Force: Book Two of the Zoya Chronicles

by Kate Sander

  “It’s fine,” Luc said angrily, pushing her away.

  “No, I insist!” she replied, trying again to rub the soda off of his clothes. Luc pushed her away again.

  “I said its fine!” he said angrily. Kitchen staff came and started to clean up the mess around them.

  Charlie hung her head and mumbled another weak apology and hurried herself out of the dining hall, stares and angry mutterings chasing her. The stolen key card weighed heavily in her pocket. She went straight for the hallway that led to her lab and used the card. The light glowed green and the door unlatched. Her stomach unknotted in her victory. She needed to get to her lab and destroy everything before they discovered that Luc’s key card was gone.

  She hurried her way down the dark hallway toward her lab. Her old habits were starting to return and her footsteps were light and quick. She got to her lab and noticed that the two usual guards weren’t there. She took it as a bit of good fortune and unlocked the door. She did an internal victory dance as she accessed the lab. The dance was cut short when she saw the state of the room.

  Five days had really taken a toll. All her equipment was pushed to the sides of the lab out of the way. The rats had been moved away, their cages cleaned out. In the center of the room was a large fume hood attached to a ceiling discharge. Charlie saw that there were about ten pink pills, candy coated, in a bag in the fume hood. She couldn’t understand how they had gone from her molecule to pill form in less than a week.

  She moved her slack-jawed form to her computer station. That, thankfully, had been untouched. She went toward her station and now was full of questions. They couldn’t have gone to human trials. That would be disastrous. She needed to figure out how far they had taken the molecule. They should have tested thousands of dosages and variations with thousands of different animals to figure out what to put in the pill. Even then she didn’t know why the molecule worked or even if it did. Thousands more hours of research should have gone into this molecule before reaching this point.

  She unlocked her computer. They hadn’t changed her password. She figured that they didn’t expect her to get this far. She didn’t think much of it and logged into the servers. She didn’t have access to the entire server. She knew that. But if she could delete her research and anything new that they had done then maybe it would slow them down.

  She busied herself with trying to find any new information she could. She was confused by how they had advanced so quickly. She was getting wrapped up in the question instead of deleting her research. She was bent over the computer, lost in thought.

  A hand with a steel grip grabbed her shoulder and turned her roughly. Charlie almost jumped out of her chair except the hand was putting so much pressure on her she could barely move. She was turned and she was staring directly into the face of Alejandra. Her pointed manicured nails were digging into Charlie’s shoulder so hard they were drawing blood.

  “Well,” Alejandra said, Columbian accent thick. “Isn’t this interesting?”

  Charlie began to say something when Alejandra slapped her across the face, hard. Charlie was thrown from her chair and hit the ground. She immediately grabbed her bleeding face. Alejandra’s nails had raked lines across her face so deep that they were bleeding freely. Charlie lay in a heap on the ground.

  “We have an experiment this evening for the director of this facility,” Alejandra said deliberately, slowly. “I would hate for you to miss it, considering that your research made all of this happen.” She dragged Charlie to her feet. Charlie was still dazed and couldn’t bring herself to fight back.

  “First, we will need to go and pick out a suitable candidate for this monumental research,” Alejandra twisted Charlie’s arm behind her back and pulled her so close that Charlie could smell her sickly sweet perfume. Charlie tried to struggle but Alejandra pulled out a knife and held it to her throat. Charlie immediately stopped moving. “Better,” Alejandra whispered in her ear, “I have no inclination to keep you alive.”

  Alejandra moved them through the lab, out the door where two security guards were waiting. Charlie was shoved roughly towards them. They caught her by the arms as she stumbled and held her upright.

  “Make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid,” Alejandra said. “She’s coming with us.”

  The guards nodded silently and Charlie was marched between them in Alejandra’s wake. Her face burned, but she didn’t think of it. She needed to get out of here. But she couldn’t. Not in good conscience.

