Outcast: The Hexon Code, #4

By Jody Calkins

Punishments are for those who show up late...

Sixteen-year-old Ivy Gould's world has turned upside down and all she wants to do is survive the rest of the school year and start her summer internship at the medical center.

But then a mysterious agency shows up at her school and recruits a select group of students. And she's one of them.

They claim terrorists are attacking the country and the agency needs students to join their cause to fight back and protect what's left.

Are they telling the truth? Or is it a lie?

She might never know. Because the students who fail to report on time for transportation to the training facility aren't lucky enough to find out.

Now she faces a much bigger challenge... and something far more horrifying. Will she overcome the odds? Or is she lost forever?

Outcast, the fourth book in The Hexon Code series, is an emotional story of terrible mistakes, huge regrets, and solid determination to make things right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emery Road Publications
• Release date: Nov 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781954708174

Jody Calkins

Author of The Hexon Code. Writer of Dystopian Drama. Pilot's Wife. Arborist. Learning Swedish & Turkish. Cat Lover. Book Addict.

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Outcast eBook Cover

Outcast

Jody Calkins

Emery Road Publications Logo

BOOKS BY JODY CALKINS

The Hexon Code

Shattered

Redeemed

Blackout

Outcast

No Way Out

Breakout

Sabotage

Outrage*

All the Strings*

Tainted

Platform 273

Bought

Charged

*Titles available soon!

OUTCAST

Copyright © 2019 by Jody Calkins

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published by:

Emery Road Publications

https://emeryroad.com

ISBN: 978-1-954708-17-4

First Edition: November 2019

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

Title Page

Books by Jody Calkins

Copyright Page

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

ALSO BY JODY CALKINS

About the Author

CHAPTER 1

I’D START THIS out by how Faction 73 ruined my life, but that would be a lie. My life was already ruined by then. My childhood had been filled with seeing my mother shoot up and pass out every morning before I left for school. It was filled with her deadbeat boyfriends who never stuck around long enough to know my name.

Well, one stuck around that long, but I’ll get to that later.

It was filled with our arguments about how I was too uptight, how I needed to loosen up and live life a little. Well, Mom, look how well I’m doing in school. No thanks to you.

If you really want to know how it all started, I’d have to take you back to where it began. But I can’t go that far. I can’t bring myself to share that part of the story. Not yet.

People always say that life gets better once you’re out of school, but what a bleak way to look at it. What were we supposed to do in the meantime? How were we supposed to get through life when it felt like time crawled by at a dreadfully slow pace? It didn’t matter that in one year, my life would magically become better simply because I had graduated from high school. I needed to know how to get through it now. I needed to know how to get through all the things I hadn’t asked for.

The morning of the recruitment, I got ready for school, per my new normal. I couldn’t stop myself from staring at my arm and imagining the bruises from the finger marks that had been there weeks earlier. Or noticing the dark circles under my eyes as I applied a coat of mascara and hoped I’d finally be able to make it through a day without it running on me.

As I walked back to my bedroom to grab my school bag, I spotted Mom passed out on her bed. Her bedroom door stood wide open. Probably because she had been too out of it to swing it closed before she collapsed on top of the comforter.

With a sigh, I rolled my eyes.

It was always the same with her. Passed out from either booze or drugs. At least in the mornings. I had no idea what she accomplished during the day, if anything at all. And it was any wonder she managed to get the bills paid on time. She wouldn’t tell me what she did for work, and eventually I had stopped asking.

What did it matter? As long as I had electricity to cook my own meals, get ready for school in the mornings, and do my homework at night, I didn’t care what she did anymore. I had stopped caring years ago.

After grabbing my bag from the desk, I headed for the front door. But before I could step outside, my stomach twisted.

Covering my mouth with a hand, I hurried through the house back to the bathroom and made it just in time to throw up in the toilet. I collapsed to my knees on the linoleum floor and heaved. Fresh tears stung my eyes. Groaning, I carefully fingered away the tears in an effort to keep my mascara intact.

