“You could be right,” my dad says enthusiastically. “If you think of Elusion like a biological system, the bombs we’ve been setting off have been infecting it with a deadly disease. We’re destroying it little by little, hoping for some residual damage.” My dad is getting more excited with each word. “I think this,” he says, motioning toward the dead worm, “is a sign that we’re making some headway.”
“But what about the antiviral?” Patrick asks.
“Maybe it’s not working as well as your mother hoped,” my dad offers.
“So destroying the Escapes has had a positive effect?” I ask. “We’re getting somewhere?” I repeat, just to make sure I’ve heard him correctly.
“Yes,” he says without hesitating.
For the first time since we’ve come back here, I feel a surge of hope. Maybe things are not as futile as they seem.
“We can do this,” my dad says. “We’re going to defeat Elusion, and then we’re going home, do you hear me?”
We all raise our torches in the air, cheering. It seems as if a huge weight has been lifted off all our shoulders, a sign that we can truly make it out of here. All of us.
Alive.
Josh walks over to me and, with a smile, grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. After all the disappointments and bad news we’ve received over the past day, it feels amazing to know that we might have a fighting chance.
We follow as my dad, suddenly energized, leads the way toward the ping tunnel.
SEVENTEEN
I’M STANDING IN THE SILVER DESERT Escape. A violet moon and pink stars glitter in the night sky. Mounds of sterling dunes unfold as far as the eye can see, shimmering so brightly I’m almost blinded. I know it should scare me, going into combat against a system with the ability to kill me in self-defense. But trypnosis is good that way, filling me with excitement and confidence instead of fear and uncertainty. I catch up to the others, keeping my thoughts in check and consciously pushing away any knowledge that could give Elusion a leg up on me—just like my father instructed us to do before we reentered the Escape.
“Regan, over here!”
I turn to the voice and see Zared and Patrick running toward me, their feet sinking into the hot sand with every step they take. They’re wearing long cloaks and lace-up boots that reach their knees, and I’m dressed the same way. In the pockets of my cloak are the adaptive bombs that I’d shoved into Zoe’s sweater earlier.
“Your dad found some ATVs,” Zared says, his face lit up. He gestures over his shoulder, and we follow him past a dried-up ravine and through a small set of dunes, where we see three black all-terrain vehicles with enormous deep-tread tires and cherry red-flagged antennas attached to the backs.
“Are you guys ready for a wild ride?” Patrick asks as he climbs inside. His eyes are blue again and, for the first time in days, completely free of worry.
“How should we split up?” Nora asks, the rising current of the wind ruffling her short hair.
“You and Malik go with Zared,” my dad says. “Patrick and Wyatt can go in the other one. I’ll be with Regan and Josh.”
I have to admit, I’m encouraged by his appearance. He looks healthier than he did in Etherworld. His eyes are almost sparkling, and his skin has regained some of its luster. Josh smiles, and a ribbon of peace winds its way around me. The trypnosis must be intensifying, because I’m feeling so content about everything I’m almost giddy.
There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed.
“I’ll drive,” I offer, even though I’ve never operated an ATV before.
“I have a lot of hours clocked with four-wheelers at the academy,” Josh says, jumping in front of me.
“And I own, like, ten of these,” Patrick jokes to Wyatt as he climbs into the ATV alongside him.
“Hop on,” Zared says, motioning for Nora and Malik to join him.
“Why are the guys driving?” Nora yells at me. “We should know better than that!”
I laugh as I jump in the front, taking a seat next to Josh. He steps on the gas pedal, propelling us forward at a high speed, leaving a mini sandstorm in our wake. As the cloud of silver dust dissipates, I look back up at the violet moon. It’s a beacon, leading us across the ripple of silver dunes, and we drive under its light for what seems like a couple of miles, the roar of the engine still loud in our ears.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Josh yells to my dad, who is holding on to the rim of the seat with both hands.
“Yes!” my father shouts back.
“Do the others know what we’re looking for?” I say loudly.
