Ordinaries: Shifters Book II (Shifters series 2) (20 page)

Tanner’s mouth drops open, and he stares at me as though I’m the one who betrayed him. He expects me to stand by Devon no matter what, but I won’t. She tried to kill him.

Alice’s gaze shifts between the two of us. She opens her mouth to speak, but closes it again, choosing instead to remain silent. “So . . . she’s on Nine? Here?” she asks after a few moments of awkward silence.

“We’re going to find Devon, so we can fight Lena,” I say evenly.

Tanner opens his mouth like a fish out of water. “We’re going to find Lena to get Devon!” he finally shouts.

“You’re both right,” Kai snaps. “We need to find Devon and fight Lena. Both are connected.”

I glare at Kai for a moment.

We’re interrupted by Sol
é
running onto the ship. She rushes over to me and takes both of my hands. Even though she is terrified and clearly disturbed, she moves like a lithe cat.

“Oh, Ryland!” There are tears on her frozen white cheeks.

“What is it, Sol
é
?” I ask, my gut clenching. Something horrible is going to happen.

“It’s Clay,” she says in a hoarse whisper. “He’s going to die!” She ends with a wail and collapses into my arms.

Tanner’s staring at me with wide, round eyes. He looks horrified. I know he and Clay haven’t exactly become close friends, but they do like each other.

“When?” I ask, shaking Sol
é
.

Sol
é
just shakes her head, unable to speak.

I hand her to Kai, and take off running toward the com system. I punch in the code for Clay’s ship. For a moment, nothing happens, and I wonder if I’m too late.

Then, Cooper’s smiling face is in front of me. “Ryland,” she grins. Then, she stops. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“It’s Sol
é
,” I breathe quickly.

“Is she hurt?” Cooper asks, her face full of concern.

“No,” I shake my head vehemently. “She’s had a vision.”

Her face clouds. I know prophecy is not something that she respects, but something she, like myself, has come to fear. Prophecy is what got our people killed, got us exiled. Prophecy is how we ended up orphans on a distant world.

“Listen,” I say urgently. “You can’t let Clay out on any missions today. Whatever it is, he can’t go. If he does . . .” I take a shuddery breath. “If he does, he’ll die.”

Cooper’s face is a mask. For a moment, she reminds me of Kai. Then, her face twists into a mask of pain. “Ry . . .” she says, and I break into a sob. “Ry, he’s already gone.”

Kai has to hold me up as I almost collapse to the ground. We left him behind. It was supposed to be safe there, just keeping our alliances tight.

He wasn’t supposed to be in danger.

Kae comes back over. Trailing behind her is a small, wrinkled man with eyes like a wolf. I watch as he calculates the speed he would need to slaughter every last one of us. Even with Kae’s happy presence next to him, he doesn’t completely trust us. Which is fine because I don’t trust him either. Not that I care about his trust at the moment. Not that I can think of anything but Clay.

“This is Baccas,” Kae says, beaming at us and then frowning at my tears, confused by my sudden change in emotion. “He can sneak us into the southwest warehouse. There we can join the workforce and meet up with our allies on the inside.”

Kae’s so proud of herself for being able to make friends with our new allies. I wonder if she’s completely unaware of her Apt. She can’t know what it is. If she does, she would surely see it as a tool. No, she simply thinks of herself as a happy person.

“Nice to meet you,” Tanner says, smiling sadly back at the man.

The man barely looks at Tanner. He doesn’t return the smile or greeting. He looks back at Kae. “Surely you meant actual soldiers?” he asks, frowning. “These are children.”

“We aren’t
just
children,” I snap. “We are the prophesied children. We are the Shifter Young, and we have been fighting for survival our entire lives.”

I know this is a bit of a stretch, but I can already see the kind of man in front of us. This is a man who wants strength. He doesn’t want friends. He wants victory and whatever tools might make that possible.

And at the moment, all the sacrifices I have made for these people are running through my mind. They will trust me, and they will follow my orders. I gave up everything for them. Now, even Clay.

He snorts, then reaches out to shake my hand. “When do we leave?” He grins.

Chapter 38

A Change of Clothes and the City Entrance

–
TANNER–

“Now,” I tell him. If this is what I have to do to finish up on Nine and find Devon, then I’m not going to wait around.

“Not so fast,” the small rude guy—Baccas, or something—says, holding a hand up like this little guy could actually stop me. I don’t think the top of his head reaches my jaw. “We’re going to have to do something about . . .” he waves his hand around like we’re clearly not dressed properly for some high fashion event—which, of course, we’re not.

