The Pursuit (The Permutation Archives Book 2)

by Kindra Sowder

  “Nothing to worry about, my man,” Jameson assured him with a slap to the back. “It’s as safe as a kitten.”

  Julius looked around at the rest of the group and snorted. “Have you actually seen a kitten, Jameson? They think about murder all day long. A lesson we learned from Mila’s when we were kids.”

  I stared at him with an incredulous look. “Don’t bring the cat into this, Julius.” I turned back to Jameson and said the next words with resolve, pushing Julius’s arm out of the way. “I’m so going through first.”

  Not only was I excited at the prospect of walking through a solid object, but I was also high interested in what was on the other side of the wall. They didn’t even feel it was necessary to show us photos of it in school. Nothing near the coast before the wall was erected, which only caused my curiosity to peak more and more as I grew older. Now I had my chance, and I stepped in front of the undulating concrete, my heart racing inside of my chest and threatening to punch right through. I swallowed hard with anxiety and excitement, taking one final look back at the rest of them before my world would forever change. There was absolutely no going back after this. Not that there was before, but this would solidify that fact.

  I turned back to the wall, watching the concrete move before me like a lover, beckoning to me to take that last step. To cross that line. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and walked through without even a second thought. I felt cold at first and like I moved through Jell-O, but that frigidness was followed by warmth, reminding me of that cocoon I found myself in when unconscious and wrapped in that dark heat it brought.

  When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t stop the sharp intake of breath, marking my surprise at the beauty that was just beyond the dull and gray barrier that held us, prisoner. Green. Everything around me was green. It climbed halfway up this side of the wall and branched out toward the sandy beach and the water rushing in small lapping waves toward me. Calling out to me. And it was so clear and blue as the sun beat off of its surface. A large part of me wanted to take off my shoes and run into it, not even caring if it was cold or not. And right there, just on the edge with his knee high boots standing in the water holding a slight boat, was Ajax. His blond hair was made even more golden by the sun’s rays, and his amber eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at me. There was a larger boat bobbing up and down in the water and it was shiny and new, much like a government craft, but I knew the Paradigm had a habit of stealing and the improving the technology. And, off in the distance, was the strip of land just across the water’s surface. Kiawah Island.

  “Oh my God,” I cried out as I jumped and then ran to him, not even caring that I was soon trudging through ice cold water. I shot into his arms and wrapped him in a tight embrace as he returned it, chuckling softly. “That’s the second time in so many days you disappeared. Don’t you do that again, you bastard. Never again.” I pulled back and punched him in the arm. He winced and rubbed the spot, the broad grin never once leaving his lips.

  “Hey, that hurt, you know?” he joked as I stared at him, my eyes stinging with tears of joy that I refused to shed.

  Within seconds I heard the others cross over and Julius gasp in shock at what he saw. I turned around to look at them, grinning like a fool.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” I asked as I motioned to our surroundings. I sidestepped Ajax and put my hands out at my sides, leaning my head back and closing my eyes to bask in the warmth that radiated around me. The humidity didn’t even bother me anymore as the cold water of the ocean leaked into my boots.

  “You ready to see your mom?” Ajax asked.

  My eyes popped open, and I stared at him, his amber eyes glittering.

  “She’s here?”

  He jerked his head back toward the larger craft and replied, “Right on that boat. Everyone is.”

  Everyone else jumped into the small boat which, I finally noticed, was just a much smaller version of the one we were about to board. I waded through the water and jumped into the boat, taking a seat beside Ryder and splashing him with cold water. He flinched away, but then relaxed and took my hand in his. This put Ajax beside me as he stood in the saltwater, a look of amusement on his face as he continued to smile. He hadn’t stopped since we crossed the wall and I had a feeling he wouldn’t be for a while. We were all together again.

  “Ahoy, Captain!” I crowed toward the ocean waves. When I got strange looks all around, I shrugged. “Isn’t that what they say?” I asked sheepishly as blood rushed to my cheeks in a blush of embarrassment.

