Stuck

by Samantha Durante

  Alessa seemed to agree. “Enough chit chat. Open the door.”

  Joe raised one side of a mangled lip, flashing his jagged teeth to ensure their compliance.

  The Developer gave Joe a dirty look, replying sardonically, “As you command,” while giving the General the signal to unlock the keypad.

  Annoyed, Lizzie followed them through the door, wondering how he found the nerve to be so condescending with – for all intents and purposes – a saber-toothed tiger poised open-mouthed at his throat.

  The heavy door slammed shut behind her and locked with a clank, and, Lizzie realized with a pang, she was unfortunately about to find out.

  She could see the mirror reverberating and hear the roars of protest as Alessa and Joe helplessly banged on the outside of the glass.

  “Let them in, now!” she ordered.

  “Or what?” the General chided, taking obvious pleasure in her powerlessness.

  At the sound of their voices, Regina glanced up – and, seeing Lizzie, her face lit with the brilliance of a thousand suns. She stood, her arms outstretched, and Lizzie threw herself, unbelieving, into her mother’s embrace.

  But before Regina could say anything, the Developer growled, “Initiate final sequence.”

  Lizzie felt Regina go rigid in her arms and pulled back. Regina’s eyes darted around the room, radiating panic even though the rest of her face was unnaturally still and placid.

  “Mom? Mom!”

  Regina’s face was turning red.

  Searching her mother, her own blood now hammering in her ears, Lizzie noticed that Regina’s lips were clamped together in a tight line, her nostrils perfectly static, her chest immobilized.

  She wasn’t breathing.

  The banging on the glass grew louder but Lizzie could barely hear it over her own thumping heart. No, she pleaded to herself. No!

  “Breathe, Mom! Please breathe!”

  The General’s rasping voice pierced her ears, a scornful snicker, followed by a malicious, “Nice touch.”

  And Lizzie watched in horror as her mother’s skin turned blue.

  46. ALERT

  “No!” Alessa screamed, battering her fists in futility against the glass.

  Regina was suffocating herself to death before Alessa’s very eyes. This could not be happening.

  Beside her, Joe bellowed with rage, raking his claws against the mirror with a sickening squeal.

  Alessa gasped for breath, her system overloaded. Between the eruption of her own emotions and Joe’s, she could barely think.

  And now a third set of emotions rocked her psyche: Regina’s.

  No, Alessa begged again. If she could feel Regina too, that meant it was real – she was dying.

  Panic flooded Alessa’s mind, the panic of imminent death. Existential terror sent her heart hurtling down a raging river of sensation, buoyed by disbelief, fury, despair.

  Regina was fighting her hardest, but it was no use. Whatever the Developer had done to her, she was powerless to combat.

  Thoughts raced before Alessa’s eyes – memories. Of a childhood she didn’t recognize. A fuzzy-haired blonde baby cradled in her arms. Fame, success, wealth, then devastation, desolation, death. And hope – hope for a better future, one she was determined to usher forth by whatever means necessary.

  Regina’s eyes focused on Lizzie, and the fierce warmth of love blazed in Alessa’s chest. Love and apology and longing and, finally, acceptance.

  Regina was letting go.

  Tears streaking down her face, Alessa banged against the window. “No!” Alessa screeched. “No!”

  Regina collapsed into her daughter’s arms, her mouth finally slack as Alessa felt the last vestiges of life drain from her consciousness.

  Alessa’s heart crumpled.

  She couldn’t feel Lizzie, but she didn’t need to. Sinking to her knees, her mother’s limp body cradled in her arms, Lizzie’s wail of agony was just barely audible through the thick cell door.

  Blistering wrath boiled up in Alessa’s chest – she couldn’t even differentiate by this point between her own and Joe’s. They both needed the same thing: vengeance.

  Alessa eyed the Developer, who was leaning against the wall, his gangly arms folded in a gesture of smug satisfaction.

  But even that wasn’t enough for the General, who was eyeing Lizzie with an expression of unabashed, malevolent glee.

