Dawn (19 page)

When we reached the helicopter, he drew me into his arms.

“I won't be gone any longer than I have to be. I can promise you that much because I'll miss you too.”

I leaned up and kissed Jace like it would be the last time I saw him. I knew it wouldn't be, but I also knew our separation could be a lot longer than either of us could possibly foresee. I would have to go to the queen soon. And I feared I wouldn't be home to welcome Jace back. So I kissed him. I kissed him long and hard trying to memorize everything about the way his lips felt pressed against mine, the way he smelled, the way he tasted. I knew the memory of our kiss might have to last me a very long time.

When I drew back, Jace looked at me with worry in his eyes.

“Is there something you're not telling me?” He asked, knowing me better than anyone it seemed.

“Just come back to me,” I told him.

I could tell he wanted to ask me more but he didn't.

“I won't be long,” he promised, kissing me one more time before he stepped into the helicopter.

I walked back to the car, unable to watch the helicopter rise behind me and take off. I got in behind the wheel of the car and forced myself not to cry. I didn't have time for tears because when I looked in the rear view mirror I saw Walsh looking back at me.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“I wondered when you would be showing up,” I said, staring at Walsh's reflection in the mirror as he sat in the backseat.

He didn't say anything, just stared at me. I was beginning to wonder if he would talk at all.

“The queen sent me to take you to her,” he finally said, even though by the tone of his voice I could tell this little errand wasn't exactly something he wanted to be doing.

“I suppose you want to leave now,” I said, realizing I wouldn't get the chance to say goodbye to Rose and Simon. But, maybe that was for the best. I wasn't sure I could do it without completely breaking down in front of them.

“You suppose right,” Walsh said irritably. “We have a helicopter waiting just outside camp. Get on interstate 581 and head south out of town. There's a little community college just off the interstate. The helicopter is waiting there in the parking lot for us.”

I cranked the car and drove towards the interstate.

“You know there are roadblocks on the way there,” I told him.

Walsh lifted up a black wool blanket.

“Found some camouflage.”

There were three roadblocks between the airport and the outside of camp. Walsh crouched down to the floorboards when we approached one and simply hid underneath the blanket. Since everyone knew I was John Blackwell's daughter, they didn't question where I was going. They didn't even make me stop, just waved me on through.

I found the helicopter exactly where Walsh said it would be. Once we were inside, it didn't take long for us to get into the air.

Walsh sat across from me on the ride. If looks could kill, I knew I would be a dead woman from the way he was staring at me.

“Do you have a problem?” I asked, not liking his attitude.

“Yeah,” he said, his eye narrowing. “I have a problem taking you to Queen Lucena. If you ask me, I think I should just kill you right now and tell her you had an accident.”

“Then why don't you?” I asked, not caring for his empty threat.

“Because the queen wants you with her for some unknown reason. And I do what my queen asks me to.”

“What a loyal little puppy you are, following your master's orders without question. Let me guess, you're her favorite because you do exactly what she tells you to do.”

“I would watch what you say to me,” Walsh said, his mouth tight with repressed anger. “Once I deliver you to her, my job will be done. But, there's no telling what type of accident you might have while you're with us.”

“Is that a threat?” I asked. “Do I need to warn the queen to keep you away from me?”

“You can do what you want. I really don't care,” Walsh said, doing nothing to hide his disgust of me. “But know this, I'm not the only Harvester under the queen's command who hates your guts.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” I looked out the window of the helicopter. “Where are we going anyway?”

“The Stone Mountain facility.”

I knew exactly where he was talking about. It was where the President of the United States had led the outsiders who destroyed the Southern Kingdom to their doom.

I also knew it was where I would kill the queen.

Jace's vision was coming true. He said he saw me standing on a mountain when I killed her. It couldn't just be coincidence. It had to be fate, my destiny.

I smiled.

“What are you smiling about?” Walsh asked harshly. “I thought you would have broken down into tears by now.”

