Isaac’s mouth dropped. Elizabeth? Was that… Lizzie down there?
It couldn’t be. The hair was right, but she seemed so small, so drained, almost a girl – not the tall, shapely, vivacious woman he remembered.
“Yes,” she growled. “I remember what you did to me. I remember being stoned practically to death.”
From his vantage point, Isaac could see just the back of Lizzie’s head, but he could only imagine the glare that had accompanied her accusation, given the flint in her voice. What had they done to her?
Her visitor – the Developer she’d called him? – dragged the chair over to the bed and sat down, sighing heavily through his narrow, bony shoulders. “I’m sorry for that, truly,” he squeaked. “We never meant for it to turn so… savage.”
Lizzie didn’t seem satisfied with that explanation. “You didn’t mean for a stoning to turn savage?”
“It wasn’t meant to be a stoning,” he countered quickly. “We just wanted you to understand who you were dealing with, so you could see why we’d put a small group in charge here instead of letting the masses govern themselves. We thought they’d declare you guilty and we’d bring you back in for ‘punishment’ and that would be the end of it – we never expected them to take justice into their own hands. It was just meant to be an elucidatory exercise…” He trailed off.
Elucidatory? Isaac shook his head. Who was this guy? Just the sound of his voice grated on Isaac, let alone his vocabulary.
“But why?” Lizzie insisted. “What do you want from me? Why do you keep telling me all this stuff?”
“We need your help, Elizabeth.” He looked at her plaintively. “We want peace, the same as you. We want to negotiate a treaty with the rebels, and we need you to be our envoy. If you didn’t see where we were coming from, you could never represent us fairly. So we had to find a way to show you, a way for you to truly understand why we made the decisions we made, so that you could explain to the rebels that we really are all working toward the same thing. We never meant for you to get hurt.”
He seemed sincere enough, but something about him still bugged Isaac. Lizzie wasn’t quite ready to forgive either, apparently.
“Then why not just tell me that, from the beginning? Why keep me locked up here, calling me ‘Phoenix,’ letting me spend weeks wondering who the hell I am and how I ended up in this place?”
He frowned apologetically. “You suffered a great trauma, and you were healing. Your mind was in a fragile state already. We were afraid you’d blocked out those memories for a reason, that your psyche was protecting itself. We thought if we forced the memories on you too soon, it would cause irreparable damage. We wanted your memory to come back naturally, when you were ready for it.”
Isaac wondered who this “we” was he kept talking about. He’d mentioned something about putting people in charge… Could this rodent be one of Paragon’s elusive leaders? If so, Isaac wished his brother could see this – Joe would have snapped this guy over his knee in a heartbeat.
“Not to mention, we understand that some of what we did here in Paragon might sound… distasteful, especially to someone who’s invested so much in the resistance. It was selfish of us, but we recognized that your temporary memory loss gave us an opportunity – a clean slate, a chance for us to explain and for you to consider, unburdened by bias.”
“But why me?” Lizzie questioned. “You could have taken anyone, all those prisoners, all the people on the dramas. Why did you choose me?”
“Because we know who you are, Elizabeth. We know Regina is leading the rebels, and we know your connection to her. Who better to convince the rebel leader to put down her saber than her own daughter?”
Isaac couldn’t argue with that – if Regina wouldn’t listen to Lizzie, she wouldn’t listen to anyone.
“I still don’t understand, though. Why would you even want to negotiate with the rebels? You’ve been fighting us this whole time, taking people captive, forcing them to do your bidding on the shows. Now all of a sudden you say you want peace – why the sudden about-face?”
He sighed again, a deep, weary sigh. “We thought we could quell the rebellion on our own,” he admitted, “round you all up and put a stop to it, with or without your consent. But, it’s become clear that that isn’t working. And, well… we – Paragon – can’t afford to lose you. Any of you.”
Isaac narrowed his eyes as Lizzie asked the exact question that was toying at his mind. “Why does Paragon ‘need’ us?”
