He looks intensely into my eyes and nods, slowly releasing his hands from my waist. I face the room and take a deep breath before blowing it out and launching into action.
‘Stay here,’ Sebastian shouts to Aiden, as he and Lara follow me in, hot at my heels.
The Atrium is chaos, with stray fireballs flying through the air and bolts of electricity dancing across the ground. Recruiters are using their talents recklessly as they battle to maintain control. Not all men dressed in official white are fighting though. Many of them stand still in shock, their mouths open and their eyes wide as they cower away from the fighting. Some have even joined the citizens in grey who are shrinking back against the wall by the North Wing entrance.
A fireball hurtles directly at my head and I dive forward. Lara and Sebastian throw themselves to the ground behind me, and I hear Lara gasp as she hits the floor. I glance over my shoulder. ‘Are you okay?’ I ask her.
She tries to clamber back to her feet but hisses in through her teeth again as she does so. ‘It’s my ankle.’
‘Here,’ Sebastian says, moving over to help her up. He slings her arm over his shoulder and wraps his arm around her waist to support her. He glances up at me. ‘You keep going Elle. Help the others with the recruiters. We’ll protect the citizens.’
I nod and push myself to my feet as the two of them vanish into thin air, reappearing in front of the people who cower over by the wall. Another stray fireball launches at me and I bolt forwards, continuing to run towards the battle.
I’ve almost reached Hunter when I begin to cough and I struggle to draw in a breath. I go to breathe in again, but no air enters my mouth. I drop to my knees, choking as I try to breathe, but no matter how hard I gasp, I’m suffocating. My eyes are wild as I look around the room for the culprit.
A recruiter in official white stands ten feet from here, his eyes narrowed in on me. The edges of my vision are blackening and my head feels dizzy, but I focus on the pulsing talent beneath my skin. I urge the energy down into my fingertips, creating a huge block of ice in my hand.
I can feel myself slowly fading but with one last push of energy I hurl the jagged block of ice at the man, propelling it across the room with a powerful thrust of wind. It rockets through the air, slamming against the recruiter’s head. He sways on his feet and drops to the floor, unconscious.
As his body slaps against the ground, I gulp in a fresh breath of air. I look down at my shaking hands and brace myself as I gasp in and out. I slowly push myself to my feet again, feeling weak and light-headed.
There are only a few recruiters still fighting, and many men in white uniforms lie still on the ground.
My eyes land on Dalton’s large figure as I survey the room. He’s crumpled in a heap at one of the recruiter’s feet. There’s no rise and fall to his chest and there’s blood, too much blood, pooling at his head.
Anger slowly builds in me, and I can feel my talent growing stronger as I glare at the man. It agitates within me, buzzing along my skin and rippling through my veins. Fire begins to envelop my fists and wind stirs around me, tugging at my hair. The man over Dalton looks up and gives me a sickening smile.
Hatred throbs through me as I stare him down and pain radiates from my chest. I hurl the fire burning around my fists towards him and the column of flames shoots out at him in a dizzying spiral. He reacts quickly and dives out of the way, but I lash out at him again with the torrents of air I can feel dancing at my fingertips. The gust of wind hits him directly in the chest and throws him up into the air. He slams against the far wall and slowly slides down it, sagging when he hits the ground.
My talents still rile out of control across my skin, but right now I don’t care. There is electricity sparking along my arms and the air around me has become frosty cold, turning my breath into small puffs of steam.
I hear a shout behind me and I turn to see another recruiter bearing down on Lara with a whip of fire in her hands. I can still feel the air stirring at my fingertips, almost begging to be used. It whips up beneath my hand, gathering strength and speed as it spins into a swirling whirlwind. I release it from my grasp with one flick of my wrist, and it storms towards the woman and engulfs her. Her fiery whip is instantly extinguished as the raging wind spins her round and hurls her across the room. She lands hard against the solid floor, sliding before she comes to a stop.
