Luminary: Book Two In the Anomaly Trilogy Read online

  PRAISE FOR ANOMALY

  “. . . 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

  “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.”

  —USAToday.com

  “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

  “A razor-edged look at the resilience of Christian faith, Anomaly is taut, high-stakes dystopia that grips on the first page and twists all the way through.”

  —Evan Angler, author of the Swipe series

  “Anomaly is a fabulous read! Krista McGee is a fresh and gifted voice in YA apocalyptic fiction. Excellent characters and an intriguing plot provide readers with great entertainment—as well as a call to go ‘outside’ themselves. I can’t wait for book two!”

  —Kathryn Mackel, author of Boost

  “A beautiful story that has me wondering if I would have the strength to be an Anomaly. Fans of James Dashner’s Maze Runner will love Krista McGee’s Anomaly.”

  —Jon Lewis, author of the C.H.A.O.S. trilogy

  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.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly review of Right Where I Belong

  OTHER NOVELS BY KRISTA MCGEE

  Anomaly

  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 Thomas Nelson, Inc.

  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].

  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.

  Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  McGee, Krista, 1975-

  Luminary / by Krista McGee.

  pages cm. — (Anomaly trilogy ; book 2)

  Summary: Able to experience emotions that should have been eradicated by genetic modification, Thalli must journey across an unknown land to find a hidden civilization of people actually born to families.

  ISBN 978-1-4016-8874-5 (pbk.)

  ISBN 978-1-4016-8875-2 (eBook)

  [1. Emotions—Fiction. 2. Families--Fiction. 3. Love—Fiction. 4. Christian life—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M4784628Lu 2014

  [Fic]—dc23

  2013029517

  Printed in the United States of America

  14 15 16 17 18 RRD 5 4 3 2 1

  To my mother, Pamela Brush Henderson. Thank you for always encouraging me to develop my talents and my imagination. I love you!

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  AN EXCERPT FROM ANGEL EYES

  1. BRIELLE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PROLOGUE

  Our four travelers haven’t stopped moving yet.” Dr. Loudin continues to stare at the screen, his gaze following the four green dots that represent Thalli, Berk, Rhen, and John. “That’s a good sign.”

  “Yes, but it’s only been a few days.” Dr. Williams picks up an orange and slowly peels it. The other Scientists continue eating, their gazes darting from the screen back to their plates.

  “We have a problem.” Dr. Grenz enters the Scientists’ eating quarters, and every pair of eyes rests on him. “James is dying.”

  The room is silent. One Scientist already died suddenly. Medical tests were run on each of the remaining Nine after his death. All were healthy. With continued genetic treatment and medications, the Scientists anticipate their life spans will be well over one hundred years.

  “Impossible.” Dr. Williams places both hands flat on the table as she stands. “He was just here—two days ago, when we watched the four leave the State. He was fine then. He probably just has a slight sickness.”

  “He’s been working in the medical center in Pod C since then, studying data and compiling research. He collapsed an
hour ago. He was barely able to call me on his communications pad.” Dr. Grenz sighs. “His symptoms are exactly the same as the others who have died from oxygen deprivation. We simply cannot sustain life down here anymore.”

  “Which is why we allowed our four travelers to escape aboveground.” Dr. Loudin points to the screen where the green dots continue to move south. “They have everything they need to find our rogue Scientists. Once they find them, we bring them here. Together, we will find a solution to the oxygen problem.”

  “So all our lives depend on them?” Dr. Grenz shakes his head. “What about James? No one knows more about genetics than he does. We lose him, we lose all his knowledge. How do we replace that?”

  “We don’t lose James.” Dr. Loudin’s face is red, his eyes bloodshot as he tears them away from the screen to look at Dr. Grenz. “If he needs new lungs, then give him new lungs. Take them from someone in Pod A. Replace the heart as well. There is no reason we cannot ensure his survival.”

