Chrysalis

by Brendan Reichs

  Sarah scoffed. “Project Nemesis, of course.”

  Stunned silence.

  I rose. Gently moved Anna aside. Then I crouched down and looked her directly in the eye.

  “Explain what you mean, Sarah. How could that be? We knew every single person inside the Program.”

  Sarah arched an eyebrow in what seemed like genuine puzzlement.

  “What makes you think we were the only Program?”

  12

  NOAH

  My feet slid out from under me.

  I fell on my butt and skidded downhill, grasping wildly at branches and wet leaves. Then my heels caught a root and momentum rocketed me face-first, like I’d been shot from a catapult. I released one glorious squawk before slamming to a stop against the trunk of a spruce tree.

  “Ugh,” I wheezed. And meant it. So far, this expedition had been a nightmare. I was beginning to hate forests.

  I was a varsity letterman in basketball. Why do I keep falling down hills?

  “Nice work, dumb-ass,” Ethan called down. I tried to give him the finger, but the searing pain in my side prevented me from raising an arm.

  “Let’s . . . take . . . a break,” I managed.

  Ethan plopped down on a fallen pine and unstrapped his canteen. “I told you to put boots on.” He wiped his brow, then took a long pull. Our trip together was going as badly as I’d expected.

  We’d raided the Outpost for supplies before heading into the forest—their gear was technically communal—but I couldn’t bring myself to take someone else’s shoes. It felt too personal. Ethan was right, though. After struggling through several miles of dense, wet foliage I was definitely regretting my choice.

  At dawn we’d launched Akio and Richie in the boat, me waving stupidly as they disappeared beyond the breakers. Neither had looked happy to be crossing the strait again, but somebody had to go back. Being real, I was ecstatic not to be making the trip again so soon myself. Just thinking about the ocean gave me shivers.

  “You really flew that time,” Ethan yelled. “It was majestic.”

  I rolled onto my back and rubbed my abdomen. I’d have a bruise the size of a watermelon in a few hours. Ethan watched me from above with amused disdain. These awful woods had swallowed us completely.

  “How much farther do you think?” Struggling to sit up, I pulled off my sneaker and dug out a pebble. “I thought we’d find a trail at some point, but there’s not even a deer run.”

  “Because there’s no deer, numb-nuts.” Ethan began picking his way down to join me. “Honestly, did you hit your head on that swan dive?” Before I could respond, he pointed in the direction we’d been traveling. “We go east until we reach the stream on Tack’s lame map, then follow it inland. It’s gotta be close.”

  “You said that an hour ago,” I muttered.

  Ethan crossed his arms. “You have a better plan? Besides falling down every fifty yards like a fainting goat.” His neck had flushed pink, a sure sign he was about to lose his temper.

  I held up a hand to placate him. “No, you’re right. Sorry. And yes, I did hit my head.”

  Ethan barked a laugh. Then he rocked side to side on his heels, eyes rolling skyward. “Okay, I admit to being slightly surprised we haven’t found the stream yet. Not that we’re lost or anything,” he added quickly. “Tack couldn’t draw a stick figure with an instruction manual.”

  “I can sneak up on you easy enough.”

  Ethan and I whirled to face the bushes.

  Tack Russo pushed through the foliage. He looked mostly the same—short and compact, with unruly black hair and deep blue eyes. He gave me a sharp nod, then winked at Ethan. “You missed the creek a mile back, Dora. You’ve been angling north for over half an hour.”

  Ethan went from pink to red. “And you sat back and watched us stumble through this crap?”

  “I had to find your trail,” Tack answered calmly, stretching to show his lack of concern. “It wasn’t too hard with you guys blundering through these woods like a pair of drunken lumberjacks. Which isn’t smart.”

  “What happened, Tack?” I felt mixed emotions seeing him again after so long. We’d never really been friends—had been rivals, in fact, both for Min and inside the Program—but he’d impressed me with his fearlessness. His relentless nature. Tack got things done, for better or worse. Plus, he was the first living soul we’d seen since stepping onto the beach.

