Andreas began struggling again, and Ayn squeezed her until she stopped.
“You and I both know that the sedation dose isn’t going to keep you quiet for very long,” he told her as tears streamed from her eyes. “I’m going to give you a small dose to put you out, then I’ll start a drip. Six cc’s total over the next seven hours—it’s the right amount, it won’t hurt you. You’ll wake up in the storage room with nothing more than a headache.”
He shifted his hold, reaching out to take the syringe from Amber.
Andreas’ stomach churned with desperation as she watched the ration close its fingers around the syringe. Her mind raced—this creature was the key to proving David’s work, the key to her surviving the charges she was facing, and if it got away, everything would end for her right here and now. Her eyes focused on a tray sitting on the edge of the counter beside the restraint platform. The blade of a scalpel glinted in the light, and she let her body sag in the ration’s grasp as she held her breath. It would likely kill her if she succeeded, but it was a chance she was willing to take. She was already dead if she didn’t at least try.
Andreas felt the ration’s hold on her relax for a split second as it prepared to jab her, and she seized her moment. With every bit of her strength, she drove her fist into its groin; it let out a cry as its body instinctively doubled over, and she rammed the back of her head into its face as she jabbed her elbow into its ribs.
“Ayn!” Amber’s voice screamed, and Andreas saw the girl run out of the storage room. The ration lost its hold just long enough for her to twist away, and she launched herself forward, sending the tray flying as she grabbed the scalpel.
The ration recovered almost instantly; blood trickled from its nose as it lunged for her, and Andreas dropped to the floor, her eyes zeroing in on her target. She rolled aside and grabbed hold of its leg, the blade flashing out in her hand the exact moment she felt the needle stab her arm.
Ayn roared as pain shot up through his ankle and into his calf, staggering back as he lost his balance. He fell to the floor in shock; Andreas’ eyes closed as the sedation dose took effect, but the damage had already been done. His lungs heaved as he stared down at the blood that poured from the back of his ankle, his heart sinking.
“Ayn!”
Amber collapsed at his side, her eyes filled with horror, and he wiped the blood from his throbbing nose as he forced a smile.
“I’m okay,” he told her, gingerly flexing his foot. Relief washed over him despite the agony; although the injury was serious, the tendon hadn’t been completely severed by the blade.
“We have to go,” Amber gasped as she reached to help him up. “Come on, hurry! The clothes are in my room!”
Ayn pursed his lips. Even with the serum, it would take almost two days for the wound to heal.
“I can’t go, Amber,” he said, his voice quiet as his eyes locked with hers. “She went after the tendon on the back of my ankle. I think she just grazed it, but if I try running like this, it will tear through and I’ll be crippled.”
“I’ll help you! You can hold onto me, we’ll make it!”
He could see tears of panic spilling over onto her cheeks, and he reached up, cradling her face in his hand.
“Andreas has a hearing in a few hours, Amber, they’re going to come looking for her. We won’t get far enough away to keep them from coming after us, especially with the weight of the supplies we need. They’ll still be able to see us from the top of the facility and it won’t take long for them to catch up.”
“I’ll carry yours―”
“It’s not going to work,” Ayn told her, shaking his head. “You have to go without me.”
She dissolved into sobs.
“No, Ayn! She’ll kill you when she wakes up!”
He wrapped his arms around her, his heart wrenching.
“She won’t kill me, I have information she wants,” he whispered. “I have to heal from this before I can go, but I promise, I’ll come after you.”
“How?” Amber wailed. “She knows about you now, she’ll find a way to keep you here!”
He lifted her face.
“I will come after you, Amber, but Andreas has leverage against me as long as you’re here. I have to know that you’re safe.”
“I don’t want to leave you!”
“You have to, this is your only chance!” he told her, his voice rising. “You need at least a seven-hour head start, you’re running out of time!”
“I can’t lose you again!”
“And I can’t lose you, dammit! We’re both dead if you stay here, don’t you understand? Just stick to the plan and I’ll follow as soon as I can get away, but you have to go NOW!”
Amber jumped at the harshness of his voice, hopelessness rising in her heart at the severity in his eyes. The memory of the weeks she had spent thinking he was dead flooded through her mind―the thought of dying here with him paled in comparison to leaving without him.
“I…I can’t,” she choked out. “I can’t leave you.”
His face relaxed for a moment, and he sighed.
“Amber, if you care about me, if you love me, you’ll go. I’m begging you.”
Her chest ached with pain, but she managed to nod.
“I love you, Ayn.”
“I love you, Amber, and I promise I will do everything I can to come after you. Go.”
She managed to drag herself to her knees, leaning forward to kiss him before standing up. It took everything in her power to turn away from him, and as she ran for the door, she felt as if she was leaving her soul behind.
