[Asher]
Davyd steps through the open door. His eyes flick over the vial of calming serum raised over my head and amusement curves his mouth. “Were you planning on pacifying me to death?”
“Don’t push me; I could still test it out.”
He tosses a small bag at my feet. “One of those might do better unless you want an officer to die laughing.”
I pick it up. There’s a Q and one of the knives he had in the van inside it. I swap the vials for the weapons, making sure the precious serum is secure before placing the pack onto my back.
“Come on, Princess,” he says. “Time to get out of here.”
“Not yet, I have to get back, Rael …” My plea fades into silence as the girl in question peeks out from behind Davyd. I open my arms and she flies into them. “You came with him willingly?”
She looks up at me and frowns. “You told me to trust him.”
“When?”
“Not in words, exactly. You said we couldn’t talk in there because of the cameras. In action. When you trusted him. Over and over again. Why do you think I was able to remain in the medical rooms and not the cells?”
“I don’t know. I figured they wanted to keep us together.”
“He visited one of the times you were out. Under the cover of restraining me, he showed me how to make the wound in my arm stay open and bloody.” She grimaces. “Without it hurting too much.”
“He did what?”
She glares at Davyd. “You said she knew.”
He shrugs. “I had to say something so you’d do as you were told.”
I tighten my arms around Rael, worried she’s going to launch at him again. While I don’t want to protect Davyd, now isn’t the time for a fight.
But she chuckles instead. “I should’ve known.”
I blink. The hate that once shone in her eyes when she looked at Davyd is now closer to adoration. I want to tell her she’s making a mistake because Davyd is every bit the cold-blooded killer she pegged him as, but right now, I need her to trust that he can get us out of here.
There’ll be time to open her eyes to his true nature later. I hope.
A new wail splits the night. The white strip lights glow green, and there’s the thud of doors closing and locking into place. I know those sounds. I heard something similar in fire drills on the Pelican. There is nothing more terrifying when you’re contained than fire. Knowing it’s burning somewhere nearby, but with nowhere to go … There’s no better way to create panic and chaos. My suspicion is confirmed.
“You used my plan?” I have to shout at Davyd to be heard.
He nods. “Now, enough talking, we have to hurry.”
Holding Rael’s hand in mine, I run after Davyd. We go back down the hallway toward the center space. Smoke tinges the air, becoming thicker as we approach, creating a green mist because of the lighting. I expect shouts, but we move through unnoticed thanks to the thick fog in the air as officers scream at each other about drills and practice. They move past us like gray ghosts, but instead of drifting they run in panic, at times bouncing off each other and the walls.
Their screams of orders and processes are futile. They struggle to hear each other over the now-piercing alarm. Here, thick clouds of white stream out of air vents along the intersection of wall and ceiling. We stay low and close to the walls where visibility is best, but it’s hard to see much ahead through the smoke. So much smoke. It sticks to my mouth and coats my tongue, strangling each breath and bringing tears to my eyes. We pause while a group of men and women in gray march across the hallway ahead.
I lean close to Davyd’s ear. “What did you do?”
I think he’s going to ignore me, but then he glances back. “Like you said. I didn’t just start it, I fuelled it and made sure it would spread.”
In my head I see the kind of destruction that could have been created by a fire on the farm level of the Pelican. My belly tightens, and I fight regret. This whole place could become one huge Company coffin.
On the move again, we turn a corner, and the smoke in the air thins out. There’s a Company officer ahead. He approaches at a run.
“Stay behind me,” Davyd mutters. I expect Davyd to attack the man, but instead he smiles. “Thank goodness I found you,” he says.
The officer blinks in confusion. I don’t think he’s realized that Rael and I are free, let alone armed. His focus is on Davyd, whose presence in front of us is every inch the commander.
“We need to move the prisoners to the upper levels,” Davyd continues. “They’re valuable to Doctor.”
The officer salutes. “Yes, sir.”
“How does it look ahead?”
The officer looks down and touches the black band circling his wrist. “The fire started on farm level but it’s spreading fast.” He reports in a monotone. “It’s believed to have been triggered by a mechanical malfunction, and the white smoke is from the feed stores.”
“Excellent work, Batcher’s your name, isn’t it?”
The officer salutes again, pride at being recognized shining in his eyes. “Yes, sir.”
“Now, I need you to go ahead and clear a path to the surface.”
He turns without question and does as he’s told.
We follow.
As we hurry along the hallway, Rael and I share a look of amazement. At every step I expect the officer to realize that Davyd’s helping us but he doesn’t look back, trusting his commander completely.
At the next corner, Davyd stops him. “I’ll take it from here, Batcher. They could use a man like you at the fire front.”
