THEY TAKE MY MASK, MY face naked for everyone to see. From my spot next to the Arch, the crowd is infinitely clearer, Menghu captains with their collars embroidered in black whisper excitedly between rows at my appearance. Firsts and Seconds scowl in my direction, my traitorous blood proven long ago when they branded it into my very skin.
One face stands out from the others. Tai-ge is sitting at the front, his eyes horrified and his mouth sewn shut. As usual. Here to watch me die, just like we both always knew he would be. Untouched by his own actions, as if breaking into the southern garrison to free a traitor isn’t enough to counteract the City red running through his veins.
Not untouched. A thread of ugly gratification strings my heartbeats together. He’s not wearing a mask. At least Tai-ge’s had a taste of what his mother and the doctor are doing to the rest of the world.
The General herself hovers next to me, though it’s Helix’s oily fingers that hold my wrists tight against the small of my back, my elbows twisted painfully behind me. She smiles, her fine-boned cheeks so delicate and yet so hard. “I’ve been waiting for the day I could finally get rid of you.”
“I’m not a traitor.” It comes out quiet the first time. The second it’s more of a pained yell. “I’m not a traitor! I never wanted to destroy your son; I never wanted anyone to die! It’s Dr. Yang who forced the Mountain to invade, it’s him who set contagious SS loose, who manipulated me into—”
The crowd’s garbled voice swells loud enough that no one can hear any of the words raking bloody lines inside my throat. Instead of listening, they’re shouting at me, just like any good denunciation. Shouting at me, at Howl, even denouncing the Chairman, though the Firsts cluster off to the side as if they’re not quite sure to whom their loyalties should fall. Kasim stands crooked at my side, his braced leg seeming to pain him, but he stares back at the crowd, making a rude gesture at the Menghu side when they begin to call out his name along with some choice obscenities, though it doesn’t work very well because his broken fingers won’t move. The crowd only seems to grow louder as Dr. Yang descends from his place atop the Arch to stand next to me.
He leans in, face only inches from mine. “This is your last chance, Jiang Sev. You know what your mother’s note meant. Was it instructions on where to find her notes? A key code to bring back the erased information?” He waits a moment, his voice so low, I don’t think even Helix can hear it over the din from where he’s holding my arms. “If you don’t tell me, you’ll watch your friends here die one by one. You’ll go back to Sleep. And if that still isn’t enough, you’ll die. You’ll die alone, knowing you doomed every person left on this continent. You’re leaving us all to SS.”
“It wouldn’t be that way if you hadn’t given them all SS.” My words come out through gritted teeth.
He smiles, a little chuckle escaping his throat. “Shall we see if you’ve grown a sense of shame since we last spoke?” He points at the Reds lined up, the Chairman a crisp exclamation point ending their ranks. The Chairman still fights against the Seconds holding him, issuing orders in a voice that sounds so strong and sure, and yet the Reds don’t seem to hear.
“It was two of his own soldiers who came to me. Told me you were coming and when you arrived.” Dr. Yang sighs. “They see that he has fallen. Why can’t you?”
“I don’t care what happens to the Chairman.” A truth I don’t like as it comes out of my mouth.
“He is helping you because you’ve found his son? Or promised to find him?” Dr. Yang nods at his own question. “What are you willing to sacrifice to keep your secrets, Jiang Sev?”
I shake my head. “There’s nothing for me to tell you, Dr. Yang.”
“These Seconds were going to help you.” He points at the line of men and women, their uniforms dirty, fear in their eyes. The man who let me into the square stands at the end opposite the Chairman. “Just obeying orders, and now they’re going to die because of you. One by one, until you tell me where your mother hid her notes. If you can stomach their deaths, it will be Kasim next.” He puts a hand on the Menghu’s shoulder and Kasim refuses to break eye contact, disgust curling at his mouth.
Swallowing hurts, the weight of all these lives feeling like stones enough to form a city on my shoulders. But I’ve seen more death. I’ve been responsible for so many already. I won’t be responsible for everyone who would die, forgotten, under Dr. Yang’s unchallengeable authority if he got the cure away from June.
