Ooh… I am going to say something. I want to see the look on Collins face when she sees that I know her secret. Then, with my gun pointed between her eyes, I want her to beg me not to say anything.
Looking at Luke, I open my mouth to speak. He nods for me to go ahead.
I smile, stepping to the foot of the stairs, able to see Cory and Collins in the hallway upstairs. “Found out about what, Collins?” I ask loudly, slowly climbing the stairs with Luke behind me.
She sucks in her breath and glares at me. “How long have you been standing down there?”
“Long enough.”
“Kylie―” Cory starts.
I quickly cut him off. “Don’t you speak to me,” I say, pointing my finger at him. “I will still break your nose.” Dropping my hand, I look back at Collins. “You all can finish your talk. I’m going to talk to the general.” I turn around, and my arm is yanked, turning me back.
“You better say nothing, Ky,” Collins threatens.
I push her away from me. “And if I do? What are you going to do about it?”
“Kylie, you don’t have to say anything.” Cory adds in his two cents no one asked for.
I rush him and draw my fist back. Collins pulls me back. “You don’t have to say anything, Kylie.”
Luke pushes her back. “Don’t touch my sister. No one cares about your life, Collins. We will bring forth all traitors and execute them. We can do it here or tell the general first, and if he has instructions, we’ll follow those. You know the rules, there are no exceptions.”
“After the things we’ve done, Luke, you will have me executed?”
“We did nothing, Collins. You were just a contender who wanted me to bone her. Don’t use our history to save your life. It makes you sound pathetic.”
That was disrespectful.
Collins smacks Luke across the face. What Luke said was mean, and he deserved to get smacked, but I will not allow Collins to hit my brother and have no reaction.
I punch her with my left fist. She quickly retaliates, and we brawl before we’re pulled away from each other. “What is your problem, Kylie?” she shouts, trying to break out of Cory’s hold on her.
I shake out my arm. “Come on, Luke,” I grab his arm.
“Ky, don’t do this,” Cory says to our backs as we walk down the stairs. “If you two calm down for a minute, I know we can talk about this. You can’t extend courtesy to one and not the other.”
I look at Luke. “We’ll talk when we get back outside,” he tells me.
“Come on, Ky, don’t be a bitch about this,” Collins yells to us as we near the door. “And Luke, even though you are being a total dick in front of your sister, I know you don’t want to do this.”
“Shut up, Collins,” I yell back.
They run down the stairs once we reach the door. “Wait! Seriously, Ky,” Cory says.
Marc, Sean, Gia, and Cecilia walk through the door taking in the four of us. “What’s happening?” Cecilia asks.
“Ky and Luke were just headed back to the rec hall with us, we’re late for dinner and needed to talk,” Cory responds.
Marc grabs my arms as he pushes me backward in the direction of the kitchen. “What were you and him going to talk about?” he asks once we make it out of hearing distance.
I shake my head. “He’s just trying to cover something up.” Roughly rubbing my hand across my forehead, I try to ease the forming headache. “Where were you at dinner?” I grab his forearms. His hands are still wrapped around my arms.
“I was with my group in their rec hall. Why?”
I hitch a brow, taken aback by his lie, but I won’t dig into it as there are other pressing matters. “Just asking. I didn’t see you is all.”
He licks his lips, and a small smirk steals his serious expression. “And you expected to?”
I smile shyly. “Maybe.”
“Um-hum.” He leans forward and kisses me. Marc’s kisses sink me into short-lived oblivion. Short-lived because he always breaks away too quickly, and my lips can’t stay placed against his forever.
When he leans back, I lean forward, not letting his lips part from mine. His mouth smiles against mine. I break away, wanting to witness it. I match its brightness. “I wasn’t ready for you to leave yet.”
Going back in for another kiss, he stops, and his smile fades when he looks to the opening of the kitchen. Cory walks in. “Can we talk?” he asks.
