The Fractured: Elena: A Blemished Novella (Blemished Series) Read online

  Jake turned around to look at her. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean all this. The protests and… and the people… even the ones who like me. It’s just so overwhelming.”

  Jake stiffened. “You got what you signed up for. Now, come on, stop whining and get on the bus.” He began to walk off and Elena picked up her skirt to follow him.

  “You’re a real dick, do you know that?” she said.

  “I don’t care, do you know that?” he retorted.

  Elena slowed her pace to let the others catch up but Jake gestured for her to hurry. “What about the others?”

  “They aren’t coming,” said Jake. He stepped back and grabbed Elena’s wrist. “We haven’t got time. Come on.”

  “But aren’t they supposed to film this?”

  “They’re filming it from the ground.” He pulled her forwards, holding her wrist tight. There was something not quite right about him. His forehead glistened with sweat, despite there being a chill in the air. There was a slight twitch above his left eye. It seemed as though the stress of organising the parade had finally got to him and he was cracking up.

  “All right,” she said. “No need to pull me along, I’m coming.” She quickened so as to relieve some of the pressure from Jake’s grip. Despite everything she really wanted to get on the bus, just so she could say she’d been on a real life London bus.

  When they were close Jake hopped on ahead of her, whilst Elena lifted her heavy dress to be able to lift her knees high enough for the steps. She gripped the rail on the door and stepped up carefully, trying not to rip the hideous pink dress.

  “You go onto the roof while I see the driver,” Jake instructed.

  Elena found the tiny curved staircase leading to the roof and gathered up even more of her dress, cursing the damn stylists for not thinking of this before sticking her in heavy taffeta. She tripped and popped a few stitches on the seam. The bus jerked forwards as she reached the top step and she almost fell backwards. She grabbed the railing just in time and pulled herself onto the roof, thankful for being back on flat ground. It felt strange to be alone after a day of having people fuss over her. She almost felt lonely.

  The bus sped along, accelerating so quickly that she had to grab hold of the safety rail. She thought the point of the tour was to go so slowly she could wave to the crowd, but at least she got a good view of London whilst up high. Up ahead she could see the road and the crowds on either side, waving their banners, GEM flags and effigies of Elena. There was a roar as the bus approached the crowd and Elena tried to wave as the bus passed them in a blur. On the sides of buildings huge TV screens showed the moment she was crowned Miss Area 14 over and over again.

  Elena found herself thinking about how strange everything was, from the Sunday afternoon final of the pageant, to the train journey to the flour bombs to the hotel and now, just hours later, watching herself on the side of a building. She stared at the blank expression on her face as the crown was placed on her head.

  “This is a circus,” she said to herself. “A weird and grotesque circus – and I’m the freak-show.”

  The bus jerked to the right and Elena fell on her hip. It would have hurt if it hadn’t been for the extra layers of dress. When she clambered to her feet a cloud of smoke choked her and irritated her eyes. Elena gripped the rail and looked down at chaos below. Through the smoke she could just make out the dark hooded figures of the Resistance. They were attacking members of the crowd.

  Chapter Ten

  The crowd was in chaos. People ran in all directions, with the Enforcers surging at them with their batons. Elena saw the white scarves of the Resistance underneath their dark hoods and the sporadic groups of people on all sides fighting each other in the smoke.

  She stumbled on her dress as she ran back towards the steps to the lower floor. The bus jerked further right, flinging her to the side of the roof. With her arms draped over the edge, Elena watched as the bus surged forwards, heading straight for the crowd.

  “Jake!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “What the hell is… Oh my God! Oh my God! Get out of the way!”

  The bus was heading straight for a small number of crowd members, including some older women. She clamped her hand over her mouth, wanting to look away but not being able to, when members of the Resistance pushed their way through the crowd, pulling people out of the path of the bus. One old woman escaped with just inches to spare, but the bus made it through onto a separate road without any casualties.

  She pulled herself up and rushed to the steps. “Jake! Jake, what’s happening?” She tripped on her dress and fell down three of the steps, knocking her elbow against the side of the bus. When she pulled herself to her feet, she noticed that the tips of her fingers were beginning to tremble.

  Using the hand-holds on top of the bus seats, she made her way down the bus aisle. “Jake? Jake where are you?”

  She was starting to think he hadn’t got on the bus at all, instead left her at the mercy of the Resistance. Bile rose in her throat, as the sinking realisation hit her that she was completely alone with someone who had taken the bus directly into a crowd of people, someone who had driven the bus off course in order to kidnap her. She had to take deep breaths to stop the panic rising in her chest.

  Then she noticed something near the door to the driver’s compartment. It looked like a person slumped to the floor. She pushed forward, trying to keep her balance as the bus whizzed on, the scenery of London nothing but a blur through the windows. As she approached she realised that it couldn’t be Jake. The man slumped to the floor was too bulky and too old. He wore a dark blue uniform, something the driver would wear. There was a needle protruding from his neck.

  “He’s not dead, in case you were wondering.”

