Hundred Stolen Breaths

by Campbell, Jamie

  Unfortunately, Autumn was right. The tunnel hadn’t been a straight line, it had woven and weaved through the underground until we could have been anywhere at all. A compass would have come in handy.

  “Can we please go now?” a girl whined. “I just want to get there so I can stop walking and rest.”

  Didn’t we all.

  If only we knew where there was.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter which one we choose,” Autumn whispered in my ear. “We don’t know where either of them lead. We may as well toss a coin.”

  She was right.

  Either we were going to land somewhere safe or we weren’t. We didn’t know better one way or the other.

  “You don’t know where we are, do you?” a man called out, disbelief shading his words and turning them into an ugly accusation. “They’ve got us lost!”

  His indictment was enough to get all the others excited. They all started talking at once, throwing allegations at us like spears. At least they were all agreeing on something – we sucked.

  I waved my hands around, trying to settle them down and hold their attention for longer than a few fleeting seconds. It was like trying to corral a bunch of wild and angry turkeys. None of them wanted to listen to a word we’d said.

  We’d lost them and their confidence in us.

  With good reason, I supposed.

  “Can everyone please calm down?” I asked. It was a futile attempt and it got me absolutely nowhere. They continued to throw horrible words our way, raising their fists and stomping their tired feet.

  “We’re lost!” some screamed.

  “Not just lost, we’re as good as dead.”

  “The troopers are going to find us and slaughter us all. This is ridiculous. I’d rather have died hours ago before making this hideous walk.”

  “You tricked us!”

  “They’ve never had a clue, we’re all doomed.”

  Hearing them speak such unkind words about me pushed my memories back to the village. They forced me to remember all those times the other Defective Clones had told me to leave and never come back because I was a dangerous creature.

  They made it seem like the world was so cruel just because I was in it. That I would never be able to do anything right purely because of what I was. That all the badness came from me and me alone.

  So many nights I’d cried in the hut I shared with Rocky. He would hold me against his chest and stroke my hair, telling me that they were wrong. I always wanted to believe his kind lies but I didn’t. If so many people all agreed on the same thing, surely that meant it was true?

  I didn’t want to have those memories come flooding back to me. I wanted to keep them hidden in the dark recesses of my brain and locked up with no key. I thought that was possible, but having the flashbacks now proved it wasn’t.

  The insults whirled around me until I couldn’t distinguish between individual voices, people, or words. They were all a loud din while my heart thundered in my ears. My pulse raced, angry at the world for giving us a fork in the tunnel.

  I’d learned a long time ago that life was never meant to be easy. I’d learned that if something was going to go wrong, then it would happen to me. Yet even having seen these principles repeated over and over again throughout my eighteen years, I still hoped that maybe things would change.

  That damn fork proved otherwise.

  I would always have the worst case scenario and I would always have to deal with it. That was a part of living, a part of the life I was living.

  And I wanted to continue living it.

  There had to be a way to work out which tunnel we needed to travel down. All I needed to do was block out the others and concentrate. The moment panic set in, my mind fuzzed and became muddled.

  I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, letting the oxygen fill my lungs and feed my brain. It would have been easier if the air wasn’t so ripe with the foul stench.

  But it did smell and the floor had been covered in dirty water at some stage. It sparked an idea, tugging at the edge of my thoughts until it could form a real notion. I backed away from the angry people and took a few steps into one of the tunnels.

  The floor was covered in the same dirt, a brown mess that would turn into mud quickly when it came into contact with water again. If we were walking through that mess, our progress would be as slow as a tired turtle.

  I hurried over to the other tunnel, crouching down low and inspecting the floor. A few people asked me what I was doing but I ignored them. I needed to follow this thought all the way through before it flittered away again.

  The concrete floor of this tunnel was dry and clean. There were no traces of caked mud, only the rough concrete as it stretched into the distance for as far as my flashlight could shine.

  I knew which tunnel was the right one.

  Standing up straight again, I returned to the mob – now angrier than ever – and clapped my hands. I didn’t stop until they weren’t yelling at me anymore.

  “We need to go down the tunnel on the right. That is the correct one,” I called out, making sure even those in the back could hear me clearly.

  “Oh, so you’re so sure now?”

  “She’s guessing.”

  “I’m not walking another step until I know for sure.”

  They started yelling out questions and comments until they were just a din again. We didn’t have time for that. I knew for certain which tunnel would lead us out of the underground and wanted to keep going so there was no chance the troopers would catch up with us.

  I started walking.

  If they didn’t follow, then it was their problem. I was going to find the exit of the tunnels and they could all come if they wanted to. Otherwise, they could choose the other tunnel and be led further down into the depths of the earth.

  Maybe I’d see them on the flipside.

  Maybe I wouldn’t.

  But either way, I was going down that tunnel and I was going to survive. I would wait at the end by myself if that’s what it came down to. Maybe Reece would catch up to me eventually so we could survive together.

