The Network ( Book One of the Grounders Series )

6

Two hours later I was aloud out of Detention. The guard eyed me weird, he obviously knew who I was.

My escort, a slender, statuesque woman wearing heavy soldier clothing with a sword at her waist.

"You're Alaric Constantine, aren't you," she asks.

I nod, expecting another look of disgust.

"You know you're pretty lucky, not having seen Aboveground. It's bad up there. My Dream was of a terrorist attack on America. These two planes smashed into towers and the collapsed. That led on to a whole different war. They are tearing themselves apart up there, and they don't even realize it. You're lucky you don't have to witness it."

I can't hold back. "I wouldn't call it 'lucky'." I mutter.

"Why's that?"

"They all hate me," I say.

Something crosses through her blue eye. She rubs the pale flesh of her neck with a and and looks at me. "Before I became a soldier, I lived in Lithana. I worked in the mines and the factories. My people all envy you, all of us wish to be at peace like you. We wish our rulers were as peaceful as you must be."

"Why would I be at peace?"

"Because you don't know what the Aboveground is like. You wouldn't know how to use the phrase war-torn in a sentence applying to modern times."

I hate to admit it but she's right.

We walk through a maze a stairs and tunnels until we reach the entrance of the Artery.

"What's your name," I ask.

"Delilah," she replies, but then like that she's gone, and I am left alone again.

Back in my own clan, in my own living chambers, my life takes on its normal course of living hell. Mother is livid.

"I can't believe you punched a boy!" She screams the second I open the door. She tears my tunic off my shoulders and shoves my chest against the wall. The metal rod raps across my spine, the sting reverberating through every nerve in my body. My knees tremble and I bite my lip to keep from crying out.

"You have to be the stupidest boy in all of the Network. You are already hated enough, you just had to go punch someone!"

I can stand the first few whips, but as the lashes start to bleed and my flesh becomes shredded, I buckle, bracing myself against the wall as my Mother unleashes on me.

Then the pain is gone. Defend yourself, the same voice from earlier said, this is what it would feel like to fight back.

Then the pain came back, like an avalanche crushing me under the massive boulders.

Before I can even think I feel my muscles spinning me around. The painlessness is too tempting.

When my brain clears my hands around my Mother's throat. I am pressing her against the wall.

I gasp and release her. I can feel the blood, thick and pouring over my back and soaking the butt of my trousers.

She looks furious. She lanes me across the chest ragingly. I cry out and fall to the floor but I don't let the voice penetrate my mind again.

When she's done, I go to my room and start mopping the blood off my body. I've ruined three tunics trying to clean this up. Finally I cover myself up enough that I can go into public.

I walk briskly to the bathroom and start filling a tub with water.

While I'm resting in the water, I mentally build a stone facade around my mind. Whomever managed to tempt me to strangling my mom is not aloud in my head. What is happening to me.

Dreams of Darkness shall consume.

Three men and three women shall presume.

The Drangon shall rise, unless the unseen sees.

Or life will become a swarm of bees.

Don't be too hasty,
For the time is set.

But don't run too slow,
Because Darkness is a threat.

The words echo through my head like a ominous gong reverberating inside me skull.

What could this mean? Somehow I know this ties to Alvus Constantine, he was divine so there's no reason he couldn't be a prophet too. Did he write this?

Yes he did.

I am startled by the voice. I thought it was gone.

Alvus wrote the prophecy before he lead to Vonicans into the Network. He didn't want any Grounders to read it until the time came, but you get a special sneak peek at it thanks to me. But you must change it, or you will never receive what you've been promised.

I push the voice away. Whatever it's talking about, I don't want to hear it. I look down and see the water is red with blood and my wounds are stinging intensely.

There is also someone else in the bathroom.

"I can't believe he fought back." To my horror, I realize that it's Venn.

"He got what he deserved in Detention, but he's not ready for what's coming for him tomorrow," Carter replies.

I silently step from the tub, hoping they won't notice, when my wet foot slaps against the ground.

"Who's there?"

I manage to get a towel on before Carter rips the curtain off the stall. His fist is in my face before I have any time to react.

"You!" He snarls. He punched me in the gut and I double over. Then he'd spins me around and shoves me head into the tub of water, holding me under.

I gurgle as I try to scream. Water fills my mouth and I choke, letting more in. I'm drowning.

Eventually I am pulled from the water. I gulp the air as Carter braces my head by holding my hair, tugging on it painfully. "I'll kill you."

He never gets the chance to shove me back into the water. Before my face hits the surface, Carter emits a guttural cry, so deep and agonizing that it makes my blood curl.

He stumbles back into Venn, who looks as shocked as I feel. Carter falls to his knees, golden ichor pouring from his mouth and eyes.

I pull my towel up so I'm not exposed, but watch numbly as Carter claws at his cheeks, opening new wounds. Golden blood covers his face. His screams turn into choked gurgles as the ichor drips into his mouth.

And all at once everything stops. The gold stops flowing. His screams stop. He doubles over onto his face, dead. The golden ichor has now taken on the dark red of human blood.

"Wha-." Is all I can muster before people charge in. One of them is Educator Alexia.

"What have you done, Alaric!" She bellows.

I can protect you, Alaric Constantine, the voice says, if you do as I say.