Wasteland: Age of Sanctions (A Invasion Survivor Series)

by Hayley Lawson

  Great frigging entrance, only the Chancellor uses these doors!

  We freeze for a moment, waiting for what will happen next.

  People passing through the hub stop walking and stare at us, but once they realize that we aren't the Chancellor they continue on with their business.

  “Phew,” I say.

  “It's not over yet. Sorry, kid, this is just the beginning,” the guard next to me explains in a concerned tone.

  I can see why. A giant ten-foot screen in the middle of the hub has a picture of me on it. I glance around to find out if the camera is on me and then back at the screen; it's a photo. Panic riddles my body.

  “Dax... Dax.”

  “Stay calm and do as I tell you.”

  I nod in agreement.

  “Now.”

  With that, our little pack of guards begins to move through the hub with me in the middle, trying to be invisible among the people.

  The image of me on the screen disappears... did I really see it?

  Another image appears. It's the Head of the Purenet army, standing with his arms folded. This is really happening.

  “People of Purenet, we need your help. One of the visitors from Cueva has gotten lost. Please help us find her.”

  What's going on? I think, and Dax hears me.

  It's a trap; they don't want anyone to panic.

  Everyone is hustling past as if nothing happened. But the guards, on the other hand, are quickly moving around.

  More guards are appearing with every step we take toward the workers' quarters.

  The guards around me come closer, pressing my body against theirs. The air is being swallowed up by their pressure. I feel dizzy.

  “Quickly, they spotted us,” Dax whispers. He has fear in his eyes, but a smug smile on his face.

  We all take off running; the force of their bodies pulls me along.

  Within seconds we are at the workers' quarters.

  Dax places the pig skin over the scanner and the doors open. There is chaos of raised voices behind us as the Chancellor's guards try to get through the people. It will not be long before they reach us.

  Chapter Ten

  Everyone in the workers' quarters stares at me like I have two heads, as Dax and the others barricade the doors.

  “Who's she?” a voice rings out from the small crowd of workers.

  “She's with me,” Dax announces, as he stands proudly by my side.

  “She's not part of the plan.” A man steps forward. He's dressed as a Purenet, but it's clear he's with Dax.

  “She is now!” Hayden yells out. “As Hayden said, she is now,” Dax states, as he walks through the crowd of confused workers on break.

  “Reznor is not going to be happy about this,” another voice chirps up.

  “When is he ever happy? Let me worry about him, and you work out how to get us out of here,” Dax says to the men. The workers are staring at us with their mouths gaping open.

  “I am the Chancellor's son, Dax. I ask for your help, not as his son, but as a man in need. Looking around, I guess most of you were born in the Cueva or your family is from there?”

  Many of them nod.

  “Xander wants this Cueva girl,” Dax says, looking at me. Everyone's eyes land on me. “I ask that you once again protect a fellow Cueva as your ancestors taught you. Your bond for each other is one of your strongest powers—one that my father fears the most.” Dax rubs his hands together and continues. “This is not an order you have to obey because I gave it to you, but because it is the right thing to do.”

  The room falls silent.

  “What do you want us to do?” a soft voice asks.

  Dax smiles at the young woman in front of us. She is only a few years older than I am; maybe a former Host. “All we ask is that you distract the guards and tell them there's something lodged between the doors—which you are fixing. And the rest of you, please just deny seeing us.”

  “Go now,” the young woman orders.

  “Thank you.” Dax flings open the exit door in the workers' quarters, and we all pile out toward a huge grey stone wall that wraps round the dome... a wall that’s as high as the Cueva is deep. We are at the Purenet boundaries. This is all that stands between us and our freedom, a frigging giant wall.

  As my eyes trail up the wall to find the top, a soft breeze floats across my face. I continue looking up—there is no dome anymore. My naked skin is out in the open. It's different from when we're ordered to go outside, standing there with others, terrified that we are killing ourselves. Today the warmth makes me feel free, alive.

  “The air will not hurt you,” Dax states.

