Still wary, Ellyssa stepped back, but her body remained tense. “Jordan? Your leader?”
Mathew looked from her to Jordan, then back to her. He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I see,” he said with a nod. “There are people of many heritages who live among us, Ellyssa. Quite different than what you are accustomed to, I’m sure.”
With a quick step forward, Jordan brushed by Rein, who tried to hold him back, but the old man knocked his hand away. Although feeble-looking, the leader moved with vigor. He extended his hand to Ellyssa. “Pleased to meet you, Ellyssa. I’ve heard much about you.”
The drawl of Jordan’s dialect was even more pronounced and slower than Rein’s or Mathew’s. ‘Pleased to meet you’ sounded more like ‘Pleaz ta mitcha.’
Ellyssa stared at his proffered hand for a moment, noting the tan skin of his palm. Her gaze floated to his face. Amusement glimmered in his eyes, but so did tiredness. His full lips twitched, as if on the verge of breaking into laughter.
With his hand still extended in the air, she jumped into his head. An onslaught of goodness thrummed inside the old man. He was very sick. He held absolutely no ill will toward her, only inquisitiveness about who she was and why she was here.
Against everything drilled into her from a very young age, Ellyssa took an instant liking to the older man, which surprised her.
Hesitant, like a wild animal taking food from a child, she stepped forward and placed her hand in Jordan’s. His grip was surprisingly strong, considering his health, and…leathery.
“It is-” Ellyssa paused. “I mean, it’s nice to meet you, too,” she replied. She glanced at Mathew, who nodded encouragingly, a smile of triumph gracing his face. She grinned back at him.
“Do you mind if I stay and speak with you?”
Ellyssa’s smile faltered. She didn’t want to answer the questions she’d seen floating in the old man’s head. She was still unsure what to reveal. Maybe everything. Maybe nothing. She chewed on her bottom lip as she debated, then stopped as soon as she noticed the common display of indecision. She erased all expression from her appearance. “Of course.”
Ellyssa returned to her bed while Mathew rolled the chair over next to her cot. With an audible grunt, Jordan took the offered seat. Mathew settled on the empty cot next to hers, while Rein leaned against the edge of the doorway. Rein ran his fingers through his chestnut hair, rearranging the spikes into a new pattern, before he folded his arms. Unease etched his face as his eyes moved from her, to Jordan, to Mathew.
She didn’t understand him at all.
“From what I was told, you were called here?”
Ellyssa tore her attention away from Rein and nodded.
“And, as I’m sure Rein or Doc told you, we have reason to believe Jeremy was the one who was captured and taken to The Center.”
“Yes.”
“He was special. Extraordinary, actually.”
“That is my understanding.”
“Do you know how he came to be here?”
“No. I was not informed.”
Jordan looked at the doctor.
Mathew shrugged.
“About thirty years ago, when he was still a newborn, not more than a couple of months old, I took him in, like I did Rein and Woody, and raised him.”
Ellyssa’s gaze shot to Rein. She had no idea what he must be feeling losing someone he loved. No idea at all.
The brightness in Jordan’s eyes faded a little and a slow tick worked in his jawline as he continue, “I loved him like he was my very own.
“We don’t know much about his mother, only that she was unmarried. She had him secretly. I guess her original plan had been to raise him and slowly integrate him into society.” He pulled his frail shoulders into a shrug.
“When he was born with the dark hair, she knew he would never be accepted. Somehow, she learned about one of our people. She left the baby with them, and they brought him to me.
“For years, he grew, he played, and he was intelligent, but he never spoke. No babbling or cooing, like other babies. Not until he was three, but even then, his words did not come the conventional way.” Jordan leaned forward. “He spoke in my head.”
Forgetting to maintain unresponsiveness, Ellyssa’s eyes widened. Although she knew of Jeremy’s gift, had experienced it herself, the possibility of such an occurrence outside of The Center still seemed unfeasible.
“His words were as clear as those I am speaking to you now. But there was more to it. He could make you know things, understand things.”
“That is what happened to me,” she uttered in disbelief.
“I thought I was going insane, when he first did it to me.” Chuckling, Jordan eased back.
