Rogue (Convergence Series Book 1)

by S. A. Stephenson

  'Time to move out,' Jack said. Cara stood close to Evie as they watched him climb into the truck, Evie looked at her brother silently praying that she would see him alive again, he was risking everything for her protection and she felt overwhelmed at the thought that he might not return. As Jack looked over to her, he tapped his chest twice and extended two fingers. Evie returned their gesture, the silent conversation of reassurance that they had spoken long ago when war had torn them apart.

  Evie didn't want to go back to the Spire after Jack left. Instead she decided to head to her family's home in the Ruby sector of the Domain. The small prefecture lay on the outer suburbs of the State and far enough away from the government's Capitol. Evie and Cara had taken the light rail and as the train rumbled through the landscape Evie looked out at the Ice Plains, the sprawling expanse of deserted land that had once been a thriving metropolis had changed to a derelict snowscape. They arrived late in the night and grateful for their beds. When Evie woke the next day, the familiar walls greeted her just as the sun was rising, illuminating the snow. There were moments when the mountains around Volt looked beautiful, almost serene. She hadn't been in the house for years, her apartment in the Spire had become a comfortable home that she had been able to make her own. Now she was back where she had grown up, the house that had protected her, given her happy memories with her family, and moments of fear as the world turned against them. She lay in her bed for a moment, feeling reluctant to move, her body felt heavy and she could only think of Jack. What was happening to him, where he was and if he was safe? There was a knock on her door and with a groan she pulled the cover over her head.

  'I know you're in there,' she heard Cara say. 'And I know you can't resist a good cup of hot rose tea from Aunty Joan's,' she said. Evie groaned again, Cara was right, Aunty Joan's was the best barista in the Volt, and one of the few luxuries they had.

  'Come in,' she said, still refusing to leave her bed.

  Cara entered carrying two take out cups and gave her a skeptical look. 'I thought Jack leaving would hit you bad, but didn't realize it would be like this.'

  'Jack and I have never been apart for more than a month,' Evie told her.

  'But he's been beyond the wire before and come back okay,' Cara said. 'This shouldn't be any different,'

  Evie turned on her TV and they saw Jenks giving a broadcast and Kit's photo showed up on the screen. 'He's going after her,' Evie said. 'And there's no telling what she'll do to him if he can't convince her of who we are.

  Cara sat on the bed and handed her a cup. 'They're saying she's behind the attack, despite what Kingsley has told us,' she said. 'Whoever was responsible, we were lucky we weren't killed.'

  'I don't think that was the intent,' Evie told her.

  'They plan a mass attack in the middle of a public lecture on Nano-genetics,' Cara reminded her. 'It sounds like it was premeditated.'

  'You don't understand,' Evie said with a groan and hid back under her cover.

  Cara pulled a face and joined Evie. 'Remember when we used to do this as kids?' She asked. 'Hide under our covers to escape the classes and the training.'

  'It felt like none of the world existed,' Evie said fondly. 'Like it was our own little universe and we were safe until we had to go back to reality.'

  'We're not kids anymore Evie,' Cara said. 'Your powers keep getting stronger and more dangerous if anyone finds out. We're part of this system and we have a role to play, we can't let anything risk that.'

  'What if I don't want to play this role anymore?' Evie asked. 'What if I don't want to experiment on people, or worry about my brother or live with Galen as my President?'

  'You want to go to the free zone?' Cara asked her.

  Evie was quiet for a moment, it was a thought that she had entertained for a long time but had remained quiet about the idea ever since Lux. 'I don't know,' she said. 'I just don't want to live here forever, I can't keep hiding who I am and when they find out I'll need to find a way to escape like the others.'

  'Be careful who you tell that to,' Cara said. 'It's a dangerous thought.'

  'I know,' Evie said and got out from the bed. Cara watched as she walked through the French doors of her bedroom and across her garden. She wandered down to the large oak tree and knelt at its roots. Cara looked over to the bedside table and saw a photo of Evie with a young blonde-haired woman, both were smiling back at her and when Cara looked at the date on the calendar she felt a pang of guilt. She followed Evie out to the garden and knelt down next to her.

  'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I should have known.'

  'Five years,' Evie said. 'Five years since she tried and nothing's changed. We're no closer to being able to live in the free zone and they say that the experiments we're doing is helping us move closer to finding a cure against those who were cursed by the outbreak but are we really?' She asked.

  'Lux shouldn't have died for the cause,' Cara said. 'And you shouldn't have had to go through such heartbreak, but until things change we can't do things that will anger Hawk. We saw what she's capable of doing.'

  'Public execution,' Evie said quietly. The memory hit her like a wave, the main square, the podium. Lux was stood on the stadium her hands, feet and neck bound. The Armistice Guards were aiming their guns at her. Hawk's words came back to Evie like a warning she could never forget.

  'Try and escape, try and defy our rule and you will pay the ultimate price,' she said. 'We have to stand united against those infected by the outbreak. Thinking that we can work with them, that we can live amongst them is dangerous. We are not a union and can never be a union. Defy this belief and you will be punished.'

  The guns had rung out in harmony, bullets had riddled Lux's body and the floor from under her was released and she had been hung. When they went to retrieve the body, the bullets had barely scratched her. Evie cried at the memory and Cara held onto her and the small white cross in front of them glistened in the morning sun. Evie never showed her grief for Lux to anyone other than Cara and Cara knew she had to try and protect her friend as much as she could from Hawk.

  When Evie returned to the house, she saw Cara on her phone. 'We'll be back soon,' she said, then paused. 'You'd be doing us a really big favor and we'd totally owe you,' Evie squinted at her in confusion but Cara batted her away. 'Really? Thanks Blake, you're one of my favorite humans! Okay one of my many favorite humans, we'll bring you something back from the pier.'

  Cara hung up and turned to Evie smiling. 'The boys are going to cover our shifts till we get back to the Spire,' she said.

  'Why?' Evie asked.

  'Because you've not had a break in days, and today you need some quality friend time, which is what I'm here for!' Cara told her, her attitude suddenly the most upbeat it had been in a long time. 'Blake and Danna will be fine on their own for a few hours and the market is at the pier, so we're going window shopping.'

  Evie didn't know if she had the energy for a bustling market but Cara's enthusiasm was hard to deny so she went and found her purse and her bag. She stopped at the mantelpiece as she walked past where she saw another photo of her and Lux. She knew she needed to put the photos away at some point and start to move on but there was something that kept her static, wanting to stay in the moment, and she didn't know how to break it.

  'She'll want you to be happy,' Cara told her as she rested her chin on Evie's shoulder.

  'There's still something more about her death,' Evie said. 'I know there is I just don't know what it could be.'

  'It was cruel and unjust but I don't think there was a cover-up,' Cara said.

  Evie walked away, too tired to try and think about the undercurrent of their government and what they were doing to their citizens. 'Markets?' She asked. 'Sounds like a lot of fun right now.'

  Cara beamed and looped her arm round Evie's and practically dragged her out of the door.

  The market was a traveling one, the stall owners visited the Pier at the Ruby sector at the end of every month and transformed it int
o a hub of activity. As Evie and Cara approached, Evie welcomed the light breeze that came off the lake and saw the tents ahead of them. The smell of fresh crepes and ice cream swirled around her, Rosemary wine and Honeysuckle beer was being offered in the food tent and the low hum of chatter began to increase as they got closer. The wooden slats on the pier had been decorated with chalk drawings by the children days earlier and as Evie looked down at the doodles she saw happy families, flowers and the odd cat. She stopped at one drawing and she saw a small stick figure of a child on their own, their face was sad, out of place with the others. Nearby were two larger stick figures, likely the parents and they had big X's drawn through them. It looked like someone had tried to wash the image away but the faded outline had remained. Cara looked over to Evie and down at the drawing when Evie pointed it out to her.

  'That's a little creepy,' she commented.

  'It's sad,' Evie said.

