Activate (6 page)

I
have
the skills to kill, and I know it, but I’d hoped to never have to use them. That must be another mutation of my DNA, since I’m supposed to want to use my skills. At least I think I am. All I know is I don’t.

My will to live is stronger than my compulsion to put down the knife, so I go ahead and fight. We parry back and forth, knives clanging when we clash. More often than not, I’m jumping out of the way as he swings wildly. It’s almost as if he’s possessed, and because I know something’s wrong, I don’t try and strike out at him. I deflect, but I don’t engage.

This seems to be making him angrier instead of just giving me a chance to figure a way out. “We don’t need to do this, Clayton.”

“We do. Once I kill you, your Muse will have no one to communicate with, and he’ll never connect with your siblings.”

“I wouldn’t be so cocky. The Muses aren’t stupid,” Levi says.

Why is he just sitting on the table? Shouldn’t he be fighting, too, instead of calmly speaking to his friend—his
brother
—who’s trying to kill at least one of us?

“Three of them are dead,” Clayton tells him.

“And two live.”

“Not for long.”

“Remember what I said about being cocky?”

“Shut up or you’re next!”

“You can try.”

He seems so calm, and then the voice in my head speaks to me, and I know why. “Stab him in the side, just above his left hip. It’s one of our kill spots. Do it now!”

I don’t hesitate, because I really do want to live. I take the next opening, and stab my knife into him. He manages to slice me across my right biceps, and it burns, but I know I won’t die from it. The voice was telling the truth—I honestly didn’t doubt it—and Clayton is dead within a minute.

“No!” Abigail wails, before she starts yanking on the bars, trying to break herself free. They don’t budge, but that doesn’t stop her.

“We should go, Levi. They know we’re here, and they’re liable to surround the island soon.”

“You need to tell us the rest,” Coalton reminds him.

“I will,” he promises. “We need to destroy everything in here, and go while we still can.”

I’m still looking at the knife in my hand, covered in blood, when Alejandra pulls it out of my hands. “It was necessary.”

“I know.”

“Yet you’re angry.”

“Not at any of you. I’m angry that I was put into this situation.”

She nods. “We all are. With any luck, we’ll be free soon.”

“You really believe that?”

“If I didn’t, I would’ve given up already.”

I guess that’s true. I need to get over this, because I can’t go back, and undo what I did. Even if I could, I think I’d always choose to save myself.

“What can I help with?”

W
e smash
every piece of technology in the room to practically ashes. “You’re not worried about losing all of this?” I ask.

“No,” Jennifer tells me. “We can rebuild it in a day or so, and we have a ready-made station set up somewhere else. If it were to get in the hands of one of our governments, it would be far more dangerous. Danger trumps inconvenience every time.”

“Got it.”

Once we’re done, they gather their things, while my siblings and I gather ours. Well, all except Abigail, of course. She’s been screeching and threatening us all the whole time. I don’t know what her cell is made of, but whatever it is, it’s somehow managed to still hold her after her assault on it.

Lauren hands out bags that almost look like backpacks, but are made of wet suit material. “Put your things in here.”

I do as I’m told, and am not totally shocked when it shrinks to the exact size of my pack, and seems to vacuum seal itself. At this point, I don’t think anything could surprise me.

“Where are you going? You can’t leave me,” Abigail yells as we prepare to do just that.

“You’ll be fine. Or you won’t. Not my problem,” Levi tells her.

Instead of leading us out the door we came in from, he leads us through another hidden door in the rocks. This one leads to a cave with a giant tide pool in it. The pool is swirling hard, but it’s the walls of the cave that have me and my siblings intrigued. There are amazingly detailed drawings that looks to be hundreds of years old.

“Those were made by the Aborigines,” Levi says, moving to stand next to Sabrina. If our lives weren’t at stake, I’d be giving them both crap about that, but I also think it’s kind of nice as well.

“We have to go,” Alejandra says suddenly.

“Yes,” Sabrina agrees. “I feel them coming.”

“I know this is going to sound crazy, but put your packs on and jump into the tide,” Jennifer tells us.

“What?” Not much scares me, but that swirling pool is a little terrifying.

“You’ll be fine,” Levi says as Lauren goes first, followed by Jennifer.