  Ajax hopped into the boat and sat in the empty space directly across from me, reaching down and pressing a green button. The craft lurched to life, the engine a lot quieter than I expected it to be.

  “Yup, that’s what they say,” he chuckled.

  We glided through the water, slicing smoothly through it as we made our way to the large craft that I guessed was a little over one hundred yards from the shore to avoid scraping the ocean floor. I took another deep breath in and watched as the shining silver boat came even closer, figures moving along the bridge. Not many. Maybe five or so. Enough to run the boat really from what little I actually knew about them.

  I spotted a head of blonde hair, the strands whipping around in the cool ocean breeze as we made our approach, and I finally felt like I was so much closer to home.

  Chapter

  TWENTY-FOUR

  We climbed a small ladder, each of us landing on the deck with a soft thud. The floor wasn’t solid like I had expected, but slightly spongy as I stood there. My feet sunk slightly into it, causing me to worry that this craft wasn’t in as good of shape as I wanted to believe. Granted, I had not once been on a government boat, so all of this was new to. Even the shining metal that covered it and reflected the sun made no sense to me. Soft footsteps came toward us and when I glanced up, my mother came into view followed by two colossal men. She smiled at me, amused by the confusion that must have been plain on my face.

  “The floor of the decks are made up of a unique material. It’s spongy, so it absorbs hard knocks better, but also takes care of any overrun from the ocean. It absorbs it and filters it down toward the bottom of the ship where a small system pushes the water back out. Keeps us from flooding in storms and the like,” she explained to me before moving toward me with arms outstretched. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  She wrapped me up in a soft embrace and, though I was ecstatic to see her again and know she was alive, I couldn’t make myself return it, and I wasn’t sure why.

  “I know you must be exhausted so,” she turned slightly to one large man behind her, his broad chest and hard eyes making me want to shrink into myself. “Get the Captain to start back toward the Island. These kids need their rest and then we can catch them up to speed.”

  He nodded, cold blue eyes moving over our group, and turned to head toward the front of the ship. His heavy footfalls barely registered on the soft floor.

  My mother looked at the other man, her guards I guessed, and waved him off. “Please, take them below decks. I’m sure they are hungry and thirsty. Get as much in as you can. You all will be busy tomorrow. I’ll be down in just a few moments.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he answered.

  We followed the other man who looked exactly like the man that had just left. Identical twins. He led us down a small flight of stairs that took us into a massive vestibule with tables and comfortable, plush white chairs scattered throughout its expanse. And, to the right, was a large area filled with clear refrigerators and nonperishable items lined a table down the space’s very center.

  The man stopped before us and turned to glance at each one of us in turn, smiling. “Please, take as much as you’d like. What belong to the Paradigm belongs to all.”

  Ajax nodded beside me as Ryder took my hand and led me toward the menagerie of preparations and cold drinks, some of it th
ings I had never seen. Ajax left the room with a wink in my direction, sauntering back to the she stairs that led back up to the deck. So, after a few moments of perusing, I settled on something I knew and knew well. I almost couldn’t believe that a Reuben sandwich would ever find its way onto this boat, but it had, and I was grateful. Along with this I snagged a bottle of water from one of the glass refrigerators and followed Ryder, sitting near the back and out so we could see anyone who walked inside. The paranoia was stifling, but I didn’t care as long as we were all safe and sound. The rest of the group followed, the only person with their back turned toward the entrance being Jameson. He trusted the Paradigm enough, but I didn’t. And, while Ryder had worked with them for years, he hadn’t been given plenty of reasons to trek carefully where anything regarding King was concerned. Even the Paradigm. Even my own mother.

