Denounced (Exalted Trilogy: Book 2) Page 5

  We enter the large space that is supported by concrete pillars and concrete walls. Our feet echo as we walk through what seems to be a room used to house transporters. Large and small vehicles line the walls. I’ve been told that these are what they use to drop us off in the Third Trial. I didn’t expect there to be so many. They are mostly black or camouflage, and their finishes are dull, not shiny.

  We approach a small vehicle with four wheels. Ryker says it’s called a 4-wheeler—such a creative name. The tires are black and the body is a splotchy dark green. It doesn’t have a circular steering wheel. Instead it has two sticks that join in a central pivoting point. My heart starts to race as I realize that we are about to ride on this machine. I’ve never ridden on a vehicle—not while awake anyway.

  Ryker climbs on top of the machine. He appears to know exactly what he’s doing. He grips the handles with a firm grasp, looks over to me, and says “Get on.”

  “Where?”

  “Behind me,” he answers while smirking. “You can hold on to me if you need to.”

  I huff and then swing my leg over the body of the 4-wheeler so that I’m sitting behind Ryker. I try to keep an inch or two between our bodies, but the seat curves upward so I keep sliding down toward him. There was a time when I would’ve enjoyed sitting this close to him, but not now. Now, my anger is driving me. In my mind, I know that this feeling is so strong because I’ve only just gotten off the Pump, but I can’t change what it’s doing to me. It’s consuming me.

  “Ready?” he asks as he lightly touches my thigh.

  I jerk my leg away from his hand. “Yes.”

  My fingers curl over the sides of the seat as Ryker starts the vehicle. We suddenly lurch forward. I grip the seat hard as I rock back from the forward motion. Once our speed levels out, we effortlessly travel toward the far end of the large underground space. Rolling along the smooth surface feels like we’re gliding through the air. I try to focus on the ride and not Ryker’s nearness. I can’t wait to get outside!

  As we approach the end of the basement, I see that there are several tunnels shooting off in different directions. There is a whole network of secret passageways under the Republic. It’s amazing . . . and concerning. My new partner takes one of the tunnels that shoots off to the north. He picks up speed as we travel down the underground tube. There’s a dim light on the ceiling every eight to ten feet. So there are moments when we are in complete darkness, and then the light flashes over us for a second. It’s exhilarating, and I find myself leaning forward to get wherever we’re going even faster.

  I can’t contain my curiosity any longer. “Where are we going?” I shout over the growl of the motor.

  “You’ll see,” is all he says.

  We ride on until the tunnel stops at a large door. Ryker brings the 4-wheeler to a halt and then hops off to press some buttons on a keypad in the wall. “16, 42, 5, 33, 10,” he calls over his shoulder. The huge metal doors slides open in response to the numeric code being entered. Outside is an enormous crater or more likely a blown-up basement. Pieces of concrete with metal rods shooting out from them litter the terrain. I find myself thinking that this is a good deterrent for nosey marauders. I might be afraid to approach a collapsed structure like this. Though it’s just a building, it appears to be deadly.

  “Now you know a way out besides the Gates,” Ryker tells me as he walks back toward me. “I won’t keep anything from you ever again. I promise.” As I search his eyes, I find myself wanting to believe him . . . but then again, I’ve done that once before.

  When I don’t give him any sort of response, he climbs back onto the 4-wheeler, defeated. The door shuts behind us with a loud boom as we crunch over the ground of the treacherous terrain. We weave through the vertical slabs of concrete with ease. I can tell Ryker has taken this route many times. Eventually, he switches gears on the transporter’s handles and we begin the climb out of the remnants of a very big building that was hit with a very big bomb. The vehicle has no problem taking us both up with it. However, as difficult as it is not to reach out and wrap my arms around Ryker’s waist for leverage during the steep climb, I keep my hands firmly gripped on the sides of the seat. The muscles in my arms have to strain to hold myself on the vehicle.

