The Retreat (The After Trilogy Book 1) (33 page)
Read The Retreat (The After Trilogy Book 1) Online
Authors: Kelly St. Clare
F
lames, smoke, burning.
The first sensation Romy registered was the reek of smoke on her clothing. Her pupils moved beneath her eyelids as she took stock.
There was a beeping noise. A bunch of beeping noises. And an incessant ringing in her ears. For some reason the sound tickled something deep within her. A forgotten terror.
Romy’s head lay flopped to one side. Her feet were bare. She twitched her toes.
What happened?
The smoky smell brought a rush of images to the surface. Her breath quickened and the beeping on the machine grew faster and faster.
A door slid open and Romy focused on the rise and fall of her chest, attempting to calm her breathing.
“Which one’s playing up and making all the racket?” someone asked in bored tones.
Romy inhaled and then went limp, keeping the movement of her ribs shallow and even.
Footsteps approached. “This one,” another voice answered.
“You wouldn’t think it, would ya?”
“What?” the second man grunted.
The man whacked Romy in the leg.
“That this one could cause so much trouble. Don’t know why they just don’t put her down. It’s not like there ain’t three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine others, ya know?”
The second made an exasperated sigh. “How about because they cost three billion dollars to make?”
“Yeah, I know. But they can afford it, right?”
Romy’s mind raced beneath her motionless state.
She’d been shoved in the vehicle; they’d knocked her out.
The Mandate were going to keep her alive? What for?
“Guess so. But waste not, want not. That’s New Earth,” the second man joked.
“Take less than you need!” the two chorused, then chuckled.
“Plus,” the man continued, “I heard they’re not sure whether this one’ll make it, anyhow. Said she might’ve gone loop-the-loop.”
Romy felt twin pinpricks where the men stared at her. She desperately wanted to wrench upwards and take them by surprise. But she had no idea where she was. A lab, maybe? Or a hospital? They’d said, “Which one’s playing up?”. She took that to mean there were others in here.
Please not my knot.
The sound of swishing water caught her attention.
Where on Earth was she?
The more intelligent of the two made an awed sound. “I never met a crazy one before.”
“Bert from Collections said he’s heard they keep the bonkers ones on Orbito Four. That’s the research orbito, you know.”
“They’d do better to just use their parts to make useful soldiers.”
“Expensive times. Expensive times. More cost effective long-term to observe and study them to try and eliminate the fault in future batches.”
“Did Bert say that, too?”
“Why do you always say that? Maybe I thought up those words my own self,” the man said angrily. He sighed. “Anyways, I think it’s right they try to get rid of the nutter gene. That’s all we need, looney soldiers protecting our kids.”
“You don’t have a kid. The Mandate won’t let you reproduce. You’re too dumb.”
The answering voice was indignant. “I told you, the results were wrong! I was sick on the day of the I.Q. test.”
“Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m just not sure about all this nonsense. Seems too tricky to me.”
“
Obviously
, the top people know more about space stuff than you do.”
“And a lot more about everything than you.”
A clanging came from underneath her. The table Romy was on began to roll forwards. The two men held a disgruntled silence for a time as they pushed. Romy cracked an eye open and couldn't help the small jerk when she saw where she was.
There was a reason knots were called knots. She stared at the chaos of tubes and tanks gathered in clusters. She was in a cultivation room. Romy barely withheld her gasp as she realised what was happening. They were putting her back in a tank!
The endless room was covered in tanks, gathered in clusters of five. Unsuspecting, genetically enhanced space soldiers, raised for the slaughter. Bile seared her throat. It made her want to burn the whole building to the ground. It made her want to drown each and every Mandate operative in these same tanks. The tanks they used for nothing other than self-gain.
“How long does she have to swim for?” Number One asked.
“Pretty long, I reckon.”
Loathing split through her and Romy couldn’t bear it any longer.
With a cry she rolled from the trundle bed. Cords ripped free from her neck and arms and she’d smashed a fist into Number Two’s face before she could think.
She wavered on her feet, but was drawn to the sound of the other man running. It was the smartest thing he’d done. Romy crouched down and searched the groaning man for a card. She found it attached to his shirt pocket.