  “But the oxygen levels—” Dr. Grenz groans. “Why don’t we just leave with them? Return aboveground?”

  “No!” Dr. Loudin stands, his voice echoing in the large room. “Have you forgotten why we created the State? The world we grew up in was destroying itself, day after day in a billion different ways. We created a new world with order and peace. If we return above now, then we forfeit all of this. The world—those pockets of survivors—will take us back to where we were forty years ago. Is that what you want?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Exactly.” Dr. Loudin takes a deep breath. “So we find the Scientists who left us, bring them back, and work together to repair the State. We find out what those pockets of survivors have and what they need. Then we give them what they need. We become as indispensable above as we are below. Then we can infiltrate every corner of the world. Then—and only then—we can ensure that the world will move forward according to our vision.”

  Dr. Williams nods. “You are right, of course. In our fear, we have forgotten our purpose.”

  Dr. Loudin’s voice softens. “And have the Engineers work to build transports that can go farther, faster. Similar to the jet airplanes of old.”

  “I will give them your instructions.”

  “I will keep watching our four,” Dr. Loudin says. “They are the key to everything.”

  “But what if they fail to find the Scientists?” Dr. Grenz laces his fingers together.

  “They will still be useful.” Dr. Loudin shrugs. “Whether they find our colleagues or not, they are still living projects—once we retrieve them, dead or alive, we can examine their bodies to determine how their organs processed life aboveground. Hopefully, they will make it past the area that is still toxic with radioactive particles so they can breathe in the atmosphere, eat food grown on the earth. Seeing how their bodies cope with the change from State-living to earth-living will better prepare us to make that transition, when and if we choose to live above.”

  Dr. Loudin looks around the room. “How much time do you hypothesize we have, Grenz, before our oxygen supply reaches fatal levels?”

  “No more than three months.” Dr. Grenz rubs his temples with his fingertips. “If we divert all the oxygen supplies to this building. We move the survivors from Pods A and B here.”

  “All right.” Dr. Loudin nods. “Then we do that. For two months.”

  “Two months?” Dr. Grenz asks.

  “Then we retrieve our travelers and, hopefully, the Scientists they will find.” Loudin’s eyes are once again transfixed on the screen. “We correct the problems belowground, then we move on to correct the problems aboveground. Once and for all.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  We need to move as quickly as possible.” Berk’s amplified voice fills my helmet, which protects me from the toxic air. “The Scientists will know we have left. They will send Monitors to follow us.”

  I can still hardly believe we are here. Outside of the State. “On transports just like this?” I imagine the torture we will all receive when we are caught. I am sure the Scientists will not allow us the painless annihilation I faced. “We should never have come.”

  “Thalli. It is not logical to begin this journey with a defeated attitude.”

  “Rhen is right.” Berk’s face appears in the rectangular slit at the front of my helmet.

  I try not to focus on his full lips, the stubble growing along his square jaw. It is not hard—our faces are both covered with these heavy helmets, making me feel even more distant from him. His hands are on my shoulders, but, of course, I can’t feel them either. Layers of protective fabric keep me from feeling anything. I think it has wrapped itself around my heart too. And my mind.

  The thrill of seeing Berk? Gone. It is replaced by the crippling fear that instead of facing my own death, I will be the cause of death for these people I love.

  Berk’s bright green eyes force my attention back to him. “I need you to focus.”

  I want to slap his hands down. How dare he speak to me like that? Like he is a Scientist and I am his project? Like we are not from the same pod, the same generation? Like he has not lived the same seventeen years I have? If nothing else good comes from it, being aboveground means that he has no authority. We are escaping the rule of the Scientists.

  Berk sighs and turns away. The weight of his hands on my shoulders is gone, replaced by a heavier weight in my heart. What is wrong with me? Why am I behaving like this?

