“Get the Section meeting arranged.” I smile. “I’ve got an idea. Melissa, I’ll need your help with it. Then we’ll look for the dog.”
Our dog? Three looks at me.
I nod, then I focus on Three and Rahn. “Can you start bringing the Enhanced here for me to save? We’re going to take back our people. Corin, start on the weapons and augmenters. We’re going to do this. We’re going to win.”
The metal sides of the air-vent tunnel press against me, all four of them. It’s narrow, only slightly wider than my hips and shoulders. Sweat makes my palms sticky, and I try to wipe them on my clothes as I crawl through the air-vents.
Whooshing sounds shoot through the system, followed by rattling. It’s dark—almost pitch-black—and somehow the darkness makes it worse, and I imagine all sorts of things using the tunnels. Rats and rodents. Only the thought doesn’t make me squirm like I’d expected it would. It makes me think of the meat on them, and my mouth waters. Why didn’t I eat some of the tinned food?
I reach ahead, feel the metal to the left disappear. I stick my hand into the gap, then feel around carefully. The first junction.
Take the first left and the second right. Then you’ll be in position. Melissa’s final instructions to me as she gave me a leg-up into the system.
We’d known there were some tunnels like this in some of the compounds—my mother had hidden in one when a raid had gone a little wrong—but I hadn’t known nearly all the blocks had them in their ceilings.
I pull myself into the left turn, and my lungs burn a deep fierceness in me. I think about Corin—he’s getting weapons, destroying augmenters, and he should know about these air-vent systems. Why didn’t Melissa tell us earlier, before she and I left the others?
What if Corin’s been caught?
I take a deep breath, try to calm myself. I need to stay calm.
There’s a strange smell in this tunnel, and I inhale until it fills me, until it’s burning in my chest. Something musty and bad.
More banging sounds ring around me, like metal being tapped on metal.
I reach the next junction: a left, right, and straight on. Second right, that’s what Melissa said. I continue on, and it feels weird, crawling through here, like everything’s going to change from this point on, even though I know the Section meeting likely won’t be today. The day after tomorrow is preferable. If we can do it.
But when Melissa and I get back, will there be Enhanced in our warehouse? How many will Three and Rahn have managed to secure? I close my eyes for a moment, hear their screams as we make them run lean, as I use my powers to invade their minds, peel back the layers and find the souls beneath the rotting matter, the insects.
I can do it.
I will do it.
I move faster.
The tunnel starts to curve—the wall hits my right shoulder, and I wince, redirect myself and—
Light. Ahead.
I speed up, my eyes blinking, get a strange moment of déjà vu, as if I’m back in the Zharat tunnels. But I’m not, and I press my hands against the cold metal for a moment longer than necessary, to remind myself, to anchor myself here.
It’s an air-gate in the floor of the tunnel. A crisscross grid letting small cubes of light up and into the space.
I see Melissa instantly. She’s below me, and she glances at me, before turning back to the screen in front of her. She presses a few buttons, and a symbol flashes on the screen. Text lines appear under it, but I’m too far away to read them.
Now, Melissa whispers.
I reach out for her, with my mind, feel her being mold into mine, until my powers have wrapped around her.
A moment passes, and then a high-pitched popping noise sounds. The screen goes black for a second, then Zahlia’s head and shoulders appear. Her mirror eyes widen as she sees Melissa, not Raleigh.
Zahlia inhales and turns to the side, her arm reaching out.
No, Melissa says, under my guidance. Do not call anyone. You alert anyone, and things will end very badly for you.
“Is Raleigh in trouble? Is New Kimearo?” Zahlia’s voice is low, but she falters. “Who are you? What have you done?” Her words blur into each other—so much so I’d say she’s nervous. “Why are you calling me?”
My eyes smart with the pressure. Melissa pulls up the desk chair and sits slowly. I am a Lost Soul. A spirit. Raleigh does not know I’m talking to you. She folds her arms for a moment, then unfolds them and sits up straighter. A slight tilt of her head, and she meets my gaze, only for a second. Renews contact. My powers in her grow stronger.
