Reid stops at the tent flap, hearing the call of the hunter, so close it should be triggering his fear response. Instead it wakes the darkness inside him, sends fire pouring through his blood, and a great joy surging in his heart. He has no idea what that call means, but he knows how it makes him feel.
And that can’t be good for anyone except the hunters.
Reid spins around, the soldiers so shocked by the sound themselves they don’t move. Reid meets the colonel’s eyes.
“How do you plan to control them, exactly?” The call has faded but the heat of it lives on inside him. “All that power, all that perfection. How?”
He sees Dr. Lund get up, frowning a little, eyes fixed on the floor near where Reid had been sitting while Brackett’s brow dips over his forehead.
“We are in complete control,” the colonel says.
Reid glances at the doctor again, then down at what holds her so captivated. And tenses, kicking himself for his lack of attention.
The second pile of powder he stole is gone, inhaled and lost with the plastic container that held it. But the first, he shoved it in his pocket, used what he could and forgot about the rest.
Reid’s right hand drifts down to his pants and feels the rip in the fabric, where the pocket seam let go. There on the ground next to his chair, leaked from that tear, is a small pile of glittering dust.
Dr. Lund’s eyes lift, meet Reid’s. It’s the first time he’s seen her insanity so clearly, worse now because it is edged with fear. She rushes at him, grabs him by the arms, her small fingertips digging into his flesh as she stares up at him.
The colonel reaches for her but she jerks herself out of his reach and shakes Reid. “How much have you taken?”
Reid refuses to answer. It’s not necessary anyway from the rapidly changing look on her face. From terror to excitement to joy and back again. “It works,” she whispers. “It really works. Outside the lab. Without suppressing the immune system or transfusing the blood.” She smiles like a child, wide-eyed and innocent before her face crumples. “It works.” Tears well, spill over. Reid is about to pull away, can’t stand her hands on him when she lets him go suddenly and hugs him hard.
“My miracle,” she whispers.
He shoves her away just as the first patter of gunfire cuts the night.
“What have you done?” The colonel lunges at Dr. Lund, wrenches her away from Reid and spins her around.
She is laughing and crying all at once. “I’ve made gods,” she said. “Gods who can create more gods, who will take over the world.” She bends over in a fit of giggles.
Brackett’s understanding dawns, horror finally registering for him while the sound of muffled shouting and more gunfire forces its way through the walls of the tent.
“We agreed,” he whispers. “There would be no more of them. You swore they would never reproduce. I had your word.”
The six soldiers at the flap are trembling, fists white around their rifles. They look so terrified Reid can’t hold his contempt in any longer.
“So much for controlling them, colonel,” he says.
Brackett looks stunned one more heartbeat before lashing out with his large fist, the blow taking Dr. Lund in the jaw. She is thrown back, into Reid’s arms, a bloom of blood flying from her mouth, lower face twisted from the shattered bone.
And yet she continues to laugh, even after Reid lets her go to sink to the ground, hugging herself and rocking back and forth.
The sounds of battle are louder now, screams and shouting and gunfire, punctuated by the howls of hunters. The tent flap whips back, and a young soldier rushes in, his face smeared with blood.
“Sir!” He gasps as he stumbles forward, tripping over the doctor. “The creatures!”
The colonel ignores the desperate solider and stares at Reid.
“Tell me,” he says.
Reid stays silent. Until the colonel’s handgun appears beneath Reid’s chin. The harsh muzzle digs into his skin and shoves his head back. Cold blue eyes aren’t asking anymore.
Reid has no choice. “When they die,” he says. “The remains. If you breathe it in… it starts to change you.” He has to admit it to himself at last. “Enough of it and you become one of them.”
Reid sees Syracuse out of the corner of his eye. Watches the man slit the side of the tent open with Reid’s knife and run away. Lets him go, knowing the fat man is the least of his worries, only by promising himself one day he will make sure Syracuse dies.
He hears the man shout for his guards even as Brackett steps back, gun dropping to his side as the man pulls himself together.
“God damn it.” Brackett turns to the soldiers around Reid. “Get the hell out there and secure a perimeter. If those things escape there’s no telling what will happen.”
The soldiers actually hesitate, eyes enormous. Just outside car doors slam, an engine roars to life. Tires spin over gravel. Reid’s mental eye watches Syracuse get away and wonders if Lucy is with him.
If not, she’s as good as dead. If the attacking hunters don’t kill her, Reid will.
“Now!” Brackett’s bark makes the soldier’s jump. They are suddenly more scared of their commander than the hunters and scramble to obey him.
Brackett looks down at Dr. Lund and pulls his sidearm. “I should have put your mad ass down a long time ago.”
She looks up at him but her back is to Reid so he can’t see her face.
“Try to kill me.” Her voice is slurred, forced out from her shattered jaw. “But I’ve taken the stuff myself.”
Brackett’s Adam’s apple jumps over and over. Reid sees his finger slide over the trigger, tighten.
Reid has no desire to watch. Unguarded, the colonel distracted by his hate, Reid spins and lunges for the tent flap, changing direction once outside just in case. He hears a single gunshot, flinches. And keeps running.
***