  The difference I had noticed in her before was more pronounced. I realized it as soon as I saw her again, but was attempting to give her the benefit of a doubt. Everyone ate in perfect silence. Julius has picked up what looked like the same grilled chicken sandwich Ryder had while Jameson gorged on some sort of pasta, Doctor Devi on a salad with some kind of meat mixed in, and Caius diving deep into a Reuben himself. I unwrapped my sandwich, taking the first bite of rye bread covered in tangy sauce, corned beef, and Swiss cheese when my mother walked into the room, spotting us instantly as black specks amongst the clean white. She came to sit with us and crossed her arms over her chest, her black clothes becoming another marring stain on the crisp white of the interior. I sighed and leaned back with the sandwich clasped tightly in my hands, my shoulder brushing against Ryder’s. I snuggled up next to him and sighed, chewing quickly so I could take another bite.

  “I missed real food,” I said. Ryder’s hand came to rest on my thigh, and he grinned, taking another bite of his own food.

  “So did I. That compound crap is only made to give nutritional value, but all of it is synthetic. It’s awful, but good for you at least,” he replied.

  My mother chuckled. “Well, there’s more where that came from. You don’t have to worry about crappy food anymore.”

  “I’ll be honest, Horatia, even the rations while we were out there were better than what they tried to force us to eat. By far,” Julius admitted.

  “Not the first time we’ve heard that.” My mother laughed again.

  Her stare turned to me, but I couldn’t look at her. I was too busy focusing on the tinge of sourness of the sauerkraut, attempting to focus on only it and nothing else as we made our way to our new home. But was I ready to make the Paradigm a permanent home? I wasn’t even so sure, but I would at least give it a shot. I owed that to them after they saved us from King’s clutches in the compound and continued to do so because of who my mother was. I had a sinking feeling that was the reason they did all of this, but Cato’s vision of our future wasn’t something I could pass up, was it? Not after all of the screaming, the blood, the death, and the violence. I completely zoned out, nibbling on the very edges of the corned beef that peeked through the bread, barely hearing my name as my mother said it.

  “Mila?” she questioned.

  I quickly glanced at her, the black clothes a glaring contrast against the white all around us as well as her blonde hair and pale skin. I noticed everyone was staring at me, all of them having placed their forks and plastic wrapped foods down on the table. I had missed something, apparently. The intercom speaker blared to life over our heads, leaving me to determine this was what I hadn’t heard while I was zoned out.

  “We are now approaching Kiawah Island. Please remain seated until we arrived,” the sharp and profound voice over the speaker said, causing my good ear to ring once again.

  I knew I’d blown one ear drum completely, but noise was still causing problems with the ear I could still hear out of. Maybe they had doctors that could fix it. Who knew? But there was one thing I was more excited about than finally, possibly getting my hearing fixed. It was seeing my sister and, as my mother opened her mouth to speak, it was as if she had read my mind. The boat lurched slightly as I assumed we stopped at the dock on the island.

  “Are you ready to see your sister and your friend?” she asked, smiling broadly at the thought of her two daughters together again. Both under her watchful eye.

  “You have no idea,” I muttered as I popped the last bite of my sandwich into my mouth. The Funny thing was, I hadn’t even realized I had eaten the entire thing.

  “Then let’s go,” my mom ordered as she stood and began walking toward the stairs that led back up to the deck. She didn’t even look back to make sure we followed, but I had a feeling she knew we would regardless.

  And we did, taking each step at a time as we all bubbled with excitement at not just our new surroundings and being on the other side of the wall that had held us captive, but also because of what all this could mean and the people we could get to see for the first time in weeks. And those we would meet for the first time. Those like us. And the feeling was palpable around us as we emerged onto the deck, an extremely long dock made out of shining metal covered in textured rubber to avoid slipping jutting out from the sandy beach. The sun’s rays bounced off of it, reflecting it back into my eyes and off of the shining surface of the boat. I squinted and raised my hand in an attempt to dampen the glare.

  “Any reason you felt the need to blind everyone that comes to this place?” Julius asked as he mirrored my position.

  My mother walked to the opening on the side of the small ship where a ramp took us down and onto the dock with Ajax meeting her at the break in the metal.

