the middle with a concrete path. We moved to the side, hugging the fenced wall until we rounded the corner of the building. There was an emergency exit Levi told us about, he’d said it would be open without their power. We made our way to it quickly, not seeing any other guards along the way.
Once we made it inside, there was a stairwell and a few doors. We took the stairs, assuming Levi had been right and the people were kept in the basement. At the end was a metal door with a code box on it, but without their locks in place, we were able to push it open. Then we froze, in front of us were rows of hospital beds, there must have been a hundred of them. People hooked up to multiple machines, and screens that must have been attached to a generator because they were still displaying their vitals.
“What should we do?” I asked, looking from body to body, wanting to help them all.
“We should find your family first,” Harvey said and I nodded. She was right, we needed to do that, but I wasn’t sure I could leave all those people behind. Hopefully, after we found our parents we could go back and save them too.
“Come on, let’s check that one,” Max brushed past us and moved to the side, through a few more rows of beds and stopped.
“Can you see them?” I asked when he peeked through the small window. He glanced over his shoulder and nodded. He held up three fingers, letting us know how many guards we were facing, then he pushed the door open.
I expected yelling or someone to attack, but we were met with silence. Which was far scarier than anything else would have been. Max slipped inside
and Harvey moved to the wall, waiting to hear something from inside. When the first grunt sounded, I rounded the corner and came face to face with a man. He had a scar from the top of his head to his chin, and eyes as black as night. He raised his gun, but I hit him with my power before he could shoot. His eyes widened, but instead of falling like most would, he smiled.
“That feels good, little lightning.” His voice was deep and rough, and entirely unnatural.
I pushed more to him, and when I realized it wasn’t doing anything, I kicked him between the legs. At least that dropped him. Harvey stepped behind me and used her hand to flick his gun away, then pushed him out of our path. He fell to the side and groaned, we kept moving.
Inside the room, our families were lined up in beds similar to the ones we’d walked through, and they were all unconscious. Max was fighting with a guard, trading blows harder than I’d ever seen him throw, and the other guard was watching us with beady eyes. He tracked us from the doorway and down the aisle but didn’t move a muscle.
Without waiting for him to attack, I threw a ball of power at him, which he caught with a bare hand. I tilted my head and my heart threatened to beat out of my chest. I’d never seen anyone other than Max able to do what he’d done, without even knowing what my power was. He caught it like he knew it wouldn’t hurt him.
He moved toward us in an even pace, taking his time and smirking when my eyes widened. He raised his gun slowly and aimed at me.
I dropped to the ground and rolled closer, jumping up being him and slamming my palms to the side of his head. I pushed more current than I had before, bouncing it between my hands and using his brain as a conductor. It took only a few seconds before he fell.
Max knocked his guy out and rushed over to me, grabbing my face in his hands.
“You okay?” he asked and scanned my eyes, I nodded. “That must be what they’re making here. Those guards weren’t nephilim but not human, either.”
Illuminate (Antithesis Book 1) Page 9