The recruiters I’ve fought are littered around the room, unconscious or awkwardly stumbling to their feet. There are only a few others left fighting now, but as I turn on them they stop. Sparks crackle from my skin, engulfing me in searing light, and ice hisses around my feet, the ground stretching and cracking around me. I am a monster of pure, raw energy and they look at me with such panic in their eyes, I can almost feel their terror filled gazes rubbing against my skin.
‘Let’s get out of here!’ one of them bellows to the others, causing the group to retreat backwards. The recruiters who are left standing stumble in their urgency, as they scramble to get back to the Hospital Wing as quickly as their legs will take them, while one or two others desperately stagger to their feet and follow suit.
Soren and Luke won’t let them go that easily though, and the two of them launch after the men before any of us can stop them. They follow them from the Atrium and disappear into the corridors of the Hospital Wing.
The room falls silent and all eyes seem to turn on me as the sound of their slapping feet against the ground disappears into the distance. Sebastian comes towards me, while Lara staggers over to kneel by Dalton.
As I watching Lara rest her hand on Dalton’s shoulder I can feel my anger rekindle. It’s only when Sebastian gently touches my arm that I jerk back to my senses. My head clears of anger in a heartbeat and my talents fizz down to nothing.
‘Are you okay?’ he asks.
Several recruiters lie motionless amongst the debris littered across the floor. I’m not sure if all of them are dead or not. The ARC citizens are eyeing us with horror and the room has fallen so quiet that the terror in here is almost palpable. As I look around the damaged Atrium I feel far from okay.
Lara slowly stands and shakes her head as her eyes catch mine. Dalton is gone. I try to take a breath in, but my lungs feel shallow and I can’t seem to get the air all the way into my chest. I swallow the lump sitting uncomfortably in my throat and push down my grief with it. I had known it the moment I saw him resting there, but it hadn’t seemed real at the time. I clench my hands into fists, forcing myself to maintain control.
My gaze falls on Hunter who is bent over a barely conscious recruiter a few feet away. As if sensing my eyes on him, he straightens his back and faces me. He pushes up from the ground and takes cautious steps towards me.
‘I read his mind,’ he says, as he draws near. ‘Those recruiters were rounding up people who aren’t tainted for transport to Hope. My father wants more test subjects for his experiments. He must be getting desperate to find people who can adapt and absorb talents. People like you, Elle.’
‘But, I’m the only one his experiments have worked on, right?
‘Yes,’ he replies. ‘Which means that most of the people he’s taking from the ARC will die.’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The ARC citizens and remaining officials are huddling together against the wall. They each give us the same look of panic that they gave the recruiters. There is fear in their eyes, but not surprise. I can’t concentrate on them though, not after what Hunter’s just told me.
I look away from him, unable to meet his eyes. I thought Joseph was only bringing people who were already tainted or talented up from the ARC. He couldn’t care less if they live or die, as long as it gets him a step closer to his goals. Sebastian comes to stand in front of me and takes both of my arms in his grasp.
‘We won’t let them take anyone else,’ he swears. I nod, but I can’t stop thinking about the people we’re too late for. The ones he’s already taken to the surface for his experiments.
I’m dist
racted from my thoughts as I see a girl step from the group behind Sebastian. I recognise her immediately.
‘Gemma?’ I ask, pushing past Sebastian and taking several steps towards her. She shies back as though she’s scared I might hurt her.
‘Sebastian? Elle?’ she responds, her eyes wide with fear. ‘What’s happened to you?’
I glance down at my hands. A minute ago I’d been commanding the very air around us, it’s understandable that she’s scared.
‘You’re just like them,’ she says, quietly.
Sebastian approaches her, but she looks just as scared of him too.
‘Gem there are a lot of things going on here, and we can explain, but you have to trust us,’ he says. ‘We have talents like the men you saw us fighting before, but we’re here to help the people of the ARC. Those men pretending to be officials are here to take you in for experiments that could kill you. You can’t trust them.’
She hesitates, her uncertain gaze flickering between Sebastian and me. She opens her mouth to respond, but a deafening boom echoes through the Atrium and the ground shudders beneath our feet, throwing us forward.
