Page 1 of The Omega Archives: Part One

Prologue

ELENA

My lungs burned with the remnants of fever and pain that stuck to me like a cold sweat. My body felt as if it had run a marathon before being run over by a truck.

Then again, I had no idea just how far I had run up until this point. There was a lot of running. Then, walking. Then, the ride I got with a man in a rusted delivery truck who told me it wasn’t safe for me to be taking rides from strangers.

He made me promise I wouldn’t do it again. I promised.

I suppose I could count that promise as the first of many lies I was about to tell.

It didn’t matter. It was what I had to do to keep safe, and sitting in a strange trucker’s cab was a safer option than where I’d been before I ended up there.

I wouldn’t stop doing what I had to do now. I couldn’t stop until I was far enough away from where I came from- from where I was nearly positive people would be looking for me by now. I needed to keep going until I was safe.

Even if it took the rest of my life.

When I got to the nearest town, I managed to find the place I was looking for. People glanced sideways at me as I passed.

I guess I would too.

Finally, I saw the sign my brother had promised I would find eventually. In big, bold letters.

Omega Haven.

I pushed through the glass doors of the government-funded building. Everything inside was white and sterile. Lights were bright on me. Hot. Painful. Each stream of light from the fluorescent bulbs may as well have been a needle, piercing into my skin.

I nearly turned on my heels and headed right back out to the street to get away from it, my instincts screaming at me not to stay there for another single moment.

Instead, I crossed my arms.

I squinted against the bright lights as I tried to cover myself that suddenly felt all too bare from my short jean shorts that had been lying on the concrete floor the past few days to my arms without any sort of jacket to cover up with. I hadn’t had time to stop or look for one.

I couldn’t take that risk.

My brother wouldn’t have wanted me to.

The reminder of him pricked a fresh new wave of tears at the corners of my eyes, but I would not cry. I promised myself I wouldn’t.

I promised him.

That promise wasn’t a lie like the last one I made either.

The receptionist was up out of her chair before the door fully shut behind me. “Are you alright?”

“Please,” I whispered, unable to say anything else. They ushered me inside. “I need help.”

The next hour went by within a blink. I was led away from the front and into a room, the woman’s kind voice keeping me calm as she asked her questions, jotting down notes on a clipboard.

“What is your name, sweetheart?”

“Elena,” I said. My throat was dry, and my voice crackled. I didn’t want to speak anymore, but I needed to be safe. They were going to help me here. Just like Peter said. “Elena Spangler.”

“All right then, Elena. Sit down right here. Let me go find our doctor on call. We are going to get you all cleaned up. Can you tell me anything else? Where is your family?”

I shook my head.

Nothing.My brother, Peter, schooled me on this. I could still hear his stern voice in my head as he tore me away from where I was.Tell them nothing.

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