The Developer seemed to hesitate. He chewed his lip and looked silently at her for a moment, like he was rolling something over in his mind. Finally, he spoke.
“I wasn’t sure if we should tell you this… but it seems you’re leaving me no choice.” He took a deep breath and released it slowly with a puff. “You know what we were trying to achieve, right? The state the world was in – the environment crumbling, the constant wars, nuclear terror, famine, death – it was wholly unsustainable. Our planet needed a reset, and we – the human species – were the cause of all of it.”
“I know,” Lizzie nodded. “The world was a mess. When the outbreak happened, it gave us a chance to start over. And you and the Engineers were trying to make sure we did it right this time. I’m not sure I agree with your methods… but the sentiment seems fair enough. You told me all of this already.”
“Yes,” the Developer nodded. “Except… there’s one thing we left out earlier. One thing we didn’t tell you.”
Lizzie waited, still as an effigy, the only sound in the room the periodic pulsing beeps from the machines beside her bed.
Isaac’s eyes were glued to the grate, the cadence of his heart quickening with each breath.
The Developer took another deep breath and leaned in towards Lizzie, his voice barely a whisper. “What we haven’t told you yet –”
He paused, searching her eyes before he dropped his bombshell.
“– is that the outbreak wasn’t exactly a mistake.”
32. BREAKOUT
Alessa mopped the sweat from her brow as she watched the last of her men turn the corner, heading back out toward the side door that Regina’s prison guard had left open for them. She was on her own now, and time was running out.
Her team had managed to free a handful of prisoners, but Janie hadn’t been one of them. Alessa had been sending Carlos’s soldiers back one by one, each accompanying one or two of the rebels they’d freed. Regina’s guard had supplied them with the patrol routes and a master unlock code, and they’d furtively stolen their way through most of the prison complex without yet drawing Paragon’s notice. Only the solitary wing was left now, and Alessa was praying that she would find Janie within.
The prison complex was a big winding loop, and Alessa was by the far end of the solitary wing. She would work her way out, checking the cells as she went and taking whoever she could find with her. Hopefully Janie would be one of them.
Please let Janie be one of them.
Looking down the long hall, Alessa observed with despair that there had to be at least a hundred cells in this wing, and here in the deepest part of solitary they started at number 1. She couldn’t possibly have time to check them all. How was she ever going to locate her sister in this maze?
The soft patter of footsteps approaching from down the hall set Alessa’s heart aflutter – there must be a patrol headed her way. She retreated around a corner and braced herself, listening.
Click, clack, click, clack. It sounded like only one pair of footsteps, as far as she could tell, and it was still a ways off. She pulled the rubber fingerprint slip over her hand and punched the master code into the pad by the nearest cell, swiping her disguised finger over the scanner. The locks released with a clang and she quickly scurried into the dark.
Alessa choked back her hysteria at being in one of Paragon’s claustrophobic prison chambers again. She was not about to let herself end up here a second time, that was for sure.
Steeling her nerves, she reache
d out and pulled the door shut behind her, leaving only a sliver of a gap to prevent the door from locking. Her ear pressed against the tiny opening, Alessa waited for the footsteps to ring clear outside the door.
Click, clack, click, clack, click, clack. Each step grew louder as the unknowing guard approached, until finally, they stopped, just beside the cell.
Alessa’s heartbeat thrummed in her chest as she held her breath. Had the guard noticed something amiss?
She couldn’t wait for him to answer that question – she needed to act. It was now or never.
Alessa thrust the heavy door open into the hall with an explosive strength, bursting out from behind it. As she’d hoped, the guard was near enough to catch the door full in the face.
He had time only for one astonished yelp before Alessa caught him round the neck in a tight choke hold. Within seconds, he was unconscious.
Glancing up and down the hall, she noticed what had alerted the guard to her presence – of all the cells in this part of the hallway, only the keypad on the door she’d been hiding behind was illuminated. Did that mean the rest of them were empty?
