2634: Dalmore

Chapter 15

The day goes by with a blur and before I know it, it’s dinner time. I can feel my heart thrumming in my chest at an alarming high rate. From this day on we’ll be at war, well provided that everything goes to plan. Fiddling with the communicator in my ear, we hop out of the jet and I lock eyes with Alec who’s staying behind to hijack the jets. Pearson gave us all communicators yesterday to tell everyone when we finish our role. Along our way back inside, I see Levi impatiently waiting for everyone to leave. Our walk to the Dining Hall is quiet, everyone is in deep thought. I notice guards swimming around in the hallway, how many of them would I have to kill? Now nearing the Dining Hall, the sound of  people laughing and talking drills into my head.
Eating is a silent process today. No one looks at each other, no one talks, no one eats, well except for Ares. I look up to search for Cleo and Soren sitting at their tables doing the same as I. The sweat clings to my skin and my sight goes blurry, is this nervousness? If so, never have I felt more nervous in my life than now. I look down at my watch, I want this to be over so badly, it’s killing me. We sit there for what feels like hours when I hear Levi’s voice over the communicator, “We’re done. We replaced the security footage with another, you have about an hour before they realize,”
I look back up, Soren and Cleo are leaving, Cleo reaches for her communicator, but it looks like she’s sweeping her hair back, “Get outside in groups of four to five,” Once the two disappears through the large doors, a group of people consisting of Reeve, Zion and Cora follow out the door. I can feel the sweat on my face. In fact I can smell the body odor, I should have used more deodorant but at least Ares hasn’t pointed it out yet. Two more groups leave, including Ophelia. They are blended in with everyone else leaving the Hall. Time is running out, quickly, we only have minutes before killing Feyrer. And this time, I have to be the one to do it. There has to be no feelings with this. We will eliminate The AIC. I feel the gun in my pocket. Apparently one shot could kill you, thankfully that makes the job cleaner and easier. Pearson gave everyone a gun just in case, but I hope the only shot being fired here is the one for Feyrer.
“You smell,” Ares whispers to me. “You should stop sweating,”
“Gee, thanks, I think I just might magically stop sweating now,” I hiss. I look back at the door, this is the last group to leave. Heart in my mouth and breathing increased, any minute now-
“We’re clear, you three you're up,” Soren says over the communicator. Rising to my feet I trudge along to the doors, trying to look as unsuspecting as possible. The other two boys follow behind me. The hallways are thankfully empty and the only sounds I can hear are our footsteps and the sounds of my heartbeats ringing in my ears. This would be the second time I’ve been to Feyrer’s office. We better have the same luck we did in the morning, what would we do if we get caught? We near the faint outline of Feyrer’s door and Jaxon pulls out a Lock Coin. It looks the exact same as the one when we broke into Angrove’s office. He places it flat on the surface of the door, we hear a small click and the door swings wide open. Inside sits Feyrer, fingers intertwined and on the table, dressed smart as usual.
“Ah, I was expecting you,” He presses his lips together in his usual sadistic smile.
“Of course you were,” I mutter as I pull out my gun.
“Shoot him, Ria,” Jaxon says. I raise my gun up and pull the safety trigger, hesitating. Feyrer notices this and beams.
“You have two options, I can tell you about your so called ‘The Alliance’ rebels or you can shoot me,” Feyrer says, he knows I can't kill him. I know I should have shot him by now but I find myself complicating Feyrer's offer. When no one replies, Feyrer begins talking, “So you don't have complete faith over The Alliance,” Although I want to punch him in the face, I don't want to kill him, “I don't blame you, they’re just as bad as we are. But let me start off with how I-we knew that you were up to something. Remember your last chat with Angrove?” I exchange glances with Ares, “I never trusted her, but I won't lie she was good at hiding everything. Did you know we can track everything that goes through your head? Not telepathy, just science. When you came here, whilst you were unconscious, we planted a tracker. We can track your brain patterns. That includes your little chats with Kyle over there in the Safe Cities,” That little-, “But if you knew the whole picture, your opinions will most definitely change, were not the bad guys Adria-”
“Then why did you kill Allison?” I cut him off.