“No,” I told him. “This doesn't make me sad. I'm just ready to have it all over with to be honest.”

Walsh just shook his head, not interested enough to know what I was talking about. It was just as well. I really didn't feel like talking to him anyway.

We arrived at our destination a little over two hours later.

The mountain loomed large, and I was amazed the carving of the confederate leaders still remained intact on the side of the mountain after the passage of so much time plus a war. I wondered what those men would think about their memorial becoming the home of the woman who destroyed the world. I imagined they would be turning over in their graves. I know I would be if I were them.

The helicopter landed on a steel platform built on top of the mountain. When we disembarked, Walsh walked over to an enclosed elevator. Once inside the elevator, we made our descent into the mountain.

We seemed to be going deeper than what I felt was the height of the mountain.

“Are we going under the mountain?” I asked Walsh.

“The queen has her quarters half a mile beneath the harvesting facility housed within the mountain itself.”

The elevator finally came to a stop and the doors slid open.

I'm not quite sure what I expected to see, but what I faced was unexpected to say the least. I stood in the elevator as Walsh walked out.

When he noticed I wasn't walking out too, he turned to me and asked, “Are you coming? Or are you just going to stand there looking like an idiot?”

Seeing that I didn't have much choice, I walked out and found myself standing in the middle of a small town square. The elevator doors behind me closed and the elevator itself disappeared from sight being replaced by what looked like a small stone building.

“Hologram,” Walsh said, answering my unasked question of what happened to the elevator.

I looked up and saw the sun, but I knew it wasn't the real sun. It was just like the nuclear powered one in the Southern Kingdom. I lowered my gaze and scanned our surroundings. People milled around the square. Some even carried shopping bags as they walked along the sidewalks and stopped to enter the stores lining the perimeter of the square. If you didn’t know better, you would think yourself in small town USA replete with a white gazebo in the center of town with a small water fountain and park benches. Hyacinths grew in flower boxes hanging from the railing of the gazebo filling the air around me with their delicate fragrance.

“What is this place?” I asked Walsh.

“Something your mother built for you,” Walsh answered.

I looked over at him. “Built for … me?”

“If you don't like it, for god's sake don't tell her that. She went to a lot of trouble to construct this for you.”

“But why?” I asked completely perplexed by the world I had just stepped into. “Why would she go to all this trouble?”

“Do I look like a mind reader?” Walsh asked me agitatedly. “Because I'm pretty sure I’m not.”

I looked around again at the people.

“Is everyone here a Harvester?”

“No, in fact it's the exact opposite on this level. Everyone here is human except for you and the queen.”

“Where did they come from?”

“The Southern Kingdom, the second facility that they went to hide in. She brought them all here to populate this town.”

I had wondered why she would kill so many humans when I saw the destruction of the Southern Kingdom. Now I had my answer. She didn't kill them. She just herded them over here to become part of this 'town'.

Walsh began to walk off, and I realized I was meant to follow him.

As we walked along the sidewalk of the town, I noticed a few of the people recognized as they smiled and nodded in my direction, even calling me by name when they said hello.

What was the queen's motivation in bringing me to such a place?  Why go through the trouble of building a town complete with human neighbors? It didn't make much sense to me. But I had to believe she had an ulterior motive for doing it. I just didn't know what yet.

We ended up walking out of the town and into what looked like a quiet suburb. I felt like I had been transported back to a simpler time in history. A boy who looked to be around the age of nine sped by us on a bicycle with an orange flag on a slim white pole connected to the back of his seat. A man was mowing the green lawn in front of his house and waved as we passed by. Some of the houses in the neighborhood were surrounded by white picket fences and most of the homes were small clapboard houses painted in bright welcoming colors. Walsh finally stopped in front of a two story yellow clapboard home with a white wrap around porch. Hanging baskets filled with pansies of varying colors hung from hooks over the porch rails and green ferns stood on either side of the screened door offering an invitation of welcome to enter the house.

I stared at the house, completely caught off guard by what I was seeing. I knew what it was. It was an almost perfect replica of the home I had shared with my parents when I was a child.