Ayn watched her disappear, sighing to himself as he glanced down at Andreas’ motionless form. He scoffed under his breath as he struggled to his feet and limped towards the cabinet. If he had just killed the woman, if he hadn’t tried to be better than the keepers and just sacrificed her to save himself, he wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
He retrieved a vial of serum and hobbled over to a chair, reaching for a syringe as he looked up at the clock. It should take Amber less than an hour to get out of the facility, and Andreas would be waking up around the same time. He frowned as he filled the syringe with a double dose of serum, injecting it into his vein and wincing as he felt it flood through his body. He had an hour to figure out what he was going to do.
≈
Amber’s shoes echoed against the steel walkways as she ran; she paused long enough to pull them off, then silently darted down the stairs as she made her way towards the travel preparation module. She could only hope that everyone would be gone by now, but as she rounded the corner, she caught sight of Teresa’s figure leaving. Amber skidded to a stop, grabbing the handrail and using her momentum to swing herself into the shadows as the woman passed. She held her breath, waiting, then she ran towards the doors.
The darkened room was empty from what she could tell, and she blindly tore through the supplies next to the exit. She wasn’t sure how much food she was grabbing, choosing the heaviest bag of dried meat she could find along with two five-gallon bags of water. It was more than she would need, but she wanted to be prepared just in case Ayn couldn’t get enough of his own when he joined her.
If he joined her.
Amber fought back a sob as she draped the supplies over her shoulders, then she reached for the bundles that held blankets and lights, picking up two of them. She put her hand on the door handle, hesitating for a moment. There was no coming back this time, and she had to force herself to open the door.
A fresh wave of adrenaline poured through her veins as the cold, night air hit her in the face; she gasped for breath, her lungs burning as she stepped out of the oxygen-rich atmosphere of the facility. The bags felt even heavier as her muscles screamed in agony from the weak air outside, but she did her best to ignore the pain as she ran.
Amber glanced up to fix her direction, instantly remembering that her book was still in her room. She didn’t need it
, not really, but it still hurt to know that it had to be left behind. The rock Ayn had given her was in her pocket, at least, and she set her jaw as she quickly located the North Star. She veered off to the west, following the glittering path that the stars burned on the night sky.
* * *
Ayn stared at the clock, watching the minutes tick by. Every second that passed without the alarm sounding was another second closer to Amber being gone, and by the time a full hour had passed, he was sure she had made it out.
He heard a quiet groan, and his attention shifted to Andreas. The woman was beginning to stir. Her eyes slowly opened; she struggled to sit up, and Ayn scowled as he leaned back in his chair.
“Amber’s gone,” he announced. Andreas turned her head to look at him, fear washing over her face.
“Are you…going to kill me?”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“No. I can’t exactly get away now thanks to you, so if you die, I die.”
She stared at him for a long moment.
“What now?”
Ayn shrugged.
“That depends on you.”
She scooted back and drew her knees up to her chin.
“What do you mean?”
“You have two choices,” he said, his voice low. “You can try to sound the alarm about Amber and we both die, or you can keep your mouth shut and have a chance to escape the charges you’re facing. It’s your decision, but I would suggest you go with the second option.”
Andreas glared at him.
“You’re not exactly in a position to negotiate, ration.”
Ayn chuckled.
“So you don’t want to stay alive long enough to hear about David’s work? It’s either that or I kill you now.”
He held up a syringe, showing her the green fluid it was filled with.
“You wouldn’t,” Andreas said. “You just said that if I die, you die. You don’t want to die.”
“No, Andreas, I don’t want Amber to die. I already sacrificed myself for her twice—back at the settlement and just earlier when you threatened her. Do you honestly think I wouldn’t do it again?”
He could see her contemplating, and he smiled as she nodded.
“Fine,” Andreas said. “But I want you to tell me what you know about David. I want to know what Noah did.”
“And I want Amber to be safe,” he countered. “She needs a head start, I’ll tell you everything after your hearing.”
“You can start now. We have time.”
Ayn frowned, eyeing the woman. He cocked his head.
“David loved you, did you know that?”
He heard her breath catch in her throat.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispered, swallowing hard. “You don’t―”
“I watched the two of you for months, Andreas, I know what I saw.”
She drew a shuddering breath.
“I loved him, too.”
“You sure had a strange way of showing it. He was devastated by what you did, I heard him crying in the lab the day you reported him.”
“I didn’t have a choice! The board would have removed me, too!”
“We always have a choice, Andreas,” Ayn told her quietly, shaking his head.
“I can’t fix it,” she whispered. Her voice was edged with a sudden sorrow. “I can’t go back in time and save him. All I can do is prove that he wasn’t what they think he was, he wasn’t a traitor to the program.”
“The program,” Ayn muttered. “David was the first person I ever encountered who was willing to see the rations as more than just meat, he was actually willing to admit that the program is murder.”
Andreas’ eyes snapped forward to meet his.
“It’s not murder, it’s a humane breeding program to prevent the extinction of humanity.”
“I think I’m uniquely qualified to disagree with that statement,” he shot back, his eyes flashing with anger. “You’re talking to a ration, Andreas! You’re telling me that you really still believe there’s anything humane about it?”
