Remembered
Page 1
REMEMBERED
The Lost Children Trilogy
Book Two
KRISTA STREET
Copyright © 2017 by Krista Street
All rights reserved.
ISBN-10: 1-946884-01-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-946884-01-5
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, transmitted or distributed in any printed or electronic form, or stored in a database or retrieval system for any commercial or non-commercial use, without the author’s written permission.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and plot are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any places, business establishments, events or occurrences, are purely coincidental.
Cover art by Deranged Doctor Design.
DEDICATION
To my grandmother – the woman who inspired me to write.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are a lot of people I need to thank. First and foremost, my husband. He supported me when I disappeared for hours into coffee shops and attended writing meetings and conferences. Thank you for being there, watching the kids and supporting me through this new entirely crazy career path!
My editor, Alyssa Hall – your help and guidance helped me navigate the intricacies of this story and turn it into something much better than anything I’d hoped for. Thank you for your time and expertise.
To my Fantastical Women writers. I’m grateful to you all for your support and friendship. I hope we keep writing together for years to come.
A special thanks to my beta readers: Meg, Kirsten, Melissa, Ron and Sheryl. Thank you for taking the time to read my books and give your feedback. Each of you helped immensely. I’m very grateful for your time and support.
Tony W., Tony E. and Mike – your collective talents and experience in the publishing world have helped me so much. Thank you for your time and knowledge.
And of course, you. Thank you for reading another book. If you’re reading this right now, it probably means you enjoyed Forgotten enough to purchase the second book in this trilogy. I’m humbled and grateful. I hope you enjoy the final book just as much!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CONTINUE THE STORY
AUTHOR’S NOTE
CHAPTER ONE
“What do you think will happen if O’Brien catches us?” Mica’s brown eyes narrowed when she glanced at Conroy.
I tensed from where I sat in the backseat and tucked a long strand of dark red hair behind my ear.
Conroy’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. His gaze stayed trained on the road ahead. High mountain desert landscape flew by as we traveled down the interstate. Soft road noise hummed in the cab. Northern Arizona was beautiful. Pine forests and rolling hills intermixed with desert. It wasn’t a bad place to escape to as we planned our return to O’Brien Pharmaceuticals.
Mica cocked her head. “Would they kill us?”
“I think they may,” Conroy finally replied. “It’s why hiding is safest.”
“But we’ve decided not to hide. If we do, the other lost children will never be free.” Mica picked up her bag and rummaged through it.
Conroy took a deep breath and gripped the wheel tighter. His knuckles turned white.
The lost children.
That’s what the men in Conroy’s old group, Project Renatus, named us when they stole us from our parents almost twenty years ago. It was ironic in a way. None of us were lost. They’d kidnapped us and experimented on us like lab rats. Yet to them, that’s what we’d become. The lost children.
Now, the eight of us lived on the outside of O’Brien Pharmaceutical’s walls and were grown adults. All of us were in our late teens or early twenties, and all of us were fighting to be free from the corporation.
Nerves churned my stomach. How much our lives had changed in twenty-four hours. Meeting Conroy in the Forbidden Hills in Colorado. Learning about him and his part in Project Renatus. Discovering that men from that project, governed by O’Brien Pharmaceuticals, wanted us captured or dead.
It seemed too crazy to be true.
Flint’s hand rested on my thigh. He squeezed my leg as I leaned closer to him. The rough fabric from his flannel brushed against my cheek. With it, came his subtle scent. Spice, wood and tangerines. I inhaled and clung to that scent. I needed the safe feeling it always evoked.
Mica pulled a bag of trail mix out of her pack and began munching. “Di will have a plan to get the other lost children back. She always has a plan.”
Conroy didn’t reply.
I wished I could adopt some of Mica’s endless optimism. Dread followed me since we left the cabin in the Forbidden Hills. As much as I tried to leave that foreboding feeling in my wake, I couldn’t help but feel bad things were to come.
I glanced over my shoulder. The rest of our unlikely family followed in the Suburban. Even from a distance, Di’s face was visible as she held the wheel. From her grim expression, I guessed she mulled over everything Conroy had revealed to us two days ago. Either that or the twins were driving her crazy.
“When are we gonna stop for a bathroom break?” Mica polished off the remaining peanuts, her crunching chews audible.
Conroy nodded to a sign that flashed by the window. “There’s a gas station a few miles ahead. We can stop there.”
“Good.” Mica brushed crumbs from her top. “I feel like I’m gonna burst.”
“Galena and Flint?” Conroy’s gaze drifted to the rearview mirror. “Does that work for you?”
“Sure.” I dog-eared the paperback mystery that lay forgotten in my lap. “I could use a stop too.”
“When will we reach your house?” Flint’s words were clipped.