  Once on level ground, I am able to physically relax again. We travel through some thick brush that’s mixed with patches of dried-up, dead earth. We ride for nearly two hours, my stomach turning with each bump. What was exhilarating on the smooth artificial surface in the tunnel is now nauseating on the very real and very irregular earth. I almost beg Ryker to give me back my pill that he has hidden deep within his pocket. And though I don’t want to, I have to rest my forehead on his back a few times and shut my eyes tight to keep from getting sick. He doesn’t seem to mind. He never pulls away from my touch.

  Finally, we reach a forest of live oaks and pine trees with a few other random trees sprinkled throughout. Ryker stops the 4-wheeler at its edge. He turns the engine off and pockets the black key. “We have to walk from here,” he informs me, though he doesn’t seem that anxious to move away from me.

  I reluctantly peel myself off the back of the vehicle. My legs are a bit shaky and my stomach is still a little queasy from my withdrawals, but I am happy to be off of the transporter. My partner climbs off next to me, and we awkwardly stand in place, staring at each other for a second. My heart stops as I look at him. I think about holding his hand and walking through the cornfields. It’s such a good memory.

  I’m jolted out of my thoughts when he abruptly trudges toward the forest, leaving me in his wake to follow along. And I do. I follow him into the shadows of the trees.

  The growth in the forest is thick and we have some difficulty navigating a path. I wince and let out a hushed groan when my injured shoulder drags across a scraggly tree branch. Ryker looks back at me. He sees me inspecting my upper shoulder and he says, “I’m so sorry about that. Did they get it fixed up?”

  “Yes,” I mumble, but then realize I have him talking again. I need to take advantage of the moment. “Speaking of medical stuff—what am I going to do about the blood tests?” He’s been getting away with being off the Pump, so he must know something that I don’t. If he was allowed to be off of it, he wouldn’t have acted so cold in front of Dr. Fredericks.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it covered,” he says nonchalantly.

  “What do you mean, don’t worry about it? I have to figure out what to do. What do you do? Maybe I should just start taking them again.” I know I sound whiny but I can’t help it. The thought of the blood tests scare me. I don’t want to go back on the Pump but what else can I do?

  “No, you don’t need to start taking them again. I know a medical citizen that will switch out the samples. Just show up to your physical, do your blood work, and it’ll be taken care of.”

  A medical citizen? How could he possibly know a citizen? Before I’m able to ask, Ryker throws up his hands and yells, “We seek peaceful entry!” I don’t see anything yet—just trees. Ryker holds both of his hands up in the air as he proceeds forward. I follow his lead, knowing that I can still reach my knives quickly enough if I need to.

  Finally, I can sense people moving about. I hear feet scurrying around in the brush, shadows flicker between the spaces in the bushes that the leaves don’t fill, and hushed but frantic voices are calling orders to each other. We are intruders, very unexpected intruders.

  As we get closer, a group of six—no seven—people come into view. There are two men, two women, two children, and one baby. They look scared; even the baby is crying. Ryker says to the group while still holding his hands in the air, “Hello. We’re here to help. Do you know who we are?”

  One of the women whimpers. “You’re zombies! You’re here to kill us!” she cries between her overwhelming sobs.

  “No, we’re not zombies and we’re not here to kill you,” he tries to assure her as he shakes his head. His face is kind and open. Seeing him like this settle
s some of my negative feelings. “Yes,” he says, “that’s what the Republic wants me to do, but I don’t follow their rules.” He drops his arms to pull something out of his back pocket.

  In reaction to Ryker’s potentially threatening movements, one of the men pulls a handgun from the waist of his pants. His hand shakes as he aims the weapon in Ryker’s direction. It bobs up to point at my partner’s head and then down to his mid-section and back up again. The man’s hands are shaking beyond his control. That is a very dangerous thing.

  “Ryker!” I shout.

  “Look! Look! It’s just a map!” Ryker calls to the nervous man.

  After allowing Ryker to unfold the paper, the man finally realizes it’s not a weapon. He slowly eases his gun down, but he doesn’t put it away. He squints as he tries to see what’s on the creased paper that Ryker is holding out before him. “What’s that for?” he asks Ryker as he moves in front of one of the women.

