Chloe couldn’t be mad at Andre for calling the Seventh District a slum.
Even before the battle that had torn through the District and made it a stinking mess, it’d still looked like a slum in comparison to what the Capital looked like. She’d, of course, heard descriptions of the Capital before from Hardy, Evan, even Cole and Glenn who’d grown up there and she’d seen some images of it. But up close and in person? It looked much more stunning.
District 7 had been like a town. The Capital was more akin to a city. Humanity’s last city, and despite the circumstances, it managed to look glorious.
The buildings here were tall wide, made from materials ranging from concrete to brick to marble to limestone and glass. They all had a geometric design aesthetic to them, in somewhat brutalist fashion, and there were cracks on them and fading paint that indicated they’d had to weather just as much as the rest of the world. Here and there, there were wall-mounted turrets, spinning around and scanning for threats. At almost every corner, surveillance cameras were mounted to walls or light poles. Overhead, drones floated about, flying around buildings and in some cases, in and out of them, the PA system on the drones reading out announcements in a drab, monotone manner.
Several stalls lined the roadsides and pavements, with nearly everything on display from fruits to clothes to shoes to medicine and even to extra rations of meals. Chloe watched people go from stall to stall, watched them exchange bronze coins in exchange for whatever it was they wanted. Currency was still alive here in the Capital.
It hadn’t been in District 7.
People shuffled along the streets, and they could be seen moving inside of the towering structures too, particularly a spiral structure with half walls on the outside, allowing some view inside. A label on the building indicated it was a shelter, which made sense since Chloe could make out tents, and could see smoke rising into the air from the roof of the building.
Capital Hall, where the Council met and where they were to see the Council wasn’t at the center of the district like the Chancellor’s Hall had been in District 7. It was detached from the rest of the District, poised atop a hill in the far west of the Capital, and the road that led up to it was fenced, heavily surveilled and heavily guarded.
Soldiers clad in complete gear patrolled the road, and there were more turrets mounted along the fences than there’d been in the rest of the capital. There were more drones overhead too, hovering in a stationary position, cameras mounted to them observing everything that went on below.
The Hall was a large, gray building, wider than it was tall, and stretching into multiple wings. Its perimeter was fenced, both with concrete and with electromagnetic fields—a separate field than the one that shielded the capital itself. Inside the compound, there were guards patrolling non-stop, more than two dozen of them, moving along every inch of earth.
There was a concrete path that led to the hall’s entrance, bordered by neatly-trimmed flowered hedges. The path also split off, heading in the direction of the separate wings of the Hall, while one fork led to a rather large fountain, circular in shape, with a concrete elephant statue at its center, water spouting from the statue’s trunk.
There was something oddly dark and glossy about the elephant statue’s eyes that made Chloe think they were cameras. She also thought the fountain was oddly-positioned. It wasn’t centered like most fountains she’d seen, and considering the sheer amount of security measures the place boasted, she had a hunch it might have been a secret passageway, an entrance to a bunker or something of the sort. Or perhaps an emergency exit, if one was ever required. And considering the amount of security around the place, she couldn’t imagine what could ever happen to necessitate an emergency exit.
There were two guards stationed at what Chloe assumed were the primary entrances to the Hall, and they crossed their rifles when they arrived at the entrance, grunting as if to know why they were there.
“They’re the ones from the seventh district,” Andre snarled, looking a little irritated to have been halted by the guards. “Council’s expecting them.”
“Identification?” one of the guards demanded, the helmet modifying his voice somewhat to make it sound as though he were speaking out of a radio.
Andre scoffed, then turned slightly, revealing the badge on his shoulder to the guards, the one that read: House Lincoln.
At the sight of the badge, the guards exchanged looks, and retreated. “Apologies,” said Guard One, bowing his head very slightly. “You may proceed.”
Andre gave a curt nod to the guards then continued forward, gesturing to the others to follow. Chloe thought he was walking with a different bounce now, an almost pompous one. Smugness at having shown his importance.
The first thing she noticed as soon as they walked in, was a sudden drop in temperature, a draft of cool air blowing into her face. The entire thing was air conditioned. Overhead, she saw the slits in the ceiling and in the corners of the wall, slits that must have been vents for the cooling system.
