The Breaking, page 19
part #2 of The Reckoning of Anecor Series
Destin looked at her watch and saw the time. They should have shut down several minutes ago. She backed out of the system quickly, then logged out of the computer and shut it down, stashing it in its hiding place just as she heard her dad coming up the walkway to the house. She hoped Troy was alright. She wouldn’t be able to do anything about it immediately with her father walking through the door this moment.
And it was just then that realization slammed into Destin knocking the breath from her lungs. It was Bryn’s introduction of Troy that first night she met him.
She had introduced him as Troy Sullivan.
CHAPTER 29
L
ucash led the way up through the boulders, but his inexperience in this terrain made him too slow for Remy’s liking. It was obvious to Remy at this point that Lucash’s only desire at the moment was escaping the guard and surviving.
“Wait,” he said to Lucash. Lucash stopped and turned to look at Remy, worry and fear etched in the lines on his face and the set of his mouth. “If we are going to make it here, we’re going to have to move faster. I take it this is the first time you’ve been on a mountain?”
“Yes.”
“Right. Well, it’s clear we both want to put as much distance between ourselves and the guard as possible. We can only do that if we move quickly. Can you at least keep up if I take the lead?”
“Yes. I’ll keep up.”
“Okay. Do your best to follow where I step and what I grab onto. Way too easy to miscalculate how secure these boulders are unless you know what you’re doing. Even then, avalanches happen all the time.”
Lucash nodded, and then he turned his body sideways so that Remy could move past him.
“One other thing. Don’t even think about trying anything. It wouldn’t take much to ensure that you landed at the bottom of this pile of rocks…”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. Can we just get outta here?” Lucash said, glancing back down towards the bottom of the slope, fearing he’d see the men coming up just behind them. He didn’t. And felt relief as well as apprehension. At least if he saw them, he’d know for sure they hadn’t discovered Juniper. Please, Juniper, just stay asleep, or, at least, just stay put.
Remy started up at a much quicker pace. Lucash struggled to keep up with him but wasn’t about to let him get too far ahead. He couldn’t afford to get lost out here. Or caught by the Guard. Or piled up as a heap of bones at the foot of the mountain. Remy was now his most likely chance to survive all this and get back to Juniper. But, man, he moves fast.
Remy could hear Lucash breathing heavy behind him. No need to turn around to check on him. He was surprised Lucash was able to keep up. Impressive for a guy who’d never done this before, though the adrenaline of fear can lead to amazing feats. And this guy is definitely afraid, thought Remy. Who is he, and what is he doing out here? These questions kept tumbling through Remy’s mind, intertwined with his own thoughts on survival. It would be the worst thing for himself and all of Colossus if he got caught. He still couldn’t bring himself to regret the decision to come out and look for the two escapees.
Now, he was determined to lose the Guard. Even if it meant another trip out here. His priorities had just shifted in the past hour. First priority: survival. Second: find out the story on this guy who was now following him up the mountain. Only then could he conceivably turn his mind back to the search for the two escapees.
Remy stopped suddenly at a sound that came from beyond their immediate vicinity. Lucash followed suit, though he hadn’t heard the sound over his own heavy breathing and his just as heavy thoughts. He looked questioningly at Remy, who simply held a finger to his lips to indicate that Lucash should not talk or make any other sound. They both shrank behind a very large boulder, squeezing in the space between a crack in the rock and the ground.
Remy caught movement. The person was not being overly cautious and seemed to be struggling with the climb given the sounds his movements were making. He doubted it was any in their group, as the only one without experience was the guy currently hiding with him. Remy could only assume it was one of the four men who had come up after them. Though the orientation of sound could be difficult in these areas, Remy was able to determine from the glimpse of movement he’d caught earlier that the person was passing them up at a good distance away. The individual had not seen them.
They’d just wait this out. It was unlikely this person would backtrack. When it was clear to move again, they would make for the trees to regroup. It was no use following the person up the boulders and risk meeting up with him at the top. They weren’t completely out of danger yet, either, since it seemed there was only one person near them. That means the four men split up. A logical move that would make it more likely that one of them would catch up with someone from the group, just as they’d all split up to make it less likely that any of them would be caught.
The sounds of the man climbing grew quieter, until they sounded far enough up the hill to make it safe for Remy and Lucash to move again.
“We’re changing course,” Remy whispered, pointing in the direction of the trees. “We’ll go slower now so that we can make sure we make as little sound as possible.”
“Works for me. Ready when you are,” Lucash whispered back.
They arrived at the forest. A still stand of trees with a blanket of needles laying underneath. They found themselves in a patch of more densely populated fir and spruce trees. A good place to stop. These trees grew tall and wide enough to provide cover under the low branches. Sound was absorbed better in the forest, which meant that they’d have a harder time hearing someone approach than out on the rocks, but they’d still likely know well before anyone was right on top of them.
Remy guided them into the thick of the forest and stopped.
“We have to decide what our next move is, but, before we do, I need some answers.”
