Revolutionary Read online

  PRAISE FOR THE ANOMALY TRILOGY

  “Anomaly grabs the reader and refuses to let go. From the introduction to misunderstood anomaly, Thalli, to the boy she loves, one is never completely sure what is fact and what is a horrifying virtual reality. This is sure to be a favorite of teens everywhere.”

  —Heather Burch, author of the critically acclaimed Halflings series

  “Krista McGee’s Luminary . . . will please fans of dystopian lit as well as those who enjoy YA inspy romance.”

  —USAToday.com

  “. . . the first in what has the potential to be a fascinating trilogy of general appeal. McGee’s simple narrative belies the novel’s complexity, a factor that will make this intriguing book accessible to a wide variety of teen readers.”

  —Booklist review of Anomaly

  “McGee blends the determination of faith, the malevolence of those who extol power over decency, and the assertion of individual integrity in a humane glimpse at youthful courage.”

  —Publishers Weekly review of Luminary

  “McGee’s versatility as an author really shines with this latest offering . . . Anomaly . . . should encourage inspirational romance readers who haven’t yet tried out dystopian lit to give it a shot.”

  —USA Today.com

  “McGee once again blends a Christian message within a horrific science fiction plot . . . death, torture, and confusing love triangles.”

  —Booklist review of Luminary

  “McGee successfully asks readers to consider both what it means to act (or not act) on human emotions and the role such emotions play in relationships with God.”

  —Publishers Weekly review of Anomaly

  ACCLAIM FOR KRISTA MCGEE

  “McGee’s debut novel is an absolute gem. Anyone who enjoys reality television and a well-told story shouldn’t hesitate to read this great book.”

  —Romantic Times TOP PICK! Review of First Date

  “[A] touching, fun, edifying, campy, quick, and downright delicious teen read.”

  —USAToday.com regarding First Date

  “Good things come to those who wait—and pray.”

  —Kirkus Reviews regarding Starring Me

  “An abundance of real-life problems . . . should keep this story relevant for many teens.”

  —Publishers Weekly review of Right Where I Belong

  OTHER NOVELS BY KRISTA MCGEE

  THE ANOMALY TRILOGY

  Anomaly

  Luminary

  First Date

  Starring Me

  Right Where I Belong

  © 2014 by Krista McGee

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

  Published in association with literary agent Jenni Burke of D.C. Jacobson & Associates, an Author Management Company, www.DCJacobson.com.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Also quoted: Holy Bible, New Living Translation. © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-1-4016-8877-6 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  McGee, Krista, 1975–

  Revolutionary / Krista McGee.

  pages cm. — (Anomaly trilogy ; book 3)

  Summary: “Unsure of everything around her, including her own identity, Thalli, who can experience emotions, doesn’t know where to turn. She knows she needs the Designer, but he seems further away than ever. What she does know, though, is that if she doesn’t do something to stop Dr. Loudin, the fragile world aboveground will be lost once and for all”— Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-1-4016-8876-9 (trade paper)

  [1. Emotions—Fiction. 2. Identity—Fiction. 3. Love—Fiction. 4. Revolutionaries—Fiction. 5. Christian life—Fiction. 6. Science fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M4784628Re 2014

  [Fic]—dc23

  2014002837

  14 15 16 17 18 19 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For my dad, Russell—thank you for adopting me into the amazing Abney family.

  I love you!

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  EPILOGUE

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  AN EXCERPT FROM RIGHT WHERE I BELONG

  CHAPTER 1

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  My head is pounding. Images and thoughts fly into my brain, but I cannot catch them, cannot make sense of them because my head hurts so badly. It feels like hundreds of needles are being shoved into my brain. In and out. In and out. I moan and find that my throat is dry. The sound barely passes through. It sounds more like a bassoon, played with too little air.

  Needles. Needles. That image looms in my memory. White space. A needle. Dr. Williams. Loudin.

  I gulp in a lungful of oxygen. Pure, filtered oxygen. I force my eyes open, and the pain in my head intensifies, followed by a dull ache in the recesses of my stomach. I am back in the State. In the Scientists’ quarters. As my eyes adjust to the white walls, white floors, white bedding, the images floating in my brain begin to make sense. I was in New Hope. The Scientists came, they took Alex and Kristie and me back with them. Berk was yelling at them, demanding they release me or bring him. But they did neither. The door to the massive transport . . . what did they call it? The aircraft. It shut, separating us. Then Dr. Williams plunged a needle in my neck.