  They walked her through doors and hallways she’d never seen. She had been confined to a tiny area of this compound. She hadn’t realized how big this place was. They brought her to a door with guards guarding both sides. Alejandra didn’t swipe her key card. A camera overhead was watching them and the door opened automatically.

  Charlie was marched through behind Alejandra. She walked up to a man with slicked back hair and a tailored suit.

  “François, my dear,” Alejandra said, holding out her hand. François took it and kissed the top.

  “You look as ravishing as ever,” he said with a French accent. He completely ignored Charlie’s presence. That told Charlie that he had been expecting her.

  “Do you have what we are looking for?” Alejandra asked him.

  “Of course, my dear. It’s my job to find the perfect fit,” François led them down the hallway of cells.

  Charlie had never felt real guilt. She thought she’d had, but what she felt before had nothing on what she was feeling now. The cells were filled with children. She guessed that they ranged from ages ten through seventeen. There were two per cell. They were dirty and looked famished. Many of them had a dead look in their eyes.

  Charlie looked around frantically. She hadn’t known that there were children in here. She was trying to make herself feel better but it wasn’t working.

  These people were monsters.

  She had no idea how right she was.

  She was marched to a cell in the middle the row. Inside were two of the older children. They were huddled in the back of the cell together, a boy and a girl. The girl had a bright jacket wrapped around her shoulders. When François stopped in front of their cell the boy looked up, fire in his eyes. Charlie was shocked. She’d seen his eyes before. She knew those eyes. They were brown with flecks of copper. Her world was reeling and she couldn’t keep up.

  “The girl,” François said. Two more guards came up and unlocked the door. The boy tried to put up a fight but it was no use. He was quickly overpowered. The girl was ushered out.

  “Kelly!” the boy yelled.

  Charlie tried to say something but her guard punched her in the stomach, doubling her over. All breath was knocked out of her. She would have collapsed but the guard held her upright. The boy stared at them with burning hatred in his copper flecked eyes.

  “Is she what we need?” Alejandra asked. The girl named Kelly stood upright, eyes downcast, arms crossed. Alejandra walked around her, looking her up and down.

  “Yes,” François said, “she’d be a tough sell for me. Morphine addiction as well as a history of prostitution are hard sells.”

  Alejandra nodded in agreement, “No morphine recently? We don’t want anything that could interact.”

  François shook his head, “No. She hasn’t had anything for at least five days. As you can tell she’s even stopped withdrawing.”

  Charlie was disgusted. They were talking about this human being, this girl, as if she were a piece of livestock.

  “She’ll do,” Alejandra decided with finality.

  François nodded, delighted. Charlie was shuffled from in between the two guards. One guard twisted her arm behind her back. The other went and grabbed Kelly in the same way.

  “Are you coming to the demonstration?” Alejandra asked François as they left the cells.

  Children with dead eyes were following their progress.

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” François said.

  François and Alejandra led the way ou
t of the cells and back through the hallway. Charlie could hear the girl’s breaths coming beside her in gasps. She was scared. Charlie’s free hand was the one closest to the girl’s and she reached out and grabbed the girl’s hand. She was trying to comfort her as best as she could. Charlie could guess what was in store for the girl. Maybe for both of them. She needed it to be both of them.

  They were marched somewhere in the building. Charlie didn’t know at this point where they were in the compound. She gripped the girl’s hand as long as possible. They were paraded into a room that looked like an office. It had a large oak desk to one side. The floors were concrete but a thick gold and purple rug covered the center of the room. There was a door on the other side of the room.

  They were wrenched apart. “No!” Charlie gasped. The guard twisted her arm so hard behind her back that she thought it would break.

  “Shut up,” he said quietly in her ear.

  Tears formed and Charlie nodded.

  Alejandra grabbed the girl’s hand and led her to the center of the room. François stepped to the side.