“After Kasim, it’ll be Howl.”
My stomach clenches, two hot tears burning down my cheeks. Howl kneels under the Arch, staring at me as if he means to light the whole room on fire with sheer anger.
“After Howl, I’ll take you to where I hid the Chairman’s son, and I’ll slit his throat.” I can’t breathe, thinking of June and Yi-lai crouched outside the walls. He was supposed to be our insurance. Our way to make sure Chairman Sun got on the heli. But I’ve just brought him back to the man who put him to Sleep.
General Hong stands up, turning her back to the crowd and raising her weapon to point at the first Red’s face. It’s the man who let me into the square. I hardly register the shot, though it’s louder than the taunts and anger roaring in my ears.
He falls, red painted between his eyes.
“After the Chairman’s son, I’ll hunt down your little blond Wood Rat friend.”
The next Red in line falls. Dr. Yang’s lips brush my ear, sending shivers of revulsion through me like waves of mud. “After her, we’ll go after Sole and everyone she’s got stashed under the Mountain.”
Howl strains against the two Menghu holding him, his feet sliding across the floor. “At least tell me there’s hope.” Tears draw lines down his face, his voice choked.
“It’s already done.” I pull back from the doctor, my shoulders screaming with pain as Helix wrenches my arms to keep me in place. “We’re jumping, Howl. You and me. It’s the only thing that’s going to give the rest of the world a chance.”
All the breath seems to leave Howl’s body, another shot going off, another Red slumping to the ground. But he squares his shoulders and gives me a firm nod. “You found the cure? Why come here?”
“You don’t get to tell me when your life doesn’t matter, Howl.”
He stares back at me, his face crumpled. But his lips twitch up into a broken attempt at a smile. “We’ve won, then.”
“That’s right. We’ve won.” Ejecting the word feels like a release. June’s smart enough to already be running. No Red could find her in the forest. I turn my attention back to Dr. Yang, trying to find enough saliva to spit in his face, but my mouth is dry. “You can kill anyone you want, but you’ve already lost. These people will leave you at the first whisper of a cure once it’s done.”
Dr. Yang pushes away from me, an angry gesture that leaves me stumbling to the side, Helix moving to keep from wrenching my shoulders out of their sockets. “Put Howl up next.”
The two soldiers holding Howl’s arms jerk him up from the ground and lead him to the middle of the Arch. “Is this really what you want, Jiang Sev?” the doctor asks.
“I wanted you to be the one who lived!” Howl keeps his broken smile, and it knifes through me, leaving nothing but pain. “I wanted it to be you.”
I bite my lip, my whole body seizing up. I think of June, probably already on her way out of the City. Sun Yi-lai, his whole life stolen. Peishan, Lihua, Sole, Aya… Dr. Yang standing there less than an inch away, his breath filtering through his mask in an ugly hiss. And I keep my mouth shut.
General Hong gestures for Tai-ge to come, and he obeys, feet dragging but unable to resist the string his mother always has had tied around his neck. She hands him the gun and steps back.
Closing my eyes feels dishonest, as if no one will witness Howl’s sacrifice, so I keep them open. For a moment, Tai-ge just stands there. General Hong shouts at Tai-ge to shoot, and still he does nothing. Delaying. Then he takes aim, and I bite my tongue to keep from screaming.
When the gun discharges, it blasts through me, though it’s Howl who crumples to the ground, blood blooming on his leg. I pull against Helix’s grasp on my wrists, falling to my knees when he jerks me back.
Another shot, this one to Howl’s shoulder, the crisscross of scars still pink where they stick out from his shirt. He cries out in pain, and I can’t stand to move, can’t let myself look away as he keeps his eyes glued to mine.
“I love you!” I say it as loud as I can, though it only comes out in a rasp. A horribly inadequate, squeezed-together sob that means nothing and everything at once.
Howl holds my gaze. It’s the end of the world, but I keep watching, staying with him.
The next shot shatters through us all, as if it’s the sky itself cracking open. Everything around me seems to grind to a stop, the sound dying out, nothing but the hiss of masks and robotic, confused murmurs. Because the last shot didn’t come from inside the square.