  How long ago was th
at? Hours? Days? I see a cup of water on the table beside my bed. The need for hydration overwhelms me, allowing me to forget for a moment the pounding in my skull. I push myself up on my elbows. I force myself to move slowly. The room is spinning even with this slight movement. But I need water.

  I fall back on the bed. I cannot get up. I do not even have enough energy to reach the water. I will die of thirst. The pain in my head intensifies, and I squeeze my eyes shut in a futile attempt to lessen that pain.

  “You’re awake.” The voice sounds like it is magnified a hundred times over. I close my eyes tighter, wishing it were my ears I could close. “You need to drink this.”

  The cup is at my lips, and I open them. The cool water seems to evaporate on my tongue before it can even reach my throat. I try to drink more, but the cup is pulled away.

  “Just a few sips at first.” He waits an agonizingly long time before returning the cup to my lips. I lean forward to get more of it, and the water spills down my chin, cascading down my neck.

  The cup is pulled away, and I feel fingers on my wrist. I want to go to sleep. To wake up and be in my room back in New Hope, to find that this is all a bad dream. That I’m not in the State, that Dr. Loudin didn’t bring us here, leave Berk and Rhen and Carey and all our other friends behind. But the pounding in my brain assures me this is reality. If I go to sleep, I’ll just wake up here and start this agonizing process all over again. I ease open my eyes, wait for them to adjust. The blurry patches of white take shape. The man holding my wrist, checking my pulse, is Dr. James Turner.

  John’s son.

  I look into his blue eyes—so like John’s—and my heart aches even greater than my head. John is dead. I watched him die, held him as his life slipped away. If I had a father, I would want him to be just like John: kind, faithful, honorable. Everything his son, as one of The Ten, is not. Tears dry in my eyes as disgust takes over. How could this man have disregarded everything his father taught him? To reject the Designer I have come to love? Dr. Turner, as the head Geneticist, is responsible for the generations in the State, those of us created without real parents, created in his laboratory—after many tests failed—to be emotionless, unquestioning beings whose only purpose is to further the work of the State.

  I was his mistake. I was born full of emotions, full of questions, full of doubts. An anomaly, I was scheduled for annihilation until Berk saved me, brought me here. Then John found me and taught me I was created by the Designer, loved by the Designer, given a purpose by him.

  “You are not worthy of your father.” John would not have wanted me to say this, but it is true. Dr. Turner’s Adam’s apple bobs. His fingers stop moving over his communications pad. His blue eyes stare into mine. My head hurts too much to analyze the emotions passing over his face.

  He does not speak as he turns and leaves the room. The door clicks behind him, the sound intensifying the sensation of needles in my brain. I close my eyes again, exhausted, wanting to escape. I feel myself slipping into unconsciousness, where the first sight I see is Berk.

  “Berk.” I see him, but I can’t reach him. He is on the hill in New Hope. His bright green eyes flash anger and hurt. Jealousy. He stands tall, rigid. His lips are full and firm, his square jaw tight, fists clenched. I try to run to him, but I cannot move.

  “Thalli.” Alex’s voice pulls my eyes from Berk. I turn around, and Alex is there, a breath away. I look up into his face and see so much emotion in his blue eyes. For someone so physically strong, Alex seems weak, helpless. I pull him into my arms and let him cry, the way he cried after his father died.

  “It’s all right.” I reach up to run my hand through his silky blond hair. “I’m here.”

  “No.” Berk is yelling, but he is even farther now. Standing by the pond where John died, Berk’s shouts are taken by the wind and blown away. I cannot understand what he is saying.

  Alex is crushing me, his arms squeezing air from my lungs. I cannot breathe, cannot think, cannot move. Berk is still yelling. Alex is still crying. I shove myself from his grasp and fall . . . and fall . . . farther, deeper.

  I gasp as I awake to the reality of the sterile room, of separation. My head feels better, but my heart is still heavy.