She dragged the collapsed guard into the cell and locked it behind her. She knew from experience that no sound he made would escape, but the other guards were sure to notice the keypad eventually. She just hoped the next patrol would be far enough off to give her time to get away.
Alessa swiftly made her way down the hallway, the adrenaline throbbing in her veins. It was only a matter of time before another guard would come by, and she still had a lot of searching to do before then. She was relieved, at least, that she wouldn’t have to open every cell.
All of the keypads appeared to be dark until the teens. Alessa opened the first lit door she came to and called into the blackness beyond the threshold. “Hello?”
She was greeted with a deep, pained moan. Opening the door wider, the light from the hall cast onto the feeble shape of a man draped across the cot. “I’m here to rescue you,” she explained.
But the man simply dropped his head back, his eyes reflecting only emptiness in the gleam of the light. He was alive, but not by much.
A pang of guilt stabbed her gut as she made a quick decision. As much as it hurt Alessa to do it, she breathed a silent apology and closed door number 12 behind her. She just didn’t have the strength to carry him out, and she couldn’t justify putting herself and whoever else she managed to find at risk.
The next active keypad was a couple doors down the hall. Once again Alessa punched in the code and swiped her rubber fingerprint, hoping for better news on the other side of this door.
The locks clanked and the door popped ever so slightly open. “Who’s there?” a weak voice called from inside.
Alessa’s heart quickened – she knew that voice.
Flinging the door open wide, she cried, “Janie?”
“Less?” the voice creaked, disbelieving.
Alessa rushed inside the cell and kneeled beside the cot, gathering her sister in her arms as the tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m here, I’m here,” she soothed. Janie was shaking from head to toe, all bones and angles, her hair stiff as straw under Alessa’s fingertips.
“I knew you’d come,” Janie whispered.
And not a moment too soon, Alessa thought. She hesitated to step back and really look at her sister, for fear of what she’d find. Janie had always been petite, but never like this – never so gaunt and birdlike. Janie’s limbs slipped between Alessa’s fingers like pencils, and a foul smell seeped off her dry skin. But she was alive. She was alive.
“Come on, we need to get out of here.”
Janie nodded eagerly. A fire still burned behind her eyes, but it was muted, dull. She moved slowly, as if in a dream.
Alessa scooped Janie up from the cot and set her gently on her feet. She couldn’t believe how little she weighed. “Are you okay to walk?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Janie assured her. But when she stumbled on the first step, Alessa knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. She doubted she’d be able to rescue anyone else if she had to half-carry Janie the whole way out, but if that was the price she had to pay to get her sister back, so be it. The rebels would be back for the rest of them, eventually.
Alessa and Janie shuffled toward the door and Alessa poked her head out to make sure the coast was clear. “Okay, let’s go,” she urged, hoping they’d be able to make their way quickly to the exit.
But just as Janie hobbled over the threshold, a siren blared and the hallway flashed red.
“Shit,” Alessa spit. “One of my guys must have been spotted. We need to get out of here.”
“Wait, Alessa,” Janie protested. “There’s a chance –” she was out of breath already, “– that Joe might still be here.”
Joe? Alessa’s heart quickened. Could he really be alive after all this time? Reflexively, her hand flew to the ring Isaac had given her. She nervously stroked the smooth metal bar separating the stones.
“Where?” Alessa questioned. “How did you find out?”
“Nikhil.” She motioned towards the next cell, number 15. “Nikhil was in the room next to me. He saw Joe, a while back. He told me which cell Joe was in.”
Nikhil was alive too? Alessa couldn’t imagine that the fates had been this good to her – she’d been lucky enough to find her sister as it was.
“Less, I promised Nikhil we’d get him out, too.”
Janie was already quivering from the effort of standing up. If Nikhil was in any worse shape than Janie, Alessa wasn’t sure that was a promise she’d be able to keep.
“And then we can go for Joe. Please,” Janie pleaded.
The lights flashed red and the alarm bells screamed their warning; Alessa knew that now was their best chance to escape. But she also knew she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t try to get Joe and Nikhil out. She had to try.