  The sounds of complaint I’d left behind started to settle down and quieted. Maybe they’d all run out of things to say, or breaths to say them. The peacefulness of my footsteps was welcome as they echoed off the walls. The only other sound was my ragged breathing as I fought to catch my breath again.

  Other footsteps joined mine.

  I looked over my shoulder, squinting to see who was stupid enough to follow me.

  Sunny.

  She was holding Twig with her good arm, he was sound asleep against her chest. He would never know how proud I was that his adoptive-mother had chosen to follow me into the unknown.

  “Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” I asked as she reached me, Sunny’s stride falling in to match mine.

  “Sure as anything in this world,” she replied, a smile making her face shine in the light of the torch. “You’re a smart girl, child. I trust you.”

  Soon, more and more people joined us and we fell into the same formation as we had spent the last couple of hours walking in. Those with the strongest flashlights moved to the front, leading the way for the rest of us.

  I trailed until I was at the back, making sure nobody fell behind. It looked like everyone had chosen to follow me, trusting in my belief like nobody had done before.

  Autumn joined me and now it felt familiar, like we’d always been walking down this tunnel together. “Are you really sure about this?” she asked.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “How? I didn’t see you flip a coin.”

  “This tunnel has signs of water and the other doesn’t. Water flows downwards which means there has to be an opening in this tunnel somewhere. An opening that lets in water means we will be able to get out,” I explained.

  “Maybe this tunnel flows downwards and the water went the opposite way?”

  I shook my head, dismissing the idea instantly. “If the water
flowed the other way, it would have gone down both tunnels in the fork. They branched off in the middle, it would be impossible for water not to flow down the other one too.”

  Autumn bumped me with her shoulder. “You’re a genius. I’m glad I’m on your team.”

  Her white teeth gleamed in the darkness. Nobody had ever called me a genius before. The tiny little sultana that was my ego, swelled just slightly.

  We continued walking and I hoped her faith wasn’t misplaced.

  Chapter 19: Reece

  Boom.

  The explosion made everything shake, I felt it right down to my bones. They reverberated underneath my skin, quivering with the power of the impact.

  “What are they doing?” George asked, trying to grab my binoculars from me. I held on to them tightly, refusing to relinquish them to the guy who was more than happy to blow up the entire lab if given the chance.

  Through the eyes of the binoculars, the scene was slightly hazy. The explosion had even affected the holographic images, making them fuzzy when they should have been crystal clear. I hoped that didn’t mean there was some toxic smoke out there. Who knew what else they were working on in the privacy of the labs?

  Clones might have only been the beginning.

  Throwing that thought aside, I adjusted the lens which helped to focus a little better. There was smoke billowing from the side of Laboratory Foxtrot. As predicted, roughly half the guards had taken off toward the explosion. The remaining ones stood on high alert. Their guns were no longer cradled in their arms or haphazardly leaning against their legs. The guns were pointed high, ready to be fired.

  “They’re doing exactly what I said they would,” I replied, placating George somewhat as he risked a peek over the edge. He squinted to make out what was going on in the labs.

  A corner of the building was no longer there. The bricks, steel, and concrete were lying on the ground or thrust into the remaining structure by the force of the blow. The explosion had been so loud I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in Aria had heard it.

  Boom.

  The second explosion rang out, just as powerful and noisy as the first one had been. The guards all looked at one another, confused now. The bigwigs who had written the protocol might have been smart, but they didn’t have a run sheet for more than one explosion in a short period of time.

  There was no protocol anymore.

  The guards were on their own.

  I watched the panic cross their faces, their shoulders shrug, and their mouths curve downwards. They were talking amongst themselves but we were too far away to hear them.

  They would be discussing what they should do, what actions they should take that would ensure they didn’t get in trouble with their superiors later on. Actually protecting the labs would only be their second consideration.

  Staying out of trouble was always priority number one.

  Everything else came second.

  My concern was not for them, it was for everyone within the crumbled and broken lab walls. Suffering was not warranted for anyone, even if they were our enemies.

  But not everyone in the labs were our enemies. I said a silent prayer for the clones, the cleaning staff, everyone who was an innocent victim and caught up in the horrible revolution. I hoped there wouldn’t be any victims, but I wasn’t foolhardy enough to truly believe that.

  It wouldn’t be long before we needed to get moving. The moment the remaining guards decided they should get their butts over to the secondary explosion, we needed to make our move. My guess was that their superiors would send them back to the perimeter fences once their realized they were left unguarded. That would give us only a small window of opportunity to get inside and find the clones.

  Getting out would be an issue we would deal with later. We couldn’t think too far ahead, there wasn’t enough time. I hoped I would be smarter then, able to come up with something that wouldn’t get us all killed.

  Boom.

  Boom.

  Boom.

  My head shot up at the quick series of explosions. Pieces of the building were flying off in all different directions. Bricks and debris rained down from the sky like hell was breaking apart and falling to earth.

