Broken - Afflictions of the Evolved (The Evolved Trilogy)

by Shawnda Currie

  I tried to get to him but I flew through the air against my will. My fingers throbbed as I barely held onto the edge of the walkway, my feet dangling in the air. I looked down. Big mistake. If I let go, I would plunge to my death unless I managed to teleport at the last second.

  I screamed as pain echoed through my finger tips. I looked up to see Mr. Dalton standing on my hands forcing pressure with the top of his foot.

  “You bastard!” I cried out. Pain shot throughout my entire body.

  He smiled wryly. His dark eyes were solid with hatred. I tried to teleport to the floor with no avail. My powers were being blocked. I wasn’t strong enough.

  “Not so fast, Lacey,” he ordered. “I want you to see this.” He raised his arm towards Taylor who was rubbing his forehead. He was alive.

  “Please, no!” I wailed.

  “Go home, Taylor. That’s where you belong.” He used his invisible force to crush Taylor’s neck.

  “Activate your sequence. You won’t survive him a second time,” urged Zed who ran over to console his friend.

  “Listen to him son, or you WILL die here.”

  My heart broke as Taylor fought his father. I tried so hard to teleport to his side and touch him one last time. His last thoughts to me as he choked were “trust no one.” His body went limp. Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably. Taylor was dead and I was next. “I’m sorry Taylor. I failed you,” I said out loud.

  “Stupid girl,” said Mr. Dalton condescendingly. “You had no chance at beating me. I knew your every move even before you did. I will tell you something before I kill you.” His bottom lip twisted. “Your mother did love you. She killed herself instead of giving into the voices. The voices that came from me to end your miserable life. It was so easy to infiltrate your gang…..”

  Ting. Mr. Dalton’s head bounced off the metal railing. Zed grabbed my arm and pulled me out of harms way. Then he did something that I never believed he was capable of. He stabbed the son of a bitch in the stomach with a knife.

  Mr. Dalton let out a small gasp and then his body went limp. Zed’s eyes narrowed. His eyes were full of pure hatred.

  “Zed!” I pleaded. “Please.” I lifted my hands in the air to show him that I wasn’t a threat.

  Zed’s face changed from rage to empathy. “Lacey, I would never hurt you. Trust me.”

  Taylor’s last words to me – trust no one. I no longer trusted Zed even though he saved my life. There were too many unknowns. Too many questions.

  I crawled over to Taylor. He looked as if he was sleeping. I pounded on his chest. “Taylor, come back to me.”

  Zed’s hand touched my shoulder. “He’s gone, Lacey.”

  “But he could have activated his sequence. He could still be alive in the future.” I refused to leave him there.

  “No, he didn’t. There wasn’t time. Now, let’s get out of here before this place blows up.”

  I stood up and let Zed hold me. I buried my face into his chest and for a split second imagined that it was Taylor’s chest. I teleported us to the woods outside the power plant. I put all my energy over the tall stacks and envisioned a protective dome.

  Amazingly, the explosion was confined to only the bay that did not house radioactive rods. There was no contamination. The blast destroyed Taylor, Triona and Mr. Dalton’s bodies. The second event was prevented but not without casualties.

  Zed held onto me in order to teleport away from the inferno. Plus we had to get away from the scene that would soon be crawling with cops.

  I was sickened by the thought of Taylor’s body burning to a crisp inside.

  BOOK TITLE

  18.

  THEORIES

  I brought us to the last place that I had felt somewhat safe; the cabin in the woods where Taylor taught me to develop my psychic abilities from telekinesis to the next level.

  “Man, that never gets old,” yelled Zed after we arrived by the lake in front of the cabin.

  I did not share his enthusiasm. I was still in shock from the passing of Taylor. I looked at Zed with resentment. It should have been Taylor with me instead of him. Even the death of Mr. Dalton did little to console the gaping hole in my heart.

  As I thought about it, I started to hyperventilate and fainted. I would have landed flat on my face had Zed not caught me in his arms. Once I came to, Zed was holding me in one arm and caressing my cheek with the other. I grabbed his hand and flicked it away from my cheek. The way he had touched me was beyond inappropriate on so many levels. The worse part was I didn’t think Zed even comprehended that. Was he really that self-absorbed?

