The corridors were still empty and the signs of hurried leaving and destruction were everywhere. Tables were overturned in the refectory, files scattered across the floors of offices, and when they reached the dome with the labs, they saw broken glass and medibots toppled over by the force of the blasts. They weren’t far from the exits now and from somewhere ahead came the faint sounds of vehicles, raised voices and, less distant, people running and doors slamming.
Rosie tried to raise Riley on the com again to tell him what they’d found but got only static. As they neared the room where Rosie’s family was, an insistent low-pitched bell began to ring and a calm mechanical female voice echoed throughout the Enclave.
Evacuation protocol one. Time to detonation: forty minutes.
They looked at each other in panic and began to move faster.
“Guess that answers one question,” Pip said.
“But why is that on now?” Rosie spoke through her teeth as every step shot pain through her ankle.
“Yuang probably disabled the announcement when he activated it and Riley’s turned it back on.”
“It’s a message,” Rosie said. “To let us know he couldn’t stop it. His com must be busted.”
“Or something could be interfering with the signal.”
Rosie hoped it was the latter but when she tried again to reach him she didn’t even get static. Both her legs were aching and starting to become unsteady with fatigue. She thought the blows Pip had caught from the grunts had to be bothering him as well, but they kept going in silence now. Time was not on their side.
They reached the lab where her family had been and Rosie hobbled ahead of Pip.
“Rosie, wait!” he hissed a low warning but she ignored him.
She was afraid they wouldn’t be there, her anxiety giving her a burst of energy and robbing her of caution when she needed it most.
She activated the door and rushed in. Relief overwhelmed her as she saw they were still there, but as she reached the sealed bubble and began undoing the flaps, a low voice spoke from behind.
“I was wondering how long I would have to wait.”
She spun around. Yuang was sitting on a chair near one of the lab stations, his legs crossed casually, wearing an indigo-coloured suit. His smile held a trace of mockery. “Hello, Miss Black. Where’s young Pip?”
Rosie just stared at him, frozen.
“Well?” he prompted.
She didn’t answer and tried not to look back at the door. Pip had stopped in the entrance and a slim cupboard was blocking Yuang’s view so he hadn’t seen him. Oblivious, Yuang shook his head with a playful frown and got up. “You’re not very talkative, Miss Black. Is he playing the hero? Gone to help Shore?”
She swallowed. “Yes, he has.”
Yuang looked disappointed and moved towards her. “You’re a terrible liar, Rosie. You’re going to have to learn to do better.” He reached into his jacket and drew out a small black pulse gun. He pointed it at her middle and she heard the subtle whine of it powering up. “It’s time for you to consider your options, child. Helios has room for smart girls like you but we can’t have you telling stories about us. Even without proof.”
Rosie stopped breathing. Yuang’s dark eyes were calm, regretful even, but there was a terrible hardness there as well. He would pull the trigger – he might not be happy about it, but he would do it.
“I can’t–” Fear made her voice a whimper and she coughed, tried again. “You want me to join Helios?”
“If you want to save Riley’s life and your own – yes.”
Was he saying his grunts had caught Riley, or was he just trying to scare her? She glared at him, terrified but furious as well. How was Yuang always one step ahead of them?
Yuang brandished a com in his other hand. “One word and he’s free. It’s up to you, Miss Black. Otherwise …” He lifted the gun until it was aimed at her head.
She wanted to scream. As if he would let Riley go, even if he did have him. There was no way out. They had the information. They had Pip to cure her family and now Yuang was stopping it all. The detonation alarm was ringing louder, almost in time with her pulse.
“You’ll never let him go,” she said.
Yuang sighed and he looked at her with pity. “Don’t make me do this, Rosie.”
“I’m not making you!” Her voice rose to a shout and she watched his finger tighten on the trigger.
“One more–” He didn’t finish as he suddenly sensed Pip behind him. He whirled around but Pip already had his gun raised. Rosie glimpsed Pip’s face; his eyes were dark blue and glittering with contempt and a kind of madness. He didn’t speak but, with mouth set and a shaking hand, he shot Yuang point-blank in the chest.
The force of the pulse shuddered through Yuang’s body and flung him backwards. He fell to the floor, his gun still clenched in his hand, a smoking hole in his chest. He hadn’t made a sound as he died but for a sudden intake of breath.
Pip stood over him, shaking, the gun still held high in his outstretched hand. Yuang’s face held an expression of angry surprise and the stench of burnt flesh filled the room. It turned Rosie’s stomach. The automated voice echoed through the corridors again.
