Free The Soul Continuum by Simon West-Bulford

can catch up.”
    â€œBut they told me to stay here.”
    â€œLook, if there’s going to be some heavy shit going down, I don’t want to miss it. Tell me where they’re going.” Her face is reddening, and she’s coming toward me.
    â€œWhy did you run away from home?”
    She stops suddenly. “What, are you kidding? I’m not having any more of that Sartixil crap in my veins. It makes me feel like shit.”
    â€œIt’s helping us.”
    â€œIs that what they told you?” She laughs, but it isn’t a happy sound. “We’re part of some government experiment. We’re lab rats. That’s all we are to them. I hacked into my dad’s files and found out about the whole thing. Do you know what they did to us?”
    â€œNo, but—”
    â€œThey reprogrammed our cells when we were still babies. It’s why I’m so fucked up and why you love everything you set your eyes on. All the kids on Saliel have been messed with. Taking us here is all part of the plan to finish it up. So if you know something, you’d better squeal.”
    â€œI don’t think you know as much as you think,” I tell her.
    â€œDamn right. Where are they going?” She squints at me. “Are they going to the tower?”
    I don’t answer but look away.
    â€œI knew it. We have to stop them. I think they’re going to blow it up and kill us all off. I heard Dad arguing with Mum when we first got here, saying that the experiment was all wrong. I think that’s why she’s not around now. She must have walked out on him.”
    â€œNo, Candice, you’ve got it all wrong. They—”
    â€œShut up! That’s your disease talking. You love and trust every person you meet, but it’s not a good thing, at least not right now.” She studies me for a moment, perhaps hoping the grin will drop from my face. “You’re coming with me.”
    She grabs my arm, but I struggle free. “They told me to stay here.”
    She grabs me again, tighter this time so that I can’t get away, and drags me to the door. “Look, if we don’t do something, you might never see your parents again—not that you should give a shit about that. I’ll bet they’re going to escape in a shuttle and leave us here to die. They’ll just start up the experiment again with a new batch of kids. Do you want that to happen?” She shakes her head as she drags me out of the house and to the path and, more to herself than to me, says, “Yeah, right. What’s the point in trying to convince you? You don’t give a flying sheep shit about the rest of us, anyway. I don’t know why I’m even talking to you.”
    â€œI do care about them,” I say. “It’s not my fault if I can’t feel bad.”
    She stops, turns me to face her, shakes me once, then puts her face so close to mine I can almost taste her breath. “That’s right. It’s not your fault, but if you really do care about them, you have to stop struggling and come with me. Got it?”
    She shakes me one more time, and I just stare back at her. There’s a part of me that’s terrified. I want to go back to the house, hide back in the wardrobe, and curl up until all of this has gone away. But the part of me that’s looking at Candice now is doing what it always does and I bubble with exhilaration. I know I’m going to go with her because this is just another exciting adventure. And sure enough, I nod and grin.
    â€œGood girl.” She smiles back, nods once, and takes my hand.
    Together we run for the tower, and as it comes into view on the beach, I can see the lightning illuminate Keitus Vieta’s metallic face at its peak, his grinning malice filling me with a horror against which I am powerless to react. Somewhere deep inside myself, I know I have to find out who or what he really is.

THIRTEEN

    B y the time