Page 2 of Dark Reign

This quadrant of the Dynasty, and all the others, would feign an inkling of remorse for finding it‘necessary’that my young life should end so tragically. They would croon about how much easier I would have had it if I’d accepted the order of things, if I’d turned myself in, agreed to enslavement in a harvesting camp.

… Over my dead body.

They would also conveniently leave out the bit about their kind only outnumbering ours because evolution leaned in their favor.Notbecause their right to life was greater than our own.

But I digress.

It was expressed often how they longed to see my shadow cast in the dirt one final time, as my body swung at dusk like everyone else they couldn’t control. There were blog articles as well as pieces in professional publications that backed up this claim. It wasn’t lost on me that my continued existence was a blight on their perfect record of cruelty and swift punishment, but I couldn’t focus on that. My team had one rule: live another day to complete another mission.

The stream of frantic breaths exhaled into my ear reminded me to focus, reminded me what was at stake. The kid was light on my back, and not just because she was only six. She, like all the others, was only rationed enough food to be kept alive and to complete a day’s work.

No more. No less.

I could only imagine how scared she was to lay eyes on me when I awakened her, taking in the sight of my dark mask and clothing, confused after being snatched from her bed and whisked out through a broken window. There’d been no time for an explanation. We’d worry about that when—no,if—we made it to safety.

Her small hands cinched my throat when she slipped down a few inches. It was my fault for not giving fair warning when I stooped awkwardly beneath a low-hanging branch. Air sputtered back into my lungs with a cough as I hiked her into place again using a handful of her stark-white nightgown as leverage. Her legs locked around my waist and I prayed she had a good grip this time, because we couldn’t stop.

If she fell, if she let go ...

Let’s just say turning back was against the rules. These journeys moved fast and only in one direction.

Forward.

“How’s that code coming, Fe?”

“Still trying combinations.” His voice quivered through the com, which meant we werebothon edge.

The soft breaths of my transport turned into quiet sobs. Wetness transferred from her cheek to mine as she clung tighter, maybe for security or comfort, but that had never been my role. I wasn’t the comforter; the acclimation process was Liv and Banks’ job. I was the runner, the one who went into the field to retrieve‘packages’.

That’s what we called them during this phase—packages. Regarding them as people before making it back, clear of danger, was always a mistake. So, at base camp, there was a rule: no names. Knowing names made them real, made them …someone.The only one forced to bear such a burden was Jonesy, because mining the lists for viable candidates washisjob. The rest of us chose to act blindly, only memorizing their Harvest Initiative Numbers or HINs—the unique identifiers assigned to those born in camps.

However, as an innocent question was whispered into my ear, I didn’t have much choice but to venture into uncharted territory.

“Are we gonna die?”

The words, the fear and concern behind them, made it hard to focus. Mostly because that was the one question I could never answer until we made it to our destination. These missions were always terrifying—for me, for the transport—but it was always my hope that they’d get it one day. That they’d wake up with the freedom to choose where and how they got to live their lives, and they’d deem this horrific experience as having been worth it.

“Just hold on to me,” was the only solace I could offer without feeding her false hope.

She settled just a bit and I was able to focus again.

I scanned the edge of the property, able to gage the distance between us and the gate. That meant we were too close, moving toward a sealed exit with nowhere else to go. Another obstacle, another factor working against us.

A shimmer of light glinting over dark metal made my heart stop cold. It was faint, and I hadn’t ruled out that I imagined it, but then I saw another and knew it was real. That glint was moonlight and it meant the gate was moving.

Finally.

“Felix, I take back all the horrible,horriblethings I said about you,” I panted, allowing a smile to break free. That smile lingered there for nearly an entire five seconds.

Until I heard it, a bloodcurdling howl that pierced the air.

It was the sound of a hungry pack being released to chase us down. It was also the first sign that the resident huntsman had been notified that the package, HIN-016565, had gone missing.

A surge of adrenaline kicked my senses into overdrive, prompting me to run like I’d never run before. The smell of wet moss and musky soil lingered in my nostrils as I inhaled, exhaling through my mouth. My lungs burned with each surge, throbbing as they filled to capacity and then emptied, but I couldn’t stop. Not yet. The release of vicious canines with a taste for human blood was enough to keep my feet moving. Especially at the realization that they were gaining speed.

Fast.

I had a visual on them now—six or more freakishly large bodies moving between silhouetted trees on all fours like trained assassins. I suppose, in many ways, that’s exactly what they were—canines infected with a strain of the same ‘vaccine’ that turned the human world on its head. Only now, these dogs were trained killers set to tear out the throats of anyone the huntsmen instructed them to pursue.

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