I want to gag at the sugary admiration in Davyd’s tone but the officer buys every word.
“Yes, sir.” Batcher salutes a final time and heads back into the bowels of the facility.
I don’t wait around to see whether he’s going to come to his senses. As I run through the smoky hallway, I try to get my bearings, but we’ve twisted and turned too many times. This place is much bigger than the Pelican. I’m completely lost.
“What about that way?” I ask Davyd as we pass a long, deserted hallway.
“We can’t go that way; it will take us back to the labs. We have to go up to get out.”
I think I can hear the raised voices of confrontation from that direction. I cross my fingers that Penny got there in time for her cover story to work. I don’t want to add her injury or death to my conscience. I hold on to Rael’s hand a little tighter.
I follow Davyd but can’t help looking out for another way. Will I ever be completely sure he can be trusted?
We reach a door, this one marked across the top with a slash of green. Emergency exit?
I expect a swish like all the other doors in this place but Davyd pushes on it instead, the muscles in his arms bunching with effort. The heavy door eases back with a grating squeal of its hinges. It opens up onto a narrow stairwell.
“Won’t everyone be using the fire escape?” I ask.
“Not this one,” he explains. “It’s the smallest in the facility, and it’s blocked from below.”
Heavy booted steps announce we have company a second before a hurrying officer appears at the next landing.
This time Davyd doesn’t attempt a cover story. The Q fires and the officer falls. We don’t stop, and I try not to look at the man’s empty eyes as we go past.
“Why haven’t they built Q-resistance into their own people?” I ask Davyd.
I don’t really expect him to know, but he looks back long enough to answer. “They want to make sure there are no side effects first.”
We’re another two floors up when, at my side, Rael stumble and nearly falls. I’ve been half dragging her the last few minutes and she’s breathing in sobs. Davyd stops and waits for us to catch up.
“Give her to me.”
“I can help her. I’m as strong as you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve taken a battering. Do you want to slow us down and get us caught?”
Rael tugs free. “He’s right.”
He is. And I hate it.
We move faster with Rael on Davyd’s back. He takes the stairs two at a time, and I’m puffing trying to keep up. While nothing like the hallways we left behind, smoke fills the air. I do my best not to show my struggles as the steps and walls blur into a concrete mountain that I refuse to let beat me.
When we reach the last door, Davyd sets Rael back on her feet. The slight delay gives me time to climb the last few steps.
“What now?” I’m pleased not to squeak the question, although my lungs burn.
He flashes a cocky grin. “Now we walk right out the front door.”
“That’s the plan?”
“You have a better one?”
Rael steps between us. “Stop it.” She folds her skinny arms and frowns at Davyd. “That does sound pretty stupid.”
He chuckles and the sound’s almost genuine. “Everyone will have been evacuated out the main fire escapes or be involved in the effort to control the disaster. There will be a minimum of security on this main entrance and …” His grin widens. “I know who the lucky officer on duty is here tonight.”
“A friend of yours?”
“Something like that.”
Having answered our questions as much as he’s going to, he pulls at the heavy-looking fire door. It swings open without a sound. Considering the door we came through, we’re either lucky or he oiled the hinges in preparation. Both make sense.
He steps through ahead, and he’s right about the security levels. The domed room is deserted except for a lone company officer at the entrance. His back is to us as he stares out into the darkness and he doesn’t turn.
I try to piece together the huge area below with this tiny room. Davyd mentioned something about other exits from the facility. Each exit must have a separate domed cover building to disguise what lies beneath the ground of New City.
But there’s no time for thinking.
Davyd’s striding ahead. “Morning,” he calls brightly.
The officer swivels at the sound. His red-hair glows orange in the light. I recognize him the moment he recognizes me. The redhead from the van.
Hate claws at my throat, and I can’t help but be glad at the swelling of his nose and the bruising around his eye. He deserved what I gave him and more.
His hand comes up with his weapon. “Stop right there.”
Neither Davyd nor I listen.
“Don’t you remember?” I ask as we close the few feet. “Qs have no effect on us.”
Rael, behind Davyd, is the only one in danger from the Q, but redhead isn’t interested in her. The snarl on his face is for me.
“You little …” He fires.
My chest tickles where the beam hits. I smile.
He takes a step back, and another.
I lift my Q. “My turn.”
But I don’t fire. He’s effectively unarmed and terrified. He reeks of it. I can’t kill an unarmed person, not even this one.
I feel Davyd beside me. Feel his eyes on my finger and know he waits to step forward until I relax on the trigger. Redhead’s life was my call to make, and he wasn’t going to get in the way of my revenge.
He rests a heavy hand on redhead’s shoulder to turn his shaking body away, then holds the Q in the center of his back. “You’ll lead us out. Make a sound or draw attention to us and you’re dead.”
