The Chosen Ones (2 page)

Her dark brows drew together. “You
can hear me, can’t you?”

I merely stared unblinkingly at
her.

After a few minutes of silence she
sighed and set the food down, giving up on me. “Eat, if you can. You need it.
You won’t last much longer if you don’t, and I really, really want you to stay
with us.”

My fingers curled as I tried to
reach out and beg her to stay, but she didn’t notice. All too soon she walked
away, headed down the corridor toward the others. Back to the living, the sane.
Her footsteps faded into the silence.

I was alone again.
 

The thought of remaining trapped
within these walls all by myself terrified me. But even if I managed to rouse,
where would I go? I belonged nowhere, not with these people and not back at the
compound.

Exhausted by the thoughts
buzzing through my mind, I closed my eyes, allowing my head to loll back
against the cement wall. Two weeks. I’d been here two weeks. The days had
blurred together so that it seemed like a lifetime. It didn’t help that in the
skyscraper, as I’d heard one person call it, you couldn’t see the sun.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying
to force myself to remember. Running from Will and his friends, thinking they
were the enemy. Changing from the white gown the beautiful ones had dressed me
in, into the discarded garments of some long-lost owner. I remembered getting
the book, finally understanding the horrors of this new world. And then…and
then I remembered fainting. When I’d woken, my body had not been my own, but a vessel
that entombed me. They whispered that I’d lost my mind, gone insane. Maybe I
had.
 

At times I gained enough energy
and consciousness to move. Or maybe my body was merely working on its own. I
had gone outside the building to use the bathroom. I had eaten a few meals. I
had bathed when they had brought me a bowl of cold water. Part of me wished I
could return to normal, be human again. But most of me wanted to sink into
oblivion forever.

“Are you going to eat that?”
someone whispered.

Curious, slowly, somehow, I
managed to turn my head toward the voice. From the dark corridor, a child stepped
into the pool of lantern light. He was eight, maybe older. As he knelt beside
my bowl of rabbit meat, a lock of scruffy brown hair fell across his brilliant
blue eyes. He reminded me only too well of my brothers at the compound, waiting
to be chosen, having no idea what they would go through in the years to come.
Thank God they were not old enough to be picked. His attention darted from
corner to corner, shadow to shadow, as if he wasn’t supposed to be here and
worried about being caught.

“Are you?” he asked urgently. “Seems
stupid to let it go to waste.”

Had they told him not to speak
to the crazy lady down the hall? That thought angered me for some reason. Will
and his men thought I was a lost cause. Suddenly, I wanted to prove them wrong.
I swallowed hard, my throat pained with the movement. “No,” I whispered,
surprised the word had gotten up my thick throat, and over my dry lips.

He grinned, flashing white teeth
only a child could own. Too young to have the rotten, brown stumps I’d seen at
the castle on our kind. He seemed small for his age. At the compound back home
we’d always had food. When we’d run low, the beautiful ones would bring
baskets. They’d kept us nourished. They’d kept us like pets. Or like the cattle
we were. To them we were food. No thoughts, no emotions, no more.

I watched the boy as he scooped
up meat with this dirty fingers and shoved it into his mouth like one unsure if
it would be his last meal. Maybe it would. Maybe here we had little to eat, and
would have to fend for ourselves. The thought didn’t upset me like it should
have.

I’d seen the boy before, peeking
at me like I was some oddity, like the two-headed chicken that had been born in
our compound three years ago. I didn’t want to be an oddity. I didn’t want
Kelly gazing at me with sympathy, or Will with disgust. Determined, I focused
on my body, and uncurled my legs. My limbs protested, pain breaking through the
numbness. I’d been too still for far too long.

“What’s your name?” I grimaced,
attempting to think of something other than the thrumming ache pulsing through
me. But I had moved, and the moment felt like one of the miracles I’d read
about from a God I couldn’t began to understand.
 

He swallowed his bite. “Jimmy,
but I think I want to be called Jim. Sounds older, don’t you think?”

I felt the first smile in days
begin to curl my lips. “How…” Cringing, I swallowed over the painful dryness in
my throat. My entire body felt as brittle as the grass in midsummer. “How long
have you been here?”