  “It’s a map to where there is a safe place for you and your family to live. Can you read a map?” Ryker asks the man. The man nods. “Follow it. They’ll be expecting you.” Ryker cautiously approaches the man and hands him the hand-drawn map. Before backing away, he adds, “I’m sorry, but I have to burn your homes and I need a token from you—an object that I can return with. It’s the only way to ensure your safety. They’ll think you’re dead and won’t come after you. Do you understand?”

  “A token?” I whisper the question.

  “Do you remember Dr. Fredericks’ office? It’s filled with objects that belonged to the people I supposedly killed—the people the Republic killed before I came along. They’re his trophies. It’s awful, I know.”

  The man, that’s been speaking to us, turns to look at his family. He’s considering what can be given up. Finally he grabs something out of his daughter’s hands. He pats her on the head, and then hands Ryker the piece of wood. It’s about the size of my hand—though a little thinner—and is carved into the shape of a child. “Here,” the man grunts. “This is my child’s doll. It’s the only thing we can spare.”

  “Thank you,” Ryker says as he stuffs the doll into his knife belt.

  Both women are crying now. I look around them and see that it appears that this place has already been burned once before. The ground is still scorched in places, and the bases of some of the trees have black marks on them. This group of people probably thought it was safe to live here since it’s been purged already.

  The man nods and tells his family, “Gather up our things.” They waste no time getting started. The children help their mothers, throwing food and clothes into the center of tattered blankets. They tie up the ends to make bundles. It’s all done through tears and heavy hearts.

  My heart grows heavy as well as I watch them. I don’t know how Ryker does this all the time . . .

  Before they leave, the man says, “Thank you for letting us go.”

  “Just be safe and stick to the path on the map. Okay?” Ryker asks.

  “We will,” the man says as he ushers his family into the woods.

  I watch them as the forest engulfs them. The last one to get swallowed up by the dense foliage is a little girl that reminds me of Lily. She has the same bouncy, blonde hair.

  I miss her.

  “Is Lily really in your apartment? Do you think she’s okay all alone? Will someone hear her?” The need to know has suddenly become all-consuming. I have to know. NOW! It seems that I have gotten attached to Lily more than she may have gotten attached to me.

  Ryker scratches at the short stubble on his chin, before turning to answer me. When he sees my ashen face, he softens. “She’s fine, Mena, though she’s probably bored. We talked about her being quiet. She has food and anything else she’ll need. I live alone, so no one will be in there. And I don’t live in the Exalted’s building. They don’t check my room like they do yours.” He searches my eyes to see if I believe him. Once again, he assures me, “She’s fine. I promise.”

  He turns and pulls out a small white tube of liquid from his pocket. After he opens the top, he squirts it on the people’s tents. I watch him as if I don’t know what’s going to happen. I do, though. I know he’s going to burn their homes, but I still cringe when he reaches back into his pocket and pulls out a match. Ryker slides it along the side of a tiny box, and throws the fiery stick onto the shabby structures that were left behind.

  Flames bursts into the air and lick at the dry material of the tents. The fire eats the cloth in seconds and burns across the ground, searching for more to consume. It’s hungry.

  As we watch the orange flames move, Ryker pulls my purple pill out of his pocket. He flicks it into the air, toward the fire, without any hesitation.

  “No!” My hand flies out. It’s just a subconscious reflex because I am nowhere near being close enough to catch it before the fire swallows it.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Why did you do that?” I yell at Ryker.

  “Like I said, your blood work is taken care of,” he replies with that same story that lacks the vital details that I’m craving. He ignores my obvious annoyance and motions with his arm to the fiery scene behind him. “So, now you see what I do. What other questions do you have for me?”

  “How do you know a medical citizen?”

  “I help people, Mena. I try to find people I think would believe me, and then I tell them the truth. I don’t discriminate because they are citizens and not Exalted.”

  “Okay. You’re right not to.” I step back a few feet. The fire is inching closer by the second. “Why do you actually have to burn their homes? Dr. Fredericks will never know the difference.”

