Wasteland (Flight) (4 page)

“Is it a boy?” she questions, wiggling her eyebrows. I roll my eyes.

“No. Tor
is
back in town, you know,” I say. Even though he was like a second son to her, my mother has never really caught on to the Piper-Tor train. Just like David.

“I’m just teasing. Have fun. I love you,” she says.  At this moment she looks so beautiful with her big blue eyes and naturally curly hair. I wrap her up into my arms and kiss her on the forehead.

“Love you too,” I say.

Essa is already at the coffee shop when I get there. She has some notes in front of her that she’s reviewing, and smiles at me as I enter through the swinging door. I join her, and am relieved to see a steaming hot coffee—or, the best coffee we can manufacture—on my side of the table.

“Did you have a good night last night?” I ask as I tuck in. She giggles a little, and I eye her warily.

“I think you need to tell your brother that I’m not into dudes. He tried to walk me home last night,” she says. My eyes widen and I burst out laughing; I can’t wait to tell him when I get home.

Then I look at her a little more closely, and I recognize where I know her from.

“You dated Shelley for a little while,” I say. I remember now. Shelley and I had gone out one night, and she’d told me about this girl she was seeing. At first I was a little shocked—Shelley had always been kind of boy obsessed—but the one time I’d seen them together they looked cute and happy.

“Yeah, I did for a little bit. I didn’t think you’d remember me. She’s a sweet girl, but I don’t think she was ready for the same kind of relationship I was,” Essa replies. I know what she means. Serious. Committed. These words are just not in Shelley’s relationship vernacular.  “How’s she doing, by the way?” Essa adds.

“She’s good. She’s designing Rad Gear in Ichton right now. I miss her tons.” Essa smiles, and gestures to the notes in front of her.

“I’ve been working for a bit, trying to think of some angles we might try to complete
our mission
,” she says. I lean over the table to look at them. Most of them are maps; detailed maps of the dead forests and fields above ground. Wasteland.

“Do you think H002 is really so close to home?” I ponder aloud. There are really two options here: He’s been kidnapped and/or killed, or he’s run away on his own. Would he stay above ground?

“Well, from the reports I’ve read, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that the younger brother could have done anything to him, and the sister is also missing, but she left on her own accord to take what they call a ‘wilding’ quest, where they live off the land for a period of time. This leads me to the idea that he’s left on his own,” she says.

I nod in acknowledgment as I skim the reports. Harpy traditions, day-to-day living, the Family. H002, also known as Asher. Asher. To think that the heir to the Harpy throne has such a simple name.

“I think you’re on to a good start, honestly. This is some great work. So, do you think we should do a trip above ground?”

She just nods, excitement gleaming from her eyes.

“I think we should do more than a few days. I think we should do a
wilding
.”

Bright, fluorescent light pierces my eyes, even through the soft skin of my eyelids. I open them, groaning at the sharp sting of light.

My body is stiff, my muscles aching from the remnants of the tranquilizer. Slowly, my memory returns. I had almost escaped, and Rassler and Essa, two whom I had considered my allies, had brought me back to my prison. Why?

I am now lying on a cold, concrete floor, in a different cell than what I’ve been calling
home
. I lean up and the jangling of chains calls my attention to my feet; wrapped around my ankles are shiny silver cuffs.

I wiggle my bare toes slightly and the cuffs automatically tighten, squeezing skin into bone, eliciting a yelp of pain from my throat. I try to relax my feet, and the cuffs loosen just enough that the pain isn’t stabbing.

“You cannot flex your muscles, or the pain will only get worse,” a small voice sounds behind me. I whip around, wincing, to see that I am not alone. My cell is no longer made of high-quality titanium. There are thick, iron bars locking me in. Across the hall there is another cell, where a young girl sits.

She is upright in lotus position and her thin lips are curled into a smile. Her skin is ghostly pale, and her hair is the shocked white of an old woman. Even her eyes are strange; beaming violet. She looks to be only seventeen years old at the most.

“Who are you?” I croak, my voice still hoarse from screaming earlier. Whoever she is, this girl cannot be Human. She has an alien air about her. Not Human. Not Harpy. But then what?

“I am Io. It’s nice to finally meet you, Piper Madden,” she says delicately. I’m caught off guard. How does she know my name? “I know all about you, and David, and Asher,” she continues. Sweat beads from my forehead. Seeing the shackles on her own feet, I realize that she must have been the one the guards were looking for.

Io.