The second thing was that the building was entirely quiet. Graveyard quiet. She knew there were air conditioners running, and yet, she couldn’t hear their hum, couldn’t hear the fans at work. She couldn’t hear voices from within the building, couldn’t hear footsteps or beating hearts, couldn’t pick up on any signs that there were others in the building with them. But she knew for a fact that there had to had been.
As she followed Andre like the others, she ran her fingers along the wall, noted to herself how they felt to the touch, how oddly strong they seemed they might be. This place felt as though it’d been built to contain, like it’d been built for the Pandorans.
She couldn’t hear anything, hadn’t smelled anything, and couldn’t pick up any heat signatures through the walls. In there, she was completely blind, her senses totally disrupted. Next to her, Jon fidgeted slightly, eyes dark as he scanned every inch of the Hall as they continued through it, looking as though he was already making mental preparations for battle and escape, just in case with was required.
Chloe had several questions. About the capital, about how they had enough energy to power all of what she’d seen thus far, including air conditioners for a building this large; she had questions about Andre and the badge on his shoulder and what it really meant; she had questions about Major Erwin, what he really was and what he really wanted with her. She knew exactly when people had motives and there was no doubt that Erwin was among such people, and it was the fact that his motives had seemed indecipherable to her that’d scared her.
Per his own word, he could have killed Jin if he wanted to. And from how she’d felt around him, she had no doubt about her. So why then had he left her alive and placed her in Chloe’s care? Was he friend or foe?
The Hall had an elevator, one whose doors perfectly blended in with the concrete of the walls and only slid open when Andre pressed his palm to the wall.
“Recognized, Officer Nicholson, Code—LN17,” spoke a computerized female voice, before the wall parted, revealing a steel cage lit up in blue.
“The Chancellor and the girl go in,” Andre declared. “They’re the ones the Council will meet with. Rest of us remain down here.”
Chloe scoffed. “Fat chance. I’m not letting her out of my sight.”
She made to step into the elevator but Andre was quick, one hand shooting out and seizing her by the arm, holding her back. He was strong. Incredibly so.
Chloe turned to him, stared at the hand on her arm, then at his face. She clenched her jaw firmly and pursed her lips, clenching one fist and preparing to swing. “Take your hand off me,” she demanded, in a tone of warning.
Jon took a step toward Andre, his eyes cold and bloodthirsty now. He let out a low growl. “You heard her.”
“I do not want to fight any of you,” Andre said slowly and softly, before letting go of Chloe’s arm. “And I can assure you that the Council will not harm either one of them. I just can’t let you go with them. This, I’m afraid, is not up for debate. I cannot ignore the orders of the Council.”
“You think we don’t know what this is?” Aiden demanded. He gestured to the walls around them. “How many pounds of concrete and steel you think went into each of these walls? What else is in the mix? Place was built to keep people like us in. She goes in that elevator, there’s not a thing we can do if something goes wrong.”
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“Hopefully things work out that way,” Lucas muttered, stepping away from them.
“It wasn’t built to keep anyone in,” Andre replied, shaking his head. “It was built to keep them out, genius. And sure, maybe we got off on the wrong foot, and I’m not going to pretend like I like any one of you any more than I did when we first met…but I can give you my word, that the girl and your Chancellor will be fine. If you don’t believe me, believe the Major.” He met Chloe’s eyes as he said the last bit.
“It’s fine,” Hardy said then, nodding at them in a reassuring manner. “I’ve corresponded with the Council previously, and they don’t seem like trouble. Politicians, sure, but nothing we can’t handle.”
“I will take your word,” Jin said, looking to Aiden. “But you should also take mine. Should your Council attempt anything I deem malicious or threatening to myself or anything else I might care about…I will not hesitate to paint your concrete walls red with their blood. Do you understand me?”
Andre shrugged. “Loud and clear.”
Hardy stepped into the elevator. Jin followed him. As the elevator doors slid shut, Hardy nodded at them. “See you in a bit,” he said, before the doors shut entirely, their heartbeats silenced at once behind the concrete and steel.
“Now we wait,” Andre said, sliding his hands into his pockets.
“How many people are up there?” Jon queried. “The Council.”
