The Beyond: Dystopian Survival Fiction (The Breeder Files Book 4) Eliza Green (fantasy novels to read TXT) 📖

She was dressed in a uniform with colours familiar to Anya. Black with gold trim on the sleeves and neck. The uniform of Essention. This soldier wore a short, black jacket and tapered trousers with heavy, military boots. Not quite the same. The other gun-toting soldiers wore similar garb.

Who cared what they wore? She must be in shock.

Dom pushed his way through to the front. ‘Enough. Can you open the door?’

The female shook her head. ‘It’s on a twenty-four-hour lockdown.’ She eyed the weapons. ‘I’ll take you to our commander. But first, leave your guns here.’

Anya glanced at Dom, who shrugged lightly. How could he be so calm? They’d just found the Beyond, only a set of stairs and a hidden tunnel away from where the Collective lived.

Ironic. But really, really messed up.

Dom nudged her on, breaking her out of her daze. He tossed his gun through the gap. He ordered the others to do the same. The sound of clanging metal echoed through the tunnel. She added to the noise with her own weapon.

They’d come too far to go backwards.

Their team of rebels followed the five armed men and women. Dom slipped back to where Anya was. Sheila and Imogen did the same. They walked slower than the rest of their group down the darkened tunnel, which had a modern feel to it in places.

Ahead of her, Jerome eyed the space. June smiled as she glanced down at her daughter. A relieved-looking Alex kept pace with them. Alex placed a hand on Frahlia’s back. Anya noticed the girl flinch.

‘Where are we, exactly?’ whispered Anya.

She was free. She should be happy. But she’d been through too much to just accept that they were safe. She’d made that mistake once in Essention.

‘The Beyond, I suppose,’ said Sheila. Her eyes raked the smooth ceiling. ‘It’s not what I expected.’

‘What did you expect?’ whispered Imogen.

Sheila bit her bottom lip. ‘I don’t know. That’s the problem.’

That was Anya’s issue, too. They’d known of the existence of the Beyond but not what it was. Nor that it would turn out to be so freaking close to the operational hub of Praesidium.

‘Let’s see what this commander has to say,’ said Dom. ‘Our priority is getting the door open and the others to safety.’

Seeing a shocked Carissa staring at the door—at her—had disturbed her. The Copy wasn’t to blame for their predicament, but the Beyond obviously considered her presence to be a hostile act. Could the Beyond be the ultimate safe haven—free of both Copies and the Collective?

The soldiers led them down a long tunnel with doors on either side. Anya glanced into the rooms with open doors. People in white coats milled around what looked like a laboratory. It reminded her of the testing rooms in the medical facility.

Fear lodged in her throat. She forced her gaze ahead.

As though Dom’s mind was tethered to hers, he said, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I saw labs, people in white coats...’ She swallowed. ‘It reminds me of the medical facility.’ She looked up at him. ‘What if these are Copies?’

He mulled it over for half a second. ‘They can’t be. Otherwise, Carissa would have been allowed to pass.’

That was true. She breathed out. Okay, maybe they weren’t Copies. But the need for laboratories here put her on edge.

The tunnel ended and opened out into a large space. Steel beams carried the weight of a ceiling three times as tall as the tunnel. Trucks were parked in the area. Anya couldn’t see an obvious route for them to get out. A set of steel stairs ahead of them led up to a second floor and what looked to be a lookout area.

The female soldier stopped at the bottom of the stairs. ‘The leader only. Please step forward.’

The rebels looked at Dom, a move that caught the female soldier’s attention. She gestured for him to come closer.

Dom grabbed Anya’s hand and led her through the parting sea of rebel soldiers.

The woman’s brow arched. ‘You’re both in charge?’

Dom nodded.

She didn’t look convinced. ‘Okay, follow me. The rest of you can wait here.’

She climbed the stairs. Dom followed with Anya behind him. Their collection of military boots hitting steel sent a clanging noise through the space. Anya counted fifty steps to the next level. They stepped onto a steel-weave platform next to a prefab. There, the woman knocked on the door.

‘Enter!’

She opened it. Dom stepped in first. Anya’s eyes grazed every inch of the space. She didn’t want to forget anything.

The female soldier waited outside and closed the door, instantly shutting out the noise below. Anya looked around the room. It was like an office. Two guest chairs sat opposite a desk. The walls were decorated with images of scenery she’d never seen before.

One image showed tall buildings with the words San Francisco underneath.

A dark-skinned woman aged around fifty years old sat behind the desk, watching them. Her outfit wasn’t as formal as the soldiers’ black uniforms. She wore a navy-blue suit with a white blouse.

She stood and came around to the other side of the desk, proffering her hand. Dom shook it, then Anya. The leader’s skin felt warm and a little clammy, as though she were nervous.

She smiled at them. ‘My name’s Agatha. We’re delighted to receive new guests to the Beyond. Please sit.’ She gestured to the seats. ‘And you two are?’

Dom hesitated before answering. ‘Dom and Anya.’ He looked around. ‘Where are we? What is the Beyond?’

Anya sat in a chair. When Dom refused to sit, she pulled him down. He relented with a sigh.

Agatha returned to her seat. ‘It’s a holding area for refugees from the Region.’

Anya frowned. ‘Region?’

She nodded. ‘The place you came from.’

Anya had no name for where they’d come