The Forbidden Trilogy (45 page)

"I don't know, guys. I'm still in a lot of pain, and I
can't help but think that we're partly to blame for all this. If we didn't keep
pushing the boundaries, they wouldn't have to get so strict. Maybe things will
get better if we just chill for a while and see what happens. Luke and I won't
be going on assignment, or to any breeding facility, and the Seeker has
promised to come clean with all their plans soon. We just need to give them a
reason to trust us."

Luke frowned. "Did you knock your head when they shot
you? Look around, Luce. No way are they going to lighten up. The lockdown has
only gotten worse. We rebelled
because
they started all this, not the
other way around. How many more kids do you want to see die before we do
something?"

The loudspeaker buzzed to life before Lucy could respond.
"ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS. THERE IS A MANDATORY ASSEMBLY IN THE HUB CENTER
TO MOURN THE LOSS OF A STUDENT. PLEASE ATTEND IMMEDIATELY. NO ONE IS EXCUSED
WITHOUT VALID MEDICAL REASONS AND A NOTE FROM THE DOCTOR."

The three of them headed toward the Hub.

Luke offered to carry her backpack, but she declined.
"I heard they cremated Kyle and his ashes will be here today. Everyone is
really shaken up."

A crowd formed around the center where a small stage had
been erected. A few teachers were present, including Mr. Lancaster, who gave
Lucy a meaningful look, though she didn't know what meaning it held. Mr. Black
stood on the stage, next to a table holding an urn, and directed students and
guards. He held his gun as if ready to fire at any moment, and Lucy worried
he'd get trigger-happy.

The guards formed tight circles around groups of students,
and kept them pinned to location like insects on a collector's board. When a
boy fell out of line and tried to join another group, a guard pistol-whipped
him and brought him back to formation.

Lucy swallowed a bit of vomit that rose in her throat.

She'd understood the Seeker's intention and ideas, but
nothing had changed—and it wouldn't change unless they did something.

Her black eye still throbbed from the beating Mr. Black had
given her, and her freshly shot shoulder pulsed with a painful reminder of how
students were treated here.

Whatever Mr. Black and the Seeker cared about, it wasn't the
students. Rent-A-Kid may have been well-intentioned at one point, but their
methods got one kid killed and had seriously injured countless others. There
had to be another way, a better way that didn't involve holding them prisoner
and treating them like cattle.

Her brother and Gary were right. They couldn't wait for more
kids to die. They had to escape now, today, and Lucy knew how.

The sphere in her backpack sent a surge of warmth into her
and gave her strength. The pain in her shoulder disappeared, and she discarded
her sling.

Before she could be pulled into formation, she slipped through
the crowd toward Mr. Black. Once close enough, she grabbed a gun from one of
the guards.

And held it to Mr. Black's head.

The entire crowd fell silent in shock.

Drake hadn't regained consciousness yet, and I couldn't stop
crying. If I hadn't kicked the gun away... if we had done things his way....

But he would have shot Mary. She may not have been my
favorite person in the world, but I didn't want her dead, or zombified.

The Seeker left us in the same dark room, with only the
flicker of candle light to see by. One door led to a hallway, but I'd heard him
lock it as he'd gone. No windows, no other way out, and no furniture save the
chair and loveseat. I'd spent the first thirty minutes calling for help, but no
one who cared could hear me.

My powers flitted in and out, but even when they worked I
couldn't connect to anyone. The entire school thrummed with the Seeker's energy
and mental signature. Power like that scared the hell out of me. The influence
he had over the men he sent to capture us paled in comparison to what he
controlled here.

I had no idea how we would ever escape.

Drake groaned, and I squeezed his hand. Tears choked my
throat and left wet lines down my cheeks. "Are you okay? Drake, I'm so
sorry. You have to believe me. I need you. Our baby needs you. Please wake
up."

"Sam? Oh, my head. Feels like a Mack truck ran me over,
then backed up and did it a few more times for fun."