  Alessa watched in horror as he stepped forward, gripped Lizzie’s hair from behind, and yanked her to standing. Regina’s body slumped sickeningly to the floor.

  Lizzie turned to strike him, but he anticipated it, grabbing her wrist and twisting her arm behind her back. He pressed himself against the length of her backside, slamming Lizzie violently against the cement wall, a trickle of blood immediately cascading down her forehead. With his free hand, he groped obscenely at Lizzie’s body.

  A cannonball of dread punched Alessa’s stomach as he hissed something into Lizzie’s ear, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

  Lizzie was facing towards the glass, and Alessa’s breath caught in her throat as she realized Lizzie’s eyes were glazing over in shock, disconnecting herself from the hideousness that was about to be inflicted upon her.

  They had to do something to stop it.

  Before Alessa could even finish the thought, Joe careened into the window, launching himself with otherworldly force against the already claw-scored glass. With an earsplitting crack, it shattered to the floor.

  Joe tumbled into the cell, lithely rolling to his feet, his bulging eyes ablaze with fury.

  In one swift motion he turned to the General, who barely had a chance to register the surprise on his face before Joe sunk his claws into his shoulder and neck and jerked, separating the General’s head from his torso with a searing howl of retribution.

  Bright red blood spurted the walls, spattering across the Developer’s face, which was no longer quite so smug.

  Joe turned to him and released one hair-raising growl before leaping across the cell and wrenching out the Developer’s throat with his teeth.

  The Developer crashed to the floor, the bloody pulp that remained of his neck sputtering with crimson.

  A rush of indescribable pain shot through Alessa, nearly overwhelming her perception of his other ending thoughts. She caught only flashes of his feelings between waves of agony, blood seeping across the floor with every weakening pulse.

  Utter disbelief at not being able to talk his way out through this rabble of inferiors.

  Betrayal at trusting the security of the cell, the useless General’s work completely sub-par, as usual.

  Humiliation at Lizzie’s double-cross, the uppity bitch.

  Rage at the lack of appreciation from the people of Paragon and the other Engineers, the bunch of feeble ingrates.

  Each thought was more repulsive than the last, and Alessa could barely process the complex wave of emotions as they thundered through her head.

  But one final design pierced through: an image of several small nuclear reactors spinning out of control, and destruction raining down across the compound.

  No.

  She jumped the half-wall through the window, wrapping a supportive arm around Lizzie’s shoulders, and pulling her to the exit, motioning for Joe to follow with haste. They didn’t have a moment to spare.

  Three words rang out in Alessa’s mind, the Developer’s cold, calculating voice reverberating through her brain.

  “Finish the job.”

  47. EXIGENCY

  Isaac gaped at the screen. He could just barely make out Alessa scooping up Lizzie between the smattering of red droplets distributed across the security camera’s lens.

  Beside him, he heard one of the Engineers vomit, but didn’t turn around to see who – he was too busy trying to figure out what exactly he’d seen on Alessa’s face before she and Lizzie and Joe had hurtled back over the window frame and out of the camera’s view.

  Something was wrong.

  “I s
ee you enjoyed that little preview,” Carlos taunted, not even bothering to point his gun at the three remaining enemies. Fear of Joe’s reprisal was keeping them rooted in place better than any weapon could.

  Isaac gave Carlos a scolding look, which Carlos returned with a playful smirk. They had no intention of setting Joe loose on the others, of course, unless – like the Developer and General – they gave them reason to. But the Engineers didn’t know that.

  The Economist was still wiping at his mouth and looking green when Alessa, Joe, and Lizzie rounded the corner a moment later.

  “We’re sorry!” he blurted, dissolving into tears. “We didn’t know, we promise!”

  The Doctor rolled his eyes at his blubbering colleague, but at least had enough of a sense of self-preservation to add, “He’s telling the truth. We were not informed about Regina’s presence here, nor the plans to bring her to such a… gruesome… and wholly unnecessary end.”