  “Dr. Fredericks seems to know everything. I don’t want to take any chances at being caught not burning them. For all I know, he may have someone else out here doing the same thing I do, or checking up on my work. I have to report where I found them.” I nod. He has a good point.

  As I study my new partner and consider my next question for him, my anger flares back up. He lied to me! He’s a stranger from somewhere else! “Where are you from? Tell me everything you know.”

  There is no hesitation from him. He turns his body so that he’s facing me. He meets my eyes. He tells me about his life, “I grew up in a place just like your United Republic of the Saved. It’s even called the same thing and has a similar wall around the entire city. There are Exalted there like us, citizens, Ambassadors, and one man that is in charge. His name is Dr. Bennett. Exalted and citizens take the Pump there too. At the end of my training, before the trials, I got sick one day. That’s when I stopped taking the Pump, just like I told you before. But it was long after I’d proven myself to be useful and lethal. We’re sent out into the field much earlier than you are here. We have a larger area to guard.” Ryker shifts his weight and tucks the lighter fluid back into his pocket. “We have the Trials,” he adds. “We are United at the end of them. It’s exactly the same. All of it.”

  “Are there more of these cities out there?” I ask him.

  “I don’t know. It’s possible,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “Do you know what happened to Az?”

  “A trainee? No, I don’t. Sorry.”

  “Can I see Lily?”

  “Yes, I can make that happen. Not today though.” He offers me a small smile as he moves a little closer to me. My cheeks flush, but I’m convinced it’s because of the fire that’s burning so close to us. “I’ve told you everything I know. Do you think you can forgive me?” Ryker asks, while looking down upon me. His earthy brown eyes stay on mine as he waits for me to answer.

  Can I forgive him? Probably. Perhaps, once my emotions get under control, and I can think like a sane person again. But I know there will be shards of pain left behind even after I forgive him. I gave a piece of myself to Ryker back in that barn, when we kissed, and the betrayal I feel is excruciating. Exalted aren’t allowed physical contact of that nature until we are United. And even then, it’s only to procreate. We don�
��t feel the emotions that go along with the caress of strong lips or the rush of bodies pressed together. But I felt it. I let him kiss me, knowing I shouldn’t have. My heart feels like it’s being squeezed, but the rest of me just feels empty.

  Still, he waits for me to answer. I can tell he wants to touch me. He knows better.

  Finally, I say, “I don’t know yet, Ryker. I just found out about everything a few minutes ago, and right now, my emotions are raging. I don’t want to make any decisions just yet.” I tell the truth. He’ll understand about the side effects of coming off the Pump.

  The feelings associated with betrayal are currently at the forefront of my emotional spectrum . . . forgiveness as well. Val was so easy to forgive me for my betrayal. Should I not do the same for Ryker? I don’t know how to navigate this path. One good thing about being a Pump-taking Exalted is that they don’t have to deal with these issues. No one deceives anyone else like this. We are who we are. We don’t feel. We don’t betray. We don’t have to decide whether to forgive. I miss that about the way I was.

  Ryker changes his mind. His eyes tell me that he’s desperate to be closer to me. Slowly, he approaches and stands so close that I could count his dark eyelashes if I wanted. He is all man. His jaw is strong as well as his body. His close-cut hair and facial stubble suit his handsome face. I lose myself in his gaze, when he says with confidence, “Mena, I love you. That was never a lie. I want to be with you. Honestly, I would’ve left with you then, and we can leave right now if you want to . . . or we can go back and finish what we both started. We can work together to figure out why things are the way they are. We can stop it . . . And then when we’re done and you’ve forgiven me, we can be together without the fear of being hunted.”

  My hearts loses its grip in my chest and falls to my feet. No, he can’t be saying these things. “I’m going to be United soon . . . with Ethan. You know this, don’t you?” I say this, though I don’t want to. I want to fall into his arms and forget why I’m mad at him. I want to hear him say those things to me over and over again. There’s no doubt that he can see my heartbreak show in my eyes. I know he can see it—I can tell by the way he looks back at me, because I can see it in his eyes too.