“Just admit it,” Rory said, “Miah’s a genius.”
Nova snorted as she pulled down another pack. “Oh, yeah, it’s a sure sign of genius when you get yourself lost in some woods and forget to call home for weeks.”
Bas raised a brow at her. “Guess you and Jeremiah have more in common than you think.”
“Shut. Up.” She made a face at him and shoved Lex’s pack into his waiting arms.
“I heard Georgia’s full of poisonous berries,” Rory said. “Hey, Bas, how many did Nova eat again when she got lost on that patrol?”
“I’m a tech, idiot, not freakin’ Pocahontas.” Her gaze flicked to Lex, who was wide awake and whispering to herself. “Besides, I never pretended to be a good scout.”
The light, nervous mood in the cabin vanished as everyone looked at Lex, and Lex sank lower in her seat. Her wide, child-like gaze found Bas’s and quickly slid past in that odd way she had of never maintaining eye contact.
“Lex is an excellent scout,” Bas said to Nova through gritted teeth. “X trusted me to choose my team, and I chose well. You included.”
He turned away from Nova to unzip Lex’s pack. He hadn’t wanted Nova here, but X had reminded him that she was the best Protected tech they had. And he was right. It was her attitude that was piss poor.
He pulled a small case from the pack and looked at Lex. “Any pain?”
She shook her head and twisted her hands in her lap.
“I still want you to take a booster dose now.” He lifted a painmod vial from the case, and Lex grimaced and looked away as he jammed it into her thigh. Her pupils dilated for a moment. Then her face relaxed.
Nova was checking the charge on their transmitter again, and she threw a dark look at Lex, clearly disdainful of her need for the pain medication. Bas narrowed his eyes at Nova, and her nostrils flared as she passed the transmitter to Rory. Then she strapped on the pack that contained the rest of their medical supplies and food.
Bas shook his head. Infinitek’s experiments on Lex may have corrupted her gift of superimmunity, made her own body attack itself, but the painmod removed the negative effects. There was no reason to leave her at Haven like Nova clearly wished he had.
He shoved a hand in his pack, double checking for the map, which was marked with the coordinates as well as every Haven safe house in Georgia. Extremely dangerous to carry, but GPS wouldn’t work in the zone, and it was faster to destroy a paper map than it was to permanently wipe a digital copy.
Then he did a quick check of his weapons and gear one more time: extra ammo, clean water, night vision goggles, knife, MREs, compass, blanket… This would be a quick mission, in and out in under twenty-four hours, if Jeremiah was still at the coordinates he’d sent.
Bas slipped a hand beneath his collar, feeling the thin plastic film he and the rest of the team had hidden on their bodies hours ago. It contained a fatal dose of a potent neurotoxin, for emergency use only… peel back the film, place it on your tongue, and it ensured you’d never spill Haven’s secrets.
A precaution only. Bas had no intention of being captured by the Coalition. Ever.
“Form up!” Valerie called from the front. “We’re crossing the line in 30 seconds.”
Bas’s heart rate picked up as his team lined up in formation, smoke filtration masks in hand. Rory gave Bas a slight nod from his place at the front, his blue eyes dilated. He tapped a fist over his heart, and Bas mirrored him. See you on the other side, brother. They were long past needing to say it with words.
As soon as the hover landed, the cloak would drop, exposing them. When the back door slid open, Rory would sprint out first, carrying the essential communications equipment. Lex, Nova, and Bas would follow. They’d worked this out earlier, but it wasn’t the same as practicing it. There’d been no time for drills.
“Crossing over,” Valerie called.
The cabin went silent as Valerie turned the hover and headed straight over the quarantine line.
Bas squinted as light poured into the cabin. The flames were blinding this close, and the smoke parted as they passed. His mouth went dry again. If anyone was watching this spot, they might notice the strange pattern of the smoke flowing around them, even with the cloak.
Then they were clear of the fire line. An expanse of charred ground opened up ahead of them. Bas’s heart thudded hard against his ribs, heat flooded him, and time seemed to slow. No going back now.
