Awaken (The Awaken Series Book 1) (27 page)

“Fine,” I huffed. “I can wait a few more minutes if that makes you happy.” I lifted my teacup to my mouth, and then set it down without taking a drink.

The doorbell rang right at seven.
 

“Luna,” Mother said, her eyes darting to the door, to father, then back to me. “Don’t fight them, sweetie.”

“What are you talking about?” My breath was caught in my throat, the air seeming unusually thick. The warning bells continued to wail, getting louder and louder. “I have to go,” I mumbled, my voice coming out all warped and foreign.

I stood up, having to clutch the table for support. My limbs felt tired and heavy, and my mind felt numb. I had lost control of my body. I felt like screaming, but I wasn’t quite sure how to open my mouth.
 

My cup of tea mocked me from its place at the table, and I struggled to push myself into an upright position.

I searched Mother’s eyes for an explanation, for anything, but she was looking away, unwilling to watch the results of the decision to drug her oldest child. Megan was gone, and I heard the slamming of a door following footsteps on the staircase.

I turned away, my leaded limbs moving awkwardly in slow motion. Father was talking with two guards by the open front door, and the desire to scream reemerged.

My family was having me killed. They would rather have me dead than on the Outside. But how did they know about the plan? Jasper and I had been so careful….

The sound of tiny clicks and the sight of May falling to the ground in a lifeless heap flashed before my eyes. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I was supposed to escape. I was supposed to be free.

Then I thought of Jasper. He would be waiting for me in the forest, wondering where I was. He would think that I changed my mind, and that I didn’t want to go with him anymore.

“Did you take care of the shuttle driver?” Father asked.
 

“He’s been relieved of his position,” a guard answered.

“I have to go take care of the boy,” Father said, a small envelope in his left land. “Be careful with her, okay?

“Yes sir.”

“No!” I screamed, somehow finding my voice. “Don’t hurt him. It was all my fault, not his, just kill me!” My speech was all slurred, and I wasn’t sure if anyone understood what I was saying.

Father looked at me pityingly. “You’ll be okay, Luna,” he said, disappearing through the doorway.

The two guards moved towards me slowly, their black helmets shielding any hint of humanity. I noticed the silent pistols stashed in their belts and sprung into action.
 

The first guard reached out a hand to grab my arm, and I darted away, my wobbly feet protesting against the movement.

“How much of the stuff did you give her?” the second guard asked.

“All of it,” Mother said from behind me.

“Damn, she’s strong,” he said. “Usually they turn to mush with a full dose,” the man said, his voice containing an accent I didn’t recognized.

I wasn’t quick enough. The guards caught up to me in a heartbeat, my foot barely making it past the doorframe. Hands tightened around each of my arms. A black van was parked in our driveway.

“It’ll be alright, hon,” said the guard with the unique accent. “No need to fight.”

I needed to fight with all I had—so I did.

I slammed my foot into one of the guard’s shin, his grip loosening slightly. I kicked the other just as hard as before, feeling the bone of his shin beneath my heel as it made impact.

I opened my eyes to darkness. Jasper was holding me against him, tracing circles on my back.

“It’s okay,” he murmured. “They aren’t taking you away this time.”
 

I must have been voicing what was in my memory because last time I checked, Jasper did not have mind-reading abilities. I almost didn’t feel embarrassed. The warmth and comfort of Jasper’s arms erased it all away.

“You’re okay,” Jasper said, smoothing his hand down the length of my hair. “We’re going to be okay.”

~~~~~

“Say hello to everyone for me,” Lilly said, pulling her son in for one last hug.

“I will, Mom,” Jasper promised. He pulled away. “Are you sure?” he asked her, his eyes begging. He needed to make a final attempt to get Lilly to come with us.

“I’m sure,” Lilly affirmed, smiling through tears. She pulled me in for a hug, kissing the top of my head. “Stay safe,” she whispered.

The walls were going down at six. We had twenty minutes to ride our bikes to the edge of town.

“Are you ready?” Jasper asked me, searching my eyes.

“I’m ready.”

