Chapter 2: Agreements and Assignments

The door behind Eve opened and she stood up slowly. “Does her majesty want me?”

Her eyes landed on an African-American guard at the door. He held it open, a gun in the other hand. His name tag said his name was Zion. He was of middle height with a buzz cut.

“Yeah, but I’d advise that you don’t use the sarcasm on her, Eve. She will make you regret it.”

“She can try all she wants.” Eve shrugged. She ran a hand through her hair letting it flip to the otherside. “Let’s go see the Wicked Witch of the West.”

“I already told you….’ he didn’t finished.

“Yeah, I know. ‘Don’t use the sarcasm on her.’” Eve rolled her eyes. “I’m not completely stupid.”

“Let’s go.” Eve followed him out the door and down the hallway, her arms folded over her chest the whole time.

Guards hustled and bustled around them, scientists in white lab coats bumped into them as they hurried to their tests. Probably a new batch of Subjects that they were going to release.

“How’d you get this job, Zion,” Eve asked as they road up the elevator. The glass walls allowed them to see what was going on outside on the bottom levels.

“Chance and pure luck,” he answered.

“There is no such thing as luck,” she said. “I thought it was just luck that I got dragged into this whole mess and then I find out that no, it’s because the psychopath that heads this up is my aunt.”

“Your Professor Aswynn’s niece?” he asked, obviously making it clear that he didn’t want to talk. “That’s nice.”

Eve rolled her eyes and waited for the whole thing to be over with. The doors made a ding and opened and they stepped out. Zion led while Eve followed.

“Pure luck,” he shrugged.

“There’s no such thing as pure luck,” she said partially to herself. “I thought that getting into this mess was pure luck but then I find out that my aunt, the psychopath leading this whole stupid operation, had planned it all along. Fun times.”

“That’s nice,” he said woodenly. He didn’t want to talk to her. That was fine, she didn’t want to talk to him either.

The doors binged as they arrived at the correct floor. Stepping outside, Zion led the way down the hall to Aswynn’s office. As they neared, Eve could hear shouting and yelling. She stopped before she opened the door.

“FINE!” it was a boy’s voice. “I’ll do it. Just leave me alone!”

The door yanked open and the boy jumped when he saw Eve.

“The devil’s real, huh?” she asked sarcastically. Recovering from his scare he brushed past her and stomped down the hall. Eve shrugged and pushed the door open.

“Hello, Eve,” Aswynn looked stressed but still sugarcoated her voice. “Did you sleep well?”

“Nope,” she answered simply.

“Too bad. Tell me, do you love your friends?” she asked.

“Who are my friends?” Eve asked innocently.

“Don’t act dumb with me, child.” the smile was gone now. “You know who I’m talking about.”

“No, I don’t.” she crossed her arms over her chest and sat down in one of the chairs. “I don’t have friends. I only have one big family and you’re not in it.”

“Since your so blind, let me spell it out for you.” Aswynn’s voice was threatening.

“Anyone you love, I have the ability to kill. And I will if you don’t do as I ask.”

“Why would you do that?” Eve was angry.

Please don’t let her have Peter, God. Eve silently prayed.

“Because,” Aswynn drew it out. “You love Peter, Max, Dee, Drew, all those little want-

to-be heroes. If you don’t comply, they die.”

They sat in silence. Eve didn’t want TRAKKER to win but she also didn’t want the others to suffer because of it.

“Why do you even try, Eve?” Aswynn asked, folding her arms on her desk. “Why do you try to stop us? You’re a bunch of teens who are fighting against the most powerful corporation on earth.”

“Why do you breath?” Eve asked annoyed.

“It’s part of life. I need air to live,” she was confused.

“Exactly. Before I die, I can at least try to live a little longer,” she said.

“Are you going to cooperate with us?” Aswynn asked.

Eve swallowed. “Yes.”

The word was short, soft. It was a sign of defeat but it was also the beginning of a war.

“Good. We’ll talk after you take a shower. You smell very bad,” Aswynn commanded.

“That is what happens when you’re on the run for over a month,” she shrugged.

Eve felt the cold iron of the bracelets on her wrist. “Take these off.”

“Why should I?” Aswynn challenged.

“I already told you I’d cooperate. Besides, you might need these powers one day,” she pointed out.

“I’ll take them off but the moment you hurt someone with your power, they’re going back on.” she reached forward and touched the side of the bracelets. They glowed green

and then unlocked, falling onto the desk with a satisfying sound. As they fell off though, they took little strips of skin that had been stuck to them with dried blood. She sucked in a breath between her clenched teeth as they tore away. Eve’s wrists were a bloody mess and they stung terribly. “Thank you.”

She turned and walked out the door with Zion leading the way to the showers.

As they walked down the strange corridors, questions bombarded Eve’s mind but she chose to only ask one. “That boy I ran into on the way into Aswynn’s office, who is he?”

“Her son,” Zion answered shortly.

“And his name?” she pressed.

“Brodie.” It was obvious he didn’t want to say anything more about the subject but he did. “You’ll meet him later.”

Up ahead was a door marked showers. Eve pushed it open and stepped inside, taking in the sight. It was a nice sized room with about ten shower cubes in it. Shower curtains separated the cubes. It had a tile floor with the word TRAKKER right in the middle of the floor.

“Nice little touch of personality,” she murmured as she walked to the far shower stall. She stepped inside one of the changing rooms and started to undress.

“How long has it been since I last had a shower?” she thought. Dirt clung to her legs and there were was an obvious difference from where her clothes had and had not been.

“At the hotel but that seemed like years ago,” she answered. “And then we went back to the Resistance, we waded through the sewers of New York, and then I slaughtered a few pigs and ended up here.”

She closed the shower curtain behind her and switched on the water. It was freezing cold at first but Eve got used to it. As the water poured over her tired body, her muscles relaxed and her mind was finally peaceful. She felt the blood wash off her back and arms and slide down her legs into the drain. She felt as the water washed the dirt away revealing the real Eve, the one that hadn’t seen the light in a long time. She took a moment to rejuvenate and then she stepped out, completely clean, and got changed into the crisp TRAKKER uniform that had been hung on the door for her.

“You know, you could make these more comfortable,” she told Zion as they walked back to Aswynn’s office. “You’d get better feedback from your employees.”

He said nothing but rather walked on in silence.

Eve was sitting in the dark grey chair in front of Aswynn’s desk, her wet hair dripping onto the carpet behind her. “So…. what do I do now?’

“I’m going to give you your assignment and I want you to meet you second in command,” Aswynn said, handing her a file. “Your assignment is to head up our Salvation

Team, which will be named the Converts. You will train them on how to survive and fine tune their powers. You will also help me with the meetings that are sure to come. The governments from every nation will be wanting to talk to me and I’ll need your help handling the questions.”

“And why me?” Eve asked.

“Because you’ve experienced it all first hand,” she answered. “I’ll give you more details after you meet Brodie, your second in command. Zion will show you the way.”

“I don’t know, Zion’s not the most talkative,” she looked over her shoulder at him skeptically.

“He’s your guard, not an entourage.” Aswynn corrected her.

“Whatever,” Eve said as she stood up. “Come on Zi, let’s go meet Brodie Boy.”

Nothing like a good shower to make you feel better. Lol