Resistance (The Institute Series Book 2) (14 page)

“I might go back to my place,” I say. I don’t really want to, but there’s tension between us that I haven’t felt since before we got together. He isn’t being completely open with me and making him talk will be next to impossible.

Before I can start walking off, he is at my side, pulling me into him. “Stay with me, please?” he asks, his tone boyish and vulnerable. “I’m sorry. It’s hard for me to talk about him. You understand that, don’t you?”

“I do. It’s hard for me as well. I just wish I could make you feel better.”

He smiles. “I can think of one way.”

My lips curl upward in an involuntary action as he leans down, touching his lips against mine and holding me close.

“Okay. I’ll stay.”

He kisses the end of my nose and leads me inside, straight to bed.

Chapter Eleven

“Everyone, this is Allira,” Cyrus says, addressing the group of trainees and recruiters in front of us. It’s a warm spring morning, the dew has already dried and everyone sits on the ground just outside the obstacle course in the training area. Everyone except for me. I tried to sneak in and sit down with the rest of them, hiding between Shilah and Licia, but Cyrus pulled me up front to stand in front of everyone. “She’ll be helping me keep you lot in check,” he jokes. “Allira, would you like to say something about yourself?”

I shake my head. “Nah, I’m all good, thanks.”

“Aww, she’s shy,” Cyrus says condescendingly. “Don’t worry, we’ll get that out of you.” Everyone laughs. I can feel my face redden – I just want this to be over with. “Okay, let’s get to it. I figure we haven’t been paying much attention to our ability training. Not as much as we should. So I think we’ll be focussing on that today. Everyone pair off and let’s go.”

“What would you like me to do?” I ask Cyrus.

“You can just stand there and look pretty,” he replies. I try to hide my automatic reflex to cringe but I don’t think it works. “Or you could use your ability to help others realise their potential. With an ability like yours, it’s bound to help them realise the extent of their capabilities.”

The group starts to spread out as each pair start practicing their abilities. Some are putting on protective vests they picked up from a crate at Cyrus’s feet, some are putting on protective sunglasses like the ones we used for the games. It’s only then do I realise that we must have some pretty strong abilities here.

The first person I recognise is Hayden from last night. I would prefer to help Licia or Shilah, but I can’t see them in the group anywhere. I’m surprised by the sheer number of people here. There were only about fifteen at the gathering last night and I thought that must have been the majority of us. There’s at least double that here now. Some are older, mid-to-late twenties but most are younger. Some even look as young as fourteen or fifteen. It seems the Resistance has taken a page out of the Institute’s book on training.

“Hey boss lady,” Hayden says with a smile and I can’t help but return it.

“You’re already my favourite, Hayden. No need to suck up.”

“Allira, this is my younger brother, Brayden.” I give him a look,
Really? Hayden and Brayden?
“And yes, our names rhyme, you don’t need to say it.”

I shake Brayden’s hand and go to say hello, but when we touch, a sharp pain runs up my arm like a zap of electricity is running through it. “Ah, f…ar out,” I say trying to cover what I was actually about to blurt out.

“Sorry!” Brayden says quickly pulling his hand away. “I didn’t mean to.”

Hayden leans in to me. “He hasn’t quite got the hang of things yet.”

“That’s okay,” I say. “It probably doesn’t help that I amplify abilities.”

“That’s what you can do?” Brayden asks. “That’s so awesome. Can we try again?”

“Uh, maybe later,” I reply, my arm still tense and sore from his last jolt of power. “What about you, Hayden? Show us what you’ve got.”

Hayden runs his hand over his white blond hair. “Alright,” he says. He reaches out his hand for me. I hesitate for a second.
What is he going to do to me?
I give him my hand reluctantly.
‘Tell me, I’m awesome,’
I hear telepathically.

“You’re awesome,” I say, the words flying out of my mouth before I could stop them. I give a laugh. “What was that? Are you a Telepath like Tate?”

“Not quite,” he says. “I can control what people say.”

“That’s really impressive.”