He holds up a finger to shush me, “Let me explain from the very beginning. By now Pearson should have explained to you how we took over Dalmore after The War and began our evil reign. First we started off with prisoners as the first guards, as you know this didn't work out and very soon we found a way that would benefit everyone. Scientists gained Mutant DNA and injected it into babies, their senses increased and could be told apart from all the other uninjected children. We then created Acres Valley, for training those Mutant children. It was a controlled environment so we could understand more about them, about you. Then we decided to make Veritas, a place so we could put you to kill all the Mutants for us. So yes we are using you because no one else can do this, only you lot,”
He can't be serious, why inject children and separate them from their families. Why not adults who are willing to do it? “If you wonder why we don't inject grown adults, it's because the Mutant formula is not properly evolved yet, therefore, is weak to mature beings. You’ve never seen a grown Mutant fighter over the age of twenty have you?”
“Where are you? Hurry up!” Cleo’s voice rings through the earpiece. I hold my gun back up to Feyrer.
“Now onto your parents Adria. I suppose Pearson wouldn't want to have to explain it to you,” What does he mean? “Your parents were huge fans of our work, they were patriots of the Safe Cities, filthy rich. Of course the poor envied them, but anyhow, in fact they gave up their only child, you to be injected with the Mutant DNA. But when they heard you could potentially die, they fled. They caught a Bulk flying to the farms and when they put The Veil down, your parents fled to New Orleans. But you still had that Mutant DNA in you and we need everyone of those kids. So we searched for you and your parents-”
“Hurry up!” I hiss, stepping closer to him. He only smiles.
“They started The Alliance, to protect children like you because they were so inconsiderate of their decisions. Families like Angrove’s and people like Pearson and Floyd joined their cause. Very soon we heard of your parents and they started their war, we fought and we won. Your parents fled back to their apartment in New Orleans, we found them and unfortunately we had to kill them. All because of their stupidity and arrogance. The end,” He says it so calmly, I feel my lips and the grip on my gun tighten. But I couldn't kill him. As angry as I feel, I feel disappointed as well. I feel the same as when I saw that girl die. He is lying, my parents can't be like that. They started The Alliance to destroy people like Feyrer and The AIC.
“Come on, Ria,” Jaxon nudges me, but I can't. What if what he said is true? What if my parents really were arrogant and corrupt. No, they’re my family, they can't be evil if they started The Alliance. After all they did this to protect me, to protect people like us, Mutant breeds.
“The Veil is down, get out of there!” Pearson yells through the communicator. I pull the trigger. Numbness is all I feel but the only thought that goes through me is to run away. I don’t even look at the body.
“Come on!” Jaxon says, running out the room. Ares and I follow behind him, we dodge around everyone going back to their towers from dinner. Thankfully no guards or scientists got in the way. That’s until we spot Dawson behind us who flashes a murderous grin, holding up a gun. He fires at us, we have to dodge the bullets, racing towards the entrance. He chases us for minutes, firing continuously and we fire back when we have the opportunity. He must have noticed us talking to Feyrer. A bullet whizzes past my ear with a quiet buzz. That was too close. Soon I realize that we’re not alone, guards with even more firepower pursue us around the hallways.
“Get them!” I hear the guards yell at nearby passing people. A few shrug and others yell support at us, I guess they’re just as mad at The AIC as anyone. The three of us give up shooting at the guards because it would only slow us down. We are almost outside of the building. I turn around for one last quick shot, the bullet coming in contact with Dawson’s leg. The faint outline of the jets the two boys hijacked are barely visible but just enough for us to reach safely. In their old age, the guards and Dawson stumble in the darkness trying to reach for us but we are meters ahead. Alec opens the side of the jet and we scramble in.
“Ria, you're driving,” Jaxon says.
“What-”
“Quick before they get us, you're the only one here who’s driven manually,” He explains as I take to the cockpit.
I barely remember the instructions Jaxon told me the first time I flew one, why couldn't he drive? I turn the holographic circle anti-clockwise until it beeps, ‘Manual control engaged’ The jet hovers over the ground and I take off. After Jaxon gives out the word to the rest to follow, I check behind us. Cleo, Jaxon, Soren, Ares, Alec, Levi and Ophelia sit behind me, just as nervous as I am. Below us, I see Dawson and the half the guards that chased us, curse up at us, the other half must have gone back inside.
