Wren stood there without any clue about what she’d just done.
Nobody moved.
I cleared my throat as I tried to gather my thoughts. “If you would like to join us, we will be taking names on both sides of the commons. Thank you.”
Everybody scrambled to the sides.
They all signed up.
We returned to the shelter in triumph, our mission deemed a success all thanks to Wren. Samson turned around in the van to look at us. “You two make a great team. We’re going to take you both to all meetings from here on out. You were awesome out there.”
“It was all Wren,” I said quickly. “They didn’t hear a word I said, they only paid attention when she took to the podium.”
“It wasn’t me,” she replied, her cheeks starting to blush pink. She looked even more gorgeous when she had some color to her skin. “Reece did all the important talking.”
I took her hands in mine so she would know I was being sincere and to capture all her attention. “I might have explained things to them, but it was you they believed. If you didn’t say anything out there today nobody would have signed up. You inspired them, Wren. That was all you.”
Her cheeks reddened further as she looked to the ground. I wanted to kiss her so badly the feeling was overwhelming. She had no idea how spectacular she was.
No idea at all.
I let go of her hands as we reached the shelter. People were talking excitedly as we entered, all gathered around the meeting area. Something was up, our news couldn’t have beaten us back.
“What’s going on?” I asked George as he was passing. He was holding a file full of paperwork.
His eyes were wilder than I’d ever seen them. “We got the DNA test results back.”
“And?” I prompted.
“They’re all clones. Every single one of them we tested.”
Chapter 9: Wren
Between George and Reece, they filled me in on what the DNA test results meant. Members of Stone’s parliament were clones, when they were supposed to be the original Makers.
I tried to grasp what that all meant for us but came up empty. All I knew was that it was bad. We sat around the meeting room table as people talked quickly to one another. It was difficult keeping up with all the conversations.
Tugging on Reece’s arm to get his attention, I knew he would explain further. “I don’t understand how this is so important,” I said.
Reece leaned closer so he didn’t have to yell to be heard over the others. “It means the Makers are probably dead and someone substituted them for their clones without telling anyone. If someone is controlling those clones, it means they are controlling parliament.”
I was starting to catch onto the significance as it sunk in. Clones were not allowed to be substituted for their Makers, it was against the law. Not only that, but people shouldn’t want their clones taking over their lives for them. That’s not what they were made for, they were organ donors only.
Something big was happening in parliament and it could have been anyone behind it.
That was the scary thing.
“Is President Stone a clone too?” I asked, loud enough for the entire table to hush and look at me like I’d said something completely absurd.
Joseph stood at the head of the table, his old eyes wise and tired. “That’s something to think about. If her parliamentary members are clones, there is nothing to say she isn’t one too.”
“It all depends on who is behind it,” George said.
“If it’s the labs doing it then they all could be clones. Every single one of them,” Samson added. “They could have replaced anyone.”
If we didn’t know who was replacing Makers with their clones, we didn’t know who was really our enemy. It could have been anyone, providing they were given enough access to the people.
We didn’t know who to fight anymore.
We were a revolution without an enemy.
“We need to determine who is a clone and who is real. And that includes Stone,” Joseph said. “This has to be our highest priority in order to move forward.”
From that moment onwards people threw ideas and theories around, hoping one would stick so they could use it. I tuned out after a while, my head spinning with so much going on.
I couldn’t get the thought of Stone being a clone out of my head. If the original Maker was no longer alive, did that mean I was released from my duty? Was I no longer wanted for my organs? Clones couldn’t be used for organ donation to another clone, that was the law.
The thought was crazy.
There was no way I would believe I was free until I saw evidence with my own two eyes. I had seen Stone, I looked into her gaze and saw the woman behind the façade. It had felt like she was my Maker. If she was really a clone, she was doing an outstanding job of it.
After the meeting, we were free to rest until our next mission. I was too wired to sit still so I found Reece in the recreational area where he was talking strategies with some other members.
“Can I ask you a favor?” I whispered close to his ear. His whole body froze as he looked at me.
“Of course.” He left the table to join me by the wall. “What is it?”
“Will you teach me how to fight?” My breath fixed itself in my throat while I waited for an answer.
“You don’t have to fight, Wren. We’ll all make sure you’re safe. I’ll always protect you.” I believed him, and I knew he believed it too.
But I wanted to fight. I wanted to make my body strong and I wanted to be able to protect myself. A small part of me knew I was heading for a battle and I wanted to be as prepared for it as possible.
“I want to learn,” I insisted. “Please, will you teach me?”
Reece sighed as I begged silently with my eyes. He wasn’t happy about it but he didn’t know how to refuse me. His head nodded curtly. “Okay. Meet me in the training room at three.”
I was so happy I had to hold myself back from hugging him, the grin would not leave my face. There were a few hours before our training time so I went to the food area and found Rocky helping out in the kitchen.
