Creators (Entangled Teen)

by Truitt, Tiffany

  If the chosen ones were still guarding the main offices, it meant that either my father’s men hadn’t reached them yet, or the fail-safe was located there. Or both. I mumbled an apology and turned to walk away. I would have to find a way past those men.

  Suddenly, standing in front of me was a man I recognized from my father’s army.

  “How many times do I have to repeat myself? This area is off limits,” the chosen one screamed at my father’s man.

  The chosen one didn’t know. How would he? My eyes darted to my father’s solider as he opened his jacket, revealing an intricate maze of wires. I bolted. As fast and as hard as I could. I wasn’t far enough away to miss what he yelled at the chosen ones who stood before him. “You’re done telling me about my limits!”

  I pulled open the door closest to me, throwing myself in.

  That was when the first explosion went off.

  The bells were back. Ringing so loud inside my ears that each time the blasted noise rang, the sound clutched onto the vertebrates of my spine, separating and smashing them back together, paralyzing me with pain.

  But I didn’t have time to waste.

  I pushed against the door, desperate to get out, but it didn’t want to budge. I figured that debris from the soldier’s makeshift bomb was blocking the way. I rammed my shoulder into it harder, but it still stayed shut. Locked. Trapped. I thought of all the times Terrance and Richard forced me into the small, cramped room as punishment. With a howl, I ran my shoulder into the door over and over again until I was quite sure it was going to fall off.

  And that’s when I hit the door again.

  I wouldn’t stop.

  Not for anything.

  Finally, the door gave. It wouldn’t open all the way, but just enough that I could squeeze through. Once I was out, I realized that several bodies tossed over each other from the force of the blast had been why the door wouldn’t open.

  My father had begun his revolution, and these were its first victims.

  A hazy and tar-ish smoke filled the air, making it damn hard to see. Gray-skinned men and women fumbled past me searching for release from the acrid air. I was going the opposite direction of all of them. If my father’s man was instructed to blow up the guards, that meant he needed to get to what was behind those doors.

  The closer I got to the scene of the crime, the denser the smoke got. Plaster and marble buckled and fell from every direction. I tried to ignore the nausea that consumed me as I walked by countless limbs torn from bodies.

  I kept pushing.

  A hand grabbed onto my hair and snatched me down to the ground, flipping me over to my back. I raised my arms in front of my face to protect myself. Two hands grabbed onto the front of my shirt.

  “Hello, Tessie.”

  And karma paid me back for Henry.

  George slammed my head against the floor.

  Chapter 31

  When I came to, George was tying my hands up with rope, fastening me to a railing used by the feeble little man who occupied the office. “Why are you doing this?” I asked groggily, grasping for consciousness.

  “Because you’ll get in the way.”

  “Of what? Eradicating your species?”

  George’s eyes widened slightly. “I see someone has been running their mouth. Let me guess, your other boyfriend? That pathetic little Henry.”

  “Harper was the one who told me. You know, the father of the boy you forced me to murder,” I replied between clenched teeth.

  “I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied, in the same sickly sweet tone he had used during our time together at Templeton.

  I threw my body at him, but the ropes kept me constrained. “You told him what I could do, you sick, twisted monster! Why? Why the hell would you do that?”

  “That had nothing to do with you. Why must the whole world revolve around you? You’re nothing. Do you hear me? You never have been, and you never will be,” he sang, tugging on my ropes to emphasize his point.

  “James. You needed me to make him hate himself,” I fumed.

  George chuckled to himself. His laughter was filled with pride. Pride at how he played us all. “That’s why I convinced your father to send you here. I needed you two to reunite. Cast that spell over him that makes him reckless. Throws out the window every damn bit of logic he has been wired to use. And just when he thinks he can have you, I’d make sure he knew he couldn’t.”

  “It didn’t matter to you if Terrance killed me or not.”

  George shrugged. “Probably would have been easier if he had, but things worked out well anyways. You killed him, and James murdered two people to foolishly try and save you. And better yet, he enjoyed it. Innocent, holier than thou James. And what it must have been like for him to know his saintly Tess smashed a man’s head in till he was barely recognizable.”

  What kind of world does this? Makes us into these things? James’s words haunted me.

  I yanked liked a madwoman against the ropes that bound me. George continued to laugh. As he stood up, satisfied there was no way I could get out of the ropes, he patted me on the head. “It’s been fun, Tessie.”

  “Why?” I asked. “I don’t understand it. Why would you want to die?” George froze at the door. I could still hear the muffled screams and groans of the injured on the other side. “I don’t know anyone who loves himself more than you do.”

  George turned around and walked to where I sat imprisoned. He crouched down so his eyes were level with mine. “That’s the way they made me. To think I was superior. It’s the idea that became both my mother and my father. And then when I shook their hands, found out they didn’t even care, knew I was only a means to an end, that they could kill me with a series of numbers and pushing a button, I made my decision. I would take their army from them. I would let the eastern sector invade. I would prove to them that in the end, I was God.

  “And your boyfriend is going to help me do it. I knew once I pushed him to the edge, made him see that in order for you to be safe, he had to let his kind die out, he’d help me,” George said.