I helped him sit up and move to the loveseat. "What did
he do to you?"

"Blew up my head. At least that's what if felt like. I
can't use my mind powers. Can you?"

"No. On and off, but no one around here is open. His
power... Drake, it's unparalleled."

The Seeker's voice startled us both. "Why thank you.
That is the highest compliment coming from one such as yourself."

I hadn't heard him come in. The man was like a phantom. Did
he have powers that we didn't even know about?

"Drake, I am so glad you are awake. It is time the
three of us got to know each other—a family reunion, if you will."

I clenched my teeth. "We are
not
a family."

The Seeker frowned and feigned injury. "Your words
hurt. My dear Sam, we have more in common than you know."

He sat in his chair and adjusted his white robes. Did he
wear them for dramatic flare? "I have been looking forward to this day
since you each were born. Drake, you came first, obviously. I was only a young
boy then, just starting kindergarten, but my powers had already manifested. Oh,
the things I could already do at such a tender age. My father, he couldn't have
been happier to have a son with such talents, but.... Well, let us just say
there is always room for improvement. So, he began research to create
Sam."

Fear settled in my stomach like a brick. "What do you
mean, create me?"

"Why, Sam, you are the most remarkable of all genetic
experiments. You have our father's DNA, but you were lab-made. They used all
the best bits of science they could find, I must say. They gave you power,
health, longevity, beauty and brains. You are Father's perfect creation."

I could feel all the blood in my body rush to my feet. My
face tingled with shock. "Are you saying that I'm... a test tube baby? And
you're my brother?"

"Oh, that is just the beginning. You see, the woman in
whom I had been implanted,
my mother
...." He spit the words at her
as if they were poison. "She was in love with someone else. After she had
given birth to me, she went on to get pregnant, without permission, with one of
the doctors who worked in the labs. Drake, you were that baby. She snuck you
out when you were an infant, and you disappeared into foster care. Father
killed her, of course, but he could never find you—not until a few months ago.
Admittedly, that was a clever plan of hers, to lose you in the bureaucracy. Do
you have any idea how impossible it is to track anyone there? A real headache,
I'll tell you."

What? Had I somehow slipped into a
Twilight Zone
episode? "You're insane. Truly, one-hundred-percent crazy."

The Seeker smiled and shrugged. "Perhaps, but it does
not change the fact that I am telling you the truth. And do not worry about
your relationship and your baby. There is absolutely no blood relation between
the two of you. We made sure of that before breeding you together. Was that not
a brilliant pairing? It was my idea. Father was quite pleased... until you two
escaped. Now, that was not very sporting, after all we had done for you. But
all's well that ends well. Here we are now, right where we were meant to be.
Sam, you carry the most powerful human being to ever walk this Earth, right
there in your belly. Mary, mother of Jesus, should have been so lucky."

Nightmarish memories that weren't memories flashed through
my mind. Bile rose in my throat, and I ran to a corner to vomit out the limited
contents of my stomach. If I never threw up another day in my life, it would be
too soon.

A cold hand rested on my arm. I looked up, expecting to see
Drake, and looked into eyes so pale they might not have had any pigment at all.
The Seeker stared into me, and I felt him probing at my mind.

"This is a family business, Sam, and you and Drake are
family. Granted, your boyfriend is more like the redheaded stepchild, but
still, he has his uses. Together, there is nothing we could not do. You know
only a tiny portion of what you are capable of. I can teach you, guide you,
give you everything you need to fully utilize your gifts. We can be gods among
men, Sam. We will rule the world."

He grabbed me, and his eyes blazed with a holy fervor. But
something felt off about him, besides the whole being crazy thing. Something
was draining his energy and power. Through his touch I could sense a poison
crawling through him, eating him.

Crimson drops fell onto his robe. Blood.

"Your nose, it's bleeding, and... what's wrong with
your eyes?"

A pink tint lined the corners of his eyes, as though he'd
applied pink eyeliner. He pulled away from me and backed out of the room.
"I must go. Think on what I have said. We shall talk again."

