There was a shaky, “Viv.”
“Viv, great. Grab us a couple pieces of that rebar, would you? The ones just rolling around on the floor. We’re probably going to want them to hit people with.”
“They have guns,” the new girl said.
“Yup,” Ian said. “Hey, you, kid, just get out of the room okay?”
Farther down the hallway, there was a rattling. Then a hammering. “It’s locked,” Liz called.
“Elevator’s not working,” Danny added.
The alarm cut off abruptly, leaving an empty, ringing silence. Cam realized he was listening for something only after he heard it. He thought he heard it. A hissing. The thunks as every vent in the ceiling shifted open. The change in the air against his skin.
Someone started coughing. RETCHING. GASPING—COLLAPSING—Cam couldn’t see, but he knew it was there. The cloud, the THICK SICKLY GREEN CLOUD, drifted down on to them like fog from the vents overhead.
Ch. 27
There was a moment’s silence.
“Shit,” Danny said.
“What is that? What is it?” Viv was gasping, the words high and panicked between fits of coughing.
“‘Shit’?” Liz echoed.
“It’s…not good,” Danny said. “They tried it on me once. It’s really not good, guys.”
“He’s trying to kill us?” Viv’s voice was so high now it was painful. “Why is he trying to kill us?! He needs us!”
“Doesn’t fucking matter!” Liz shouted. “Are you going to sit here and let him?”
“But it doesn’t make sense! He needs us! He needs us—” Her last shriek was enveloped in a storm of sound that nearly knocked them off their feet. Cam clung to the wall until it ebbed and died away.
“Door’s a no-go,” Ian hollered, his voice tight against a fit of coughing. “Get everyone to the cell by the door to the stairs. I can get us through the wall there.” Cam felt hands under his arms, lifting him up. He wanted to help, to move, but the overwhelming, wracking coughing had taken over, his body fighting against every breath. Each lungful was a chemical burn.
“Okay,” said Danny. His voice was a little strained, but he was the only one not coughing. “Okay, I did have a thought. But it means, uh—look, we’re all friends right?”
“Yeah, sure,” Ian gasped. “Totally.”
“So we’re all going to become a lot closer friends. Look, we don’t have a lot of time, so everyone just stay calm and don’t panic. We’re going to be fine. Right? Cam?”
Say fine. Say fine. Say that you’re all going to be fine.
“We’re just going to take that as a yes,” Danny continued. “Any questions?”
“Why are you taking off your shirt?” a voice asked. Cam recognized it as belonging to the boy they’d pulled out. “And…your pants?”
“Well, you got abs like this, you want to show them off any chance you get. And it’s harder to pull in oxygen through fabric. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my panties on. Uh, Viv, and…guy. Hi, hey, I’m Danny. I’m really sorry this is how we’re all meeting. You guys are both legal, right?”
“Danny!” Liz snapped.
“Just checking. Don’t worry,” Danny said again, and Cam could hear the smile in his voice. “This is my thing.”
There was a pause.
“Oh my god, Ian, don’t you shave?” Danny asked.
“Thought you liked a little scruff on a man,” Ian laughed. His voice was light and tight.
Another pause. Longer this time, and growing quieter as the coughing faded.
Cam was expecting it, ready for it. There was still a little awkwardness as Danny pressed his mouth to Cam’s, but it was lost in the rush of gratitude for the rush of air slipping into his lungs.
“Well, hot damn, Cam,” Danny laughed, moving back. “You sure know how to make a guy feel appreciated.”
There was silence for a minute, and then more, until Ian, his hand clamped around Cam’s arm, told Danny and Liz to break it up, and then ordered them to move.
The air in Cam’s lungs didn’t last nearly as long he’d hoped. Danny came by again, and again, before a rasping, desperate coughing built behind Cam. Someone croaked, “Shit” and Cam was jerked to a stop. There was frantic, panicked sobbing, and Ian vibrated don’t breathe! as someone rushed past Cam.
“Hey, kid—kid!” The sound of a slap. Then Danny demanded, “Does anyone know his name? Hey, hey, hey—catch her!”
