CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel Read online

  CHOSEN

  A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel

  Book One

  of the Chosen Series

  By A. BERNETTE

  CHOSEN by A. Bernette

  Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-0692743607, ISBN-10: 069274360X

  Amazon.com: ASIN - B01H7TAQXW

  Copyright © 2016 A. Bernette

  Published by Wonder Works Services, LLC Atlanta, GA

  All rights reserved by A. Bernette

  Twitter @AuthorBernette

  www.Facebook.com/AuthorBernette

  Amazon.com/Author/Bernette

  www.Bernette.net

  Dedication

  In loving appreciation and gratitude to KC, CE, KC, RW.

  Thank you.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to acknowledge my mother who has always been my cheerleader. I would like to thank my husband for his confidence, support, and beta reading through this process.

  A special thanks to C.E. and K.C.

  I would like to acknowledge and thank every person who has read my works and who will read them.

  Thank you to those of you who supported me as beta readers and error finders.

  I would also like to give a special thanks to the editor who swept in like an angel and helped give this book wings – M

  Contents

  Common Terms Used in Series

  Chapter One

  Crossroads

  Chapter Two

  Serum

  Chapter Three

  Birth

  Chapter Four

  Undercurrents

  Chapter Five

  Rumblings

  Chapter Six

  Pressure

  Chapter Seven

  Guests

  Chapter Eight

  The ARC

  Chapter Nine

  Questions

  Chapter Ten

  Right

  Chapter Eleven

  Answers

  Chapter Twelve

  Motion

  Chapter Thirteen

  Connected

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ren

  Chapter Fifteen

  Heat

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ready

  Chapter Seventeen

  Gala

  Chapter Eighteen

  Racing

  Chapter Nineteen

  Static

  Chapter Twenty

  Coincidence

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sent

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Hidden

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Revisiting

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Steady

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Evacuation

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Homeland

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Edge

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Explorers

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Sooner

  Chapter Thirty

  Stay

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Departure

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Home

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Rationed

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Familiar

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Open

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Shift

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Giants

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Lies

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Sorrow

  Preview of Book 2 - Awaken

  Valencia Major

  Other Works by A. Bernette

  About the Author

  Common Terms Used in Series

  ARC: Antarctic Research Center

  EAT: Eastern Allegiance Time

  Lubles: Form of currency

  SEP Agents/Officers: Security, Enforcement, and Protection Agents or Officers

  PDU: Personal Disposal Units

  ROC Room: Research, Observation, and Control Room

  RePM or RePM Division: Relocation and Population Management Division

  Southern Allegiance: South America

  Northern Allegiance: North America

  Northern Liberty: Europe

  Southern Liberty: Africa

  Eastern Way: Asia and India

  New South City: Atlanta, Georgia

  Chapter One

  Crossroads

  Location: Unnamed

  Time: Unmeasured

  “WE ARE AT a crossroads. If something drastic doesn’t happen and happen soon, we will not be able to continue,” Kean said moving slowly across the space in front of Yin, San, and Cho.

  “What we need to win this battle has yet to be retrieved and the Chosen don’t seem completely up to the task. Everything is happening to ensure that things are right when we finally get there. If they don’t get to the end, all we have done up until now is a waste,” he warned his three Earth Council members.

  They were absent sensation in the empty space of nothingness. No heat, no cold, and no discomfort. It simply was, without justification or explanation. There was no depth or parameters by which to perceive any measure of space or time. This is where they existed, in their refuge from what was once their home, but was no more.

  If they wanted to have a life outside of the void, it would have to be Earth or they would be forced to wait, possibly thousands of years longer. Yin, San, and Cho sat uncomfortably in this void, under the studious gaze of Master Councilman Kean who was scrupulously estimating every possibility.

  Kean had been selected to oversee the midlife projects including those on planet XM-471, also known as Earth. Before they’d come into the space that has no name he already knew what they would communicate to him and he’d forbidden them to speak it into the vibratory force.

  His almond shaped amber eyes with golden flecks reminded his team of a lion, strong and fierce when needed. Dark grey hair crowned his head where much darker hair had finally given way, but he still had the vigor of his youth. He considered each member of his team one by one, gathering their thoughts as if picking them out of a muddled soup.

  Their thoughts, ideas, and solutions on the problem they faced were all jumbled, floating about in one large kettle set on high heat. It was the problem they’d been trying to solve since they had initially been sent to XM-471.