“We’re going to die,” Ares moans behind me, I shoot him a glare. I think I am slightly better at driving manually than the last time I did so. I hear a rumble of more jets behind us, it must be the others. This time keeping a steady pace on the wheel, we fly past the wall of Veritas. I let out a sigh of relief.
“Which way?” I hear Cora’s voice.
“Just follow me,” I reply. The city looks different at night, it's so shocking I can barely recognize the place. Earlier today, Pearson told us to look for the light, that’s where Headquarters would be. For minutes, no one says a word and I calm down although we’re far from safe. The only sound I can hear is the sounds of the jet’s engine rumbling.
“Guys?” Ares speaks up, I turn my head around, “I need to pee,” I blink. But as I turn my head back around, a loud thunk hits at the back left of the jet.
“It’s The AIC, they’re shooting at us!” Cleo cries. I steer the jet to the right and do a flip, searching frantically for a weapons button.
“Be on the lookout! The AIC is firing at us!” I scream at the communicator. I'm directing the jets in random directions, hoping they don't crash into us. This, unfortunately, leads to some extremely bad driving; everyone grabs hold of their seat, my hands are set in stone on the wheel.
“We don’t have weapons on this jet!” Levi screams, noticing my search. “This isn't a military jet! Go fly low and crash those idiots into a building,” He screams, this time higher pitched. I send the word out and dive, hopefully the Mutants are having their night time nap. Another thud hits the same spot, this time even harder. Snap! Something erupts from the back, I think they broke something important. Spotting a tall building, I race the jet forward. With everyone screaming, it is chaos. A loud rumble of jets behind me tells me that The AIC is on my tail. The building is right in front of us now, any closer and we’ll crash, I swerve to the left. The AIC jets crash into the building, glass flys everywhere but I soar the jet higher.
“Get over here!” I faintly hear Pearson demand, “We’ll shoot them down,” Flying the jet forward I look for the light she was talking about but all I see is darkness everywhere. I fly the jet faster, maybe Headquarters is further away, I see the others fly next to me. Most of The AIC jets have gone, only four remain. We could try to knock them off course but that’ll take more time and The AIC could have already started assembling soldiers.
“Where is it?” I ask, irritated.
“Can't you see it? It’s illuminating the entire of Headquarters!” Pearson says. I turn numb, what if The AIC already put up The Veil. One of our jets flies in front of us and is thrown backwards at full force, the same way Ares was flung backwards. The Veil is right in front of us, they managed to put it back up.
“The Veil- It’s back up,” I manage to speak out but it is already too late. Behind us, the four AIC jets have surrounded us. It really would have worked out if we had guns on our jets just like theirs.
“Surrender now, it is over,” A speaker on the jet booms out. They get a speaker too? I look over to Alec who moves over to where I am and places his hand over a big red button. I thought that button was for blowing yourself up. He looks down at me and smirks before pushing the button. The next thing that happens completely blows my mind, a huge ultrasonic blast explodes from the front of the jet towards The AIC’s ones.
“I always thought that the button was for exploding things,” Jaxon shrugs. Just as if our luck has expanded, The Veil collapses behind us and Pearson’s light illuminates a whole section of New Orleans. I fly towards the source of light faster than I’ve ever flown before, I can feel air rushing through my face, reshaping it. The AIC jets fire at us faster, but we loop around them. Approaching the source of light, Headquarters is in sight. Passing through it’s grounds, The Alliance guards shoot The AIC ones down. I land on concrete and we skitter to a holt, I open the door wide open and hop out. We did it. But this is only just the beginning.
“Wow, we didn't die,” Ophelia mutters in sarcastic amazement.
“Yeah we did, what a shame,” Levi remarks in the same tone.
"Pearson would like to see you in her office," Two guards say as they approach us, pistols drawn. We follow them into the building. The inside is dark, yet the light from outside shines in through the windows, illuminating the outdoors. It's a little rowdier than usual, soldiers are running around, and the clatter of armour and equipment is loud. I don't know how cold I am until we go into Pearson's office and into the warmth of her office. Pearson smiles and greets us with a nod from her seat.
"Come on, now. We have a lot to explain in a short amount of time," says the narrator.