Retching. Something warm and wet splashed Cam’s foot. He felt Ian bellow, MOVE, and the hand on Cam’s wrist shoved him into someone. He could feel the soft fabric of scrubs and the ribbon of stitches along skin. Liz, you take him. I’ll grab her. Danny gets the kid there. Run.
They ran. Cam knew it wouldn’t be far, couldn’t be—he remembered from the last time they dragged him to the Medlab. It was just a hallway with doors—cells—on either side, and an elevator at the very end. And, just before the elevator, a door to the stairwell with a keycard lock. He’d walked this hall every time they took him to the Medlab. It wasn’t far.
But it felt like it, as the pressure built in his chest and Cam tried to hold onto the last lingering air in his lungs. He had to fight against the urge to breathe, to suck in something, anything. It was funny how the desperation helped clear his mind a bit, and so that it could focus on the desperate, screaming need for air. But he could feel the gas against his skin, heavier, clinging, and starting to burn. It was creeping under the blindfold. It was like fire along his eyes. Spots were starting to form behind his eyes.
There as a thud. Loud and heavy enough that Cam felt it, through the floorboards. “Shit, shit, shit—Ian, shit, Ian—”
“Danny,” Liz rasped. There was a pause, and on a rush of air she said, “Take them. Door.”
“It’s just over there. It’s not far. We have to—”
For a second the spots overwhelmed Cam’s vision, and his legs simply dropped out from under him. He felt the breath rush out of his lungs, and then the fire raced in. His body seemed to take over for him, coughing so hard it made his chest ache, fighting against the gas that scraped his lungs like steel wool.
Danny was there. And Cam tried to hold on, but then Danny was gone. There was running feet, and a slam that echoed down the hallway, the sound of it reverberating along the floor. Then again. And again. And, in between, Liz’s bitter, blistering gasps of, “Come on! Come on!”
And then the beautiful sound of shrieking metal and breaking concrete. Liz screamed—Cam wasn’t sure if it was in anger or victory or pain—and then Danny’s hands were dragging him up and shaking him. “Get up, Cam. Get up!” Danny shook him again, hard. “On your feet, soldier! Here, take her arm and pull, okay? You go that way, and you pull.” Danny shoved him down the hall. Cam stumbled, but he could smell it now. The clean, clear air of the hallway. He pulled at the arm Danny had slapped in his hand and reached out his other hand to trail along the wall. Air. He could smell it. He could make it.
His fingers brushed the broken edges of what had been a door. He wrapped his fingers around the edge and pulled himself through on his knees. Dragged the…girl? Yes. The girl after him. Sucking in the fresh air as fast as he could, Cam heard the cursing. “Liz?”
“I’m here.” Her voice was brittle with pain.
“You…okay?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “I—messed my shoulder up. Danny’s still in there.” He heard her push herself up, stumble to the door.
“Liz—”
“Stay here,” she ordered. “Help her. I don’t think she’s breathing.” Her footsteps ran off.
Cam reached out, his hands fumbling until he found the girl. She wasn’t breathing, but there was a pulse. His head was foggy and spinning, but he’d taken enough first aid classes that he didn’t have to think about it much. He was grateful he didn’t have to do CPR, because he wasn’t sure he could manage it. But he could help her breathe.
He heard Danny groaning, and Liz biting curses, growing closer until th
ey were almost right on top of him, and a large, heavy arm dropped down next to him. “Lizzie—Lizzie, see to him. I’ll get the kid!” Danny’s voice was already sprinting down the hallway.
The new girl—Viv—coughed, sputtered, began sucking in air, and almost immediately began sobbing. It was high and hysterical, and it built until she was almost screaming. Cam could hear Ian mumbling, “I’m okay, lemme get up, I’m okay,” but Liz cut him off sharply. “Don’t you dare move.”
“Okay, Liz? Everyone?”
Cam felt Liz’s hand clamp over his mouth. “Yeah. We’re okay. You just lie there and breathe, okay?”
Cam turned before Danny’s footsteps came racing back. They sounded heavier, and Cam reached out to help set the boy down, and mostly managed to get it right on the first try. “Kid. Kid? What the fuck is your name?” Danny’s voice was low and focused, with none of the good humor it habitually had. It started counting, steady, to five, and then there was a pause, and the count started again. He kept going, barely pausing to ask, “What’s the plan, Liz?”