  That was before the humans even began truly measuring time themselves or even had the concept of it. It was when Kean and his kind had lost something critical to remaining viable on planet XM-471. He now second guessed the Council’s decision to do the program as they had done it.

  Success required such a specific combination available only from their people, the humans, and something that had only been possible in the last human generation. But that was a decision already made, and now the four of them, along with the rest of their surviving people, had to live with it.

  “I am unimpressed with the prognosis, with what has happened to date, and even with the prospects for the plan as it stands. Time and again I’ve seen the senseless slaughter of innocents. The metallic taste of blood is still etched in my memory from where it seeped into grassy battlefields, forever staining the land like a curse. I have watched the burning carcasses tied on stakes. Those charred bodies that once contained the screams that wracked their dying bodies,” Kean shook his head, but the memories never left. What he’d seen was unforgettable and it was the reason he was nearly out of hope for XM-471.

  But he continued, for the benefit of those looking to him to lead them to their final home and for the three before him who hadn’t been involved in the miss
ion as long as he had. “I’ve heard the sound of body clapping against body as they rolled down dirt embankments into shallow, unmarked, mass graves. We all know too well how the scent of rotting flesh could fill the air for miles.” He let the image hang on the emptiness of the space, allowing their silence fill the void.

  If he let himself think about it he could still smell the scent of death around him. He’d witnessed the sorrow and mourning of those left behind, searching for a token or a memento among the dead and decaying bodies before covering them or burning them. In those moments he’d wept with them.

  Kean spoke again, this time without the drama of reminding them of the wretchedness he’d seen in humanity.

  “They’ve had chances to change, chances to prove they could be good stewards of the planet and nurture it, together. But over and over I’ve had to conclude that this species is too immature and stubborn. It could be many more millennia before they will be mature enough to participate as an ally or hold a place as a member of the Master Council of the Unseens,” Kean said with a shake of his head.

  “They are making progress – at least now,” Cho spoke up hesitantly.

  “Unfortunately, we don’t have millennia. We cannot continue living in the void, borrowing temporary homes of our allies as our population dwindles to nothing. Now - it has to be now,” Kean said before his thoughts passed beyond that moment.

  Looking in on XM-471 now, with its beautiful greens and blues, it floated like a beautiful giant ball - brilliant and bright. It once held so much promise. He wished he was wrong but he was sure he had been right in his assessment. They needed the current plan to be successful. Otherwise, if the human species was successful in making their home planet uninhabitable, the subject XM-471 would be no more.

  Earth, as it was called, would be classified as no longer viable as a possible home until the planet healed and allowed new life to begin again. Until then, it would be among the ranks of the other young fading stars that were stuck in an endless rotation, waiting to sustain life.

  Kean reflected on his rocky tenure and the number of other young systems he’d studied and tried valiantly to guide, only to see them lay waste to themselves. None had made it even as far as Earth.

  When Earth made a major shift towards industrialization nearly two hundred fifty years before, Yin had been assigned to the Earth Council. She was the youngest and newest member of the Council. She still held onto the hope that the Chosen eight and their Keepers, a group they’d been designing and cultivating for generations, could find success where others had failed. Yin believed that with the eight and the aid of the Loyalists, Earth could be saved from itself.

  Yin looked out the side of her eye at her fellow Council members, San and Cho. They were all reluctant to look directly into the golden eyes of Master Councilman Kean. They could feel his disappointment crawl along their nearly non-existent skin and then slip through underneath, where it would linger.

  Failure would be devastating, leaving them and their fellow beings caught in the void while a search continued for a new home. They were the last chance for Earth, the final Council group that would be assigned to the planet. If they could not save Earth, the planet would be abandoned as unsalvageable and the allies would move on.

  Chapter Two

  Serum

  University of Southern Allegiance in Santoria, Southern Allegiance

  Year 2149

  DR. CLAUDIA LIMA prepared the last dose for the final pair of the Chosen. Within the month she would head to Antarctica to administer the specially formulated serum during the thirty-ninth week of pregnancy, as she’d done for the others. It had taken her nearly twenty years of research to come up with a combination that met the Council’s requirements after the failed initial experiment.

  The Chosen had to have the vibrational energy of the continents infused into their DNA along with the proper levels of testosterone to accompany the initially approved serum, that she’d adapted later for their needs.

  At the time, the request had sent her reeling, at a loss for how to do what was asked. However, as years passed and she progressed in her research she’d found the solution, as she had eventually done with the unique use of quartz. The Council had given her the idea but she still had to make it a reality.