My powers crashed back into me, and I linked with Drake.
'We
have to get out of here, now. I know the Seeker's weakness. He's dying.'

With all eyes on her, Lucy had to act fast. She pulled Mr.
Black to her. "Call off the guards, or I'll blow your head off."

In the last few days, Lucy had become more violent than ever
before in her life. Necessity dictated her actions. Still, after years of
assignments targeting some of the worst creeps imaginable, she'd never had to
fight, disarm, or threaten so many people. What had her world come to?

The sphere in her backpack pulsed, and she felt Mr. Black
reach for the Seeker. "Call him and I pull the trigger. You don't have to
be a human lie detector to know I'm telling the truth, do you?"

"I know you're a scared girl who's trying to play
grown-up, and you've never killed anyone in your life. You're not about to
start now."

Lucy cocked the gun, relishing the power of it in her hand.
Then she aimed and fired.

The bullet sank into the cement just an inch from Mr.
Black's left foot. He bellowed like a lion and jumped away from the sound.

Mr. Black nodded to the guards. "Get away. Do as she
says, you assholes."

Lucy thought about what to say to these kids who'd been
drugged and manipulated for years. "Do you remember what life here used to
be like? The idyllic peace we enjoyed before this invasion?"

Many heads nodded.

"It was all a lie. Even now, there's a drug coursing
through your veins designed to make you, to make all of us, complacent and
docile. They would have you believe we need them to keep us safe, but our lives
mean nothing to them. Like you, my best friend was promised a life of college
and friends, but what she ended up with was a forced pregnancy. When she
escaped, they hired guns to trail her. What does
your
future hold if you
stay here?

"I didn't know Kyle well, but I had him in many of my
classes. He was a good guy, an innocent, like you. This man blew his head off
from behind." Lucy jammed the gun deeper into his back.

"That's not justice. That's murder."

Her voice carried through the crowd, escalating with each
word. "We have to act now, to stand our ground and say 'No more' to this
tyranny, 'No more' to abuse and murder. We have to break free from the
artificial bonds this school has enslaved us in. Who's with me?"

Silence hung in the air like a dying balloon. Not a single
student stirred from their spots or raised their voice in protest.

A guard in the crowd raised his gun and walked toward Lucy.
"Drop your weapon, or I'll be forced to fire. Don't make this worse than
it already is."

Lucy shook her head, pressing her gun against Mr. Black's
skull.

The guard took aim....

And his gun floated up into the air.

Darren stood behind him, arms extended and rage etched on
his face. "Kyle was my best friend, and you bastards killed him."

He raised his arms, and the guard rose up into the air. Then
with a flick of his hands, Darren slammed the guard into a tree. The man fell
to the ground, limp.

The silence that had paralyzed everyone present broke. All
around, students attacked the guards with their own brands of para-power. One
soldier cried and crumbled to the ground, another turned to ice, and another
became permanently entangled in a tree root.

The guards who could get away shot into the crowd without
regard to where their bullets landed.

Lucy had to get everyone off the school grounds.

She tightened her grip on her prisoner. "Let's go, Mr.
Black. We're going to open up the main gate and celebrate a new kind of
Independence Day today."

'How do you know he's dying?'
Drake paced in front of
me.

"I felt the death in him when he touched me. We
don't have much time. Can you break the door down?"

'Yes, but what then? I'm pretty sure this whole building
is heavily guarded.'

I slumped into the couch. The recent revelations of my and
Drake's births left my head spinning. The Seeker was my brother?
And
Drake's brother? I pictured our family tree and imagined my branch hovering
dangerously close to Drake's.

"This family thing—it's a bit creepy, right? It's
not just me?"

Drake sat next to me and held me in his arms. I rested my
head on his shoulder and for a moment allowed myself to get lost in his warmth
and comfort.

'No, not just you. This is definitely off the charts.
But, good news, we aren't
actually
related. So, there's that.'