  Tack’s hands found his pockets. He wore a faded green hoodie and canvas pants. I reminded myself Tack had been living at the Outpost for months, exploring these woods. We were in his world now.

  “Wish I knew.” Tack took a deep breath. “Two days ago I found the compound exactly like you must have. I’d been camping deep in the forest when that storm nearly killed me. When I got back the next afternoon, the Outpost was trashed. Everyone was gone, just like that.” He snapped his fingers.

  “So you don’t know anything?” Ethan squeezed his nose. “Then why’d you leave a stupid map in your tent?”

  “I said I wasn’t there, but I know plenty.” Tack shrugged off his pack. He looked bigger than I remembered. Maybe an inch taller, with more definition in his arms and shoulders. A few months in the wilderness had given him a rugged look, though the half smirk on his face hadn’t changed a bit.

  “You left a message,” I prompted, knowing Tack would get to the point when he felt like it. “And this.” I pulled the gray hammer from my bag.

  Tack grimaced. “When I searched the compound, I found the cabins ransacked, that hammer in the grass, and a bloody rock by the fire pit. Did you see it?”

  I nodded. “The one under the bucket?”

  “Thanks for noticing. So obviously, I knew something terrible had gone down. I did a sweep of the fields and found all the crops in place, which surprised me. I figured the attackers were after our food. Nothing else we have is valuable.”

  My foot began tapping on its own. “Who could’ve done it?”

  Ethan grunted in frustration. “Toby, you jackass. Six-on-nine with the element of surprise, and those guys are all bruisers. They might even have weapons for all we know.”

  Tack was frowning but held his tongue.

  “There’s no chance they just left in a hurry?” I asked, unable not to hope.

  Tack shook his head. “If Corbin had run off, he’d have left a note. And they don’t have another place to go out here. If anything, they’d have come to you.”

  I nodded grimly. Ethan spat on the ground.

  “Don’t forget the hammer,” Tack added. “Someone left that behind, and it didn’t come from the silo.”

  My stomach churned. “Is that why we’re pushing into the forest? What are we looking for, Tack?”

  “Why didn’t you leave a real note?” Ethan snapped. “A circled mountain on a play-school map, and the word here? Were you trying to be clever?”

  Tack leaned back against a tree and scratched his chest. He seemed . . . fuller somehow. More self-possessed. The whiny high-school pipsqueak was long gone, but so was the bitter, hard-edged killer from the Program. This Tack was different. He seemed more comfortable in his own skin.

  Ethan bit the hook. “Well? What the hell, Thumbtack?”

  Tack’s expression hardened. “I found boot prints by the creek. Clumsy and obvious, like a big group. I followed the trail to get a sense of where it was headed, then doubled back. I left that map for anyone who might come after me, then set out again so I didn’t lose them.”

  “Set out where?” I asked. “What’s that thing you circled?”

  Tack shifted his weight. “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? I guessed where the trail was going because it’s the one place I haven’t been able to scout.”

  Ethan reached up and rubbed his face. “Tack, I’m tired, and more than a little pissed off. Speak plainly or I’ll beat
you into the ground like a tent stake.”

  Tack’s eyes glittered. “You could try.”

  “Enough! Both of you.” I strode between them. “Ethan, stop stirring things up. Nobody’s impressed.” Before he could respond, I turned on Tack. “Same goes for you. Eight people are missing. Your whole little tribe. So stop being cute and explain. Stuff happened back at Fire Lake that you need to know about, too.”

  Tack glared at me, some of the old heat intensifying his gaze. He tamped it quickly. Ethan also seemed ready to punch me, but incredibly, he held his tongue, too.

  “There’s a single peak in the center of the forest,” Tack said briskly. “A gorge surrounds it, with heavy brush growing right up to its drop. Everything about the area says go away. I’ve been planning to cross that gap for weeks, but don’t have the best gear. The boot prints leading away from the Outpost were heading straight there.”

  “How can you be sure?” I asked diplomatically.

