She assumed “other things” were weapons, but she didn’t press the subject. No reason to. At this point, it really didn’t matter.
He looked over his shoulder at Rein. “I think it’s time.”
Rein pushed off the wall and came to help Jordan up from the chair.
Jumping to his feet, Mathew rubbed his hands together. “Excellent.”
Ellyssa’s eyebrows knotted together. “What?”
Jordan held his wrinkled hand out to her. “We thought it was time for you to see something beside the inside of this room. How would you like to meet the other residents?”
She stared at his outstretched fingers for a moment. The touching these people participated in was unnerving, but not unpleasant. It was something she’d have to get used to if she planned on staying.
The thought startled her.
Was that her plan? To live in a cave with Renegades? She’d considered the idea before, but not with such definitiveness. Unexpectedly, the idea felt somewhat…comforting and thrilling. Returning to The Center was not an option. She was a failed experiment and expendable. One thing her lessons had taught her, above everything else, was self-preservation.
Ellyssa took Jordan’s hand and curled her fingers around the meaty part of his palm.
Ellyssa walked beside Jordan, her fingers entwined within his, as they worked their way down the winding passages. She busied herself with memorizing the layout. Never hurts to be prepared. Long cables, like the ones running from the makeshift hospital, dangled from the ceiling and connected fluorescent tubes, spaced every four to six meters. Up ahead, the tunnel appeared to end.
“Is this it?”
Jordan chuckled. “No, there aren’t any lights in the section ahead.”
They rounded a corner into inky blackness. Blinded, she faltered.
Jordan tugged on her arm. “It’s okay.”
“What is this place?”
“This part is a coal mine, abandoned way before The War. We keep the hospital here, and some of our supplies, due to the drier air.” Jordan stopped and placed Ellyssa’s hand on the rocky surface. “We stay in a cavern. Follow the wall.”
With slow, careful steps, she did as instructed, until the wall fell away and her hand slipped through a fissure. Surprised, she gasped and stumbled forward, almost falling inside. Her shoulder scraped the rocky exposure.
The old man laughed and rested his hand on the small of her back. “Sorry. I should’ve warned you. You’ll get used to it. Like second nature,” Jordan said. “The fissure is large enough for you to fit through, but not two, side-by-side.” He slid his hand from her back to her wrist. “Rein, take her other hand to help guide her.”
Not liking the disorientation, she popped into each of the men’s heads to locate them. None of them had any ill intentions. She felt a large hand bump into her shoulder and slide down the side of her arm, making her skin tingle with a current like electricity. Shocked, she pulled away.
“It’s just me.” Rein’s voice floated at her from the darkness.
“Did you not feel that?” Ellyssa asked, clenching and unclenching her hand.
“Feel what?”
How could he not feel the tingle when he touched her? Confused, she frowned. “I-I do not know. Nothing.”
He found her again, his fingers grazing over the curve of her elbow to find her hand. The tingles followed. He interlaced his fingers with hers, and gave a squeeze. Warmth traveled up her arm and into her chest. Her heart responded. Unsettled, she clamped her mouth shut. The physiological responses his touch elicited frightened her.
“Rein’ll go first.”
As soon as Jordan spoke, Ellyssa was pulled inside, the same shoulder knocking into the edge again. She immediately felt the change. The previous openness disappeared, and the darkness pressed against her.
Was she insane? Trapped between a rocky enclosure and Renegades, and disoriented. They were at an advantage if she failed to pick any trap from their brains. Yet, here she was, trusting a group of outsiders she’d been conditioned to kill. Not in a million years would she have thought this possible.
The thin corridor snaked around bends and curves, growing cooler as they proceeded. The dryness of the air gave way to moisture. Like a computer, Ellyssa’s brain absorbed every detail. The steps. The temperature changes. The ambiance of the enclosure. She filed the information away.
