Two Beating Hearts

by Campbell, Jamie

  I would have prayed to any gods that would listen to my pleas to make it out of there safely.

  “Wren, jump,” Reece yelled as we reached the fence. He let go of my hand so I could leap toward the metal chain-link. He did the same at my side, landing much smoother than I did.

  My bad foot slipped as I grappled to get a hold on the fence. Once I was stabilized, I would be able to scramble over. Until then, I was just a blob taking up space.

  “Dammit,” Reece cursed. He was already at the top of the fence, waiting for me. “Wren, get back! Get off the fence! Go back!”

  I looked around frantically, trying to work out what was happening. Reece jumped from the top of the fence to the ground, adding to my confusion.

  In the next moment, he was pulling me from the fence. It was easier falling into his arms than it was trying to hold onto the metal. He pulled me back to the ground as a loud hum started to thrum through the fence. It sounded like a hundred thousand bees had started buzzing around us.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Electricity, they’ve juiced the fence,” Reece explained as his face wrinkled with frustration. He was already looking around, working out another way for us to escape.

  “Put your hands up!” The command came from behind us. My stomach sank, filling with dread and a sense of doom. We couldn’t get over the fence, we were trapped.

  Turning around, we were confronted with a wall of guards. They each held a gun facing toward us, their twitchy hands on the triggers. One wrong move and we would be torn to shreds by hundreds of bullets.

  There was nowhere for us to go now.

  The guards had won.

  One of them moved forward quickly, grabbing my arm and jerking me toward him. Reece tried to stop him, earning the butt of a machine gun to his ribs for his troubles.

  I was quickly dragged away by so many hands that I couldn’t count them all. The last thing I saw of Reece was him surrounded by an equal amount of guards.

  He opened his mouth to speak but swallowed down the words instead. He didn’t need to say anything to me, he didn’t need to say goodbye. I understood everything he was trying to convey by reading his face.

  He was sorry.

  He was scared.

  I’d never see him again.

  On my part, I wanted to thank him. In the short time we’d been together I had felt more human than I had in my entire life. He made me feel normal, not like the created commodity that I was.

  I would be eternally grateful to him for that. I would be able to die knowing what it felt like to be human. And it had felt wonderful.

  The guards didn’t let my feet touch the floor again. They carried me along the hallways of the laboratory. They ignored all my pleas to let me go and put me down. When I started begging for mercy for Reece they only laughed.

  We entered a wing and descended down a steep set of stairs. It was darker down there, the only light from stark artificial strips glowing from the ceiling. The doors we passed had no windows to see inside, only hatches.

  They weren’t rooms.

  They were cells.

  The guards stopped in front of an open door. “Get inside, you filthy Def.” They roughly pushed me inside before closing the door. The sound echoed off the four sturdy walls surrounding me.

  I was alone.

  It was too quiet.

  The sirens didn’t blare down there. Hope didn’t exist either. The white walls and the single bench were all that were allowed to dwell. It couldn’t be a place where people lingered long, it wouldn’t take much time to drive anyone insane – clones and humans alike.

  I slumped on the bench, suddenly so exhausted I couldn’t even breathe. I wondered what they were doing with Reece, how they would punish him for helping me. I had asked him to bring me here, all the guilt swelling inside me was mine alone. I deserved to be here like this, even for nothing else except doing this to Reece.

  My fingers absentmindedly brushed over the bench, I only noticed when the smooth surface cut into grooves. I leaned over, looking closer.

  There was something scratched into the surface. It was only faint, barely able to be noticed by someone not looking for it.

  It was a name.

  Rocky.

  He had been there. He had sat on this very bench and carved his name into the white paint. I was so close to finding him, so close to seeing him again.

  But, oh, so far.

  If Rocky was in the cell and he had been moved, he wouldn’t have been taken anywhere good. There was only one way out of these cells and it involved the scientists on the floors above.

  Rocky wasn’t here anymore.

  He was gone.

  Not only had I caused Reece to get into trouble and myself to be captured, I’d also failed in rescuing my best friend. I was too late, if I actually had a chance in the first place.

  I placed my cheek on the carving of his name, letting the tears fall onto the bench. “Goodbye, Rocky,” I whimpered. So many people lost because of me. I didn’t deserve to live the eighteen years I had.

  The hatch on the door suddenly slapped open. Two sets of eyes peered in as I quickly stood up. I didn’t want them knowing a part of Rocky was still there. They wouldn’t take that away from me too.

  They didn’t speak to me, the two male voices only conversing with one another.

  “She’s Stone’s clone? You sure?”

  “Her blood test will confirm it. But look at her, she looks just like the president.”

  “We’ve hit the jackpot here.”

  “I know, right? Chase thought we caught just another Def. This one’s worth her weight in gold.”

  “Have you told Coin?”

  “Nah, I want to see the look on his face personally when he finds out who we have.”

  “Her reward’s huge.”

  “Darn right.”