I winced. Unlike some of us, Mica and I included, Flint hadn’t been so easily won over by Conroy.
“We’re a few hours away. We should be there by nightfall.” Conroy always replied politely to Flint. The older scientist didn’t seem fazed by Flint’s hostility.
I wondered if Flint and Conroy had always had a rocky relationship. Of course, I’d never know. Memories of my life only went back six months. Frustration bubbled up inside of me. While I now understood why I had no memories, thanks to the drug Conroy administered to me and everyone else six months ago, I still hated that I didn’t know who I was.
Flint leaned forward. “So how do you know this house of yours is safe?”
“I know it’s safe because I purchased it a month ago, under one of my alia
ses. The only person who knows I own it is–”
“Let me guess,” Mica cut in. “Your lawyer?”
Conroy nodded. “Exactly.”
“Humph.” Mica raised an eyebrow. “I still can’t believe everything we’ve learned. It’s kinda crazy you know.”
“Which part?” I asked. “Where O’Brien Pharmaceuticals stole us off the streets when we were babies from our drug addicted, prostituting parents or how O’Brien kept us locked up while we were experimented on?”
Mica chuckled as a strong push of Flint’s energy hit me. Flint’s jaw tightened. I laid my hand on his thigh. His warmth seared through his jeans. Right. Maybe it was a little too early to joke about that stuff.
“When you put it like that, it sounds rather barbaric,” Conroy said.
Mica’s eyebrows shot clear to her hairline. “How could you ever think it wasn’t barbaric?”
Conroy sighed. His hands tightened on the steering wheel again as we sailed around a turn. “If you could have seen the conditions in which you were born.” He stopped, his voice growing quiet. “I’m not saying it justifies what we did, I see that now, but at the time, I was young and hopeful. I’d been passionate about science since I was a boy. The possibilities of untapped chemical creations fascinated me. You have to understand, I was very young when I joined O’Brien. I was naïve and blinded by my ambitions to better the world. At the time, I truly felt like I was doing the right thing. I thought I was helping all of you. That I was making your lives better.”
Mica cocked her head. “I know I just met you, so I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I believe you.”
“I do too,” I said.
Conroy’s hands relaxed. A smile lifted his cheeks.
“Well, I don’t believe you,” Flint muttered. He glared out the window.
Conroy’s gaze drifted to Flint in the rearview mirror. His smile dimmed.
If only Flint could feel what I did. I switched my vision, activating the part of my brain that was dormant in others. Conroy’s cloud appeared. The beautiful rainbow of dancing colors billowed around his shoulders. It was unlike anything I’d seen before. Some of the colors mirrored the colors in our clouds: red, pink, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet and gold. However, other colors mixed in it too: magenta, silver, navy and at least a dozen more. All of Conroy’s colors were faint like they’d been washed out in a spring rain. All except for two bright colors: blue and pale green. The blue matched the blue in our clouds. However, none of us had pale green.
As always, I couldn’t explain why we had colors. I also couldn’t get a firm read on Conroy’s cloud. The rest of the population had some form of white, gray or black. The whiter the cloud, the more kind a person was, the darker, the eviler. Nobody else had colors. And as for why Conroy had so many colors, I had no idea.
However, my gut told me Conroy wouldn’t harm us. And if there was one thing I always listened to – it was my gut instinct.
“So how’d you make the memory drug you gave us in April?” Mica asked.
“It was something I created last year, in the lab back home,” Conroy replied.
By home, I assumed he meant the hidden cabin we’d left in the Forbidden Hills.
“But how did it work?” I asked.
“The drug targeted specific cells in your brains. Upon reaching those targeted cells, it severed all neuronal activity to your long-term memories. Basically, your memories are still there. However, you don’t have access to them.”
I sat up straighter. “They’re still there?”
“Yes.”
How does he know that? “So this drug must be different from the one you gave us as babies?”
“It’s much safer. Age doesn’t affect it.”
That comment reminded me of the two oldest children in our original group of ten. I’d never met that older set of twins since they died from the sensory enhancing drug Conroy administered to them. I swallowed uneasily. If I’d been older when he gave me my drug, I could have died too. Luckily, I was only a few months old when Conroy stole me – plenty young for my brain to adapt.
Mica squirmed in her seat. “I still gotta go to the bathroom. How much longer?”
“Just ahead.” Conroy put his blinker on and glided the Pathfinder off the interstate. I glanced behind us. Sure enough, Di followed.
“I gotta go!” Mica squealed. She bounded out of her seat the second we pulled into the gas station.
Conroy followed Mica. Cool air swirled into the car before he slammed his door. I unbuckled my seat belt, but Flint made no move to leave.
