EVO Nation: EVO Nation Series: Book One (science fiction/ urban fantasy)

by K. J. Chapman

  I focus all my attention on Celeste. “Celeste, help us. There is a number in the pocket of my shorts from the paint party. Ring it, please.”

  Celeste falls backwards from shock. I know she heard me. Haydn spins to see where the noise came from, but she manages to scramble out of sight just in time.

  “Please, Celeste. Ring the number and tell them that Tess isn’t at Facility One. She is here.”

  “Teddie, what’s going on? Who’s Tess?” she replies. The voice I hear in my head is shaking from tears.

  “Celeste, please listen to me. Isaac’s not who we think he is. The attack on Facility One is some kind of EVO demonstration. Tess isn’t there. Find the number and get the message out. Please...please.”

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  Haydn’s feet clump up the stairs,and his shoulder digs into my stomach. My body hangs limp, but he shows no effort in carrying me. I can’t move anything from the neck down. He must have used some kind of immobiliser similar to the one Ty stuck me with.

  “Why are you doing this?” I ask. I hang uncomfortably from his shoulder, my tears running into my hair line. “Is this why Isaac wanted to see you?”

  “He said that if I didn’t help him, Yana and the others wouldn’t be safe.”

  “And you reckon he’ll keep his end of the deal?”

  “They’ve only been drugged,” he reiterates, with a croak in his voice. “The sedation won’t last long. What could I have done?”

  “What about me, Haydn?” I can’t keep the hurt from my voice. “I trusted you.”

  “Teddie, please stop.” I feel his body shudder from sobs.

  “No, I won’t. I thought you said we’re family? Am I not part of that?” He doesn’t answer. “You don’t seriously expect Yana to stay with you after this, do you?”

  He readjusts his grip, jumping me onto his shoulder more. I cough as the air gets knocked out of my lungs.

  “She loves me,” he says through gritted teeth.

  “No. She loves dependable, kind, loyal Haydn,” I say. My voice betrays me and I let it. “I loved that Haydn like a brother too. Not this damn coward with a knife in my back. I never thought you capable of this.”

  Total whimpering sobs escape him. “I’m so sorry, Teddie. He said he isn’t going to hurt you. I made him promise that he wouldn’t hurt you.”

  A door opens allowing light to spill into the hallway.

  “You’ve done well,” says Isaac.

  Haydn heads into the office, lowering me onto a chair. The same chair Adam and I sat on not five hours ago. My body slides to the side and a hand grabs my hair before I topple to the floor.

  Ty smiles at me with a plaster across his nose. “We really must stop meeting like this,” he sneers into my face.

  His lips are disgustingly close to mine, so I spit at him. I have never spat at another human being in all my life, but he deserves it. He wipes a sleeve across his mouth, still sneering in my face. The back of his hand strikes my cheek in a hot flash. The slapping noise fills the air along with his laugh.

  “No boyfriend to protect you now.”

  “Enough, Ty,” says Isaac, walking behind the desk.

  He has changed into a grey suit and tie and his usual wavy hair is styled out of his face. He looks older, colder than he has ever looked; the grey reminding me of the TORO uniform in an ironic way. He is followed by Gabe, Yvette, and Roscoe.

  “You don’t seem shocked to see me?” he says, curiously, his eyes glinting with excitement. “I expect you’re feeling foolish, but don’t be too hard on yourself. I played a blinder.”

  I just glare at him.

  Yvette walks around the desk, sliding her arms around Isaac’s waist. He kisses her and I have to look away. It’s just wrong. She heads into the penthouse and disappears from my line of sight.

  “Was anything you said true?” I ask him.

  “Oh yes, I did think you were mine until about two years ago. I turned up on Shana’s doorstep for a second time. After what those Norms did to me, I wanted contact with you. I thought you’d be a welcome distraction. I told Shana I would turn up at the house every day for as long as it took for her to get a DNA sample from you. She did as she was told, probably when you were drugged, and I had Yvette run a paternity test. It came back negative and opened up a wealth of opportunities for me.”

  “You’re sick,” I say.