The old man’s laughter was deep and throaty, and fell from him easily. She liked it.
As the chuckle died, Jordan’s dark eyes fixed on her, his expression turned serious. “Do you know why he could do that? Did it have anything to do with The Center?”
Ellyssa considered the chances of Jeremy’s condition being a byproduct of The Center. It would definitely explain Jeremy’s unique ability. And it wasn’t like her father would ever admit such a weakness on his behalf or The Center’s. After all, the only reason Ellyssa had found out about Subject 20, Ida, was because… She paused at the thought.
It was because of Jeremy.
Did the strange dark-haired male somehow know he’d come from The Center?
Ellyssa dismissed the idea. If he’d known, then Jordan would’ve known. But maybe, somehow, he had felt a connection. One strong enough that he’d reached out to her.
As their expectant stares stayed locked on her, Ellyssa wondered how they would react to her own unique ability. Would they accept her as easily as they had Jeremy?
She was torn.
Her complete treachery toward her father, her brothers and sister, of everyone in society. But wasn’t what her father planned a betrayal, too? Genocide of all society, to be replaced by new and improved models.
Ellyssa’s gaze flicked to Rein; his eyes scrutinized her, waiting for an answer.
Now was not the time to share. But, eventually, she had to tell them.
Ellyssa wet her lips. “I am not sure. He could have been born at The Center. If he was, though, I would not have been informed of such matters.”
Jordan nodded, as if he’d expected as much.
“Why was he so far from home?” she asked.
The older man glanced at the doctor, who flipped his head in approval. “We have members in Chicago. They help us with supplies—food, medicine, other things. There are others in Kansas City, to help with delivery.”
She assumed “other things” were weapons, but she didn’t press the subject. No reason to. At this point, it really didn’t matter.
He looked over his shoulder at Rein. “I think it’s time.”
Rein pushed off the wall and came to help Jordan up from the chair.
Jumping to his feet, Mathew rubbed his hands together. “Excellent.”
Ellyssa’s eyebrows knotted together. “What?”
Jordan held his wrinkled hand out to her. “We thought it was time for you to see something beside the inside of this room. How would you like to meet the other residents?”
She stared at his outstretched fingers for a moment. The touching these people participated in was unnerving, but not unpleasant. It was something she’d have to get used to if she planned on staying.
The thought startled her.
Was that her plan? To live in a cave with Renegades? She’d considered the idea before, but not with such definitiveness. Unexpectedly, the idea felt somewhat…comforting and thrilling. Returning to The Center was not an option. She was a failed experiment and expendable. One thing her lessons had taught her, above everything else, was self-preservation.
Ellyssa took Jordan’s hand and curled her fingers around the meaty part of his palm.
Ellyssa walked beside Jordan, her fingers entwined within his, as they worked their way down the winding passages. She busied herself with memorizing the layout.
Never hurts to be prepared
. Long cables, like the ones running from the makeshift hospital, dangled from the ceiling and connected fluorescent tubes, spaced every four to six meters. Up ahead, the tunnel appeared to end.
“Is this it?”
Jordan chuckled. “No, there aren’t any lights in the section ahead.”
They rounded a corner into inky blackness. Blinded, she faltered.
Jordan tugged on her arm. “It’s okay.”
“What is this place?”
“This part is a coal mine, abandoned way before The War. We keep the hospital here, and some of our supplies, due to the drier air.” Jordan stopped and placed Ellyssa’s hand on the rocky surface. “We stay in a cavern. Follow the wall.”
With slow, careful steps, she did as instructed, until the wall fell away and her hand slipped through a fissure. Surprised, she gasped and stumbled forward, almost falling inside. Her shoulder scraped the rocky exposure.
The old man laughed and rested his hand on the small of her back. “Sorry. I should’ve warned you. You’ll get used to it. Like second nature,” Jordan said. “The fissure is large enough for you to fit through, but not two, side-by-side.” He slid his hand from her back to her wrist. “Rein, take her other hand to help guide her.”
Not liking the disorientation, she popped into each of the men’s heads to locate them. None of them had any ill intentions. She felt a large hand bump into her shoulder and slide down the side of her arm, making her skin tingle with a current like electricity. Shocked, she pulled away.