  “I’m safest when I’m with him. We keep each other safe,” I yelled.

  “As long as he lives, the rest live. He’d rather watch a whole species die to give you the smallest hope of finding peace. In fact, he was the one who told me where the fail-safe was. He memorized the map you gave him. I didn’t even need to take the secret from him.”

  “Your child died,” I spat out. I needed something, anything to keep him in that room with me.

  “Good. I wouldn’t want it to grow up in this world anyway. Would you?”

  …

  As soon as George was gone, I thrashed and pulled against my ropes. Sweat covered every inch of my body, and my muscles screamed in agony. I yelled for help as long as I could. I kicked at the door, and when that didn’t work, I swung my feet around the small office, knocking anything I could off the walls. Trying to make as much noise as possible.

  After a half hour, I lay my head against the railing. I was panting. My legs and arms trembled so hard that my teeth chattered. I closed my eyes and thought of James. All the things I would say to him to not let George enact the fail-safe.

  All the ways I loved him.

  All the ways he loved me.

  How that love was worth living for.

  “Tess!”

  Someone was screaming my name outside of the door.

  “I’m in here! Please! Help me!” I begged.

  When the door opened, I had never been more thankful to see anyone in my life. “Lockwood! Thank God! Friend of the year award for sure.” I laughed, near delirious.

  “Yeah, I’ll remind you of that the next time we get into a fight,” he replied, bending down to untie me. Once free, he lifted me to the ground. I nearly fell right back down. My whole body was sore from trying to fight against the ropes.

  Once I steadied myself, I explained to Lockwood everything that George had told me. “Then what are we
waiting for? Let’s go save your boyfriend,” he replied, punching me playfully in the arm. I nearly fell on my ass again. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, offering his hand for support.

  George had been wrong. I was a force to be reckoned with. I had a weapon he couldn’t comprehend.

  A friend.

  Chapter 32

  Lockwood held up his rifle as we climbed over the debris that blocked the entrance to where the fail-safe was kept. “You really think James and Robert will just let them end their kind?” he asked me as he slowly moved the gun from left to right and back again.

  “I think either they don’t fully comprehend what the fail-safe does, or, yes, they’ll let him,” I replied, a coldness slipping down my throat to the very center of my soul.

  “But why?”

  “Think of everything they’ve seen, Lockwood. Everything their kind has been responsible for.”

  “Yeah, but the council was responsible for that. Not them.”

  “But how does one take down the council?” A chill was spreading from my center to the tips of my fingers and toes. “You show someone enough darkness, and they either become consumed by it or do anything to bring back the light.”

  Abrams. That was what Abrams had taught me.

  James would do anything to keep me safe. I just had to locate the fail-safe and destroy it before he had the chance.

  “I think we’re here.”

  I nodded and placed a finger over my lips. We stealthily moved down the hallway to where a door stood open. I could tell by the numerous arms, legs, and various carnage strewn across the floor that we had come to the right place.

  Lockwood counted down from three. As he mouthed each of the numbers, my heart beat a little faster. Once the countdown was done, he whipped his rifle around the corner. When he held up the all-clear sign, we both moved deeper into the room. The lights flickered above our head to reveal a seemingly bare white room.

  “Damn it. I think we’re in the wrong place,” Lockwood said.

  I walked to the wall and placed my hand against its surface. Three times. Harper had knocked on the wall three times to reveal the training chosen ones. A seemingly simple hiding trick. So simple no one would guess it. I lifted my hand and knocked it against the wall three times.

  The marble crackled and changed under my touch, revealing a huge glass window and a door. Inside the observation room was a series of machines I had only ever heard about. It looked like a violent symphony of lights and buttons, flashing me code I didn’t know how to break.

  Four men stood in front of what I had been told was called a computer. My father. George. Robert. James. I ran for the door only to find it locked when I reached for it. I pounded on it frantically, but none of the men turned to look at me.

  “It’s soundproof,” Henry said from behind me. So he had made it through the chaos.

  I immediately snatched Lockwood’s gun from his shoulder and pointed it directly at Henry. A large gash cut across the side of his head and blood trickled down his neck.

  “Open. It,” I demanded. My hand clutched so tightly around the rifle that my knuckles turned white.

  “You’ll have to shoot me,” he challenged, moving deeper into the room.

  I didn’t hesitate. I remembered what Eric had told me. Remember my stance. Steady my aim. Focus. I emptied a bullet right into his leg. Henry dropped to the floor, screaming in agony. I shifted the gun so it was pointed straight at his head. “Open. It,” I repeated.

  “Tess! You can’t be serious. What are you doing? He’s your friend,” Lockwood said.

  “No. He isn’t,” I choked out. I narrowed my eyes at Henry. “You have three seconds. One. Two—”

  “I don’t know how to. I swear. They didn’t tell me that much,” he yelled, holding his palms up in surrender. Lockwood scrambled over to him, placing his hands over Henry’s wound to stop the bleeding.

  “What did he tell you?” I hissed.