“How?” was all I managed to reply. She smiled larger, showing off perfect white teeth, maybe even a little translucent.

“I know just about everything, but it isn’t a skill that I can explain to you so simply. I am the only one of my kind, Piper Madden, but in a way, we are related,” she says.

Briefly I wonder if I am dreaming. Of all the strange things I’ve seen in my life, this girl is by far the strangest. No pigment in her skin or hair, and so frail; yet for some reason she must be chained and locked away.

“You said your name was Io? Where are your parents?” I ask softly. She tilts her head, eyeing me queerly, like my question is just completely silly.

“I don’t have any parents, at least in the conventional sense. I’m just like you,” she replies.

I frown. I have a mother. I may never know who fathered me and David, but my mother has been enough for me. More than enough.

“Don’t worry, Piper Madden. Soon everything will begin to make sense. You have an interesting future; filled with love and passion and agony. You are special, even for a Hunter,” she continues.

“What do you mean, special?” I ask.

“What do you think they’ve been doing to you here each day, when they’ve been injecting you with all those needles?” she counters. My heart begins to pound. I don’t think I want to know what has been continually injected into my body, but deep down, I need to know.

“They’ve been testing me,” I answer. Io nods her head, just once.

“More than just testing. They’ve been preparing you for what is to come, though even they don’t yet know what that is.”

“Why didn’t they just kill me when they had a chance?” I wonder aloud. Io’s smile fades, leaving a serious, almost spiteful expression on her face.

“Because Rupert would never allow that. You mean too much to him. He will never let you die if he can help it,” she says.

I have so many questions boiling within me. How does she know so much? How old is she really? Can she see the future? Why does Rupert protect me, after all that I have done to him? But I don’t have time to ask anything. Io answers first.

“Your questions will be answered sooner than you think, but not now. Many more events must pass before the truth may come to light. I would not say that I can see your future, in the way that you perceive, but I do see threads of time and motion. I see the thread you cling to now, and the many threads that may come to be. I can never know what will happen, but I always know what might.”

A small tremor of fear wiggles through my body. This girl. I remember reading something about her, or something like her, years ago. I don’t know from where, but a few words populate my mind:

The next evolution
.

She is it. She is the Corp’s experiment. A girl who can see the shards of time.

“Don’t worry, Piper Madden. We will see each other again. We are connected,” she says.

I’m about to question her statement when the lights above me dim and then shut off, leaving me in darkness. Mist shoots from the cell ceilings, and my body once again falls, unconscious.

“Piper, wake up.”

I groan as I once again struggle to wake from my chemical sleep. How many times can I go through this? This time there are no bright lights, no painful shackles, and no strange girl.

I open my eyes to find Essa standing in front of me. I’m seated upright on a lush, stuffed chair. The sight of her bright eyes brings back the stifling panic from when she’d betrayed me, and she covers my mouth with her gloved hand.

“Listen to me. There’s not much time. He’ll be here soon. Piper, listen to me. We are on your side, but we can’t release you just yet. A lot of shit has gone down while you’ve been locked up, and the Corp thinks me and Rassler are still loyal. So you need to shut up and pretend I’m your enemy now. I promise we will get you out soon, but right now I need you to play dumb or we’re all screwed, okay?” she whispers.

I take a moment to let it all sink in before nodding. She removes her hand from my mouth and grabs her gun from its holster, pointing it at me like I’m some feral, dangerous creature.

I don’t even know how long I’ve been here anymore; months, I imagine. All I want to know is where Asher is, if he’s safe, if he still thinks of me like I think of him; every time I breathe.

But I listen to Essa. I don’t move, but instead look around the room I’m in. The first thing I notice is frail sunlight from the windows, and warmth. We’re in one of the waiting rooms in Central. The walls are slate gray and the art hung up is eccentric and abstract.

Most of all, beyond Essa’s gun, I’m free. No chains, no cell doors, no bars. I think of Io. She’d said everything would change soon, that we’d meet again. Had those moments actually happened? Or were they just a drug-induced dream? No. Her face is still stuck in my mind so clearly. She has to be real.

The door to the room swings open, and Rupert marches in, flanked by Rassler… and Tor. It pains me to see him, to see the hard look on his face, how he doesn’t even look at me. He is truly lost to me now. Lost in the lies and the nano-machines erasing parts of his memory. He’s now nothing more than Rupert’s pet.