Lucash leaned back against the trees, a pained look on his face as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, then exhaled. The sounds of the forest were still wholly unfamiliar to him. Westlow had prairies and fields surrounding it. No trees at all except for the ones on the tree farms that supplied the area with any wood it needed. He’d never been on one of those farms. His family were Tier 5 laborers. He worked on the road crews. Not on the farms, which was a Tier 4 designation. Lucash had little familiarity of what was normal for a forest other than his experiences up to this point after jumping from the truck.
Right now, he let the quiet of the forest envelop him and comfort him for just a moment. He felt safe. Sort of. Much more so than he did out on the rocks, for certain. Lucash realized he’d been silent for longer than he’d intended. He heard Remy shifting uncomfortably. Lucash knew he would tell Remy everything. He was just…waiting out these last moments of anonymity, knowing that revealing who he was was a risk he had to take.
“Name’s Lucash. I’m from a town called Westlow. Don’t really know where that is from here, except that it’s east. No mountains there.”
“How’d you get here?” Remy asked, though he’d already guessed the answer. Lucash didn’t know Remy knew who he was, so Remy wanted to hear it from him.
“On the back of a Guard truck.”
“Explains why you’re running from the Guard down there. And who is it you are looking for?”
“Nobody. Just told you that hoping you’d think I wasn’t outnumbered so badly. But—” Lucash trailed off.
“But, what?”
“The Guard are looking for me. And Juniper. Both of us were on that truck, and we both got off of it.”
“So, where is she now? This Juniper who got off the truck with you?”
“I’d have to show you. Can’t tell you.”
“Is she…is she alive?”
Lucash’s breath caught in his throat. Remy saying those words aloud made the possibility that they weren’t true more real than he’d allowed himself to acknowledge up to now. In spite of himself, he felt the tightening behind his eyes that threatened tears, though he managed to keep them from springing forth. Somehow.
“I think so. I sure hope so,” he replied, voice hoarser than normal.
“Why do you say that? Is she hurt?”
“No. Really sick,” Lucash said, staring off in the distance, recalling those last minutes in the truck. “On our way here, the two guards stopped the truck, came in back, and stuck us both with something. Don’t have a clue what it was. Thought it’d kill us, but it didn’t. Juniper started gettin’ sick after a while, though. But not me. So, I guess it wasn’t cuz of whatever they put inside us.”
“I know what it was. Or, at least I thought I did. But I would have thought you’d be sick too. Actually, I would have thought you both might be dead. So, there’s a chance my information is not accurate,” Remy said.
They had their escapees, or at least one of them. Somehow, this one in front of him seemed perfectly healthy, while the other was apparently really sick. That didn’t seem like the virus, even though the tirade between Karl and the guard indicated that they’d been injected. To Remy’s knowledge, no one had survived the normal virus. Even if this test strain was weaker, he couldn’t imagine how Lucash would not be showing any symptoms. Maybe something was wrong with one of the serums. Or, maybe…now, don’t get ahead of yourself, there, Remy.
Lucash’s head snapped up at Remy’s words, “How might you know what it is?”
“Phew…well, it’s a long, long story that we don’t have time for now. But we suspect you were injected with a synthetic strain of a virus that has been designed to be deadly, but not contagious. We were out here looking for you two.”
“You were? Who are you, then?
“I’m Remy. That’s all I can say for now. Other than we want to help. Anything I say beyond that will take too much explaining, so it’ll have to wait until a later time. And now that I know your friend is sick, I think we need to get to her, right away.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” The idea of showing Remy where Juniper was hiding terrified him. He knew nothing of this guy, so he had no reason to believe him other than the fact that he’d not done any harm so far, and he was also wanting to stay clear from the men hunting them down.
“You really don’t know, do you? But I don’t see you having many other options right now. And, Lucash? If this is the virus I’m talking about, it’s deadly. No one here has survived it. So, you standing here in front of me after being injected is perplexing. That’s why I’m wondering if we got the wrong information. If I’m right though, you might have very little hope of helping Juniper unless you trust me. Even then, depending on what we’re dealing with…well, I can’t guarantee anything other than that we’ll try.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Lots of reasons. Most importantly, though, is that we are trying to find a way to stop what is happening here, which seems to have just gotten bigger than we realized. But first, we need to get to your friend as quickly as possible.”
“My girlfriend.”
“What?”
“Juniper. She more than my friend. She’s my girlfriend.”
“Right. Then I imagine you’ll really want us to do everything we can. So, if I get us back down, can you lead me back to where she is?” asked Remy.
“Yes. I know the way.”
“Okay. When we get to the boulders, watch yourself going down. It’s much harder than the way up.”
“Harder?”
“Yeah. Counterintuitive, I know. It’s more dangerous. Gravity gains momentum on the way down. Oh, and we still have to watch our step. We have no idea where the other three men are, though I assume they all went up, we don’t want to be caught off guard.”
“Got it.”
Remy led the way again, and the two of them made a careful path down towards the base of the mountain, cutting a path just above the place where the truck was hidden toward a thin stand of trees. Once there, they were able to keep up a faster pace to the bottom, at which point Lucash took over the lead.
