Ivory embraced me. “Cally, thank you.”
I nodded and looked at my remaining friends. Enya leaned against the cave wall and lit a bond fire between us. We gathered around, staring into the flames that reminded us of our journey: of our courage, our dreams… our losses.
Flames blazed everywhere, from The Regime to even underground Dreamers in The Blaze. A fire was forming in the hearts of all who lived in our world, each person choosing either to conform or to rebel. Those who rebelled openly would surely be put to death. Ambert might’ve already been put to death.
No one else would die.
No one else would burn.
They’d have to follow the trail of fire to catch us first. The Regime might’ve had numbers and power, but they didn’t have any fire in their grasp.
And fire would be our guide to victory.
EPILOGUE
Dreamer’s Folly
“I stood out on an ivory beach,
The sands a rustic gold.
A place yet inside Regime’s reach,
Where a story’s told.
Among the music on the street,
A song, proud and bold.
Gifts aren’t rare to those you meet,
Only rare to glory’s sold.
What burns you makes you stronger.
What doesn’t kill only breaks.
Thorns of doubt pierce into me.
A darkened sign of heartaches.”
Mai looked up from her tablet file of the last piece of music Ambert Greer composed before the unfortunate accident at Base Darkguard. There was no way to hide how horrible and crippling it was. The Regime’s only job was to rise from its ashes, pick up the pieces slowly and steadily, and bring back its domain over its citizens.
“So, we got everything we needed?” Commander Mai pressed her cell phone against her ear.
Seconds on the clock ticked away; her office remained quiet in respect for Base Darkguard’s fall. Red and black tiles reflected every object in the room from the floor, including every metal desk and cabinet. Drops of blood spilled onto the floor as well, adding bits of chaos to the clean atmosphere. Looking at the grotesque display, Mai jumped to ask another question, reminded of the important task she had ahead of her.
“Including the blood samples? I mean, that game with the twins was fun and all, but I can’t do that again. Not with one dead and the other… You don’t say?” her lip twitched. “All of them? Then we can go as scheduled?”
Her hand grasped onto another one strapped into a stretcher. An EKG beeped, slowly, looming on the verge of flat-lining. His black and red uniform was charred in the explosion, the body attached suffering from several third-degree burns and a stab wound. All caused by those radicals: the same ones who took away her twin sister. The same Dreamers she wanted burning under her heel at the mercy of her new empire. All to save those subjects who were loyal to her practices.
She couldn’t have come across a better candidate for Project Dark Phoenix, though he’d never been awake, only semiconscious to his own power. Not like her, who saw herself for what she was: an enemy of Dreamers because of her dark magic. She always was, always would be, a monster in their eyes, a witch who played potions and genetics to her will.
He would have to learn. Probably was already learning. His burns signaled a collapse of trust between him and Dreamers: something she was all too familiar with. Something she looked back on as a defining moment in her own life.
“Good. Thanks for your commitment, Becky. Tell the others I’m expecting them here within a few days. We can rebuild The Regime from its ashes.” Mai brushed a streak of hair out of his face. “Whatever it takes.”
The Commander hung up the phone and smiled, letting her grin curve as it always did. She’d lost so much between her sister, her best friend, and now her prized base. Any research or resources that survived had to be used to their fullest genetic benefit to help the cause against the rebel efforts. And not just to their benefit, but to her own. Years of planning couldn’t end on a stale note. Not now.
It’d only be a matter of time before the rest of the leaders found out she was The Commander, and, according to their patriarchal policy, she would be dethroned. More than likely, the position of Commander would go to Zeke or Hugo Knight, and she couldn’t let either of them take power away from her. Not while she still had resources, lab rats, and a hand to shoot with.
It would be a long road to revive The Regime after losing its best base, but Commander Mai was determined, more than ever before. She grabbed a needle and the dark vial in her pocket before returning to the stretcher.
Letting out a nervous chuckle, she prepped her vial and listened to the dying EKG heartbeat. Whether she liked it or not, Dreamers had played her again, as they always did. They might’ve taken her prized base, but she was determined to never let them steal the last pieces of her past that remained in her — her resolve being one of them.
She whipped her pigtails around to face the stretcher. “It’s been a long road, hasn’t it?”
There was no reply but the hum of the air conditioner, the small drops of IV fluid, and the EKG. She got an alcohol wipe and turned back to the stretcher; it was only a matter of time before death’s embrace would snatch him. The pulse grew weaker, but that didn’t stop Commander Mai from what saying what was on her mind.
“If the Dreamers want to play with fire, they’ll have to burn first.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Catherine Kopf is a student residing in The United States. In her free time, she enjoys writing, reading YA fantasy novels, and attending her church. She hopes to create adventures the public doesn’t only enjoy for their plots, but stories that tweens and teens feel they can relate to and grow with.
Splintering Reality (Breaking Order Series Book 2) Page 30