“The trigger was designed to resemble plant life, so look for something like that,” my dad says.
“Like a tree,” I ask, “or a cactus?”
“Yes, that’s what I told the others,” he replies.
“Hold on!” I hear Josh yell.
Our ATV swerves hard to the left as I grab on to the hand strap, almost falling out of my seat. Josh steers us toward a steep incline, the base of one of the silver dunes. The tires grind in the sand as Josh slams on the brakes. Zared’s ATV is scuttling along on the right side, as Patrick’s veers to the left.
As we continue to climb up the dune, I twist around, searching for anything tall with branches or leaves. But there’s nothing like that in these dunes. I don’t spot anything in the ravines, either.
Zared’s ATV careens to a stop beside us.
“Where are Patrick and Wyatt?” I ask.
“It looked like they were heading up the other side of the dune,” my dad says.
Josh hits the accelerator and we zoom down the incline, my lungs filling with air and my heart leaping into my throat. I watch Josh’s lips turn into a wide, ecstatic smile. It’s almost as if we’re back home, driving his motorcycle through the open streets of the Heights Sector, the scenery whipping into a hazy blur around us.
As we close in on level ground, my gaze shifts from Josh’s happy face to something in the distance. I can’t quite make it out, but from here it looks like a giant man with his arms sticking up, surrounded by smaller men in the same position. I tug hard on Josh’s shirt, hoping he’ll want to investigate.
“I think I see something. Over there,” I say, pointing to the left.
Josh squints, looking in that direction. “Yeah, I see it too. Let’s check it out.”
The ATV charges ahead about 150 yards before it hits a divot in the sand and begins to spin out of control, but Josh keeps his cool and recovers quickly. Within a few seconds, we reach a large field of cacti, staggered in about five or six rows. Most of them are about fifteen to twenty feet high, their spines slightly curved, sharp needles covering thick branches. But toward the end of the field is one cactus that towers above them all, with huge, crooked branches spurting from the base all the way up to the top. It looks like some kind of monster, ready to bend over and crush us all.
“That has to be the trigger, right, Dad?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” he says.
We cruise around the field for another minute or two before we spot Patrick’s ATV barreling toward us off the other side of the dune. Josh slows down a little as the three ATVs line up, all circling the giant plants. As Zared navigates his ATV, Nora stands up, holding on to the hand strap with one arm, the other poised over her head with her bomb in hand, ready to launch it at the largest cactus. I reach into my pocket and grip a bomb in my hand, preparing to shoot if she misses.
Just then, the sky blazes with light, as a barrage of stars begins to fall toward the earth, like a meteor shower. They crash into the ground, sending dust everywhere and shaking the earth below us.
Zared screams, “Look!” and all the euphoria I felt the second I stepped foot into this silver desert drains from my body, like all the oxygen is being sucked out of my blood.
Some of the cacti burst into inferno-like flames, the fire quickly spreading, leaping from one to the other and heading toward the trigger at a rapid pace.
“Now, Nora! Now!” my dad shouts, as another flurry of stars begins to rain down upon us.
My jaw clenches as Nora leans back and gets in position. But Zared swerves to avoid being hit by the cascading stars, so when Nora finally launches the sphere, it goes wide and misses.
“Shit!” she yells out. “Sorry!”
How can we possibly get at the trigger through this mess of destruction?
Josh keeps driving, doing another lap around the field, but visibility is now becoming a real problem. The burning cacti have created a thick plume of black smoke encircling the entire area. It’s almost impossible to see.
“Get us a little closer if you can!” my dad shouts at Josh, as the ATV narrowly misses a crater left behind by a star bomb.
We speed through the smoke, all of us choking. I can’t see the others. Where are they? Are they okay?
Josh steers the ATV around raging plant fires and toward the enormous cactus. Another ripple of exploding stars streaks toward us, pummeling the two cacti next to the target and nearly hitting the trigger.
