by Patti Larsen
We hope.
Beckett keeps the truck at a slow roll, as though not in a hurry, though my anxiety wants him to floor it, to get us there as fast as possible. I hear mental whispers, the clank of metal, turn to see Socrates and Ande handing out tasers, augmented by the Teks, the electric current now green when it pops to life.
We're as prepared as we can be, but in any case I can't wait any longer. I'm here, my task is at hand and I have to act.
We seem to be succeeding in the first part of our plan. As we roll down 5th we're ignored, even by another Crawler truck that passes. They think we're them. Perfect. At least until we reach our destination. Hopefully we'll continue to fool them though I have little faith in such an expectation.
But that's what Ever is for.
34th. The turn. We're half a block from the front of the building when we're finally noticed. A small group of Crawlers jogs toward us, and I know our time has run out. I gather myself, pull in the calm, fully expecting to fight my way out of this when the two Tek trucks roar around the other end of the street, weapons firing.
The Crawlers spin, freeze as though lost in shock. Beckett's foot finally finds the floor as he guns the engine, the truck lurching forward to take out half a dozen of the Crawlers, the whole vehicle rocking as the tires roll over their bodies. The others run in every direction, some tossing their weapons though I know they'll be back once Solo gains control.
Stay with me. I link to each of my friends, feel their minds connect and lock into place with mine as Beckett slams on the brakes directly in front of the smashed SUV Duet buried in the front of the building. We're out, Vander hoisting the dog and wagon onto the sidewalk, and we run as one up the stairs to the ruined doors.
So close. This is working and I can hardly believe it.
Something slams into the glass and brick above us, tinted green. The explosion is so powerful my head rocks back as the ground under my feet shakes. Good thing for the helmets or I fear we'd be deaf. Crawlers pour out and toward the street, ignoring us.
The way is clear. I make a run for it, feeling my friends all with me as we enter the vaulted foyer and keep running.
Another explosion, this one knocking me to my knees. A small group of Crawlers rushes toward us, but they fall easily, not even considering we're the enemy. Beckett and Vander kill them all while Socrates and Ande scout ahead, the dog and his wagon, puppies safely tucked inside, wait with me as I turn in a slow circle and observe.
Safe for now. Until the third blow. Again I'm on my knees, choking on dust while the entire front of the building collapses inward. We scramble deeper, Vander and Beckett right behind me and the dog, heading for Ande and Socrates whose minds tell me they've found what we're looking for.
Elevators. There's electricity here. And though I know the stairs would be safer, and the danger of being trapped in the elevator is very real, I also know we could face endless attacks during our long climb to the top. At least when the doors open on our destination we'll be prepared to fight.
We're almost to the elevators, so close I can feel the rush of air as a whole bank of them open at once to the soft chime of their arrival and a horde of Crawlers surges out to attack us.
A trap. It's been a trap all along. Solo is watching and I'm a fool.
My friends fight back, stronger, faster as am I faster. But these Crawlers possess at least enough of Solo they are able to swarm us, their sheer numbers winning over the extra power I've given my friends. An odd thought strikes me as I take two Crawlers out with one blow, my fist skidding across one chest to impact the crease in the plates protecting the next's ribcage. They are strong, yes—but they aren't at their full potential. Why did she hold back, keep them weak when she could have given them everything?
Several answers come to mind. Either she's too jealous of her own power to trust them that much, she didn't bother considering she's leaving them behind.
Or she can't.
My mind won't let go of the last one. Won't. Because it's sure I'm right.
She can't.
Even while we fall back under the press of their attack I know I've found her weakness. She's not perfect. Never was. And her need for perfection could be her downfall.
If only I can survive this to take advantage of it.
The long corridor hums suddenly with power and I freeze when the others do, all of us to a soul, looking upward, fear crawling over me even as I struggle to keep the calm. If the building collapses under the attack of the Teks, this will all be over, but not in the way it needs to be. But no, the steady pounding outside continues while this feels different.
Electric.
When the first Crawler spasms, I jerk back, the visor of his helmet suddenly steamed over, wisps escaping around the edges, the scent of charred flesh reaching me a moment later. He's not the only one. In a pulsing wave of green fire, each and every one of the Crawlers twitches, jerks like a puppet who's lost strings and collapses. The air is suddenly noxious, the stench of burning tissue flooding the hall, choking me as a haze of rising steam escapes upward toward the ceiling.
Duet's mind is in mine, buzzing, happy and sad and angry and hurting all at once, spiraling so fast I gasp for air and clutch my chest while my friends all tear their helmets free and throw them aside, shaking their heads. They feel it too. Feel her.
Duet. I reach for her, try to keep her with me, link her as I've done with the others, but she jerks free, a scream tearing through my mind, cut off like a knife cut between us.
She did this, saved us. How much did it cost her? When I reach for her again I find nothing, just emptiness.
My body aches from the pressure of her presence and just as sudden absence, but there's no time to stop, to think or consider. Solo knows we're here and we need to move quickly.
I can't afford to lose myself in the fear Duet died to save us.