“I don’t know.” She was silent for a moment. “I could try to clear the way. You stay here with them.”
Danny didn’t respond. He kept counting, WOULD KEEP COUNTING UNTIL THE GUARDS—UNIFORMS—GUNS—RACED AROUND THE CORNER and Cam hurried to get back to his feet, tripped over them, and smashed his face into the floor. A hand hooked under his elbow and pulled him back up to his feet.
GUARDS. COMING.
“Where?” Liz demanded.
RIGHT. LEFT. BOTH DIRECTIONS. It depended on so much. So much depended on so much else, it was a wonder anything happened at all. Trying to focus was like drilling into his brain.
STAIRS—stairs! And Cam was jolting forward, arms out in front of him, hands searching because it wasn’t just a LANDING, was it, it was a STAIRWAY, because his brain clicked into the RAILINGS and the STAIRS heading up and down. RUSHING DOWN RUSHING TO MEET—
He made it halfway up one flight before he heard the others following him. “The doors are downstairs, Cam!” Danny called up after him, but Cam shook his head. The LANDING was up, not down. The island in the storm. She would be there soon. His head was screaming at him.
“Cam!” Liz’s voice was rushing after him. Liz, RUNNING, LEAPING UP WHOLE FLIGHTS AT A TIME, energy pouring off of her.
Cam focused on the LANDING, until it was the only thing he could see, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise when he ran straight into—a wall. Of muscle. He felt the hands start to close around his arms, but Cam twisted away, free, just before a TIDAL WAVE OF SOUND—before DANNY CHARGED—before LIZ WRENCHED THE MAN’S HEAD BACK AND CRACKED IT SOLIDLY INTO THE WALL—before—
Cam felt footsteps rushing up the steps, and didn’t duck in time. Liz knocked into him, sending him headfirst into the stairs, hard. Stars burst behind his eyes, and his vision threatened to go dark, and Cam saw—LIZ FLINGING HERSELF AT THE MAN—saw THE MAN SWAT LIZ AWAY LIKE A FLY—saw LIZ PICKING UP THE MAN’S FALLEN STUN-STICK—and Cam pushed himself up, scrambled at the man, flailing out blindly, trying to claw at his face, trying to find his eyes. The man flipped him off like a toy—saw LIZ FLIPPING THE STUN-STICK OVER IN HER HAND LIKE A BAT—heard the sound of hands hitting flesh—heard, past the ringing in his ears that made it sound as if he were underwater, Viv, below, still screaming.
Thought, LANDING.
He had to get there. It was so close, he was almost there, he had to get there.
Someone was yanking on his shirt, and, “Go, Cam, go! Run!”
Run.
He tried to push up, couldn’t get his feet back under him, and half-fell, half-crawled up the rest of the stairs, finding the railing face-first as he smashed into Liz’s legs and knocked them both down. A strong hand got Cam’s arm, wrenched it up behind his back, forced him to his knees. Cam heard Liz spitting curses, and he lunged over, straining against the vicious hold on his arm, and grabbed the stun-stick from Liz’s hand. He flailed back blindly with it, felt it connect with something and the grip on his wrist relaxed for a split second. Long enough to run up one more flight—
—and Cam couldn’t think beyond LANDING. Here, here, this was it. He knew. Here.
Liz was screaming for him to run, Cam, run RUN!
“Wait.” It was his voice. His.
Wait.
“Cam!”
Cam lifted the stun-stick, this one moment clear and certain. Tossed it.
It didn’t fall. He didn’t hear it crash to the ground, knew he wouldn’t, because she was there. To catch it. He felt the rush of air, moving past him. The cavalry. Cam was released suddenly, and heard the whack of the stick against bodies. Heard Liz laughing her name, and the man’s sharp, hot screams of pain.
He wasn’t sure how long it was—it felt like forever. But it grew quiet, except for the hiss of radio static. And then she was there, arms tight around him, fingers digging in until it was painful but he didn’t care. Cam buried his face in her hair, not sure if she was holding onto him or the other way round. Real. She was real and she was now. Ashley, he thought. It dampened the fires in his mind until it was all he could think, and it was enough.
Ashley.
Ch. 28
Cam.