“It’s just me.” Rein’s voice floated at her from the darkness.
“Did you not feel that?” Ellyssa asked, clenching and unclenching her hand.
“Feel what?”
How could he not feel the tingle when he touched her? Confused, she frowned. “I-I do not know. Nothing.”
He found her again, his fingers grazing over the curve of her elbow to find her hand. The tingles followed. He interlaced his fingers with hers, and gave a squeeze. Warmth traveled up her arm and into her chest. Her heart responded. Unsettled, she clamped her mouth shut. The physiological responses his touch elicited frightened her.
“Rein’ll go first.”
As soon as Jordan spoke, Ellyssa was pulled inside, the same shoulder knocking into the edge again. She immediately felt the change. The previous openness disappeared, and the darkness pressed against her.
Was she insane? Trapped between a rocky enclosure and Renegades, and disoriented. They were at an advantage if she failed to pick any trap from their brains. Yet, here she was, trusting a group of outsiders she’d been conditioned to kill. Not in a million years would she have thought this possible.
The thin corridor snaked around bends and curves, growing cooler as they proceeded. The dryness of the air gave way to moisture. Like a computer, Ellyssa’s brain absorbed every detail. The steps. The temperature changes. The ambiance of the enclosure. She filed the information away.
After the last curve, the fissure opened wider and into a lighted room where fluorescents hung from the ceiling. The air in the open room was wetter, cooler, and carried a pleasant, mineral scent. Strange buzzing echoed through an opening ahead.
“The first settlers found it while exploring,” Jordan yelled over the din, between winded huffs. A greyish tint lingered under the older man’s pallor. “It ended up being a great hiding place during the initial raids.”
Impressed with the hard work completed over the years with limited resources, Ellyssa followed the three men into a smaller room, adjacent to the area with the fissure. The loud humming emitted from a large generator. Several secured cables snaked in from adjoining corridors and joined together at a center point, then spliced into the machine. She had often pondered how the electricity was supplied, but she had never expected such an elaborate setup.
The shock of seeing such technology stunned her. Although forced into caves, the people who rebelled were anything but barbaric. They were far from ignorant, and their ingenuity proved it. Once again, her father had been proven wrong.
Ellyssa circled the generator, studying it. “How do you keep such a machine running?”
“Battery packs charged by solar energy,” Jordan answered, his words drawn out as if he were tired.
He took a step toward Ellyssa and stumbled. She caught him, but barely. He felt so light in her arms, so fragile, like a frayed string.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Fine, maybe a little tired.” He chortled, as if embarrassed. “Doc, do you mind escorting me to my holey?”
Mathew moved his eyes between Ellyssa and Rein, then a grin she had trouble identifying appeared on his face. He winked at her. “No problem.” He took the back of their leader’s elbow and led him from the generator room.
Ellyssa waited for the echoes of their shoes against the rocky ground to disappear before she turned her attention to Rein. “Is he going to be all right?”
“He’s getting up there in years.”
She nodded, understanding that the settlers of this area didn’t have the medical advancements, nor the superior genes, that helped prolong life.
“Solar energy batteries?” Ellyssa asked, indicating the machine.
Rein pointed at a power pack, roughly the size of a processor. “We have three of those. While one is working, the other two are being charged.”
“But…maintenance?”
“We keep up-to-date.”
“How?” she asked.
“The Resistance,” Rein said quickly, as if he didn’t want to elaborate.
Ellyssa could have easily picked it from his brain, but she didn’t. If she were to stay in this type of society, she’d have to learn to trust them, along with earning trust
from
them.
Rein walked over to the machine and knelt next to the battery. “See this red line?” He pointed at an indicator stretching across the expanse of the machine. It was lit to a halfway mark. The red haze highlighted his cheekbones and tinted his dark hair.
“This shows us how much power we have left.” Standing, he dusted off his knees. “We turn off lights at certain points during the day to conserve energy.”
“How many people live here?”
His mouth pulled to the side, as if considering whether divulging such information would prove fatal. A few moments later, he responded, “A hundred forty-seven.”