My stomach turned heavily as I took him in. His flesh was peeling away from the infected wounds where the tubes were inserted all over his body, showing unhealthy, blackened muscle beneath.
His bloodshot jaundiced eyes caught mine and the connection was immediate, violent. His agony invaded my every cell, pulling me apart at a molecular level, poisoning my blood with hatred. His was the rage I’d felt. I was staggered; Cash’s arms were suddenly around me, holding me up as I fought against his agony.
“This is what they were planning to do to us. They were farming our echoes and then using us as guinea pigs," Mia said, a chill running up her spine.
Glitch turned his face away.
The man let out another tortured sound. I looked to Cash, unable to speak, my gaze pleading with him. He made a movement to close the doors again, but I grabbed his arm, stopping him.
The man was still alive. He was suffering. I couldn’t just leave him like that.
I felt Ma’s hand on my shoulder. “Liv.”
I looked up at her through the cloud of pain. Mia had opened another panel in the wall that revealed a series of tubes. Two of the lines that went into the first and third cages were empty, having already been depressed into the dead experiments. The middle line was still full of a dark green fluid, connected to the still-living experiment.
Above the panel was the word “terminate,” in large block letters.
For a moment, everyone looked around at each other. Nobody spoke, but we were all thinking the same thing.
“I don’t know about this—” Cash started, but I didn’t let him finish. Before anyone could say anything else, I stepped forward and hit the final button.
With a soft electronic whir, the green fluid flushed through the tube and flowed into the veins of the last man in the tank. For a few moments, his whole body tensed, every muscle and vein standing out in stark relief. His neck snapped backward in one final tortured roar. Then the bubbles stopped and his head rolled forward again. When our eyes met again, I felt the final heavy beats of his heart and saw weary gratitude in his tired eyes.
I belonged to myself again.
We all remained silent, but we felt the same. It had been the right thing to do. The relief was fleeting. An alarm suddenly rang out. Red emergency lights flashed overhead and the wailing sirens echoed in our skulls.
“What happened?” Cash shouted, his hands over his ears.
I shook my head, trying to block out the sound. I looked around left and right and found Glitch standing guiltily next to the desk, his hand still hovering over the battalion of buttons. A large red button was blinking furiously.
“Glitch, did you push that button?” I demanded, my voice lost in the sirens.
“No!” He yelled back.
"Maybe you should?" Mia said, covering her ears.
Glitch looked to Cash and I. We nodded, having no other resolution. Glitch pressed the button, and just as sharply as they had started, the alarms died. The red lights, however, still flashed menacingly.
“What the hell just happened?” I screamed, still hearing the high pitched shriek that lingered in my ears.
From the next room over, the sound of glass shattering replaced the sirens. My heart leapt into my throat, choking me as I realized what had happened. We all knew what that sound meant, but it was Mia who voiced our fears.
“The experiments are escaping!” She screamed.
A body slammed hard against the wooden door. It cracked but didn't give yet. I flung my mind out toward it and put up a barrier.
Another body hit the door, then a barrage of thumps and bangs slammed hard against the walls. I focused my power there, but I wasn't sure how long I could hold them all back.
Cash lifted one of the wooden chairs at Devereaux's desk and hurled it to the ground. He twisted off a leg of the chair and tested its weight. He wielded it like a bat, ready if they broke through.
I turned to Glitch and Mia. "Find another way out of here. This one isn't an option anymore," I said nervously. "Sooner rather than later, please?"
Mia and Glitch went to the other side of the office and tested the paneled walls.
"Nothing here!" Mia yelled.
"I've got nothing," Glitch yelled, zipping around the room.
"They're going to get in, so we need a way out!" I yelled.
As if to punctuate my point, a thin shard of the door caved inward, throwing splinters across the floor.
"There is no other door, Liv!" Mia spat out angrily.
"Then make one!" I called back to her, my mental grip slipping.
