My heart feels like it starts beating again when I hear his breath and he slowly opens his eyes, groaning aloud as he tries to move.
‘Whoa, easy,’ I say to him. ‘Are you okay?’
He continues to ease himself up. ‘Elle?’ He looks dazed and his eyelids slowly blink open and closed as he struggles to remain conscious.
As I help him up, I feel the earth shudder beneath our feet. I look up to see the huge recruiter bounding towards us. I try to move, but Sebastian rests too heavily on my shoulders. The hulking recruiter bears down on us and I close my eyes, desperately willing us to teleport clear. I already know neither Sebastian nor I have the strength for it though.
A familiar coldness chills my skin and my stomach clenches as I feel myself teleporting. There’s no surge of talent thrumming through my body though, and I can tell it’s not me that’s making it happen.
I open my eyes to find myself staring back at the spot where we had just stood, right by the edge of the vast abyss. The space is vacant now, and I watch on in horror as the recruiter, who had been charging towards us, wraps his arms around the thin air where we cowered half a breath ago. He loses his balance and stumbles forward, falling off the edge and plunging into the depths of the hole.
‘Elle, are you okay?’ a voice sounds in my ear. I jump with surprise and look to my right to find Ryan standing next to me. His hand grips onto my arm, and he slowly drops it from his grasp.
‘Ryan? You…you saved us!’ I exclaim. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘We should be asking you the same thing,’ says another voice from behind me. I turn to see April has come to stand next to Sebastian.
‘April?’ I ask. ‘I thought you were staying at the station.’
‘No. We were following you guys to make sure you made it safely out of Hope,’ she replies.
‘But, how did you know—’ A loud boom echoes behind me, and the ground shudders beneath my feet. I glance over my shoulder to see a large plume of smoke wafting up from a burning car twenty feet from where we stand.
‘I’ll look after Seb; you two go help the others,’ she shouts at Ryan and me.
Stunned, I instinctively follow her instructions and run towards the burning car. Lara is coughing as she makes her way through the haze towards us, supporting Aiden who staggers along next to her. I run over to help him, passing the red-haired recruiter who lies motionless on the ground.
‘What happened?’ I ask, as I sling Aiden’s arm over my shoulder.
‘The redhead threw a fireball that accidentally hit the car. There must have been petrol in the tank because it exploded. I think she got caught in the blast,’ Lara replies, nodding at the woman’s body lying stilly on the ground.
Dalton is on the ground near to her, slowly clambering to his feet. I can’t see Luke, Soren or Hunter, but as the smoke begins to clear they appear in the distance, slowly walking back towards us.
Any recruiters that were left have run off, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe. They’ll be back with others before we know it. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.
The group looks a little battered as we gather together, but no one appears to be injured. Sebastian is slightly unsteady on his feet, but at least he’s standing on his own. He steps towards me and drapes his arm around my shoulders. ‘Fancy meeting you here,’ he slurs, with a smile.
‘Let’s go,’ Dalton bellows. ‘More recruiters will be coming.’
‘You’re right,’ adds April. ‘Ryan and I will carry on to the helicopter with you in case there’s another ambush.’
‘What about her?’ Luke says, spitting the word out as he glares at me. I can almost hear my heart pounding as Luke stares me down, with so much hatred clear in his eyes.
Dalton barely gives me a second look. ‘We’ll deal with her later. Let’s move.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
As we set off I let a deep breath out in relief. They haven’t sent me back and I still have a chance to get to the ARC. I turn to check on Sebastian.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask him.
He nods. ‘I’ll be fine. I should have known you’d find a way to get to the ARC with us. I had no idea you were here.’
I look over at Hunter who is just ahead with Aiden, the two of them striding after Dalton. I still can’t quite believe he was so willing to help me when I’ve only been horrible to him.