  “There’s nothing else on that side of the river.” Some of the chill melted from his voice. “It makes sense, Noah. Across that gorge is a part of the forest I’ve never seen. Big enough to hide a camp. I bet they’ve been there this whole time.”

  “Who?”

  Tack met my gaze squarely. “Toby. Or . . . I don’t know.”

  “Why would Toby snatch Corbin and the farmers?” Ethan asked. It was a solid question.

  Tack knelt and unzipped his pack. “A better question is, where’d this stuff come from?” He removed a set of mesh gloves and a black nylon windbreaker. One glance told me the items weren’t from the silo.

  “Holy crap,” Ethan said. “Shit.”

  “Can we just say it out loud?” Tack said. “There’s more than Toby to worry about here.”

  My mouth went dry. “How is that possible?”

  Tack stepped forward and crossed his arms. “We’ve always assumed we were the only ones to survive the Dark Star. But why? Who’d we rely on for that information?”

  “Black Suit.” I closed my eyes, my brain nearly glitching as dark possibilities vied for attention. Black Suit had said the MegaCom was humanity’s only lifeboat in the struggle to survive Nemesis. I’d never questioned that statement, wholeheartedly accepting the word of a man who’d executed me five times.

  I stumbled back against a boulder and sat, hands on my knees. I was having trouble breathing. Long-held assumptions began to crumble, and suddenly I couldn’t trust anything.

  What if we weren’t the only humans alive? What if there were others in the wilderness?

  More people meant more danger. Possible enemies. Threats to the colony. Threats to Min.

  I can’t allow that.

  The pressure on my chest eased. Purpose filled me once again. I stood up, suddenly eager to get going. “Let’s find our friends,” I said in a level voice. “That’s all that matters right now.”

  Tack nodded slowly. I glanced at Ethan, who bobbed his head, one hand adjusting the gun in his waistband.

  My body hummed. I gripped Tack’s shoulder and felt him squirm a little. “Get us as close as you can. Whoever they are, attacking us was a serious mistake. We’ll show them how serious.”

  Tack twisted away with a mumbled agreement.

  Ethan giggled. He was beaming at me like a proud father.

  “Let’s go clean house.”

  13

  MIN

  “What, that?”

  Sarah nodded placidly, removing a hammer and chisel from her pack. “What’d you expect?” She wedged the chisel above a thick metal plate and began pounding on its base. “There are three designed entrances into the silo, and all are compromised. I told you I knew another way inside, but I never said it would be easy.”

  We were perched on a ledge near the apex of the silo’s southern face. It’d taken us all day to get there, hiking down from Ridgeline and cautiously circling the now-empty lake. We’d snuck past the collapsed front tunnel, avoiding Cole Pritchard and an unknown red-haired boy who seemed to be standing guard.

  As with its eastern face, the silo’s thick concrete shell was exposed up here, revealing a grate sheltered by an overhang of yellowing stone. I’d had no idea a ventilation duct existed, or that it led down below the flooded main shaft.

  But Sarah did. She knew and hadn’t told anyone, of course.

  I ground my teeth, but put my frustrations aside for now. After this was over Sarah and I were going to have a chat about what she didn’t feel required to share with the rest of us. She lied straight to my face. This crap has to stop.

  I waited silently while Sarah attacked the grate. Finally, a rusted bolt cracked down the middle and she moved to the opposite corner. It took her another twenty minutes to work that one loose, then I took over. These bolts were corroded in place, and the seal had been made to withstand the tests of time. It took me an hour to crack the last two. Finally, Sarah and I levered the casing open together, wincing as the heavy lid landed with a warbling clang.

  “Think they heard that?” I panted.

  Sarah shook her head. “Those morons are half asleep. Why are they guarding a blocked door anyway? I thought they’d be trying to get inside already.”

  I frowned. “Maybe they have more explosives. They could be waiting to blast a way in.”

  “To the top of a flooded shaft? Then what? Unless they have a way to dive through a hundred yards of filthy, pitch-black water, they’ll never reach the lab level that way, not until they drain it. Their plan was clever, but ultimately really stupid. They should’ve just attacked us first.”