  “Thanks for breaking my fall,” I said in a low monotone voice. Zed assisted me to my feet then kept his distance. Smart move on his part.

  We walked up to the door of the cabin. The key was still under the welcome mat. Zed unlocked it and went in first to make sure it was vacant. He gave me a nod to let me know that it was safe to enter. By this point my thoughts and body were numbed and I walked like a zombie. My legs carried me forward though my mind was mush.

  I did not speak to Zed. Instead, I walked directly to the bedroom and locked the door behind me. Thankfully, he let me have my much needed space. I collapsed on the bed and curled up with the blanket. I imagined Taylor’s arms around me like they had been previously. I felt safe then. Now I was lost and was grasping at anything to keep my sanity.

  The memories of Taylor flooded my thoughts. I was overwhelmed with so much grief that I began to choke on my own tears. The only thing that calmed me down was a faint voice that called out my name. The soothing voice told me I would be okay, that things aren’t always what they seem and it will all work out.

  I chanted along in my head. I will be okay, things aren’t always what they seem, and it will all work out. The repetition and softness of the imaginary voice lulled me to sleep.

  I had begged for sleep to take over just so I could forget my present circumstance. But my dreams were cruel. They replayed Taylor’s death over and over. I kept telling myself to wake up. I pleaded with myself to snap out of it but I couldn’t break free from the horrible scene in my mind.

  Taylor’s head was bleeding from hitting the metal post. I knelt down at his side. Trust no one. It was a warning. The last message before he departed from this world.

  I stared at his motionless face. There was something I hadn’t noticed before. His nose was also bleeding. Did he hit it on the walkway? Or was it caused by something else?

  My eyes opened wide. The room was dark and quiet. My mouth was so dry and my pillow was soaked with sweat and tears. I needed water.

  I made my way to the kitchen that was lit by a light above the stove. I could hear Zed snoring from the living room. Thank god. I couldn’t face him right now. I had to be alone with my thoughts.

  I sat at the kitchen table with my glass of water and pondered my dream or vision. The first time I teleported and forced the train from the tracks, my nose bled. When I managed to teleport Taylor and Zed from outside the prison, my nose bled. My theory was that I used too much energy and caused some sort of psychic overload.

  Taylor managed to send me a message telepathically which meant he was still coherent. His nose bled from the massive psychic jolt. I believed with all my heart that he triggered his retrieval sequence to the mainframe and was safe and sound in his rightful place in time.

  Sometimes only your beliefs gave you strength to carry on.

  BOOK TITLE

  19.

  THE GOOD DOCTOR

  The next morning when I told Zed of my theory over coffee at the kitchen table, he dismissed the possibility of Taylor’s survival. He denied that Taylor’s nose was bleeding and was surprised that I would let my imagination run away with me like that. I knew what I saw in my dream. It was a recount of Taylor’s last moments step-by-step. My psyche would never betray me like that; unlike some of the evolved that I’ve met.

  “I know you want to believe that Taylor made it, but it’s not possible,” he sa
id condescendingly.

  That angered me. He wouldn’t even contemplate my theory. The same guy that went on a rescue mission for Sable – at the time we thought suicide rescue mission – and he was adamant that it wasn’t even possible. “What makes you so sure Zed?” I asked accusingly.

  “Lacey, I loved Taylor like a brother. I want him to be alive just as much as you do. But the sequence needs a certain amount of time to be initiated.” He hung his head low.

  I felt like he was holding something back from me. “There’s something else you aren’t telling me.”

  He breathed out a huge gasp of air. “You are so caught up in this fictitious nose bleed that you are forgetting one very important and very real sequence of events.”

  I tilted my hands in a questioning manner.

  “I killed Mr. Dalton. Dead. In this time. Don’t you realize what that means?” He stared into my eyes waiting for me to clue in.

