Hope (Book 2, Harvester of Light Trilogy; Young Adult Science Fiction) (29 page)

We were on the
road for over four hours before the Durango died underneath us.  I braked to a
rolling stop waking everyone instantly.

“What’s wrong?”
Ash asked, sitting up straighter.

“I don’t know,” I
replied.  “We still have gas.  It must be something mechanical.”

“Pop the hood,” Jackson
said.  “Maybe I can figure something out.”

After spending
almost an hour fiddling under the hood, Jackson wasn’t able to diagnose the
problem with the engine.

“Skye!” Zoe yelled
from the back.  “Something’s wrong with Hope!”

I ran to the back
of the Durango.  Apparently without thinking, Ash ran back with me and got too
close, instantly vanishing.  I didn’t have time to think about that, all I
could focus on was the sound of Hope’s ragged breathing.

“How far are we
from a doctor?” Skye asked, rocking Hope in the crook of her arm.

“We’re at least thirty
or forty miles away,” I said.  So close yet so far away.

“We can walk
that,” Zoe said, nodding her head to make the task seem more doable than it was. 
“We can do it.  I know we can.”

“Listen,” I told
her.  “I can make it there faster than any of you.  I’ll take Hope on ahead and
guys stay here.  I’ll get Michael to send help back.”

Without
questioning my decision, Zoe kissed Hope on the lips and handed her over to me. 
When I looked down at Hope, I could see how quickly she was deteriorating.  Her
skin now held a bluish tint telling me she wasn’t getting enough oxygen.  I
touched her forehead with my hand and called on my healing power to help
prolong her life but it seemed to have no effect on whatever was wrong with
her.

“Save her,” was
the last thing I heard Zoe say before I took off running down the road.

I held Hope close
to my chest to keep her as warm as I could while I ran.  With each step I took
I became more and more determined to save her.  But the same question repeated
itself in my mind: what was I saving her for?  The world as it was wasn’t worth
living in.  An image of the world as it could be flashed in my mind.  My future
self had shown me a place where the sun shone and children could laugh.  That
was a place in which Hope deserved to live in.  She had been dealt a bad hand
in the game of life, and I was determined to change her luck.  All I had to do
was get her to Michael’s camp.

After two hours of
running, I stopped to catch my breath and check on Hope.  Her little eyes were
open staring up at me.  Her lips were parted as she fought to draw in a single breath. 

“Hang in there,” I
told her.  “Don’t you dare die on me.  Not when we’re so close to getting you
help.”

I took off running
again knowing there wasn’t a second to lose.

Thirty minutes
later Hope struggled to lift one of her tiny hands up like she wanted to grab
onto something.  I stopped running and I placed my index finger against her
small palm.  Her fingers wrapped around it tightly and she stared at me with such
intensity, as if she were telling me it was time to let her go. 

 “No,” I said,
filled with determination.  “You stay with me.  You only need to fight a little
longer.  Then we’ll be together forever.”

I rocked her in
the crook of my arm and tried to think of something, anything to give her a
reason to stay alive.  A memory from my own childhood flashed in my mind. 
Whenever I was sick or frightened, my mother would sing to me.  I didn’t
remember many songs but knew of one I had just heard recently.

Hush, little
baby, don't say a word,

Mama's going to
buy you a mockingbird.

If that
mockingbird won't sing

Mama's going to
buy you a
diamond ring
…

If that diamond
ring turns brass,

Mama's going to
buy you a looking glass…

She smiled then as
if she understood what I was trying to do.  Her eyes closed slowly and her
fingers lost their grip around my finger.  With one last shuddering breath, her
body went completely limp in my arms. 

Instantly, I saw
the light of Hope’s soul leave her body and hover in front of me as if she were
saying one last goodbye.  Her soul crept closer to me and then suddenly passed
through my body making me feel the pureness of her love for me and how much she
wanted me to finally find peace.