"Oh." Mia turned quickly and went to the back wall. She held out her arms. "Everyone stand back," she warned as her body began to glow. Flames erupted from her arms and heat swirled off of her as her power surged forward. Her fire shot toward the wall in a beam of pure concentrated heat, burning the wood panels to ash in seconds. The wall's frame melted away, revealing a path to the next hallway.
"We're clear," Mia said as her body cooled.
"Cool," Glitch said in awe. "Or hot..."
"Go!" Cash yelled, pushing Glitch and Mia forward through the smoking hole in the wall.
I stepped backward slowly, focusing on keeping the door and wall firm. The second I let it go, the experiments would burst through.
"Start running!" I called out.
Once Cash, Glitch and Mia were out of the room, I let my power fall away and hauled ass after them.
I flew out into the hall just as the first subject tore down the door. The others funneled in behind him, snarling and screaming in agony; wanting nothing more that to inflict their pain on us.
Mia was waiting for me, her arms already ablaze, her eyes glowing like hot coals.
"Keep going. I'm right behind you!" She instructed. She seemed almost calm as she focused her energy.
"Mia, no!"
"Damn it, Liv. I've got this! I'm right behind you!" Her eyes burned into mine and fire crawled up her body.
I stammered for a moment.
"Trust me," she pleaded.
I nodded and regrettably followed Glitch and Cash down the hallway.
Mia turned toward the hole she'd created and let her fire surge forward like a flame thrower, burning anyone who came through it. The experiments fell to the ground and piled up in smoldering heaps, screaming in agony until they finally expired.
I locked onto my sister's emotional grid and felt the way her power excited her senses and the satisfaction she felt as she unleashed it. She was right. Nothing was going to stop her. I let her go and focused ahead of me.
Glitch, Cash and I were nearing the reception area when I heard Mia catching up to us. When we were all together again, Mia started running down the opposite hallway.
"Wait! We should go," Cash said through heaving breaths.
"No, they have to be here somewhere. We have to keep looking," Mia protested.
"What if they didn't even come here? What if ACT already grabbed them and we're just running toward another hall of defective experiments?" Glitch said, almost vibrating with nerves.
"No!" A female voice called out from behind Mia.
Mia turned sharply back to me and I felt her heart jump.
"Lexa," we said together.
I looked at Cash and Glitch who already had their game faces on. They ran after my sister and I was close behind.
Chapter Twenty Four
We passed through a hallway where several experiments were strewn across the floor in various stages of mutilation and death. Some were completely torn apart, while others clearly had their necks broken. A few were left alive, but just barely. One of the electrically adapted experiments lay twitching on the ground in the throes of shock after shock. The burning man still smoldered, letting out strangled mewling sounds, but no longer thrashed. I reached out with my mind and took hold of their necks and gave them each a sharp twist. A brief surge of pressure, followed by a millisecond of sharp pain and they were gone.
We continued down t
he halls looking for Lexa. After a few more twists and turns, I came to a dead stop. Lexa was there, bent over a body on the floor. She held it in her arms, her face buried in it. She was wracked with sobs.
“Mars?” Mia murmured sadly.
My heart clenched tightly in my chest, making me dizzy for a moment. I could tell that it was Mars by the mop of dark hair cradled against Lexa’s shoulder. One of his pale hands was dripping with blood, flopped at his side as Lexa rocked him against her.
As I took a step toward her, I heard Jason scream out hoarsely. The already-dead body of an experiment flew through the air, crashing into the wall with a sickening snap and fell in a heap to the ground. It did not get up. Jason stalked around the corner, his breath hitching, his fists bloodied and balled at his sides. He was in a blind rage. The broken men had been his doing.
"Jason,” I whispered. His heated gaze snapped up to me. For a moment, I thought he would attack, but then recognition came over him and his expression faltered.
He looked at us helplessly, his fists unclenching. His lower lip quivered.
“Liv." He let out a deep pained sigh. "I’m so sorry,” he finally said, his voice cracking.