“You’re an anomaly,” she reasoned. “A fluke.”
Ayn glared at her for a long moment, disgust rising in his throat, then he scoffed.
“We need to discuss what’s going to happen next,” he told her, his voice cold. “Your hearing is in a few hours, and if you’re removed, they’re going to kill me. We need to make a plan for how to prevent that from happening.”
“Tell me what you know about David’s work―”
“Not until after the hearing. I need leverage to keep you from telling anyone about Amber.”
Andreas pursed her lips.
“Then you’re going with me.”
Ayn sighed heavily. He had anticipated that she would suggest as much, but it didn’t make it any easier to accept.
†‡†
DAY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Amber fled through the dark, her lungs heaving as she stumbled along. She glanced up at the sky; it was almost dawn, which meant that nearly six hours of distance separated her from Ayn. Fresh tears instantly welled up in her eyes at the thought, trickling down to join the ones that had already dried on her face. She couldn’t imagine how he could possibly get away now that Andreas knew he could speak―he would be dissected, even more than he already had been, and a wave of anger flooded through her body to mingle with her sorrow. Once again, he had sacrificed himself for her, yet she was still powerless to do anything to help him.
Her heartbeat kept cadence with her footsteps, the sound pulsing in her ears to mark each passing second. The frigid night air began to dissipate as the first rays of sunlight spilled across the barren land, and she could feel the approaching wave of heat against her back as she slowed to a walk. Oddly enough, she found that the sweat that cascaded over her skin was almost welcome, and she laughed to herself despite her circumstances. If only her parents were here, they would never let her hear the end of it after all those years she had spent complaining about the heat.
Her parents.
Amber hadn’t even considered how her sudden departure from the resource center would affect them, and she frowned as she tried to ignore the worry that washed over her. It was too late to do anything about it now, and besides, the resource center seemed invested in making sure that outsiders didn’t know what was going on inside the facility. Maybe they wouldn’t say anything, maybe they would just let her parents believe that she was fine and the program was proceeding as planned.
She couldn’t decide which one sounded better: the thought of them never knowing that she was gone or the thought of them thinking she was safe at the facility. Either way, they would never find out what had really happened, and that, she had no doubt, would be for the best. They would be devastated if they learned the truth.
Amber dissolved into a sudden fit of senseless giggles. Her parents’ reactions didn’t matter anymore―even thinking about them was a useless waste of energy at this point. They were as lost to her as she was to them, and a strange exhilaration flooded through her veins as she realized that she was glad of it. She was glad to be done with them, glad that she was no longer bound to them. For the first time in her life, she was free. Her own survival was the only thing she had to worry about.
Even Ayn’s fate was beyond her control, and as terrifying and heartwrenching as the thought was, it still felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. He was more than capable of taking care of himself, and if anyone could get out of that nightmare, it was him. She had to believe that he would somehow make it, and she set her jaw against the heat that radiated off the bare ground in front of her as she walked.
She thought back to the plan she and Ayn had made, remembering when he had explained the journey. He had told her about an old highway that stretched all the way across the continent; it had been used as a shipping route back when transportation and travel took only hours in
stead of weeks, and according to him, it led straight to the mountains. She shielded her eyes, scanning the endless sea of sunbaked dirt ahead.
Years upon years of wind-driven dust had poured across the landscape, filling in any spaces that gave it a place to settle and hiding what lay beneath, but while the valleys between each drift were nearly featureless, the higher areas were marked with a wide strip of ground too smooth for the dirt to grab hold of. She had decided to follow it, tracing its path with her eyes every time she crested a hill, and so far, it seemed to be leading her in the right direction. This had to be the road, she was sure of it.
Amber sighed. Ayn had estimated that the journey would take three weeks, which meant she had exactly twenty-one days of walking ahead of her unless she managed to pick up her pace. She shifted the load of supplies on her shoulders and broke into a jog.
* * *
Andreas frowned as she stared at the rows of small vials inside the medication cabinet. Each shelf was filled with different compounds, from serum for healing to the resolution doses for euthanizing test subjects, but her gaze was focused on the unlabeled vials that lined the bottom shelf. These contained the isolated pain control compound she had created for the tests she had planned to run on the ration, and she sighed as she glanced at the clock. Her hearing was in less than an hour―there wasn’t enough time to come up with an alternative plan, and she whispered a curse as she turned around.
“You’re sure you’re immune to the pain control?” Andreas asked, eyeing the ration. It was sitting on a chair in the middle of the lab, a scowl fixed on its face. “You’re sure it has absolutely no effect on you?”
The ration gave a curt nod.
“I’m sure. Every time you stabbed me with your stupid needles proved as much.”
“Yes, but I never exceeded the maximum safe dose,” Andreas pointed out. “I stayed below the threshold of toxicity.”
CENTER 82 (RATION) Page 27