“Four years, maybe.” He frowned,
setting the empty dish down. “Not sure.”

Four years. He’d been here four
years? I scanned the dark corridors, the depressing environment. How had they
survived this long, hiding in dank, abandoned buildings? He would have been
almost a babe then. What sort of life was this for a child? Desolate, I closed
my eyes. Maybe my siblings were better off not knowing what lay ahead.

“I came with my sister.” He hesitated,
unsure, lost. “They were transporting us to the castle to become servants and
we escaped with help from Will. But somehow we were separated.”

Will? He would have been young four
years ago, too young to be rescuing children and fighting beautiful ones. Had
he been fifteen? Fourteen? He was probably only nineteen or twenty now. How
long had Will been a part of this world?

I stretched my fingers, cringing
over the tightness of my tendons and muscles, fully expecting something to snap
off. Even in the low light I could see the bones, the narrowness of my wrists.
Will was right, I had lost weight. It upset me. When all I’d wanted to do minutes
before was curl up and die, for some reason at that moment I grew angry. Angry that
the beautiful ones had captured my freedom as they’d destroyed my mind. Angry
that Jim was here with no mother, no father, hiding for his life. But mostly
angry that I had given up.
 

“How many of us are here?”

He shrugged again, looking
thoughtful. “Probably around twenty-five. They come and go.”

I rolled my feet, the boots I’d
been given heavy and cumbersome on my weak ankles. “Come and go?”

“Oh yes,” he said, nodding.
“There are many groups out there, always on the move.”

Many groups. Startled, I paused.
Many chosen ones who had escaped? The realization that there were more of us
shocked, but buoyed me. My mind began to spin slowly, like a rusty wheel
desperate to work. “Jim, how much land is out there?”

“Lots!” He pulled a small book
from his back pocket, his face glowing. His interest was suddenly mine. “Look.”

He settled next to me on my pile
of ratty blankets and opened the book. But the picture made no sense to me. With
an unsteady hand, I pulled the lantern closer, highlighting his dirty face.

“I found this awhile back. It’s
amazing.” He pointed to a circle on the page. “This is earth. The world where
we live.”

Leery, I frowned. “What do you
mean?”

“This!” He pointed to the ground,
his excitement almost tangible. For the first time in weeks I felt something
stir within, something that felt oddly like life. “What we’re standing on is a
huge ball!”

I shook my head; it was utterly
ridiculous and insane. “We live on a ball?”

He nodded. “I swear, it’s true! And
these…” He pointed to a variety of shapes. “Are different countries.”

“Countries?”

He nodded, but didn’t explain.
“And this is the ocean.”

He pointed toward the blue area
surrounding the countries. I’d read about the ocean, although never seen it.
Could it possibly be truth and not myth? A body of water so large that you
couldn’t see land? Where fish bigger than humans swam? If vampires were real,
maybe the ocean was as well.

“We live here. Somewhere.” He
pointed toward a large shape of land. “And somewhere out there is more land
like ours. Other countries with other types of animals and people.”

“You’re positive?”

He shrugged, looking hesitant.
“I think so. Will thinks so. We all think so.”

The thought sent my heart
hammering. “Can I read your book?”

“Sure. Just don’t lose it. It’s
my favorite.”

I nodded, taking the small
novel. How I understood. At one time I had also kept my prized books safe, when
things like that mattered. “And there are other groups out there, in this
world? Groups like us?”

He nodded, scooting closer so his
warm body pressed into mine. He smelled like dirt and rabbit stew, but I didn’t
mind. The pressure of his form seemed to wake something deep within me,
cracking the ice that had frozen around my heart.
 

Slowly, I flipped through the
book of maps. All these years I’d been right. Although it was almost unbelievable,
I knew in my gut it was true. There was more to this world, so much more than
our fenced-in compounds. So much more than I’d ever dreamt. The realization made
me forget the darkness constantly tugging at the hem of my shirt, begging for
attention like some crying child. I wasn’t sure whether to be thrilled or
terrified. I settled on bemused.