Twilight was upon them as Lucash guided Remy quickly along the edge of trees that paralleled the road until he found his way back to the spot where he had led Juniper into the forest. There, he hesitated, knowing that to take Remy deeper into the forest to where he hoped Juniper still slept was a point of no return.
Remy looked at him questioningly, but with concern as well. “Lucash, we’re wasting valuable time here. Where is she?”
Lucash shook off his fear, “This way. Right in here a ways…not too far.” He charged in then before he lost the courage to do so.
Remy felt his Colossus phone buzz.
CHAPTER 30
B
ryn looked down at the message that just came in on her Colossus phone.
“What is it?” Bendi asked when she saw the look on Bryn’s face.
“Destin. She said she needs to see me right away,” Bryn said as she typed in a reply.
“Did she say anything about why?”
“No. That’s what I just asked her.”
They both waited expectantly for another message from Destin, more curious than concerned.
“Oh. Oh no,” Bryn said, reading the reply. Bendi was patient. When Bryn finished reading, she continued, “Well. It seems she can’t tell me everything in a message. There’s a lot of that going around today! But, it’s something to do with information she and Troy discovered, and…something about Troy, himself. She says it can’t wait.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“No, Bendi. It doesn’t.” Bryn looked at her watch, then took note of her surroundings for the first time in a while, so consumed had she and Bendi been in the notes from BRO. “The sun will be setting soon.”
“And still no word from Rebecca or Remy,” Bendi added, a small frown turning down the ends of her mouth and her brow. “What are we going to do? Should I message Becs?”
“Let me think a minute.”
Bendi pulled out her own phone while she waited, just to make sure she hadn’t missed a message. She hadn’t. She returned it to her pocket and closed the notes on her tablet before shutting it down. Whatever Bryn decided, they wouldn’t be continuing that task. They hadn’t really gotten much further anyway, though Bryn was now even more certain that Bendi’s assessment of the notes had been correct. She was also able to discern which component of the virus they were changing in order to try to prevent the targeted individual from dying. That could be important, though Bendi was not sure how, unless they were going to actively prevent successful injections. It might help them save the two escapees. At least that would be something, she thought.
“Okay. Here’s what I think we should do. You go ahead and message Rebecca. I’ll shoot a message to Remy. Then I’ll let Destin know that we are on our way to pick her up, but that she should go to the central transit station, just so that we don’t draw any attention. It’s getting dark, but it’s still early enough.”
“What about the others?”
“If we don’t hear back from either of them by the time we get Destin, we’ll go look for them. We can fill her in on the way out there, and she can tell us whatever it is she needs to tell us. Would you prefer to go home instead? You don’t have to come, you know. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Yes. I do have to come. It’s Becs. And Selby and Cass, too. I can’t do nothing.”
“Okay. Well, the sooner we go the better,” Bryn said, and then noticed that Bendi was already one step ahead of her, with everything packed up and her bag slung over her shoulder. Bryn gave Bendi a tired smile, “And it seems you’re already there.”
They both sent their messages and then walked through the fading light to where Bryn had parked her car. “Destin’s leaving now. She said she should be there in 20 minutes or so, which should be about right for us, too.”
“Good.”
“Food. Are you hungry? I don’t have much in my bag, but you can check for a meal bar in there. Who knows when we’ll finish up?”
“No. I’m alright for now, thank you. I have a few bars in my bag, too. I’ve learned to keep something in there. Seems we’re always missing meals when it comes to work with Colossus.”
Bryn laughed, “Yeah, I guess that’s one of the hazards of this work. Won’t your family wonder where you are? Why you aren’t home for dinner? I’ve wondered about that with all of you. How are you getting away with being gone so much?”
“My house is crazy. I’m from a big family, and we have all always had different schedules and things we like to do. We haven’t had a family meal in years. Usually, there are a few people eating together, but never the whole family. Even now. Probably more now. I have a sister and two brothers who should also still be in school. Since we aren’t, we find other ways to stay busy. None of us is really the kind to get into trouble—except me now, I guess—so I don’t think my parents think anything of it, really.”
“That’s fascinating. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have brothers and sisters. It was always just me and my parents. Now it’s just me and my cat. Must be nice to have such a full house.”
“Sometimes. Yes. But it’s also loud sometimes. We all get along for the most part, though, so I guess that’s lucky. Cass doesn’t get along with her family.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I don’t know much about it. She isn’t one to say a whole lot, but I think her parents are probably happy that she isn’t around. I know she’s happy that she isn’t around them.”
Bryn looked over at Bendi with astonishment. “Wow. That’s sad.”
“I think so, too. Cass doesn’t act like it bothers her, but I’m sure it does.”
Bryn nodded, turning the car down a thoroughfare that would lead to the main transit station. Few other vehicles were on the road. Few people had permission to drive other than for work, and with much of the work at a standstill due to the lockdown because of the virus, hardly anyone would have reason to be in a car. With Bryn’s connection to BRO, she’d have the correct permissions available to show the Guard or Citizen Patrol if she got stopped. It was still risky, especially with passengers, but it was a necessary risk. She just hoped she didn’t ever get stopped.
