My father took hold of her outstretched hand and placed it within my own as she stepped beside me. She smiled sweetly up at me and I returned it. Every girl dreamt of this day, right? Even though it was fake, she seemed excited. I had to play along. I didn’t want to ruin this for Marian or the resistance.
Besides, going through with the marriage would bring me one silent step closer to Abigail Kelley.
We were ordered to fill the square in front of the stage, to smile and cheer when the cameras panned across our faces, to appear joyful. Well, joy was certainly not the emotion rolling though me at that point. I was angry, sad, nervous and scared as hell about what I was about to do. Ky positioned us near the staircase that led to the stage. Even if the cameras wouldn’t stay trained on what I had to say, the village and everyone in it would hear my story tonight.
I watched my doppelganger sway down the aisle elegantly toward Crew, placed her dainty hand in his, and smiled up at him. That was when the first tear fell down my cheek. Ky wiped it away. It wasn’t long before the guards started to line the square, though most looked positively green at this point. Whatever was in the drinks was working its magic.
The woman marrying Crew was named Marian Teegan. The King asked her to recite an oath to Olympus, wherein she vowed to protect and honor her all the days of her life. Then, he asked that she pledge the same to Crew, as he would be her husband, her King and her future. She regally repeated the words after King Harrison Cole.
My stomach rolled. Kyan stroked my hair back and tucked me into his arm. One more moment of warmth. One more moment with someone I knew without a doubt loved me. In that short moment, it hit me. Kyan would never do to me what Crew was doing. He would never pledge his life and love to another if I loved him back. Crew didn’t love me. He never had. It was a hard lesson to learn; the difference between infatuation and real love.
Crew looked into Marian’s eyes. The cameras panned in on the couple. He poised himself to repeat after his father, but instead looked into the camera. “I am so happy to have found my forever. We will waste no time embarking on this journey together. Know that if we are ever separated, my heart will be with yours and yours with mine. I will always find you and always return for you. Thank you for accepting my hand. I shall hold your heart carefully within it for an eternity,” he looked back at his bride, “Marian.”
I flushed as I imagined him saying those beautifully romantic words to me. But it was Marian who beamed at him as if the sun itself shone from his face, not me. I imagined that I’d looked the same way when he’d showered me with pretty words and soft kisses. He’d just given her the forever he promised me.
As the King droned on about the new union, about hope for a better Olympus tomorrow, Gray stepped up beside me and nudged me. “Game time.”
I nodded and hugged Kyan one more time. The cameramen were gone, replaced by Councilman Stephens and Rileck. The cameras were at the ready. I climbed the steps quickly so that my legs didn’t collapse, like I felt they might do any second.
Murmurs traveled through the crowd. Most of the guards were clenching their stomachs, unable to respond to me quickly enough. Gray stood at the steps, his gun trained on anyone who might challenge me.
Stephens gave me a thumbs-up. My voice rang out from the night, startling even me for a split-second. “My name is Abigail Kelley. I’m a Lesser from Orchard Village. A train of Greaters showed up in our village about a month ago during our Harvest. But it wasn’t our fruit that they collected. They ripped all of the women of childbearing age from the village. King Harrison Cole had guards drag us away on trains and took us to Olympus where we were treated as prisoners, sub-human and without rights. Why did he do it? He’s been lying to you. He’s covering up the fact that the vaccines that they’ve given you, given your children, have made all Greater women infertile.”
“If your wife or daughter has had a recent doctor visit or procedure, or is scheduled for one, just know that she will be implanted with a Lesser egg. They’re trying to cover up what they’ve done by planting our eggs in your women. Your wombs will bear Lesser babies.”
The commotion had begun in earnest and rippled through the crowd toward the stage. Guards were making their way to the stage, pushing over anyone standing in their way. One stood ready, the blazing red of his laser light dancing on my chest. “We just want our women back! Stop taking everything from us. We work ourselves to death to provide goods for you! You should not take this from us. It’s not right! We’re human beings, too! We have feelings. We have rights! And you should know that there is a resistance. It’s coming for you! We will get them back!”
Something sliced through the air. Councilman Rileck dropped to the ground along with his camera. Blood quickly spread over his shirt as he gasped for air. Stephens threw his camera at a nearby guard and tried to jump from the stage. He was easily caught and dragged into the night, screaming for Paige to stay put.
Three guards approached Gray. He yelled, “She’s not to be harmed, on order from King Harrison Cole. She has the eggs the Greaters need. She’s the key to it all. She’s half Lesser, half Greater.”
My mouth gaped open. I couldn’t believe he just screamed that. The guards backed off. They looked at me as if I were a mutant. Ky motioned for me to jump off the stage and he caught me easily and sat my feet on the ground. We took off running. I turned to look back toward the stage. I wanted to motion for Gray to follow us. He had already surrendered his gun and the three guards were beating him. Soon, he was being dragged off the stage and into the night, too.
I stopped just past the square. “Stop!” I screamed. Kyan slowed and stopped. “You can’t go with me!”
“I am. Nothing you can do about it.” He panted, his breath white against the night sky.