Slowly, I reached for the counter and pulled myself up. My legs felt weak. Actually, my whole body felt weak. And when I lifted my chin and looked at my reflection in the mirror, I gasped. My face was so pale.

As I let out a slow breath, I turned on the faucet. I rinsed out my mouth and then held my trembling hands under the cold water for a few seconds as I stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes had filled with tears and before I could stop myself, I sobbed and hung my head. Tears slipped down my face as I closed my eyes.

Sniffling, I patted my cheeks with cold water and then blotted my face dry with a hand towel. I wiped away the black mascara from under my eyes and then I headed back to the front door. If I didn’t hurry, I’d be late for my first class.

I hated being late. It drew attention, and attention was the last thing I needed, especially now. If I could skate by without being noticed, maybe I could get through the rest of the school year.

Of course when you miss a few days’ worth of classes, that tends to draw attention. After you return to school, you get weird looks from kids who probably thought you had died over the weekend and they’re shocked to see you’re back. Kids you hardly know because neither one of you has expressed an interest in the other.

You also start getting a lot of attention from the teachers. Some of them eye you carefully as you enter the room like they’re trying to figure out your life story. Or at least the part that made you miss so many days of school. Maybe they think, did she attend a party and drink so much alcohol that she had to be rushed to the hospital to have her stomach pumped? Did a family member die? Were her parents fighting at home? Was she sick with the flu?

Other teachers, a rare few, express genuine concern, especially when you suddenly withdraw, lose interest, and stop laughing at everyone’s jokes. And if that goes on for days, they start recommending that you see the school counselor.

Only no one could help me, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about my messed up life with someone I’d run into in the halls afterward. I was a straight A student. I didn’t need that kind of embarrassment. I didn’t need them looking at me differently.

Sure, maybe they would have recommended that I talk to someone outside of school, but then that would mean they’d have to get my mom involved. And she wasn’t exactly the type to understand. She was bound to find some way to justify what had happened to me. Maybe I had caused it. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I was making it out to be. I could just picture her saying, Oh, don’t worry about it, honey. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it. The best thing to do is forget about it and move on.

That would be easy for her to say because her way of dealing with difficult situations was to shoot up. Any drug she could get her hands on would do the trick. Maybe she’d even offer me something to take the edge off.

If the city officials only knew how bad their drug problem was, perhaps I’d have a mother who actually cared about me the way a mother was supposed to care about her child. Maybe I’d still have a father at home. And maybe I wouldn’t have a reason to lock my bedroom door at night.

As I got closer to the school, I heard the sounds of laughter. A guy and girl seemed to be bantering about something I couldn’t make out. And when I rounded the corner onto Second Street, I saw Gabe and Emerson running across the street in front of the school building as the bell rang.

I couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy whenever I saw them together. It wasn’t that they had each other, that they were best friends; it was that their home life was better than mine. They didn’t have to worry about the things I worried about. Or maybe it was that they were close. They walked to school together. They laughed at each other’s jokes. They didn’t have to walk alone.

By the time I reached the main doors, I was exhausted. I hurried through the empty hallway. And then, avoiding everyone’s stares, I stumbled into the classroom and collapsed at my desk. The teacher glanced up and gave me a worried look.

Everything okay, Miss Gould? she asked. Yes, Mrs. Jenkins. Everything is fine. I was just running late.

She eyed me for a moment and then gave me a warm smile. Okay, she said as she rose to her feet and picked up a stack of exam booklets.

I groaned inwardly. I had forgotten it was exam day.

She divided up the stack and then handed them to the students in the front row. Please take a booklet and pass them back. You may begin right away.

As Gabe Marconne handed me the stack, he leaned close and whispered, You’ll do fine.

I gave him a small smile. Thanks, I replied.

After handing the stack to Anna behind me, I leafed through the booklet and then closed my eyes for a few seconds as I took a deep breath. As quickly as I could, I worked through the chemical formulas and equations.

Even though I had spaced the exam and fallen asleep at my desk by seven o’clock the previous night, the exam problems were relatively easy. This was stuff I knew by heart. All stuff I had learned before.