I turn back to Sebastian. ‘It’s not just that I want to go, it’s important that I’m there. I know M doesn’t think I’ve got enough control to be part of the team, but I honestly think I can help. This is our ARC we’re going to and if anyone can help us on a mission there, it’s me. I should be there and if M could only trust me, he’d see that.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Sebastian says, before he suddenly starts to grin. ‘And it looked like you had pretty good control over your talents back there.
He’s right, I did, if only for a few moments. It felt different this time. Usually when I’m under pressure my talents overwhelm me and burst out without warning, or don’t materialise at all. Today it felt like the energy inside me was ready and waiting to be called upon. Even now, as we run through the streets of Hope, I can feel my talent throbbing within me. It thuds in time with my heartbeat and flows through my body, just below the surface of my skin.
‘April must be fuming,’ says Sebastian, breaking into my thoughts.
‘I don’t want to think about that,’ I say, groaning inside. I knew I’d be in trouble if I was discovered by the group, but now that April is here I’m certain she’ll try and take me back with her to the station. April and Ryan are walking quickly ahead of us and they look to be deep in conversation.
‘Come on Sebastian, we’re falling behind.’
Dalton sets a fast pace and looks to be attempting to make up for the time we lost fighting the recruiters. I feel exhausted from using my talents before and it’s difficult to keep up with the group, but I don’t let out a word of complaint. I’m not the only one struggling. Both Sebastian and Aiden have been slower since the fight and I’m not sure they can maintain Dalton’s fast pace for too much longer. As if reading my mind, Dalton slows to a halt as he turns into the shadows of a narrow back alley.
‘We’ll rest here for a few minutes,’ he says. ‘But we can’t stop for long if we want to reach the edge of the city in time.’
I face Sebastian to see how he’s feeling after his fall. The cut on his forehead looks bad, so I guide him over to Aiden who hangs back from the others with Hunter. There’s still so much sadness in Aiden’s eyes. I hate to ask anything of him but Sebastian’s cut isn’t good. His gaze warms a little when he sees me approach.
‘Sebastian’s got a bad cut to his face, do you think he needs stitches?’ I ask.
Aiden takes a large gulp of water from his bottle before pouring some of the liquid onto Sebastian’s forehead to clean out the wound. With the blood washed away, I can see the cut clearly slashes through his eyebrow.
‘There’s a lot of blood, but the wound isn’t deep,’ Aiden replies. ‘Still, you might have a bit of a scar.’ He pulls his backpack off and searches around in it for some antiseptic.
As I watch Aiden tend to Sebastian, April appears by my side. ‘Do you want to explain what you’re doing here,’ she asks, glaring at me with her arms firmly folded across her chest.
‘I’m sorry April, but I had to,’ I protest. ‘I need to go back to the ARC. I know I can be helpful.’
‘He thinks so too,’ she says, nodding at Ryan who stands talking to Hunter.
‘What do you mean?’
‘We both tried to convince M to let you go on the mission. When he refused, Ryan insisted that we follow the group to make sure they made it safely to the edge of Hope. It’s like he knew you would be stupid enough to sneak onto the mission,’ she says, rolling her eyes.
‘So you’re not sending me back?’
‘I couldn’t even if I wanted to, could I?’ she says, with a smile.
Dalton’s booming voice confirms it’s time to move on, and we continue our push to the edge of the city. It doesn’t take us long until we reach the marshland that marks the border.
We trek through the marsh, without slowing. There’s no rusty fence and no airbase where we’re headed, only an endless field of reeds softly blowing in the wind. I had expected to see the airstrip that our camp used to be situated by out here. I got so turned around in the South Hope ruins though, it’s not exactly a surprise I’m disoriented.
The ground is sludgy beneath my feet and my shoes are quick to become coated in mud. ‘Do you know how much further we’re going?’ I turn and ask Hunter, who trudges close behind me.
He looks up at Dalton, focusing on him for a moment, before settling his gaze back on me. ‘Well, we’re going to the edge of The Sphere,’ he says, lowering his voice. ‘So it could be a while yet.’