“This is your residence,” Walsh told me. “The queen is inside waiting for you.”

  Having performed his duty, Walsh quickly walked away like he couldn't stand being in my presence a moment longer.

I turned towards the house feeling uncertain I really wanted to go inside it. The smell of food wafting through the screen door made my mind up for me.

I walked up the cement sidewalk lined on either side with an alternating pattern of monkey grass and lavender. I climbed the four steps up to the porch and opened the screen door to step inside.

The smell of pot roast, potatoes, and fresh baked bread made my stomach rumble involuntarily. I stood in the entry way and could hear the queen humming in the kitchen as she moved around it. Cautiously, I walked down the hallway until I entered the large, open kitchen. The cabinets in the kitchen were white with glass fronts. The walls were painted a pale yellow with sunflower accents in the tile work on the back splash above the tan granite counters. Queen Lucena was dressed in a bright yellow dress wearing a ruffled white apron buttering the tops of yeast rolls in a basket sitting on the kitchen island. She symbolized the epitome of domestication and matched her surroundings perfectly.

As I stood taking in my surroundings, she looked up from the basket of rolls and smiled.

“Skye,” she said, her voice warm with welcome, “you're right on time. I just got through making supper. I hope you’re hungry.”

She looked at me patiently waiting for my response.

“What's going on here?” I asked looking around the kitchen, wondering what sort of mind game she was trying to play with me. “What’s the point of all this?”

The queen's smile faded slightly like she was disappointed I asked the question. She put the roll and butter knife in her hands down. Her gaze fell to the counter in front of her like she couldn't quite make herself look me in the eyes as she answered my questions.

“I thought...” she began but faltered, almost like her emotions were getting the better of her. Her gaze lifted to meet mine like she was having to force herself to look at me. “I guess I hoped making this town for you... for us... would give us a fresh start, a chance to start over with one another. I know you think I'm a monster, and I guess I haven't given you much reason to believe otherwise by some of the things I've done, especially to you. But, could you at least give me a chance to try and make things up to you?  All I want is for you to get to know the real me. That's all I've ever wanted, Skye.”

I didn't say anything. I didn't think it was the right time to tell her I thought she was bat shit crazy if she really expected me to just instantly forgive and forget everything she had not only done to me personally but to the world at large. But, I did know one thing for certain. I had to find out what she was up to with this charade. If nothing else, I had learned Lucena Day, the woman who destroyed a world and proclaimed herself queen of its remnants didn't do anything without having an agenda. I just had to find out what hers was.

“Did you cook pot roast?” I asked, deciding to ignore her questions and change the subject.

The queen smiled. “Yes, I did. I seemed to remember it was one of you favorite dishes when you were a little girl. Was I right?”

I nodded. “Yes. My mom would make it every Sunday night. Don't suppose you remembered to make the chocolate cake too?”

The queen's eyes darted over to the table in the room. I looked over and saw a perfectly iced chocolate cake sitting on a glass pedestal beside a vase filled with an arrangement of sunflowers.

“Why don't you sit down?” she suggested. “I'll bring you a plate. I hope you like my cooking,” she laughed. “It's been a long time since I dipped my hands into the culinary arts. I don’t think I’ve cooked a piece of toast in years much less a whole meal!”

I sat down at the dining table which was designed to sit six people and let the Queen of the Eastern Kingdom serve me supper.

I felt sure the day couldn't get any weirder.

I thought supper would be filled with awkward silence but the queen a veritable chatter box. She mostly talked about her life as a child with my mom. There were moments I could actually see my own mother in the queen as she talked about the past. And she was funny. I found myself laughing a few times as she retold stories of how she and my mother would sneak out of their grandmother's house at night to go skinny dipping in the river.

In a way, it almost seemed natural to be talking with the queen. At least until I reminded myself why I was actually with her. I was here to kill her. I didn't need to be getting closer to her. I found it strange that I had to remind myself of that fact.