  He smoothes an eyebrow with his thumb. “It wasn’t until I needed you that I contacted Shana and told her the results were positive. Why would she question my plan if I was concerned about my own flesh and blood being in danger? I didn’t bank on her hating me so much that she would jeopardise your safety for her own pride. Shana wouldn’t trust me as far as she could throw me, so I targeted Rob. He was much keener to hand you over to me. Relieved is the word I’d use- parents, eh?”

  “My mum recognised you for the snake you are!” I scream at him. “It was you who told my Dad that my Mum had betrayed me, wasn’t it?”

  “And it worked,” Isaac preens. “And he could have spared you from Facility One if he wasn’t such an incompetent fool. I knew he had failed when you weren’t at the cove when we arrived. Yvette contacted me to say that Rob and Shana were dead. She told me that Roscoe had bought you in, and that you were a grade three.”

  “Why’d you contact Roscoe at all? You made it harder for yourself.” My brain is churning over questions, revelations, and truths. The jigsaw pieces of thought fragments are slowly piecing together.

  “I needed a real threat. Roscoe contacted Shana and I thought that would spur her into action, but there’s nothing like a mother’s love.”

  I slip down in the chair again, but Isaac lifts my chin with a finger. His eyes search over every inch of my face, his lips turning down in disappointment. “I wasted so many years pining after you, worrying about you. I should have looked into these eyes, really looked. It is clear that you’re full of the same poison that bitch mother of yours was.”

  My lip quivers and I fight back the tears with little effect. “When Yvette said she made contact with the E.N.C eighteen months ago she actually made contact with you,” I say. Everything is fitting into place.

  “Of course, I am the E.N.C, Teddie. I always have been. Being subjected to Roscoe’s EVO-TORO program just motivated me to change our direction slightly. We’re EVO. We’re not lab rats!” Isaac’s eyes glaze over and the shadows cast on his sockets give him a demonic appearance. “Gabe is my front man...no offense, old friend,” he says, turning to Gabe. “Yvette has served me loyally; she put herself in danger every day to aid our cause, and you can imagine how much of a shock it was to hear that the five-year-old Telepath I had once met was now an eighteen-year-old Telekin.”

  “Five-year-old Telepath? I’ve only recently developed telepathy,” I say.

  Isaac smiles, and I wonder how I could have ever have been fooled by that calculated look in his eye. “Even at five you were showing signs of telepathy. When I turned up on your doorstep you called me a ‘bad man with bad thoughts’. I knew you’d be powerful, even then. A five-year-old with an ability is unprecedented. I’ve been waiting for you to prove me right, and you did just that this morning.”

  I can remember that bearded man on the doorstep. He terrified me, and my Mum screamed at him until he drove away, but I can’t recall the details. I’ve also been in tune to people’s emotions from a young age. I thought I was just intuitive, but perhaps there has always more to it.

  “So, had you always planned on using me?” I scream.

  “No, I planned on using my Norm sympathiser of a sister until she tried to drive herself off a bridge. She was never on the same page as Gabe and I. She worshipped Norah.”

  “Norah was your mother and you killed her!”

  “Norah was just a Norm who was always disappointed in me; disappointed to such an extent that she did nothing when Maggie informed her of my incarceration at the hands of her own kind,” he spits back. “She couldn’t even do the o
ne thing Tess asked of her- to keep Golding safe.”

  “She didn’t know it was you she had to keep him safe from,” I snap. “Golding caught Roscoe’s attention all by himself. He doesn’t blame Norah.”

  “Golding is a jumped up little shit. His mother poisoned him against the E.N.C a long time ago.”

  And what about Boyd?” I ask.

  “He was just a means to an end. You need to remember that everything from my contacting Shana until now has been finely orchestrated with one objective- to get you to this point, right here.”

  “Boyd and Maggie helped you out of the EVO-TORO program. How can you repay them like this?”

  Isaac rolls his eyes. “You’re missing the big picture. Your stint in Facility One threw a spanner in the works. I would not have had to involve either of them if Rob had kept up his end of the deal. Yvette and I could not construct an escape without Boyd’s help. Maggie was just part and parcel. I am fond of Maggie, but she doesn’t see the world the way I do. She didn’t experience what I experienced. As for Adam, his induction into the TORO program to gain insight was a failure, but it ended up working to our advantage when Yvette came to us, and then again, when we ensured he would be your TORO and assist in your escape. He was never meant to leave the Facility, but I suppose I underestimated the power of infatuation.”