I push the words forward.
I am the representative of my people—the Lost Souls—and I am calling you, Zahlia, because we are tired of this war, and we realize you are the only person capable of ending it. The only one with true leadership skills. We wish to lend our numbers to you and end the war. Too much blood has been shed already.
For a moment, Zahlia doesn’t say anything. Her forehead visibly tightens. “You need to speak with the Section,” she says. “I am not yet part of the council.”
Melissa laughs. I have tried, but Raleigh would not arrange a meeting. He wouldn’t listen to me, for he doesn’t believe in life after death—even if what we have is not life—and sees me only as a wild creature. He said he would win the war himself, for he wanted the victory. He would not accept help from us.
“He wouldn’t accept your help?” She frowns. “Even if it would end the war, the suffering?”
He is power hungry, an evil man, corrupt. So very weak and convinced he isn’t. That is why I have called you. My people know how strong and fair you are. And we know you want this war to end—Raleigh does not. He enjoys the pain, the suffering, the killings, and thus he would not entertain our offer. He says he is a Chosen One but he does not live by their values. Zahlia, we will lend our numbers to you, we will aid you in locating all the Untamed, and we will secure Seven for you.
“For me?” Zahlia sits up straighter.
Melissa nods. My council and I need to speak with the Section. Raleigh would not arrange a meeting, but I know you are not incompetent, like he is. I must return to my people now, but I will be back the day after tomorrow, here at New Kimearo. If the Section is waiting to meet with us then, we can proceed.
“I can contact them right away,” Zahlia says. “The day after tomorrow for the meeting? Can it not be sooner?”
No, Melissa says. The day after tomorrow. But be careful with what you say—certain members of the Section will report to Raleigh. We do not want to give him time to come up with excuses. Contact Karl, tell him all, but make sure the others believe it to be a regular meeting. Melissa smiles. Zahlia, I knew I could trust you, for you are pure. I will personally vouch for you to the Section as Raleigh’s replacement.
Zahlia claps a hand to her chest.
I lean forward a little, my neck cricking.
I have Melissa confirm the date and place of the meeting, and the last I see before the call disconnects, is the satisfied look on Zahlia’s face.
“It went well,” I say as Melissa and I meet at the entrance to the tunnel system.
She grins. Clever plan. And it wasn’t too bad, being controlled.
“Good,” I say, because what else can I say when I’m going to be doing a lot more of that later on? “Let’s go.” I look around. “We need to find my dog.”
We search and search and search.
But we don’t find him.
Maybe he’s not here, Melissa suggests.
I don’t like that suggestion. Raleigh knows what that dog means to me. He’s my dog. Of course he’d bring the terrier with him.
But we can’t find him, and so we head back, and my head feels heavy with loss.
There are six Enhanced in the warehouse when Melissa and I return, each of them bound by rope, and the shock of seeing them there—of knowing this is really happening—stops me in my tracks.
I hope I’m right about this.
Rahn,
Three, and Corin have formed a line in front of the Enhanced—and relief washes through me at seeing Corin, of knowing he’s alive, safe.
“Let us go at once,” one of the Enhanced yells at me. The man at the end of the row.
“Be quiet,” Corin snarls, flashing a gun at him. “One more sound from any of you and you’re all dead.”
“Violence is bad.”
Corin turns the gun to the new speaker.
Go on then, Three says to me.
I look at the Enhanced, and I feel all the Sarrs inside me rise up. Feel the power they push to my heart, my soul. The comfort they bring, the help they promise. I nod—to them, to myself. “It’s time to start.”
“That’s it?” Corin stares at me, then at the six people tied up. I don’t know what to call them. Because they’re not them, but they’re not quite us. Not yet. “They’re done?”