My forearms smack hard against the ground and a moment later Sebastian is covering my body with his. Screams of terror fill the air and the ground quivers and shakes beneath us. I hear a cracking, crumbling noise and the loud crashing of debris hitting the ground; then a shattering noise of glass splintering and smashing around us as it hits the Atrium floor. The room feels like it’s collapsing and I keep my eyes clenched tightly shut until the rumbling quakes start to dissipate.
I slowly look up as Sebastian lifts his arms from over my head. Everyone in the Atrium is on the floor and some are slowly starting to stand. The room is darker than before and dust permeates the air. The ground near the Hospital Wing is covered in shards of glass from one of the walkways overhead that has collapsed.
‘Are you okay?’ Sebastian asks. I nod and scan him for any signs of injuries. Other than the dirt that covers his clothes and face, he seems to be fine.
‘What the hell was that?’ I ask, coughing to clear my throat.
He slowly points to the Hospital Wing and I turn to see thick dust pouring out of the completely black entrance way.
My face blanches. ‘Soren and Luke are in there!’ I shout. Sebastian grabs my waist before I can even think of running to the wing to see if they’re okay.
‘You can’t go in there Elle. We don’t know what’s happened,’ he says,
‘But, they might need our help!’
Hunter clambers to his feet and comes to stand at Sebastian’s side. ‘He’s right, Elle. We can’t risk going in there. There might have been a cave in. It could be unstable.’
‘But, what if one of them is hurt?’
The sound of coughing reaches my ear from deep inside the Hospital Wing, and I focus in on the entrance, willing for Luke and Soren to emerge. We’ve already lost one member of our team—I can’t bear to see anyone else get hurt.
The sound of coughing comes again, closer this time, and then two figures appear through the thick veil of dust that cloaks the entrance. I can’t make out their faces at first, but as the two men stagger out into the Atrium I let out a cry of relief.
Luke and Soren are coughing violently, trying to clear the dust from their throats, but then I notice their coughs aren’t alone. A moment later, the teens we’d seen in the hospital earlier appear in the entrance, leaning on one another and rubbing dirt from their eyes as they step into the Atrium.
The citizens in the Atrium rush over to assist the kids as they stumble out of the Hospital Wing, and as the dust slowly starts to settle I notice other inhabitants of the ARC cautiously approaching the Atrium from the North and West Wings.
I can’t wipe the beaming smile off my face as Luke and Soren walk up to us.
‘You’re both okay!’ I exclaim.
Luke frowns. ‘Don’t tell me you actually care what happens to me,’ he says, before giving me a small smile. ‘Thanks though, for helping me out back there,’ he adds, nodding his head. I smile and nod back. In that one moment, it’s as though he’s called a truce with me.
‘What happened in there?’ Lara asks Soren, who is still coughing to clear his throat.
‘The recruiters all retreated to the lift and took it up to the hangar. They set off some sort of explosion at the top so we couldn’t come after them. The lift has been destroyed.’ he says.
‘What about Gord?’ I ask. They’ll be going right for him and without Gord there’s no way for us to get back to Hope. That’s if we can even get to the hangar now the elevator is gone.’
Without a word of response, Soren puts in a comm to Gord. It seems like an eternity before he finally answers.
‘Gord, what’s going on up there?’ says Soren.
‘I’m fine, thanks for asking,’ Gord replies. ‘I’m assuming you heard the explosion.’
‘Yes. Is the helicopter okay? Did the recruiters see you?
‘I managed to keep my head down and the helicopter is fine. They took off in a different one. We’re still good to go whenever you find a way to get back up here!’
‘We’ll find a way. We still need to get our volunteers, but we’ll let you know when we’re ready for you.’ Soren abruptly hangs up the call.
‘You think those men are gone?’ Gemma asks nervously, slowly approaching us.
‘The recruiters?’ I ask, getting a nod in response. ‘They seem to be.’
‘So, you’ll be going too then?’
I shake my head. ‘Not quite yet. We actually came to talk with the council about something.’
She purses her lips. ‘There hasn’t been much of a council these last few days, but you may want to talk to Rosa.’