  Elena jumped and spun around. The motion of the bus, along with her sudden movement, caused her to fall backwards on top of the driver. She scrambled back to her feet and faced the driver’s compartment, separated from the rest of the bus by a small door and a Perspex window. Behind that window, sitting in the driver’s seat with one hand on the large steering wheel and one hand on the gear stick, was Jake.

  “You!” Elena lunged at the door, rattling the handle. It wouldn’t budge. She tried to ram her hands through the space under the window by the ticket machine, the place where customers used to pay before they introduced thumb print payments. Jake shrank back away from her. She pulled her hands away in frustration. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Kidnapping you,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road and not bothering to look at her.

  “You’re Resistance,” she said.

  “What was your first clue?” he replied in the same annoying monotone voice he’d used at the pageant.

  “I should have known,” she said. “You’re just enough of a dick to be working for the Resistance.”

  “This, coming from a pageant queen.” He put on a mocking feminine voice. “Miss Area 14, bringer of unicorns and princess of the GEM.” He scoffed. “With your fake face and you’re whole act, that Blemished sympathiser crap.” The bus flew over a pot hole and Jake bounced in his seat. Elena had to grab onto the door handle to stop herself falling down.

  “You know nothing about me, Jake Bloom. And I’m not scared of you or the Resistance. I couldn’t give a crap about your cause and this stupid attempt to kidnap me.”

  “You should,” he said. “You should be scared of them.”

  “Yeah well, whatever they have in store for me it can’t be any worse than what I was facing at home.”

  Jake steered the bus around the bend before he turned to Elena. “What do you mean?”

  “What do you care? You’re my kidnapper remember?” She paused, staring out of the windscreen. She could laugh. Everything had turned out so ridiculous that she could laugh. “I let the Blemished escape. I knocked my teacher over the head and left her for dead. I did it so that a Blemished girl had the chance to get out of Area 14 before she was captured and k
illed, because she was my friend.”

  Jake turned back to the road. “That could be a lie. You could just be saying that so I won’t harm you.”

  Elena laughed. “You’re not going to harm me. You’ve not got it in you.”

  His eyes flashed dark. “You know nothing about me or what I’m capable of.”

  “Oh really? Poor little pretty boy Jake, chosen to go undercover because he’s the only Blem pretty enough to pass as a GEM. Poor little pretty boy Jake, has to follow orders or he might get court marshalled by the big bad Resistance. Poor little pretty boy Jake, has to follow orders like a good soldier boy. He has a job to do to stop the big bad GEM from making more clones.”

  “And you say I’m the dick,” he replied after a pause.

  “I don’t really care what you think. Carry on kidnapping me – I want to meet the Resistance anyway. I might just join. Although I think their methods are pretty lame.”

  “Lame? You think pulling off a month long undercover investigation and kidnapping the most famous new face in London is lame?”

  “No,” she replied. “I think the violence and the bombing is lame. Well, it’s more than lame, it’s wrong. You’re just becoming like the GEM. You’re becoming worse than them, because innocent people get caught up in it. You nearly ran over an old lady today.”

  “Collateral damage,” Jake replied. “It happens in every war. Besides, I didn’t hit the old lady.”

  “Collateral damage is just a way to talk about people dying without it sounding like someone’s died. It’s like when the GEM named people Blemished to make them sound less like people.”

  Jake didn’t reply, instead he glared out through the windscreen.

  “Where are we going, anyway? What are you going to do with the bus driver? Is he going to be collateral damage too?”

  “We’ll drop him off somewhere on the way.”

  Elena turned around as the sound of sirens blasted out from behind them. The Enforcers had managed to get a few cars out on the road despite the crowds. Jake swore and turned down another street.

  “You’re never going to outrun them in this bus,” Elena said.

  Jake didn’t answer. Instead he turned onto a street so narrow that the bus lost its wing mirror in the process. He slammed on the brakes and it halted. Then he unlocked the driver’s door and grabbed hold of Elena’s waist.

  “Take off your Plan-It,” he said.

  She took the contacts out of her eyes and removed the controller from a pocket in the skirt of her dress. Then Jake lifted her feet from the floor and hurried her along the aisle of the bus. Elena hardly had any time to gasp, let alone fight back before he’d bundled her down the steps. She had to squeeze through a tiny gap between the bus and the walls of the next building. When she was free she broke into the run, bundling up her now ripped and dirty dress.

  “Not so fast.” Jake caught up with her and grabbed hold of her by the shoulders.

  She tried to break free but he had a grip like a vice. “You’re stronger than you look.”

  “Thanks,” he said. He directed them to a small car and smashed the driver’s window in with a rock before opening the door. “Get in.”

  Elena had to climb over into the passenger seat as Jake jumped in next to her and pulled some wiring out from under the wheel.

  Handprint to identify. Handprint to identify. The car repeated.

  Jake jammed two wires together and created a spark.

  Handprint accepted.

  “What? How did you do that?”

  “There’s always a loop hole,” he replied with a grin. He pressed the ignition and the car roared to life. “There’s always a way around something. You just have to know where to look.”

  The background noise of the sirens amplified just as the car pulled off up the street, leaving the bus behind them. At least now the driver would be found and taken into medical care.