They’d have to run for a good fifty yards across that charred clearing to reach the safety of the untouched forest in the interior. Then they’d be officially inside the quarantine zone, just a few miles south of Jeremiah’s coordinates.
Twenty seconds unseen. That’s all they needed.
Lex looked calm, but Nova had gone rigid, her eyes darting between the windshield and the back door.
Bas nudged her, so she’d look up at him. “Race ya to the tree line?”
The color returned to her tan skin, and her eyes refocused, the slight panic in them fading. “Nah. Wouldn’t be fair. ’Cause you can’t beat me.”
“How much you wanna bet?”
She smirked. “How much you got to lose?”
“Twenty seconds!” Valerie yelled. “No Pandemic Control transports near enough to detect.”
“Masks!” Bas ordered.
He and the others pulled down their masks.
Bas’s breath came faster, tasting sour. His mind had been branded with other moments like this—tight chest, muscles aching to move, fast breathing, danger ahead. Scent of smoke, stale sweat, the taste of death on the air. All those moments blended with the now, sharpening his focus.
I am awake but slept before.
I am reborn through Haven’s door.
I am the future that wins the war.
Important words. True words recited nightly before he’d been accepted as a fighter for Haven. Words to live and die by.
The hover landed with barely a vibration.
“Cloak’s down!” Valerie shouted.
The back door slid open, and a torrent of smoke blew into the cabin, coating the metal floor with fine ash.
Rory jumped down, and Lex hit the ground running close behind him. They sprinted into the smoke as Nova and Bas leapt from the hover. The scent of burning wood filled Bas’s nostrils, even through the mask.
Bas tore away from the hover, into the heat and toward the promise of the healthy tree line ahead. Smoke billowed around him, obscuring charred pieces of wood and rock in his path. His pulse roared in his ears as he darted around the debris, staying focused. He sensed Nova a few paces to his right, but he couldn’t see the others up ahead.
I am awake.
I am reborn.
If Bas died tonight, Haven would lose the war. He pushed himself harder, muscles screaming, as he hurtled toward the interior. The burning line of trees crackled at his back, sending off blistering waves of heat, lighting the darkness, reflecting off smoke. He thought he heard the hum of the resistance hover lifting off, but he didn’t look back.
He angled his body around a charred stump and leapt over a boulder. One step at a time. Eyes to the ground. Don’t fall.
Every second felt like hours.
If a patrol passed now, they’d see four figures scrambling through smoke. He risked another look ahead and glimpsed the trees. He could see Nova in his peripheral vision. They were almost to cover.
We’re gonna make it.
A whistling sound broke Bas’s concentration, and he nearly missed clearing a pile of debris.
More whistling.
Gunfire.
Fuck. Bullets hit the ground in front of Bas, and fear jolted through him, lending him speed. More shots.
Some hit his pack, slamming him to the ground.
Gasping to regain his breath, he scrambled up and lunged forward, finally making it to the tree line.
He reached the first bit of low foliage and launched himself through it,
stumbling to the closest wide tree. He ducked behind the trunk and turned, searching for his team through the smoke. Had they all made it?
No. A few yards down, right before the tree line, the top of a black pack. One of them had gone down. Rory or Lex? Bas sucked in another lungful of charred air through his mask as Nova emerged from the brush beside him, eyes wild behind her mask.
Bas grabbed Nova’s arm and pointed at their fallen team member. They ran down the line, staying low, crashing through the brush. More shots fired into the woods, but none hit their mark.
They found Lex up ahead, huddled behind a tree. Rory was face down in the clearing, and he wasn’t moving.
Bas’s pulse roared in his skull as he tried to locate the enemy hover above them. But smoke obscured the sky, and the flames consuming the opposite tree line blinded him. Eight years ago, at the protest outside the new Protected district, moments after the bomb had gone off…
It’d been Rory who pulled Bas and the others from that carnage and flame. His face had been streaming blood from the gash on his cheek, and he’d sustained other injuries, but he wouldn’t stop trying to help the injured until he’d passed out from his own pain.