I fell to my knees
holding Hope’s lifeless body to my chest, tears of loss and new found hope
streamed down my face.  In that moment, I felt like my heart was outside my
body too, exposed to the world as it grieved over the loss of such an innocent and
pure soul.  Hope’s last gift to me broke down the barrier I had been hiding
behind.  A protective wall meant to separate me, the harvester, from me, the
human.  My resolve to keep the two parts of myself separate completely
shattered, and I knew it was only because Hope had found a way to share her undying
love for me.

I wasn’t just a
harvester, and I wasn’t just human.  I was both.  A fact I felt sure the Queen
knew all too well.  Even though she tried to make harvesters believe they were
superior to humans, she knew the line of distinction was blurry.  The power of
strength and immortality harvesters felt blinded them to their human side, at
least enough to make them accept her brainwashing mantra that human emotions made
you weak.  But now, I knew the truth.

I felt a warm hand
tentatively touch my shoulder.  When I looked beside me, I saw Jace’s concerned
face.

Without saying
anything, I stood, still cradling Hope in my arms and let him wrap us both in
his warmth.  I let my soul cry out its anguish while he held me close, providing
me a safe haven to relinquish my pain.  Once my tears were spent, the story of
my life as a harvester spilled out of me.  Jace listened to it all without
saying a word.  I wasn’t sure what he would think of me afterwards, but I knew
I had to tell him everything.  I didn’t want there to be any secrets between us
and he needed to know the type of person I was now.  I would never be the girl
he said he was in love with and he needed to decide for himself whether or not
he could accept the new me.

After I spilled my
heart out to him, he remained silent.  I pulled away from him to look at his
face and wasn’t prepared for what I saw in his eyes: utter devastation.

“Do you hate me
now?” I asked, needing to know if I had forever changed his feelings for me.

“It would take a
lot more than what you just said for me to hate you,” he replied.

“Can you still
love me?”

“It would take a
lot more than what you just said to make me stop loving you too.”

My heart felt
lighter, free of the burden of my regrets and filled with the promise of love I
saw on Jace’s face.

I looked down at Hope’s
peaceful face and silently thanked her for showing me who I truly was.  She had
given me back my life and I would never forget her for it.  I was filled with
an intense determination to make sure her sacrifice hadn’t been in vain and
knew I would keep the love her soul shared with me in my heart forever.

“How did you find
me?” I finally asked Jace.

Jace looked behind
me causing me to follow his gaze and I saw Rose standing a few yards away in
the middle of the road.  I felt an instant rage and stormed up to her slapping
her hard across the face with all my anger.

“Why didn’t you do
something?” I yelled at her.  “You knew where I was.  You could have saved
her!”

Rose held a trembling
hand to her face over where I hit her, tears brimming in her eyes.

“I couldn’t save
her,” she said.

“Why?  Because my
future self said you couldn’t?  Can’t you think for yourself you god damn
coward?”

“Skye…” I heard
Jace say behind me, warning me I had gone too far.

Tears spilled from
Rose’s eyes.  “I couldn’t save her because she needed to save you.”

“Don’t do that,” I
warned her taking a step back from her before I hit her again.  “Don’t you dare
put the blame for her death on me.”

“Her death was no
one’s fault,” Rose said, dropping her hand to her side and taking a step
towards me.  “Hope’s fate was to show you your humanity again.  Even if I had
taken her to a doctor, it was never her destiny to live out a normal life.  She
was meant to help you realize who you are so you can save the world.”

I felt my anger
towards Rose slowly ebb away because I knew she was right.  It made perfect
sense even though I hated to admit it to myself.  It seemed we all had our
parts to play if the world was to be saved, even if we didn’t like them.

Before I knew it,
Simon appeared with Zoe by his side.

As soon as I saw
Zoe, I walked over to her.

“I wasn’t able to
save her,” I said, taking the full responsibility of Hope’s death on my
shoulders.

Zoe held out her
arms and I placed Hope in them for one last time.

As Zoe held her
daughter close, she began to cry the tears only a mother can shed over the loss
of a child.  I hesitated before taking her in my arms much like Jace had and
let her use me as her anchor while her world spun out of control.  I didn’t try
to console her with words and convince her Hope’s death was meant to be.  It
would have just been too cruel.  Instead, I simply held her and joined in her
grief.

