Chapter VI

A SOFT HUM FILLED her ears and stirred her brain as she struggled to open her eyelids. Rolling her head off her chest, Joey sat up straight and her back met a hard object. Every inch of her body hurt. She rotated her aching neck and cringed at a sharp stab through her neck muscle. She tried lifting a hand to reach for the spot that burned, but found her hands restrained and something tight squeezed her wrists.

Her brow furrowed in confusion. She squinted and looked down towards her hands, but with her blurred vision and the black surroundings, it was nearly impossible to locate anything. Blinking rapidly, she tried chasing the clouds away and pulled against her bonds only to hear clanking against metal.

The memories of the recent attack in her apartment flooded her mind and jump started her heart. Frantically, she tugged again and again against her restraints allowing the metal to crash loudly against what felt like hard plastic throughout the black room. "No, no, no!" she whispered hoarsely.

When her vision finally adjusted to the dark, she found herself sitting in a small seat with her legs dangling over the edge; occasionally her tip-toes brushed the floor as her seat tilted forward. Her heart stopped as she was suddenly propelled forward, but something strong across her chest held her in place.

At that same time, a dim red light to her right beamed on the wall. Using the light to her advantage, she looked back down to find the source of her bound hands. The furrow in her brow only deepened as she recognized the clothes on her body as no longer her own. Instead of her familiar pink and green sneakers, she had on what looked like black army boots, and they felt just as heavy weighing down her feet. Her eyes traced her body finding her black jeans replaced by black cargo pants and her pink shirt became a short sleeved black T-shirt.

Curiosity and confusion swam rampant through her brain fog as she realized the bandage on her wrist and bicep were gone, along with the pain, but not only that, the wound appeared to be completely healed—from what she could tell in this dim light.

Her heart beat galloped from the sudden adrenaline rush and she panted, unable to keep her breathing and fear in check. Sweeping her head from left to right, she paled at the sight that sent chills up her spine. Her friends sat in a row of seats on both sides wearing the exact same outfit as her and they all appeared to be unconscious.

David sat directly to her right, his head bobbing against his chest. "David?" she whispered.

"That isn't going to work." Joey's stomach pinched as she jerked her head forward. "The sedative's too strong."

Blood pumped loudly in her ears, and she squinted to see across from her. In the soft light, another face slowly became visible in a seat parallel to hers. It was hard to recognize the man through his swollen, bloodied cheeks, but after studying his features for a good minute, his handlebar mustache became distinct even with fewer hair.

She gasped. "Mr. Magnus?"

His hands, stuck at his sides the same as hers, balled into fists. "What are you doing here, Miss Richards?" he whispered angrily. "I told you to run! I risked my life to warn you and you threw it away like I was some fool who didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Now it's too late for you! For any of you!"

She shook her head as she tried to explain, "No, I—" She cleared her throat, hearing it crack. "I tried, b-but one of Agcorp's soldier's were already w-waiting for me in the streets. I-I couldn't—"

"You should never have gone home!" Mr. Magnus interrupted, his bonds rattling against the metal bar they were cuffed to under his chair. "I was going to lead you out of the city, but you ran away!" He huffed and shook his head. "The stupidity... I thought you were smarter than that, and now look what you've done! Tell me, was ruining your life not good enough for you? You had to drag your friends through the muck too?"

Her chest squeezed hearing his words, and she choked back some tears that pricked the corners of her eyes. "You expected me to trust you," she said softly. "You work for Agcorp. You couldn't have actually expected me to trust someone like you."

His voice dipped into a low and menacing tone. "If you had, neither you nor your friends would be headed for the Domes."

A mixture of anger and horror flooded her emotions, and her hands clenched around the bar under her seat that held her shackles in place. Glancing up to keep the tears from falling, she took in her surrounding. Her gaze drifted slowly over the metal interior taking every inch of it in, a lingering hum buzzed the air, and her body rocked gently back and forth along with an occasional bounce. Pushing his aggravating words aside, she furrowed her brow and asked, "Where are we?"

Mr. Magnus looked to his right. "On one of Agcorp's transports." He shrugged. "If you know what the Helicarrier is, it's basically a smaller version of that. We're in the cargo hold where they keep prisoners."

She arched a brow. "Helicarrier?"

He stared at her dumbly before his expression went blank. "Oh right, I forgot. The Slums. No television." Letting out a weary sigh, he slumped back in his seat, his head resting against the wall.

It was her turn to lean forward and ask a question she didn't really want the answer to. "So, they're taking us to the Domes?" She waited a few seconds for a reply, but when he didn't give one, his silence only confirmed it. So, it was finally happening. After seven years of running and hiding, she had finally been caught. Now, the place that haunted her in her nightmares was about to become her new home.

