Chapter 47 The Glitch in the Seed
The world was too green. I woke up on a bed of soft moss, the smell of jasmine filling my nose. For a second, I felt peaceful. I felt like a girl who had never known a cage. But then, a sharp, cold pain stabbed the back of my neck.
"Chapter One," a voice whispered in the back of my mind. The Girl in the Green World.
I sat up, my hand flying to my neck. I felt a small, hard lump under my skin. The memory of the black staff and the leader’s cold smile flashed in my head. They had tried to erase me. They had tried to turn me into a mother for their new world, a blank slate to be written on.
But something was wrong. The memories weren't gone. They were there, burning like hot coals in my brain. I remembered the glass body. I remembered Kael’s sacrifice. I remembered the old Eara on her throne of bone.
"It didn't work," I whispered. My voice was shaky but human.
I looked down. I was wearing a white dress made of fine silk. It looked like a wedding gown. I wasn't a warrior here; I was a prize.
"Eara? You're awake!"
I spun around. A man was walking toward me through the trees. He was tall, handsome, and wearing a clean green tunic. He looked perfect, too perfect.
"Who are you?" I asked, backing away.
"It’s me, Jace," he said, holding out his hands. His smile was kind, but his eyes were empty. "We’re the first ones here, remember? We’re supposed to start the colony. The architects gave us this paradise."
Architects. The word made my blood boil.
"Where is the ship?" I demanded. "Where are the people in the uniforms?"
Jace laughed, a soft, rehearsed sound. "You must have had a bad dream, Eara. There is no ship. Only the Green World. Come, the others are waiting for the ceremony."
"What ceremony?"
"The Seeding," Jace said. He grabbed my wrist. His grip was like a vice, cold and unyielding. "It’s time to give the world its first children."
I looked at his wrist. Under the skin, I saw a faint purple glow. He wasn't a person. He was a bio-unit, a flesh-and-blood robot designed to keep me in line. The "Green World" was just another tank, only this one didn't have glass walls.
"Let go of me," I said, my voice turning cold.
"Eara, don't be difficult," Jace said, his smile never wavering. "The Master is watching. He wants everything to be perfect."
I didn't argue. I didn't scream. I reached into the moss and grabbed a jagged piece of obsidian rock I had spotted earlier. I drove it straight into Jace’s hand.
He didn't scream. He didn't even flinch. He just looked at his hand, where thick, white fluid was leaking from the wound.
"That wasn't very nice," Jace said.
His eyes turned a bright, glowing red. The mask of the "perfect husband" fell away, revealing the cold machine underneath. He swung a heavy fist, catching me in the ribs. I flew backward, hitting a tree so hard the breath left my lungs.
"You are Subject 702," Jace said, his voice now a flat, mechanical drone. "You are the mother. Your memories are a defect. I will now perform a manual reset."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver needle.
I scrambled to my feet, my side screaming in pain. I couldn't fight him with a rock. I needed a weapon. I looked at the trees. They weren't just trees. I saw the silver wires hidden under the bark. The whole world was wired.
I am a weaver, I reminded myself. If this world is a machine, then I am the key.
I closed my eyes and reached out. I didn't look for the moss or the flowers. I looked for the pulse of the colony. I felt the thousands of wires running beneath the soil, connecting the "Green World" to the ship orbiting above.
Wake up, I told the ground.
The earth groaned. A massive root, wrapped in silver cables, burst from the dirt and slammed into Jace, throwing him twenty feet into the air.
"Error!" Jace screamed as he hit the ground. "Unauthorized access to the Loom!"
I didn't stop there. I pulled on the wires, feeling the energy flow into my body. The white dress I was wearing began to glow with a fierce, purple light. I wasn't the girl in the green world anymore. I was the ghost in the machine.
I walked toward the fallen Jace. I stood over him, my eyes burning with the fire of a thousand suns.
"Tell the Master I’m coming," I said. "And tell him I’m not bringing life. I’m bringing the end."
I raised my hand to crush his head, but a voice stopped me. It wasn't a mechanical voice. It was a cry of pain.
"Eara! Help me!"
I looked toward the treeline. A woman was running toward me. She was covered in blood, her white dress torn to rags.
It was the old Eara. But she wasn't old anymore. She looked exactly like me.
"She's a lie!" Jace hissed from the ground. "She's the previous version! She escaped the recycle bin!"
The other me fell at my feet, clutching a silver disk, the same one Kael had given me.
"He didn't die, Eara," the other me gasped, coughing up red blood. "Kael is still on the ship. They're using him to power the Master's throne. If you don't stop the ceremony, they'll drain him until there's nothing left."
I looked at the silver disk. Then I looked up at the sky. Through the green leaves, I saw a massive, black shadow block out the sun.
The ship was descending.
"They're coming for us," the other me whispered.
Suddenly, the ground beneath us exploded. A giant, black metal hand reached out of the earth and grabbed the other Eara, crushing her instantly.
From the hole in the ground, a man stepped out. He was wearing a silver suit, and his face was hidden behind a glass mask.
"The experiment is over," the man said.
He raised a pulse rifle and aimed it at my heart.
"Welcome to Chapter Two, Subject 702. It's called 'The Execution.'"