“President’s not there today or there’d be a lot more security around so it’s the seven members,” Andre answered. “Three from the Democratic Party, those ones are headed by Rebecca Park, beautiful woman, pretty cold though. Then there’s a further three from the Republican party, headed by Raymond Atwell. Smart guy, think he studied law or something back before the world went to shit. And then there’s Hayley Donovan, she represents one of the independent parties on the council. Not as beautiful as Rebecca or as smart as Raymond, but she is pretty frightening…got all sorts of ins with benefactors and what have you. If anything’s going to go wrong up there, it’ll be because of her.”
“You said nothing would—,” Chloe began.
“I know.” Andre nodded. “And it won’t. Erwin let the girl live. Might mean not a whole lot to you, but it’ll be a big deal to them. They’ll be afraid of crossing him. Even Donovan.”
Andre led them away from the elevator then, into a small room that’d been hidden behind a wall and had required Andre’s biometric scan to be opened. The room was a cozy—the floor was made of fine, polished wood and there were draperies all over to give it the sort of life that was sorely missing in the rest of the Hall.
The lights here were golden and warm, as opposed to fluorescent white and cold. Bookshelves lined one section of wall, and at the center of the room, four couches had been placed around a glass table that doubled as a mini-aquarium. It was currently empty.
“Why’s a room like this hidden?” Jon asked.
“It’s not hidden,” Andre answered. “Just out of the way. Most of the rooms in the Hall are. You can identify where a room is by studying the lines in the wall. This one’s just a lounge, in use whenever the Council’s got visitors. Make yourselves comfortable.”
Behind them, the opening in the wall slid shut. Chloe twitched slightly at that.
“You’re not prisoners,” Andre reiterated. “Sure, you haven’t got a whole lot of fans here seeing as an entire district got destroyed under your watch, but we’re not trying to keep you prisoner either—,”
“What do you mean by that?” Jon interrupted.
Andre frowned. “What? Your district did get destroyed, didn’t it?”
“And that’s our fault?” Aiden asked.
“You’re Pandorans, Lost Ones,” Andre said as he bent by a cabinet in the room, fetching a pack of chips from it. He tore the pack open, immediately stuffed his mouth with the chips, chewing away hungrily at them while the others watched, expressions ranging from confusion to bewilderment on their faces. “The district was your responsibility,” he continued, voice muffled by chips now. “By extension, that makes its destruction your fault.”
Andre headed to a fridge, opened it up and grabbed a canned soda. He popped the can open and downed it in one go, before tossing the empty can across the room and finding the bin easily. He headed to one of the couches then, plopped onto it, and dug his hand into the bag of chips again. He looked up at them, noticed the expressions on their faces and frowned. “What? Don’t tell me you’re mad about me calling things as they are.”
“How are you doing that?” Chloe asked, eyeing him oddly.
“Doing what?” Andre frowned. He glanced down at the bag of chips, then at them. His eyes widened as though the realization had just dawned on him. “Oh, I forget some of the older ones had dietary restrictions. You guys can’t process anything other than blood, can you? Saw this dude try to eat a piece of chocolate cake once and he hurled up a storm.”
“What are you?” Jon demanded, narrowing his gaze.
“Pandoran,” Andre answered, stuffing his mouth full with chips again. “Like you,” he continued. “Only slightly newer, more refined. I need the blood much as you do, of course…but I’ve got a broader range of appetite.”
“And Erwin?” Chloe asked. “He’s like you?”
Andre snorted. “God no. Closer to you than he is to me. Erwin, he’s what we call special rank here,” he said. “Generation Zero. Among the very first set of Pandorans there were and that’s no small thing either. The first Pandorans, they were—,”
“Unstable,” Jon murmured. “Driven by base animal instinct, fueled entirely by rage and bloodlust, devoid of human inhibition. They had to be killed off.”
“Most of them,” Andre corrected. “There were a few…special ones, so greatly convicted and committed, whose minds had been laser focused on specific goals and motivations that kept them tethered to some humanity. They were able to tame those wilder instincts of theirs, were able to function in regular society. Of course, at the time, people frowned greatly upon the Pandora Project, especially after how much of generation zero had turned out so these success stories had to be hidden, their records expunged entirely.”
“And Erwin was one of them?” Jon asked.