I lift an eyebrow at her.
‘Rosa was on the council,’ Gemma explains. ‘When your recruiters showed up and started taking so many people, everyone knew something was up, but the council did nothing to stop it. Rosa helped some of us hide and was planning to stand up against them. I guess you beat her to it.’
‘Can you take us to her?’ I ask, hopefully.
‘Yes,’ Gemma replies. I turn to look at the rest of the group who are all murmuring in agreement
‘I’ll catch up with you,’ Soren says, causing us to fall silent. ‘I need to make sure these people are okay and that there are no other recruiters who have been left behind.’
‘Are you sure?’ Sebastian asks.
Soren’s eyes fall on Dalton’s body on the ground. ‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ he says, roughly.
‘I’ll stay to help you.’ Luke steps forward to stand next to Soren. ‘I won’t be much help with the others.’
Soren nods at him seriously, before glancing at the rest of us. ‘Good luck,’ he says.
Sebastian, Aiden, Lara, Hunter and I follow Gemma across the Atrium and over towards the East Wing. I’m surprised she’s taking us there considering there are no residences in this area of the ARC. There’s the plantation down here and other manufacturing zones, but nowhere I can imagine hiding.
There is only silence down the wide corridors of the East Wing, and it feels oddly empty in here. The orderly world I once knew is completely gone, and I worry if anyone will be willing to volunteer for the cure. I worry we won’t be able to get out of here at all. Going back through the hospital to get to the hangar is definitely out of the question now.
Lara moves slowly, hobbling as she attempts to walk on her twisted ankle. Aiden puts her arm over his shoulder to help her, but even then our progress is still slow.
Gemma pauses when she reaches a door and looks over her shoulder at us before carefully easing it open. The corridor beyond the door is pitch black and silent. A layer of dust skims over the floor, with a few footsteps imprinted in the grime. She turns her cuff light on, beaming the light into the darkness.
‘This way,’ she says, walking through the doorway.
I step in after her, my skin crawling as I move into the darkne
ss. It suddenly makes sense; she’s brought us to the Old Wing. It was sectioned off years ago, after they closed the entrance to the ARC. It’s the perfect place to hide as no one ever comes through here. I’ve only been in here once before, and I haven’t been keen to return.
We follow her into the Old Wing, closing the door behind us. I’ve come a long way since I left the ARC, but being in such a small and dark space still makes me feel uncomfortable. We use our cuffs to light the way, but they do little to brighten the total darkness of the Old Wing.
‘This is where you’ve been hiding?’ Sebastian asks, moving to walk next to Gemma.
She nods. ‘We’ve been here for a few days, but I was caught today when I went out looking for supplies. If you guys hadn’t come along…’
I push down a shudder. Gemma could have become Joseph’s next lab rat. I look over at Aiden and Lara who walk beside me. ‘We have to stop him,’ I say to them.
‘And we will,’ Aiden says. His voice is filled with more passion than I’ve heard from him in a while. ‘With this cure he’ll never be able to harm another person. Not in this way, at least.’
I nod but don’t say another word to him. My mind is whirling with dark thoughts and spinning from the hatred I feel towards the one man who has caused us so much pain. I will stop him, no matter what it takes.
Gemma slows as we begin to hear the soft sound of voices nearby. She pauses by one of the doors that lead from the corridor. Her eyes dart in my direction before she focuses back on the door and turns the handle.
The dim room inside is cluttered with mattresses and people. It’s lit by a couple of lamps and deep shadows line the walls. The voices inside stop as Gemma steps into the room, and the rest of our group follows her in.
There must be twenty faces staring back at us. Many are people I know, but there’s only one face I’m desperate to see…
‘Quinn…’ I gasp.
I race forward, my feet flying beneath me, before Quinn has even had a chance to look up. Quinn’s eyes brighten when she sees me and I throw myself into her arms. She hugs me back just as tightly and I try to stop tears from welling in my eyes, but they’re nearly impossible to contain. She’s here.
Destined (The ARC Book 4) Page 19