  Oh my God! Taylor’s father no longer existed in the future. If he didn’t exist, than Taylor didn’t exist. I was on the verge of hyperventilating again but controlled my breathing once my head became fuzzy. No. It couldn’t be. There was more to this whole time travel thing. Somehow Taylor was born. He had to have been born. And he was alive right now.

  “I’m sorry, Lacey. I didn’t think about that at the time. I was just trying to protect you.” He placed his hands over mine.

  Protect me. Mr. Dalton was already stunned by his head wound. I could have escaped on my own. Zed didn’t have to kill him. Trust no one. Trust no one, not even Zed.

  I pulled my hands from his and stood up to get a glass of water. After a sip, I spoke. “Did we ever meet prior to the night in the field after my break out at Clear Waters?” I leaned against the sink to steady myself. Zed’s comment about protecting me made me curious. It made me wonder just how long he had been following me around. I did not believe our paths crossed for the first time that night. His response would make the difference if I would continue on the quest with Zed or cut him loose immediately.

  That was not a question Zed was expecting me to ask. He looked perplexed. “Of course it was.” His tone insinuated that I was being ridiculous. He broke eye contact. He was hiding something from me.

  Liar. He was a liar. I did not have the “time bump” déjà-vu feeling that night in the field. I didn’t think about it at the time because I wasn’t even aware of what a time bump was. I had that feeling with every other evolved member I had met, but not with Zed in the field. No, I had that feeling the night I stole a car with my so-called friends. The guy on the bicycle that drove by, his face partially covered by the hood of his dark sweater. Every inch of my being told me that the person had been Zed.

  But why lie about something so trivial? There was no reason not to tell me the truth, especially with him being so positive Taylor was gone – forever. Maybe that was the reason. Zed had no idea exactly what or how much Taylor had told me about the evolved. Zed wouldn’t want any contradictions. That would lead to more questions. Questions like what did Mr. Dalton mean by the gang being so easily infiltrated?

  I knew what it meant. He was going to tell me that Zed was the traitor all along. That smug look on Mr. Dalton’s face when he was going to let the cat out of the bag, only to be betrayed by his own stool pigeon. My eyes widened as I connected the dots. I had to escape before I was next on Zed’s hit list.

  “I’m going to freshen up,” my voice cracked. Before I could make it to the bathroom, Zed was at my side only inches from my face. I was paralyzed. The son of a bitch was trying to control me.

  “You just can’t stop questioning things, can you?” His dark smoldering eyes terrified me to no end. This was it. I was going to be brave. I would not look away from him. I stared into the depths of hell. Seeing my reflection in his eyes was the distraction I needed to break free from his gaze.

  I teleported to the bathroom and locked the door. What do I do? Where do I go? My thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging on the door.

  “Lacey? Come out and let’s talk about this rationally. You’re acting……”

  I was gone before he could finish his sentence off with CRAZY. I wasn’t crazy. I was right. And my mother wasn’t crazy either. She gave up her life to protect mine. After her death I was safe from her and the voices created by Mr. Dalton. For a while I was safe from the dark spirits as well.

  Being at the cabin brought back the life lessons Taylor had drilled into me. He had prepared me for the day that he wouldn’t be around. Maybe he knew all along that things would play out this way. Even if he didn’t know, I was strong and skilled. I would survive this.

  I didn’t have time to think of a place to go. I had to get away from Zed as quickly as possible. I ended up at the stinky cabin I was forced to spend the night in when Taylor ditched me in the woods.

  I took a deep breath. My mind felt fuzzy like my thoughts weren’t my own. Just breath. Away from the control of Zed, I was able to put things into perspective. I had an epiphany; time travel didn’t work the way I’ve seen it acted out in movies. In those stories, when a character was killed in the past, he was erased from the future because it was the original body that travelled. But in reality, it was the evolved’s essence that went back in time and inhabited a cloned body of the host.

  As long as Taylor was able to activate his retrieval sequence, he could still be alive! I was overjoyed by this new revelation. I couldn’t believe that Zed almost had me convinced that Taylor was never born. Mr. Dalton could have activated his retrieval sequence to the mainframe. And even if he didn’t, his essence was now lost and would never rejoin his frozen body in the future. That body would either remain frozen forever or eventually die. Either way, Taylor was born prior to Mr. Dalton joining the time travel program. Yes, there was still hope that Taylor survived.