“E,” he calls. “Do something with them so they don’t . . .” he pauses, “get us all killed.”

A thin yet not frail woman steps in front of us. I feel my cheeks flush as she touches her chin and nods, her eyes lingering uncomfortably. She looks like she should be riding a Harley, not holding on to some leather-clad man for support, more like she was the one with the bike with some guy clinging onto her for protection.

“Uh-huh,” she says. “Come with me.” She calls a young girl to follow, and she leads us out of the ship and into a cave.

Ryland seems to know where we’re going, so the rest of us trail along.

Alice asks Ryland, “What does he mean, ‘Get us all killed?’ ”

“He means we have to blend in, to dress like Ordinaries,” Ryland answers.

“We have Ordinary clothes.”

“We have colony Six clothes. Here, they wear something more like a uniform. Factory worker clothes.”

Alice nods.

The woman and the girl lead us through dark caverns with small dug-out rooms every ten feet or so. The only light comes from a strip of cord with a small pear-shaped bulb hanging every few feet. Each room—I don’t know how else to describe them—has a few personal items scattered, letting me know people actually live here.

We enter a small opening in the back of the cave, and the scary biker woman E says, “Strip!”

“Um,” I look at the young girl, whose lips twitch into an almost—
almost—
imperceptible grin as I follow her gaze from me, to Bryce, to Kai, and back to me. This is
not
happening! Not with the scary gang lady and the creepy tween vampire girl watching.

Bryce speaks up. “Could you just give us the clothes and give us a minute?”

E’s eyes narrow, and she walks up to Bryce and shrieks, “Strip!”

I guess this
is
happening!

We all pull our shirts off and start taking off shoes, and—no, this isn’t awkward—pants with the two of them watching us like we’re going to turn into werewolves and attack them. Now, in our underwear, Alice stands awkwardly, trying to cover herself and definitely looking uncomfortable, while this creepy little girl smirks as her eyes linger on the boys in places she shouldn’t see. Ryland undresses with a blank face, like she’s in shock. She probably is.

E and the girl grab some clothes off a pile and throw them at us, so we quickly try to get dressed. E picks up my shoes and scrunches her face like a skunk just sprayed her. Ryland shoots a questioning look at me, and Kae stifles a laugh, obviously remembering my stomach problems on the ship.

Whatever! I’m just glad to have clothes on!

“You, you, you, and you,” E says, pointing at each of us. “You’ll have to wear these.” She clearly leaves out Bryce and Alice as she hands us some wraparound glasses. “They are standard issue.”

“What are they for?” I ask.

“Ultraviolet,” the girl says. “From the dome. Some people wear them all the time.”

“Why don’t we get some?” Bryce asks, motioning to Alice.

“Ultraviolet is not my concern,” E says, pointedly. “Without them, they’ll stand out.” She motions toward us like we’re circus freaks. Maybe we are?

“Our eyes shift colors,” Ryland says in a monotone, putting the glasses on.

“That’s right,” E says. “Besides, they give me the creeps.”

She tells us to follow her, so we walk toward the opening. We join the rest of the group and they tell us we’re going through an underground passage that was constructed several years ago without the Enforcers’ knowledge.

We start to leave the cave, and they also hand the others some glasses. “Wait,” I say. “Don’t they have to change clothes too?”

“Why?” Baccas asks. “They’re dressed fine.”

I get it. Embarrassing us was their way of letting us know they are in charge. Ryland scowls, but doesn’t say anything.

Baccas and E lead us down the mountain following a natural path with a small stream trickling down the center. They tell us this completely fills when the storms rage in the mountains. The waterway supplies the city for a month with each flood. I stare up the sides and try to imagine that much water.

“How do you know when it’s safe?” Marcus asks.

“If you see a flash at the top . . .” Baccas points behind us at the highest peak. “You have about two minutes to get over the ridge.”

We come over a crest and see the enormous dome, like a billion triangles flashing the bright sun, encasing a huge city. Through the darkened biosphere there are countless black and silver skyscrapers with pathways crossing from building to building from the tops, middles, and the bottoms. I assume they’re for inter-structure travel.

Why don’t we do that on Earth? I imagine some people never descend to the surface. Maybe spending their whole life moving from building to building, never touching the ground.

“Walk where I walk,” Baccas says. “Stay along the wall.”