I look up at the sky to see if I can see the slight shimmer of The Sphere overhead. I’ve only caught sight of it a handful of times before, mostly when I was at our old camp. The sky overhead is covered with dark clouds though. There’s no flicker of it visible today.
‘We have to get as close as we can so that the helicopter isn’t seen,’ Hunter continues.
I know we are finally reaching the edge of the marsh when the ground becomes firmer beneath our feet. We no longer wade through mud and sludge, and instead we are able to walk with ease.
I almost stop in my tracks when I see the large helicopter looming up ahead. It is not the helicopter that surprises me though, rather the ice and snow I can see built up in the distance beyond. It’s like a wall that extends along the horizon, as far as the eye can see. There’s a slight shimmer to the air in front of the wall. It shoots up into the sky above between Hope and the impacted wastes beyond—The Sphere.
Looking at the phenomenon, I feel like we’ve been living in an inverted snow globe—us within the globe and the snow surrounding the outside, clinging to the mysterious transparent barrier that keeps the freezing wasteland at bay.
‘It’s not all like this,’ Hunter says, coming to stand beside me.
I turn to him and raise one eyebrow, questioning his comment.
‘The world outside Hope,’ he explains. ‘It’s not all snow and ice. Some sections are worse than others, but it’s almost like there are pockets that aren’t affected as badly. It’s been long enough now that the impact winter is losing its grip. Within our lifetime I reckon we’ll see it recede almost completely.’
‘You really think that?’ I ask.
He nods. ‘My father has a team of experts who analyse almost everything there is to know about the world we find ourselves in. They think it will happen.’
I close my eyes and try to imagine a world that isn’t covered in heavy clouds and thick layers of ice. I think I would have struggled to really imagine it while still living in the ARC. But after living in Hope these last months, I know how amazing it would be.
The helicopter we approach is massive; much larger than the one I came to Hope in. As the door to the helicopter opens, an older man jumps out to greet us and I find a grin forming on my lips when I see him. It’s Gord, the man who had brought me to Hope City in the first place. He’d been kind to me during our journey and I hadn’t wanted to say goodbye when I’d arrived at the Reintegration Centre.
‘Cutting it fine,’ he says to Dalton, as we approach. ‘I was about to leave without you.’
‘Well, we made it,’ Dalton says. ‘And we need to leave right now.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Gord grins. His gaze moves past Dalton to the rest of us. ‘Quite a bunch you have here for me. You said seven didn’t you?’
‘It’s eight actually,’ says April. ‘Elle is joining you.’
‘You’re letting her come?’ Luke asks, his anger making his words louder than I think he intended.
‘Yes, she’s going,’ April responds. ‘If you have a problem with it, you’re welcome to come back with me and explain to M why you didn’t want to go.’
That seems to shut Luke up and I struggle to hide a smile that sneaks onto my face. When he turns to me and sees me smiling, Luke’s anger only seems to get worse. I quickly avert my eyes, not wanting to watch him seething at me.
Gord steps back and opens one of the doors, waving for us to get inside, and everyone begins to clamber into the helicopter. Before I follow them I turn and walk towards Ryan who stands watching with April.
‘How did you know I would be here?’ I ask bluntly, not really expecting a straight answer. He looks to April before turning back to me, his brown eyes glowing under the dark clouds as they lock onto mine.
‘You know you need to be there,’ he says. ‘And I knew you wouldn’t let anything stop you from going back to the ARC. You’re stronger than anyone understands Elle. You showed that today, and they’ll need your help down there.’
For once I feel like he’s making sense. A part of me has felt drawn to the ARC ever since I heard about the cure, and I’m grateful that Ryan understands.
‘Thank you,’ I say softly. ‘For saving us back there.’
‘I couldn’t exactly let you and Sebastian get crushed by that recruiter could I,’ he says, winking at me.
‘You better get going, before I change my mind,’ April says. I rush forward and smother her in a hug.
‘I won’t let you down.’
As I approach the helicopter, Gord gives me a smile and reaches out a hand to help me up into the back.
‘Glad to see you again,’ he says. ‘I should have known you’d end up with this lot.’