My father stands up and holds on to the hand strap of the ATV. He pulls out two of his bombs and heaves them at the cactus. One of them misses the stem by a foot or two, and the other skims one of the lower branches. A flurry of bombs fly toward the cactus, but the smoke makes it impossible to see who threw them or if they made contact. I join in the barrage, throwing bombs into the billowing almost-black clouds.
“Hold your fire! We have to conserve ammo for the last Escape!” my dad shouts.
Josh diverts the ATV away from the cactus field as a seismic tremor tears through the ground, and it once again sounds like the sky is about to split in half. The gigantic cactus explodes, signaling that one of the bombs struck it. Now everyone is driving as fast as they can, trying to avoid the sharp fragments of plant tumbling down around us.
We’re not going to make it if we don’t find the mirage and only Patrick knows where it is.
“Pat!” I scream.
An ATV comes roaring out of the dust. Patrick pulls up beside us just as we hear another loud rumbling and the sand turns from silver to a dark, putrid green. “Follow me—I don’t think the mirage is far.”
But before he can lead the way, more debris from the cactus pelts the ground around us, and I hear Wyatt shrieking. A huge cactus needle has impaled his thigh, and magenta-colored ooze is gushing down his leg. He falls out of the side of the ATV, and Patrick slams on the brakes and scrambles to help him.
Both Josh and Zared circle back toward them, but by the time we reach them, we’re already too late. Wyatt’s leg has disappeared into the same yellow light that consumed Claire in the rapids.
Patrick is holding on to Wyatt tightly, trying to ease his suffering, but we all know there’s nothing we can do to save him. I’m just about to get out and help him when another strike is unleashed from the sky.
“Take cover!” my dad shouts.
But there’s nowhere to go, at least not for Zared and his crew. The star strikes his ATV, and it explodes on impact, creating a fireball so huge it takes Patrick’s ATV with it.
Josh throws his body on top of me as a star explodes in front of us. There’s the sound of twisting metal, and when we look beside us, we can make out the smoldering ruins of an ATV. Patrick is running toward it, weaving through the clouds of billowing smoke.
Josh navigates our ATV toward the wreck, but we’re too late. All that’s left is a huge, gaping hole in the olive-colored sand.
No, no, no . . .
Nora, Zared, and Malik are gone.
We stop, staring at the spot where Nora’s vehicle was hit. Giant cracks begin to form in the ground, and sand spills down into the crevices, as if falling into an old hourglass timer.
Patrick jogs over to our ATV, streaks of soot all over his face. “The mirage! I think it’s just over the next dune!”
“Get in the back!” my dad says.
He hops in next to my dad, his body shaking. Josh’s eyes are still fixated on the spot where Nora’s ATV was blown up, paralyzed with shock.
“We have to hurry,” I say. “We have to get to the next Escape before the trapdoor closes.”
No reaction at all. And the cracks in the sand are becoming bigger, the particles quickly drifting into them.
“If we finish this, she’ll be okay,” Patrick reassures him. “Please, Josh.”
Stars explode around us—one comes so close it almost grazes the front fender, shaking the front of the vehicle really hard. It’s enough to break Josh out of his trance, and he throws the ATV into gear.
“Where to?” he asks Patrick, his voice weak.
“The second dune to your right,” Patrick replies, “I think.”
The Escape seems to be worsening with each quarter mile we travel—the sky bleached of all its color, the stars spiraling down in corkscrew-shaped motions, gusts of wind nearly blowing our vehicle over, the sand collapsing and forming massive sinkholes.
But we reach the top somehow, and Josh stops the ATV. We wait a moment, looking around, and it’s not long before the entire back side of the dune begins to sink behind us. Below are the remnants of a large lake, the muddy water that’s left draining rapidly.
“That’s it,” Patrick says. “The trapdoor!”
“What do we do now?” I ask.
No one says anything, but it doesn’t matter. I know what’s about to happen.