Eventually, Rose
and Simon helped everyone reach Michael’s camp.  We held a funeral for Hope on
a small hill within the compound.  Michael promised to erect a monument to her
there when the war was over.

With mention of
the war, I knew my work had just begun.  We would need to find a way to defeat
the Queen and discover a way to bring sunlight back to the world.

Chapter 29

After the funeral,
I was surprised to see Simon and Rose stick around for our first strategy
meeting on how to defeat the Queen.

“If we could just
kill the bitch, things would be so much easier,” Michael said as we all sat around
a table in his office.

“Why can’t you?”
Zoe asked.

I explained to her
about the artificial ozone layer protecting what was left of the world and the
consequences of killing the Queen.

“So we can’t just
kill her,” I finished.  “If we do, she’ll take the rest of the world with her.”

Zoe sat silently,
seeming to be lost in her own thoughts as we discussed what needed to be done
next.

“We should hurt
her where it counts,” I said.  “She showed me where all of her important
installations are.”

“She let you look
at the map?” Michael questioned, suddenly becoming excited.  “She doesn’t show
that to anyone.”

“I guess she
trusted me.”

“What did you do
to earn that trust?” Michael questioned.

“Things I would
rather not talk about right now.  They’re not important anyway.”

“We don’t need to
dwell on things from the past,” Jace said, coming to my defense.  “We need to
look at what we can do to ensure our future.”

“I have an idea.” 
Zoe’s words were so soft, we almost didn’t hear them.

“What’s your idea,
Zo?” I asked.

“Kill the Queen.”

“We just told you
why we can’t do that,” I said patiently.

“You can if I
replace her shield with one of my own.”

“Can you do that?”
Ian questioned.  “You think you can make one that big?”

“I won’t know
until I try.”

“She’ll be able to
make a large enough one,” Simon chimed in completely confident.

“And it holds?” I
asked, knowing if he and Rose said it would work then it would.

“Yes, it will stay
up for many years to come.  After you bring down the Queen’s shield, sunlight
will come back, but my mother won’t be able to do it alone.  Rose and I will
have to help her.”

“But won’t that be
kinda hard for you people to do?” Michael asked. “Standing there for so long?”

“No,” a new voice
in the room said.

We all turned to
find the new addition to our group and found an older man standing by the office
door.  Jace made to stand up thinking we had been infiltrated, but I grabbed
his arm before he could leave the table.

“It’s Ash,” I
said.

Ash came to stand
behind his children.

“Once they combine
their power,” the older Ash said, “the shield they make will grow exponentially
and almost cover everything the Queen’s shield does now.  After they do that
I’ll place them in stasis like Zoe was when Skye first found her.  All we have
to do is get them close to where the Queen’s shield emanates from now.”

“I know where that
is,” I said, remembering it’s location from her map.  “I can get us there.”

I looked at the
older Ash and asked, “After we kill the Queen and dismantle her shield, how
long will they have to keep their shield in place?”

“A long time,” Ash
answered.  “You will have passed away by the time they’re able to come out of
stasis.”

I heard Zoe’s
sharp intake of breath. 

“No,” I said, not
willing to have Zoe ripped from my life, “there has to be another way.”

“There is no other
way,” this time it was Rose who answered.  “We’ve know this was our fate since
we were children.  You helped prepare us for this.  We’re ready.”

“But what if I’m
not?” I said, feeling close to tears.

“Skye.” Zoe took
hold of my hand.  It was the first time I noticed the wrinkles and brown spots
on her skin, a sure sign of aging.  “You know I’m dying.  At least my life will
have meant something if I do this.”

I knew Zoe would
be dead within a year’s time.  Her accelerated aging hadn’t stopped.  It seemed
as though the pregnancy had done what the Queen predicted and worsened it.

“But I don’t want
to lose you,” I said, feeling the warmth of my tears trail down my cheeks.

“You won’t lose me
completely.” Zoe smiled at me with a wisdom far beyond her years.  “You’ll have
my children to raise for me.  There’s no one in the world I trust more than you
to take care of them.” Zoe looked at Simon and Rose.  “And look what a great
job you did.  They’re everything I could ever hope them to be.”