I’d never seen him in a hairnet before.
My giggles would not stop.
“Yeah, yeah, I know it looks dorky,” he said sheepishly. “But they make us wear them and I just wanted to help out. I’m learning how to cook.”
I wrapped him up in a hug. “I think it’s wonderful, Rock. The look really suits you.”
He was blushing as he kneaded dough onto the table for bread. I grabbed a hairnet from a box attached to the wall, placing it on my head and tucking in all my hair. I modelled it for him. “What do you think?”
Rocky laughed, unable to keep a straight face. “Beautiful. The hairnet really complements your outfit.”
I helped him in the kitchen until three o’clock, working together just like we’d always done. It was incredibly good having Rocky back again. After everything we’d gone through, I couldn’t believe I still had him.
Rocky being alive was a true miracle.
I would never take him for granted.
At precisely three o’clock I entered the training room to find Reece already there. We were alone, probably for the first time since we spent the night in the bunker together. It felt like years had passed in the meantime.
He pushed up to his feet as I approached. “So what do you want to learn?”
“Everything.”
Reece let out a small chuckle. “Where do you want to start?”
I mentally went through the options. There was so much I had to learn and such little time in which to do it. Today was only the beginning of a long process if I was going to be battle-ready one day.
“How about we start with guns?” I suggested.
“You want to know how to fire a gun?”
“And aim it so I can actually hit something.”
Reece stared me down for a few seconds, making sure I was serious. I was deadly serious about the who
le thing. I wanted to defend myself and protect those I loved.
Finally, he sighed and loosened his crossed arms. “Okay. If you insist on this, then I’m going to teach you everything you need to know.”
My lips quirked up into a smile. “Perfect.”
A few minutes later I worked out how difficult firing a gun actually was. The troopers made it look so easy, Reece made it look easy.
They lied.
“Aim and hold your arm steady,” Reece said. He was standing behind me, his arms around my body and holding my hands so they didn’t waver. “That’s it. Now squeeze the trigger.”
I did as he said but the bullet hit the wall, taking out a chunk of plaster. It fluttered to the floor in a cloud of dust. The target remained safe and well.
“Argh. What did I do wrong?”
“Your arms need to be locked in place.”
“I thought I locked them.”
“Not hard enough. Make sure your elbows don’t move at all,” Reece said. As he spoke his breath tickled the back of my neck, sending goosebumps coursing down my spine. “Let’s try again. Line it up, concentrate, and then fire when you’re ready.”
I did exactly what he said, not even letting the warmth of his body so close to mine distract me. I stared down the target, promising I would hit it this time.
My finger twitched on the trigger, I held my breath, my heartbeat grew louder in my eyes, and the bullet went flying.
It hit the target.
Not in the middle or anywhere near it, but I was actually in the vicinity and not all the way over on the wall. I yelped, jumping around with joy.
“Careful with that,” Reece quickly warned, grabbing the gun from my hand and clicking on the safety. He couldn’t be too grumpy with me when I was so happy, his scowl barely lasted on his face.
“I hit it!”
“You certainly did. Well done.”
In my excitement, I wasn’t truly thinking. I pulled Reece into a hug, holding him tightly against me. I was so grateful for his help and everything he was teaching me.
I just didn’t think.
He froze against me, not hugging me back.
My arms loosened as I remembered it wasn’t appropriate. He’d said nothing about our kiss since I returned, which I understood meant he had no intention of repeating it.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“It’s okay. You want to keep going?” I nodded eagerly. “Line up your next shot then, killer.”
The awkwardness dissolved as we continued practicing. Reece showed me a few different types of guns and explained how they worked. He said I had to start with the basics and then I would be allowed to try them all.
Apparently I had to work my way up.
“What about fighting without weapons?” I asked. “I need to know how to do that, too. I might not always have a gun in my hands.”
Reece looked up at the ceiling before his gaze flicked back to me. “I’m going to protect you, Wren. It’s never going to come to you needing to fight.”
“Nobody knows what’s going to happen.”
“I do.”
“Well, I don’t.” I huffed, crossing my arms. “Please, Reece. I need to do this. Even if it’s only to make my body stronger. Please teach me how to fight. If you refuse I will just ask someone else. One of them are bound to say yes to me eventually and none of them will be as talented as you are.”
He was softening, his jaw wasn’t clenched so tightly anymore. I needed to jump on it until his resistance crumbled completely.
“It’s not like we have anything else to do today anyway,” I pointed out. “Please?”
“Fine.” He sighed. “But I’m not going to go easy on you. Learning self-defense takes time and dedication.”
“I promise I will do whatever you tell me to.”
“You’re going to regret this.”
“No, I’m not.” I grinned as he started pulling a mat onto the floor and positioning it in the middle of the room. I hurried over to stand with him, ready for my first lesson.