  Cara was quiet for a moment. 'Come on,' she said, taking Evie's arm again. 'I didn't bring you here so you would be sad.'

  Evie let the moment of sorrow pass and followed Cara to the food tent. She was overwhelmed by the choice on offer, delighting at the breads and pastries that greeted them on the first stall, quickly followed by cheeses. The Spire didn't have food like this, no matter how much of a metropolis it tried to be good food was hard to come by on the rations they were provided. As Cara looked at the labels Evie saw designs from overseas adorning the wrapping.

  'I didn't know they were still importing food,' she said.

  'It's likely they're just making the labels and making it look like they're being brought in,' Cara said. 'A plane hasn't been over Volt in decades.'

  'Except the army helicopters,' Evie reminded her.

  'True, but I doubt they send out genetically enhanced super soldiers to bring back a good bit of Brie from England,' Cara quipped.

  They settled on pan au chocolate and a Roseberry glass of water, cold and sweet to drink, it complemented the pastry quite nicely. 'What do you think the other countries are like?' Evie asked Cara as she took a bite.

  Cara shrugged. 'I don't know,' she said. 'Haven't really thought about it. All I know is what we were taught in school.'

  'That the countries were destroyed during the Blood Wars?' Evie asked. 'That the invasion launched the plague and wiped out nearly half the world and destroyed much of the infrastructure with it?'

  'We've seen documentary footage,' Cara reminded her. 'Or have you forgotten all of the boring social science lessons we had to sit through with Dr Frank?'

  'No, I remember,' Evie said. 'I just never wanted to believe that the world outside our compound was as desolate as he said it was.'

  'You still believe that one day we're going to be able to leave here?' Cara asked.

  'They have to find a cure one day and when they do we won't need to be here,' Evie said.

  'Even if they find a way of making the mutants human again, there's no guarantee it will work, the genetics that modify them ...you, keeps mutating to something new each time it evolves,' Cara said as she sipped her drink. 'We're in a safe zone, and until they've completely destroyed the virus, I don't want to leave it. Besides, outside the wire there's so many messed up people because of the plague that you don't know who you're dealing with.'

  'They're probably no different than what we're creating in the labs,' Evie said, lowering her voice as a family passed them.

  'But we're controlling it, we're using the virus to see how it effects people and changes them,' Cara said. 'That way we know what to expect in an attack and what we need to do to treat it.'

  Evie was quiet for a moment, in the back of her mind she could hear screams of people who were their test subjects, she could see how the virus mutated them, gave them powers and abilities beyond anything that was natural for a human to have. 'I don't think I trust it,' she said quietly.

  Cara looked at her confused. 'You've never said anything before,' she noted.

  'Because I've been struggling with it,' Evie said. 'The notion that we're changing someone's DNA based on a virus that came from an invasion nearly a hundred years ago. Hawk's program isn't to use what the Others gave us as a way of rebuilding of our nation, it's to serve her own political ambition.'

  Cara took Evie by the hand and led her out of the tent, her brow furrowed and pace quick enough to tell Evie that she wasn't pleased. She took her to one side, away from everyone else. 'This is what you've been struggling with?' She asked her.

  'Don't you struggle with it?' Evie asked. 'Hurting innocent people, changing who they are for no real reason other than to document what happens to them?'

  Cara was quiet for a moment. 'You can't talk like this Evelyn,' she said. 'It's dangerous and in the past, has gotten people killed.'

  'I know,' Evie said, and was quiet for a moment. 'I just think I need to do something else, something that helps people rather than hurts them.'

  Cara softened and hugged her. 'You know it's hard to change your career choice,' she said.

  'It wasn't really a choice,' Evie reminded her.

  'Still, you have to appeal, possibly go through the Trial again, who knows what else,' Cara said. 'We're given our careers because it's been proven that we'll be good at them and it's how we can serve our country in rebuilding it to what it once was. When the Others came and attacked us they destroyed everything, we now all have a part to play in restoring our country.'

