FIFTEEN

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

Precisely twenty-three minutes later, Jake popped an almond into his mouth and reclined on the grass. After a moment's hesitation, I sat down next to him, tucking my knees neatly under my skirt.

It wasn't a very nice day for a picnic - but this wasn't a picnic. I frowned at him. He ignored me, then opened up my note and read it. Hopefully not for the first time, I thought indignantly. The whole point of notes was immediate and secret reading. Obviously no one ever passed notes to him in school. They were probably too scared to. He clearly needed tutoring in espionage.

He ate another almond, and I scowled - what was he doing? Keeping his protein consumption up? With muscular arms like that I could understand the need... but I digress. He was eating almonds and not reacting with the swift and decisive action I was expecting.

He finished reading my note, and looked up at me.

"Who's Aiden?"

"Does it matter?" I asked impatiently, "He's missing. He went missing last night. He was at the club with me. He's the one who took my shard. I think he saw something."

"Is he the one who threw up on your shoes?"

"How is that significant?" I snapped, "Just because he vomited on me doesn't mean I want him abducted!"

"You think he was abducted?"

"Stop asking me questions! What if the Hounds, or the Scouts - or whatever you call them - what if they took him? What if they thought that he was me?"

Jake scowled at me. "Wakers are very rare."

I clenched my fists. How was this answering my question? He ignored my militant expression and reclined further, his biceps bulging distractingly, "Did you hear what they called me last night?"

"WM23," I answered, then tore my gaze away from his arms and shook my head, bracing myself to sit up. "Aiden! I want to find Aiden, I don't care what they call you! I need to find my friend."

Jake grabbed my forearm and I froze. "Listen to me," he said. "W.M.2.3." he spaced out each letter like I was four years old. I stared at him, uncomprehending and he sighed. "It stands for 'Waker Male Twenty Three'."

"So?" I said.

He rolled his eyes. "What if I told you I've been fighting them for the past seven years? What if I told you the newest Waker male they discovered was WM38?"

"So??"

"Every half-century they start the count again. There are less than forty Waker males in Australia that the Hierarchs know about - less than forty - in the last fifteen years. And most of them have been taken, or killed."

I felt an icy hole open up in the pit of my stomach. I pulled my arm out of his grip.

"How many female Wakers are there?" he looked away from me and out at the harbour water that bordered the park. "Jake," I said, "how many?" I felt like I was slipping into that cold pit of dread inside me. I scrabbled at the edge, trying to hold on.

He looked at me. "Unless they found someone in the last few days... You're probably WF15."

"Fifteen?" I breathed, "How are there only fourteen other female Wakers? Fourteen? Why are there so few?"

He smiled mirthlessly. "There aren't fourteen other females. Most of them are dead. I'd say there were maybe... seven left, not including you."

"Why?" I breathed.

Jake shrugged uncomfortably. "Waker females are much rarer than males, that's all."

I stared at him, then brought myself back to Aiden with a jolt of willpower.

"How does this help us? Aiden! He's gone."

"You say you think he saw something when he touched your shard?"

"Yes."

"Firstly, don't let Blinders touch your shard. Ever. It's similar to taking them into the unworld. Their minds can't handle it. They don't break, but they do... bend a little."

I gasped. "Lily!"

"You let two of your friends touch your shard?" Jake looked disgusted. "Look, it won't do permanent damage - but it's not good for them. Some Wakers can use their shards to control Blinders in virtual. It confuses them... makes them malleable."

"Malleable?" I echoed weakly.

He ignored me. "Your friend Aiden touched your shard, whilst drunk - and saw something. That's not surprising."

"But he's missing now."

"Drunk people go missing all the time."

I frowned at his disturbing blame-the-victim mentality. "Not Aiden."

He sighed loudly. "What do you want me to do about it? The chances of your friend being a Waker are ridiculously slim."

"Going by that logic, so are my chances of my barista being a Waker, and yet here we are!" I snapped back. "How can I tell if they took him?"

"He won't come back."

"It's like you don't care at all! Would you be this nonchalant if I went missing?"

He sat up. "No."

There was an awkward silence. Well, awkward on my part.

"Because you are a Waker, and he isn't." Jake continued, dissipating my awkward feelings well and truly.

I yanked a handful of grass up by the roots. "So you're not going to help me."

"I will help you, just not on - "

"A fool's errand?" I finished accusingly.

He grinned. "Well, I wouldn't have phrased it so eighteenth-century, but that's the gist, yes."

"I need to go. I don't see how you can help me at all, actually." I stood up, feeling lightheaded with anger.

He stood up too. "You don't stand a chance without me."

"Actually, Jake," I hissed, "the closest I came to dying was after you kidnapped me! And -" I continued, resisting the urge to poke him in the chest, "I don't know how you can possibly just go to work like everything's completely normal the day after being pummelled into unconsciousness and killing several people!"

I turned away, fuming, and then froze when he gripped my arm, yanking me back towards him.

"They're not people."

"They looked like them. They spoke like them." To my horror, I felt tears brimming in my eyes. I blinked them back furiously, refusing to let a single drop fall. "They died like them."

"But they are not human," he said through gritted teeth. "They bark like dogs, look like dogs, but they are not dogs. They're wolves. They're parasites. They're at the top of the food chain, Anna - and they're hunting us to extinction."

"They weren't trying to kill us. They were - "

"Trying to take us," he interrupted, "believe me, you'd be better off dead."

"Why do you care?" I tried to read his expression, so closed-off, so unyielding. "Why are you trying to help me?"

He gripped my other arm and looked into my eyes seriously. "Because you're an asset. Wakers are weapons. For them, and for us. You can't fall into their hands. You'd be better off dead."

Ice flooded along my spine. "What are you saying?"

"Let me help you, train you, teach you - so you can stay away from them. So you won't be used against us."

"Who is 'us'?" I asked.

"The rebellion," he replied, "You have to join us, Anna, or I'll have to kill you."


^^^


Author's Note:

Thank you everyone for reading! Let me know how you found the chapter, please vote or comment if you enjoyed! :)

For more Anna check out the tumblr (there's fan art there now?!): http://annawakes.tumblr.com/

Or the (super awesome) soundtracks: http://8tracks.com/annawakes

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net