When I was three-quarters of the way through the exam, my stomach turned again. I closed the booklet, accidentally slapped my pencil on the desk, and with a hand over my mouth, I hurried out of the classroom. Mrs. Jenkins had glanced up and given me a questioning look, but I couldn’t stop. I ran to the bathroom and locked myself in one of the stalls.

After my body was done heaving, I picked myself up off the floor and braced myself against the stall as I lifted my foot and pushed the lever to flush the toilet. Slowly, I felt my way to the counter and then patted my face with cool water. With trembling fingers, I cleaned away more running mascara from my eyes and let out a ragged breath as I cursed myself for leaving the tube of mascara at home.

Somehow I had to make it through the rest of my chemistry exam and my other classes. But at the rate I was going, I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen. If I had to make a trip to the bathroom every hour, it was going to be a long day. Was it food poisoning? Was it something I had eaten the day before? Was it anxiety? I couldn’t imagine what would cause me to be sick. And then I sucked in a breath as it dawned on me what was going on.

The room quickly grew stuffy and suddenly my face was getting hot and my eyes were welling with tears again. I shook my head to clear away the thought and fanned my face to keep the tears from falling. And then I hurried back to my class. If I could keep my mind occupied, I could get through the rest of the school day.

I whispered ‘sorry’ to the teacher and then slid into my seat. Taking a deep breath, I turned back to where I had left off and tried to focus on the last three chemical formulas.

When I finished the exam with time left over, I walked up to the teacher’s desk and handed her my booklet.

Quietly, she said, Please see me after class.

CHAPTER 2

I NODDED AND then returned to my seat to start going through the next chapter in the book. It was difficult for me to focus. My mind kept drifting to all the things that had happened over the last month and a half, back before everything changed. A tear slipped down my cheek and I discreetly whisked it away before anyone could notice. But everyone except for Gabe was busy working on their exams.

When the bell rang fifteen minutes later, I waited for my classmates to leave and then I stopped by Mrs. Jenkins’ desk.

Hi, Ivy, she said, standing up and giving me a warm smile. She walked around the desk and propped her hip on the edge. I flipped through your exam and it looks like you did fine.

I nodded.

I’m worried about you though. Is everything okay?

I nodded again. I’m fine. I think I just have a stomach bug.

She eyed me for a moment and then said, I’ve sensed something different about you over the last month. The past five weeks.

I held my breath and silently prayed she’d stop talking. How could she know it had been five weeks? I supposed my absence had been the first indicator.

Your grades are still good as always, but you seem distant. Less willing to participate in classroom discussions. That’s not like you. And now you appear exhausted.

It’s my stomach, I said again. Must be something I ate.

She eyed me like she wasn’t buying it and then she leaned in closer and said, I want you to know that if you ever need to talk, I’m here. Okay?

Thanks, Mrs. Jenkins, I said, trying to keep my voice clear. I’ll remember that.

If it’s about a boy or family or love, whatever it is, don’t hesitate to come see me. I know how hard it can be to feel like you don’t have anyone to talk to, and I want to be there for you if you need it. With good support, we can get through any challenge.

My throat tightened as I nodded. The room had grown stuffy and if I didn’t hurry up and get out of there fast, I’d burst into tears in front of her. How could she possibly know there was something wrong?

She gave me another warm smile and then patted my arm as she stood upright. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.

Yes, ma’am.

Blinking back tears, I left her classroom and hurried to my next class, nearly bumping into my teacher in the doorway as the bell rang.

Ivy, good morning, he said, stepping aside to let me through.

Sorry, Mr. Reed. My voice cracked a little, but either he chose not to say anything or he hadn’t noticed.

As I headed for my seat, he closed the door and said, You all will be happy to know I’ve rescheduled the exam for Friday.

I let out a sigh of relief. As did the other kids in my class.

However, Mr. Reed said, that means you’ll need to know what we discuss in class today and tomorrow.

Wait, Anna said. Why the change?

I thought I’d give you a nice break from your studies. There will be no homework over the weekend, but I will expect you to have read the chapter for Monday’s lesson. Everyone fine with that plan?