Time to detonation: twenty-five minutes.
“We have to go.” Pip’s face was empty, pale.
Rosie could only nod. She turned around and pushed open the plastic bubble that held her aunt and dad. She was moving like she wasn’t really in her body, like a bot, not really human. The alarm clanged louder.
She went to her dad first. His eyes were closed and his skin covered in the red rash of the MalX, but he was breathing. And he smelled sweet and that almost knocked her to her knees. It was what happened to people with the MalX not long before they died. It was a reaction in the blood and sweat. Her mum had smelled like that. Memory crashed over her like a wave and Rosie began to shake. Not now, she thought desperately and forced herself to keep it together.
She disconnected the drip and peeled the tiny pods from his head as fast as she could. Pip was doing the same for Aunt Essie.
“We need to get your aunt awake,” he said. “She’s not as bad as your dad. Look for adrenaline.”
He was crashing around in the stationary medi units beside the bed. She turned to the unit by her side.
“Is this it?” She held up a syringe sealed in opaque mediplast.
“Give it here.” Pip snatched it from her hand. His movements were jerky, unsteady. He punched the needle into her aunt’s neck.
It worked fast.
Aunt Essie stirred and opened her eyes. “Pipsqueak?”
Rosie rushed to her side to help her sit up. “Aunt Essie, we’ve got to get out. Riley couldn’t stop the selfdestruct.” She was babbling but her aunt seemed to understand.
Her gaze took in Rosie’s dad, then Pip, then the rash on her own bared legs, but all she said was, “How long have we got?”
“About twenty minutes,” Rosie said.
She swung her legs off the bed and to the floor, wincing. She was only wearing a singlet and underwear, but didn’t seem to notice. Then she saw Yuang’s body. Her eyes went from Rosie to Pip and the gun shoved back in his waistband. Her mouth hardened slightly but without comment she stepped towards Rosie’s dad.
“Can we wake him as well?”
“No more adrenaline,” Pip said. He was already kicking the bed’s wheels down, rocking the frame.
“You okay to run?” Aunt Essie looked at Rosie’s ankle. Rosie realised she had stopped noticing the pain.
“Yes.”
“Come on.” Pip pushed the bed towards the opening in the plastic.
“No, you lead,” Aunt Essie said and grabbed one side of it, motioning for Rosie to take the other. Pip didn’t argue. He jogged ahead and Rosie and her aunt followed, rolling the bed past Yuang’s corpse and out into the corridor.
The alarm was louder in the empty hall and they pushed the bed as fast as they could towards the airlocks. Long, frightening creaking sounds were coming up through the structure of the Enclave, like a great metal beast seeking to rise – or fall apart – and every so often a dull crash could be heard and the floor would shake beneath them. Riley’s bombs must have caused more damage than he’d thought.
The pain in Rosie’s ankle returned with a vengeance. She gritted her teeth against the pain and leaned as much as she could on the bed without slowing it down. She worried about Riley. Was he still alive?
Pip had pulled the gun out again and a few metres ahead she saw an outer airlock.
She tried the com again.
Her aunt was watching her. “Riley?” she said. Her voice sounded weaker than normal.
“He was in the lower levels.” Rosie didn’t need to see Aunt Essie’s face to know what she thought about his chances of getting out.
The com spat loud static.
“Riley, come in,” Rosie spoke into the com, leaving the view screen off for maximum power. “Riley.”
Hope surged as a faint voice answered. “Rosie?”
“Riley!” she shouted, catching her aunt’s eye. “Where are you?”
“M … n … lev …” The signal was breaking up, but Rosie tried anyway.
“Riley. We’re getting out – all of us. We have the files.”
She could only pray he’d heard as the com erupted with loud static and then the sound of sharp cracks.
“Gunshots,” her aunt said, her voice strained with the effort of pushing the bed.
“Riley!” Rosie yelled into the com.
“Greenhouse. Go.” His voice suddenly came through clear then the com went dark.
“Where’s the greenhouse?” Rosie called to Pip.
“The other side. Too far. It’s above ground though.”
Rosie looked at Aunt Essie. There were shadows under her eyes and her skin had a yellow tinge to it. She was fading already, the adrenaline being eaten up by the virus.
“He’s on his own, kid,” her aunt said.
Pip was at the airlock. He checked a cabinet on the wall beside it.
“No breathers.” His expression was bleak and Rosie wanted to scream at the injustice of it. Where the hell would they go?