  “President Stone’s clone, I can’t believe it.”

  “In the living, breathing flesh.”

  “Not for much longer.”

  “Stone’s being told now.”

  They continued their conversation but I couldn’t listen anymore. President Stone had already been informed of my capture. One word from her and I would be sliced open for my organs in no time. My parts would be in the deep freeze before I could see another day.

  Had Rocky felt the same extreme panic when he stood in this room? Knowing he had been there before me was somewhat of a comfort. I knew he would have been brave about his fate. He would have accepted it graciously and died with dignity.

  I wouldn’t.

  I was going to kick and scream all the way to the table.

  Chapter 20: Reece

  I’d been on missions where I had seen the true evil of humanity. I’d seen children killed, elderly people beaten into submission. I thought I was prepared for anything the universe could throw at me.

  I was wrong.

  What I wasn’t prepared for was seeing Wren carried away, surrounded by guards who wanted nothing more than to hurt her. My body shattered into three million pieces, the ache in my chest the worst pain I’d ever experienced.

  She was being taken away and I would probably never see her again.

  The regrets flowed like water, thick and fast. I should never have brought her here, never risked her life for her friend’s.

  Never let them take her.

  Never stood by silently.

  Never let myself fall for somebody so completely.

  So perfectly.

  There were so many mistakes made over the past few weeks that I didn’t have enough time to list them all. The guards surrounding me would charge me with some of them. They would never know about the rest.

  Nobody would.

  I would take my secrets to the grave.

  The guards threw questions and orders at me while I remained tight-lipped. They could make up whatever they wanted, I would stay out of it. My punishment was going to be swift and harsh, I was already prepared for it. I might
escape with my life but what did it matter when Wren wouldn’t?

  They took me to a small area in the security department. We passed a room full of monitors, no doubt they had been busy following our progress all afternoon.

  The room they held me in contained nothing but a table and three chairs – two for them and one for me. They sat opposite me, staring expectantly.

  “Well? You going to tell us what the hell you were thinking?” the one on the right asked first. His badge, neatly pinned in a perfect line, said he was Security Officer Harmon.

  I shrugged.

  It seemed to piss them off further.

  The one on the left – Security Officer Blake – leaned on the table between us. “This is going to go much better for you if you explain. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that breaking into a government-owned lab is an offence punishable by death.”

  Of course I knew that. I was a bloody trooper for god’s sake. We’d gone to the same training facility once, sat through the same classes on law and justice.

  Harmon suddenly slapped a heavy hand on the table, sending my nerves into a spin. “Tell us what you were doing with that Def! We’re going to find out anyway, the girl will tell us everything when we torture the truth out of her. You may as well save us some time.”

  So their plan was to torture Wren? I couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t betray me, she wouldn’t tell them the truth. Which would only result in her torture getting worse until there was nothing left of her.

  I could do something to stop them. It wasn’t much, but I could prevent them going to her for the answers. I knew without a shadow of a doubt she wouldn’t say anything and contradict whatever story I came up with.

  The truth was ours to keep.

  We would bury it deeply, keep it between us.

  It was all we had.

  “The girl’s got nothing to do with this,” I said calmly, like they hadn’t rattled me in the worst possible way. “She doesn’t know a thing except that I caught her earlier today.”

  That got their attention.

  Blake pursed his lips, weighing up my answers. “You caught her? All by yourself?”

  “She was on the street. You’ve seen how weak she is, she could barely run away. It didn’t require much effort at all to catch her,” I replied. “Although, if you want to embellish the story, make me more of a hero, I’m sure I’ll agree.”

  Blake snorted at the thought. “Yeah, right, Mr. Hot Shot. Like people aren’t already going to be talking about the one and only clone of President Stone.”

  So they knew who Wren was. A part of me had been hoping nobody would realize. If she was an ordinary clone, she could be swept under the rug. But the clone of the most powerful woman in the country? She would be headline news, dealt with in the swiftest way possible.

  There was nothing to lose now her identity was out. I didn’t have to conceal it from them, which meant my lies could be kicked up to a whole new level.

  “People can talk all they want,” I replied.

  Blake was resenting me more and more by the minute. “So what were you doing running? Huh? It almost seemed like you were trying to escape with her.”

  “She was the one running, I was chasing after her. I was trying to do your job for you, seeing as though you hadn’t managed to keep her locked up.”

  “We saw the footage. How do you explain taking out three of our officers?”

  I’d hoped they wouldn’t have caught that on camera. My brain reeled, trying to think up a plausible excuse. There was only one thing that came to mind. “My orders came from the president herself. I was to let nobody else touch her clone. Which meant I had to be the one to see her to her cell. If any one of your guys laid one hand on her, it was going to be my ass on the line. I couldn’t risk it.”

  They exchanged a glance while I wiped my sweaty hands on my white pants. It would only take one phone call to tear my lie to shreds and I was banking on them being too lazy to make it. Normally the mere mention of the president’s name was enough to scare people off.