It had been a long day of driving. Conroy’s original plan had been to helicopter us straight to his reclusive Arizona home, but after a brief discussion, none of us wanted to leave the Suburban behind. Call us sentimental, but when one’s life is as erratic as ours, familiar things have greater meaning. However, none of us considered what keeping the Suburban entailed. That sentimentality had resulted in a nine-hour drive. It also meant Conroy had to purchase a vehicle since nine of us in the Suburban was too crowded.
“We better get to the bathroom.” I opened my door. “Who knows when the next stop will be.”
Flint grabbed my hand before I stepped out. His sudden grip made the charm bracelet I wore jingle quietly. The charm – a heart with an inscription reading Love You Forever – glinted.
“Lena, we don’t have to go with Conroy. You know that, right?”
The urgency in his voice made my stomach sink. I settled back beside him. A strong gust swirled into the car from my still open door. It whipped my long dark red hair around my face.
“I think we should,” I replied.
“But we don’t know if we can trust him.”
He gripped my hand tighter. His palm was so warm. Another steady push of energy rolled off him.
Feeling Flint’s energy was something I’d grown used to during the past two months. For some reason, the power inside him radiated out. It was hard to miss, at least for me. The drug Conroy gave me as a child resulted in my unique ability to see auras around people or clouds as I called them. However, it went a step beyond that with Flint. I could also feel his. When he was angry, aroused or felt any other strong emotion, the power rolling off him increased. The strength of it right now was enough to tell me he was very serious about ditching Conroy.
I slammed my door closed. Jacinda and the rest of the gang were getting out of the Suburban. I knew none of them would be able to hear us with the door closed, except Jacinda that is, thanks to her enhanced auditory sense.
“We can’t leave Conroy.”
“Why not?” Flint demanded.
“I know you don’t believe it, but I know that Conroy would never hurt us. Just like I knew when we first met in August that you’d never let anyone hurt me. Those gut feelings we’ve all had about things? They’re our subconscious trying to break through. Don’t you see that?”
He gazed out the window, his expression brooding. “Then why don’t I trust him?”
I swallowed uneasily. That’s a very good question. “I don’t know.”
A sharp knock on the window made me jump. Jet and Jasper’s faces plastered against it. Amber hung just behind them, grinning.
“Hey love birds, you two coming in?” Jasper called.
I forced a smile. “Let’s go.”
With stiff movements, Flint opened his door.
The twins and Amber sauntered away. Laughter trailed in their wakes. As usual, the twins’ jokes prevailed, even in our current circumstances.
I inhaled the evening air. Already, it had cooled. Flat desert landscape surrounded us. The sky blazed purple from the setting sun. Distant mountains hovered on the horizon, hinting at colder temps to come.
“Chilly here.” I shivered.
Flint reached inside the vehicle and grabbed his jacket. He slipped it around my shoulders before I could protest. The parka practically swallowed me.
Flint leaned down and kissed me softly on the neck. Hi
s lips lingered. Another push of energy rolled into me. Worry lined its edges.
“Are you two coming?” Jacinda stood by the door to the gas station. Her long blond hair trailed down her back. I hadn’t realized she was waiting for us.
“Come on.” I tugged Flint.
Our footsteps slapped the pavement. Flint glanced over his shoulder several times, his gaze curious. According to Conroy, we needed to be cautious in public. He claimed O’Brien still had eyes all over the country, people paid to watch out for a group of eight individuals matching our descriptions. I wasn’t sure any of us believed him, though. The eight of us had been together for two months, granted it was on a secluded ranch, but still, there had been no sign of men watching us anywhere.
“How has it been riding with Conroy?” Jacinda asked.
“Good.” I had to look up to address her. It still amazed me that we were half-sisters. I figured our fathers must have been complete opposites. Her dad a Norwegian Viking and mine an Irish midget. “Interesting too. Conroy’s been telling us about the drug he gave us. It targeted our long-term memories.”
“Is that right?” Jacinda cocked her head causing her long, blond hair to fall over her shoulder.
Flint held the door. A large shelf of candy bars greeted us the second we stepped inside. I eyed the Snickers with interest, but Jacinda steered me away.
The travel center was large and clean. Scents of hot dogs and nacho cheese drifted in the air when we walked by the food station. Navajo art and souvenirs hung on display throughout the aisles. Halloween decorations draped from the ceiling. One ghastly ghoul looked particularly disturbing with its black, vacant eyes and open tooth filled mouth. The normalcy of this lone travel stop was exactly what I needed.
Some of the nerves left my stomach as Jacinda pulled me to the back of the gas station. An array of sandwiches lined the refrigerated section. They beckoned to me. Even though I’d been well fed for the past two months, my days as a homeless vagabond when food was precious, still lingered.