  “Abrams. He put a device in every chosen one ever created. He told the creators it was for tracking, like the one they put in us. Each device is connected to that system in there. Once they enter the code, the device implanted in the chosen ones will release a toxin. At first they’ll feel lightheaded. Then, it will slowly paralyze them. Finally, it will stop their hearts.”

  I staggered away from Henry. I spun around on my heels and pointed the rifle straight at the glass. I pulled back the trigger and shot. I had to get their attention.

  But whatever the glass was made of stopped the bullet from penetrating; it ricocheted off and lodged in the wall above my head.

  “Let’s…not try that again,” Lockwood said shakily.

  I stumbled over to the window and pressed my forehead against the glass. I reached up and touched my fingers to it, and I prayed. I never really knew if I believed in God. Wasn’t he just another creator who abandoned his people? Made them think they were special only for them to realize how expendable they really were?

  But I prayed to him in that moment.

  Let him turn around.

  Let him turn around.

  Let him turn around.

  My father bent forward and typed something onto the keyboard. Then he stepped away from the system and turned his back on the chosen ones who were taking their destinies into their own hands. He turned and saw me. I banged with all my might against the window. I screamed and yelled for him to let me in, but he just sat there and stared at me. He glanced at the door once. Only once. He gave me just enough hope to show me that he could just as easily rip it from me. Then, he bowed his head and turned away.

  My chest heaved. I felt so much emotion I thought it might cause me to explode, taking down the window with me.

  Let him turn around.

  I continued to pray.

  Let him turn around.

  I stared daggers into his back, and then he started to shift. It was a slight movement at first. He reached up and scratched the back of his neck. It was enough to make my whole world freeze.

  Let him turn around.

  Then his fingers twitched by his side.

  Let him turn around.

  His head turned slightly to the left. And then he was staring right at me. He rushed to the window. Sobs shook my entire body. He smiled through the tears that streamed down his own face. He reached up and placed his hand against mine through the glass. Despite the barrier between us, I could feel him. Every touch he had ever given me rushed through my body.

  I would get to keep him.

  This wasn’t the end.

  But then I realized he hadn’t made a move to the door. I started to pound on the window again. “You don’t have to do this. We can make it. We can fix it,” I screamed. I knew he couldn’t hear me, just as I knew the promises I made were empty. I didn’t know how to fix this world.

  Suddenly, James jumped. He turned to face the men behind him. I followed his eyes to where George lay seizing on the ground. Blood pooled under him. The gun in my father’s hand was still smoking.

  My father had shot George right in the chest. I couldn’t hear what he yelled over George’s twitching body, but reading his lips, it seemed to be something along the lines of: this is for my daughters.

  Apparently, my father did care. Just not in the way I needed him to.

  George wouldn’t get to decide his ending after all. He had become the thing he feared most—powerless.

  My eyes darted to James. My father’s action would be the final proof that he needed. Another reminder of what his kind did to mine. He could only see the bad. I could only see the good. Neither one of us entirely right. Neither one of us entirely wrong.

  Robert turned around and nodded toward me. A wordless good-bye. I knew that he was thinking of his promise to Emma. He had vowed to keep her sisters safe, and this was the best way he knew to accomplish it. If he took away the council’s army, their power would be gone. We could run without being chased. We could search for freedom. The naturals would have a chance. Even if
it was the smallest of chances.

  I continued to pound on the glass until my knuckles bled. Robert said something to James, who nodded in response. It was going to happen. James walked back over to the glass and pressed his forehead against mine. Or at least as much as he could with our two worlds separated.

  Please live for us. We’re worth living for, I mouthed.

  I love you, he mouthed back.

  His eyelids began to flutter. He buckled slightly as the toxin spread its way throughout his system. Despite falling to his knees, he kept his hand firmly pressed against mine. For as long as he could. When the poison made him fall completely back, I looked down at him. My eyes didn’t leave his. I blinked away the tears, furious that they temporarily took his image from me.

  “I love you,” I cried out as his body slowly stilled.

  And as he stared up at me, the light gone from his eyes, a smile on his face, I realized that to him, there was something worth dying for.

  Us.

  Epilogue

  It had been a year since all of the chosen ones from the western sector had ceased to exist. Soon after the destruction of the chosen one army, news spread of the rebellion. The eastern sector was on its way to attack the lands where my people once lived, and the men of the council, fearing for their lives, knowing they had no chance, ran. Cowards.

  They chosen ones of the west were only memories now. Except most of them would not be remembered. No mothers. No fathers. No loved ones. That was the way the creators wanted it.

  So many gone and forgotten.

  Not Robert.

  Never James.

  They lived inside my mind, my heart, my soul every single day. I understood why they did what they did. They felt like they didn’t belong. Science had messed with things they never should have meddled with. By pushing that button, Robert and James were taking the power from the people who abused it. The people who controlled them.

  Sacrifice.

  It didn’t dull the pain that throbbed inside of me. The pain of an unknown future. There was no way of knowing if I would have had a future had they not enacted the fail-safe. The council would have limped on as long as they could have. Hell, maybe they would have found a way to fight off the eastern sector.