Bas rejected the memories, shoving them down deep as an extra jolt of energy ran through him. He was risking the entire mission by running back out to that kill zone, but he’d die before leaving his brother behind. Not like this.
Bas dropped his pack to the ground and sprinted back out to the charred earth, smoke cascading around him. Gunfire rang out in the air, but it pinged the ground to his right, missing him.
He reached Rory and heaved him over. His breath fogged the mask, and his eyes were open, blinking. Dazed, but alive. A fresh burst of adrenaline aided Bas as he hauled Rory to his feet and half-dragged him to the forest. With every step, he expected bullets. But none came.
Nova and Lex helped him drag Rory deeper into the woods as gunfire pierced the air again, overlaying the roar of the flames. The team dropped to the ground, but this time, the gunfire wasn’t aimed at them.
Bas grabbed the nearest low branch and pushed it aside, squinting up at the dark sky through the foliage. A strange flicker just above the burning trees caught his eye. No.
Valerie.
The resistance hover shimmered into existence, then faded. It looked like a malfunctioning holo display—not real. Another part of one green wing became visible, then faded. The image seemed to flicker, revealing the nose, then empty sky. A Pandemic Control hover emerged from the smoke, firing on the spot where Haven’s aircraft had just appeared.
Bas grasped the branch so tight, it snapped in his fist.
The resistance hover rippled into view again as the cloaking device failed. Flames danced along one side, and it jerked in the air as Val tried to regain control.
She righted it, barely.
Fly away. Run, Val. But even if she did, she’d never escape them. She must have known that, too, because she didn’t flee. Instead, she sped up, flying at the Coalition craft.
Bas sucked in a breath. The enemy hover couldn’t evade her fast enough, and Valerie made impact.
Both aircraft ignited.
They spun in circles, losing altitude fast. When they crashed into the burning trees below, the twin explosions made the forest burn even brighter.
Bas rocked back on his heels, swallowing another lungful of smoke-tinged air, blinking to get his vision back. I am awake. Reborn. His mind cleared—they would mourn Val later.
“You walked the Path ‘til death, sister,” he whispered. “You are free, but your fight will be remembered.”
She’d sacrificed herself to protect Haven… she’d given them time to get away.
He turned to find his team still staring in horror at where the aircraft had gone down. Rory’s right sleeve was dark with blood, and a small trickle of it ran down his temple, under his mask. Nova jumped up behind Rory, showing them what she saw. The pack with their transmitter—their only way to circumvent the communications block and get a message back to Haven—was riddled with bullet holes.
No time. A low hum reached Bas and then intensified. The team froze, hands on weapons, staring up through the trees. The deafening whir of multiple hovers was directly overhead now, and wind flattened the forest canopy.
Back-up had arrived, and they’d brought something with them. The scent of it burned down Bas’s throat as it made it through the mask.
Butane.
The Coalition didn’t have to shoot them to kill them.
The trees closest to the scorched land ignited, flames swallowing the spot where they’d come in, stealing oxygen from the air.
Bas tried to move, to breathe, but he fell to his knees, sweat streaming into his eyes. His mask fogged, and for a moment, he couldn’t see.
Darkness in a tight space. Small and afraid. Panic. Suffocating. An old terror rose up from nowhere, paralyzing him in a way it hadn’t in years.
Why here? Why now? Bas fought the darkness, struggled to suck in a breath of fresh air.
His mask suddenly cleared, and he glimpsed his team ahead, already running deeper into the forest. North. Toward where they’d find Jeremiah. Bas fought for the living, fought for Haven—not for the long dead and buried.
I am the future that wins the war.
He took in another gulp of filtered air and sprinted after his team. As he tried to run, the brush clawed at his pack, and his boots sank into the detritus. Too slow.
A stiff wind swept through the forest, and the flames danced and leapt from tree to tree, sweeping after the Haven team in a greedy quest to consume them alive.