Her throat tightened and the urge to cry returned, but fear quickly replaced that urge. "Why would you tell me to run?" she whispered, which was all she could do as she tried to keep herself composed. "You said yourself, you risked everything to give me that message, but why would someone working for Agcorp risk so much to save someone like me?"

He pursed his lips and his voice came back softer then hers. "Because I'm so tired of watching people like you die." She froze at his blank words, and he lifted his head and eyed her. "I work for Agcorp because I have to. When you work a job like mine and know the secrets I know, there is no quitting." He trailed off, and she gulped, easily knowing what he was trying to communicate. "There was once a time when I believed in what they were doing, but after many years in their service...my eyes were opened and I finally saw the evil in their plan." A long pause came. "That is when I joined the Underground." She gasped, but he quickly shushed her. "I swore an oath to protect people like you. That is why I came to you. Working for Agcorp, I was able to gain intel for the Underground that no random person from off the streets could obtain. Even though I worked for Agcorp, I continued working for the Underground and the leaders came to me asking me to take on a very specific task."

"That sounds dangerous," she said deadpan, "and judging by the look of your face, the Underground isn't doing their job to protect people."

"The Undergrounds job is to protect people like you. Not me," Mr. Magnus argued. "I knew the risks when I joined, and for a number of years I got away with being the Undergrounds spy, that is..."

She leaned in listening intently, their noses mere inches apart separated by the small pathway. The whisper that rolled off his lips caused the blood to drain from her face. "I know what happened in Monasa. I know what you did to that boy."

A lump grew in her throat forcing the words to stay down. "How?" she squeaked, her words barely audible. "No one was supposed to know about that. Claire promised there would be no mention of what happened."

"And why do you think that is?" Mr. Magnus asked, his brow pulling together skeptically. "Your father was taken in your place, and Claire spared you, your mother, and your brother. Why? Claire doesn't spare anyone."

"I..." Her tongue caught in her throat. She had never really thought about it, but Mr. Magnus's questions brought new ones to her mind. If Claire had stuck to the rules that she had put into place, the whole Richards family should've been wiped out after testing their blood for Toxicoma. Glancing back at the teacher, she arched a brow. "Alright. I'll bite since you seem to know all the answers. Why did she spare us?"

He shrugged. "Unfortunately for you and I, I don't have all the answers. That's why the Underground wanted me to use my level clearance with Agcorp to download your files. Though, finding your file was anything but easy. They had it buried under encryptions and hidden deep within their system. It took me every bit of these past seven years to find and open your file, but I never gave up and eventually..." He paused. His eyes saddened and the corners of his lips dipped. "Eventually, I did get it open, and the Underground discovered the truth behind your father's sacrifice...and the boy, Vincent." Her blood ran cold at the mention of his name, and Mr. Magnus stared at his boots furrowing his brow. "The only thing we could never figure out was why Claire pinned the murder on your father in the first place. The proof was right there on tape."

"What?" she interrupted, her eyes widening and pulse quickening.

He tilted his head in confusion before waving a hand at her in dismissal. "No, you wouldn't know about the cameras."

"What cameras? There aren't any cameras in the Slums," her voice heightened along with her stress.

Mr. Magnus clasped his hands together. "There's a video attached to your file. It shows you..." his eyes ventured down to her hands, and his voice went flat, "discovering your daggers..." Her heart felt like it had stopped, waiting for him to proceed, "and using them to kill Vincent." Her brain told her to defend herself, tell him he was wrong, but her tongue was too numb to form the words. "Your father took the blame, and despite the recording, Claire agreed."

Reluctantly, she shook her head. "No. That... that wasn't—" She fumbled over her tongue, and Mr. Magnus held a hand up to silence her.

He leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh, his cuffs rattling against his plastic seat, and looked off to the side. "So, the underlining question is... Why? Why take him knowing it was you?" He made a motion with his hands, much like one would make when trying to cross their arms, but his cuffs clanked and he dropped his hands back down to his side. "You're a puzzle wrapped up in a mystery."

"H-he worked with h-her," she whispered.

Her teacher nodded slowly. "That is the only logical solution I've come up with. Some way, some how your father made a deal with Claire. His life for yours."

Joey stared at him for what felt like an eternity, shaking. She had spent nearly half of her life running from Agcorp and trying to stay under their radar, but the truth was that none of that ever mattered. All along, they had known. Claire had known, and she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce.

She was jolted from her thoughts as the aircraft took a sudden leap and she was lifted about an inch off her seat, the cuffs cutting into her wrists, but her stomach stayed in place giving it an airy feeling. Settling back in her seat, her eyes met her teachers and she studied his dark eyes. The way he stared directly at her, almost like he could see straight through her, made her uncomfortable.

"You should've heard her," he said lowly, and Joey's brow furrowed in puzzlement. "After my capture—the first time—Claire made it a point to interrogate me herself." He shrugged. "No surprise there, but the face she gave whenever she spoke of you... Now, that was the true surprise."

