The Corded Saga

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  “They found a way to live forever. They found a way to make reproduction obsolete. They need Bailey’s DNA to do it.” Maverick looked down at the ground. “They were going to hold her prisoner for the rest of her life, so they could live forever. They were going to find a way to harvest her cells.”

  “What can we do to help your fight?” Quinn’s entire expression changed from angry to determined. “We will do whatever it takes to destroy Central. That is part of your plan isn’t it?”

  “I was hoping you’d ask that. Of course it’s part of the plan.” Denver smiled, and this time no one minded.

  Mason

  Everything changed with the latest revelations. Everything we thought we knew about our world cracked and fell apart into pieces on the floor. It was would have been easier to pretend the words were lies, but they lined up perfectly with everything else we’d learned. It even lined up with the memories that were starting to come back to me. Even Bolton agreed, and Kayla seemed to trust the boy. They had some history, and despite my distaste for the way his eyes lingered on her, I had to believe she had a reason to trust him.

  And those initial words were just the beginning. Denver, Ramona, and the others spoke other things—other crazy realizations that piled on top of each other in a way that left me searching for a way to process everything. The words that hit me the hardest were the words about me. About my past. About my role in shaping the future.

  “Mason, what do you say?” Denver stared at me, his gaze saying more than his words. He was asking me to commit to something that required me to break the most important promise I’d ever made.

  “I only have one choice here if what you say is true.” I didn’t want to believe everything, but I had no choice.

  “You were engineered to be the strongest of the strong.” Denver spoke in a gentle tone, as if he was fearful he’d set me off. “If you try hard enough you will remember.”

  I did remember. That was the problem. I remembered the shots. The tests. The weapons put in my hands. Mostly I remembered that same scene I’d recalled in the Central office. I remembered refusing to kill a boy. I remembered failing and being sent out. Did Denver know that part too? “Then you know I failed.”

  “You failed Central, yes. You failed in being the robot they wanted you to be, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t as strong as they designed you to be. That doesn’t mean you don’t have the singular abilities we need. The vision, the strength, the acuity.”

  “How do you know all this?” I had to know. He was right. The memories were coming back, and it all made sense, but that didn’t explain the knowledge he had or who he was. None of this was random. He’d had a larger plan, and I needed to understand it.

  “Because I know. For now that will have to be enough.” He gave no apology, no excuse. It was as if he held himself above the basic laws of how things worked, and of how a person typically garnered trust.

  “Yet without knowing who you are I’m supposed to join your fight?” The words I didn’t say were that I was expected to leave Kayla? Because I knew she couldn’t come where I would be going. Even if I was convinced she’d be safe, she wouldn’t leave her sister and Bailey’s side, and there was no question of whether Bailey could come.

  “You’ll join our fight,” he emphasized the word ‘our’, “for her.” He nodded toward where Kayla stood holding Bailey. “I know full well why you’re here. I knew your feelings for her would work to our advantage. I knew it before the first time you came to see me. I knew it when Jarret made the call.”

  “How? How could you have possibly known?” My mind immediately went to Jarret and questioning if he was who I thought he was.

  “Because a man in your position would not take a risk unless the motivation was strong enough. Kayla motivated you in a way nothing else ever could. It broke through the layers of indifference and into your heart.”

  I couldn’t dispute his words. Nor could I dispute his original point about why I’d join the fight. I’d do it for Kayla even if the choice meant leaving. I nodded. “Not yet though. I, we,” I corrected. This was about both Kayla and me. “We need some time.”

  “Understood.” Denver nodded. “Take the day. We will meet to begin discussing the plan in the morning.”

  I caught Kayla’s eyes, hoping she understood. I needed to know I was making the right decision even if it was the only one to make.

  She nodded ever so slightly, and I walked in her direction.

  “I never imagined we’d have to say goodbye.” Kayla stared out at the lake. We’d barely spoken as the plans were made over the course of a few weeks. We were meeting up with others like us—others that wanted to change things. We needed numbers if we were going to break through the walls—both physical and virtual— built by our leaders. They needed me to help them find these other groups, or really what they needed me for was protection along the way. The weeks of planning were followed by weeks of training, and in my case the weeks involved struggling to process all the new memories coming back to me. I wasn’t entirely sure why they were flowing back now. It was as if the time in Central had broken the spell and brought everything back.

  Addison was coming with us. Maverick was staying behind. Officially he was staying behind to provide his scientific expertise to the planners back at the camp, but he was also staying to watch Quinn and Bailey. He’d take care of Kayla too. He’d promised me without my having to ask.

  “This isn’t goodbye.” Goodbyes had a finality to them, and there was nothing final about my departure. I’d be back, and hopefully the result will have been worth my absence.

  “Then what is it?” She turned to look at me. “You are leaving, aren’t you?”

  “It’s an until I see you again soon.” It was hard enough mobilizing myself to leave at all. Having to explain myself to Kayla made it seem so much worse. “And I will stay if you ask me to. You know that. I made a promise to you, and breaking it is tearing me apart.”