After the last curve, the fissure opened wider and into a lighted room where fluorescents hung from the ceiling. The air in the open room was wetter, cooler, and carried a pleasant, mineral scent. Strange buzzing echoed through an opening ahead.
“The first settlers found it while exploring,” Jordan yelled over the din, between winded huffs. A greyish tint lingered under the older man’s pallor. “It ended up being a great hiding place during the initial raids.”
Impressed with the hard work completed over the years with limited resources, Ellyssa followed the three men into a smaller room, adjacent to the area with the fissure. The loud humming emitted from a large generator. Several secured cables snaked in from adjoining corridors and joined together at a center point, then spliced into the machine. She had often pondered how the electricity was supplied, but she had never expected such an elaborate setup.
The shock of seeing such technology stunned her. Although forced into caves, the people who rebelled were anything but barbaric. They were far from ignorant, and their ingenuity proved it. Once again, her father had been proven wrong.
Ellyssa circled the generator, studying it. “How do you keep such a machine running?”
“Battery packs charged by solar energy,” Jordan answered, his words drawn out as if he were tired.
He took a step toward Ellyssa and stumbled. She caught him, but barely. He felt so light in her arms, so fragile, like a frayed string.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Fine, maybe a little tired.” He chortled, as if embarrassed. “Doc, do you mind escorting me to my holey?”
Mathew moved his eyes between Ellyssa and Rein, then a grin she had trouble identifying appeared on his face. He winked at her. “No problem.” He took the back of their leader’s elbow and led him from the generator room.
Ellyssa waited for the echoes of their shoes against the rocky ground to disappear before she turned her attention to Rein. “Is he going to be all right?”
“He’s getting up there in years.”
She nodded, understanding that the settlers of this area didn’t have the medical advancements, nor the superior genes, that helped prolong life.
“Solar energy batteries?” Ellyssa asked, indicating the machine.
Rein pointed at a power pack, roughly the size of a processor. “We have three of those. While one is working, the other two are being charged.”
“But…maintenance?”
“We keep up-to-date.”
“How?” she asked.
“The Resistance,” Rein said quickly, as if he didn’t want to elaborate.
Ellyssa could have easily picked it from his brain, but she didn’t. If she were to stay in this type of society, she’d have to learn to trust them, along with earning trust from them.
Rein walked over to the machine and knelt next to the battery. “See this red line?” He pointed at an indicator stretching across the expanse of the machine. It was lit to a halfway mark. The red haze highlighted his cheekbones and tinted his dark hair.
“This shows us how much power we have left.” Standing, he dusted off his knees. “We turn off lights at certain points during the day to conserve energy.”
“How many people live here?”
His mouth pulled to the side, as if considering whether divulging such information would prove fatal. A few moments later, he responded, “A hundred forty-seven.”
The number was higher than she’d expected. “All are descendants?”
“Some are. Most are from other camps we brought in. Others were kind of adopted, like Jeremy and me, from p
arents in society who didn’t want to send their less-than-perfect children to the concentration camps, or have them killed.” His tone sharpened as he spoke. “You know they do that, don’t you? They use the imperfect children as slave labor or, if they are lucky, kill them.” Anger flashed in his green eyes.
She averted her gaze and picked at a thread from the seam of her T-shirt. “I am aware.”
“I figured as much.” He huffed past her to another tunnel. “Come on.”
She stood her ground. “I might have been aware. That does not mean I agree with how the people are treated. I ran across several things I have not agreed with. That is one of the reasons I left.”
Spinning on his heels, Rein’s face hardening into stone, he spat, “You should’ve done something.”
Ellyssa felt her stomach churn as rage boiled up. That was an emotion she knew, and knew well. Muscles twitching, aching to release pent-up energy, she spat back, “Like what? What could I have done? Why do you not tell me what you would have done?” Her voice matched his venom.