His blond hair is parted and slicked down, and his suit is almost identical to Rupert’s. When they reach me, I look up into Rupert’s eyes, trying to see what secrets might lay behind his gaze.

“Stand down, agent. I don’t think that’s necessary,” he said to Essa. She nodded and holstered her gun, stepping back in line beside Rassler.

For a long moment Rupert and I just stare at each other, almost as if it’s a battle to see who can outlast the other. Finally, he breaks out into an odd smile.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment, Piper. You look good. You look strong,” he says. I’m taken aback. I thought he would be punishing me for my escape attempt, not complimenting me.

“What moment is this?” I reply. He motions for me to stand, and I do, albeit a little stiffly. He circles me then, studying my muscle build-up. I bite my tongue. Finally he claps his hands together.

“You’re ready, my girl. This moment is when you move from prisoner to Hunter. It’s time for you to start work again. Much has happened,” he says.

He must be joking. Work? As in stalk around above ground pinning down Harpies who may be innocent?

“What if I run?” I ask. He shoots me an overly confidant smirk, and pulls out a tiny unit from his pocket that looks like a detonator.

“Don’t worry, we’ve got that under control. You see, Evan, your technician, has placed a new program of Nano-machines into your bloodstream. If you so much as think about running off, all I need to do is press this little button and your body will be paralyzed immediately until we collect you and administer the antidote. We’ve also equipped you with state-of-the-art tracking devices so that we’ll always know
exactly
where you are!” His tone is almost jovial, like a kid in a candy shop explaining all of the new treats, instead of horrifying body mods.

So, this is it. Even though I’m no longer locked up, I’m still not free. I’m just Rupert’s toy now. I have to do as he commands. When I don’t answer, he holds up his thumb, hovering just an inch above the detonator.

“Would you like to try it out? I’ve heard the paralysis is actually quite painful,” he offers. I shake my head quickly. Essa was right. It isn’t time yet. Nowhere close. I can’t do anything until I figure out how to disable Rupert’s contraptions.

I return to the chair, my numb legs unable to hold my body upright any longer.

“Okay. I get it. No running. But can you at least tell me what’s been going on while I’ve been… incarcerated?” I quip. Rupert motions for Tor, Essa, and Rassler to sit on the sofa behind him and he pulls up a chair so that he’s seated across from me. The stench of his cologne mixed with lingering cigar makes me want to choke. He clears his throat.

“Well, as you know, H004, or Gabriel as he is called, has rallied most of the Harpies behind him for new leadership. This has caused a lot of chaos in Ehvelar, and we’ve been right there to pick up the pieces.

“You see, Piper, when a government or ruling body becomes unstable, the people don’t know who to trust. Anarchy assumes place, and the armies and protectors lose their strength. This has worked out to be a great advantage for us. The population is not on guard. Now is the time to strike.”

His words course through me, and my blood runs cold. This is it. This is the beginning of the war we’ve all been dreading.

“You’re starting the war,” I state. A steady smile remains stuck to Rupert’s lips, but I can’t help but notice the almost imperceptible beads of sweat on his forehead. He doesn’t know if we can win.

“The war has been going on for years. Now we’re taking action,” Tor butts in. I raise my glance to his. The anger in his eyes radiates toward me.

“And if we don’t win?” I counter. I’m expecting a lapse in response, but Rupert is prepared.

“We have safety measures in place. For the past decade we have been building compounds, much like the one you’ve been living in. If we must, there is a switch that will lock these areas down forever. Most of the space has already been purchased,” he explains.

By all of the wealthy denizens of the Underground, of course, but he doesn’t bother adding that. The rest of us will be left to chance, left to a terrible death by Harpy extremists. I can hear the screams of terror in my mind. I slam my eyes shut, willing the sounds to fade away.

I don’t even want to ask the question burning on my lips.
What about us? What about Asher and Myra and Shelley and Grier and Sandy?
I already know what the answer will be.

Rupert brings his hand forward, and I flinch as he strokes the side of my cheek.

“I know it’s been rough for you recently, but I’ve only been trying to prepare you, to make you as strong as possible. It’s been a long day. Essa will escort you to your new lodgings. I would suggest you shower and catch up on your sleep. Tomorrow we will talk more about everything and I think you will come to realize what side you should be on.”

He kisses me gently on the forehead and strides out of the room, Tor and Rassler on his heels. The door closes, and then it’s just me and Essa. She rushes toward me; I must be trembling.

“He’s psychotic,” I whisper. Essa strokes a strand of my hair behind my ear.