  “Why not? Can we turn into a Mute? Isn’t there a virus in the air?”

  “There’s no virus in the air, Skylier. The Chancellors injected the virus into the Outsiders and turned them into Mutes who then transmitted the virus on to others. It’s been a lie. Fresh air does no harm,” he replies.

  “But the air can contain other viruses, as well, can’t it?” I ask. “People in Cueva still get sick from it.”

  “It's not from the air, it's from the food,” he admits.

  “The food?”

  “Yes. When my father found out that the air was no longer harmful, he had to find another way to control the people in the Cueva. He had the labs inject diseases into the bio meat. I found out a few years ago and I wanted to stop it.”

  Dax throws his guard's helmet on the ground, revealing his whole face for the first time. His pure white hair is like mine. His eyes are blue with green warmth around the pupils, just like... my mother's.

  I stare at Dax for a moment. We’re related, aren’t we? My mind asks.

  I think so, Dax’s mind replies.

  Dax and the other men pull out what appear to be guns, but with three-pronged hooks and a cord coil on the top. I don't like the look of this.

  “Step back,” Dax instructs.

  Then, one after another, they shoot the guns; instead of a bullet, the hook flies out and attaches itself to the top of the wall.

  “You will have to come with me,” Dax says. He turns to the group. “Everyone ready?” Even though he appears to be the youngest, he is clearly the leader. Everyone nods; the tension in the air is heavy as we wait for the door to open and the guards to come running through.

  “Let's get the hell out of here; their pure white crap is giving me head pains,” Hayden laughs. His white uniform is somehow already dirty. I know what Hayden means; it's blinding in there.

  “Skylier, you want to come with me? Not sure if little Dax can hold on to you all the way up,” Hayden laughs, as he fires his gun—without looking up—to the top of the wall.

  “Cut the crap, Hayden,” Dax snaps. It's clear that Hayden is a few years older than Dax, and he is definitely more muscular, like Lowell. Lowell, along with the others, will be on the shuttle back to Cueva; what am I going to do after I get out of here? Will Lowell stand by me, or have I shamed the ones I love like Madam Enid?

  “You ready?” Dax asks me softly, dragging me away from my worrying thoughts.

  “See you guys up there.” Hayden winks at me as he flies up the rope, making me smile for a second, until I realize I’ve also got to fly up there.

  “You sure I've got no other way out?”

  “Nope.” Dax shrugs and smiles. He waves his hand, indicating for me to move closer to him. “Okay, hold on to me tightly. Whatever happens don't let go... the drop will kill you.”

  Quickly I place the bag of medicine on my back and grab hold of Dax so I'm facing him. He raises his gun in the air.

  “Ready?” he asks, taking in a deep breath. From the corner of my eye I can see something moving. It's the guards; they have gotten through the door. Their guns look as if they have replaced their hands, like they are half-man, half-robot. A blue light flickers along the edges, getting brighter each second. They are charging them up!

  “Yes, go, they're here!”

  With that, Dax presses the butto
n on his gun. Our bodies fly upwards through the air, and the wind whistles as we fly through it, taking my breath away. My arms grip tightly around his waist.

  “Get them!” one of the guards below shouts.

  Our bodies spin around from the force, smacking us into the textured stone wall.

  “Arh,” I scream out in pain. The skin is ripped from my arms as I'm dragged up the wall. My grip becomes weak and I cannot hold on for much longer.

  Zoom... zoom rings by my ears. They are shooting at us!

  “No!” the man next to me yells. His cord wiggles out of control, taking him with it, as they both crash to the ground. The guards shot out his cord; they are trying to bring us down to our deaths.

  Zoom... zoom fills the air, followed by screams of pain. Then the injured fall silent as the toxins ripple through their veins, killing them.

  The ride comes to a shrieking stop as we reach the top. “Help Skylier,” Dax yells out to Hayden, who is standing on top of the wall.

  He grips hold of me, ripping me away from Dax's body, and sets me on the wall, as if I am a child's doll.