He looked away from me in shame.
Nobody moved yet or said anything else. Even Mia was frozen, hurting and unsure of what to do. I did the only thing I could. I took a few careful steps toward Lexa, quietly calling her name as I reached for her.
As soon as I said her name, she stilled. Every muscle in her body tensed. At first I thought she was holding back a cry, but then her psyche hit me. Her fury was immediate and molten, searing me. It sucked all the air out of my lungs.
I knew she blamed me even before her eyes found me.
“This is your fault,” she said quietly, venomously. She was shaking horribly as she advanced toward me. I searched her for any sign of the Lexa I knew, but that girl was gone. The only voice she had left inside of her was one that hated me.
I shook my head. “Lexa, I couldn’t have known—”
“This is your fault!" She erupted suddenly, her voice so loud and sharp that I flinched back from her. She stood slowly, lowering Mars’ body to rest at her feet. “You abandoned us! You could have helped us, but you're selfish and self righteous! Look at him!" She pointed back toward Mars' body. "You did this!"
"She ran at me, but Jason was right there, catching her around the waist and holding her back as she screamed at me.
I was stunned by her words and poisoned by her emotions. Mars’ death had not been my fault. I hadn’t told them to go on this crazy mission. In fact, I had warned them against it. Yet, her accusations still hit me somewhere deep, piercing me.
I fell to my knees, all my strength gone.
"Both of you!" Lexa turned her poison on Mia then, her face turning red with fury. "You left us with with nothing!" Lexa kicked at Jason, clawing at his arms, screaming at him to let her go, but he didn’t. He held her until the wave of fury had passed and she collapsed in his arms, sobbing once more.
Jason’s eyes met mine again, just as a voice echoed through my head. "I think it's about time we shut this party down."
I recognized Devereaux's voice immediately. I could tell Jason and Lexa hadn't heard it, but the look on Nyx and Lux's face, and the tremor fear I felt edging its way through them, told me they did.
I didn't have time to react before everything went black. Nyx and Lux had put a blanket of darkness around Mia, Glitch, Cash and me. "I'm sorry it had to come to this, but we're going to be taking our leave," Lux said gruffly.
"Yeah, we should all be going. What's with lights out?" Glitch asked, anxiously pacing.
"You're all going to have to hang out here until Devereaux arrives so we can put as much distance between us and this place as possible," Nyx clarified.
"Wait! You're leaving us here?" Glitch cried out.
"We don't need to outrun ACT, Glitch. We just have to outrun you."
"Seriously, guys?" Glitch yelled.
"Glitch, stop," Mia said, reaching out to calm him. No amount of reasoning or pleading would stop them.
"Devereaux can see through your glamours, Nyx," Cash reminded her.
"But you can't," Nyx said sternly. "Sit tight for a bit. Someone will be along to collect you soon enough."
I felt them moving farther and farther away from us. Lexa and Jason too. I hadn't imagined they would abandon us, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. The hatred I felt billowing off of Lexa and the disappointment I saw in Jason's eyes was all I needed to know that they'd given up on me. It wasn't us anymore. It was me or them.
Mia was at my side. I felt her attention settle on me and a ripple of pity pushed it's way through her. "Liv, it isn’t Lexa saying those things,” she whispered.
I shook my head numbly, curling up tighter around myself.
“She's right,” I whispered back, my throat was painfully tight. Realization was dawning on me as everything clicked into place. “I abandoned them when they needed my help. And ACT knew we were coming. They were counting on someone to release the test subject in Devereaux's office. Hitting that termination button must have set off their trap. They were going to terminate the experiments anyway, so why not use them to kill off their enemies first?”
Mia let out a frustrated sound, grabbed me by the arms and shook me.
“You do not get to fall apart on me,” she growled. “You know damn well this isn’t your fault and you couldn’t have known about the trap. You didn’t do this. ACT did.”
I just stared at her.