  A man entered. He had red hair, much lighter than Charlie’s own. Where hers was rich and dark, his was light and orange. He had a red moustache. Charlie knew exactly who he was. He had met her when she had first been brought to the compound.

  “Hello, Dr. Freudman,” Alejandra said.

  He nodded and smiled. He had a face that anyone would trust.

  Charlie knew better. He was pure, unadulterated evil.

  The doctor nodded to them all, smiling. His eyes didn’t even blink when he saw how Charlie was being held. He looked at them like they were all out for an enjoyable lunch with friends.

  “Hello, all,” he said in his German accent, “I understand that you have made a breakthrough.”

  “We have,” Alejandra agreed. Kelly just stood in the center of the room, looking around, deathly white with fear, shaking uncontrollably.

  “Congratulations to all!” Dr. Freudman exclaimed, then looking pointedly at Charlie. “A special congratulations to yourself! I understand you were instrumental. I knew you would be a useful acquisition.”

  Kelly turned towards her and stared. Her face was stricken with hate and misunderstanding. Charlie mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to her but Kelly just shook her head in disbelief.

  “Now, let us begin!” Dr. Freudman said.

  “No!” Charlie yelled, the guard pulled tighter on her arm but she didn’t care. “Take me. I invented it. Let me.”

  Freudman walked towards her, smiling, “My dear. She is expendable, you are not.”

  “You have what you want from me, make me test it instead. You don’t need me anymore.”

  “She is a hooker. A drug addict. Her life is expendable,” Freudman said calmly.

  “She’s a person!” Charlie yelled, then deciding to switch tactics said, “she is a child,” Charlie pleaded. “She’s of no use over there. I am.”

  Freudman nodded sympathetically, “I understand. But I have reasons for keeping you here. Unfortunately, it is her cross to bear.” He walked back over to Alejandra.

  One of the guards brought in a chair with an EEG attached. It looked like an old electric chair. Alejandra sat Kelly down and strapped in her arms and her legs. Then Alejandra shaved Kelly’s head. Tears fell from her face as she watched her brown hair litter the carpet but she didn’t move. Charlie was crying freely and the whole scene was blurry. She told herself that she couldn’t look away. She had done this, she couldn’t look away.

  Alejandra attached the electrodes to Kelly’s head, carefully, almost gently. Silent tears fell down the girl’s face. Alejandra took the pink pills out of her suit pocket.

  “What is the dosage?” Dr. Freudman asked, holding out his hand. Alejandra put a pill in his hand. He inspected it closely then gave it back to her.

  “We have run an algorithm for weight to drug ratio. As you know, we haven’t had a lot of time to test but it has worked in one hundred percent of the cases. Or so we think. I don’t believe there can be a dose too high.”

  Dr. Freudman nodded, “I will be the judge on whether or not it works. What dose are you using?”

  “5000 milligrams,” Alexandra answered, picking out five pills.

  Dr. Freudman nodded, “Proceed,” he said. He went around the desk and sat in a plush chair.

  Alejandra nodded. Kelly was crying and shaking, eyes wide. Alejandra grabbed Kelly violently around the chin and forced her mouth open. She shoved the pills in and held her mouth closed until she was sure that she swallowed.

  “No!” Charlie yelled. Her guard pulled upward on her arm again so hard that she heard her shoulder pop. Pain exploded in her back and shoulder. She wanted to fall to the ground, but the guard held her upright by her now useless arm. She told herself she needed to watch.

  Kelly went flush from head to toe, a stark contrast from her pale white. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she started shaking violently.

  Charlie couldn’t stop crying. She weakly tried to pull away from the guard but her hurt arm had left her with no energy. He didn’t let go.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Kelly stopped. Her head fell forward and she remained motionless.

  Alejandra was watching the EEG on a screen behind her head. Freudman was watching her intently. Alejandra held up one finger as she watched the screen.

  “Now,” she said. The EEG showed the pattern of brainwaves that they had seen in the rat. It slowly faded into nothing.