  “Sit here still,” he tells me, a note of worry in his voice. “We don’t want to lose you.”

  Dax, Hayden, and the others begin firing down toward the guards.

  “We need to get out of here!” I yell out over the bullets and screams of pain.

  “Not until everyone is up, stay down,” Dax orders, as he tries to shield my body.

  As soon as I see the ground beneath me, I wish I hadn't. Bodies lie lifeless on the ground, with starkly contrasting bright red pools of blood staining their white uniforms.

  We will be the same as them if we don't move soon.

  One after another, the people scaling up the walls are dropping; Dax takes a few guards out but we are just outnumbered.

  Zoom... Zoom. “Ahhhhh!” screams one of the men next to me. His body flies backward, with blood spurting from the back of his shoulder. The force knocks him off the wall and his body plummets to the ground with a thud.

  “Go... go, guys, we are all up!” Dax orders.

  Dax latches the hook to the wall. Without being asked, I grab hold of him. I want to get the hell out of here.

  We fly down the wall.

  “Aaaah!” Dax's body lands on top of mine as we crash to the hard-dry ground. We are now out of Purenet and over the surrounding walls.

  Dax's elbow pushes down into my ribs as he wobbles to get up. Every muscle in my body burns. Hayden reaches out to help me off the ground and I let him. My hand is the only part of my body that's not in pain.

  My arms are raw and dripping blood where the flesh has been torn away. Just looking at them makes me dizzy. The rest of my body would also have been ripped to shreds if it wasn't for this awful grey dress—ironically, the one the Chancellor gave me.

  “Sorry, are you okay?” Dax asks.

  He looks like he's dancing around in front of me, as though there are two of him. I shake my head side to side as I try to lose the weird visual.

  “Here, drink this.” Dax passes me his flask.

  I hadn't realized how thirsty I was until I pour the sweet, delicious liquid down my throat.

  “Hey, save me some.”

  I pass it back, licking my lips to savor the last taste.

  “What is it?”

  “Cider. I will tell you more about this stuff later. Let’s get to our bikes.”

  “Come on, you three,” someone yells back to us. In my confusion, I hadn't noticed everyone else left us. Their silhouettes quickly become a blur on the dry, red, desert horizon of nothingness, with only harsh mountains to break up the empty space of no one's land.

  “Can you run?” Dax asks as he stares at my raw arm.

  I want to say no, but what other choice do I have? I chose this life, now I own it and have to run for my freedom.

  “Yes,” I say strongly, in a tone I've never used before.

  “I can carry you if can’t,” Hayden notes, and in my confused state I can’t make out if he’s joking or serious.

  We take off running on the uneven, rocky red ground that reminds me of the cave floors in the Cueva. There is a new feeling in my body. I feel alive. Freedom is keeping me moving.

  I glance back over my shoulder and the Purenet city is tiny, just a dot on the world. I cannot see any guards, but they will be here soon on their trucks and bikes.

  “Keep going, Skylier, just around the rocks.” Dax points to the huge mountains of rocks growing out of the earth as if they've been here since before the wars, when man first stepped onto the planet. We are the only people out in the open; it's as though we are the last people in the world.

  Chapter Eleven

  My lungs feel like all the air is being squeezed from them. Placing my hands on my hips, I breathe in and out slowly, as salty sweat pours down my face.

  “Out of breath, Cueva?” Hayden laughs, and I squint my eyes in disgust. Neither of them is out of breath.

  “Let her be,” Dax says as he climbs on to his motorbike. They'd hidden the bikes in a cave behind the rocks. I wish I could lie down in the cave and take a nap. My body is exhausted.

  “We built this city,” Hayden starts singing under his nose, apparently in a good mood that we made it to the other side of the wall safely. “We built this city on rock and sand.”

  “Do you listen to that crap most of the Purenet people listen to?” Dax asks Hayden who immediately stops singing and looks at me with wide eyes.

  “No, I really hate that music,” he mentions, but Dax’s chuckle makes him blush.