  Evie wanted to share Cara's same sense of patriarchy, her love for the system that looked out for them all but after all she had seen she was unable to believe so purely that there could be any good left in the world she was part of. 'Let’s enjoy the rest of the pier while we can,' she said eventually, knowing that arguing was futile.

  Cara smiled and was quickly back to her normal self. They wandered through the market stands and came upon the stall Evie hated most. Inside a pen were a number of people huddled together looking terrified. They had chains round their necks and their hands and feet were cuffed with silver wristlets. Evie watched as one whirred into life when its prisoner tried to use their powers to escape her chains. A jolt of electricity was sent through her veins causing her to almost fall as she trembled from the attack.

  'I can't believe they still sell slaves,' Evie said.

  'Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it,' Cara said grimly. 'Sadly if no one buys them today they'll likely end up in either the chambers or one of our labs.'

  Evie felt her stomach churn as she looked on hopelessly. She noticed a young woman who would be in her thirties, not much older than Evie was and she had a young child at her side. The child turned and Evie tried not to gasp when she saw that instead of a nose, the boy had tentacles and claws for hands. When she looked closer she saw that he had inherited the claws from his mother.

  There was a seller taking money and calling out prices to the crowd who had gathered and were bartering for the mutants. 'I'll give you five hundred notes for the quiet one at the back,' a man said and when Evie looked at who he was referring to, she saw an elderly woman cowering away from everyone. Evie wished there was something she could do to help them, that she had enough money to free everyone she saw but she knew that she'd be arrested and the mutants likely killed as a result.

  'Can we go?' She asked Cara quietly, who nodded in agreement. They made their way round the holding pen as the old woman was being handed over to her new owner. She caught Evie's eyes and Evie was transfixed by the emerald green color that glistened back. The woman motioned to her as the guards tried to jostle her forward.

  'Wait a moment,' Evie said and went over, showing them her ID. Having her job gave her some luxuries with guards and Evie knew when the right time was to use it. 'Is there something you want to tell me?' Evie asked the woman, her new owner looked increasingly disgruntled at the inconvenience of the conversation.

  'Here,' the woman said and handed her a patch of cloth, Evie turned it over in her hands and saw that it had a white circle s
titched on it.

  'The sign of the rebellion,' Evie said in a whisper.

  The woman nodded. 'I have visions,' she said quietly. 'I've seen a girl who can lead us to freedom.'

  Evie was startled by her words. 'I'm not sure I-'

  'You know,' the woman said. 'You know how to make it so we're free again.'

  She stopped and stood up straight, Evie watched as blue light emanated from her fingers and swirled up her arms, her emerald green eyes turned to black and the air around them drew close and ice cold. The wristlets tried to switch on and emit the electric that would be enough to stop the magic but the woman was able to break through them. Before she could get any further shots rang out through the air and as the scene returned to normal Evie saw the corpse of the dead woman in front of her, killed by the Armistice Guards.

  Chapter Six

  THE GUARDS HAD USHERED Evie and Cara into a white truck that sped away from the crowd. Evie looked out the back window at the woman. Her body was being picked up by the guards, they took her to the edge of the Pier and threw her into the water. Evie sat back in her seat, trying to comprehend what she had just seen.

  'She was a brave woman,' Cara said quietly. 'Not every day you see someone trying to start a rebellion in the middle of the most secure State in the Empire.'

  'How do you know that's what she was trying to do?' Evie asked.

  'That piece of cloth she gave you,' Cara said. 'The symbol was used during the rebellion by opposing-President Ravenswood as a sign of peace and hope outside the tyranny that Galen's father was trying to create. The fact that she had it shows that she was part of the old allegiance of rebels and the fact that she gave it to you has me worried.'

  'Why?' Evie asked.

  'Because if anyone back at the lab or in the facility sees you with it, you'll be arrested,' Cara said. 'So, hide it and don't tell anyone you were given it.'

  Evie folded up the piece of cloth and shoved it to the bottom of her pocket as the van pulled up to the facility building. They were led inside by the guards and waited by the interview room. A guard came to them and handed them each a clipboard and pen.