I nod. I feel their insects inside me, crawling, thousands of tiny, tiny feet, but the Sarrs are there. We work together, we are one and we protect each other, and they take the darkness. They keep me clean and safe. It’s so much easier than with Taras. Work is always easier when it’s shared.
“Are the next ones ready?” I ask.
Corin looks to the warehouse door, and so do I. No more are waiting. “They’ll be here soon,” he says. Then he touches my arm. “Are you really okay? No more Seer instability?”
“I’m fine. The Seer instability—it’s a thing of the past. Taras was wrong, it’s not a permanent thing.”
I squeeze his hand, and my eyes settle on the re-converted people in front of me. None of them are speaking, but their shock radiates off them in waves.
And it was easy, saving them.
The savior. The word wants to roll off my tongue, wants me to give it a shape, a meaning.
It’s what Raleigh said I’d be, what he called me.
He was right.
I run a hand through my hair.
Maybe I don’t have to kill anyone. Because killing all the Stone Seers showed me what mass-murder felt like. These people may be bad, they may be the enemy, but they’re trapped in a web of addiction.
It’s not their fault.
It’s the first time I’ve really thought about it like that. They’ve all been brainwashed, and none of them chose it, not really. It was the propaganda, the false promises, the power addiction.
I think about it all, continue thinking about it with a really clear head, in a way that feels strange to me, like I’m detached, as we talk over our plan for the actual attack in more detail, as they bring me more people to save, as my team come and go, as I comb through more and more Enhanced minds, freeing them from the snares that have held them for so long.
They don’t deserve to die. Being converted doesn’t mean it’s over. You can come back. I can help people come back. Rahn’s survival lessons are wrong.
Maybe I could save all the Enhanced.
Save who you can. My mother’s voice. They can resist with your help. But you can’t save everyone. I’m sorry, baby, but you have to remember the augury, for that is the guide on the only way this can end: the rest will be destroyed. Baby, I’m sorry, but it has to happen. Death has to make a new world.
I swallow hard, refuse to think about it. About what I have to do. I tell myself it won’t come to that—but I know it’s a lie. I trust my mother, and she’s speaking inside me. And she said it before, when she died, that terrible things would happen to me.
Is this what she was meaning? That I’d kill so many people—and I wouldn’t have a choice in it? That I’d never be able to escape the memories of it? That it would haunt me forever in Death’s realm. Because I know it would. An eternity of thinking about what I’ve done.
About five hours later—in the middle of the night—Corin and Rahn return with the last lot of guns and ammunition in sacks on their backs. I jerk awake, had only been sleeping while I was waiting for more Enhanced Ones to arrive. Sleep is important, I know that. I need to be refreshed, alert, if I’m going to continue saving as many people as I can. And, right now, I’ve done all that I can. I can’t continue anyway, until more Enhanced are here. Three’s gone out to find more, hasn’t he?
What about the augmenters? I hear Melissa ask. Her voice sounds so far away, and I shake my head, clear sleep from it. My sleep was dreamless, except for the huge black beetles, swollen with darkness that whispered to me.
“We’ve hidden some,” Corin says. “But doing anything more would draw attention to them. We don’t want to make Raleigh or the others suspicious. It needs to be tomorrow when we sort those out. Just before we launch the attack.”
Tomorrow? The attack? I blink. Of course. It’s the next day. We’re in the early hours. Or is it later than that? The light is still fairly dim in the warehouse.
“Rahn, can you go around and smash them then? Actually, no. Melissa, you do that. When me and Sev go to the meeting?”
I miss Melissa’s answer because I’m more caught on the fact that Corin’s coming with me to the meeting. We talked about it briefly, yesterday, when we discussed the plan in more detail, and we decided I’d go in ahead of the spirits. That calling them all in in front of Raleigh would be the most dramatic way to do it, and we need to surprise them, throw them off guard.
But Corin’s coming with me, he’ll be by my side, and it makes me smile even as sleep starts to drift over me again….
Corin screams a heart-wrenching scream.