“No, Ky! You promised!”
“I don’t care.”
“Well, I do! I’ve had enough people break their promises to me today. Please!”
The guards were running toward us. “Go!”
I pushed him into the woods and stood firmly, waiting for the sick guards to catch up with us.
They were sweating and grasping at their stomachs when they reached me. “Tie her hands!” One-stepped up to comply with his order and I offered them freely.
Ardis stepped up, a sneer on his face. “All this talk of resistance and you’re going without a fight?”
“I’ve said my peace.”
He snorted and grabbed my upper arm, dragging me into the black abyss. When we were past the park, I asked him, “Do you have a wife at home, Ardis?” He pinned me with a glare.
“She have any appointments lately? One scheduled soon? Just know she’ll be having my baby.”
“What did you say?”
“I’m not lying. They took my eggs. They’ve taken the eggs of the other Lesser women. They’re going to implant the Greater women with them.”
He jerked me forward again. I dug my feet into the earth. “Haven’t you ever wondered why no women were having children?”
He stopped abruptly and glanced over at me. “Yes. And I’m not the only one. But I never imagined this.”
The rest of our trek was spent in silence, my upper arm screaming from his tightened grip. I wanted to tell him that I knew the way to the old prison, most of us did. But that was something he didn’t need to know.
We stumbled over exposed tree roots and rocks that had been disturbed lately. I wondered how many people were in the prison at this point. Ardis had obviously been thinking during our hike, too. He turned to me as we approached the large prison gate. “I’ll find out if you’re lying and if you are, I’ll personally make sure you beg for death before it comes for you.
“I’m not lying. And you know it, Commander.”
The gate was tall and made of brick and stone with razor wire crowning the top. Tall guard towers were placed within the wall along the perimeter, every five-hundred feet or so. Flashes of light and movement inside their glass windows indicated that they
were manned. The building had seen better days. It was enormous. From childhood explorations, I knew that the main building housed everything administrative and from it, the cellblocks spread like spokes from the tire of an old bicycle. There were six of them. Each block had over one-hundred cells.
The chances of me being held anywhere near Gray were decreasing by the second. We made our way into the building, past rust and peeling paint. Overturned file cabinets and rolling chairs littered the hallways and rooms that we passed.
Soon, Ardis pulled me to the right and quickly unlocked a barred gate. He pushed me inside. Grunting, he slammed the same door into place, locking behind me with some sort of blue glowing chain, which he sealed with his fingertips, much like the ring Crew had sealed on my neck. That was the first gate we passed through. A shiver crawled up my skin pebbling it with goose bumps.
Seeing their technology in such a rustic, decrepit place was creepy. I guess I should have been more worried about what was about to happen, but seeing the lock, completely freaked me out. We passed through barred gate after barred gate until finally, Ardis led me halfway down a long hallway and then ushered me into a cell. The door was constructed of metal bars, from which cream-colored paint had long ago begun to try to crawl off.
The smell of rust and mold slammed me in the face. And some sort of small animal scurried into a corner, diving beneath a pile of dried leaves.
There was a metal bed chained to the wall and a matching toilet in the corner. A tiny square window let in the ghostly blue moonlight. “Home sweet home.” Ardis untied my hands, but whispered in my ear before he locked me in, “We’re going to find out who hacked into the feed tonight. That person is going to be beheaded in the square, along with anyone we found out helped in this evening’s little escapade. I’ll tell Kyan you said ‘hello.’”
“Ky didn’t have anything to do with tonight. He’s as honest as they come.”
“We’ll see.” He smiled, calling my bluff. That was before he backhanded me, sending me sprawling onto the floor.
“Gotta stay back from these doors when guards approach.”
The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. I watched him lock the door with another blue glowing chain and listened as his footsteps faded down the hallway.
I wiped the back of my hand across my mouth. Glistening crimson spread across it.
“I want to know every detail. Who was involved? How did they do it? I want any Olympian involved brought before me immediately. Do you understand?”
“Yes, King.”
My father paced back and forth in his study. After the ceremony, someone had noticed that the camera feed coming from Orchard had been hacked. It was being broadcast to all of the five greater cities, Olympus included. What I never imagined was that Abby’s face, her words, would fill the screen.
We couldn’t see it live, thank goodness, but during the ceremony, someone alerted my father to what was happening. He dismissed everyone from the palace and we’d been in his study ever since.
We knew that the Lessers had help from within Olympus. I had a good idea who that particular hacker was, but would not betray his confidence. Senn had helped me get Abby to safety.
We also knew that my father was in deep trouble. He had kept our secret from the four other Greater Cities in hopes to find a quick solution. Olympus had developed the vaccines. Supposedly, they had been rigorously tested. But when the infertility problem was found, my father did not stop the vaccination program. Instead, he covered it up. Apparently, he had done so for as many years as he could. People had begun to notice. They started talking about why no one was conceiving.
He had to find a solution. After much deliberation, it was determined that The Lesser Harvest was the best solution. What will haunt me forever is the secret that I carry. My life had always been full of them.
