Forever. Dawn saidforever. No child of the Earth would ever know a time without the Dream Wars and I wasn’t okay with that. The breeders were smart, too damn smart. They were willing to cull their own population to allow time for more humans to breed so they always had a food source. It was beyond horrifying.
‘We have to stop them,’I said to Dawn, but really it was for myself.
‘Kit will stop them. That’s why breeders want Kit dead. Dawn knows things, Dawn knows Kit will end Dream Wars.’
A chill ran up my arms and then our connection broke off as a massive headache slammed into me. I hissed, grabbing my forehead, and dropped to the ground.
“Kit!” Damien slid onto the ground and took me into his arms. The headache eased a little.
The breeders, they were searching for me. I don’t know how I knew it but I knew. Taking in a few deep breaths, I opened my eyes to see everyone but Jeremy and Josephine surrounding me.
“What happened?” Damien asked, hauling me up.
Did I tell them the truth? God, it sickened me to think about it, never mind to speak it aloud. But this was my team, my family. I had to tell them everything so we could make a plan together.
Taking a deep, cleansing breath, I told my team exactly what Dawn had said. They listened with horrified expressions and I finished with Dawn’s prophecy that I would somehow change it all. These were my people and I wanted to be honest with them so they could help me brainstorm.
“So they’re here. Forever?” Maxine’s voice shook with anxiety.
Nodding, I reached out and squeezed my friend’s shoulder. “That’s what Dawn said. They’re going to take precautions so that humanity doesn’t die out too quickly, so that there’s always a food source and—”
I stopped mid-sentence as the feeling of waking up came over me.
What the...? We’d just dropped in? I looked down at my left arm, which felt like it was being yanked into the air.
Damien’s head snapped up to mine.
“Someone’s in the hotel room.” His warning was the last thing I heard in the Dream War, but before my body dissolved there, my gaze flicked over Maxine’s head to see a breeder weaving through the trees, coming right for them.
“Look out!” I screamed, but it wasn’t heard. I was already out of that world but not yet back on Earth; I’d said it somewhere in between.
The moment I felt my body jerk awake, I popped my eyelids open and leapt off the hotel bed and right at the small group of soldiers in black army fatigues who were opening the door. They weren’t ready for me, they didn’t expect this. I had no weapons and my heart was hammering in my chest as adrenaline pumped through me. I turned into a human bowling ball, flying toward them in an effort to knock over as many of these bastards as I could.
Just as I crashed into two of the soldiers, a shuffling noise sounded behind me, which I assumed was Damien waking up as well. Master Aki had totally known what he was doing when he’d tied our hands to the door.
I had little time to plan my crash. I tried to tuck my chin down on impact to minimize the face smashing, but it did little good. Arms outstretched, I took down two of the men, my shoulders slamming into their chests and knocking them backwards. My eye impacted one of the dudes’ helmets and I felt the skin rip open immediately.
Damien was next. I saw him as a blur of motion trying to disarm one of the other men. I counted six of them inside, with more outside no doubt. Two of us against them were not great odds, but I’d take it.
Rolling off the two dudes I’d knocked over, I rammed my knee into the nearest guy’s crotch as he tried to get up.
“Stand down!” a man outside yelled. “We aren’t here to hurt you.”
I realized then that the men I’d floored had flashbangs and Tasers but no lethal weapons, and they weren’t fighting back.
I looked up to the old timer who’d spoken and didn’t recognize him. He was a tall white dude with gray hair, and reeked of upper military. I could see it in the way he stood, in his haircut and the crispness of his ironed clothes.
I stood then and Damien backed away from his fight to step in front of me. “Then why the hell are you here?” Damien growled.
The man snapped his fingers and his men flanked us, one of them holding a pair of handcuffs. “We just need to talk. It’s a matter of national security.”
I full-on belly laughed. “Oh fuck national security. You sold us out years ago.”
His eyes widened before he recovered. “We’re just going to take you in for a little chat. Alright?”
It wasn’t a question. The men were already moving to cuff us. Damien looked at our friends asleep on the bed. “Let us wake our friends first. They’re in a bad spot in the Dream War.”
Oh shit, I’d forgotten about the breeder.