Josh hits the accelerator and drives straight off the top of the dune. As the ATV flies into the air, he lets go of the controls and I grab his hand, holding on tightly as the vehicle arcs and then plummets into a shallow pool of darkness.
But it isn’t over yet.
We’ve made it to the last core Escape, our bodies materializing on top of a hill as if by magic. We’re high above a thick rain forest, surrounded by a canopy of leafy green flora brimming with bright, vivid colors. Patches of light mist form below us, and although the air should be pretty thin at this altitude, oxygen pours into my lungs with each inhalation.
I feel amazing—as if losing Nora and everyone else were just a bad dream. I’m buzzing with positive energy. I know I’ll see them all again back home, as soon as we’re finished.
My dad is outfitted the same way as the rest of us, with a cargo vest that has metal latches attached to it and a pair of gray cross-trainers. And there’s Josh, who no longer seems upset, his amber eyes as dazzling as ever. He looks back at me and I grin, sure we’re unstoppable.
“Wow,” Josh says, leaning over the ledge a little. “It’s a long way down.”
Unlike the previous Escape, here it’s daytime, and even though the rain forest is overcast, a shadowed sun illuminates our view. “It’s all relative,” I say with a laugh. The height doesn’t scare me. Why would it? We just drove into an abyss and here we are, totally fine.
“This Escape was one of the most difficult to design,” my dad says.
“And the most difficult to change,” Patrick says. “I tried to alter some of the colors, but they kept self-correcting. It took forever to fix.”
“Are there any gliders or bikes we can use?” I ask.
“No, the only thing here is a zip line,” my dad answers.
“A state-of-the-art system, naturally,” Patrick chimes in.
“How much ammo do you guys have?” Josh asks after checking the pockets of his vest. “I’m down to three.”
We all stop and take stock. I reach into my vest pockets and hold up two bombs, all too aware that this is our last hope for survival.
“Here’s what I have left,” I say.
“I’ve got a couple more, too,” Patrick chimes in.
“So do I. Now let’s look for the cable and harnesses,” my dad says. “They
have to be around here somewhere.”
A low rumbling noise thunders, the sound of an oncoming storm. As one of the puffy gold clouds turns black, Patrick and my dad exchange a look. I’m sure they’re wondering if these clouds could be signs of the inoculation at work, and since there aren’t any other Escapes left, I don’t see how it could be anything else.
“We need to hurry,” my dad says calmly.
We back away from the ledge and branch off in different directions, ducking behind candy-colored trees and stepping over fluorescent buttress roots. I look up to see if there’s any kind of wiring popping out above us, and notice the dark clouds multiplying on the horizon.
“See anything?” Patrick calls out from a few yards away.
“No, nothing,” Josh calls back.
“Found them!” my dad bellows, and we all scramble toward the sound of his voice. With each step my mood darkens, the elation of trypnosis wearing off. Images of stars blasting through the atmosphere flash through my mind: Wyatt, Nora, Zared, and Malik—all of them taken down by Elusion.
“You okay?” Josh is beside me, reaching out to hold my hand.
“Fine,” I say. He still seems high on trypnosis, a hopeful smile on his face. It’s as if he doesn’t have any recollection of what happened in the desert, or concerns about the antiviral threat or an attack that might occur any moment. I look around for anything unusual. But I’ve never been in this Escape before and everything seems different and weird: the flora, the clouds, even the zip-line equipment.
When we find my dad, he’s standing at the base of the tree, in front of a ladder that leads up to what looks like a man-made wooden platform. Directly above him are two parallel cables that stretch out for what seems like the length of four football fields, dangling over the rain forest beneath us, hundreds of feet aboveground. My stomach tightens—and I lunge toward the pile of harnesses at the bottom of the enormous tree connected to the launch deck.
“Everybody suit up, quickly,” my dad orders, with an eye on the sky.
Josh helps me with my equipment and I help him, while Patrick and my father assist each other. Once we have all our gear in place, we scale the ladder that leads up to the wooden platform, where we’ll jump off and careen down with the help of a pulley.
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