  I don’t understand any of the Purenet music, as we don’t listen to them. All we listen to in Cueva is slow music, which we call Calm. It’s especially designed to make us calm and balanced.

  “Come on, you can ride with me,” Dax says.

  I've never been on a motorbike before. Grounders would sometimes speed past as I was having my UVA ray therapy. Just watching the motorbikes excited me, and now I'm going to ride one. It has a beautifully streamlined design, matte-black with aqua detailing. The shiny silver pipes look like mirrors as they catch the sun's rays.

  Dax swipes his finger over the control panel and the bike begins to hum softly. I lift my body onto the seat, automatically wrapping my arms around Dax.

  “Are you ready?” he asks me over the rhythmic, humming sound.

  “Yes,” I say.

  “Hold on tight. She goes fast.”

  “The faster, the better!” I call, as the bike starts moving.

  I grip even tighter around his waist. If I fall off at this speed there'll be nothing left but my bones.

  The flesh on my face is drawn back by the wind as my hair flies into the sky behind me; the powerful wind steals my breath.

  Hayden rides next to us and we exchange smiles of joy.

  So this is what it feels like to live.

  Dax lowered his mind block from me when we took off, but I don't bother him with questions. I just want to enjoy the ride—and I'm not sure I'm ready for the answers.

  I love the humming sound the bike makes and this feeling of flying.

  I haven't seen the others for the last hour. They took off before us and I bet Dax is going slower because I'm on the back of his bike.

  Every so often a sign of the desert's harsh conditions comes to light in the shape of a body stripped dry from its human form, with only its skeleton remaining. Wild animals roam this land, searching for the weak.

  “Oh, no,” I hear Hayden’s voice above the noise of the bikes. “The Mutes are after us. Gain speed, Dax!”

  The blazing orange sun is setting and it looks as though it is burning the ground around it as waves of heat blur the horizon. This is my first sunset, and the color is breathtaking. The moon is rising in the north. I'm worn out.

  It's lovely.

  I know. You never get used to the natural beauty.

  Are we nearly there? I'm losing the feeling in my hands and butt.

  Ha ha, yes
, nearly there, and you can give your butt a rest.

  Goddamn...

  I hate that, it's hard to remember someone can listen to my thoughts. Rian used to do it all the time to me when we would chat before lights out.

  I love our family bond; it's as though we are one. I wish he was closer so I could speak with him. By now Xander will have figured out I'm Rian's sister, which means I’ve put his life in danger. I hope he’s okay, he will understand… he has to.

  Will Xander go after the rest of my family? I ask, terrified with what Dax’s mind will say.

  Dax’s body tenses up under my grip. Skylier, I just don’t know. I hope not, his mind says.

  My body tenses up like Dax’s.

  As the desert turns pitch black, my thoughts do the same.

  What will he do to them? He can’t harm them, they have done nothing wrong… my sister is just a young innocent kid, my mind pleads.

  Xander is rotten to the core, like my father.

  A weakness washes over my body as Dax’s mind tells me the truth.

  Skylier, listening to my thoughts will not help… the only thing we can do to help is to get your mother her medicine, and… his mind trails off.

  And what? My mind pushes.

  I’m not sure, after all, that you weren’t part of the plan, he admits. His mind goes blank, blocking me from entering his thoughts.

  The bike jolts as we fly across the land. I can tell Dax is having problems riding, but my eyes can see in dark.

  In the distance orange flames dance in the evening wind, “over there,” I yell out to Dax.

  Dax nods as he rides in the direction of the flames.

  A sound softly rings out in the silent desert, as if something is gliding through the air. A louder thud follows.

  My body tightens up, as I know what is coming...

  “Ahh!” someone screams.

  Did you hear that? I ask Dax.

  No. What?

  They are here. We are too late.

  Dax's body tightens up, as he moves the bike in another direction away from the flames, dimming his lights as low as he can, allowing just enough light to see where we are going. Hayden does the same.