I nodded. I definitely needed more time to study. Actually, another two weeks to study would have been better. Maybe that would have given me enough time to get my head right again.

All right, class. Today we’re going to learn about partial differentiation and the method of Lagrange multipliers.

Somehow I was able to make it all the way through the class without needing to make an emergency trip to the bathroom to throw up. My focus wasn’t there, but I would make up for it later when I worked through the homework assignment on my own.

At the end of class, I shoved my textbook in my bag and stood up to leave the room. When I looked up, Mr. Reed smiled at me.

Ivy, I’m so proud of you for getting the internship at the medical center this summer, he said as he rose to his feet. I know how hard you’ve been working this year. Are you looking forward to it?

I nodded. I am, Mr. Reed. When my voice came out weak, I cleared my throat and added, I can’t wait to get started.

Good. I’m sure you’ll do very well. You’ll be working with a great team.

Thanks, I replied. I forced a smile and then weaved through the desks toward the door. I closed my eyes for a second and sighed with relief that I was able to leave the room without him asking about my personal life and why I had lost my usual enthusiasm for advanced math.

When I entered my third class, AP Physics, the teacher looked up at me and smiled. Per his usual, he was sitting in his chair with his hands placed on the desk on either side of him.

I forced another smile and ignored the classmates who looked up at me when I walked to my seat.

Good morning, class, Mr. Clarke said. I’ve just received word from Principal Kelly that there has been a change in today’s school schedule. In a few minutes, we will head to the gymnasium for a special announcement as soon as our class is called.

The other kids started talking about every potential scenario that could result in a school-wide announcement.

But I wasn’t listening.

I looked around the room and noticed Gabe wasn’t listening either. Usually he was in a good, upbeat mood; he had been during our first class. But now he held his head in his hands and his face was flushed. I had heard his name called over the intercom earlier. Both he and Emerson had been asked to meet at the front office. But I had no idea what that was about.

When he looked up, I followed his gaze and saw Emerson walk by in the hallway. I knew they weren’t blood related. Emerson’s parents had been killed in a car accident when she was a little girl and Gabe’s parents had taken her in and treated her like their own. The first time I heard about it, I had felt jealous. What would it take for me to have caring and loving parents? To be taken in by someone who wasn’t my own flesh and blood? Someone who would treat me well?

My own mother was a drug user back then, too. She didn’t use as much back then and her boyfriends were still half-decent. But that just meant she had the mental capacity to be more verbally abusive.

Over the years, I had learned to check out. To stop paying attention to her and to live in my own little world. I read books of all kinds and stayed at the library until they forced me out at closing. I learned to keep my distance from her because I knew if I let her get too close, she’d say something or do something that cancelled out all the decent things she had ever done. Not that the decent things were plentiful. They weren’t. But they weren’t nonexistent either.

I tried hard to live as far from her as possible while still living in the same house. She didn’t feel like family to me. Just someone I needed to avoid.

Gradually, she used more and more and started bringing home boyfriends, each one worse than the previous one. Until she met Nathan.

Suddenly, a flashing light by the classroom door broke me from my thoughts.

CHAPTER 3

MR. CLARKE STOOD UP from his desk and headed for the door as he said, All right, everyone. Our class has been called.

When we reached the gym, it was clear we were one of the last classes to arrive. While we were crammed onto the bleachers, I silently prayed that I wouldn’t throw up on anyone. All I had to do was get through the next hour or however long this assembly or meeting or whatever it was was going to take.

When I sat next to Gabe, he gave me a small smile and then returned to scanning the crowd.

Looking for Emerson? I asked.

Yeah, he said, glancing my way briefly. Have you seen her?

No, but I saw Tony at the other end. This side. Aren’t they in a literature class together?

He nodded. I think so.

When he relaxed and stopped looking, I asked, Hey, are you okay?

He blinked several times and then shook his head. No. His eyes flicked to me briefly and then he looked down at his hands. There was an explosion at our house. The police believe our parents were inside.

