Survival Mode

Chapter 11

The bright light of the sun hits me in the face and I slowly open my eyes. At first, it hurts a little but I blink a few times and sit up.

"Look who finally decided to wake up." The voice definitely didn't belong to the guy in the cells.

The owner of the voice came in front of me and I squinted to see him in the blinding light of the sun; white-gray hair all over the place, his light blue eyes staring right back. It's Doc.

I frown. How is this even possible? The Nex took me and put me in a cell, I spoke to the guy in there and he told me there were horrible things to come with the morning. I expected to wake up back at the cell but I'm here.

I look around and notice that I'm in the lab.

How did I end up here?

I look at Doc confused. "What am I...? How did I get here?" My voice is hoarse like I haven't talked in a long time.

Doc looks at me sheepishly with big eyes but doesn't respond.

In that moment Amber enters looking more tired than I've ever seen her. She sighs when she finds me awake and runs a hand through her hair while I look expectantly at her.

"You must have many questions but we don't have much time so before I answer you, we need to get out of here to a safer place. Do you think you can walk?"

I frown. Why wouldn't I be able to walk? I remember being able to last time I was awake. I don't say anything though. Instead I throw my legs over the rock-hard bed and put my feet slowly on the floor. I shiver as I push away the thin covers and stand up. My vision goes black for a second and I sway, almost falling but with the help of Doc and Amber I carefully walk out of the lab.

I don't talk as I'm guided through the dark corridors. I can't really see anything but Doc being a Wiz and Amber a Hunter they have special powers to see through the dark. I just blindly hang on to them letting the guide me to wherever it is we're going.

On the way we stop in front of a random wall and Doc says something in a weird language, making the wall disappear and we walk through where there are more dark corridors waiting. Great.

I'm not sure how long we walk but after a while we get to a well secured door with a code panel on its right. Amber enters the code and we enter into a well-lit room. We're not the only people there though. There are about 15-20 people. Compared to the 349 citizens of Consurrexi this is almost nothing but still better than nothing. I throw a worried glance around the room searching for the people I know. I find some of them huddled in a corner and don't even think twice before I break away from Doc and Amber and walk towards them.

As I tumble towards them, they see me and stand up. There's Aria, Gabriel, Rose, the guy Aria hung out with a lot, Janette – which makes me think if she knows about my best friend's crush on her – and April. April is the first person to hug me tight.

"Evin! I thought you were dead! I didn't see you anywhere when they bombarded the city... I was so afraid." She starts crying as I hold her. I don't say anything, frozen in shock. My eyes search for my brother but I don't find him and immediately start to panic.

April calms down a bit and pulls back a bit, noticing my panicked state.

"Where's Etan?"

She avoids my gaze and steps back. "We don't really know-"

"What do you mean you don't know?!" I shout at her and immediately regret it as she cowers back. I notice that my necklace is glowing around my neck and try to calm down. I still can't control my powers and unleashing them in here would be a bad idea. But no matter how hard I try I still feel my eyes glowing. After a few moments, though, I feel the necklace and my eyes stop glowing and everything turning back to normal. I take a deep breath. That was close. They shouldn't find out I have the necklace. Not yet.