  I do not have time to examine my feelings because John appears. His bushy white eyebrows are so close to the glass of his helmet they appear magnified, making his crystal-blue eyes seem smaller in comparison, the wrinkles surrounding his eyes even more visible. If I had the energy, I might laugh. But I don’t have the energy. Or the desire.

  “Just leave me here.” I step away from John. “Go back down, tell them you were forced. Tell them it was my idea that you rescued me, then return to the State on your own. We don’t all need to die.”

  John places a gloved hand on top of my helmet. “No one is leaving you, Thalli.”

  I want to argue, but I feel my arm being pulled, hands around my waist lifting me up. I turn and see Berk placing me on a transport.

  “I said I want you to leave me.”

  Berk stands in front of me, his eyes hard. “You are coming on this transport with the rest of us.”

  He pushes me toward the corner of the transport. He is taking me prisoner. Just like a Scientist. He was designed to take charge and have all the answers. But that was below. Anger burns inside me. I move to step off, but Rhen and John block me.

  “We need four people to steer this.” Rhen is still calm, irritatingly calm, but she is firm. She may be slight in stature, but she is strong in other ways. Even John refuses to move.

  I do not think she is right. We do not need four people to steer the transport. I think they are trying to force me on by making me believe I am necessary. If I thought my refusing would cause them to leave me behind, I would refuse. But I know they will not leave me behind. And the longer we wait to leave, the sooner the Monitors will find us. I step back into place. They should never have brought me here. The Scientists will find us. They will kill each one of them before me, just to punish me for bringing them here. I slam my hand into the column beside me and the transport tips precariously to the side.

  “We have to work together or we’ll never get off the ground.” Berk’s voice has softened, but he is still behaving like a Scientist, still giving orders and expecting me to obey them.

  “Look up, Thalli. Look at what the Designer has done. Trust him.”

  I do as John says, tipping my helmet far back. The sky is a deep blue, and there are darker clouds hovering throughout. I turn my head and see the moon. Not the simulation of the moon I saw in Progress, but the actual moon, the way I have always wanted to see it. It is huge and white, not smooth like I imagined it. Imperfect.

  “We need to go.” Berk interrupts my thoughts.

  “Give
her a moment, son. The Creator of all this is in control, Thalli. We do not need to fear the Scientists. They are not more powerful than the Designer.”

  I want so much to believe John, but fear keeps my stomach in knots and my shallow breath overrides that desire. My head aches, and I want to lie down on the transport and sleep. Forever. But I cannot lie down. I cannot sleep. I have to keep moving.

  Slowly, the transport lifts off the ground. I do as Berk says, leaning in and out against the column, because if I refuse to go, the others will be caught with me. Our only hope is to outrun the Monitors. I try to pray that we can do just that, but I have no words, just emotions that overwhelm me, clouding every thought.

  I try to think about something else. The transport shifts beneath me, and I recall the only other time I was on one of these: When I woke up and had no feeling in my arm. Back when Berk was kind to me, when he didn’t treat me like he was the Scientist and I was the subordinate. When we spent our days together. When I felt so much love for him I thought my heart would burst. I had to lie on a transport like this one, wrapped in a medical blanket, so I could be examined by the Scientists.

  “How do you know where to go?” I try to remain calm. But we are aboveground, where no one has been for over forty years.

  A greenish grid comes to life in front of my eyes. It is so close, it takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. It is a map of some sort.

  “See the orange dots?” Berk asks. They are tiny, like needle pricks. But I see them. “Those are communities who survived the War.”

  “No one survived the War.” I repeat what I have been taught since infancy. The earth was destroyed by the Nuclear War over four decades ago. The whole earth. Only The Ten—Scientists who had been building an underground State—survived. The only people left on earth were those of us created in the Scientists’ laboratories. The Scientists prepared for the possibility of a nuclear war and everything, including the ingredients for the creation of children, had been stored underground, protected. Berk, Rhen, and I were all created below. Only John was from the time before, when children were “born” in the primitive way.