Andre nodded. “The special ranks, they’re much, much stronger than we are. Much faster, they’ve got sharper senses, better everything. Then things got worse with time, and for how strong they were, they weren’t just enough in numbers to handle how bad things were getting. Then came the newer generations. With each generation, more stability was the target. The samples drawn from the angry gods were constantly diluted, mixed with other stuff, re-engineered. If the files I’ve seen on you guys are correct, you’re all fourth generation.”
“And you are?”
“Sixth.” Andre held up six fingers. “Fifth gen didn’t go all that well either, so I suppose you could say I’m part of the generation that came right after yours. Officially, that is.”
“How many more like Erwin are there?” Chloe asked.
Andre shrugged. “Dunno. Don’t think the Council does either. Only one who’d be privy to that sort of information’s the President himself, Reginald Lincoln.”
“Lincoln,” Chloe said. “Like your badge?”
Andre looked at the badge on his sleeve, then at Chloe. Rather than provide a response, he simply smiled. And then he returned to his chips.
“I hate him,” Lucas growled a few minutes later as they all sat around in the silence of the lounge, a silence only interrupted by the crunching of chips in Andre’s mouth and the satisfied grunts he kept producing.
Andre glanced in Lucas’s direction as he spoke, and simply winked at him. Lucas growled in response.
“Ignore him,” Chloe said, doing her best to shut out the crunching sounds and the nauseating smell of chips. Thankfully, she didn’t need to do this very long since only after ten minutes, Andre shifted into an upright position, raised a hand to his left ear then got to his feet.
“Meeting’s done,” he announced.
He led them out of the lounge and back to the elevator, all of them arriving just as Hardy and Jin emerged, both of them unhurt. Jin, however, looked greatly annoyed.
“What happened?” Jon folded his arms. “What do they want?”
“Well, I’m officially now a former Chancellor,” Hardy announced with a heavy sigh. “Not that I didn’t see that coming. They’ll figure out what to do with me later but as of now, I am no longer a commanding officer to any of you.”
“They’re pinning what happened to the district on you?” Chloe asked.
“They have to pin it on someone,” Hardy said, shrugging. “They’re not much willing to make it public knowledge that what we’re dealing with’s an alien invasion. They need a cover story, and I’m a pretty good one.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Jon yelled angrily. “They—,”
“It’s the right thing to do,” Hardy continued, his tone calm, resigned. “If they went public with it, there’d be panic, maybe an uproar. And there’s no telling how badly things might escalate, what matters people might try to take into their hands.”
“So they’re just going to hide this?” Lucas asked. “Going to try to hide what happened? What we learned? How Spike died? We’re supposed to all pretend like that didn’t happen? How do we explain her?” He gestured toward Jin.
“They’ll register her in the databases as a product of Pandora. For official records, purposes that is. As of now and as far as anyone else is concerned, she’s a member of your unit. She goes where you go, no exceptions. They also want to run tests on her, examine the power source, examine her blood, what it can do.”
“I am no lab rat,” Jin hissed then, and Chloe knew that’d been why she’d looked unpleased.
“So this is it?” Jon asked. “That’s just it?”
“For now, yes.” Hardy nodded. “You’ll receive orders soon enough, deploying you elsewhere, probably, soon as they’re done with whatever tests they want to conduct. And uh, guess I get to enjoy retirement a little earlier than I’d planned.”
“Hardy, I—,” Jon began.
“Don’t,” Hardy said softly. He smiled and his eyes gleamed somewhat. He placed a hand on Jon’s shoulder and cleared his throat before speaking again. “It’s for the best,” he said. “Take care of them, would you?” He gestured toward Chloe and the others.
Jon nodded. “Of course.”
“Good man,” Hardy said, patting Jon’s shoulder before walking right past, making his way in the direction of the exit, vanishing from view after only a few seconds.
A minute passed as they all stood in total silence, nothing but the sound of their heartbeats to listen to, their faces down, eyes trained at the ground. Then Jon cleared his throat.
“No point just standing around. Situation’s changed, it’s part of the job. We adapt and we keep going.” He looked at Andre. “There a place for us to stay?”
“Yeah.” Andre nodded. “Come on, I’ll show you to your new home.”