  But these guys seemed crazy enough to do it.

  It was time to call their bluff.

  “Call Stone if you want,” I said with the best cavalier tone to my voice I could muster with my dry mouth. “I’m sure she’d love the interruption to her busy schedule of running the city and everything.”

  I sat back, acting completely casual about the whole thing. In reality, I was sweating bullets underneath my uniform. So much hinged on this one conversation.

  They exchanged another glance. There was no way they were going to check out my story. Harmon took over the conversation, which made a nice change from listening to his nostril whistling. “You really want us to believe you were only following orders? You broke a frickin’ window.”

  “I’d rather break a window than defy a direct order from the president,” I shot back. “She’s only got one clone, would you jeopardize her?”

  Judging from their expressions, I think they believed me.

  Defying Stone was the worst possible crime in Aria, punishable by a painful death. If I was the one responsible for her sole clone coming to harm, it would be my head rolling along Aria Square for all to see.

  Nobody would risk that.

  “Someone’s going to have to explain this all to the Delta board,” Harmon said. “Repairs are going to have to be paid for.”

  “Send the bill to Stone.”

  There would be no bill sent.

  That I was absolutely certain of.

  The three of us were locked in a battle to see who could stare at one another the longest. My lips were sealed, I wasn’t going to offer up any more information than I had already given them. A trooper on a real mission wouldn’t. Therefore I had to play the part.

  Harmon sat back in his uncomfortable metal chair, making it squeak as it slid along the concrete floor. The noise was painful, like fingers down a chalkboard.

  He crossed his arms and took a heavy breath. “Go. Get out of my sight. We know where to find you.”

  I waited a beat before I stood, pushing my own chair back and making it squeal just to make a point. I wasn’t going to be intimidated by them. I wasn’t going to skulk out of the laboratory with my tail between my legs.

  The most important thing I could do right now to save Wren was to leave with them believing I was exactly who I said I was. That way, I could find my way back to her. I could rescue her from her fate.

  I just needed for them to believe.

  Otherwise Wren had no chance.

  I strode past the guards, all the while waiting for them to stop me. Nobody stood in my way as I exited the small interrogation room. Nobody stopped me when I walked down the corridor.

  At the end of the guard’s station, I did receive an escort. Two of them accompanied me all the way to the first checkpoint we had entered so many hours ago.

  It was a failure to be leaving without Wren and her friend. We were supposed to save Rocky, but all we’d done was cost Wren her freedom.

  I had to save her.

  The only way I could leave Laboratory Delta was by being filled with the knowledge that I would return soon and I would not leave alone again.

  Riding the subway back to the base, my mind reeled with plans. There had to be a way through the levels of security to get to the clones held prisoners in the lab. Nothing was foolproof when that fool wanted something so badly.

  And I wanted to save Wren more than I wanted to breathe.

  I just had to find the loophole.

  I would go over every piece of information available about Lab Delta. I would track down blueprints, speak to people who had been inside for long periods of time. I would find them all and make them talk to me.

  The base arrived too soon, I wasn’t ready for it. I needed to plaster on my game face and pretend to be the trooper I was supposed to be. It didn’t matter that I was crumbling inside, I had to be strong on the surface.

  Everything looked too n
ormal. Like nothing had changed for everyone else. Like no-one had had their lives shattered today when their friend was ripped from their side while they watched on helplessly.

  Life went on for them.

  But not for me.

  I was going to be stuck in this endless loop of guilt, shame, and pain until I fixed things. Until I saved Wren and made sure she would never be hurt again.

  Around and around I would go, while images of Wren swirled around me like a tornado. She would never be far from my thoughts. If I was being honest with myself, I would admit that she never had been. Not since I’d let her go the night of that raid.

  My dorm building was in sight. I winced as I remembered the last time I had almost made it to my dorm. The injuries Sergeant Washington had inflicted were still making me wince. Jumping through a plate glass window hadn’t helped anything.

  The automatic doors opened, the faint traces of the broken air conditioning greeting me as I stepped inside. I turned to head for the stairs when I was stopped.

  Five of my superiors stepped into my path.

  None of them looked happy.

  I saluted them, standing at attention and awaiting their instructions. Did we have another mission? Did the lab guards call through to them? Did they know about the Resistance? My conscience was full of things I could be reprimanded for.

  Sergeant Malone was the one to speak for the group. “Corporal Thompson, you are officially requested to attend a disciplinary meeting at nine hundred hours tomorrow.”

  Dread pitted in my stomach.

  Nobody came back from disciplinary meetings.

  OUT NOW

  CONTINUE THE STORY IN:

  A Hundred Stolen Breaths

  THE LABS ARE ONLY THE BEGINNING

  Also by the Author:

  A Hairy Tail

  Cinderella is Evil

  The Fairy Tales Retold Series

  The Star Kissed Series

  All The Pretty Ghosts

  I Am Never Alone