  “Well, this metal has a special property to it. When directly spotted by anything of King’s, it reflects off of the water and remains largely unseen. That way we don’t have them raining bombs down on us,” she explained as we followed her down and along the dock with Ajax close behind.

  The rubber seemed as if it was made out of the same absorbent material that made up the deck’s floors, and I was grateful for everything they had so far even if it were something small. Like the ability to stop me from slipping off of the dock and into the ocean’s cold waves that lapped against the posts of the dock. I zoned out again, only noticing we had made it onto the beach when my feet began to slide and slip in the sand, leaving footsteps that were quickly washed away by the lapping waves. Along the very edge of the same was the beginning of another forest, dense and just dark enough to where I couldn’t see too far in. Another precaution I assumed. I started to panic and, as if he could see it in my eyes, Ryder took my hand and led me toward the forest’s edge. Darkness hadn’t been an issue for me before, but now it was everything. And forests held back things. They held death.

  “Ryder,” I breathed with restricted lungs. Everyone heard me and stopped, watching as Ryder moved to stand in front of me and lift my face up to his. “I can’t. I can’t go in there.”

  “It’s alright. I know you’re scared, but where we need to go in just in there. Our new home,” he reassured me as he jerked his head back to the trees.

  “We also have a car just inside to take us the rest of the way, if that helps,” Ajax said as they all watched my anxiety peak with wide eyes.

  And then the ground shifted underneath our feet, my power coming to the surface as I tried to hold onto my sanity. Ryder’s eyes penetrated mine, one hand on the nape of my neck so I couldn’t look away and the other clutching my own hand. No one else knew what to do but him. So, I let myself fall into his gaze and mirror what he had told me to do the first time this happened. One deep breath in, hold, then push it back out slowly. My heart slowed, and I closed my eyes, focusing on my breathing until the slight rumble beneath our feet subsided.

  He smiled, the light of it reaching those beautiful green orbs, and said, “That’s my girl.”

  I laughed in response to the words and looked at those around us. This was a disp
lay all of them had seen before. All but Jameson. While the rest of them only watched with concern, Jameson looked on in fear, his eyes wide and body tense. Seeing him react that way made me sad and even slightly ashamed of what I was as well as the fact I couldn’t control it once my emotions took over. I frowned as I watched him. Ryder turned his head and noticed Jameson’s posture as well, shaking his head in response to it.

  “She’s fine, J. She’s good.” He paused, licked his lips, and turned to the rest of them as he took my hand in his and squeezed. “Let’s go.”

  He glanced back at me, and I nodded, letting him know that I was alright. We moved into the tree line, low hanging wisps of branches tangling in my hair and caressing my face. The massive Humvees were located just inside the tree line, and we only had to walk about ten feet to get to them. They looked just like the ones we had previously used, but painted in a camouflage that made them nearly impossible to see amongst the green if I didn’t know what to look for. I took a deep breath and let it out as everyone split off into groups to drive the two vehicles to headquarters, causing my anxiety to spike again. Another deep breath. The last time we split up, King took that opportune moment to attack. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I saw Julius out of the corner of my eye as he went in the other Humvee with Doctor Devi and Ajax. I nodded, and his muscles relaxed, his shoulders slumping as he got into the vehicle. His reaction made me wonder why he was tense, to begin with. Did he want my permission to ride there separately, or was the anxiety he bled concern for my well-being? I wasn’t certain, but it didn’t truly matter. I knew where he stood.

  Jameson drove while my mother sat in the passenger seat with Caius and Ryder on both sides, eyes looking forward as we moved through the forest. The drive was quiet besides the slapping plants and branched on the metal box. I watched as we walked through the woods and felt deep inside of me that we were close to our destination. My mother took tentative glances at me in the rearview mirror and only once did my eyes meet hers in the reflection, and I smiled weakly. Ryder’s hand was still firmly grasped in mine, and I couldn’t tell which of us was holding on tighter and tighter to the other anymore.