  “I can’t ask you to. You have to go. Just like I had to go in search of Quinn and Bailey. We all have to do things, but it doesn’t mean they are easy.” She looked down at the ground.

  I took her hand in mine. “No. They aren’t easy at all.”

  “You told me we’d have a maybe someday.” She looked up. “Doing this… this might get us there. Or it might at least get Bailey there.”

  “And I will be back.” I squeezed her hand. “I swear I will be.”

  “I know you will be.” Her eyes locked on mine. “You will come back, or I’ll come searching. You know I’m pretty good at tracking down the people I love.”

  She’d used the word love before, but there was something about hearing it fall from her lips this time that did me in.

  I pulled her into my arms as my lips claimed hers. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her body against mine.

  I didn’t hold back. I pushed for entrance to her mouth, and took full control, needing her in every possible way.

  We fell down onto the blankets I’d laid out on the shore. We were over a mile from anyone else, and I wasn’t going to waste our few hours of privacy.

  We pulled at each other’s clothing, throwing them off all at once to remove the separation between us. I let my lips descend on her breast, my hand slid between her legs. I watched her chest heave, listened to her moans as she thrust up her hips from the blankets. She reached out for me, taking me in her hand. “Mason, now.”

  I wouldn’t leave her waiting. I positioned myself over her, looked deep into her eyes, and thrust inside of her, returning to my favorite place.

  We moved together perfectly, each of my thrusts bringing me deeper inside of her until she had my entire length. Each of her gasps and moans propelled me on, as I struggled to hold on, determined to take care of her needs before my own. As soon as I pushed her over the edge, I gave in to my own release.

  I stayed inside her long after, unable to break the physical connection that represented so much more t
han sex.

  We lay there, listening to each other’s heartbeats and breathing before I reluctantly pulled out and rolled next to her. I pulled up an extra blanket on top of us.

  “There is no beauty greater than you.” I ran my hand over her collar bone.

  She smiled. “Thank you.”

  “I mean that in the truest sense.”

  “You are the most handsome man I’ve ever met, but that’s not why I love you.”

  “Your beauty is only a small part of why I love you.”

  It was a new experience for me to be so open with another. Kayla made me wish I were more articulate, so my words could somehow express all the different emotions flowing through me.

  She rested her head on my chest. “Life is full of the strangest experiences.”

  “Are you suggesting being intimate with me is strange?” I ran my hands through her hair.

  “No.” She laughed. “I’m not.”

  “Then explain, please.” Sometimes it was impossible to understand Kayla, but that only made me more determined to get to know her better. There was so much more to learn.

  “I just mean the whole thing. We met because I was searching for an old friend to help me find Quinn and Bailey, then the club burned down, I ran off to Central, we broke out, and now we are at an old summer camp, or whatever Denver called it. Now you are off to fight a battle we didn’t even know existed until we showed up here.”

  “When you put it that way, it is strange,” I teased.

  “Those stars remind me of home.” She pointed to the sky.

  “They are the same stars everywhere, aren’t they?”

  “You were never able to see them in the City though.” There was a sadness in her words, as though she pitied my past. She didn’t know the half of it, but I knew as much as she had fond memories of the Rurals, her childhood wasn’t easy either.

  “I was never able to go out at night, so even if they were visible, they weren’t for me.”

  “I wonder if they’ll be visible where you’re going.” She ran her hands down my chest.

  “I don’t really know where I’m going.” I was going to have to get better at following blindly. Maybe Kayla could teach me a thing or two.

  “Far from here…” She snuggled more into my side. Her bare skin felt heavenly against my own, and I knew I’d long for that sensation in the weeks to come.

  “Too far away from you but not forever.”

  “Not forever.” She kissed me lightly on the lips.

  I closed my eyes and savored everything about my Kayla.

  Kayla

  Three months later

  Working the fields again felt good. Natural. When the sun was high in the sky, I could pretend I was back home in the Rurals. When night fell I faced reality again, and I thought of Mason.

  I was horrible at waiting. I’d been reckless when Quinn and Bailey were taken, but then I’d been able to act on it. I had a place to go—a goal in mind. This time things were different. Mason wasn’t missing, he was just away. He was away for the right reason—a just reason—yet there was an irrational part of me that was angry. Not at him, but at the situation. He was my Mason, why did I have to say goodbye to him so soon?

  “Kayla!” Bailey ran through the wheat field. “Kayla!”

  “Hi, Bailey.” I smiled, loving how free and happy she was. That was one good thing about our temporary home. Bailey was getting her first taste of a real childhood. I set down my trowel. The sun was going to set soon, and I needed to get back to the cabins in time for dinner.

  “You ready to head in?” Quinn appeared across the field.

  “I’ll meet you up there. You two go ahead.” I pointed Bailey in the direction of her mother. I watched as she ran straight to Quinn, and jumped right into her arms. I waved before heading back down toward the lake.