“It’s okay, I guess. It would be better if I could force more than a sentence out of someone.”

“I can work with you on that.”

“Really?” he asks, surprised.

“That’s what I’m here for.”

Hayden smiles at me, and for the first time since being handed this job, I’m excited to help.

***

“So how many recruiters are actually out in the field at the moment?” I ask Hayden as we break for lunch.

Hayden sighs. “Six.”

“Only six? Only three teams? But there’s so many at training. Why are there only six people out there?” I ask.

“Cyrus says none of us are ready, we don’t have abilities that complement each other enough to be sent out there by ourselves. He wants abilities like mine matched with ones like Brayden. A passive ability, with an active.”

I nod. That’s the same sort of combination the Institute would go with as well. It makes sense; one to investigate and find Defectives, one to approach and proposition while being protected. It’s why Tate and Chad worked so well together. Although now that I think about it, Drew and I both had passive abilities and that didn’t stop the Institute from pairing us off. I’m beginning to think they really did partner us together to punish us like Drew first suspected. They knew our history, maybe they did it to emphasise the amount of control they had over us, maybe they did it for pure entertainment – who knows.

“Well if you can get control over your ability, I’m sure you’ll be out there before you know it,” I say encouragingly, trying to put the Institute out of my mind. But now that I have said this, I begin to wonder just how Hayden’s ability would help in the recruitment process.

“We’ll see,” he replies unenthusiastically.

“You don’t think so?” Maybe he knows he won’t be all that helpful out there, too.

“I … never mind. I’m sure you’re right,” he says walking off and catching up to the others who are heading towards the cafeteria shed. It’s almost like he thinks he’ll never be put in the field.

I start following the others up the hill to go to lunch, only to see Chad coming the opposite way. He nods to some of the trainees on the way down, grabbing my hand as he reaches me and leads me back towards the training area.

“Lunch?” he asks holding up a bag of food.

“Is there a reason why we can’t have lunch with everyone else?” I ask, following him over to the obstacle course.

He throws the bag of food up onto a ledge and starts climbing up the ropes course onto the little square platform where the horizontal rope section begins. He sits down and pats the spot next to him. “Maybe I wanted you all to myself. So, how’s your first day going?”

“Really good actually,” I reply, climbing up after him. “That Hayden kid is pretty good.”

Chad smirks. “That ‘kid’ is seventeen. Only a few months younger than you.”

“Oh,” I reply. He seemed younger to me for some reason. Maybe I just feel old. I’m sure I’ve aged years over the last six months. “How did you do it?”

“What do you mean?”

“How did you become a teacher when your students were your age? Wasn’t it weird?” I know it’s weird for me to think that at some point Chad may have taught one of my classes back home and I just don’t remember it.

“It was even harder when it was my old school and my ‘students’ were friends. But I guess I just … I don’t know. I just did it.”

“Thanks for clearing that up.”

“You don’t really need to look at them like they’re your students. Look at them like people you can help. It might be easier if you treat them as an equal, rather than trying to get them to look up to you. They have Cyrus for that.”

“The impression I get is Cyrus loves the admiration he gets from them. He seems to feed off it.”

“That’s probably true.”

“I also get the impression that Cyrus has no intention of sending any of these trainees into the field,” I say hesitantly.

Chad raises his eyebrows. “Really? What makes you say that?”

“Do you know how many people are in the field right now?” I ask.

“There’s usually about eight teams, sixteen people at one time.”

“There’s six.”

“Six isn’t that bad.”

“No. Not six teams. Six people, total. There are only three teams out there. Hayden could be ready for it. We made so much progress this morning and it was only a couple of hours work. But when I told him that he’ll be out there in no time, he got doubtful about the whole thing. Said Cyrus doesn’t believe any of them are good enough yet but what would he know? He hasn’t been out there, he has no idea.”

“He’s probably right though. They probably aren’t ready. They’re not going to send anyone out there until they are absolutely prepared for it. It’s not like the Institute where they don’t care what happens to their agents once they’re out there. It’s safety first here.”

“I guess that’s a good thing.”