Rein rocked on his feet as if she’d slapped him. Lids narrowing, his face pinched into a scowl. He stepped forward, his hands balled into tight fists. Ellyssa instinctively coiled, like a snake about to strike, waiting. The moment never came. As fast as the air sizzled with intensity, it dissipated. His features and stance loosened.
Skeptical, Ellyssa tossed away her previous reservations and plunged into his head. Rein’s thoughts were jumbled, fleeting, shifting from one to the other faster than a deck of cards being shuffled. Brief doubts about why she was here, what she wanted, whether she should be trusted. Regret filtered through for blaming her for a situation she hadn’t caused. He wanted to accept and trust her as easily as Jordan and Mathew had. She was just so damn confusing.
Rein focused on her appearance. The angry pink in her cheeks began to fade, and her hair glowed yellow under the light. He wondered if her hair felt as soft as it looked, like silken thread.
Ellyssa’s midsection quivered and heat pulsed in her veins. She pulled out.
He squared his shoulders, but not in a confrontational way. “I don’t know,” he stated, pulling his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry.”
“Your apology is accepted.” Her tone was still sharp, but only to mask the sensation of uncertainty.
After all, she was the outsider here. For the most part, everyone she’d met had accepted her, although she should be considered the enemy. What he—the whole community, for that matter—knew had happened in the past was nothing compared to future plans. Society was to be exterminated to make way for a perfect human being. A perfect soldier and Ellyssa’s and her siblings’ genes were the key.
Maybe she should leave. Her father would not give up until she was returned home. The longer she stayed, the greater the risk.
They deserved the truth. She’d have to reveal her secret eventually.
“Ellyssa?”
Snapped from her thoughts, she looked at Rein. He was smiling, not a happy one, more filled with chagrin.
“I really am sorry. That was unfair. It’s just—” He shrugged.
“I understand.”
“Are you hungry?”
Nodding, Ellyssa’s head filled with questions about when she should tell them the whole truth. She turned back toward the direction of the hospital. He shuffled behind her, but instead of following, he put his hand on her shoulder. His grip was firm, and thrilling. She wheeled around, ready to defend; his hands flew up in surrender.
“Wait,” Rein said, amused. “We’re going to the dining hall. It’s time to meet the others. Jordan insists.”
His hand glided from her shoulder to her hand. His touch was different than when he’d held her hand through the enclosure. The soft stroke of his fingers traced along her skin like a feather. She looked at him.
Pulling his lips into an uncertain grin, Rein entwined his fingers with hers, and a pleasant shock ran through her veins, turning her blood into a mixture of ice and lava. Her pulse quickened.
“Come on,” he said with a tug.
Ellyssa followed behind him, cherishing the heat radiating off him. She relished how his touch felt different from the doctor’s or Jordan’s, how her heart hammered in expectation. Unsure and elusive. New and tantalizing.
They entered a part of the tunnel where the lights had been turned off to save energy. Darkness closed around her, but instead of going on high alert, she relaxed. The inky black seemed to last forever, until they turned a sharp corner. Light stretched along the rocky ground and wall and, with it, came the sound of whispered conversations.
A bit further along, they stepped into a room where the ceiling towered overhead. Although the middle part leveled into a large floor, speleothem deposited mineral ornaments had formed along the edges of room. Beautiful formations rose from the floor and dangled from above, and flowstone cascaded into layers of limestone steps. The lack of dripping water told Ellyssa the cave was dead. She could only imagine its spectacular beauty in its heyday.
Shifting focus, her eyes flowed from the picturesque scenery to three rows of lights suspended from long wires. Then her gaze traveled toward the people sitting in the center of the room.
Ellyssa stood still, amazed at the variety of races she’d only seen in history books. Her eyes flitted from one person to the next, noting the subtle to extreme changes within skin tone, hair color, eyes, varying degrees of body and facial shapes, the little ornaments that hung from their ears or pierced parts of their faces. Children sat with parents, smiling and laughing. It was beautiful. So unlike the pale white, sterile world in which she had been raised. Here, everyone was an individual.