Joey's skin crawled. Listening to his words only made her all the more uncomfortable. Claire Agard had to be the most powerful, most wicked person on the planet. Finalizing the decree to organize an army to kidnap people from their homes and throw them into Domes specifically made to test their abilities for their blood was only something a monster would do. Listening to how infatuated this witch appeared to be with her made her stomach churn.

Mr. Magnus's hands gripped the metal bar under his chair and he closed his eyes. "She tortured me until I told them what they wanted to know." He snarled. "The Underground would execute me if they knew I'd given that information up."

Staring at him blankly, fear gripped her in its vise as the question raced through her mind. "What did they want to know?"

Slowly scanning left to right—as if to see if any of the others had awaken—he simply stated, "She wanted to know about your friends. Who they were, and where they could be found." He paused, and Joey thought she could see tears glistening in the corners of his eyes from the blinking red light. A whimper appeared in his voice as he continued, "I...I gave them up." His head drooped. "I told her about David, and the potential of the others."

Joey's mouth dropped and her eyes squinted with anger as hurt and betrayal stirred within her chest. "My friends are here...because of you? You gave them up to Agcorp?" He balled her fists at her side, but for the first time in seven years, she didn't feel the surge of power in her palms.

Mr. Magnus wagged his head as worry laced his voice and his words shot out, "You don't understand! They were going to—"

"You're right I don't understand," Joey agreed, her anger burning hot. "The Underground protects people like me and David! They don't sell us out!"

"I know I made a mistake!" he exploded, the sound of metal clanging together as he jerked in his seat. "I know I should've died before handing any of you over!"

"So why didn't you?" Her jaw was clenched so tight she could barely speak through her gritted teeth.

Like a bomb defusing, his eyes slid away from her way as he slouched back in his chair. "Because I was afraid of what would happen to my wife." His voice shook, and she could see just barely that his bottom lip began to quiver. "Agcorp has her locked away somewhere, they have for a long time, and I... Claire said she'd kill her if I didn't give her the answers she wanted."

Joey's face softened, but her words remained sharp. "How do you think your wife would feel if she found out you died in the Domes alongside the kids you betrayed?"

Mr. Magnus chuckled. She arched a brow as his laugh caught her off guard. "Trust me. I would love nothing more than to be given a fighting chance, but that is not my fate. I am to be taken straight to the President of Agcorp herself where I..." He paused, the words appearing to be caught in his throat. "Where I'll most likely die."

She swallowed but didn't speak, and the only thing that could be heard throughout the stillness of the room was the low hum from the aircraft.

Mr. Magnus let out a sigh and whispered so low that Joey almost hadn't heard. "I always knew those kids were special, that you were special. But I never expected this."

Cocking her head, Joey leaned in and asked, "What'd you say?"

He eyed her and sat up straight. "I said I knew there was something about you kids." She knew her teacher must've seen the confusion on her face because he further explained, "I caught a glimpse of the monitors while being dragged aboard."

When he went silent, she pressed him harder, "Glimpses of what?"

His eyes ventured past David to whoever sat beside him. "Claire had some...pretty disturbing things looped on four monitors in the brig. Let's just say, a couple of your friends have...changed."

She leaned forward—the seatbelt across her chest giving her some leeway—and craned her neck to see past David where she found Heather. Glancing between her and the teacher, her heart galloping in her chest, she asked, "Do they..." She didn't dare believe the words that about came through her lips, nor could she stop their whisper. "Do they have abilities?"

Mr. Magnus released a deep breath through his nose. "They didn't until recently." She stared into his dark eyes, too shocked to make a remark. "To experienced a traumatic event such as that..." He squinted. "Much like you and David."

She turned to the right and eyed David, realization quickening her pulse. "That's it, isn't it?" She glanced back up at her teacher. "The key to discovering an ability. It's to suffer something traumatic." "Remarkable, isn't it? It's rather amazing how some of us just have an ability within ourselves waiting to be sparked," he said, his giddy self from earlier at the meeting returning. But all that entertainment he was expressing left a sour taste in Joey's mouth.

"Yeah, well." She leaned back in her seat, the seatbelt retracting with her movement. "I killed a boy. Someone who should've lived a long, natural life." Narrowing her eyes, she felt the anger in her blood, but again, no familiar tingle in her palms. "I wouldn't say it's something to celebrate."

Mr. Magnus didn't respond.

Settling her mind on a different, more pressing matter, Joey felt nausea rear its ugly face again, and the urge to vomit overwhelmed her. Bouncing her leg up and down, she sucked in deep breaths to ease the queasiness, and asked, "So, what—" She was suddenly jerked forward—the seatbelt not doing its job to catch her—and was held back by the cuffs that dug into her wrists. She winced, feeling the sting they caused as they sliced her skin, and she hastily sat up straight when the aircraft leveled. She swallowed and tried again. "How do we beat the Domes?"