The Harvest was my idea. I was young and stupid. I believed the lies my father had told me, what he told everyone: The Lessers were barely human. We only needed them for labor. They were too stupid to do anything else. My wife would have to be Greater, but he had said that I could choose a lover from among the Lessers if I wanted. I followed his orders to perfection. Why did I not question whether my actions were right? Why couldn’t I see that the Lessers were our equals, not beneath us in any way. Besides, both groups had survived the plague.
Orchard Village and the people therein, changed my world, turned it on its head. I found that I was actually much less of a person than most of them were. Most Lessers were kind, generous, and hard working. They loved and lived more than anyone I had ever seen.
My mother sat to my left on the long, white leather couch. Marian sat to my right, holding onto my hand while my father’s temper spilled into the early morning hours. She was frightened. As a resistance member, she knew the basics of what my father had been capable of in the past. Now, she saw the beast himself, in action.
I squeezed her hand offering comfort. Though she tried to conceal it, she was shaking. My father was calling for the heads of anyone found to be in “this silly resistance,” which meant that he was calling for both of ours.
A stream of communication was set up between the Orchard guard station and Olympus. I recognized the background of the picture immediately. They were in Abby’s old house, the house she had shared with Lulu.
A stern face filled the screen. “Commander Ardis, what have you to report?” my father barked.
“King, we were forced to take down one of the Councilmen to stop the broadcast. He has been pronounced dead and is being buried as we speak. A Councilman Stephens, who was also involved, has been arrested and detained, as has Abigail Kelley and one of our own guards who was working with her.” I could bet on which guard had been helping her. It made my skin crawl. I shouldn’t have let him leave with her.
“Where is she being held?”
“In the prison with the others.”
Prison?
My father responded immediately. “Do not harm her. Understood? She is important. Or her eggs are. We will come and get her soon, but for now, just keep her imprisoned.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you found out if any others were involved?”
“We’re working on questioning villagers now. I believe we will find others, but I doubt there will be many.”
My father blew out a breath. “This girl has caused enough trouble for one night. Look, do you believe there is a resistance?”
Commander Ardis straightened. “A small one, yes. I don’t believe they are large enough or organized enough to do any real damage to Olympus though.”
“They already have. What I’m asking you is if they are militarized. Are they a physical threat to our city?”
“I have no evidence of that, sir. It seems that they just wanted to cause you trouble. We’ve seen no weapons, no training, or anything that would suggest that any sort of organized resistance exists. We work the Lessers from dawn until after dusk. They’re tired. Weary. We have them taking care of our chores as well as theirs. They clean, cook, and basically do anything we tell them to do. They’re too busy to organize themselves. And even if they did, they’re so far away from the city; I can’t imagine how they would get a mile out of Orchard without someone noticing. Our wall would prevent invasion if anyone would amass a force against us.”
“Yes. It would protect us against Lessers. Now, we need to put out the fire she’s caused with Greaters, in our city and in the others.”
Ardis chuckled. “How can a lie from such a tiny girl cause such trouble?”
My father did not laugh. It was not a lie. Ardis stopped laughing. “It was a lie?”
“Find the others. Squash any resistance. Report through your superior. This conversation is over.”
A look of disbelief washed over the commander’s face before the feed was severed.
Father looked over to his commander within our city. “Has the Lesser section been secured?”
“Yes, sir.”
&nbs
p; “Any disturbances?”
“Only minor ones.”
Father’s brows collided. “That surprises me. Start tomorrow. Have your guards question the Lessers. If there is a resistance within our walls, I want to know about it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Marian clung to my hand, squeezing it slightly. I swallowed. We were in trouble and both of us knew it.
Dawn trickled in through the window. It had been freezing through the night. The metal bed did little to provide warmth, so I huddled in on myself and hoped for the slight respite the morning sun might bring. Metal got hot in the sun, so I hoped this place would transform into a steaming-hot sauna by noontime.
Several sets of footsteps echoed down the hallway growing closer. I jumped up and ran to the door, pressing my forehead against them to try to see who was coming before they got too close. Four guards approached with someone in the center of them. I couldn’t tell who it was.
“Back away from the door, Lesser.”
I backed up into the corner behind the bed frame. At least it provided a small barrier.
“You get a new cell mate. He needs some help, so it won’t be all fun and games for you two.”
I watched them unlock the blue serpent and slide the heavy, rusted door back. They moved forward as one and dumped someone onto the bed. “He’s all yours.”
One left a jar of water and lump of something covered by cloth near the door before they sealed it shut again. I watched from my corner until they were out of sight and the sound of their footfalls had faded to almost nothing. Creeping over to the bed, I could see it was a person, but they were covered in black; black pants, black hoodie zipped tight, hood overhead.
It wasn’t until he groaned that I realized who he was. “Gray?”
I rushed to his side. “Gray, oh my God!”
Easing him onto his back, I took him in. His face was bloody and swollen. Even his nose was crooked. He groaned deeply and tried to curl back in on himself.
Resist (The Harvest Saga Book 2) Page 6