Socrates hits the button, the pinpoint of light glowing only a moment before the doors slide open, welcoming us inside. This is foolhardy, stupid, will get us all killed. I know it, we're going to our deaths, but I can't stop. I'm the first on board, but remain near the door as my friends enter, the dog spinning around so the wagon is in the back of the space before the doors slide shut and we're rising.
The lab was on the 79th floor. I remember that number easily. My home address, if it could be called that. It glows, the light inside it flickering a little as yet another Tek attack rocks the building. It's more noticeable now as we rise, higher and higher. I reach for Ever, afraid of what I'll find, fears well grounded.
I see through her eyes, knowing I only do because she allows it. They are surrounded, their vehicles crippled and twisted. I feel her pain, know she is near death. See the detonator in her hand, her thumb hovering, ready.
All our hope, Ever sends. And presses the button.
She's gone from my mind as I stagger, the whole building shaking violently, power stuttering as the massive sound of the explosion outside reaches us, a deep thrumming boom rattling my teeth together.
Beckett reaches for me as the power dies, the elevator jerking to a sudden halt.
“Ever,” I whisper.
I didn't need to say it. They already know.
***
Chapter Thirty Seven
I look up at the hatch on the ceiling, consider it as the single red emergency bulb casts a deathly glow over all of us. But before I can reach for it, the power surges to life again and we're rising.
But the buttons are dark. We're no longer heading for our original destination, I'm sure of it.
Ready, I send. They're waiting for us.
My friends shift in place, but don't speak, minds tied to mine so tightly I feel their muscles bunch and relax as they prepare for battle. My helmet lands at my feet with a clang. I'm happy to be rid of it, despite the extra protection it might offer. I want a clear and unobstructed view when the doors open.
The panel above reads 86 when the elevator finally comes to a halt. Observation level. O
f course. I'm prepared when the doors slide open, but we're alone. No one is watching or waiting. And yet, we're here for a reason.
Socrates tries the buttons, but the elevator won't respond. We're here and we're staying.
I head for the outdoors, the familiar sight I'm so used to, of the city I called home once spread out before me.
I see him through the glass, understand why we're here. Perhaps not Solo's choice, but Brick's. He smiles at me as I emerge into the wind, the end of my ponytail tossed aside as the brisk breeze takes it. Crisp, clean air fills my lungs, the scents of the dead city not reaching me here. It almost feels like I've come home after all.
If not for the line of Crawlers waiting for me. For us. And Brick's smiling face.
“My turn,” he says. And attacks.
He's my focus. I trust the others to do what they need to and they don't let me down. I seal off my connection to them, unable to bear the split focus their minds create, the calm wrapping me up like the gift I now know it is. Brick is almost faster, one fist clipping my shoulder as I dodge. She's given him more than the others, but I feel it in him, the flaw, the remaining damage Solo's left behind and that one sliver of humanity tells me how he can be beaten.
I take a blow to the cheekbone while my fist finds the crack in his armor just above his waist, his body bending in half as I drive my fingertips into his gut. But he's recovered, foot lashing out to smash my knee. I just manage to swing sideways, feel the toe of his boot clash against the augmented metal of my shin brace while my elbow takes him on the point of his chin.
His hand catches my hair, jerks my head back, other descending like a blade toward my throat. I twist, taking the hit on my collarbone, feel it crack under the pressure of his blow.
Someone roars, leaps on Brick and my mind opens to my friends as Vander's body weight carries Brick back toward the edge of the deck. I straighten, push toward them, the ache of the broken bone fading as my body heals, but I'm slow, too slow.
Vander falls away as Brick gains traction with his back pressed to the edge of the railing. His big hands rise, wrap around my friend's neck. The sound of crushing bone is so loud I freeze in shock even as Vander's mind recoils in agony and leaves me.
His body collapses to the side, crashing on the deck as Brick straightens and grins at me.
Like it's funny.
My heart contracts, stomach clenching as the most powerful rage I've ever felt pours out of the hole in my soul and feeds the calm, encompasses, devours the last of it until I'm only fury and hate and the burning need to kill.
He's too slow for me, can't keep up any longer and I'm laughing as I hover over Brick while he falls to my feet, side of his face crushed, one leg broken from an attack I don't remember delivering. Both of my gloves fly free, hands exposed to the air. I need to touch him, to feel him with my bare hands when I take his life.
But first, I have something else to do.
My power reaches inside him, finds the flaw—and heals it. I could have done to him what I did to Cade, filling him to bursting and taking his ability for my own, but this is better, much better.
He's whole again. Cheek untouched by damage, leg straight. But he stares up at me with absolute terror before he looks down at his shaking hands.
“What have you done?” Brick's voice vibrates with emotion, whole body vibrating from it.
“I healed you,” I say in a whisper, bending until my mouth almost touches his. “You're welcome.”
Human. Flawless. Fragile. I grasp the edges of his breastplate and lift him into the air, two steps forward, one last look in his eyes before I heave him over the side.
He screams as he falls and falls and falls, but I can't bring myself to care.