  “What do the Resistance plan to do with me?” Elena asked Jake in a small voice. She turned to look at him, feeling almost completely worn out. She wiped her eyes, no doubt smudging make-up, as she waited for an answer.

  After a pause he turned towards her, taking his eyes off the road for far longer than someone driving so fast should. There was almost a tenderness there – dark shadows of regret. Elena wondered if he even knew. He was probably some young kid being used by them, just like she’d been used by the GEM TV company. He sighed and turned away from her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jake stopped the car in a dark alley and ran around to Elena’s door. She followed him out of the car and wrapped her arms around her body. It was late, the sun had set and she was cold, not to mention hungry.

  “Is this where you bump me off?” she said with a hollow laugh. “Tape it on your Plan-It and send it to the GEM? Why didn’t you take yours off anyway? Can’t they track you with it?”

  “Mine is special. It allows me to get around the city and connect with my contacts as normal, but then the Resistance can hack in and turn off the GPS.”

  “Fancy,” she said as she tripped over her heels in the dark street. A rat scuttled along the ground by the wall and she stopped herself from squealing. She didn’t want Jake to see her afraid.

  “This way.” He took her by the arm and led her around a bend onto a larger street.

  Through the dark Elena could just make out that the street was at the back of a large, old building. There were old dumpsters with bin bags overflowing. Jake led her around the side of the building, where Elena discovered that it was in fact a very old church. They made their way up the stone steps and Jake used the large metal knocker against the huge old wooden door. There was a pause following the echoes of the loud knock – then footsteps, and then a creak and a groan in the wood as the door opened.

  “Father, it’s me, Jake. I’m back with––”

  “Don’t tell me.” The priest opened the door wide enough for Jake and Elena to move through. He was old, with snow white hair and wrinkles. He wore black clothing. His shirt had a high collar with a little white square.

  Elena had never seen a priest before. She couldn’t help but stare at him as Jake pushed her through the doorway. He looked back at her with concern.

  “Have you eaten, dear? You seem very tired.”

  Elena smiled. “No, I am quite hungry.” She glared at Jake. “Thank you for asking.”

  He shut the large door and bolted it. “I’ll have the nuns bring you some hot tea and cake.”

  “That sounds delightful.” It was the best offer she’d had all day. Carbs, at last.

  “Delightful? You do know you’re supposed to be my prisoner, don’t you?” Jake said. “Come on. I need to take you to them.”

  “To who?”

  “The Resistance, who else?”

  Jake led Elena away from the old priest, who watched them leave with tired eyes. She wondered how he had ended up caught in the middle of the Resistance and their plots to kidnap pageant winners.

  The old church was tall and dingy, with just candles to light the way. They followed a red carpet through the aisle between the rows of pews, with the pulpit and altar up ahead. Elena was fascinated with the art on the walls, intricate paintings of a thin man on a cross, his expression one of pain and yet, strange contentment. The windows were art too, patch-worked into colourful depictions of people. They weren’t like the art she saw at school. They weren’t of the beautiful and famous. They showed pain and suffering.

  Elena knew about religion, but she didn’t know anyone who followed one. She knew some people believed in God, and she had the kind of mind to think that maybe it could be possible, but she wasn’t totally sure and just liked to learn stuff and think about it, rather than follow something specific.

  They went through another doorway into a room that looked more like a study, with comfortable chairs and a coffee table. Jake hurried them through a more modern door to a corridor and then down old stone steps into a dark basement. She had to hold her dress ag
ain, and promised herself that as soon as she came across a pair of scissors, she was sorting the stupid thing out. She would also be on the lookout for sensible shoes.

  “So this is the lair of the Resistance?” she said, as they descended into the darkness. “Doesn’t look like much so far.”

  “First impressions can be deceptive,” said a woman from the depths.

  A light turned on. It was a single bulb and it hung above a table. Around the table sat half a dozen people with computers emitting a soft glow. It was cold, but not freezing, and against the wall were bunk-beds filled with sleeping bags. There were a few small children playing with their toys on a blanket. On the other side of the room there was a small kitchen area with a few electrical appliances, like a microwave. Everything looked old-fashioned and falling to bits.

  “I’m not really getting a highly-organised vibe,” Elena continued. “This feels more like wackjobs in a basement to me.”

  The woman exchanged a look with Jake. She was slim-built, middle-aged and weathered. Her dark, thick hair had been pulled into a pony-tail. She wore cord trousers and a fleece. Her skin was pale but tough, lined with age.

  Jake shrugged. “She’s mouthy.”

  The woman raised an eyebrow. “I noticed. Why don’t you have her bound and gagged?”

  “There wasn’t time.” Jake stared at his feet.

  Elena held her ground against the woman, narrowing her eyes at her. All of the people turned and stared, but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t show any weakness.

  There was the sound of someone clearing their throat and then a small voice said. “I have cake.”

  Elena turned to see a little old nun, doubled over and carrying a plate of cake in one hand and a large mug of tea in the other. Jake and Elena both rushed over to help her, bumping shoulders as they went. Jake turned and looked at Elena in the curious way he sometimes did, as though she’d surprised him again. Elena ignored him and took the plate and heavy mug from the nun.