Hinton shrugs, and cannonballs, while Michaela simply jumps. Sabrina nods at me, and I jump next. I’m not sure who goes after me, because I’m concentrating on how fast I’m spinning around, and trying not to be sick. I close my eyes, and just go with it. I can breathe, and right now that’s all that matters.

I twirl around for what feels like hours, but is probably only minutes. When I’m finally free of the whirlpool, I float in the water for another few minutes trying to get my equilibrium back with my eyes still closed. I feel a tug on my hand, and open my eyes to find Alejandra pulling me down into the sand, which apparently hides an underwater door.

There’s a drain in the bottom of the room she takes me into, and high powered fans that dry us off. If anything could still surprise me right now, it would be this under ocean hideout.

“It’s crazy, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“You get used to it after a few months.”

“What if Clayton told Abigail about this place?”

“He’s never been here—we always knew he’d be the one to turn on us; we just didn’t know when.”

What? “If you knew, why didn’t you just kill him?”

“There’s always a small chance the ‘double’ will feel something other than hate for our kind. We had to give him that chance.”

“How can he hate us, when he’s one of us?”

“Levi will explain all to everyone. It’s better if you all hear it at once. I’m dry enough, are you?”

“Yeah.” I’m mostly dry, and I don’t want to wait to hear the rest of what’s going on. “Let’s go.”

She pushes a button, turning off the fans, which causes another door to open. We walk through, and I see this room is an almost exact replica of the room above ground that I helped destroy. I already knew they were serious, but seeing this is intense. I know I’m going to probably get even angrier about our situation after hearing the rest, but instead of just blind rage, I’m pretty sure I’ll be using that anger to help get justice. For all of us.

I
’m feeling
—remembering—even more now. I don’t know if something happened to me while I was spiraling down the ocean, or if knowing I’m not going crazy has made me more open to it; either way, it’s happening.

I know I wasn’t always like this—this extreme fighting machine. I was a smart, but anti-social genius, who did what she wanted, and only talked when she had to. Inside, I had feelings, but I somehow thought it was wrong to show them to anyone.

Our Creator and his crew flipped me completely, but now the joke’s on him. I’m both the girl I was before, and the fighter he wanted me to be now. I think my compassion is going to make me even more deadly.

“You all good?” Levi asks, walking into the room with Sabrina.

I doubt it’s a coincidence that he ended up in the “fan” room with her, but I’m not going to say anything about it, and I don’t think anyone else will, either. I don’t know if they feel like I do—that any connection we can make in the middle of this mess is a good one—but I think they know whatever’s going on with those two is real. The looks they share are potent, and if I didn’t believe in love at first sight before, I do now.

Once we all say we’re okay, Levi continues with his information overload, which we do in fact need, even if it seems like too much to hear. “I was hoping we could’ve avoided what happened on the island, but I was afraid it was inevitable.”

“You knew it might?” Hinton asks him.

“Yes. One of us in each group was programmed to betray us.”

“Is that how the other groups were destroyed?” Sabrina asks.

“Yes. The rest of them weren’t expecting it. Moscow and China were isolated—home schooled, and never let out of their facilities. London were in regular schools like us, but they were taken into their government’s facility before they were activated. The Creators and their teams were able to figure out how to block the telepathy when we’re inside their buildings and planes, and I know how to block it in our places if I feel it’s necessary.”

“Why would you need to block it?” Coalton asks.

He flips a switch before answering. “Because, while I know the Creators are evil, I’m not entirely sure the Muses are all good, either. We were created to kill them because our governments could only torture, not kill, and they
are
who we came from, but we know next to nothing about them. What if they truly are bad, and should be killed? That doesn’t mean I’ll ever trust my government, because that’s the other part of it. They didn’t create us just to kill the Muses; they want us to die as well.”

“They created us just to kill us?” I ask, feeling all the blood rush from my face.

“Yes. They needed us to kill, and then they needed us to die.”

“But the threats to our country…oh wait, did those come from our
own
country?”

“Yes. One at a time, the Creator in each country caused things to happen, making it look like we were being attacked. China and Moscow might have activated their kids anyway, but the rest of our leaders wouldn’t.”

“How did you get away from them?” Sabrina asks.

