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

what he’d been: a newborn under the Collective’s command? Jason had died because of her mistake.

Anya gritted her teeth and looked away.

‘It’s okay, Imogen, we’re going to get them back,’ June, the diplomat, said.

Anya looked back to see her touch Imogen’s arm. Imogen nodded and dropped her gaze. It wasn’t her fault, but Quintus wasn’t here and Anya needed to blame someone.

‘I’m going to check on Dom,’ said June, ‘see if he’s got a plan to get us out of here.’ She elbowed Anya. ‘You coming?’

The crowd had already dissipated, except for Kaylie and the three women who had been rude to her before. They hung back, looking like they wanted to speak to her.

Kaylie said softly, ‘Nice one, Anya.’

Anya gave her a quick smile. ‘Thanks.’

‘Hey, that was some fancy shooting,’ one of the rude women said.

Anya breezed past them with barely a look in their direction.

June caught up and elbowed her again. ‘Welcome back. I missed the ballsy you.’

Anya stopped in her tracks. ‘You remember?’

June smiled. ‘It’s coming back to me.’

2

Dom

‘I need to speak to you about Anya.’ Sheila stood next to Dom in Max’s strategy room, hands on her hips. ‘She’s using up all the bullets.’

Dom leaned over the table, a map of Praesidium resting on it. With Jacob and Vanessa’s help, two rescues from the city, they’d been able to draw out a rough plan. It didn’t fill in all the gaps of the intricate city, but it was a start. Dom had added his limited knowledge of the medical facility’s first floor to it, but he’d been too out of it to remember much beyond his room and the space where they’d operated on him.

Carissa had filled in more from her own explorations. The schematics she’d downloaded on the battlefield right before Quintus had disconnected her were still in her memory banks. But without Jacob’s diagnostic machine, currently sitting in his half-destroyed workshop in the city, the maps were unusable.

 ‘Did you hear what I said?’ Sheila huffed. ‘Anya and June are out there shooting the crap out of paper targets.’

‘I know. She asked me if she could practise. I didn’t see the harm.’

‘Harm?’ Sheila threw her hands up. ‘She’s using up the ammo! Are we even going to have enough left to hit the city? How much did you say she could use?’

Dom loved Sheila, but she could be a pain at times. This was one of those times. He pinned her with a look that he reserved for when they were alone. Which, right now, they were.

‘Real bullets don’t harm the Copy machines. We have their weapons, the ones they dropped, plus our own. The revolvers will only be used to distract.’

‘Okay... will we have enough “distracting” ammo then?’ She air-quoted the word.

‘Yes, Sheila.’

He sighed. Max’s death twenty-four hours ago might have elevated him to the position of commander over the rebels, but he wished everyone would stop complaining to him over every little thing.

‘I mean, you’re the leader. She needs to listen to you.’

‘And I said she could use them.’

He hadn’t quite given her that order but he trusted Anya would only use the amount she needed. And yes, he was the leader now. Not that he had a clue what to do. Soldiers had been injured on the battlefield. June had a fast-growing foetus in her belly. Anya using a few bullets wasn’t high on his list of concerns.

But Sheila was far from settled. Her lips were pinched and she was tapping her foot.

Dom turned to face her. ‘What’s this really about?’

It felt like more than a few bullets.

‘She won’t talk to her.’

‘To who?’

Sheila straightened up. ‘Imogen! She’s sick with worry that everyone is blaming her for Julius going rogue.’

‘That’s stupid, Sheila. It wasn’t her fault. None of us saw what he was. Not even Max.’

Her eyes shifted to the floor, then back to Dom. ‘I know, but she feels responsible.’

‘Do you want me to talk with her?’

Sheila shook her head, getting angry. ‘Tell Anya to stop blaming her for what happened with her brother.’

‘She doesn’t blame her.’

‘Tell her.’

The door opened and Anya and June walked in. He turned from a huffing Sheila and grinned at his girl. Despite the frown Anya wore, having her near calmed him. It also made being commander that little bit easier.

Imogen entered next, followed by Kaylie. Sheila’s face lit up. To Dom’s relief, she gave up on her tirade and went straight to the woman she’d gotten close to. Dom nodded at Kaylie. She nodded back, in soldier mode. Even if Anya hadn’t returned to him, it never would have worked out between them. But he was glad to have her support now.

His girl sidled up to him, quieter than usual. Anya had been through too much in the last few days. Right now, he’d give her all the bullets she wanted.

She slid her warm hand into his, her eyes on the map.

June came round his other side and nodded at the schematics. ‘Hey, how’s it going?’

Dom sighed. ‘It’s not much. What we really need are the areas not covered by this map.’

‘What about Carissa’s downloaded maps? Will they show more?’

‘She doesn’t think so. Many of the tunnels we want were never on the maps available to her.’

Anya pointed to a section below ground, a short distance from Jacob’s workshop. It showed two tunnels, one leading to the medical facility, which they’d used to escape, and another running parallel to the streets. They’d followed it for a while until a new set of stairs had brought them up and out, close to the Business District. Neither tunnel had been on any map Carissa had seen.

‘Could the coordinates be hidden in one of these tunnels?’ she asked.

They