"Where's that defiant badass that mouthed off to Stone every chance she got and tore apart the Black Corridor to save someone she loved? You are not this weak." Mia stared back at me evenly, then slowly held out an open hand to me. “ACT did this,” she reaffirmed. “Now let’s put a stop to it, shall we?”
I looked at her hand for a moment before clenching my teeth and taking it. My moment of weakness fled from me. I came to my feet shakily at first, then stronger. Though, as long as we were trapped in the twin's glamour, we were helpless.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Mia asked, coming to the same conclusion as I did.
Mia’s arms suddenly blossomed into flames. She held her hands out on front of her and a ball of fire whooshed to life, growing larger and larger with each passing second. The energy pulsing off of it whipped my hair around my face as though I was in a wind storm.
I unleashed my telekinesis, capturing Mia’s flames and sending them away from us. The glamour around us flickered and burned away.
When the fire faded, the others were already gone.
“That was awesome,” Glitch breathed.
Mia wasn’t listening. She had slowly approached Mars' body, kneeling next to him. I followed after her, putting a hand on her shoulder as she bent her head, tears slipping down the bridge of her nose.
Mars had taken a serious beating. I could only glance at his face. He was completely broken and barely looked like himself anymore.
I remembered the quiet, reserved boy I’d met at Hawthorn, and felt a pang of deep sadness, but there was nothing that I could do for him now.
“Come on, let’s go,” I said softly, trying to bring her to stand. She began to tremble, and then she was too hot to touch. I yanked my hand away, hissing in pain. Sparks flew from her fingertips as her skin glowed brightly. She was seething.
“I’m going to bring this place down,” she snarled. “You should run now.”
“Mia, no. We can still get out of here before Devereaux shows up,” I reasoned.
She caught my gaze and I felt her fury battling with her grief in a vicious tug-of-war.
“We were coming here to take this place down. His death is meaningless if I don’t finish this,” she whispered.
I shook my head. “This isn’t the way. You're going to get trapped in here and they're going to take you. Getting caught isn’t going to do anything for Mars. You can honor him by coming with us and keeping th
e rest of us safe. We need you. I need you. I can’t lose you now.”
Her eyes brimmed with tears as her flames grew brighter, fighting for release.
“Is everyone going to do this?” she whimpered then, and she sounded so completely broken that my heart ached for her. I wanted to reach out to touch her, but she was still too hot to even approach. “Is everyone going to just go away?”
I shook my head fervently. “Not everyone. Not me. I’ll never leave you again.” I held my hand out to her cautiously, my gaze never wavering from her.
“Please, Mia?” I said quietly.
With a shudder and a hurt sound, her flames extinguished and she reached out, grasping my hand tightly. Her skin was still uncomfortably warm for only a moment. I pulled her to me in a tight hug.
Knowing that I'd gotten through to her, I let out a relieved breath, but was surprised to see it fog in front of me in a frosty plume. There was a sharp crackling noise and we all looked up. Ice was crawling across the ceiling and over the floor, crystalline and cold.
“Is this another one of the twin’s tricks?” Cash asked, his teeth chattering.
Mia let go of me, her flames back in her palms. “I don’t think so.”
“She’s right,” I agreed. “I can’t feel them.” I closed my eyes and sought out the source of the frost to find that two people were quickly coming upon us. One of which was very familiar.
“Devereaux,” I growled.
“Liv.” Devereaux rounded the corner. He looked the same and felt just as empty as our first encounter. His dark hair was slicked back from his face, his dimples cutting deeper as he regarded me with amusement.
Next to him was the source of the sudden freeze. He was only a few inches shorter than Devereaux, with shaggy white-blond hair that hung over mischievous pale blue eyes. Whereas Devereaux still wore a snappy, dark suit, the stranger wore dark jeans and a button-up shirt. He wasn’t agent material, but then again, Devereaux had never been exactly cookie-cutter either.
Collide (Anomaly Book 3) Page 16