Redhead does as he’s told, moving toward the double doors.
At Davyd’s indication, I replace his Q with mine, driving the officer ahead of us. Davyd moves behind Rael.
I ignore the pang inside me at the prospect of stepping out into the open. It’s not simply that I’ll be a target, or fear for the safety of the trembling of Rael at my side. I’m a target wherever I am here, but it’s the thought of the never-ending sky overhead and the quiet of outside. I didn’t appreciate how much I missed that hum of engines and air-circulators until I was back underground.
To me it sounds a lot like home. That faint noise was the soundtrack to my childhood. Back when Mother was a super woman who could do anything, and Zed and I dreamed of a free future.
I remember playing on the wheat belts and teasing the rabbits, and Dad telling my brother and me that we should have been farmers. I held that idea close for so long. That I was meant for a peaceful life, my hands deep in the soil, and the satisfaction of watching something I planted grow.
But now I know the truth.
I wasn’t born to farm. I was born to fight.
The doors slide open and I shiver. The night air slaps against my bare arms leaving goose bumps on my skin in its wake.
I follow redhead onto a neatly paved path. The pretty stone winds between other domed buildings identical to the one behind us. Along the edges of the paths are flower-filled gardens lit by sparkling blue lights. I’ve stepped into freaking fairyland. Everything is clean and bright despite the drizzle of rain beginning to fall.
Ahead of us, officers run between buildings, shouting updates about the fire. Some carry buckets. I’m guessing Davyd disabled the sprinkler system, too. In the distance, families huddle together in their pajamas. Mums with dads and kids, heads bent, clearly confused. Seems not everyone here knows about what exists beneath their feet.
They’re the first people I’ve seen here in colored clothing and the pinks and greens make me think, with a pang, of Kaih. Even when we could wear only the blue of Lifers, she shone with style. All I have to do is get out of here and I can give her the serum—not that I can ever imagine her losing her temper.
In all the confusion, two officers guarding two prisoners for evacuation don’t seem to warrant any attention. We walk on without being stopped. I breathe air clean of the smoke and wonder if I’m imagining the hint of flower scent.
Davyd chose our exit well. Ahead I see some undergrowth and a barbed fence, not unlike the one we put up around the settlement. However, unlike our effort, this is perfect and uniform. There’s one visible exit. Even from here I can see it’s heavily guarded and we don’t head that way.
We walk along the paths at a steady pace. Redhead in front is reminded by the Q in his back not to draw any extra attention. The problem is that as far as I can tell, we’re headed away from the only exit.
“Is there a back way out of here?” I ask.
“Yes, but it’s a mirror of that one.”
“Great.”
“And the fence is electric.”
Now that he says it, the regular signs along the fence that we’re still too far away to read, make sense. They’re warnings. “Excellent.”
“Or should I say, was electric.” He flashes a grin. “You worry too much.”
Less than a minute later we stop, sheltered behind one of the dome buildings. It appears to be deserted. The wail of the siren seems distant here and the fence line closer.
“We’re almost there,” Davyd whispers. He points ahead. I follow his indication and see a small hole in the barbed fence. Small enough to crawl through. “Once you get out, keep running to the top of the hill. Go left and then through some undergrowth for about a mile. There’s a hollow you two can shelter in behind an old shed with a white roof. I’ll meet you there.”
“What about me?” Redhead must have grown brave by his lack of harm so far and there’s a whine to his voice.
“You’ll go with them,” Davyd snarls.
Redhead frowns. “I don’t understand.”
“You will.”
There’s one building between us and the fence but it’s farther away from the boundary. The three points make a triangle with sides of maybe one hundred feet. As I estimate how long it will take to cross at a run, the doors to the building slide open and Doctor waddles out. Of all the people who could have come out of that building …
I glance down at my wrist. They must have realized I’m missing. They’re probably tracking me.
We’ll have to cross in front of him to get out.
My knees give way, and I’m on my butt in the mud. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Davyd’s hand on my chin forces my head up. There’s no sympathy in his eyes. “Rael needs you.” He touches my shoulder and the pack strap. “The settlement needs you and the serum in that pack. Don’t screw it all up because you’re scared of a little pain.”
“A little?” I swallow and force myself to look at Doctor—the architect of my nightmares. I can’t be sure, but I think the device is the bulge in his top shirt pocket. It makes sense; he wouldn’t leave it behind.
“You can do this.”
Doctor is doubled over coughing. It must be another of the exits Davyd mentioned. He’s not even looking this way. Either I try for escape or I end up in his clutches again anyway. “I’ll try.”
Davyd drags me up and shoves me hard between the shoulder blades. “Run, Princess.”