  Isaac’s heart went out to Lizzie, who sat down heavily in one of the chairs, still looking dazed. She didn’t even acknowledge the Engineers.

  The Draftsman made one last plea. “You have every right to finish us, of course – that is to be expected. But, I might point out, with our knowledge of Paragon’s inner workings, we may be of more value to you alive.” He paused, gauging their reactions. “We would, of course, be more than willing to comply with any and all of your demands.”

  “You scum are of no value to anyone,” Carlos spat.

  But Alessa seemed to have other plans – Isaac could see that something was troubling her, and the Draftsman’s offer seemed to have sparked some kind of idea.

  “Prove it,” Alessa challenged.

  “Tell us how,” the Doctor offered.

  Alessa gave Isaac and Carlos a long look before replying. They all knew it would be a gamble to trust anything out of the Engineers’ mouths, but he surmised from her expression that they didn’t have a choice.

  “The Developer has rigged the compound to blow – just like he did Raptor.”

  Isaac cursed under his breath. Alessa must have seen this revelation with her empath abilities as the Developer lay dying.

  “Son of a…” Carlos had evidently reached the same conclusion.

  They’d had their suspicions about what really happened to the rebel base, and they’d known some kind of self-destruct sequence wasn’t out of the question – that was why Janie and the rest of the team had immediately set out to protect the citizens.

  But they’d hoped, with all the effort that had gone into Paragon’s creation, that maybe its misguided leaders would be devoted enough to their ideals to preserve it, even if they wouldn’t be there to witness their legacy come to fruition. He guessed, in the Developer’s case at least, they were wrong.

  But the genuine looks of surprise on the rest of the Engineers’ faces told him that there was a chance the others might cooperate.

  The Doctor shook his head in dismay, the bright overhead lights glinting off his neat silver-white hair. “He must have activated it when he pulled up the feed of Regina’s cell.”

  “What else can you tell us?” the Draftsman uttered, his voice urgent. “How is he planning to do it?”

  Alessa grimaced and raised her shoulders. “All I got was something about nuclear cells going haywire.”

  The Draftsman nodded in understanding. “There are several of them around the compound, powering the various utilities. Everything is connected to our central grid. Let me check our systems data.”

  The Draftsman leaned over the table and typed some commands into the virtual keyboard. A list of status items appeared on the screen, the handful of flashing orange lines drawing Isaac’s attention:

  Zone 1 Power Cell – WARNING, OVERHEATING

  Zone 2 Power Cell – WARNING, OVERHEATING

  Zone 3 Power Cell – WARNING, OVERHEATING

  Zone 4 Power Cell – WARNING, OVERHEATING

  The Draftsman stroked a few more keys, then swore. “Vengeful bastard disabled the shutoff codes,” he explained.

  “C-can’t we override it?” the Economist urged.

  The Draftsman stroked his beard and thought for a moment. “There is a manual switch in the main hub – it’s in the basement of this building. We’ve never tried before, but it should deactivate all the power units across the compound.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” Carlos questioned. “Show us where.”

  “There’s just one problem,” the Draftsman hesitated.

  “What?” Carlos, Isaac, and Alessa shouted in unison.

  “The radiation,” the Doctor answered, his voice grave. “If the power cells are overheating, they’ll kill anyone who gets too close.”

  “The nuclear reactor for this zone is located in the same room as the override switch,” the Draftsman explained. “Whichever of us goes in might be able to save the compound, but we won’t survive the exposure. It’s certain suicide.”

  48. SACRIFICE

  This day just kept getting better, Alessa sighed to herself.

  “Well, which one of you three is drawing the short straw?” Carlos queried brightly, pointing the barrel of his gun at each of the Engineers in turn.

  They traded panicked looks in response.

  Alessa agreed that would be the most fair solution, but at the same time, they’d already been deceived once, with disastrous results. This was too important to leave in the hands of their enemies to fix.

  It would have to be one of the rebels.