  I walked along the shore of the lake, stopping at the spot where Mason and I had spent our last evening together, wondering if he could still see the same stars when darkness fell. It had been a mistake to get close to him, to let myself need him so badly. In the end it was entirely my fault, but that didn’t make the ache inside me any easier to handle.

  They were only supposed to be gone a few weeks, but months had passed. Ramona said it was completely normal. I accepted her words because I couldn’t bear any other outcome.

  I looked up at the first moments of the sunset, and my hand moved over my stomach as I felt the strangest sensation. Then I felt it again. I stared back up at the sky as I realized what the sensation was. I kept my hand in the same spot until I felt it a third time—a kick.

  To anyone who has ever hoped for a brighter tomorrow. Never stop believing.

  Faith

  My mother liked to tell me that I was a miracle. I wasn’t supposed to exist, yet I did. I asked her why she didn’t name me Miracle then, and her answer was always the same. Miracles come from an external place; faith comes from the inside. One should always rely on themselves and their own inner strength before seeking help from the outside. I knew she wasn’t talking about religion. She was talking about trusting others. Trust was something my mother lacked, and that trait passed on to me.

  “Come on, Faith. We’re going to be late.” Bailey tugged on my arm, urging me to leave the woods. My cousin was always in a hurry, and for some reason she thought the two years she had on me entitled her to boss me around. It may have worked when we were kids, but now that we were grown up I was done with it. I was eighteen, the same age my mother was when she first left home. I’d been thinking about that a lot since my birthday.

  “Who cares if we’re late? Or better yet, go without me.”

  “This is important. More important than anything. And now you don’t even have time to properly prepare.”

  “Prepare? How does one prepare to sell themselves?”

  Her slap came swift and straight across my face. “How dare you say that. After everything our mothers went through.”

  The slap stung, but not worse than the realization that she was right. Completely right. But I wouldn’t tell her that. “Great. Now I have an excuse not to go.”

  “Oh, get off it. I didn’t leave a mark. You have no choice. This isn’t me pushing you to go. This is me making sure you don’t get us both in trouble.”

  “Maybe I want to get in trouble.”

  “Why? Because you think they’ll let you see your parents?” Bailey put a hand on her hip. “Dream on. That’s not going to happen. At least not until you fulfill your promise.”

  “I never made a promise.”

  “You did.” She ran her fingers over my cheek where she’d slapped me. “The moment we were brought to the Glen.”

  “We could leave, you know. Set off to forge our own path.”

  “They’d find us. Eventually, everyone is found.” Her expression turned wistful. “You know that as well as I do.”

  Kayla

  Sixteen Years Earlier

  He was never coming back. Everyone told me that over and over again. Yet I couldn’t accept it. Somehow deep inside I knew that anything that happened to Mason was my fault. He’d risked everything for me, and even if it had been his decision to join the mission, he would have never been tasked with it if it hadn’t been for me. He’d have never left the club, or the city, if it hadn’t been for me.

  “He’s not going to walk out of the lake, you know.” Bolton joined me out on the dock extending over the lake. “He isn’t a half-man, half sea creature.”

  I shrugged. “You never know. From what Maverick says, they did some pretty crazy stuff to them at Central.” Stuff that made Maverick wake up in cold sweats in the middle of the night. I knew because I hardly ever slept.

  “Yeah, but not that crazy cool.”

  I laughed even though it wasn’t really funny. It just felt good. “It would be really great if he did though.”

  “You still expect him to show up, don’t you?” Bolton took a seat, letting his legs hang over the edge. “Maybe
not out of the lake, but you expect him to return.”

  “So, what if I do?” I sat beside him, my body finally giving in to the exhaustion.

  “Nothing. I get it. I’m just asking. I’ve kept my mouth shut for as long as I could. I’m here though. When you’re ready to accept it.” He placed his hand right beside mine, not touching me, but leaving it there as if in offering.

  “Accept it?” I snapped. “We don’t know what’s going on. They may be laying low. They may have been captured but could still find a way to escape.” I’d run through the possibilities over and over in my mind. They changed slightly as time passed, but they were still there, little rays of hope breaking through the fog of reality.

  “And they may be dead.” His words fell like lead balloons, and regret crossed his face instantaneously. “Shit. I’m sorry, Kayla. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Everyone is thinking it. You might as well be honest.” I looked out further across the lake. It was mostly in shadows, the thick forest of trees on the other side hung far over the bank.

  “But you don’t think so.” His voice was softer now.

  “I don’t.” I wasn’t giving up. Mason was out there, and one day we’d see him again.

  “Is that because you think you have a sixth sense, or because you can’t accept it?”

  “Maybe a little bit of both.” It was strange being able to talk so openly with Bolton, but as the months passed we’d struck up a friendship that didn’t feel nearly as breakable as the relationships I had with most of the others. Quinn and I avoided the topic of Mason most of the time. There was always something else to discuss.

  “Just so you know, it will be okay if you decide to give up. He’d understand.”

  “You can’t know what he’d understand.” Even I didn’t pretend to understand the man I’d fallen in love with—the father of my daughter.