  Freudman nodded and leaned back in the chair, breathing slowly. Charlie was confused. It looked as though he was meditating. They waited, silently. Charlie’s arm throbbed but she barely felt it. She just stared at Kelly’s dead face.

  Suddenly, Freudman sat up and smiled.

  “It worked!” he exclaimed happily. “Ladies and gentlemen, it worked! We have created a Zoya! One who cannot be killed from this world. She’s dead here, she’s alive in The Other Place! Great success!”

  Alejandra smiled broadly. Freudman went and embraced her.

  Charlie’s heart sank. She had been so preoccupied with the task at hand she had never actually thought of the consequences.

  “Now,” Freudman said, staring pointedly at Charlie, “I was told to keep her alive. I never agreed to a state.” He looked at Alejandra, “I believe that the cells are a good place for her.”

  Alejandra smiled and nodded.

  They dragged her to a cell in the same hallway as the children. She was lost in thought, shut down to the world.

  She’d created the ultimate weapon for The Other Place. Zoya were only kept in check by dying in this world or waking up from their coma. There could now be an army of Zoya in The Other Place with no way to stop them from here. Her invention would lead to mass death and destruction.

  And if The Other Place was destroyed, what would happen here?

  Part II

  “Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ― Bob Marley

  “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy

  12

  Tory

  October 23, 210, 15:05

  Location: North Langundo.

  Tory was struggling. The snow was deep, almost past her knees. The wind whipped over her covered face. She was heading north, just like she always was.

  “Just always north,” she muttered, trying to lift her knees as high as possible.

  “You’re the one who listened to the old man,” Black Eyes answered from somewhere beside her. “I still have no idea why you listened to the Shaman.”

  Tory still couldn’t see her. She didn’t even remember what Black Eyes looked like. But she was there, ever present, always by her side. And her voice was grating as hell.

  “Ever present and annoying,” Tory muttered. A gust of wind rose from over the tundra and Tory took cover behind her arm. She had a seal skin balaclava covering her face, given to
her in the last village, but the wind still cut her to her core.

  “You can’t call me annoying,” Black Eyes said tersely, “you killed me, remember? And evidently I’m stuck with you. None of this seems like my fault.”

  Tory shrugged and huddled into her coat, trying to block the biting wind that was whipping around her. It was cold. Colder than she had ever experienced. She had been trekking north for over three years now. Making her way north east to north west, finding villages and people along the way. She worked for food and water and allowed herself a respite from the cold in each village. But she still hadn’t found her father.

  “Someday,” Tory mumbled, “you’re going to have to forgive me for that.”

  “Forgive you for killing me?” Black Eyes scoffed. “Not a chance. I had a good life before I was sucked into that war.”

  “We all had a good life before the war,” Tory snapped. “You may be dead but I lost my family. Senka died. Jules, her boyfriend, the one who led the Sun Gods into the trap in the first place is most likely dead. In case you didn’t notice he took a knife to the back.”

  Black Eyes tried to interrupt but Tory was on a roll. They must have had this same conversation a thousand times during their journey and it still pissed Tory off.

  “Eli,” Tory said, holding a finger up to Black Eye’s general direction, “Was injured. Not as bad as Jules was but still. I have no idea where he is. He most likely died in the fire.”

  Tory’s mind snapped to the fire in Ismat three years ago. The Shaman had sent her on this stupid task of finding her father in the north. Ismat was nestled into the foot of a mountain. As Tory climbed, she noticed that Ismat was burning. Instead of retreating down the mountain to help evacuate, she’d continued up the mountain in the direction the Shaman had sent her.

  Tory regretted the decision every single day.

  “And Ujarak…” Tory drifted off after she mentioned her love. Ujarak was a hulking quiet man, steadfast in his love. They had found each other years ago. Tory’s heart hurt just thinking about him. She missed him more than anything.