I smile. ‘How long have you been helping The Movement?’
‘Too long kid,’ he says. ‘M got to me early. I didn’t take much convincing when I heard what was happening to some of the kids I was transporting. I’ve been helping whenever I can.’
I feel excited and tense all at once as I take my seat next to Sebastian, pull the strap across my chest and buckle it in. A mixture of emotions war within me as I consider our return and as realisation dawns that I’m actually going back. So much rests on this mission and yet all I can think about is potentially seeing Quinn again.
Sebastian will be excited to have the chance to see his dad and I’m sure Aiden will want to see his grandfather. Who knows what will happen when we get down there though. Our mission is too important to risk failure by seeking them out.
I sneak a glance at Aiden, who sits on the other side of me. No emotions grace his features and he stares out the window, his thoughts a million miles from this helicopter.
When Gord straps himself in, I smile and grip the sides of my own seat tightly. I’d been so nervous about where I was going the last time I was in a helicopter, I can barely remember what it had been like. I actually feel excited this time.
As the helicopter lifts off the ground and takes off into the air, Aiden lets out a long breath.
‘You okay?’ I ask.
He nods, but he seems a little paler and there’s a light sheen across his brow. ‘I’m just not great with flying,’ he responds.
‘Really?’ I tilt my head as I watch him, not quite able to understand. We’ve lived our whole lives underground and I can think of nothing better than being so high up in the air. I feel like I’m a bird when I’m up here. There’s nothing to be nervous about.
‘You know how you hate small spaces?’ Sebastian murmurs to me.
I turn to him. ‘Yeah…’
‘Maybe that’s what it’s like for him.’
I feel a sudden wave of sympathy for Aiden. Hopefully the flight will be over quickly and he doesn’t have to be scared for too long.
There’s an immediate difference in the air around us when we pass through The Sphere between Hope and the outside world. It had just been starting to lightly drizzle in Hope but, out in the impact winter, snow falls heavily against the helicopter windows. The blizzard is so thick it’s difficult to see anything at all.
The he
licopter shakes as it is tossed back and forth between the clouds. The sensation causes my stomach to drop, and when I turn to look at Aiden his eyes are scrunched up tightly and he looks like he’s about to pass out.
I reach out and take his hand in mine, clasping it tightly. He grips mine tightly in return. It’s almost painful how firmly he grabs onto me, but I don’t mind. I understand how much he’s struggling with this.
I look around the helicopter and catch Lara’s gaze. She is sitting against the wall directly opposite me and eyeing Aiden like he’s the devil. His emotions must be affecting her pretty badly. He’s not the only one freaking out as we are tossed around in the storm, but he’s by far the worst.
‘Can you do anything?’ I mouth, nodding at Aiden.
Her eyes look to him and she slowly nods. Within moments, his grip on my hand loosens and he appears calmer, almost like he could drift off to sleep.
I smile at Lara. ‘Thanks.’
She waves her hand like it was no problem and then slouches down in her seat, focusing intently on the ceiling.
The journey back to the ARC is longer and far rougher than I remember. Every time the helicopter jolts Aiden grips my hand tightly. Even with Lara’s influence over his emotions, he’s still struggling with the flight. I spend most of the trip silent as I reflect on how much has happened since I left the ARC and wondering whether things will have changed much there.
I’ve become a completely different person in the months since I left. Would Quinn even recognise me anymore? Will she be able to understand everything I’ve been through? To see past the monster they turned me into in that hospital?
As the clouds become even darker and night starts to surround us, we gradually begin to descend. Bright white light suddenly erupts around the helicopter, beaming up to us from the ground below as the roof to the ARC hangar recedes. It’s almost blinding after being in the near dark of the snowstorm for hours.
I feel a thrill rush through me as the helicopter nears the entrance. My body hums with nervous tension and excitement. ‘We’re here,’ my blood seems to sing. We’re finally back where it all began. We’ve come home to the ARC.
Destined (The ARC Book 4) Page 16