by Isla Jones
That was it, I realised. Castle had been asking for my help.
The only thing was, I wasn’t sure I would give it to him.
LEO’S DISAPPEARANCE
ENTRY TWENTY-FOUR
Summer was in a different lab this time, closer to the rotter hall.
Dr Wong was with her. They studied data—that might as well have been hieroglyphs to me—displayed on a screen that rolled down from the wall. Projectors were only good for movies, I thought to myself. A thought that led me to realise I hadn’t watched a single movie since I got here, two weeks ago.
Mason, like last time, became a statue at the entrance.
“Hey, Sinner,” I said and flattened my hands on the desk. Summer kept her back to me as she studied the data, muttering some quiet thoughts to Dr Wong. “Whatcha up to?”
Summer peeled herself away from the projector screen and joined me at the table. Like her gaze, her voice was clipped. “I’m working. And you?”
I shuffled my shoe against the floor. “I feel like I haven’t seen you much.”
A half-lie. She’d come and gone a few times a week since I arrived, but I’d expected more than that. Maybe I’m just greedy…
Sinking into her chair, Summer peeled off her spectacles and levelled her gaze with mine. Then, she dismissed Dr Wong with a wave of the hand. “Reconvene in twenty minutes.”
Dr Wong made no effort to hide her frustration. With a glare my way, she grabbed her ID badge from the desk and strode out. Once she was out of sight, Summer fell back in the chair.
Her passive face softened to that of my sister’s, not some busy CDC biologist.
“You’re right. I haven’t seen you as much as I would have liked to. My time is squeezed dry every day. I would like to promise that my schedule will dwindle soon, but until we progress in our research, that won’t happen.”
It was her way of telling me work was more important. Not that she loved it more than she loved me, but overall it was vastly more important. I knew that.
Still, it hurt to hear it.
Her gaze cut to the blood slides beside her, itching to abandon me for her work. I sighed and perched myself on the edge of the desk.
“How’s it been going?” I asked.
Summer lit up just like her name. “It’s a process, but with both Leonardo and patient zero, I can’t help but be optimistic.”
I picked at a pencil eraser. “Have you seen Leo?”
Summer drifted half of her attention to the blood slides again. “Not since yesterday’s study.” She looked up. “His results were fascinating. How long have you known each other?”
Yesterday’s study.
That couldn’t be right. Castle specifically said he’d been missing for days. Or was it a week? Time slipped by me here, more than it had on the outside.
“I haven’t known him long,” I said. “Three months, maybe more.”
“Is it romantic?”
I bunched my lips. “We have issues.”
“What about the other one, Castle?”
“What about him?”
“Are you and he…” She gestured with a delicate flick of her slender hand—a hand much nicer than my own. My hands are freckled and a bit dry at the knuckles.
Heaving a sigh, I shrugged and met her gaze. “For a bit. Then not so much.”
“If you could choose one, would it be Leo?”
“I … I don’t think I could choose,” I uttered, surprised. “Not that I want either of them.” I cringed at my own lie. “Why do you ask?”
Summer laughed and tucked a blonde, silky strand behind her ear.
“Why?” She threw up her hands, and even the statue in the doorway chuckled a bit. “Well, I thought my little sister died along with the rest of the world, but she shows up at my workplace intact—so to speak—and I want to know about her life. I want to know everything about her, because she’s my sister and I don’t allot her the time she deserves. Is that not allowed?”
I smiled and swung my leg.
“I’m confused,” I admitted. “I hate them both for what they’ve put me through. I don’t trust either of them, and still … I’m just not over them.”
Summer hummed before she gestured to beyond the room. “They’re everywhere here. Men. Should you be too afraid to leave your deltas for fear of eternal loneliness, don’t. I’m certain I’ve seen drool on the floors since you all arrived here.”
I smirked. “Drool reserved for Vicki.”
Convenient that Mac died.
I frowned at thought of the solider who watched Vicki. “Lotan has his eye on her,” I added. “He doesn’t stand a chance against a dead man she’ll never stop loving.”
Summer just smiled. “Well, I should get back to work—”
“What is that?” I wasn’t ready to leave before I got what I’d come for. I slipped off the desk and hurried to her side. “Is that Leo’s blood?”
“Yes.” Summer tidied the blood slides proudly. “They’re from the initial health assessments.”
I jerked my head to the data (both Mason and Summer followed my aim). I quickly plucked her ID badge from the desk and slid it up my sleeve. “Does all that say why Leo’s blood is different?”
Summer grinned a patronising gesture and shook her head. “Not exactly, Winner.”
“But, like … one day, you’ll get a cure from all that?”
“A cure,” she said with a smile. “A vaccine, perhaps in a decade. But not a cure.”
“Oh.”
What use was a vaccine to us underground, free from the threat of rabies? Were there any survivors up above? If there were, the chances of them still being alive in a decade were laughable. But at least she was trying—I’d given up already.
“I’ll let you get back to work,” I said. “We should do dinner maybe? When you’re free. If you’re free.” I shrugged and picked at my cardigan sleeve; a nervous tick to her gaze, but really I was covering the ID badge. “Whenever suits you, let me know.”