***
Chapter Thirty Eight
I turn to see the rest of the Crawlers are dead, but that doesn't matter, nothing matters, not while my friends circle around the body of fallen Vander, his empty eyes looking upward toward nothing.
And the anger shatters into a million pieces, the calm still holding me close, gently, as though to protect me from myself and the fact he's dead and it's my fault.
I crouch next to him, touching his pale skin with my hands, calling him to me, to heal him as I did the buck. But he's gone, his spirit flying and I can only hope he's found Gault again in this world, and that I can save him in the next one.
None of us speaks when I rise and leave the wind behind, the coolness of the air for the still and quiet interior. The elevator waits for us, and this time when I press the button for 79 it dings, the steel doors sliding softly shut.
We descend quickly, barely any time to prepare for our next battle. Our last battle. The lab is here, the time portal. There is no other place it could be. Solo will be waiting, her army behind her, and we'll never reach the machine, I'll never complete my task.
The elevator stops, the doors open and I can't think, mind closing over the impossibility.
We're alone. I step off, look to my right, my left. Nothing. No one. Silence, more silence. The door to the lab beckons me and I enter, the real world and my memory meshing as I walk the hallway, the low sound of a hum reaching me at last through the soles of my shoes. It's the only noise registering as I push the door open and am finally home.
I'm in a dozen places at once, with Beckett, with the dog, older, younger. With Dr. Gorman, with my sisters, laughing, crying, holding the dead baby who didn't survive. All of it swirls around me, threatens to overwhelm until I feel my friends, their minds linked to mine, supporting me, holding me up, keeping me safe, pulling me back from the brink of insanity.
I snap into the present, eyes drifting over the empty hallway. It's nothing like I remember. The lab was more open when I lived here. It was still an office when the Sick came to the city, cubicles and closed doorways. Ghostly images of the people I knew drift through walls and call me back to madness, but I'm here and anchored and eventually they fade.
A short walk forward, a turn to the left and I should be in the lab, but it's just an office with a big desk and too tight walls. I can't go in—I won't be able to breathe in so close a space where it should be open. Sadness squeezes my chest. I was never here. Was never born, even considered. What I am, who I am, will never be if this world is allowed to continue.
Someone moans, a low, deep sound pulling me around, toward one of the cubicles. This at least is open, windows casting daylight over the cramped office quarters. I find Dauphine sprawled against a dull gray divider, blood oozing from a deep gash in her stomach, her blind eyes finding mine even as she reaches out and takes my hand with her own bloody one—
***
Chapter Thirty Nine
—they are dead, all of them dead, Beckett, Socrates, Ande… Poppy. And my mother, sprawled at my feet while Solo looks at me with a smile, as though she's expecting the answer to a question. My heart squeezes, crushing itself with grief while Solo holds out her hand and guides me to the light, through the portal—
***
Chapter Forty
—my heart skips, starts again and I'm holding the lifeless hand of the seer between my own. Again I try to call her back, try to heal one I care for, but she's gone and I allow her freedom. She's told me what I need to know. That I'm heading for failure.
My friends will die if I keep going. But what choice do I have?
None.
“What did she show you?” I look up at Beckett, his grim face unreadable and shrug.
“Nothing.” I say. “No time.”
Ande sighs softly, the connection between us rippling. Did they see then? But they couldn't have or Beckett wouldn't have asked.
I rise, leaving the dead girl behind, leaving them all to follow as I travel the distance down the worn carpeting to the next doorway. The time device is here, it must be. In the same physical location. The humming is louder now, almost musical, vibrating up through my bones, making my jaw ache. But I welcome the sound. It means we've arrived, we're here.
&nbs
p; We're here.
Beckett's mind reaches through. This isn't right.
Not right, Socrates echoes, Ande with him.
I know. It's a trap, as much as this has all been, Solo’s plan down to the last detail. Do I have any tricks up my sleeve? One. And it's perfect.
I push the door open, enter the lab. It's dark and gloomy, no outside lighting showing me the way. But a muted white light calls me deeper inside and I approach the center of the room. This place at least is the size I remember, feels the same. The sound is so loud now I catch myself humming along as though it were the opening to a song, some tune hanging on the edge of my awareness. It isn't until I round the side of the portal I understand the source of it.
The calm almost cracks. I almost fall to my knees and weep. It's almost over, here and now, standing in front of the horror, the remains of my sister.
Almost. But I hold on, have to, out of time, out of options, as my eyes travel around the circle of the portal now decorated with what's left of Duet. Not her human body, no. Her mortal tissue is long gone, bits of it clinging in charred strips to the metal fragments she used to wear. Half of her face, the sluggish metal half, twists into an endless scream, lips gaping where her human parts should complete the "o" of her agony. Green ichor pulses through the living metal, feeding the soft white glow of the dormant portal even as the hand I once held twitches.
Alive. Still alive. The green eye snaps open, fixes on me and Duet stares at me.
What's left of her.
I go to her, slide my fingers over the vibrating metal, hear her song reach into my heart, but her mind is gone, empty, lost to me, only a cold and echoing silence answering my cry.
My sister, the girl I knew and loved, is dead.