We follow him, flattening ourselves against the stone until we reach a small opening. We have to duck to climb in. Once in, we can stand. The only light is from the small opening we came through. As we follow him, it becomes almost completely dark. I find myself following by sound.

After a while, I hear some clicking and the sound of a latch releasing. A door opens to a dimly lit room. E waves for us to follow as she and Baccas step inside. The room is small; we have way too many people in this cramped space as they close the door behind us. Baccas enters something into a keypad, and the wall opens to a brightly lit corridor.

A man with a weapon stands in the opening. Baccas and the man exchange nods, and he waves us inside.

–RYLAND–

The alien ultraviolet sunglasses aren’t much different than regular sunglasses back home. They even bring back memories of Alice and me pretending to be celebrities. I guess, now we sort of are.

As we enter the huge bright room, I’m glad for my weird sunglasses. Even with them on, the room is nearly blinding. Not to mention they hide my slow, heavy tears. As I look around, the others blink their eyes in confusion. For a moment, I wonder how this room could be lit so brightly, but when I lift my eyes, I see these are no artificial lights.

They have created a magnifying glass effect with the triangles over this section of the dome. It amplifies the sun so they can grow food here. I almost laugh at the genius of it—almost.

There’s no time for talking, apparently, as Baccas has already darted off to a small, black hole in the far wall of light, which must be a door. We scramble to catch up with him. Even as fast as we are moving through the room, I am awed by all of the different fruits and vegetables they have been able to grow here, most of which I don’t recognize.

“Marcus!” I hiss, which sounds like a shout in the quiet room. The only other sounds come from the quiet, swift footfalls.

Marcus gives me a halfhearted glare I’m sure is meant for me to quiet down, but he responds, “What?”

“I thought this was a factory or something?” I gesture to all of the plants around me.

Marcus nods, “Yes, but they have to eat. It would be ridiculous to try to ship all of their food here from another colony.”

“How can these plants be enough to sustain such a population?” Tanner asks in complete awe.

“They are genetically modified so each plant contains more vitamins, protein, calories, etcetera,” E answers in an annoyed whisper. “Can we get on with our mission?”

I want to roll my eyes, but as they’re covered by these glasses, that will do me no good. “What is your mission exactly?” I ask, suspicious of our new allies’ real motivations.

“You’re going to help us overthrow the Shifters,” Baccas says evenly.

“They have a relatively small group here,” Marcus says. “It should be fairly simple.”

“What are we supposed to do with them?” Tanner asks, his face open and worried.

“What do you mean?” E says, her voice reminding me of a snake.

“I mean,” Tanner says as Baccas stares at him with his calloused hand on the door. “Once we have overthrown them, what will we do with them? Do you have a jail?”

E lets out a short bark that I realize after a moment is meant to be a laugh. “We won’t let them live! They humiliate and torture us! They enslave us! They die!”

“Hush,” Baccas says, ear to the dark door.

E practically growls at him.

Tanner looks horrified, shocked. “You can’t kill them!” When E turns her vicious gaze to him, he stutters an elaboration. “If we kill all of them here and now, we have no chance of overthrowing the Shifter government on Gaia. We’ll need Shifters there to help us, to rise up against Rian for his crimes. That won’t happen if we become the terrorists and murderers they claim we are.”

Marcus holds up a hand to E before she can speak. “We don’t have time for this now. This conversation can wait until we are safely embedded in the population.”

“No,” I say firmly. “Tanner is right; we can’t ally ourselves with terrorists. If that’s who they are,” I nod toward E and Baccas, “We need to distance ourselves now.”

“We have to go,” Kai says darkly. I wonder for a moment if he relishes the idea of slaughtering the Shifters.

“We can’t go with them,” I say firmly. “I won’t, not if they are planning to kill them all.”

“It isn’t justice,” Tanner says, “It’s vengeance.”

Kae finally pipes up. “They’re right. My parents were killed as we fled Gaia. I was an orphan on Earth for years, but I’m not here to take revenge on those that killed my parents. I’m here to fight for the freedom of the oppressed; I’m here to fight for the home my parents once had; I’m here to return things to the way they
should
be.”

E growls for a moment longer, but slowly her face falls into a look that I can only describe as hopeful. “Perhaps you are right. If we kill them all, then we will be free, but what of the other colonies?”

I nod, feeling grateful for Kae’s presence, even if Kai is beaming at her with pride in a way he has never looked at me.

“Can we get on with it, then?” Baccas says, still stern even with Kae.

I nod, and we follow him through the door into a dark, narrow hallway.