  The smoke was so thick it was gathering in my throat and making it difficult to breathe. My lungs burned, trying to cough out the acrid black smoke that may as well have been tar coating my mouth.

  “There were only supposed to be two bombs, what happened?” I managed to choke out the question, I didn’t recognize my voice as my own.

  George’s eyes were wide open as he stared at me. His jaw flapped open and closed a few times before he could come up with the words he needed to speak out loud. “I don’t know.”

  Fat lot of good that did me.

  Shit.

  The building was a mess, riddled with holes large enough to drive a trooper truck through. All the guards had disbursed now, either running for their lives or trying to find a reason for the explosions.

  People were screaming somewhere, their voices carrying through to me on the wind. They were the sounds of the innocent, those that hadn’t been prepared to die today.

  I pushed up to my feet to stand. “We have to go now, while the guards are distracted. We have to save them quickly or there won’t be anyone left.”

  “Are you kidding?” George asked. “The whole place is about to fall to the ground. We need to get out of here. It’s a lost cause.”

  “We did this to them, we can’t run away like cowards. The mission is still on,” I shot back, looking toward Joseph for some backup. Surely they couldn’t listen to George and run back to the bunker to hide? That wasn’t part of the plan, it wasn’t even an option.

  “It was an accident, the explosions must have caused more of the C-4 to detonate. We can’t hang around for more guards and troopers to arrive, we’ll all get caught,” George said, his voice straining against the smoke and panic. “There still might be live fuses in there, the whole place could go off.”

  “That is exactly why we need to move in quickly. We’ll be out before the reinforcements arrive. We can’t leave the clones when they need us the most. Joseph?” I looked at the old man who was supposed to be our leader and silently pleaded with him to agree with me.

  Joseph stood with his hands in his pockets, like we were hanging out at some disco instead of dealing with life or death issues. I should have admired his calm in the face of an epic disaster but couldn’t summon any good feelings for him right at that moment.

  “It’s too dangerous to go in,” he finally said. At least he had the sense to look grim while he delivered the news.

  “No!” The word raged from my lips before I considered keeping it inside. There was no point stopping my tirade now. “We have no choice except to get down there and rescue the innocent clones like we said we would. I am not a coward and I am not going to walk away from this serious stuff up. Is anyone with me?”

  I looked around at the team of Resistance members still half-crouching on the ground of the ditch. I stared each of them down, daring them to decide on the coward’s way out of the situation. Anyone who scurried away now would lose all my respect. Not that they’d care, but it mattered to me.

  The brave had honor.

  The weak did not.

  Nobody moved. Some averted their gazes so they didn’t have to meet my eyes. Those were the ones that had already made their decision. They were the ones I didn’t have time for.

  “I’m going in,” I said, pointedly dragging my gaze back to Joseph. “With or without any of you.”

  The time for standing around had long since expired. I picked up my feet and climbed out of the ditch.

  Then…

  I ran.

  Down the slope of the bank until I hit the first fence of the compound. It sounded quiet, there was no constant buzzing of electricity.

  With a tentative finger, I touched the metal. I didn’t die of electrocution so I jumped onto it and scrambled to get over. The sou
nd of my feet thudding onto the ground was satisfying. One down, only another two to go.

  I took the fences as I reached them, climbing over the metal without being noticed by anyone on the grounds. With any luck, the cameras were brought down in the explosions. The fences didn’t have any electricity, hopefully the cameras were out too. Failing that, I hoped the guards were two distracted to be monitoring them.

  After the last fence, I didn’t stop as I ran for the building. The remaining structure was still groaning as it tried to stay together. There was more gone than there was left, everything crumbled on the ground like it had been blown apart by a giant-sized wrecking ball.

  The front entry door didn’t exist anymore, just a gaping hole where it used to be. I ducked under a smoking crossbeam to enter the labs.

  And stumbled across the body.

  My foot caught in his ribs as I went flying over the guard’s lifeless corpse. I didn’t need to check for a pulse, he was missing half his head while his eyes stared open vacantly.

  I had to fight the urge to vomit. It wasn’t the first dead person I’d ever seen, there had been plenty more before it. This one, though, was the first one I had had a hand in killing. The consequences of going along with the explosives plan were lying on the floor, his blood scuffing my boot.

  I said a prayer for the man and his family before hurrying down what was left of the corridor. There was no point in dwelling, I’d process everything later. Now, there was still a chance the clones were alive and I was going to find them before my time ran out.

  The further I went into the building, the less damage was so immediately apparent. Large cracks laced the walls in intricate patterns but it was a false sense of security. The whole place was rigged with dynamite that could explode at any second. One wrong step could help ignite it.

  I thought for sure I heard faint footsteps behind me but when I turned around there was nobody there. My mind was playing tricks on me now. Right when I needed it to be alert and focused.

  Great.

  The place was a mess and a warren akin to a maze. It was far bigger than Laboratory Delta where Wren and I had broken into the place. Everything was in wings there, easy to navigate as long as you could remember where you’d already been.