Raging Light by Kyla Stone

Author:Kyla Stone [Stone, Kyla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paper Moon Press
Published: 2018-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

18

Amelia

Billowing clouds loomed in the distance, dark and menacing. The sky was stained the dull, colorless gray of ashes. Fat snowflakes swirled in the cold air. The wind whipped Amelia’s hair in her face.

She’d chosen her own gown for today. It was a simple silk shift of the richest, deepest scarlet. Blood red, for the blood her father had spilled, for the blood he would soon shed. In only a few moments, he would be executed.

Before her, thousands of people crowded Unity Square, bundled in coats and scarves, hunched against the cold. The people raised their faces, tense, apprehensive, worried. Expectant.

The capitol loomed behind her, the BioGen complex soaring on its left, city hall on the right. Next to the American flag, the Coalition’s navy-and-silver flag snapped in the wind.

Amelia stood on an enormous platform raised six feet off the ground, twenty yards in front of the marble steps of the capitol. Government officials, Coalition leaders, advisers, and guards crowded the platform behind her. Four guards flanked her: Harper, Logan, and two others she didn’t recognize. They were older, grizzled and bearded, with stiff posture and cold eyes.

Sentries were posted on rooftops surrounding the square. Dozens of soldiers dotted the crowd, concentrated along the perimeter. Drones zoomed silent and menacing overhead.

To Amelia’s left stood President Sloane, flanked by Vera and several security agents, Bale an imposing mountain directly behind her. General Daugherty and General Jeong stood on the president’s left; Perez and Senator Steelman on her right.

On the far right of the platform, Declan Black knelt between a dozen soldiers, his shoulders slumped, his hands cuffed behind his back. They’d made sure to clean him up. Amelia could barely make out the brutal cuts and bruises that had marred his face only two days ago.

Amelia dragged her gaze from her father. Not now. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t think about what was coming.

First, she had to get through the next part. This was too important.

“It’s time,” Vera mouthed breathlessly, her holopad in one hand as she made a futile attempt to tidy her bun against the wind with her other hand. She smiled, showing all her white teeth. “I’m sure you’ll do great!”

A hovercam floated in midair. It sank to Amelia’s eye level and hovered a foot in front of her face. The blinking light in the center of its spherical belly indicated it was recording.

She looked just beyond the hovercam at a hovering teleprompter. The words she was supposed to say had already been prepared for her.

Her mouth was impossibly dry. Her first word came out like a croak. She cleared her throat, rubbed her palms on the red silk of her dress, and began again. “My name is Amelia Black. I am the first and only known survivor of the Hydra virus.”

Her voice echoed as invisible speakers amplified the sound until it boomed across the entire square. Her image was echoed a hundred times on every holoscreen within sight. “Together with the Sanctuary’s expert scientists, I am thrilled to announce that we have synthesized both the vaccine and the cure for the Hydra virus.

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