Prologue

Freedom is the broken gate inches from my feet that I'm so close to crossing. The broken gate my companions crossed seconds ago, and are now long gone from. Hidden by the forest just outside.

I thought freedom would be blinding, that it would consume me, that I was willing to die for it. But now the world looks like the after effect of a meteorite hitting the earth, it sounds like crackling thunder, it smells like burning flesh, burning vehicles, burning everything! It feels like choking, like the air is toxic.

The apocalypse has come early. Or maybe, right on time.

The apocalypse is a good metaphor for this situation because this is literally the end of our world, maybe not Earth entirely but definitely our world. A world of jail cells, armed soldiers and creepy, experimental doctors. I remind myself that this is a good thing. This needed to happen.

Next to me a gunshot doesn't crackle, it whips like lightning and it strikes something near and at the same time someone releases a gurgling sound and for the first time since this started, something soft hits the ground next to me instead of something quick and deadly.

This needed to happen.

I move nothing but my eyes, afraid that if any part of my body moves the burnt out jeep I'm pressed against won't be able to protect me.

My eyes meet hers, there's no light there, the glowing gold is gone and is now just a cold, faded green. The colour they must've been before she Adapted.

Is that what happens to us when we die?

All humans may not be equal, but in death we truly are...

I think her name was Isla. I never knew her much because she was a few years younger than me and we were in different categories. I can't remember much about her other than that her power couldn't have protected her from this.

Freedom isn't consuming me like I'd thought, like I'd hoped. Something else is, something far more powerful.

Fear.

And something else, something far less powerful is budding at the very back of my mind because I'm not the only one pressing their body into some form of cover, trying to meld with it to assure safety.

Culpability is slowly catching up to freedom in the race of which emotion will dictate my next move. It's presence intensifies my fear. I pull my eyes away from the dead girl, trying to find anyone else.

A pair of glowing, gold irises bore into my own. Silas Jackson's, full of uncertainty and determination. He's pressed against a building a few feet behind me and he isn't looking at me to relate, he's surprised I'm still here. Why I didn't make a run for it with Jack, Milo and Nora?

Because I could, but he can't.

I can't communicate back to tell him culpability has won out before. That after Jack disabled the weapons guarding the gates and I pulled them down I stayed behind to make sure everyone got out.

Because I'm powerful enough to.

Because I'm the only one who can stop the bullets without risking anyone's life.

But just as everyone made it out, a storm burst from every dormitory in Pandora's box. The plan was supposed to be that only us four would escape, that we'd come back for the others and take Pandora's box down. The others didn't like that plan clearly and once we'd cleared a path the others stormed it.

But they raised the guards attention and a war broke out in a space the size of a parking lot.

Now people are dead and the chance I had is gone. If I want to get out of here I have to make a new one.

The soldiers aren't stalking towards us on foot with rifles armed. Not yet at least. They're up on the roof with snipers and bombs and other weapons I've not seen before. Weapons not designed to kill, but to do something else, something that makes people's irises disappear into a milky white nothingness. I don't know how those weapons work but they scare me the most.

Blurred commands are being yelled out from behind me. For a second the gunfire dies down.

Suddenly it stops completely.

My eyes flick to the right of the jeep but before I can look to see what's happening Silas springs forward ahead of me, his gangly limbs tangle him up but he belts on with five others trailing on his heels.

Every hair on my body poises for attention and I want to scream about how terrible an idea it is to run out blindly like this, but the fear wins over culpability this time and the sound curdles in my throat and dies. My eyes bulge from their sockets, trying to reach them, trying to pull them back.

I peek under the jeep, trying to see if a swarm of army boots are stomping our way but all I see is grass. I risk a steady glance to the side but as I do my peripheral vision flashes white and my brain disassociates from my body as I crash down beside the jeep again.

I feel for the empty space beneath the jeep with my hands and crawl towards it. My face smushes into the boggy ground, my mouth and nose stuff with muck and soil but I keep crawling until I know my whole body is covered. I manoeuvre myself to face the way I crawled in and squint against the blinding lights, trying to outline Silas and the others.

The smell of dirt fills my senses and I note it as a good thing because it means I'm not smelling smoke. I can't even smell the acrid gunpowder that fills the air from under here. Wherever the blinding light came from it wasn't a flash bomb-

"Children!"

My ears are as blinded as my sight by the booming voice that sounds all around me.

"Return to your dormitories immediately or we will be forced to engage emergency protocols to contain you!"

Contain us? They've been shooting at us! They've been killing us! Isla-

"The rest of your companions have been apprehended."

Murdered!

"This coup is over now! This has caused some serious consequences. There is no need to cause any more danger to your own lives and to ours."

This needed to happen.

The lights dim slightly but remain bright enough to light a football field. They come from every angle, perched on every roof. They amplify the red lasers pointing at the group lying disorientated at the foot of the gates. I see their legs from my position, I see the lasers sweep over them.

The guards never even left the roof, they never had to! They were able to murder and recapture a base full of Adapted children without even directly coming after us. They were prepared for this!

We never had a chance...

My body is glowing with adrenaline and anger and most importantly power. It rushes through me like a flood and my body vibrates with its heat. My body is a conduit of energy, it engulfs my mind and points me in the direction of freedom.

The gates are less than ten feet away. The snipers are your biggest competition. The booming voice is your worst enemy. He represent why this needed to happen.

The voice continues speaking, trying to bully us into submission with fear. But the balance of power has shifted. It runs through me and I intend to run it through him.

