From Darkness Comes - Book 2 in The Dissonance Series

Flying Free

"You don't have to go," I tell my team as we walk down the path. We stop in a clearing several yards away from the main trail, amongst the trees, the weeping branches hiding us from those passing by. It's safer to speak outside. The cameras can't pick up what we say.

"You know I'm in," Wyler says without hesitation. Turning his back to the group, he adds, "where you go, I go," which he whispers for my ears only.

Sidonie, Cerelia and Coven look back and forth to one another.

"It's what's best for our research," Cerelia says, ever factual in her decision-making.

"Well, I'm not going to get left behind and miss out on all the fun," Coven adds. "Otherwise, I won't hear the end of it from Wyler." He slaps Wyler on the back, who shakes his head, playfully swatting his hand back at Coven.

"I'm definitely in," Sidonie replies with excitement, hopping off of the log she's been sitting on. "I've been living inside a cage my whole life. Time to fly free."

"What did you just say?" Her words reverberate in my head, triggering memories. There was a time when I wanted to fly free from Environettix, to escape from the mine and be with Kelly. We were forced to hide our relationship from our masters. Mods were forbidden to date one another on Earth. "Time to fly, birdie." Those were his last words to me before shoving me through the door and onto the ship.

"Ever? Ever?" I feel someone gently shaking my shoulders, but the words are muffled, like trying to hear after a gunshot goes off right by your ear. "Are you okay?" Wyler comes into focus, face tight with concern.

"What, uh, yeah, I'm fine," I shake out of his grasp, but his eyes follow me. He knows that I'm lying. I can't let my team think that I'm losing it when I'm asking them to take a risk and follow me outside the bubble. I don't know if I deserve their trust, but they're giving it to me. I'll do everything in my power not to break it.

"Then it's settled. We leave tomorrow. Vega said she will arrange everything. We need to meet her at headquarters tomorrow morning before dawn. We should all get some rest."

They nod and make their way through the trees and back onto the path, heading to their respective homes. I turn to leave, but Wyler grabs my hand, pulling me back to face him. It's the first time we've touched since the night of the celebration. It's been two months, yet nothing has changed in my body's reaction to his hand on mine. My heart flutters. My pulse races.

"You sure you're okay," he asks, searching my eyes for the truth instead of the lie I'm about to tell him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I shrug off his concern, and his hold on me.

"You can talk to me, Ever," he says with deep sincerity.

"I'm fine, geez. Just tired, that's all." I don't know why I made it sound like I was irritated with him. He's just trying to help, but my response gets the intended outcome when he backs off.

"Okay, then. See you tomorrow," he replies, brushing past me.

My heart drops at his dismissal, but what was I expecting? He's not going to tolerate my distance forever. I've seen the way the other women look at him, especially Sidonie. She practically falls at his feet. I've caught her staring at him many times, because I've been staring too, sneaking in a glance here or there when Wyler is focused on his work and won't notice me watching. A couple times, he caught me, sometimes holding my gaze. I always cracked first, resuming my work as if nothing had happened, as if my heart didn't skip a beat when he laid eyes on me. I'm practically an expert at hiding my feelings. I got pretty good at it, back on Earth.

***

I barely sleep. In fact, my night is so bad that I contemplate taking one of the Alice in Wonderland pills on my bedside table, in particular the one labeled "deep sleep." But I worry that I might get too much rest and not wake in time. It's not just the task ahead that has me tossing and turning all night. It's my treatment of Wyler, unnecessary and cruel, and Sidonie's words, which play like a broken record on repeat in my head: time to fly free. I remember the night, when Kelly got his tattoo, the one with my nickname, Birdie, inside the outline of a heart. There was boy, a Mod, who was secretly giving markings, as he called them. It was a way for us to distinguish ourselves from our enslavers: to choose to brand ourselves in a way that made us feel special, not Mod special, but special to one another. It was a small choice that we could make in a world where all our decisions were being made for us. The memory of the marking came back to me the last time I saw Kelly, the day he kissed me goodbye. But for some reason, I can't remember the face of the boy who made the markings or what it was that I was going to have marked on my body. I'd searched my brain so many times. I know the information is there, just slightly out of reach: a memory sitting on the precipice of my mind, ready to fall into the abyss, if I don't remember it soon.

I was supposed to get my marking the night that my parents escaped, only my parents didn't know it. Only Mods were privy to the underground world of secret markings. Kelly was waiting for me. We were going to meet up and go together to receive my mark, but I never showed up. I left him, without any explanation, without a goodbye, because I didn't know I was leaving, just like the last time I left him. Whoever said goodbyes are difficult, clearly didn't understand the devastation of not being given the choice to say one.

***

In the dark, I awake. In the dark, I make my way to the headquarter building. Vega greets us at the doors. No guards are present. I do not ask questions. I don't need to know the answers. She's followed through with her end of the bargain.

Vega leads us to the lab, then through a door I've never noticed before, down a set of stairs, winding below the surface of the planet. We come to another door, which she unlocks, but doesn't follow us through.

"Follow the tunnel," she says, pointing into the dimly lit corridor. "It will take you up onto the other side of the bubble. I've disabled the locking mechanism on the exit door."

"What about the cameras?" Coven inquires.

"I've taken care of those."

"Guards?" Cerelia asks.

"Environettix's downfall is that they have too much trust in their security system. They do not have guards watching the exterior wall, at least not regularly. You'll be fine. I've made sure of it." The team nods in unison. "You will have one hour before the city wakes. The doors will automatically re-lock at the one hour mark so whatever you do, do not miss your window to return." She looks at her wrist, and we raise ours, synchronizing our watches. "Good luck," she says, then looks directly at her brother and nods before shutting the door behind us.