In answer, Summer gave a tight smile that said she’d have to check her schedule. I gave an awkward wave, then followed Mason out of the lab.
Mason escorted me back to the Common Halls. On the way, I passed Adam at the fork of two corridors. His inquisitive gaze had pierced through me, asking me silent questions—I winked back at him, hoping that the unusual gesture between us had answered his questions: I’m on it.
To my surprise, Mason didn’t return to the Lab Maze after the door clamped shut behind us. He asked for a game of monopoly in the common room, but I promised him another time. After he was out of sight, I slid Summer’s ID out from my sleeve and swiped it through the slot.
I dipped back into the Lab Maze.
I’d mapped the route Mason had taken, each corridor we turned onto, what rooms we passed (the retreat room, not the garden-farm). It made it easier for me to sneak through the corridors and worry about running into a solider or a white coat, than worry about getting lost. Time was short, I couldn’t afford delays. Soon, Summer would notice her badge was gone.
I had to be quick.
It fluttered my stomach to be back to my old tricks. Not the nice flutter, the one of dread—
Especially when I turned a corner and saw a door swing open ahead.
Panicked, I froze a mere second. Footsteps and muffled words came first. I rushed through a cupboard door and held my breath.
Before I could close the door, I heard the other one click shut. Any movement would give me away. I backed up to the hinges.
A wedge of light pierced through crack of the door. I stared at the light, heart pounding—I pressed my hand against my chest to muffle it.
I couldn’t be seen.
This wasn’t the restricted RV with Leo and Castle. This was the CDC.
I heard the footsteps before the shadows moved into the light.
Summer’s quiet voice slithered through the ajar door. “How was his performance in the VC experiment?”
“Underwhelmin
g,” came Dr Wong’s clipped voice. “Side effects included a rash on each of his bite scars and blue formations at the scratch marks on his left shoulder blade. Fifty-two minutes post injection he experienced a short seizure.”
I heard the scratch of a pen on paper. “We’ll cease treatment and transfer him to the FD experiment.”
The footsteps stopped near the door. Dr Wong’s short tone lowered, “You want to reopen that programme? I suggested a prime candidate for it and you denied.”
Summer tutted once. “The patient was a liability. Treating him for the sole purpose of entering him into the programme would have been waste of our resources.”
“We could recruit some of the other new arrivals. The remaining delta combatants and the one who cooks.”
“Who?”
Dr Wong hummed. “I don’t recall his name. He wears glitter.”
“Mason mentioned him. Oscar Thomas.” There was a pregnant pause; so quiet I couldn’t let my breath out just in case. “Find a place for him in the experiment. Assign Mason to the cover story, he did excellent work with the delta’s death.”
My balance wobbled.
I leaned against the wall and cupped my hands to my face. They killed Mac.
Summer had ordered it.
Castle was right, but ... Summer was my sister.
Then, she tore out my breath and heart in one swift move.
“Remove the remaining deltas, admit Oscar into the programme, and the others—Leave them.”
“Yes, of course.” Dr Wong didn’t sound terribly pleased. “Do you want the corporal and his subordinate terminated or admitted into the programmes?”
Summer didn’t take a breath before she answered; “Terminated. It isn’t worth the risk to keep them around, even in confinement.”
A scribble of pen on paper—then their clacking shoes carried on down the hall.
Eventually, I dragged myself out of the cupboard.
Even with the extra load on my mind, I couldn’t afford to waste any more time. There was only one place I could think of that Leo would be kept prisoner.
The Rotter Rooms.
I bustled through the halls, as fast as I could manage with squeaky shoes.
Castle and Leo … I couldn’t let them be killed. Adam, I didn’t care for. Maybe I could strike a deal with Summer? Adam for Castle and Leo. But then I’d be handing over a life in exchange for other lives. I wasn’t comfortable with that. Even Billy’s death sickened me at the time.
My thoughts screeched to a stop as I did. I staggered into the corridor from earlier where I’d seen Summer. Faint noises came from the same room.
I inched closer and peered through the glass.
Mason picked through files on the desk. His head jerked up. Before he could see me, I flattened myself to the floor and cringed.
There was nowhere for me to hide.
I crouched under the window, my eyes swerving all around. There had to be some way I could hide—I had to turn back. But then, I heard the crackle of a walkie and froze.
“Did you find it?”
I recognised her voice even through the crackle of the speaker.
“It’s not here,” said Mason. “I’ve looked everywhere.”
Silence filled the entire hall. I laboured my breathing and glanced down at my hand. Fingers coiled tight around Summers ID badge.
A sigh came through the walkie. “You were assigned to watch her, Mason.”
“There’s only so much I can do bar of stalking her. Your sister’s a hard woman to befriend.”
Summer cursed. “If it’s not there, we can safely assume Winter has stolen it.”
Mason muttered under his breath before he asked, “Orders?”
“Find her.” Summer’s stern voice made my spine shiver. It was her guttural growl. “I’m on my way.”
I scrambled back down the hall on my hands and knees.
Just as Mason stormed out of the lab, I shuffled around a corner and crouched behind a bin. Mason marched down the other corridor and I let out a breath of relief.