Cam was here, Cam was safe. And the others, too—Ashley knew that and was grateful. But there wasn’t much room for them right now. At the moment there was only room for him. He was scraped up and dusted with—was that rubble?—and wearing a blindfold. But he was alive. He was fine. She could smell and touch and see him.
It took conscious and concerted effort to turn her attention to the other people. It took every muscle in her body to let go of him, enough to follow Liz and Brody down the stairs to the others.
Five. That wasn’t including her friends, and Ashley was willing to bet there were more. That was all right. She would end it. Ashley opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say was caught when Ian, green and lumbering to his feet, yanked her in for a hug that strangled the breath out of her. For some reason it made her laugh. “Geez, Ian.”
“Shit, Ash, it is really, really good to see you.” He was wheezing, but the grin was all Ian.
“You okay?”
“Me? Sure, yeah. She’s good, too,” Ian said, waving to a girl huddled and shrieking in a corner. “She’s just not handling it well. Danny?” he asked.
Danny was performing CPR on a boy. He hadn’t stopped when they’d arrived. His face was grim. Agent Phillips was already leaning over him. He checked the boy’s pulse and glanced back at the broken door and the hallway. “How long was he exposed?”
“Not long,” Danny said, not pausing. “I went back for him. I didn’t leave him there, I got him out as fast as I could.”
Phillips shared a look with Brody, then turned back to Danny. “Mr. Evans—”
“He’s not dead,” Danny snapped. “I got him out of there. We got Ian out first, but then I went back for him.”
“The rest of you are alive,” Agent Phillips said. “Which means he was likely ill even before any of this started. His body was no doubt rejecting what had been done to him.”
Danny didn’t stop. There were tears running down his face. “I didn’t leave him there.”
“No,” Agent Phillips said. “You didn’t.”
Ashley went to untie Cam’s blindfold, but he shook his head before she moved. Ian called over, “Hey, Ash. Gonna want to keep that on him. Before he was saying something about double vision and trying to claw his eyes out.”
The fog was gone, and the hate was there, like fire under rock. The burn was a smooth, steady sear. “What did they do to you?” she asked, and was surprised she sounded so controlled. That she felt in control, because she could feel the anger. Ashley had always thought of anger as loud, and explosive, but it wasn’t all like that. Sometimes it was quiet and black and focused.
She saw him fighting against the answer for a second. “Needles.”
“A lot?”
He shook his head. Or may
be nodded.
“It’s a long story,” Danny said.
“Whatever they did to him made him go crazy,” Ian said.
“Okay, it’s not actually that long a story,” Danny admitted.
Cam shook his head fiercely. “Not crazy,” he choked. “Not crazy. They made me see—everything. I can see everything.” His clutched at his head with his free hand, his fingers digging into his scalp until they drew blood. “I can’t—make it stop.”
“I will.” Ashley pulled his hand away, took hold of both of them.
“Make it stop.”
“I will. I promise, I will.”
“It’s not happening. None of it’s really happening. It’s not real, it’s not Now. It hurts.”
There were tears, now, leaking from under the blindfold, and he would’ve fallen flat on his face if Ashley hadn’t caught him. She hated that all she could say was, “I know, I’m sorry, I’ll find a way to make it stop.”
“Don’t go.”
“I won’t.”
“He’ll go after you. If you run, he runs after you. He’ll find you—don’t go.”
“I am not going anywhere,” Ashley told him. “I’m staying here. Right here, right now, with you. Please, Cam, be here, now, with me.”
He rested his forehead against hers, and nodded. They didn’t have time to wait, but she waited there, with him, until he went still and his breathing calmed.
Brody was kneeling in front of the man she’d fought, who was slumped on the floor, his arms secured behind his back. That must have been painful. Brody, stepping into the fight, had apparently deemed it simpler to dislocate the man’s shoulders, and from the look of it he hadn’t seen fit to pop them back into place. “Steel.”
“Brody.” There was a cut on his forehead that was bleeding quite a bit, but underneath the blood, the man’s face was pale and he was sweating. Still, he managed to grin at Brody. “You always were an asshole, you know. I thought you got out of this.”
Brody said, “You’re going to tell me how many children they have here, and how many of you there are, and where Proom is.”
Supernormal Page 22
