Breeder Nation

Chapter Thirteen ~Maddie~

We round another corner and come to a stop. I look left and right and then to Aiden for guidance. Which way to go? Broken store fronts line the way in each direction. He pulls me to the left and I follow, matching his pace as we continue our search.

"Alex?" he yells into the quiet, open space.

I crane my neck, searching all around us. Nothing. No answer to Aiden's call either.

I hope we find her soon, this town gives me the creeps. It's completely run down and barren. It must have been ransacked before the people were forced out and into what I now know to be three gated cities. Every single storefront we pass is broken, and when I look inside, they're in complete disarray. Shelves are lying sideways, upside down, and on top of others. Clothing racks are strewn about. Doors separated from hinges, tables missing legs, mirrors broken. Glass, debris, and dust cover everything.

I can picture the chaos, people filling the space, yelling and grabbing for anything they can, pushing each other aside fighting for things to take with them.

Brawls, hysteria, screaming.

I get the chills as I look away.

"We need to find her and get the hell away from here. This place is giving me the jeebies," I tell Aiden as I move closer into his side.

He releases my hand to wrap his arm around me and pulls me in even closer. "We will. And only another month or so and we'll be at the border. If what Mom and Dad said is true, we'll have free passage and be done with all this bullshit."

"God, I hope so." These last few weeks have been rough. I'm hungry and exhausted, and as if on cue, my stomach starts to growl, begging me for something, anything to put inside it.

I just want to get there already.

In the past few weeks, I've learned a lot from Aiden and Alex and what their parents knew. Their neighbor worked at the Breeder Compound and on the occasion that he'd use moonshine to numb the guilt of what he did for a living, he'd confess his burdens to his neighbors and his only friends, Aiden and Alex's parents. 

Alex told me the man used to scare the shit out of her as a kid. She said he looked so empty and disturbed, especially on the nights he drank, that she'd run and hide in her room. Aiden was the one who'd sneak around the corner, listening to the man's stories. Stories of Breeders desperately begging to see their families, to not be impregnated, to be put out of their misery. Stories of girls being sedated and locked inside small, windowed rooms with no privacy whatsoever, looking lost or gone altogether, like what they'd been through had completely broken them and their lights had gone out.

Over time, he gave them detailed descriptions of the Breeder Compound. Like the fact that it's a huge, security protected compound that's gated-in just like our cities. Watch towers and patrollers surround the entire area. There's only one way in or out, and that's with special security granted access, otherwise you're out of luck. Beneath the compound is an underground maze of tunnels that lead in and out of the facilities and to and from the small, sheltered city of Breeders and their children.

Aiden said the man was haunted by the things he'd seen, but he feared for his life if he were to ever quit. He said there was no way they'd ever let him go free knowing what he knew, not only about the compound but about the government too. His only reprieve was when he started to notice things, learn things that promised of something more, something better to come.

Things like, the United States being the only country that turned into a Breeder Nation, and that really, most of the outside world is the "Free Nation"... 

That people have infiltrated our government to put a stop to what we're doing...

That there are people from the Free Nation working in our government, in the Breeder facility, and at the border, so we can escape-- so that all runners can escape, if they're not caught first. And this is the information Aiden's parents took faith in when they decided to run.

It's hard to take in, when you learn that everything you've ever known was wrong. That you've been lied to. That you've lived a suppressed life because of a sick and twisted government running on greed and control.

I look up at Aiden again and feel grateful. I would have been so lost and in the dark without him and Alex. I never would have made it.

We turn yet another corner, and that's when I see her. Alex is tangled up in the limbs of a man. She's struggling, pushing against him, while he pulls at her, trying to drag her into his truck.

"Alex!" I shout in fear.

"Shit!" Aiden gasps, and it's in that exact moment that the man looks up at us.

"Don't you fucking come any closer. This doesn't concern you," the dirty man spits at us. He's covered in filth, and his evil sneer shows off a mouthful of yellowed, decaying teeth.

I cringe and look to Aiden in a panic, but he's frozen in shock...and fear.

"Aiden! Do something!" I scream at him. He reaches for his gun, but it's too late. The man has already pulled out a knife and is holding it against Alex's throat. Tears pour down her face, and I know we only have seconds left to do something before she's pulled into that truck and gone forever.

The disgusting man laughs, "Seems you lovebirds know this pretty little thing. Doesn't matter anyhow. You come any closer and I'll slit the bitch's throat. Ya hear me?" He's at the door now, pulling on the handle.

Shit! Shit!

Aiden lowers his gun with shaky hands, "Please," he pleads, "let her go and I'll give you anything. Don't take my sister, please. Take me, just let her go."

The man snorts and replies with a growled, "Don't got the right parts kid."

What the fuck?

His gaze is locked on Aiden and his gun. I don't let my brain process what I'm doing and react before my thoughts or fear can stop me. I hear my gun click as I level it on the man and pull the trigger. The pop echoes against the buildings surrounding us, the sound stretching far out into the distance.

He slumps down and reaches for his leg. "You fucking bitch!" he screams as Alex scrambles away from him. Blood soaks his jeans and gushes out of the bullet wound.

I turn my head to Aiden who looks at me in horror. He shakes his head as if to clear his thoughts and makes a beeline for Alex. They rush into an embrace, both in tears. I watch them, in a state of shock.

After a while they turn to me, saying something, motioning towards the truck. I can see their mouths moving, I just can't make out what they're saying. Numbly, I follow Aiden and Alex into the truck. As Aiden speeds down the street, I watch the crumpled man grow smaller, slowly bleeding out on the sidewalk.

What the hell did I just do?

***Authors Note***

Do you feel like Aiden dropped the ball? What do you think of Maddie shooting the guy and saving Alex?

**Thank you so much for taking the time to read Chapter 13. We would love your feedback, so please feel free to comment. If you've enjoyed this chapter you can vote for it by clicking the star. Also, please add Breeder Nation to your library if you'd like to continue this journey with us. We truly appreciate your support. <333 Kara Michelle **

Don't forget to check out Falling from Grace, a novelette from the POV of Travis's younger sister, Grace, after all the Breeder Nation Extras! <3