Smuggle

/ˈsməɡəl/

verb

convey (someone or something) somewhere secretly and illicitly

Luke's POV

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"You do realize we put the everyone in danger for listening to you, right?" I said as I shoved the petite boy against the van's interior and stared at him with cold eyes.

"Bro, calm down," I felt Ashton's arm tugging me away before I heard his voice. "He said he was sorry. Leave it."

I continued staring the kid down, not moving a muscle. "If Melissa gets hurt," I began before Ashton cut me off again.

"Melissa just sent the signal that we can go. You can sort this out later Luke." While his voice was eerily calm, I knew he was mad at my direct defiance against orders. I broke eye contact and marched back through the gates with my head down and jaw clenched.The nerd swore up and down that he saw the security cameras disable, that was the only reason we moved without orders. However, because of him and his stupidity, Melissa, Calum, and Michael could have been killed by the guards who were sure to have seen us.

"Luke," Ashton sighed beside me, "I know you really like her man, but you can't be this protective of her. What are you going to do if she gets hurt again? You almost killed your dad this time, and it wasn't even his fault!"

I shrugged my shoulders in response. He didn't know the events that led up to me decking my father in the face, and if he knew, he would have let me kill him.

"You can't turn into this monster, Luke." Ashton sighed when I remained unresponsive. "It's not healthy for you or her to be this protective of her.

""What would happen if you had to watch Riley die?" I asked him, staring blankly ahead as we both stopped.

"I don't know. I couldn't survive that. It would kill me," he muttered under his breath.

"Something inside of you snaps when that happens. I had to watch Cynthia die. Now my one thought when I'm around Melissa is that they'll go after her too." Ashton's head turned sharply towards me as we began to walk down the bleach white corridors again.Usually workers were milling around trying to finish their jobs, but today they had off, making it the perfect day for us to raid as we didn't have to worry about pedestrians spotting us.

"A part of my heart died with Cynthia," I muttered gruffly, feeling a slight pinch at my heart each time I spoke her name. "I won't bury part of my heart with someone else too."

Ashton simply nodded with no response.We continued walking until we reached the main spiral staircase that could take us to any level. We both entered at the same time and looked at each other for a moment when we saw the hundreds of flights of stairs. Nodding, we both started climbing level to level and skimming the signs on the doors to try and find any clues as to where the code was located.

Melissa's POV

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The cabinet on the other side of the room caught my attention from the corner of my eye for some vague reason. Was it fate? I didn't know, but for an unknown cause I was drawn to it. I slowly stood up from my seat and quietly walked over to it. When I reached it, I opened the green file cabinet compartments to find thousands of manila folders just like the ones at the colony, but these were different. These weren't just a few that were the people working here, these were enough people to fill an entire training camp.My eyes skimmed over the alphabetized names. Selecting one from the middle, I pulled it out and opened it to observe.

Name: Jonathan Knight

Assignment: Brain

Intelligence: Average

Date of Birth: March 5, 1998

Gender: Male

Twin: Cody Knight

Activity: Functional

Parents: Charles and Martha Shepherd Knight - Civilians

My eyes glazed over as I read over the pages following. CT scan reports, brain level charts, and intelligence standards were all scattered. Questions filled my brain as I began to read about his parents genetics. Why would they include parental genes in a child's personal file? That would make these health records, not intelligence and placement standard paperwork.When I reached the tenth page in the manila folder my eyes widen at my discovery.

Mother: Martha Shepherd Knight

Mother's IQ: 87

Mother's Sibling: Margaret Shepherd

Margaret Knight received a 179 on her IQ test when last tested, more than double her twins'. This brings a wide range for offspring's IQ and knowledge; however, when crossed with high IQ scores, this could be balanced to create two substantially smart subjects who will still be in normal range and will not threaten the upbringing of the perfect society being currently molded.

Underneath Martha's information and records were her husband's. Before I could go on I closed the envelope and threw it back in the file cabinet, no longer interested in what it had to say. My hand came up to my heart which was beating rapidly beating in my chest. The entire program made sense now. They were practicing selective breeding to create an inferior race to themselves, yet an intelligent people that were able to do their dirty work and appear appealing to the public. Before I could stop myself, I thought of Luke and how he would never tell me of his family. My fingers began flipping backwards through the folders until I came across one I had no clue existed. In red, calligraphy cursive handwriting the name was printed across the top left hand side.

Cynthia Rose Hemmings

It felt as if my heart stopped beating in my chest and the air was now suffocating me. Directly behind it was a significantly smaller manila folder than the rest, but it was the one I had been looking for the past ten minutes.

Lucas Robert Hemmings

I put both folders in my bag before a brilliant idea popped into my head.

"Jennings," I muttered lightly to myself. "Jennings. Jennings."

I found mine, which was surprisingly thick, and put it in my bag just as Calum began to give me instructions regarding the next part of the plan.

"Lissa?" his voice came through crackly.

"Yea Cal?" I asked back quickly.

"Everyone, excluding you, Luke, Ashton, and Mikey are out. I need you to radio them and tell them to abort mission and then I'll tell you how to start the cameras up again."

"You got it Cal. Anything else?" I asked as I leaned back in the swivel chair.

"Nope, just get in contact with them," he said before his microphone cracks again and goes out.

"Perfect," I muttered as I get the radio ready to page Luke, Ash, and Michael.

"Melissa?" Luke questioned immediately.

"Hey stud," I simply responded, hearing laughs from the other guys in return.

"Why are you calling?" Michael asked in between laughs.

"The mission is being aborted, you guys need to get out of the building."

"Wait, what about you?" Luke's scared voice spoke suddenly.

"I'll be out right behind you guys," I assured him.

He sighed loudly before snapping at me. "I'm not leaving you inside alone."

"I'll be fine Luke."

"I'm not risking it. Where are you?" he asked, his boots stomping loudly on the ground as I assumed he began running.

"In the control room," I said quietly, beginning to blush at his cute protective nature.

"I'll be there soon, the other guys are outside. Don't move," he instructed.

"Okay," I muttered before sitting back down with my bag in my lap.

A few minutes later the door flew open and I knew it is Luke before I turn around. Hurriedly, I pressed the button to resume the security cameras before grabbing his hand and pulling him closer to me.

"I'm so happy you're alive," I muttered before peck his lips and dragging him behind me to the side door. Before we could reach the door though, he pulled me back and pushed me against the white wall, pinning me against him.

"You are never going on another raid," he said placing pecks all over my face. "I was so worried about you baby."

"I'm going on another raid, but whatever helps you sleep at night," I argued stubbornly as we began walking to the door.

He rolled his eyes at me as he opened the rusty door for me, allowing us to be greeted by the bright sunlight I am still not accustomed to and the rest of the team that had already exited.

"You just can't follow orders can you Hemmings?" Ashton asked jokingly, shaking his head at Luke.

"Not when it comes to Melissa," he spoke unashamedly, wrapping his much larger hand around mine and bringing it to his lips to kiss lightly, making my cheeks change to a crimson color.

"Okay love birds, let's go back to the colony," Michael said, receiving a nod from Calum in agreement.

Luke threw his head back to laugh like a little kid would, never once letting go of my hand. That simple gesture brought butterflies to my stomach and caused more blood to rise to my cheeks. The fact that Luke was opening up to me was profound, especially due to his insistence on keeping himself distanced from me in the beginning of our relationship.