When Anders stepped out of the bathroom with a towel clutched loosely around his hips, he expected to be alone.
Unfortunately, there was still a naked girl in his bed.
Charlotte had wrapped his green comforter around her body, and her straw-colored hair was tangled, black makeup smeared under her eyes. She still hadn’t noticed him and seemed to be frantically searching the sheets for the clothes he’d peeled off of her last night.
Anders padded through the large, dim space and let his towel drop to the wood floor. As he pulled on a pair of boxer briefs, he spotted a bit of lace hanging off the corner of his low dresser.
He reluctantly lifted it up, letting it dangle from one finger as he turned to face his platform bed.
The ceiling of his minimalist attic bedroom sloped sharply upward until it met a wall made completely of tinted glass. With his free hand, Anders gestured a quick series of commands. A small red light blinked in the upper right hand corner of the wall as its sensor picked them up. Sleep mode abruptly ended, and the wall turned transparent.
Charlotte winced, squinting against the sudden influx of sunlight. Anders had woken to the sound of distant thunder, but Telmont, Georgia had nothing but blue, cloudless skies now. Manicured lawns, tall trees, and large modern homes sprawled across the gated community, and he glimpsed the roof of Charlotte’s house from here, blocking his view of the smaller, older section of downtown in the distance.
He could see his own reflection in the glass, his blond hair, broad shoulders, the amused look on his face as he sauntered over to her. She saw it, too, watching his reflection approach like a deer in headlights, and she didn’t look at him as he dropped her panties in her lap.
“You’re welcome,” he said.
Charlotte’s fair skin flushed beneath her freckles as her gaze skipped up his body, lingered on his abs and chest.
She cleared her throat, still not meeting his eyes, and crumpled her underwear in her fist. “Uh… Could you…?”
Anders crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the cool glass window.
“I’m trying to get dressed here.” She looked him in the eye and grew even redder. “Do ya mind?”
Anders blinked slowly, pretending to think.
“Do. You. Mind?”
“Go ahead.” He shrugged. “Already see
n it all anyway.”
“Ugh.” Charlotte glared at him, tugging the blanket higher on her chest. “This is why I hate you.”
“Because you always end up in my bed?”
Her brown eyes widened. “I didn’t even want to come over here last night.”
“Yet you came.” He smirked. “More than once, actually.”
Charlotte hurled a pillow at him.
Anders caught it and dropped it back on the bed. “That’s not how you say thank you.”
“You should be thanking me. For bringing you that.” She pointed at the clear plastic rectangle on his bedside table. “You don’t even need it, do you? Literally no one needs an old beta Calliope6 holotab. I think you were just trying to lure me to your doorstep.”
“You really wanna know why I wanted it?” Anders sank down on the bed beside her.
She squinted at him with suspicion. “Will your answer make my eyes glaze over?”
Anders put on his most sincere expression. “It’ll help me collect more loot in Space Quest. My inventory’s so big, the Calliope6 VR servers can’t even handle me logging on.” He leaned toward her. “Wanna see?”
“Wow. No.” Charlotte sniffed and tugged the blanket up to her chin. “God, your life is so sad. When is your stupid face not buried in a VR game?”
Anders smirked. “When it’s buried between your—”
“Rhetorical. Question.” Charlotte shoved him, but as she did, the comforter shifted. She snatched it back up, but not before Anders got a nice glimpse of her small, perky breasts.
“You look cold. If you need me to warm you up, just ask.”
“I’d rather freeze to death.” Charlotte scooted off the bed, taking the comforter with her. “If my brother knew I was here, he’d be punching that look off your face right now.”
“It’d be fun to see him try. Let’s invite him over.”
She mumbled something as she retrieved her bra from the space next to the bedside table.
“What?” Anders asked. “Didn’t catch that.”
“Scott’s at the creek with Dion. Everyone camped down there this week. Which you’d know if anyone ever invited you anywhere.”
Defective (Fractured Era Book 1) Page 3