I took in a deep trembling
breath and glanced around me, truly seeing the hall, the building, Jim for the
first time. The corridor ran into a large, open room that was just visible in
the distance, aglow with lantern light and crowded with people. We were in the
bottom of the building, hidden deep within. No windows. To escape we’d have to
go upstairs and back into that abandoned city. An entire world was out
there…waiting to be discovered, yet we hid in the dark like worms.

“So,” Jim said, drawing his
fingers down the greasy pan and licking off the drops. “You okay now?”

“Maybe.” As I responded, my mind
betrayed and mocked me. The images from the castle came whispering back,
taunting. Sally…blood. So much blood. I could feel it coming…the horror washing
over me, sucking me down into the darkness.
No.
No, I wouldn’t let it.

“Jane?” the boy called out,
leaning close.

If I didn’t stop the darkness, soon
I’d be there again…drowning…drowning. I pressed my palms to my temples, trying
to stop the enveloping numbness from sweeping over me.

“Jane?” Jim called out again, a
lifeline pulling me toward the light. “Are you okay?”

His sticky fingers touched my
arm, jerking me back into reality. For a moment I merely sat there taking in
shallow breaths, trying to control the fear, trying to focus on Jim and his worried
gaze. I was alive. I would be healthy again. At the moment, there was nothing
to fear.

Slowly, I gave him a trembling
smile. The numbness faded, the world coming sharply back into focus. I’d won this
time, but I could feel it there, lurking in the shadows, just waiting for that
moment of weakness. “I’m okay.”

He grinned. “Good, because I
have more books and—”

A bell clanged from somewhere in
the main room, the sound echoing obtrusively down the hall. Jarred, I
stiffened, my heart slamming wildly against my ribs. “What is that?”

Jim scrambled to his feet,
accidentally kicking the pan across the floor, his movements frantic and
hurried.

“Jim,” I reached out, grasping onto
his arm before he had a chance to bolt. “What is it?”

He turned toward me, those
innocent eyes wide with fear. “The beautiful ones, they’re here! Run!”

Chapter
2

“You want to live?” Suddenly Will
loomed over me, sword in hand. His appearance jerked me from my stupor. He tore
Jim from my grip and shoved the boy down the hall. “Get off your ass. You
don’t, you’ll die under their hands.”

The sound of terrified screams
startled me. The noise was too much like the killings that had happened at the
castle, the shrieks I’d heard when I’d lived in the compound. Fear held me
immobile and all I could do was stare down that dark hall, waiting for the
beautiful ones to appear and destroy me for good.

Will shoved a sword into my
hands. “Jimmy, find Kelly and gather the kids.”

I fumbled to grasp the
cumbersome, unfamiliar weapon. “Wh…what do I do with it?”

“Cut off their heads,” Will
explained. “It’s the only way to make sure they’re dead.”

I stared unblinkingly at him.
“Cut off their heads?”

The words made no sense to me.
Before I could ask him to repeat his command, because surely I’d misheard him,
he spun around and raced toward the great room, into the fray. I wondered, for
a brief moment, if I would ever see him again. It was an odd disconnected
thought, like wondering if it would rain that day, and not really caring either
way.

“Run!” someone cried, the
high-pitched scream raising the fine hairs on the back of my neck.

Slowly, I lowered my gaze to the
sword. It might as well have been one of the computers I’d read about in my
books, for it made about as much sense. I didn’t know how to fight. I,
apparently, didn’t know much of anything. The absurdity of it all had me
laughing for the first time in weeks: a harsh, dry cackle that made me sound
more like a witch than a human.

Shaking my head, I tried to
clear my muddled mind. I wasn’t sure which terrified me more, my crazed,
wayward thoughts or the idea of the beautiful ones arriving. One thing was
clear…I needed to move or I would die. Somehow I managed to tuck my feet underneath
me, and using the wall for support, I stood. The sword began to slip from my
damp hands. I caught it just before it clanged to the floor. But I didn’t have
time to breathe a sigh of relief. The screams and shouts of those in the great
room echoed like an endless nightmare down the hall, rolling toward me and vibrating
against my skull. The attacks were happening all over again. But this time, I
had a feeling I wouldn’t survive.