I crouch, my hands and feet digging into the ground, charging up, drawing the energy to a centre point. My veins are pulsing, my heart burns inside my chest, butterflies dance in my stomach.

I stare straight ahead and catch the edge of a swinging gate. My target is set.

My body constricts, I burst into the air, the jeep flies off my back behind me, I close my fist and hold it there like a shield and speed towards freedom.

I hear nothing through my heartbeat, I see nothing as my visions disorientated by drastic contrast of white light and black nothing. I head for nothing.

My right ear flexes at the sound of rusted metal creaking in the wind and I know I've passed the gate. I twist my upper body, trying to see if Silas has followed me.

The wind is knocked from my lungs, my legs tangle over themselves, I crash into a tree as I reach the entrance of the forest. The energies gone in a flash, my ears are ringing, my body protests as I try to move it.

My ribs feel like I've been punched on a bruise. Everything in sight is black and spinning. The ground is sticky and wet and so am I. There are no sounds of people bursting into the forest behind me and I hope that means they've stopped to help me.

I blink a few times to adjust to the darkness, and finally I see Silas.

His gold irises roll into his head and fade to white, his body stalls and then crumples limply on the ground. A black shape behind him holds something poised in his hand, a strange long tube with a spike on the end that glows white.

I can't breathe, the bruise feels like it's suddenly been stabbed with a hot poker but I can't look down. I can only stare at the dark silhouette and for a moment I believe I see his eyes. I think I see the moon reflect off them and off the steel toe caps of his boots. The shine moves closer to me and then it's gone. I look back up where the glowing tube was, it's gone too. The guard is gone!

Static screams at me, my ears rebel but I catch the end of a sentence, "... got the last one."

He doesn't see me. I'm through the gate and they don't see me.

I push all the air in my lungs out through my nose, pull my feet underneath and me even though my whole body screams to stay down, even though my rib-cage feels numb with pain, I manage to pull myself up and bury myself in the woods.

It's dark and I have no source of light but the cosmos are on my side and the moon shines brightly enough to illuminate shapes around me. I crash into a few trees but it's more from exhaustion than blindness.

I stumble through as fast as I can, knowing I'll never catch up to the others now and not having a clue what that means.

Jack said he was certain there was a town nearby. He was certain people would help us if we could reach them.

'People wouldn't stand for it if they knew what we went through', he'd said.

I just need to reach one person.

The moon's light dims, my stomach churns and I crash sideways into the earth, spilling the contents of my stomach as I do.

I'm sweating but I feel cold. My ears ring like a fire bell, my face feels like it's been in a blizzard, hot and cold and all cut up. The stars above me spin and blur into each other.

It feels like death.

But I'm not dying?

My hand presses into my stomach to calm the queasiness and the white hot pain in my side flashes again.

My hand is hot and wet and sticky.

My fingers rub together, analysing the substance. I drift my hand in front of my vision but the moon doesn't radiate enough light to see it.

It's blood! Move! Get the hell up! Keep going!

Beyond the ringing, my ears twitch at the sound of a consistent thumping. The branches crunch and the leaves bustle.

Adrenaline floods me again, but lacks the useful resource of power. I use the tree to stagger to my feet and and use the branches to cling to as I move from tree to tree, further into the forest.

The guards. Never forget the guards, they won't forget you.

My vision refuses to gain full focus and the moon is inconsistent with how bright it wants to be. Sometimes plunging me into darkness altogether. My ribs throb rhythmically and now and again my footing becomes rough and the pain in my side sears.

Survive.

The voice in my head keeps me moving, it fills me with fear which pours out with the blood oozing from my rib-cage causing me to collapse. Then it screams at me to pull myself back up and stumble on.

I reach out for a branch in front of me but my hands are vibrating and it misses, I plunge face first into the muck.

Sleep tugs at my eyelids but the voice in my head keeps forcing it back. I hate the voice for that. I've been listening to it for a long time, it's what caused me to plan this adventure. That voice caused kids to die and its left me bleeding in the muck.

My fingers twitch to try and gather some life back into them, they move of their own accord. I no longer have control over them or any other part of my body. I feel numb but my limbs continue to fight for me.

We inch closer and closer to somewhere.

The pain wants you to give in, don't let it. We're so close!

I don't know where we're close to but I let myself believe in what the voice says.

I writhe in the dirt, crawling through the earth with one hand whilst applying pressure to the pained area with the other.
My uniform pulls and tears from the earths debris, I feel naked with how it clings to my skin from sweat and blood and wet earth.

Finally the wood opens, the trees spread thin and light seeps through. A yellow light that illuminates a fence, blocking me from crawling any further.

My inner voice screams and I flop onto my back. I'm tired, I'm in pain, I don't have the strength to climb it even if it is only a picket fence.

Sleep is begging to consume me and I want it to. There's nothing left to fight for, there's nothing more I can do.

Yes there is!

As if the voice had willed it the earth around me began to soak, fat, wet droplets splashed all around me, the grass becomes glossy and shines under the moonlight. It washes away the dirt, sweat and blood from my body and soaks me through. It revitalises me and my eyelids flicker open. I turn my face away from the sky to stop my eyes being pelted by raindrops and saw hope.

Hope was a break in a fence caused by an overgrown tree. Hope had a shed hung on the low branches.

One last push. Aim for the gap.

My heart was pounding, the ringing in my ears stopped. There was a dull glow pulsing from my chest. It wasn't anger fuelling the energy now, it was survival. But the dull ache of power had returned and I was sure I could use it to push my body into the air and through the gap to secure my freedom.