“The first thing in fighting is balance,” he said. “You need to find your center and keep it there. Otherwise your opponent can knock you over. Once you’re on the floor, the odds of you getting up again are severely diminished. What’s the first lesson?”
“Balance,” I said.
“Good. Let’s rumble.”
Reece tried to knock me off balance and succeeded easily. I tumbled onto the mat with my limbs flailing in all different directions.
I was pathetic.
Which meant I could only improve.
Reece put me through my paces, constantly telling me things and then asking about them later on. He was testing me at every stage, making sure I was paying full attention. I answered every single one of his questions.
I think I passed.
Sweat gleamed on our skin after an hour of combat training. It was hotter in the room than I thought possible. Being so close to Reece was affecting me in all kinds of ways. I kept staring at his lips, remembering our kiss, and then he would charge at me until I fell onto the mat.
I didn’t mind losing to Reece so much. Every time he pushed me onto the mat, he came with me. Our bodies pressed against each other, so close I could feel the rippling of his muscles underneath his shirt.
He pinned me again, holding me down while his arms were around me. I had tried to avoid his grasp this time, I definitely tried not to get caught.
“You need to always anticipate your opponent’s next move,” Reece said. His mouth was right next to mine, our lips so close it wouldn’t take much for us to kiss again.
I wanted to so badly.
He let me go and helped me stand up. “I think you’re getting better. Even just in this short amount of time you’ve improved.”
I wiped at my face with a towel, feeling hot all over. “I don’t think so, but thank you for lying. It’s sweet of you.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Then it must be because of your teaching,” I replied. “One more round?”
“You’re a sucker for punishment.”
Didn’t I know it.
We lined up once more and sparred. The whole time Reece tried to get the upper hand and I fended him off as much as I could. I imagined him as a trooper or a guard, trying to capture me so Stone could kill me. It was easier to attack him when I thought like that.
I lunged for Reece.
He ducked to the side and threw me off balance.
The mat was all I could see as I fell. My leg shot out, trying to break my fall along with my hands. My ankle rolled to the side, unable to break my forward motion.
“Ahh.” The pain was instant as it shot through my gimp leg. Of course it had to be my defective ankle that had taken the brunt of my fall and not my good one that could probably withstand the impact.
“Wren, god, are you okay?” Reece instantly crouched beside me, his hand burning a hole on the small of my back. “Tell me what hurts.”
“It’s just my ankle. I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. Let me see.” He picked up my hand as it grabbed onto my foot and placed it so it rested on my leg. He took over rubbing the skin and forcing the pain to subside.
I didn’t like people looking at, knowing about, or touching my defective foot. I had spent my life trying to hide it from the world and hated the deformity that set me apart from all the other people in Aria.
But when Reece treated my foot, he never recoiled in disgust. He rubbed my foot in a way that made it tolerable, decreased all the defects until it almost looked normal.
He accepted that my defect was part of me.
He never made it into a big deal.
He made my foot feel normal.
Nobody else did.
I loved him so much for it.
By the time Reece had finished rubbing my foot, it didn’t hurt any more. It wasn’t swelling and the foot actually looked straighter than it normally did.
“How does it
feel?” he asked.
“Good, thank you.”
“Do you want to call it a day?”
I shook my head. I felt like I could do anything under his gaze and attention. “No, I want to keep going.”
He raised his eyebrows in question but I didn’t change my mind. There was only one way to be stronger and that was to train. I wanted to be as strong as Reece.
He stood and helped me to my feet. “Okay then. This time, I’m going to show you how you can favor your better foot. That way you can minimize injuries to your hurt one. And you can keep fighting if someone hurts it during the fight.”
It sounded perfect.
We trained and trained in the hot room. Time didn’t matter, only our stamina. We continued on right through the afternoon and into the evening.
Right up until Rocky stepped into the room, catching us just as Reece had me in his clutches and I wriggled to get free. We froze in place, waiting to hear what news he brought.
“Joseph wants to see you upstairs, there’s a meeting about to start,” Rocky said, underlying anger lacing his words like poison. Reece quickly let me go as we stood and stepped apart.
Reece handed me one of the towels as we wiped at the sweat pooling on our skin. It felt like a sauna in the room, stuffy and too warm.
There was a feeling of dread as we walked up the flight of stairs back to the main shelter area. All the most important members of the Resistance were seated around the meeting room table, their lips set in grim frowns.
We took the last two seats while Rocky joined a group in the recreation area. He never joined in the meetings, I wasn’t entirely sure why. It never seemed like the appropriate time to ask.
Joseph nodded in greeting before he launched into his speech. “We’re almost certain now that key members of parliament are clones. At some stage, they replaced their Makers in what would need to have been a seamless exchange. As far as we know, nobody else has knowledge of this.”
“The public would be outraged if they knew,” George said with indignation. It kind of bothered me that the idea of clones running the city was so offensive to him. We were just as human as they were, but nobody believed it.
One Spark of Hope Page 9