Pushed out in the open, I have no choice but to obey. I hold Rael’s hand and focus on the fence, legs pumping. Maybe the Doctor and the other officers won’t see us. It’s dark, and there’s the small matter of a fire burning in their precious facility to distract them.
Ten feet in and I’m feeling good. Rael is wheezing, but she’s keeping up. I encourage her as much as I can but save my strength for dragging her along. A few more steps and we’ll be halfway. I think redhead is behind us, but I can’t spare him thought.
All that matters is the fence and the hole and freedom on the other side.
I realize Davyd’s no longer with us at the same time Doctor and the other officers turn our way. I take five more steps before any of the men by the door make sense of what they’re seeing. Two prisoners and an officer heading to the fence line.
We’re past halfway but any hope of remaining unnoticed is gone.
“Run,” I cry.
We’re nearly there but the hanging-jaw surprise on the face of Doctor has morphed into pure, purple rage. “Do something.”
“He’s helping them.” Davyd’s voice rings out across the compound. Loud and commanding the attention of all who hear it.
Rael glances back in confusion.
But I know who he means. I jerk her onwards. “Keep going.”
I hear, rather than see, redhead fall. One moment he’s on our heels, the next there’s a thud of a body hitting the path and we’re alone. His strangled cry drives me on, but my brain is reeling. Davyd took him down. Davyd planned this all along.
I glance back.
He bends over the dying man and says something. I can’t hear what it is but I can read the satisfaction in Davyd’s smile.
Ice chills my blood.
I remember the look on his face when redhead questioned his authority. I might have limits on what I’ll do in the name of revenge, but Davyd doesn’t. I should have realized he was always going to die. One moment of insubordination and he’s paid for it with his life. Did he have a wife, a child, someone who’ll cry come sunrise and they learn he’s never coming home?
Another glance behind shows Doctor pushing one of his officers aside. Those delicate hands reach into his pocket. I see it clearly despite the distance.
No, no, no, no, no.
“Faster.” I’m begging myself as much as Rael. If we can make it to the other side of the fence, we’ll be safe. I repeat it twice more.
Then it hits me.
Cuts me off midstride. Takes my legs from under me and throws my arms up. I hit the ground unable to brace. Blood tastes hot on my tongue, mixing with mud and grit. I spit and try to stand.
Another hit. Pain is everything. Everything is pain. My vision goes. I see nothing but red spots. Taste nothing but fear. I’ve been here before. There’s no resisting.
This is it.
Rael is tugging on my hand. I hear her crying as though from another planet. “Asher, come on, we’re almost there.”
“Can’t.” I hate the word, hate the defeat in it, but the pain is everywhere. My muscles spasm, and I drop the Q. “Take the weapon. Go.”
I am on my face and can’t hear her answer.
Pain is every breath. Every beat of my heart makes my body arch. The part of my brain that is still functioning hopes Rael has listened and fled. Then there’s no more room for thought. Only pain.
Something drags me forward.
I pry open eyes slick with tears. Rael. She’s sobbing, tugging at my arm as I flop and twitch. Why won’t she listen? I don’t want to take her down with me. Valuable seconds have passed.
“Go,” I croak.
My body arches again, and my head slams into the ground. The ringing fills my ears but something hits me even harder. I spoke to Rael. A second ago that was beyond me.
The pain … it’s less. Less by only the difference between agony and impossible, but less. It has to be the distance. Rael dragging me forward has helped. I’m on the border of the device’s range, if I can get a little farther I might be free.
I pull out of Rael’s grip.
I try for my hands and knees. I could crawl, happily slither through the mud as the rain grows heavier, but my body won’t obey. She’s pulling at me again, but my arm swings up and sends her flying.
Somehow I need to get farther away from Doctor.
There must be a way.
An involuntary jerk of my arm, thanks to the device, sends the blade still clutched in my hand slicing into my cheek. Flesh parts with a hot sting, blood dribbles down my neck. A scream rips from my throat.
But my body is momentarily mine, I roll forward.
Now I understand. Distance gives me relief, and fresh pain, control.
There’s only one way. I will do whatever it takes to be free. I squeeze as hard as I can on the handle and bring it down across my thigh. I think I cry out, the cut is too deep not to. I don’t care. It works. The fresh wave of pain puts me back in charge. I scramble, on hands and knees toward the fence. As I get farther away, I manage, with Rael’s help, to climb to my feet. Bent low, we run, picking up speed with every step.
Behind us there’s shouting, but we’ll make the fence before they stop us. I have to hope Davyd’s right about the place he directed us to find—that it’s well hidden, because officers are already gathering to take up the chase, and a hundred feet doesn’t seem like much at all.
Doctor screams for help. “Stop them! Somebody stop them!”