~~~~~

I kept my eyes on the road in front of me, every once in a while glancing back at Jasper like there was a chance he might’ve sunk into the ground.

The houses we passed all started looking the same; they all were the same. They each contained people with the same ambitions, emotions, thoughts, behaviors—they were all copies living out the same lives in different bodies.

To my left a child ran about in the grass, his parents waving their arms around wildly in an argument. In twenty years, that child would become another copy—a copy of his parents, his teachers, his peers, his coworkers—and then he would make sure his children grew up to become copies of himself.

He would tell himself that he was unique. He would tell himself that he was living the right way. He would tell his kids not to question. He would tell himself not to question.
 

Another generation of zombies.

In the split second the child met my eyes, I wished more than anything that he would be an exception. I wished he would be like me instead of his parents. I wished he would find a way out, and help others to get out.

I felt guilty. I was leaving behind so many people—so many copies—all without a fighting chance.

What Lilly said earlier finally made sense to me. She told me that she was always meant to stay, and that I was always meant to go. She told me that I would have to accept that.

I had to accept my role. My role wasn’t to wake Oportet up; I had to leave that job to someone else. That had never been my purpose, and it never would be. I was meant to escape, to send a message, even if that message only reached a handful of people. My family, my friends, the Council—they would all hear it loud and clear.
 

Just as our bikes came to a halt in front of the massive wall, a deafening mechanical noise erupted. The wall was going down.

“How poetic,” Jasper said from beside me.

I smiled. “Isn’t it?”

We watched as the wall began to sink. Other than the technician manning the operation, we were probably the only citizens watching the spectacle in all its glory. The Council had ordered everyone to retreat indoors right at six.

It took what seemed like ages for the wall to recede all the way into the ground, and I was starting to get paranoid. Jasper shot me a look, noticing how many times I glanced over my shoulder in the past two minutes.

“Luna, look.”

I turned, gasping as I took in the vast stretch of land ahead of us. There was only one road already built, and it was right in front of us.

“You were unbelievably accurate,” Jasper said.

“I did scour through a million emails, didn’t I? It only seems logical I would find out where the road to the new gate would be.”

Jasper sucked in a deep breath. “So this is really happening,” he said, running a hand through his hair.

“Cold feet?” I asked jokingly.

“I’m wearing socks,” Jasper said, grinning.
 

It was almost a year ago that we had that phone conversation, the phone call that was tapped by my parents. That phone call nearly cost us everything.

“Let’s go.” I needed to get out of Oportet as soon as possible.

We got back on our bikes and pedaled down the road. We talked about nothing but the future—places we wanted to visit, things we wanted to do, the kind of houses we wanted to live in—they were all fair game.

I was going to be a writer and he was going to be a musician. When we got bored of one city, we would move to the next.
 

“Did you hear that?” Jasper asked after ten minutes of riding.

“What?” I asked, my heart speeding up.

“I don’t know…I guess it was nothing. Never mind.”

“Okay.”

It wasn’t nothing; it was something. It was the sound of tires on pavement.

“Get off the bikes or get bullets in your heads,” commanded a voice behind us. It sounded like a guard speaking through a megaphone.
 

I looked over at Jasper, whose face had hardened, the light that was in his eyes just moments ago darkening. We obeyed, sliding off of our bikes and facing the two vehicles of guards behind us.

The guards filed out, moving into a formation similar to the one they used to gun down Aunt May. Jasper and I turned to each other, paling as we took in the red dots positioned on our foreheads.

Right on cue, Tomlinson slid out of the second van just as each guard had fallen into place. I knew how this ended. So did Jasper. He intertwined his fingers with mine.

My breath caught as another figure emerged from the car. It was Dr. Reynolds, in the same lab coat and glasses he wore last spring. He was going to watch us die just as he watched May die. Her death must have changed him.
 