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. That’s horrible, I said. I, I don’t know what to say.

Before he could reply, Principal Kelly’s voice came over the loudspeakers. I looked up and saw her standing at the podium in front of five people who were wearing black uniforms. After a quick greeting, she introduced one of the men as Special Agent Tobert and let him take over.

My head started to spin when he talked about foreign terrorists attacking our country and the need for people—students, no less—who could help them fight back.

Then he started calling names.

The first five names—all guys—made sense. They were all athletes in some form. High school jocks I never cared to get to know. Cute, maybe, but definitely not my type.

When he called Lauren Johnsen, I exchanged a look with Gabe. He seemed a little shocked, like I was. I hadn’t expected Agent Tobert to call a girl’s name. Even if she was one of the best runners and girls’ basketball players at our school.

I watched Lauren walk across the gym floor. The way she held her shoulders back with confidence as she walked probably made them feel good about choosing her. But I knew she was faking it. She was really good at that. I admired her ability to disconnect. To pretend she was someone other than the lowly east sider she really was.

As soon as she disappeared through the double doors, Special Agent Tobert turned back to the microphone and said, The next person who will join us is Emerson Wesler.

My eyes widened as I heard Gabe gasp.

I thought I heard someone say, What?

Again, Emerson Wesler, the man said, drawing out the name.

Gabe sat stunned beside me for half a minute and then he rose to his feet, making like he wanted to get down, but no one was letting him through.

I watched Emerson walk the length of the gym and look up at Gabe. Her eyes were wide and she looked scared.

When she disappeared into the hallway, he sat back down.

She’ll be okay, I whispered.

He glanced my way and nodded quickly. When his name was called, he hurried down to the gym floor and pushed through the doors.

And then twenty minutes later, the man called my name. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what they had chosen me for, other than perhaps my academic achievements. I had been selected for the internship at the medical center. Maybe that was the reason.

I swallowed hard and slowly made my way down the bleachers. My legs trembled as I walked out the door and into the hallway. A young woman wearing a black uniform waited for me.

Ivy Gould? she asked.

When I nodded, she directed me to a classroom down the hall.

Have a seat inside, she said. We’ll be in shortly.

I nodded and then slowly walked to the room. When I stepped inside, I saw Gabe and Emerson holding each other’s hand. He looked up at me and gave me a sad smile. I smiled back and sat down at one of the vacant seats at the front of the room.

Hugging my arms to my chest, I stared up at the screen that displayed the scene from the gym. It was almost like watching an awards ceremony. We didn’t have those anymore. Film and entertainment had been shut down years ago. The only thing that remained was the history of it. All the old films that showed what had once been the highlight of someone’s day.

I didn’t understand it. How could someone be interested in watching a celebrity walk onto a stage and give a speech for receiving an award? What could they possibly gain from doing that?

But maybe I was just being cynical. I was too preoccupied with my own life to be concerned about someone else’s.

I had enough things to worry about. Like how I was going to find my mother’s stash of money that she kept hidden so I could take some to buy food without her noticing. For a whole three weeks, that hadn’t been a concern and I thought that maybe I could finally relax and let someone else worry about it for a while, but then that had fallen apart, too. Just like all the other things in my life.

Finally, the last student—Burke—entered the room, followed a few minutes later by the young woman and then the uniformed men.

While Agent Tobert spoke, I zoned out as I watched the young woman prepare what appeared to be some tracking injector device. When she jabbed the needle into Victor’s arm and he winced, I stared wide-eyed. My stomach was starting to feel queasy again and I didn’t know how long I could go without charging to the bathroom. I hugged my arms to my chest and clamped my mouth closed.

Geez, Ivy, calm down, Carter whispered. "You’re making me nervous."

I turned in my seat and stared at him, unsure of why he was talking to me.

He raised an eyebrow and leaned his head forward as he whispered, You’re tapping your foot on the floor.

I sucked in a breath as I finally realized my heel was making faint tapping sounds on the smooth tile. Sorry, I whispered back.

Taking a slow breath, I forced my leg to be still. As I turned back toward the front of