“Okay, quickly.” She left Janie leaning against the wall as she turned to Nikhil’s cell and began punching in the code.
“We’d been passing notes,” Janie explained breathlessly, her whole upper half slouched against the cinder blocks. “But I haven’t,” she coughed, “heard back from him in days.”
Alessa swiped the fingerprint scanner and the locks banged open. “If he’s here, we’ll do whatever we can to take him with us,” she assured Janie.
But before she even finished opening the door, Alessa already knew something was wrong. A wave of confusion and fear washed over her, a familiar surge of alien emotions that she recognized now as a signal from her empath ability. This didn’t bode well for Nikhil.
“Janie…” Alessa hesitated. “I don’t know if Nikhil’s going to be able to come with us. I think – I think he might be dying.”
“What are you talking about?” Janie griped. Suddenly Alessa saw a flash of the sister she knew somewhere behind those dull, bleary eyes. With more strength than Alessa had realized Janie had, Janie lunged for the door and flung it open. “Nikhil?” she cried out into the dark.
There was an answer, a low rumbling growl, and when the red of the siren flashed, Alessa caught something stirring deep in the recesses of the cell. Another rush of emotion pelted Alessa, a feral craving for violence and blood – and she knew, she knew what lay beyond in the dark.
“No!” Alessa screamed, her voice ripping at her throat. But before she could push her sister to safety, a large, impossibly fast form barreled out of the cell and tackled Janie hard to the ground.
The creature crouched over Janie’s tiny shape – its sharp, jagged teeth only inches from her face – as it bellowed a blood-curdling roar.
Alessa didn’t wait for the beast to make good on its threat. With every ounce of force she could muster, she dug her shoulder into the creature’s and shoved.
The beast tumbled back into the cell as Alessa slammed the door shut, blocking out its enraged rasping howls.
Janie was frozen to the floor. “That – that wasn’t Nikhil.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Alessa agreed, pulling Janie to her feet.
Janie stared unblinking at Alessa’s face, but she could see the shock was wearing off – Janie’s body was starting to quake. “What was it?”
Alessa shook her head. “I don’t know, but I’ve seen them before – a whole band of things like that stalked me and Isaac the entire time we were outside of Paragon. I hadn’t seen one up close yet – I still didn’t really get a good look, it happened so fast… Was it,” she paused expectantly, “human?”
“That thing didn’t seem human to me.” Janie shuddered violently, “Especially not the teeth.”
“Maybe not the face… but the body, that was human-like, right?” Alessa had mainly seen only the beast’s back and side, but she thought she could distinguish arms and legs – maybe even fingers and toes – under all that rippling muscle.
“I didn’t much see the body,” Janie admitted, “what with those fangs hovering an inch from my throat…”
“Well, it’s locked up now,” Alessa assured. “We’re safe.”
Janie’s expression crumpled. “But what about Nikhil? I promised him I’d get him out.”
“We tried, Janie,” Alessa consoled her. “We can’t take him with us if we don’t know where he is…”
She looked crushed. “We’re too late,” Janie breathed, realization heaving down on her.
Alessa slid her shoulder under Janie’s arm. “But maybe not for Joe. Come on.”
33. POWER
“I – I don’t understand…” Lizzie shook her head. “What do you mean it wasn’t a mistake?”
“It all started with the A.R.K., Anthropo-Reduction Keygen,” the Developer explained. “It was an algorithm that I programmed, using information from social networks and medical records, test scores and genomic records. It was designed to select a small, unbiased pool of individuals who would have all the necessary traits to carry on a genetically viable human race.”
He stood up, excited now. “It began as an experiment, a little side project to distract me from the war. Overpopulation was at the root of our world’s problems, and it was only a matter of time before we brought about our own destruction. It’s nature – every species has a sustainable population, and we humans had outgrown ours, to the detriment of everything around us. So I designed an app to answer the big question: how many people could our planet support while recovering from what we’d done to it, and who should those people be?
Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, Book 2) Page 21