  Years of research and trial and error had led her to identify a key crystal that naturally formed on each continent. She’d broken them down to their chemical elements and integrated them into the serum. The children would forever hold the vibration of their birth continent and together, the vibrations of the earth.

  It was a breakthrough that had taken longer than the Council had hoped but the solution came quickly once the science and technology became available. Despite having found the answer, the work and administration of the serum hadn’t been without its setbacks. Dr. Lima was concerned with the shortcomings in the current program.

  Ren had been the first, and after his injection and reaction, she’d been forced to revisit the delicate balance of all the chemicals and crystals used. He didn’t have the benefit of the quartz crystal in his serum like the others. Alexis was her second charge and she’d only added a small amount of the quartz and green chrysoprase.

  Looking back she probably could have added more but she didn’t want to have a repeat of the violent reaction experienced during Ren’s birth. Not even Kim knew how close she’d come to dying during the seizure she’d had after he was born.

  She’d given one last push and the serum that flowed through both of them caused the seizure that rendered her unconscious and unresponsive while Ren fought more than any newborn should have to. When Kim woke a few minutes later, Ren was still crying but she had no memory of anything after the last push. She took him to nurse, never knowing how close she’d come to death.

  Marco’s had been uneventful and his mother had agreed to it for health purposes. She’d served during the wave of the flu that was going around at the time and saw the lives it claimed. If a shot during pregnancy could protect her son, she would do it. Dr. Lima smiled at the memory of Teresa before her thoughts turned to the one mother who hadn’t made it. She quickly pushed that memory aside. The child had survived and was still thriving, healthier than most who came through the line of Descendants.

  There were still the last two children and she needed to remain focused on the present. She shook her head and filled the vials with serum, placing them delicately into her small silver box lined with soft thick foam. She placed the box inside of a black portfolio size briefcase, which she then placed into her medical bag.

  She’d done what the Council had asked and as she was committed to do as a Loyalist. They all had to do their part for the mission to be a success. She’d given her entire career to designing the formula and identifying the parents who would bear the children chosen to heal the world of its corruption and abuse. After this, she would be nearly done and could perhaps find more time for her real job at the university.

  Her private lab was funded by an unnamed group of other Loyalists and held the serums administered to the prior six infants. The first ones were already toddlers. After the twins were born, her last job connected to the administration would be to clear the data from the systems so the children could not be found or identified later. As she wrote her daily report, she let herself play with the idea of being done with this phase of her life.

  The research she’d begun as a doctoral student of twenty-five had taken her to nearly forty-five years old and brought her in contact with amazing people, including the three Keepers under her guidance. Sometimes, she thought it funny that she’d been chosen to be their guide even though she wasn’t that much older than any of them.

  She considered her daydream of being done despite knowing the Council wanted more from her after this. She was still only in her forties. She still had plenty of time to live.

  Chapter Three

  Birth

  Antarctic Research Center

  Year 2149

  Z
URA WHIPPED HER chair around, almost causing herself to fall out. “What the hell?!” A few of the individual twists escaped the black hair she’d neatly tucked into a bun that morning. What she’d seen was a flash of bright gold, like a small burst of brilliant sunlight, coming from behind. It had caught her eye, startling her. The room seemed brighter now as the walls pushed out ever so slightly from whatever energetic force she’d just seen and felt.

  She couldn’t imagine what the source of the disturbance might be. Something else was in there despite the fact that she had been alone in the research and observation center until that moment. Johan was leading the engineers and not many people wanted to risk interrupting her these days, unless they had a good reason.

  Zura scanned the room briefly before her eyes were drawn to the spot. She could see it – the thing that initially appeared as a flash of gold. Steadying herself to stand up from her seat and she placed her weight on her swollen feet and ankles. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a glowing, pulsing ball of golden light. She’d heard of these strange energetic anomalies before, these orbs, but had never seen one herself. They came in the form of a sphere - pure energy. The only thing that they could carry was pure energy and vibration. This light carried sound, a message for her.

  She waddled quickly across the floor, not wanting it to disappear. As she reached for the light the orb sensed Zura’s energy approaching, and began to vibrate, releasing the message.

  “The two are one, daughter and son. Protect and nurture them in their gifts and abilities. They are special and unique, but do not fear, their purpose will be clear. You are all here to help save the world.”

  As the words ended, the ball of light immediately vanished into thin air, not a trace of its glow remaining. Zura stretched her fingers out to touch where it had been. She could feel intense energy in her fingertips and warmth went through her hands. The vibration and heat continued to burrow into her hands and up her arms, sending shivers through her body.