When I saw the emptiness in his eyes, and when I decided I wouldn’t succumb to that same void, Dr. Reynolds had lost his hope. I wondered if he even recognized me.

Tomlinson turned and shook the doctor’s hand. “Thank you for your service to Oportet,” he said. “We wouldn’t have stopped them in time without you.”

Dr. Reynolds looked straight at me, and I greeted him with a venomous glare. He was why Jasper and I would never make it out of Oportet. He was why we were about to die.

“It was my duty, as a citizen,” Dr. Reynolds said, never tearing his eyes away from mine.

“Let’s make this quick,” Tomlinson muttered. “We’ll have to tell her family that she and the boy made it out. I wouldn’t expect them to rebel, but we’d better play it safe.”

Tomlinson moved to stand behind the five guards, and Dr. Reynolds remained a few feet behind them all, his hands in his pockets.

“I love you, Luna,” Jasper whispered low enough so that I was the only one who heard. “This is my fault. You would be eating dinner with your family right now if I hadn’t screwed everything up.”

“Jasper, I swear to God, don’t even go there,” I snapped. “I love you too, you idiot.” I gave his hand a slight squeeze. “No regrets.”

“No regrets,” he echoed.

“Luna Beckham, you’re quite a fighter,” Tomlinson said. “I have no idea how you’ve managed to pull it off. You just keep building yourself up from nothing, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. It’s a shame you chose the wrong side. You would have made a strong ally.”

“I’d sooner die,” I spat.

“It seems you’ve already made that decision, haven’t you?” Tomlinson shook his head, laughing dryly. “What a waste.” Tomlinson raised his hand, signaling the guards to prepare themselves. I only had seconds to live.

I locked eyes with Jasper. I wanted him to be the last thing I saw.

Everything fell silent but a series of five clicks: a click for each guard. My eyes shut tight. A body fell, but it wasn’t mine.

“Shit, she’s got a kick, doesn’t she?” the accented guard said through clinched teeth.
 

“Hey, grab her!” was the last thing I heard before I went tumbling down the porch stairs.

My head collided with the last step, and I felt hot liquid pool around the spot of impact. My vision blurred, and it wasn’t long before I couldn’t see anything at all.

~~~~~

“Set her on the table.”

My eyes flew open, and I caught sight of Dr. Reynolds looking at me with concern as my body was moved by the guards to a flat surface. My head hurt. I closed my eyes again, the brightness of the room too much for me to handle.

“Can you still perform the procedure?” a voice that sounded like Mother’s asked.

“It’s still doable. I need everyone to leave the operating room now. She’ll be moved to room one-eleven for recovery. I’ll send someone for you as soon as I’m done.”

I tried to lift an arm, but it was weighted in place. I did the same with all of my limbs. None of them felt connected to my body anymore.

“Luna,” Dr. Reynolds whispered in my ear. “I’m going to help you. When you remember this, and you
will
remember this, you have to know that I would never hurt you. You will remember everything,” he said.
 

I had not a clue what this crazy man was trying to say, where I was, or what procedure everyone was talking about.
 

“When you remember, you’ll have to keep it a secret. Don’t trust anyone. No one can know you remember.”

“The notes,” I whispered to myself. Dr. Reynolds wrote the notes.
Don’t trust anyone.

My eyes flew open at the realization I’d returned to the present, the hand that once held Jasper’s now empty.

At my feet lay five dead guards. Five clicks: a click for each guard.

“She’s fine, just remembering something,” Jasper said to my left. “We can tell you about that on the road.” There was a shuffling sound, then something like a body being kicked. “What are you going to do with him?”

I spun around to see Tomlinson on the ground, his hands held out in front of him. Dr. Reynolds, with a silent pistol in hand, stood next to Jasper.

“Avenge my fiancée,” Dr. Reynolds replied, looking at Tomlinson like he was a spider crawling up his arm.

“That was the last memory,” I said softly. “It’s over.”

Jasper glanced over at me, his eyes widening when he realized that I was back for good. I had finally recovered all that was taken from me.