  “What about him?” I say, flashing my eyes in Roscoe’s direction. “He’s Non- EVO. He is the very person who turned you into this monster.”

  “He is, isn’t he?” Isaac scratches his head, removing a gun from his desk drawer.

  “What is this, Isaac? You said if I bought Tess to you, you’d return my daughter. Please, she is just a kid,” says Roscoe.

  Isaac nods in agreement, smiles, and shoots Roscoe dead. His blood sprays warm and wet across my face. I’m not sad for him, but Isaac’s lack of emotion at shooting someone at point blank range terrifies me.

  “Lesson one, Teddie- do not cross me,” he says.

  “What are you going to do with my friends?” I sob.

  “Your friends?” he laughs into the air. “Your friends are your incentive.”

  He switches on the screen behind the desk, and the CCTV shows Yana and Maggie hanging upside down over the pool. Their bodies are bound by rope from the diving boards. If they drop they’ll drown. Neither is conscious, yet.

  “Where’s Golding?”

  “I shall keep Golding safe out of respect for Gabe,” says Isaac.

  Gabe gives him a thankful nod.

  “He hates you!” I scream at Gabe. “He loved Norah, and now you’re going to use his mother. He’ll kill you himself.”

  Gabe looks at his feet and it’s obvious that he has more of a conscience than Isaac. I’d never thought I would say it, but it’s true. Now, more than ever, it’s obvious he is just the front man. He has too much show about him.

  “You said Yana would be safe,” sobs Haydn. He steps forward, his eyes glued to the screen.

  “I did, didn’t I?” says Isaac, raising his gun again.

  Haydn looks down the barrel in shock. “I don’t understand?”

  “No, please don’t,” I cry.

  Haydn stumbles backward towards the door. Isaac grins, nodding to Gabe who steps behind Haydn, pushing him back into the room.

  “Make her watch,” Isaac tells Ty.

  “Don’t do this,” says Haydn. He falls to his knees with his hands together, pleading.

  I can’t watch Haydn beg for his life. “Please, Isaac. Let him go. He’s done what you asked,” I sob.

  Isaac steps forward, pressing the gun into Haydn’s forehead. “Exactly, he’s betrayed his so called friend to save his own skin? I have no time for disloyalty,” says Isaac.

  Haydn’s nose drips from crying. “I’m so sorry, Teddie” he says, and then Isaac fires.

  The noise is deafening. Haydn slumps to the floor and I scream as his lifeless face falls in my direction. I haven’t woken up yet- I’m still asleep- this isn’t happening.

  Isaac readjusts his waistband and turns his attention back to me. “Lesson two, Teddie- I’m not bluffing.”

  “What is it you want me to do?” I cry, scrunching my eyes against the image of Haydn’s bloody face.

  “You’re going to wake Tess up,” he says.

  He nods to Ty, who grabs me under my arms, dragging me to my feet. My head swings like a new born baby’s as he hoists me up against his body. I can’t do anything, but allow his hands to grasp at me.

  “You had Ty start on Adam, so you could kick him out of the complex,” I say to Isaac over Ty’s shoulder. “He won’t let you get away with this,” I scream at him. Ty carries me into the penthouse suite.

  “I’ll deal with Adam and his friends later,” states Isaac, following behind us. He doesn’t look too concerned.

  I feel faint. I hope Celeste hasn’t got the message out, purely so Adam and the others don’t come here. I will have led them to their deaths. I gag in my throat, and Ty shoves me away from him.

  “Not on me you don’t,” he says, turning me, so I’m facing forward.

  A phone rings and Gabe answers it. “It is done,” he says to Isaac.

  Isaac grins and rushes toward a door at the far end of the room. He punches in a code and the door opens. Ty dumps me one the floor like a sack of potatoes.

  The white carpet and walls are similar to the rest of the penthouse decor, but it’s the hospital bed and whirring machines that look out of place.

  From my position on the floor I can see the thin wrist of a woman- Tess. That’s how she’s been contacting me; she has been right under our noses all along. Yvette fusses over her, but I can’t see what she is doing from my position on the floor.