"You survive," came his deadpan reply.

Joey rolled her eyes and a grin tugged the corner of her lip upward. "Oh, come on. You work for Agcorp. You must know something about the Domes."

"If you thought living in the streets of Walser was frightening then be prepared for much worse. What Claire has prepared for you in the Domes..." He shuddered, and her grin dropped. "I've only seen a handful of people make it out." His voice lowered. "But that was years ago when I first joined, and...they don't usually survive the Toxicoma extraction."

"So, we were right," she whispered, a new fear settling in. "Agcorp is deliberately killing people with abilities." She stared at the man across from her, and his dark brown eyes studied her closely.

Her whole body shook violently from the fear that seeped its way in, and images of the Domes flashed through her head. In her visions, she had seen an occasional death in the Domes, and she gulped remembering them vividly.

Mr. Magnus quickly fumbled to reach inside his pants pocket, sliding on the seat with a twist until his hip touched his fingers. The tip of two fingers reached inside, and yanked out a small piece of paper. He reached across the aisle, his hands being halted by the shackles.

She arched a brow and reluctantly leaned forward. She pulled against the restraints, the metal digging further into the open wounds under her shackles, to reach the paper. She gripped it between the tips of her index and middle finger and sat back in her seat as he slid in his. With shaking fingers and one hand, she unfolded it to find upside-down words scribbled sloppily. She released a short huff and laid the paper on her knee. She maneuvered the page around until the words became readable and she squinted to see the ink in the dark and read aloud,

In the first Dome

the nightmares begin.

Stay on guard,

they never end.

For in the darkness

of the night,

live vile creatures

of awful fright.

Remember to rely

on your friends.

For if you don't,

your life ends.

Your prisons exit?

Look to your feet!

Try not to get gnashed

by monstrous teeth.

The second Dome

may feel like Paradise.

But you soon will learn

that it won't suffice.

The twins you find

appear to be tame,

but you'll learn their pain

is yours to blame.

Keep watch on the trees!

For on the fourth night,

your enemy is

back to fight!

In the third Dome

your fears come to life.

Fear the Soul Reaper

before he drags you under the ice.

A father once held dear,

is the reason behind shed tears.

A name long forgotten,

you soon will earn,

but holding a deadly secret

will be the dread you learn.

Put away the mystery

of the past.

Move on!

Shatter it like glass.

Joey's hands shook as she lowered the paper away from her face, bumps crawling along her skin, and she licked her dry lips as she returned her gaze towards the teacher. "What's this for?"

"Those poems will help you through the Domes," he replied, pointing towards the paper. "Though," he chuckled lowly. "I must apologize for the wording. After all, that is why I majored in History and not English."

"Encryption?" she asked, her lips drooping to a frown. "You can't just tell me straight forward?"

"My wife," he interrupted, ignoring her complaint, "she...she was like you. She...could see things. That's why Agcorp took her."

All the blood drained from Joey's face, and her whole body fell limp. Her heart might have even stopped beating, but the thumping in her ears told her otherwise.

He waved a hand through the air at knee level. "I know, I know. You're probably wondering how I know about your visions." The clanking of boots filled her ears, pulling her gaze towards the door. "There isn't time to explain it all in detail so I'll be brief. My wife used to have these visions of a girl in the Domes and she would tell me everything, right down to the very description of the girl. So, when I saw you on the video in your file...I just knew it was you. After they took my wife, I knew it would be a matter of time before they found you. So...I recalled what I could of my wife's visions and wrote it down." He perked up. "I always say the rhyme of a poem helps us remember easier."

Her fingers felt numb and she realized how tight her grip was around the page and it crinkled under her grasp. She cleared her throat. "If I remember these poems...they'll help me survive?"

Mr. Magnus nodded and again pointed at the paper. "Memorize. Every. Word." His next sentence came out stern. "Don't let them make you a pawn in their game." Then his voice dropped to a mere whisper and surprised her. "You're strong enough and smart enough to survive."

Joey jumped as a door to her right slid open and she quickly crumpled the paper, holding it tightly in her fist.

"What are you doing awake?" The voice was female, though Joey couldn't see anything but the woman's silhouette standing in the doorway of the blinding light. She heard the same boots clap against the metal floor as they made their way towards her.

Panic filled Joey's chest as it squeezed, and she panted unable to draw in enough air as her heart about burst from her chest.

"Survive, Joey!"

She heard her teachers voice, but couldn't respond as the woman grabbed her hair and jerked her head aside. The only thing she was capable of shouting was a cry for the woman to stop. "Wait, wait, wait!" but the woman didn't heed her plea, and Joey felt another sharp jab to the neck.