The Beyond: Dystopian Survival Fiction (The Breeder Files Book 4) by Eliza Green (most popular novels TXT) 📗

but his ex-guard blasted the ground. The electricity bounced around and hit his metal arm, making a weird, twanging noise.

‘Ah, yes, I forgot about that,’ the Copy said. ‘I hoped the infection might have killed you, but I suspected it hadn’t.’

Seeing his prison guard again stirred up his worst memories, but all Dom felt for him right then was pity. At least Dom had his freedom.

He smiled.

That only angered his former guard. ‘What are you smiling at, Original?’

‘I’m just wondering why the Collective chose you to copy, chose you to put your life on the line to stop us.’

The Copy sneered in response. ‘I volunteered.’

That made Dom laugh. ‘Really? The Collective likes to protect its best assets. If you were one, you wouldn’t be here. Did you use that crude machine to make copies of yourself?’

The guard’s sneer lifted the edges of his mouth. He glanced back. ‘Looks like your team is on the back foot.’

Dom saw the fight was almost over, but it wasn’t his team that was losing. Rover and his mate were managing to keep the connected wolves back.

A sharp sting caught his leg, sending him to his knees. His former guard lorded over him, looking ready to finish the job he’d tried to do while Dom was prisoner.

‘I volunteered for this because I wanted to be the one to kill you.’

He pressed his finger down on the release trigger. Dom reached up and grabbed the end of the gun. With a strength he had yet to test, he ripped the gun from the Copy’s iron grip and tossed it away. The guard stared at him, wide-eyed. Dom got to his feet and tore the shield away. He grabbed the Copy’s neck and pushed him back against the tag machine.

His mother appeared to him. She was standing beside him, telling him everything would be okay. She told him to squeeze harder. So he did.

The Copy’s mouth fell open. He looked as though he was struggling for air.

These things aren’t real.

Dom’s fingers dug into the Copy’s soft flesh. That was the only part that truly disturbed him: how real these things felt. It reminded him of Anya’s Copy and her almost-successful attempts to seduce him.

Dom blinked and shook his head. Mariella stayed with him, whispering, ‘Keep going, my child. You’re almost there.’

He didn’t believe his mother wanted him to kill another. Even at the end, his father had not destroyed her goodness, but he had definitely destroyed Dom’s.

The Copy became his father, Carlo. He continued to squeeze.

A warm hand on his arm broke him free of his obsession. He blinked.

‘Let him go, Dom.’ It was Charlie. Jacob and Vanessa were with him. ‘He’s not worth it.’

Dom glanced at the Copies to see they’d been dealt with, except for this one.

He refocused on his former guard. ‘I have to. I need to.’

Carlo refused to die. He lived on in his angry son.

‘No, you don’t,’ said Charlie. ‘Don’t let your time here turn you into one of them.’

Dom blinked again. ‘You want to let him go?’

The guard’s eyes were closing, but a flicker of hope was lodged in them.

‘No, we’ll lock him up. We might need him.’

Dom released his hand, remembering why they were here. The Copy coughed and rubbed his throat. Like he was a real person.

Dom stepped back from him. He buried his anger caused by memories of his dead father, and remembered who he was. A leader.

A leader didn’t waste time on the smaller things. Or the smaller people.

He glared at the guard. ‘Where are the prisoners?’

His nemesis smiled. ‘What prisoners?’

‘The ones who were brought here. Jerome and Alex.’

The Copy shrugged.

Dom waved his hand at him and turned away. ‘You’d better get him out of my sight, Charlie, before I kill him.’

Rebel soldiers restrained the remaining Copies. Dom saw bodies on the ground. His heart seized with fear until he saw Anya was okay. He breathed out. June was with her. They were staring down at the fallen.

His gaze flicked to June, who was holding her belly. ‘And we should get June to the medical facility now.’

Charlie touched Dom’s shoulder. ‘We will. But not everyone made it, son.’

7

Anya

Just twelve Copies and four Guardians against three dozen rebel soldiers and two wolves? That was a fight the Copies could never have won.

Rover and his mate pushed the wolves back, but before Thomas and Dom could use the Atomiser and the Disruptor, they ran off. Rebel soldiers picked themselves up from the dirt. Six were dead.

Charlie said something to Dom. His eyes searched the scene frantically. Anya met his gaze, then looked down at Kaylie’s body. June stood next to her, equally shocked.

Dom strode over to their location. He stopped cold when he saw the bodies of those who’d fought to keep everyone safe.

‘I’m sorry, Dom,’ said Anya. ‘I know she was your friend.’

Dom hunkered down next to the half dozen soldiers who’d been unlucky. Including Kaylie.

He stared at her for a long moment. Then he stroked her face gently. ‘I’m glad to have known you, soldier.’

His expression hardened as he stood up.

A lump rose in Anya’s throat. There was too much death. She picked up the spare Electro Guns the dead soldiers had dropped, checking the power indicator on the side of each. She’d used one of these in a timed maze on the fifth floor of Arcis. They’d been told to shoot holographic discs. She’d shot something else that day: Warren. Anya sensed that his parents abandoning him had turned him cold, but he’d redeemed himself a little in the end. He’d tried to save her brother. She pretended there had been nothing in it for him, no redemption—that it was just a selfless act.

Dom rubbed