  “How long have you had her here?” I ask.

  “She arrived here Thursday,” says Yvette.

  That makes sense, the first I heard Tess’ voice was at Jude’s meeting. My telepathic episodes have only increased in intensity since then.

  “We just needed confirmation of your telepathy. I noticed a change on the monitors when you returned to the complex just minutes after Tess had arrived. I knew she could sense you,” Yvette says, preening.

  Tess’ fingers twitch and the familiar fullness weights my brain. “Don’t fight him,” she says in my head.

  “First, you tell me to run and now you tell me not to fight him- he has my friends.” I reply.

  “Trust me.” The words come out strained.

  I laugh to myself at her choice of words. I’m in the least trusting mood of my life.

  “Is the stream up and running?” Isaac asks Yvette.

  “Yes, it’s all ready to go. You just need to press that button and the feed will interrupt every broadcast across the United Kingdom. That button there links to the footage. The Technokin did a good job.”

  “Perhaps, I was a bit hasty in killing him. He could have been handy,” muses Isaac. “Oh well, it’s done now. And you’re sure the feed can’t be intercepted?”

  “Positive, it’s all yours,” she says. “Let’s do this.”

  I hear the sound of wet kissing. They’re actually getting off on this.

  “Where do you want her?” Ty asks, giving me a shove with his boot.

  “Get her on the bed and turn that screen on,” Isaac orders.

  Ty drops me onto a hospital bed beside Tess’. He leans over me, lowering his mouth to mine. His hot breath makes me gag, and he runs his tongue along my clenched lips. “Just claiming the one you owed me,” he says, before strapping me in.

  I can see Tess clearly. She is even smaller than Yana. Her legs look like matchsticks from a lack of muscle and her face is gaunt and drawn in. Her hair is a dirty blonde and slick to her forehead with sweat. She wears the same device that Roscoe shoved on my head at Facility One. The spines and receptor pads leave indentations in her bony forehead.

  Gabe stands silently in the doorway watching the scene before him with his arms folded. He appears indifferent to the whole situation.
>
  Ty clicks on the wall mounted flat screen and the ten o clock news comes on. The light from the screen casts a blue glow over the dim room.

  Isaac looks at the screen and smiles. ‘Perfect’ he says, tapping the keypad on his tablet.

  The TV crackles briefly and the news is replaced by the image of Isaac in the office. He has on the same suit he is wearing now, but the footage must have been pre-recorded. He walks around the desk with his arms folded across his chest.

  “Sorry for the interruption, but I guess you could say this is breaking news. My name is Isaac Woodman and I am EVO. Many of you will not have heard of this term before, while others will know it well, but would never utter it out of fear and the threat of persecution. We are evolved humans; the next link in the evolution of mankind. For years your government have hunted us and tortured us for the purpose of research, and now, the EVO Nation Corp is saying -enough.”

  Yvette presses a button on the keypad and Isaac’s image on the screen is replaced by footage of Facility One raging in flames. Every hangar and vehicle is engulfed and hundreds of dead TORO bodies dot the snowy landscape.

  “The footage you have just witnessed is of a government EVO testing compound, known only as Facility One. Although the image you have seen may be upsetting, that is nothing compared to what the scientists at this facility have done to my kind.”

  The image of Isaac is once again replaced with footage of Facility One’s therapy suite- footage of me. I’m having seven bells kicked out of me by the TORO whilst Roscoe looks on. The footage switches to Golding, and then to Haydn receiving the same treatment.

  Then, there is Adam. My blood runs cold at the sight of him strapped into a conditioning station. His immobile body twitches randomly at the images he is being forced to endure. His eyes are hidden by the helmet, but his mouth is clenched tight. The footage pans out and row upon row of occupied conditioning stations come into focus.

  “All the men and women you see in this footage are evolved humans being tortured and subjected to horrific military conditioning. YOUR government want to weaponise us! YOUR government are responsible for the torture and deaths of not just EVO, but their Non-EVO and EVO family members. YOUR government have been keeping our existence from you and forcing us into hiding our identities out of fear! YOUR government have forced our hand in this matter, and now the time has come for us to retaliate!”