Alarms wailed and Romy grimaced. A sinking feeling rushed through her gut. Soldiers were pouring into the hanger as she searched frantically for an escape.
The soldiers sprinted in from all sides. And Romy stood in the middle of the knots, dressed in a hospital gown.
She deflated. There was no escape.
Romy glanced away, down to a tank by her side. A tiny girl floated there. Her eyelids flickered rapidly, expression otherwise serene. It would remain so until she was blown to smithereens by the Critamal on the Mandate’s orders.
She backed away from the soldiers as they edged closer, locking her in.
Romy blinked at the tank behind her. It was open, full of translucent gel. She didn’t have to guess who it was intended for. It was a cultivation tank, just for her.
The phrases “Pretty long” and “Not sure whether she’ll make it” echoed through her mind.
A sharp sting bit between her shoulder blades. By now, she’d been the victim of a tranquiliser often enough to know what it was.
Not a bullet. A sedative.
Romy took two faltering steps as the air around her took on a rushing quality. She reached forwards for the lip of the tank to push herself away. She wasn’t going in there willingly. If she went in, who knew how she’d come out. Part of a new knot? An empty shell? She’d forget everyone and everything.
Who knew what they would do to her? She’d
prefer
a bullet.
But that was when she looked at the human-sized tank neighbouring her own. A young boy floated inside. She looked to her other side, where a woman, nearly ready for cultivation, floated in the gel.
She looked every which way, and in every direction it was the same. Her comrades were being developed, unaware of the betrayal. Ignorant of what their lives were to be.
Her grip on the tank tightened, though she didn’t push away.
How many space soldiers were in this room? A hundred or more? The tank was the only chance that Romy might one day make it back to help them. That one day, she may remember and help the rebellion.
That one day, she would make the Mandate pay for the longest genocide in Earth’s history.
Romy released her grip and tipped forwards, eyes closing against her will. Gel flowed over her as she splashed into her tank. It muted the yelling from outside as the soldiers closed in.
The superficial calm spread quickly. She wondered, peacefully, if she’d ever come out.
Deimos and Phobos’s green eyes flashed. She smiled as the hazel eyes of Elara, and the blue eyes of Thrym joined the twins. She called out a greeting to them, frowning when only thick bubbles came forth.
She looked back, and the frown eased. Because a fifth set of eyes had joined her knot.
And they were grey.
Romy blinked at the grey eyes as she descended.
Down.
Down.
Down.
When Kelly is not reading or writing, she is lost in her latest reverie. She can, quite literally, drift past a car accident while in the midst of her daydreams, despite the police sirens and chaos.
Books have always been magical and mysterious to her. One day she decided to start unravelling this mystery and began writing. Her aim: to write stories she would want to read.
Fantasy of Frost
, the first title in The Tainted Accords and her debut novel released early 2015. The fourth title in this series releases October 2016. The After Trilogy is her latest work.
A New Zealander in origin and in heart, Kelly currently resides in Australia with her ginger-haired husband, a great group of friends, and some huntsman spiders who love to come inside when it rains. Their love is not returned.
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The Return
(The After Trilogy, #2)
Coming Mid-2017
The Tainted Accords:
Fantasy of Frost
Fantasy of Flight
Fantasy of Fire
Fantasy of Freedom (October 10
th
, 2016)
The After Trilogy:
The Retreat
The Return (Mid-2017)
(The Tainted Accords, #1)
I know many things. What I am capable of, what I will change, what I will become. But there is one thing I will never know.
The veil I’ve worn from birth carries with it a terrible loneliness; a suppression I cannot imagine ever being free of.
Some things never change…
My mother will always hate me. Her court will always shun me.
…Until they do.
When the peace delegation arrives from the savage world of Glacium, my life is shoved wildly out of control by the handsome Prince Kedrick, who for unfathomable reasons shows her kindness.
And the harshest lessons are learned.
Sometimes it takes the world bringing you to your knees to find that spark you thought forever lost.
Sometimes it takes death to show you how to live.
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