“One of the people in our facility felt guilty about what they were sending us into. He was able to get us outside one at a time for small periods of time. We didn’t fully trust him, so we never told him I was the telepath, but those small times I was outside, our Muse was able to tell me what to do. Alejandra turned on her charm, and he took us all outside one day.

We ran, and then we jumped into the ocean, and dove down.

“All of our Muses chose an ocean near our countries, and left the things that would help us build down there. They also left things on islands, and in cities, around the world. We followed the directions I was given, and built the two you’ve been in. We know satellites were combing the ocean for us, so we tried to stay hidden.”

“What about food?” Hinton asks.

“Do you feel hungry?”

“No. I don’t. Huh.”

I don’t, either. Apparently, we don’t need to eat. “Do we need to sleep?”

“Need? No. It is good for us, though. While we don’t need it regularly like humans, if we are going into a stressful situation, it helps us to be rested.”

“Are we…a little human?” Sabrina asks him.

He turns to smile at her, cupping her cheek in his hand. “A little more than a little.”

I feel relief at his words. It’s kind of cool to be an alien, but I also like knowing I’m still human, too. It’s who I thought I was before, and who I know I still am, even with everything we've learned. I’m not ready to abandon humanity yet—not mine, or humanity in general, either. I didn’t show my feelings before, because I thought I didn’t need to. Now I know I have them, and they’re strong, and I’m tired of hiding them.

Alien, human, whatever. Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things?

I
like the
feel of Levi’s hand on my cheek too much. I’m feeling too much for him too soon. I know his own feelings mirror mine, because I
feel
it, but I’m still scared by the love. Both mine, and his.

“What do we do now?” I ask, trying to focus on the danger we’re in, and not that hand.

“We have to get to one of the cities where a control center can be built, but it should be on a different continent from this one.”

“I have a question.”

“I’ll answer anything you ask, if I can.”

“You said the Muses left the means to build these places, but why would they give you the means to shut them out?”

“They didn’t,” he says, a playful smile on his lips. “Since we were hidden, I had some time to play around. I made sure my mind was clear, or I was thinking of something else, so my Muse didn’t know what I was doing until it was done. I wasn’t even sure it would work, but when I flipped the switch again, he was in my head, telling me he understood.”

“Do you think he does, or is he just telling you what you want to hear? I mean, couldn’t they remove things from what they’ve left so you can’t do it again?” Michaela asks him.

“I suppose they could, but I don’t know if the benefits would outweigh the risks of coming out of hiding.”

“So, we go to a city, build a center, and then what? We wait?” Hinton wants to know.

“No. We use the technology we’ve been given to find them.”

“What if they find us first? Either the Creators or the Muses, I mean?” Coalton asks.

“That’s why I think we should split up.”

“Will I go with you?” I ask, not meaning to sound desperate, even if I do.

“No. I want you to—you have to know that—but I need to have Coalton with me, just as Hinton needs Jennifer. We have to be protected, because we are theonly ones with a direct link to the Muses. You’ll go with Lauren, and Michaela will go with Alejandra.”

I hang my head, and fight back my tears. I’ll see him again. I know I will. I have to.

“Can you all get ready while I speak to Sabrina in private for a few minutes?”

They must nod, even though I can’t see them, because he takes my hand in his and leads me into another room. Once the door shuts, I look up at him. “I shouldn’t be this upset.”

“I’m upset, too. I don’t want to leave you.”

“How is this happening when we only met a few hours ago?”

“I don’t know, but I also don’t care. Do you?”

“No. I…I think I’m in love with you.”

“Good, because I think I’m in love with you, too.”

“We’re going to survive this, aren’t we?”

“Yes, Absolutely. You’re my reason for living now.”

“What if that’s part of the plan? For two of us to fall in love?”

“Have you noticed it in anyone else?”

“No,” I tell him honestly, shaking my head.

“I haven’t either. I’m not an empath, but I have eyes and ears. No one looks at anyone else the way you look at me.” I blush and put my head down again, but he uses his fingers to lift my face up again. “The way I know I look at you. It’s just us. Only us.
Always
us from now on.”

He leans over and touches his lips to mine briefly. I manage to smile at him, and take his hand as he leads me back to our families. I have to believe him, because he’s my reason for living now, too.