“Never,” I respond. “And if you continue to talk to me, I’m going to reintroduce my fist to your face.”
“Get over yourself, Kylie,” Collins comes to his side, standing in the doorway. “Hey Marc.”
She’s pushing her luck. Marc kisses my neck before he says, “I’ll find you later.” He leaves us and heads away to the shower stalls.
I cross my arms and ask, “What, Collins?”
“We are supposed to be friends, remember, Ky?” she whispers. “I am not what you think. He is,” she points to Cory, “and he wants me to help convince others to help him.”
I walk away from her to find Luke. He’s standing by the front door, talking to Sean and Gia. “Luke, let’s go on a sweep.”
“Me and Collins will go with you,” Cecilia says from behind me.
I shrug and pull Luke to leave the house. The night sweep is the last thing I want to do, but I also don’t want to be crowded in our home with Cory and Collins trying to convince me of their lies.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lately, on my night sweeps, there haven’t been any Zombie attacks. I’m not complaining. I hate Zombie-hunting in the sweltering desert for miles. My mind is bogged down with so much, though. I can’t concentrate on even keeping my steps ordered.
“Let’s head back,” Luke says.
“Great,” I cheer under my breath.
The four of us check our surroundings before heading for the base. “Ky,” Collins calls.
She goes unanswered as I head back.
“Ky, we should talk about what happened. The four of us, before we get back to our corridors.”
“Collins,” Luke begins. “We heard what we heard. If this is your way of requesting our silence, you should try a little harder.”
“I’m never begging Ky for anything. I deserve your respect and dammit, you’re going to give it to me,” she snaps, a demanding edge in her tone.
I stop. My gun weighs heavier in my hand. Without the thought crossing my mind, I twist around, gun raised. My barrel is at Collins’s head. I’m not even aware I crossed the ground to her. “I could just execute you right now, Collins.”
“You could, Ky, but then what will happen if they,” she points to the sky, “find out you killed me? They’ll come down here for you.”
“I’ll blow their heads off too,” I say, never breaking eye contact. My finger twitches, and I’m itching to pull the trigger. I want to put a hole in her head so badly.
She pushes my gun from her face. “Ky, I’m not one of them, I promise. Me or Cecilia. We are full Creations. You know how much I hate traitors.”
I survey her. “Why were you associating with one if you hate traitors?”
“Why were you?”
Oohh, she’s got me.
Collins purses her lips and quips, “Cat got your tongue, Ky?”
I bite into my left cheek to manage my anger and not slap her with my pistol. Admitting defeat, I nod. “That is accurate. But we weren’t siding with the enemy. Didn’t you say something about convincing others to help? That sounds like something a snake would do.”
“We could point the finger all night, Ky. Let’s be adults and let bygones be bygones. I’m not a traitor, and I’m not a snake. I’m trying to find out what Cory’s plan is because you have been ignoring his obvious signs of being a traitor.”
I look at Luke. “How not true is that statement?”
“It’s getting late. Let’s head back. Besides, we have other things we need to discuss.” Luke turns, and I follow. “And by the way, Collin
s, you may not be a snake or a traitor, but you are definitely a slut. Remember that.”
I bump Luke’s arm with my elbow. “Why are you being so vulgar tonight? You are usually a little more respectful than that.”
A shotgun clicks and fires. Luke jolts forward, face-planting in the dirt. I lurch forward, searching his body, sighing with relief at finding the slug caught in his vest.
I fire at Collins before I look her direction. When I do turn to her, the shotgun is falling from her hands. My next shot hits Collins between the eyes. Her head jerks back as her body falls backward. Cecilia snatches up her hand as she falls. She shouts, “Ky! You could have killed her.”
“Shit,” I mutter, disappointed. Apparently, I didn’t kill her. “I wanted to though, that’s the reason I shot her in the face.”
As she heals Collins, I turn back to Luke. “Are you okay?” He climbs to his feet.
“Yes. You think you shot her enough times?”