The Renegades sat at long, rugged wooden tables on log benches. A far cry from the formal dining room to which she was accustomed. Even without the amenities, though, the atmosphere welcomed her. Warm. Homey. All the things missing from her life.
Rein smiled encouragingly. “Let’s get something to eat.” He pointed to a line of people holding the same red trays the doctor had brought in to her.
She spotted Trista next to the row of hungry Renegades. The perfect blonde stacked dishes into a black bin. She smiled and waved at Ellyssa.
Ellyssa remained with her legs anchored to the ground. An air of wonder, like the day she’d escaped, bubbled in her.
She returned her attention to the people. The pale green eyes of a female she hadn’t met stared at her. Another female, with reddish-brown skin and beautiful auburn hair, elbowed a male, with a large nose and huge brown eyes, next to her. Afterwards, heads swiveled around toward her.
Feeling awkward and out of place, a nervous smile popped unexpectedly onto Ellyssa’s face as she continued to look at all the different Renegades. Then, she met Candy’s glare. The redheaded female’s eyes kept moving from her face to her hand intertwined with Rein’s, and back. The fiery redhead’s face pinched into a look of revulsion. The exact opposite of Jason’s, whose gaze scrolled the length of her body, hungrily.
Ellyssa’s smile fell away.
An urge to jump into both of their heads stirred, but to get a read with so many voices was impossible. She kept her shield firmly in place.
Ignoring the crew of onlookers, Rein pulled her toward the line, where others waited to be served. As they passed the tables, conversation resumed, but the words were clipped. She still felt their stares burning into the back of her head.
“Everyone pitches in here,” Rein stated, giving her hand several little squeezes. She wasn’t sure if it was for encouragement, or him gauging her response. “Some are assigned kitchen, cleaning, hunting, et cetera.” He grabbed a tray and pushed it into her grasp. “Today’s special is deer stew.”
“What?” Ellyssa’s stomach churned. She hoped she had masked the disgust. It would seem rude after all Mathew had done for her. But deer…? At The Center, protein came from animals raised in a sterile environment and fed an all-grain diet, free of bacteria and germs, not from wild animals. Then
she started to wonder about the food Mathew had brought her. She’d never considered questioning its origins. Her stomach sloshed again.
“You’ll love it.”
The corner of her mouth pulled back as a male with pretty teeth and tight curly hair poured a ladleful into a bowl and handed it to her. Grudgingly, she peered into the bowl. Little chunks of meat, carrots, and potatoes swam in the watery broth.
“This way.” Rein led her between tables until he stopped by a male with neatly-combed ash-blond hair, hunkered over his bowl and shoveling spoonfuls of soup into his mouth. He looked up when Rein set his tray down and sat across from him. He was nice-looking, about Rein’s age—early twenties—with a straight nose and strong chin.
“Ellyssa, this is Woody.” He patted the space next to him.
“Hello,” she politely said as she took the offered seat.
Woody watched her, grey eyes sliding across her face, before he jerked his head in response. A piece of his hair flipped over and fell into his face. He brushed it away and resumed eating.
A slight frown formed between Rein’s eyes. “Woody?”
Woody dropped his spoon on his tray. “I told you how I felt, Rein,” he sniped, then stood.
The moment he spoke, Ellyssa remembered his voice, still irritable, like in the old store. Ill at ease, she wanted to know what he’d told Rein, but instead she poked at the pieces of deer meat.
“If you’ll excuse me.” He walked to a cart with large brown bins and tossed the remains of his dinner in. Then he disappeared into a tunnel on the far side of the room.
Red flushed over Rein’s face. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
Determined to try the meal, she spooned some of the stew in her mouth. Surprisingly, it tasted better than she’d originally thought. Either that, or her taste buds weren’t as picky as they used to be. Fine dining wasn’t something someone indulged in when on the run. She finished the watery broth with her slice of bread.
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