“I don’t like this, Cayden.”
My hands tremble slightly with an uncontrollable wave of anxiety. I’ve always been in control, I’ve always had control, but right now I’m at the mercy of Cayden and whatever guard is at the next barrier stop.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Darlia. I promise.”
We pass the next checkpoint just as easily, the guard also recognising Cayden by name while Cayden gives the same lie about me being his driver. Apparently, it’s believable because neither guard questions it and lets us through.
The streets of Zone Two are deserted. It’s past curfew, so all the normal citizens are required to be in their homes; the high-rise apartment buildings the government supplied as part of the new order. There are rows of high-rise buildings, each with fifty floors of apartments for the citizens. We house the homeless.
Putting the car into park outside of an old warehouse, there’s no obvious symbols or any branding to prove this is a part of some sort of company or government building. It just looks empty. Abandoned.
“There’s something I want you to see, come with me.” Cayden steps out of the car, walking over to the driver’s side and opening the door before leaning down and unbuckling my seatbelt. I feel his breath on my neck again, and it sends a shiver down my spine.
He places a gentle kiss to the side of my neck, and a sound I’ve never made before escapes me. I’m actually going insane, but Cayden just chuckles, finding my demise hilarious.
“Come on, beautiful, we don’t have all night.” Leaning out of the car again, he offers me his hand and I take it, our fingers intertwining as we walk up to the door of the warehouse. Cayden stops, turning to check on me, brushing hair out of my face. “I would never lie to you, remember?” His voice is so soft, soothing.
“I remember.”
“Good girl.”
Chapter 21:
Cayden looks down at me, and I can see the hesitation in his eyes. It makes a new wave of nausea flow through me. I have no idea what’s behind the door, but I can tell it’s nothing good. Especially if Cayden is hesitating.
Opening the door, he leads me inside. The only light is the moonlight shining through the windows of the warehouse. It’s eerie and I don’t like it, but Cayden squeezes my hand as if reading my mind, reassuring me as he leads us further in the darkness of the warehouse.
I hear Bella’s car stop outside, the sound of two car doors opening and closing before she also enters the warehouse with Marcus, but no one speaks.
The scent of old paper, metals, and chemicals fills the space, like a clean-up job gone incredibly wrong. The warehouse is old and rundown. The walls are almost caving in, the metal is rusting and weak, and there are holes in the roof and the sides. Like one bad storm could wash all of this away.
Like it’s been designed to fall apart and leave nothing behind.
The space is lined with boxes and desks. Some of them still have papers on top of them. It looks like this place closed in a hurry, and there was no time to take anything. But we don’t stop, Cayden keeps walking until we reach a door, and his eyes meet mine.
“I want you and Bella to go in alone.” Pulling a torch out of his pocket, Cayden hands it to me while Marcus hands one to Bella. My heart starts racing in my chest. What is behind this door?
“We will be right out here when you’re ready.”
He doesn’t offer me an explanation or any answers. Instead, he only opens the door, waiting for me and Bella to step inside and find the answers ourselves. Bella steps beside me before we enter the room, finding nothing out of the ordinary.
There are file cabinets, boxes, desks, but then I see the name of the file sat on the desk and my stomach flips.
Project PX - The Academy Final Draft.
This is where it started.
Bella reacts before I do, grabbing the folder and opening it while I go through the file cabinet, seeing every single name listed on its own file. “Bella, what is the date on that file?”
“2043, why?”
I was only born in 2040, yet my name is here, Bella’s name is here, Lauren’s name, Kylie’s. Everyone is here.
But that’s impossible.
I was four when they saved me, when they took me from the streets and gave me a home. They couldn’t have known who I was, unless…it hits me, a pain so deep in my chest I physically recoil.
We weren’t taken at random.
