Page 76 of Echos and Empires
Her words shot out in rapid bursts, punctuated by the silence of the crowd. She felt their attention, thick as oil, ready to catch fire. She was the spark, the one who could ignite it, who could spread everything and burn it all down.
“Some of you have no doubt given birth here, I’ve seen the babies and held many. As you can see and know if you know me, I am as well. Twins. Twins in a world where so many women fail to experience a single pregnancy should they wish to.” She let her hand fall on her small, but present bump. “Some of you may or may not know about the special things a pregnancy here gets you. Some because you fought and had that knowledge taken, others because you’ve accepted it.”
She watched, looking for any sign the women knew what she spoke of. If they did, they hid it well.
“I was in the White Room,” she continued, her tone hardening, her resolve strengthening with each word. “ A room most of you likely don’t know existed because of what goes on once you’re there. They told me I was one of the lucky ones. They made me believe it. But it was a lie.”
She took a breath, the past flooding through her as if she was still there, still trapped. She remembered the sterile walls, the cold eyes that watched her, the emptiness. “Victor calls it ‘saving humanity.’ But I saw what he’s doing. I read about the experiments. I heard the way he threatened to kill every unborn child who could carry certain genes.”
A murmur rose, small but growing, and Emma paused to let the crowd absorb it. Let it settle in their minds. It had to sink in. It had to matter. She felt their eyes, the pressure of their desperation.
“He owns us!” Emma shouted out, her anger breaking through as she continued. “Every man, every woman on this island. On more than this island.” She ignored the rise of voices. “He built them, you know. He built the bombs. He launched them, and he damn sure built these islands as a breeding ground for his humanity. And he will build more.”
It was like ripping the truth from her own skin, a pain that numbed the fear and fueled her rage. “He’ll kill anyone he deems unworthy. He’ll kill any baby if he thinks they’re imperfect. That is what happens in the White Room, and why the island truly exists.”
She heard a gasp, then another, like the first crack of ice on a frozen lake. It split the silence, and she knew it was real. The shock. The understanding. The horror.
“It’s all a lie,” she said, quieter now, the words dropping heavy as stones. “All of it. And it won’t stop. Not until we stop it.Because this island can be the refuge we believe it to be. We just need to take it for ourselves.”
They were more than just words. They were an exhale, a release of everything she’d held in for so long. Of the fear and the fury and the unyielding hope that they could do this.
“Victor wants us to be scared,” she pressed on, urgency driving her faster. “They want us to feel alone. But look aroundyou.” Her voice rose again, a clarion call to the lost and the broken. “We’re not alone. And we’re not scared.”
The pause was only a breath, but it felt eternal, felt like the entire future depended on it. Her heart pounded in her chest, in her ears, in her very being. It was raw and terrifying, but it was right.
“This is everything,” she finished, and the words burned with the truth. “This is now or never.”
Her voice cracked, and she stopped. The air around her was electric, vibrating with what she had said, with what they now knew. She stood there, letting the weight of it all crush down, hoping it would ignite.
“We have the proof. But this isn’t about proof. You came after getting a random text message from people you’ve known less than a year. You came because you must feel something is off. Or maybe you’ve seen it. You came to understand what the hell could possibly have driven six men ingrained in the community’s defenses to send something like that.”
The air seemed to roll over her as Chris and Liam fell into line beside her, taking the place of Alex and Bash who stepped farther to the side. William was on the far end. They were a wall. And they would remain a wall for any who needed their safety.
“They sent it because we can’t fix this alone. We took a risk, they’ve captured William and it forced our hand. This island is not safe. Not if you ever have children of your own. This island was a haven. Only it wasn’t, it was a front just like the one the US government had, and no doubt countless other governments have set up. We need your strength. Your support. We need to remove Victor from power and make this island what it was promised to be, not a breeding program for those he wants to survive.”
Emma had thought there would be more time. A breath. A heartbeat. A warning.
But chaos erupted, tearing through the crowd like a wildfire. Her words set them ablaze. Fury, fear. She couldn’t tell which was stronger, only that they consumed everything. Her body lurched as someone shoved her, the force knocking her back. She searched for her men, desperate, as gunshots cracked the air and sent her heart racing. It was madness. Screams. Violence. The pure, unfiltered panic of those with nothing to lose. It went on and on, forever. Until it seemed they’d all be lost.
The sound hit first, a tidal wave of rage. Then the distinctthudbodies clashing against each other. An explosion of noise and violence and motion. Emma’s breath caught, her mind reeling at how fast it all unraveled.
She was shoved again, the impact jarring. Her own terror was small against the enormity of the chaos, swallowed by it.
The noise splintered into pieces—gunfire, shouts, a raw din of panic. Emma stumbled, nearly falling. She was no longer sure where the ground was, where the sky was, or where her boys were. She had to find them. Had to know they were okay.
She spun, frantic, but saw only a mass of angry limbs and wild eyes. She could hardly tell who was on whose side, couldn’t see where her men had gone.
Another gunshot. Another. Each one a lance of terror that made her pulse stutter. She couldn’t even scream.
People were running, falling, pushing her aside as she tried to find any sign of them. But they were buried in the roiling, seething crowd. The last glimpse she’d had was of Chris yelling for silence, then swallowed by the torrent.
Emma couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Everything was just noise and bodies and the sickening fear that this was it. That they would all die right here, right now.
It was relentless. Time stretched and bent as though it had broken under the pressure, each second an eternity of chaos. Each second a desperate plea for this to stop, for them to survive.
It went on, and Emma’s terror twisted into something else. Helplessness. Her boys, her babies. They would all be gone before this even started. Before they could fight back if this didn’t stop.
The screams rose higher, echoing across the water and up into the sky. She couldn’t even hear her own voice as she shouted their names, her throat raw with panic.