I kick dirt, grumping, “No. She’s still alive.”
He cracks his neck. “When she gets up, I’m going to bust her lip for shooting me. That shit hurt.” His back likely has a bruise the size of a watermelon.
“Honestly, Luke, I don’t like Collins, but you deserved to get shot because of what you said.”
He blows me off, waving his hand in my face.
“Let it go, Luke. If someone had said that to me, they would have gotten shot too.”
He reluctantly turns and walks away. “Okay, but when she comes back after you for shooting her in the head, don’t expect me to say anything.”
I scoff. “I can handle Collins without you. I’m not worried about her retaliation. Just if she shoots me, you better be as fast as Cecilia in healing me. Did you see how fast she jumped for her?”
Luke laughs. “Yeah. I’d grab you that fast too if you were about to die. Let’s hurry back to let Jord know we’ve returned.”
“Speaking of Jord, and now that no one is around…” I smack his arm with the back of my hand. “When were you going to tell me that he knows about us?”
He jumps from my attack. “When would I, Ky?”
“We know about them, and,” I carry on, “we all want the same thing.”
Luke nods. “The five of us seem to want the same thing. But everyone here doesn’t.”
“I need to know everything, Luke. Before we make it back to his office, tell me everything.”
We stop before we make it back to the light of the base. “I said I would talk to Harold first, and I did. I told him up front there is something suspicious about him, and I think he and Jord are mixed Creations. He questioned me asking, ‘Not implants?’ I didn’t refer to him as an implant. So I repeated, ‘Are you all mixed Creations?’ He took off his goggles. I’ve never seen him without his goggles.”
“They’re always tinted, and the majority of his face is always blocked off,” I cut in.
“Right, so he took them off and stared at me with eyes the same color as ours. But his entire eye was this color and sparkling like the Vojin’s particles. He said, ‘Yes,’ and put his goggles back on, then asked, ‘What made you suspect that?’ I told him about what we discussed the other night and how we suspected Jord and Seits because of Cory and because of the list and everything else. He nodded and agreed with me. Then he told me about how he, Jord, and Seits are mixed, but they do not work for the Vojin. They’re rebellious hosts, and even the Vojin know they’re against them. Without care, Harold released all this information.
“Harold is against them because they killed his twin. Like our parents, his brother found out that they had a plan bigger than domination, and he suspected it was only a matter of time before they executed that plan. Harold disagreed with his brother, and when his brother went to confront the Vojin, they murdered him. This was his proof. Jord and Seits are close to Harold. They all grew up together in New York. They were shipped to Arizona for Separation placement when they were younger. When Jord and Seits found out the Vojin killed Harold’s brother, they crossed too, removing their implants.”
“How and when did they find out about us and our parents?”
“I don’t know, Ky. When you heard it, it was the first time I heard it.”
“He knows details.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.” I purse my lips. “You’re the brains of this operation.” I shrug. “I just know I want it to involve killing a lot of Vojin. Me having to reload over and over and over. And us not dying in the process.”
“We are probably going to die, Ky. But as long as we go out with pride, avenging our parents, taking out more of them than they do us. Our deaths will count.”
“We may make it out alive.”
“I hope we do. But if we plan on raiding their home, we will be outnumbered. Logically, there’s no way we make it out alive, but let’s hope for the best.”
“We’ll tell Jord we will help but not confirm we’re mixed. That’ll open too many doors because, technically, that’s not the truth. We, the generals, and Harold will raid the Vojin,” I strategize, playing out the conversations and the event in my mind. I see Jord nodding and hours later Vojin falling.
Luke grabs his chin between his thumb and index finger, and rubs it before saying, “Jord wants you to convince Marc and Sean to fight against them with us, going up there with us,” he says, pointing to the sky. “And I am supposed to be convincing Collins and Cecilia.”
“You are off to a great start,” I warble sarcastically, lifting my brows high and widening my eyes. There’s no way Collins will listen to anything he says now.