I peeled myself off the floor and ran back to the corridor. But I slammed, hard, into a wall.
Staggering back, I lifted my eyes to dark ones.
Mason cocked his brow.
Slowly, he brought the walkie to his face his pressed in a button. “Found her.”
֍
They had me cornered.
Mason had taken me back to the lab as we waited for Summer. The longest minutes of my life.
The whole time, I glanced at the window and hoped to see a delta pass by. My fingers trembled and my heart pounded so hard that it punched against the dip of my neck.
I folded my arms. Mason became my new prison guard. He stood, bulky and tall, in the doorway and shadowed me with his gaze.
Seconds ticked by. I marked them with nervous taps of my foot on the floor, until Summer marched down the corridor. She didn’t even glance at me through the window.
But I saw her—her clenched jaw, tightly set lips and slitted eyes.
Mason leaned to the side to let her by.
Furious gaze on me, Summer stopped and put her hands on her hips. I watched anxiously as she pursed her lips, her jaw working.
Any apology I could give would’ve been a lie. I deserved answers—to not have the soldiers that saved my life and protected me across the barren country end up in some warped experiment or the incinerator.
I matched her stance with a hard look. “Where’s Leo?”
Shaking her head, Summer scoffed a sound of absolute disbelief.
“WHERE IS HE?” I shouted.
“Winter,” she snapped. “Naivety is for children and optimists. You know where he is. Leonardo is most valuable as a test subject than a member of staff.”
My face twisted with angry tears brewing. “He’s in with the rotters, isn’t he?” My shaky voice matched my hateful glare. “How could you do that?”
Summer fixed me with an impatient stare. “Your ignorant innocence was once cute, when we were children. Not anymore, Winter. You need to grow up—this is about more than juvenile crushes. If you widen your perspective, you’ll see that Leonardo is our only path to a vaccine.”
“To save who?” I spat. “A bunch of maniacs in underground facilities across the world? Their lives aren’t worth saving if this—all of this—is what it took to get a vaccine. I can’t you let do this, Summer. I won’t.”
Summer let a small smile slip onto her face. “I’m afraid it is not your decision to make, Winter. You are either on board with my decisions or you are against them.”
“I’m against them.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I wish mum and dad were alive right now, just so they could see you—all that potential they said you had, and you use it like this.”
Summer spread her hands and cupped air. “We have contrasting perceptions of potential, Winter. We always have. And that, unfortunately, has left us here at a crossroads.”
Mason tensed behind her, as if sensing silent orders.
I swerved my gaze between them. Summer was still my sister, no matter what we disagreed on. But would our bond stop her from locking me up while she carried out her plan? The thought ran through my veins with cold dread.
Summer stepped back and gestured for me to follow.
“Before you come to any rash decisions,” she said, “I would like to show you what we are working on here. You need to understand why I am doing what I am doing, why it is the only option we have.”
My lip curled. “There’s nothing you can say or show me that would make cold-blooded murder ok.”
She turned back to face me, her eyes glittering with restrained anger.
“Viruses can evolve,” she said. “For now, the virus is contagious through contact, but what happens in the event that it becomes airborne, or can contaminate soil? The entire world will be uninhabitable. That is not a possible outcome for us, Winter. We have a clean slate. Generations to come will walk out of this facility into a fresh
world with a fresh start. To protect them—to protect the last of humanity—they need to be vaccinated against any remaining strains of the virus.” She shrugged her shoulders delicately. “Those are the facts. Let me show you what I mean.”
Again, she gestured for me to follow.
Hesitantly, I did—and flinched as Mason swept around us to lead the way through the corridors. He never led the way … Normally, he would follow at the rear.
For a moment, I wondered what Summer had planned. I doubted it had anything to do with enlightening me. And by Mason’s tense back muscles, I sensed a different outcome.
A horrid churn in my gut warned me.
I wasn’t so sure the others of my group were the only ones in danger.
We walked in silence until we were deep into the halls and Summer hesitated in front of me.
Her gaze shot from an open doorway back to me. I frowned and looked into the room where Adam stood at a low desk, crouched over. He paused his typing and met my stare.
Summer wrapped her fingers around my arm and, with a firm nod at Adam, she steered me down the corridor with Mason. Before the room was out of sight, I mouthed two words to Adam. Help me. I don’t know if he understood, or if he cared.
Adam’s face had stayed poker straight, leaving me to be led through the maze.
The corridors narrowed the further we went; the lights dimmed until it was so dark that our shadows stretched along the linoleum floor. I almost asked where we were going until I saw it. A sign on the left wall with one word carved into its rusty plate: ‘INCINERATOR’.
I hugged myself and rubbed my arms firmly, as though my caged arms were a barrier. My instincts are what kept me alive for the first five months of the plague. My gut-feelings have never failed me. And they didn’t fail me that day, either.
But Summer read me all too easily. She must have sensed my blanketed panic, saw the cracks in my mask.
It happened all at once. A jumbled memory of panic and movement.
I jerked out of Summer’s hold. Mason reached around his back to his holster.