I jolt, blinking in brighter light, so much brighter, and—
Where is he?
Movement. Everywhere. Three and Melissa race forward.
Get off him! Melissa’s at the other end of the warehouse now.
Rahn zooms past me, to the back of the warehouse where one of the newly converted woman struggles against Corin, trying to get to the door.
I race forward, my movements jolty, and then I’m on them. I grab her, just as she runs her nails down Corin’s face—marking him—and I yank her back just as Corin shoves her.
She stumbles into me, and I fall, her on top of me. The back of my head hits the concrete, and I blink, see white flashes in front of me, dazzling all around.
Hands lift the woman off me. Three and Melissa.
“Sev? Are you okay?”
The woman’s eyes fix onto mine. “You think this is saving me?” she yells, and she yells so loudly. “You think you know what’s best?”
“This is best.”
She spits in my face, and Three slaps her. She whirls around on him and—
She’s got a gun.
“How the hell’s she got that?” Corin yells.
“Any of you come near me, and I’ll shoot!”.
Really? Even though violence is bad? Three shakes his head, smiling slightly.
“I’m not a full Chosen One anymore,” she says. “You made sure of that.” She turns, pivots, pointing the gun at each of us, one after another. “Right now, I believe firmly that violence, when justified, is perfectly acceptable.”
“Put the gun down.” Corin holds his hands up.
“You think I’m going to give up the only thing that can get me out of here?” She laughs, and it’s the same way Raleigh laughs. The way all the Enhanced laugh. The type that reveals the evil inside, as if there are droplets of poison clinging to the bells of their laughter. “No. I’m getting out of here, and I’ll use it if I have to. I’ll—”
Corin makes a grab for the gun.
She moves her arm, pulls it back and—
The click of the safety.
We lunge, all of us.
A gunshot.
My ears ring.
Someone shouts.
The woman twists round, faces me, and—
I punch her.
She falls back, a clear space behind her, and the gun clatters on the hard, stone floor. Her head catches the corner of a metal crate, and she twists as she falls. As her head cracks against the stone.
She doesn’t make a sound.
She doesn’t move.
I stare at her.
Then at the others.
At Corin. Corin, who’s still alive. She’s not dead. She can’t be. I haven’t just killed her, killed all my people. But she’s one of us now… Yes, she’s not connected to them anymore.
She’s alive, Three says. You knocked her out. That’s all.
Knocked her out?
“The gunshot,” Corin pants. “Who got hit?”
Then we’re checking ourselves—and it’s silly because you’d think we’d feel it. But right now, I can’t feel anything, my body’s numb, and I check my arms, my legs, my torso.
“Not me,” I say, just as my eyes fall on Rahn.
On the hole in him.
An actual hole. A hole of darkness, ripping through his chest.
He’s staring straight at me, his eyes bulging, red, almost glowing.
I take a step back, blood pounding in my ears, as I stare at him. As he unravels. Thousands of molecules spinning out, the outline of the black hole growing and growing. He makes a gurgling noise and then—
Then he explodes.
Something wet and foul-smelling splashes against me.
And then, then there’s nothing.
We stare at each other. Me, Corin, Three, and Melissa.
At last I look down.
The woman’s still unconscious.
“We need to tie her up again,” I say, my voice wobbling. “Her addiction’s gone, but she’s a sympathizer.”
I pull my hands through my hair and look at the rest of the new Untamed, bound by their ropes. Can we even use them in our plan, as an army? Has Corin been right, all along? Would any of them kill the Enhanced, go against their former people?
I back up against the wall, shaking. Melissa and Three take the woman between them, secure her. Corin stays where he’s standing, his body visibly tense. He asks how she escaped her ropes, but no one answers.
“Do you think anyone heard the gunshot?” I ask after a little while. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. It’s important. Crucial. The Enhanced could’ve heard, could be coming right now.
Corin looks at me, his eyes wide, like it never occurred to him.
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