The Beyond: Dystopian Survival Fiction (The Breeder Files Book 4) by Eliza Green (best ebook reader for surface pro TXT) 📕

‘Here goes nothing.’

He took Anya’s hand and entered the stairwell. They eased the panel back into place behind them. If the guards came out of their disorientation, hopefully they wouldn’t spot anything was amiss.

He concentrated on the way down. The stairwell was dark, like the one leading to Jacob’s workshop. He used the rough walls, made of cold, compacted earth to steady him. One floor down, the others had gathered in a larger area to the left. Ahead of them appeared to be a dead end with no obvious way out.

He relaxed his grip on Anya’s hand.

‘This can’t be it,’ he said to her.

Carissa was alone at the dead end, feeling the wall of compacted earth.

Anya walked up to it next. A blue light appeared out of nowhere and scanned her. She jumped back. Carissa, too. A grinding noise sounded in the wall.

Anya was panting. There was only one other place that produced such a noise: the third floor in Arcis, where a pair of cutting discs had killed Frank and injured Anya.

Her hands became fists as she waited. Dom stood closer to her, ready to pull her back. A scissor pattern appeared in the wall before them. The wall separated into two parts and disappeared partially inside the existing structure.

‘Holy crap!’ said Thomas.

Nobody moved. Not even Vanessa and Charlie. The gap showed a new tunnel excavated in the same rough way as the rest of the area.

‘Is this the way out?’ asked Vanessa cautiously.

‘Let me test it.’

Dom inched forward, worried that the second they passed through the door it would slice them in two. He stuck his strong arm in the gap. Nothing happened. He stepped through fully, keeping his arm in the entrance, just in case. The way stayed open, even when Carissa and Frahlia walked through. Although he suspected the child was more flesh, blood and bones than Carissa was.

The new opening hadn’t responded negatively to Carissa.

This had to be it—the way out. It must have been programmed to disguise itself from any Copy attempts to open it. No wonder the Collective had found zero evidence of the Beyond before now.

The way ahead took them five hundred metres to another dead end. To the right was a large, steel door.

‘What the hell’s this doing here?’ said Vanessa. She ran her hands over the smooth metal. It had no handle. ‘It looks... modern.’

Dom stared at the possible exit to the Beyond.

Thomas checked Janet’s book. ‘The tunnels match the drawing.’ He removed one of his maps and checked it. ‘The map for this place shows the way out as far as the false wall.’

Carissa looked around her. ‘This place wasn’t on any maps I had access to.’

‘Because the Collective never knew it existed, miss,’ said Jacob.

Hope bloomed in Dom’s chest. They’d found the way out. But a fear of the unknown rooted him to the spot. Every false door in Arcis came rushing back to him. This could be another trick. Another third-floor, gold door with the potential to kill whomever opened it.

A new, blue light coming from the top of the door scanned the group. Dom jumped back from it and pulled Anya out of its glow. June stepped up, allowing the scanner to check her. A loud click could be heard. It was coming from the other side of the wall. Some giant mechanism turned.

The door opened a crack.

‘Everybody back!’ Dom said.

He heaved the giant door open with his strong arm and peered inside. Ahead was a nondescript tunnel made of more compacted earth, with steel structures at intermittent points to keep the ceiling from caving in.

Dom pointed to the rebel soldiers, who stepped up first. The blue light scanned them, then turned off. They stepped through the door. Sheila and Imogen followed them, their guns raised.

June went next. No alarms sounded as the blue light turned her pale skin a ghostly blue. She smiled and held her hand out for Frahlia. The scanner bathed the child in blue and both of them crossed over the threshold. Alex followed next, then Jerome.

Anya shrugged at Dom and the others. ‘Seems okay.’

He nodded for her to try. The blue light scanned Anya, then switched off. She walked through the door with him following. On the other side, he looked back at the remaining group: Carissa, Charlie, Vanessa, Jerome and Thomas.

‘Come on, it’s safe.’

Jacob pushed Carissa forward. She looked up at the scanner. It started out blue but flashed red suddenly. The door began to close.

‘What the hell?’

Dom lunged at the door, catching the edges. He pulled back, but the weight of the door dragged his feet along the ground.

‘Wait! We’re not all inside,’ shouted June down the corridor.

A shocked-looking Jacob yanked Carissa back from the entry before it trapped her.

Dom shouted, ‘I’ll find a way to open it again.’

Vanessa and Charlie nodded at him.

The last thing he heard was Charlie saying, ‘Be careful, son...’

Dom tossed the Disruptor through the gap. ‘Thomas, take it.’

He scrambled for the gun.

The door sucked shut, leaving a stunned Dom to stare at the metal.

Anya clawed at the handle visible on their side. ‘We need to open it again.’

The familiar sound of guns being cocked and electricity whirring spun Dom round. His rebel soldiers had their guns up. Ahead of them was a group of armed soldiers, their guns pointed at his team.

A female soldier stepped forward and stood between their groups. ‘Welcome to the Beyond.’

19

Carissa

Carissa stared at the door. ‘What happened?’

The Inventor said, ‘It closed on us.’

No, it had closed on her when she’d tried to go through. The blue scanner had flashed red.

She looked up at the Inventor. ‘Why wouldn’t it let