  Isaac caught Alessa’s eye, his lips drawn and his eyes serious. He seemed to have reached the same conclusion.

  Joe had been skulking in the corner for most of the conversation, but he stepped forward now and grunted to grab their attention.

  Of course, Alessa thought, with a mixture of gratitude and exasperation. Always the hero.

  “No,” Isaac immediately denied. “You’ve sacrificed enough.”

  “You’re worth more than the three of them combined,” Carlos corroborated.

  From across the table, the Economist audibly gulped.

  Joe closed his eyes, and Alessa could feel his focus, sending her his thoughts. They hit her like a blow to the gut.

  How had he been keeping this from her?

  She gave him a wounded look before conveying his sentiment to the others.

  “That may be,” Alessa sighed. “But they aren’t already dying. Joe is.”

  Isaac’s head whipped between Joe and Alessa. “What are you talking about?”

  Alessa glared at Joe as she explained, “Somehow he’s been hiding it from me. But apparently, he’s dying of radiation poisoning. All the Stuck are. From Raptor.”

  Now that Joe had released whatever mental shield he’d put up to hide it, she could feel the lingering pain radiating throughout his body. It was subtle, underneath all the intense emotion he and the other Stuck were always carrying with them, but it was there. He was slowly wasting away.

  And he’d rather go out with a bang.

  Tears welled in Alessa’s eyes. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Joe, again.

  “There’s got to be something we can do,” Carlos argued.

  “It’s already been, what, six weeks?” the Doctor countered. “Depending on his level of exposure, if he’d been treated immediately with Potassium Iodide and received blood and bone marrow transfusions shortly thereafter, plus antibiotics to fight the external damage to his skin, he might have had a chance. But by now the organ and cellular damage is far too extensive. It’s a miracle he’s lasted this long – probably only the result of his mutation.”

  Alessa resented the clinical tone of his assessment, but she knew the Doctor was right. This must be why Joe had kept his distance all these weeks, only checking in once or twice a day – he was hiding how sick he’d been all along.

  Isaac deflated. “So it’s settled,” he lamented.

  Joe’s gaze fixed on his brother, and Alessa could feel the contrition radiating off him, mingled with deep
affection. “He’s sorry,” she translated. “He didn’t want to distract us from the mission – he wanted to help while he still had time. And he wanted to enjoy his last days with us, instead of mourning.”

  Alessa wiped at her eyes, sorrow flooding her soul.

  The screen flickered in an automatic refresh, and the warning statuses changed to red.

  Zone 1 Power Cell – MELTDOWN IMMINENT

  Zone 2 Power Cell – MELTDOWN IMMINENT

  Zone 3 Power Cell – MELTDOWN IMMINENT

  Zone 4 Power Cell – MELTDOWN IMMINENT

  There wasn’t any more time to deliberate. They needed to act.

  “I know where the reactor is,” Isaac said, gravel in his voice. “I can bring Joe.”

  Alessa nodded at Carlos. That room, she remembered, was where Isaac and Lizzie had stolen the original nuclear power cell that the rebels used to escape on the train all those months ago.

  “Go,” Carlos commanded, his voice filled with respect.

  Joe paused just long enough to look back at Alessa. But before she could form any words, he dashed out the door.

  It was too painful to say goodbye.

  The status screen on the computer started beeping in alarm.

  “Pull up the video feed of the utility room,” Carlos ordered.

  The Draftsman quickly complied.

  “Carlos,” Alessa intoned, “we need to warn Janie in case we’re not in time.”

  “Good point.” He turned to the Engineers. “Is there some kind of evacuation siren you can activate?”

  “Our team was already working on getting people underground just in case,” Alessa explained. “But an official alert might help them to move things along.”

  “Here,” the Draftsman submitted. He entered another command through the keyboard and looked up. “If you pull an alarm now, it will sound throughout the compound. The closest one is down the hall.”

  “I’ve got it,” Carlos confirmed, darting out the door.

  A moment later, a loud alarm began blaring through the building.