  “Really, Lacey. Out of all the places in the world, you choose this disgusting place?” said Zed. He appeared right in front of my eyes. “I tried to do it the easy way. The murder charge was a ruse. I paid Mr. M to fake his own murder. Injected him with a drug that stopped his heart. Freaky mortician brought him back to life. It’s amazing what people will do for money. Had I known then that I could have simply killed the old man, I could have saved myself a lot of dough.”

  I wanted to choke him out but at the same time, I needed to hear all about his lies and betrayal. Thankfully Triona arrived after Zed’s devious plan, and only then did he learn that the evolved somehow had the power to interfere with the present. She saved Mr. M’s life and the dirty scoundrel had no idea.

  Zed rubbed his hands together, as if to say he was getting to the really juicy part. “I thought I could derail you from the mission by having you come save me like Sable. And just as predicted, you did! I even tried to block you from teleporting so you would get arrested and this whole damn thing would have been over. But you,” he pointed. “You were stronger than I ever expected. You still managed to save me and somehow that plant didn’t explode the way it should have.” He smiled slyly. “Had my plan worked, your beloved Taylor would still be alive. I hate you for making me kill my best friend.”

  Hate me? Really. Healing, controlling, teleporting, good for nothing, rotten traitor! An enchanted traitor to boot! And he hated me. Zed really was a demented psychopath. He helped kill Taylor. This was going to be more difficult than I had originally thought. This bastard was literally locked onto me. Of course; psychic lucidity dream – he was the man with no face. Oh, how the pieces came together when you followed the signs.

  “You can hate me all you want,” I scowled. “But just answer one question; why? Why would you possibly not want a brighter future?”

  He let out an evil deep laugh. “You of all people should understand.” He shook his head as if to say he couldn’t believe I didn’t get it. Well, I didn’t get it. What could his motive possibly be?

  Zed lunged towards me but I stopped him in his tracks. His face went serious again. “We are enchanted, Lacey. Which i
s freaking awesome I might add. I can’t risk the future being changed and my powers not being developed. Ah, and you figured it out about Mr. Dalton. I thought it was worth a shot to try to convince you that Taylor was never born. Still doesn’t change the fact that he died in this time period.”

  I ignored his last statement because in my heart I knew Taylor made it. I focused on Zed’s motives. Power. That was his driving force. I became enraged. All of this deception and betrayal because he didn’t want to lose his precious gifts. The whole cabin began to shake violently. Zed was distracted by the cracking of the roof and walls. I threw both of my hands into the air and Zed crashed hard onto the floor. He tried to get up so I forced the old couch to land on top of him. Seeing my chance for escape, I teleported to the top of a tall apartment building, in the middle of an ocean, on a cargo train and inside a tiger’s cage at the zoo.

  Praying that I made enough diversionary stops and longing for something familiar, I landed inside the storage unit that housed my memory box. I had to take it with me as I could never ever return here again. Zed knew of its existence. I had to be fast before he caught up to me again.

  I found a light switch. My eyes frantically searched the shelf where my box was stored. Found it. I rummaged through other bags and boxes to see if there was anything else of value or use. I managed to find some clothing and shoes. I changed quickly as I was cold from my stint in the ocean. As I pulled the shoes onto my feet, an older cardboard poster caught my eye. “The doctor is in” was painted in black letters with a smiling nurse in a retro uniform with a matching cap sitting at a reception desk.

  Doctor. I pondered this for a moment. Of course! Dr. Hendrick might be able to help me.

  With my memory box and bag of clothes in one hand, I teleported outside one of the motels Taylor and I had stayed at after leaving Serenity. I walked down the block to a gas station to scam some money from the ATM inside. After, I hailed a taxi to drive me to the vicinity of the warehouse where I prayed Dr. Hendrick was still working. Following the same path as the first and only time I met the odd little man, I was outside the door with the numerical pad. What was the code again? Think. I closed my eyes and replayed the memory in my mind of Taylor punching in the numbers. Voila. It worked.