“It’s a really good thing.”

“I don’t know. I just … No matter how much I try, I just feel like something else is going on here.” Maybe deep down, I want something to be wrong here. Isn’t that what most screwed up people do? When something good happens in their life, they sabotage it any way they can because they don’t know how to be happy? “Maybe I’d feel less self-conscious if everyone knew about me,” I say, trying to cover other reasons for my insecurities.

Chad rolls his eyes. “Not this again.”

“I know, I know. Wait until Paxton is back. Fine.”

We’re silent after that. I pick at my food, look out across the Fields, look anywhere but at Chad. I can see some of the crop fields beyond the training arena. It’s eerily deserted while the workers are at lunch. Half full bins of ripe food sit intermittently around the crops. Rakes, shovels and other tools lie anywhere but on their racks.

I start wondering what this place would look like to an outsider. What would someone see if they came stumbling upon us? I know the chances of that happening are small – miniscule in fact – but I am fascinated by the possibility anyway. They would discover a community of people, completely self-sufficient and separate from the rest of the country. We live by the rules of the council, our very own government, and we train our fittest and fastest to become the strongest people they can be. Something snaps in my brain as this thought comes to mind.
I know what Cyrus is doing.

“Are any of Cyrus’s kids in recruitment?” I ask casually.

“He has two in recruiting. Twins actually. Wife number one’s kids. Ada and Alec.”

“What are their abilities?”

“To be honest, I don’t see how their abilities will help in recruiting. I think Cyrus persuaded the council to send them here so his kids didn’t have to work too hard. I remember everyone being disappointed when the twins finally realised what they could do. There were rumours that they could possibly be the strongest out of everyone. Double ability parent, having twins? Everyone had high hopes for them. Unfortunately, having a double ability doesn’t necessarily mean your kids will inherit that kind of power. One of them controls the air around them – they can create wind tunnels, tornado’s – that kind of thing. The other is a fire-starter.”

I think for a moment. “So together, they would be pretty good at containing and controlling a fire,” I suggest. Chad raises his eyebrows at me. “Fire needs oxygen to grow, right? Twin A starts a fire, Twin B feeds it the oxygen it needs to take over a whole area … for instance.”

“I guess, but I don’t see what that has to do with recruiting?”

“Neither do I,” I mutter.

“What?”

“Never mind. I’m just rambling. So how many kids does Cyrus have?”

A voice comes from behind us, startling me. “A lot.” I turn to see Cyrus. He has returned from lunch already. Did he even leave? “Why do you want to know?” he asks a little snarky.

I shrug. “I was just curious. I saw you with your little ones last week and Chad just told me about the twins.” I hope I’m pulling this nonchalant attitude off, because on the inside I’m trying not to fall apart with nerves.

Cyrus climbs up and takes the spot on the other side of me. Again, sitting far too closely and completely ignoring personal space boundaries. Seriously, don’t they teach this kind of stuff to you when you’re a child? ‘Do not invade another person’s personal space, it’s rude!’

“Well there is Ada and Alec, the twins. They’re fourteen and the eldest. Then there’s Benji, who’s twelve, Bianca’s ten, Bronte, nine. Brent’s seven, and Bailey and Char are four–”

“Oh, more twins?” I ask.

Chad shakes his head as Cyrus answers. “Uh. No. Sort of had some overlaps that year.”

“Oh.” I cringe.

“Then there is Catharine who is almost three and Camryn, the baby who’s almost one. And, I think that’s all of them,” Cyrus says with a smile.
Ten.
Ten children.
Ten.
I think I’m in shock.
Ten?!

“Well, you don’t look old enough to have ten children,” I say. It’s really the only thing that came into my head that seemed polite enough to say.

“Thanks, beautiful,” he responds.
Don’t cringe again, don’t cringe.
“Sorry Chad. I may just have to steal your woman away.”

I freeze at his words, side-glancing at Chad to see how I am meant to react to that. He doesn’t seem fazed by it. Was it a joke?

“What I mean is: we have to get back to work. Lunch is over,” Cyrus says.