Luke snorts. “If I tell Collins to jump off one of those bridges they built, she’ll do it. There isn’t much convincing needed, no matter how I treat her.”
“Why?”
Luke rolls his eyes and starts back for the base. “The same reason Marc has you picking him over me.”
Oohh, that is not nice. His words strike me in my back, and I tense from the pain. “I am not picking Marc over you, Luke. I’m―”
“Don’t lie to me, Kylie. It’s better for you to say nothing at all than to lie to me. We’ll do this and succeed in clearing out these Vojin. Maybe the wars will stop now that we have set aside our differences as countries and are working together. Then maybe Separation won’t be so intense, and you and him can have each other. Go on a date or something,” he says dryly, looking over his shoulder for a second then turning away. He shrugs once.
I know Luke is pissed about Marc, but for some reason, he doesn’t display it as I expect him to. When I think of the end of the wars, people coming together, I long to be laughing and talking with Marc at the diner with a shake and a basket of fries. But at what cost? Would it be worth it not to have Separation and war?
We walk into Jord’s office, and Jord stands, asking, “Did you have enough time to think about it?”
“We did,” Luke responds.
“You have decided?”
“Before I give you our answer.” Luke pauses. “When we walked into our corridors, Cory was there talking to Collins about the Vojin planning to attack in two weeks. Would you know anything about that?”
Jord crosses his arms, brows knitting. “We were not sure when they planned to attack. We only knew we wanted to attack them first.”
“When are you planning to attack?” I ask.
He sits back down and looks at a couple of papers on his desk. “The four of us have to travel out to Highrum in the morning. We will set our mission on the Vojin destruction after we return.”
“Were you going to wait until the last minute to tell us about this Highrum mission? Why are we going there?” I ask.
“You have something better to do than what you’re told, Kylie?” he continues, and I zip my lips. “We are required by the Guidance to do so.” They are going to turn all of us into Zombies. I just know it. “There is a party there in honor of the Premier. We were cordially invited. Whatever that means.” Luke and I
shrug. Why does it matter how you are invited, or what type of invite it is? I don’t get it either. “They requested the heads of the sector, which is Seits and me, and my top incoming leaders, which are you two. Arletta seemed to be very impressed with you, Kylie, and when we spoke this morning, she wanted to confirm you and Luke will attend.”
“I’m honored,” I say with an edge of sarcasm, trying not to roll my eyes. “I mean no disrespect,” I quickly follow. I have no problems with the Guidance. We’ve lived under them forever. If it weren’t for their order and instruction, things in the America would probably be worse off. I should actually thank them for creating me. They are the reason Creations exist. But I’m not that generous. “I am honored she’s shown a liking in me, sir. I performed as I was born to and deserved the praise I received following orders and executing the implants.”
“You are correct, Ky. Be ready at eight hundred hours for our departure. By the way,” he lowers his voice. “Ky, Luke is already aware of this. We will also need reinforcements when we go. Those who may not be mixed as well. I suspect you can convince Marc and Sean to accompany us on this mission, and Luke is expected to convince Collins and Cecilia.”
I nod, and we leave his office. When we’re far enough away, I say, “Luke, I’ve already talked to Marc about him helping us.”
“Great. What’d he say?” Luke asks, interest piquing as he looks at me with prominent brows.
I scratch my eyebrow and mutter, “I think he’s undecided. I’ll talk to him again tonight.”
Luke grumbles, “Damn, Ky. Is there anything he doesn’t know?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Does he know everything that we found out?”
“Almost.”
“What the hell, Ky. You’ll just tell him everything?”
I shrug. “Yes. What’s the problem? He risked his life for me, Luke.”
He shakes his head. “Whatever, Kylie. Are you sleeping in my room or his?”
“Yours. I’m going to talk to him for a minute after I shower.”
Salient Invaders: A Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Series (The Separation Trilogy Book 2) Page 22