  “Alex.” He is here. The fog of sleep lifts, and I remember again that Alex and Kristie were on the aircraft with me. Brought back to the State. Why are we here? Dr. Loudin told the people of New Hope that he would be working with us, that New Hope and Athens and the State would be partners. But that is not true. Dr. Loudin did not work to create this underground State in order to share it with others. He did not push the button to destroy the earth forty years before so the few pockets of survivors could be part of the global leadership he wants to head. No, whatever his plans are, they do not include partnerships with the survivors.

  I have to find Alex and Kristie, to escape. We need to get back to New Hope where we can talk with Berk and Carey and Dallas and Rhen. Together we can fight Loudin. Whatever he is planning, we can stop him. We must stop him.

  I force my legs over the edge of the sleeping platform and close my eyes against the vertigo that movement brings. I cannot go back to sleep. I have to get up, to find my friends. I have to get out of here.

  My legs feel like they will collapse beneath me. How long have I been on this sleeping platform? My muscles feel unused, shriveled up. I will myself to stand, one hand on the mattress so I remain steady. The door seems miles away. Like Berk in my dream, it appears to be moving farther from me. But this is no dream. I will put one foot in front of the other and I will reach the door.

  I am grateful for the chair that sits by the wall, between the sleeping platform and the door. I take three unsteady steps to it and fall down, resting, breathing. Then I stand once again and reach the door in four steps. The door handle does not move. I push harder, lean my body against it, but it remains motionless.

  Of course I am locked in. I am a prisoner. Abandoned. Alone.

  I stumble back to the chair, refusing to lie back down, refusing to go back to sleep.

  “Good afternoon, Thalli.” Dr. Loudin’s voice fills the room. I look to the wall screen and see him sitting in his laboratory, a thin-lipped smile on his face. The camera pulls back, and I see my friend beside him.

  “Kristie!” I stand, falling toward the wall screen, touching, wishing I could break through it, reach Kristie.

  “The medicine was a little stronger than we realized.” Loudin’s smile stays in place. His eyes look straight into the camera, appearing to bore right into my own eyes. “You have been out for three days.”

  Three days. “What are you doing? Where is Alex?”

  Dr. Loudin is not looking at me anymore. An eyebrow raised, he is facing Kristie. “You see? She is alive and well.”

  “She is not well.” Kristie’s voice is tight, strained. She is staring at me with a pained expression. I must look terrible.

  “Do not forget our agreement.” His smile is gone.

  “You said she would not be harmed.”

  “I said she would not be killed.” Loudin looks beyond the camera and holds up one finger.

  “No!” Kristie is standing, terror on her face.

  “Do what I ask.”

  “Let her go.” Tears well up in her eyes.

  Suddenly an electric shock races through my body. I feel like every nerve is on fire. I am screaming, falling to the ground. I curl up and want to pass out, but I do not, and the pain increases. I hear voices, but I cannot make out the words. The pain is too awful.

  Then it stops. I can only moan and maintain my position on the floor, feeling the effects of the shock still, fearing more.

  “Do what I ask.”

  Kristie is sobbing, her breath ragged. I am losing consciousness. I feel myself being pulled under. In the moment before I surrender to the darkness, Kristie whispers, “I will.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Sleep. All I want to do is sleep. Waking is horrific. Loudin always appears, Kristie b
ehind him. He doesn’t always shock me, but the threat is there. I know Loudin is using me to make Kristie do what he wants—likely repairing the oxygen-filtration system in the State. I should be strong, tell her to resist. What Loudin wants cannot be good, and if Kristie assists him, he will achieve that goal even sooner. Then he will annihilate her. And me.

  I know all of this. But the pain is greater than that knowledge so I remain silent. I try to pray—praying I can escape, find Kristie and Alex, stop Loudin, return to the peace and safety of New Hope. But my prayers seem to hit the ceiling of this pod and bounce right back. My head falls onto the mattress. Where is the Designer? I tried to do what he asked. I believed that truth sets us free, believed that I can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, believed that I can do all things through him. And how has he responded to that belief?

  With silence.

  So I close my eyes and sleep. Again.

  Berk is always there, in my dreams. He is waiting for me, smiling this time. He sits by the pond in New Hope, food on a cloth beside him. A picnic. We had one of those here, in the State, before. Before we escaped and found New Hope. Before I traveled to Athens, met Alex. Before everything changed.