  I gave her an appraising look. “But you still think that’s their goal.”

  Sarah shrugged. “Toby might be deranged and have no plan at all. Never overlook basic idiocy.”

  I tugged on my ear, not completely sold by Sarah’s reasoning. “From the looks of things, the rest of their operation was carefully planned. I think Toby has a clear objective.”

  Sarah pointed into the darkness we’d uncovered. “Well, we have one, too. I studied the silo’s blueprints in case something like this happened—this shaft leads all the way down to air scrubbers on the lowest level, below the MegaCom. So long as the duct didn’t rupture, the water should be contained above it. At the bottom is a keypad like everywhere else. If the MegaCom is still powered and the lab complex secure, we can get inside by typing a few numbers.”

  “And you’ve known this since the cave-ins. What the hell, Sarah?”

  Her penetrating blue eyes bore into me. “I never show all my cards, Min. Not ever. That’s always been your problem. You reveal too much, and trust others to do the right thing, while I know people are weak and stupid, and always, always selfish. That’s why I played circles around you in the Program. And it’s also why we now have a way inside that our enemies don’t know about. So I think the words you’re really looking for are thank you.”

  I stared at her for a long moment, then shook my head. “The time for sandbox games is over, Sarah. There are strangers on the island, and they attacked us. You’re going to have start trusting me or they’ll have an advantage. We’re on the same side.”

  Sarah looked away. “Let’s just go, okay?”

  I swallowed a huge sigh. Maybe my words had gotten through.

  “Derrick and Casey should’ve reached the caves by now,” I replied instead. “Let’s get inside and radio down. If this works, we can slip people into the complex before Toby even suspects what we’re doing, and force them to negotiate.”

  “I’d love to have that conversation with Toby,” Sarah muttered, staring into the gloomy chute. “Watch his shiny bald head explode.”

  The opening was two yards square, cold and dark, and angled just steeply enough to be uncomfortable. We tied a rope off at the top and secured it to our waists. Stale, musty air flowed from the gap, but to me that was a good sign. I was praying we d
idn’t end up underwater halfway down.

  “Ready?” I asked, biting my bottom lip. I really didn’t want to go in there.

  Sarah shivered, but straightened quickly, as if embarrassed by her reaction. “Ready.”

  She hoisted the rope over one shoulder, switched on a flashlight, and began working her way down the chute. I followed a few beats later, sliding on my butt in places as the square of sunlight grew smaller and smaller behind us. The thin nylon rope played out as we crept deeper into the black.

  The duct’s ceiling and walls were smooth stone, but coated in places by things I didn’t want to know about. I imagined the bacteria that could’ve evolved in this enclosure during the millennia it had been sealed off and nearly ran back up to daylight.

  Something skittered over my hand and I jerked it away, almost tumbling forward. My panic level skyrocketed, but I kept my focus on Sarah’s back. To distract myself I began counting steps, then gave up after two hundred. Finally, I saw the light stop ahead of me. I joined Sarah in front of a moldy hatch where she was applying oil to the hinge.

  I shuddered, thinking about the long climb back up if we couldn’t get this to budge. But after ten minutes of holding my breath, I heard the locking wheel squeak. The hatch swung open and we shimmied through it, entering a slightly less grimy area beyond. Sarah fumbled her hand against the wall until a keypad glowed in the darkness. We both let out muffled whoops of triumph.

  “If this has power, that means the main system is still up and running,” Sarah breathed excitedly. “They were unbelievable pricks, but Project Nemesis really built things to last.”

  “Just open it, please. Like, now.” I wanted out of this hole.

  Sarah pressed a few keys, there was a click, and then a whoosh of fetid air as the barrier dropped inward. Below us was total darkness, but as Sarah lowered herself into open space, pale yellow LEDs sprang to life around her.

  “This is the maintenance level below the lab, where the power plant is located.” She dropped to a grated metal catwalk. “I was worried this area might’ve flooded too, but it looks like the lake only reached the upper floors.”