by Ike Hamill
Jacob stared at her.
A woman’s voice came from nowhere. “You can’t find it and you can’t hide.”
Jacob’s eyes went wide as he recognized the voice.
She slipped through one of the holes in the wall and dropped to her feet with barely a sound.
They ran for the doors.
# # # # #
Jacob held his ground.
Behind him, Harper pulled him towards the exit.
He stood, staring at his dead aunt.
Her neck was several centimeters too long and her head was cocked to the side. She was nearly as skinny as when he had helped to dig her from the sandy tomb. Her skin was stretched tight over her bones. Her eyes looked liked two black holes. Jacob imagined he could feel their gravity.
“It’s The Wisdom, Jacob,” Harper whispered to him. “We have to get out of here.”
“No,” Jacob said. “It’s her.”
“It can’t be. She’s dead. Just look at her,” Harper said.
The others were gone. Logan, Brook, and Isaac had disappeared through the other door, deeper into the old building. Jacob heard a crash as they plowed into something in the darkness. In their haste to leave, they hadn’t taken a light.
“This is what it does,” Harper said. “It tricks you. That’s how it gets in.”
“No,” Jacob said. “I’ve seen her like this before.”
Madelyn smiled at him. She wore it like a lopsided leer.
“Why aren’t you dead?” Jacob asked her.
“What are you talking about?” Madelyn asked. The smile burned bright on her face. “I’ve never been more alive.”
“How did you survive the hanging?”
That made the smile disappear.
Madelyn’s hand went to her neck. Jacob saw the scar. It looked pink and new, like the scab had been shed and it was on its way to rejuvenation, but it was there.
“Hanging,” she whispered. She blinked.
Harper tugged harder. She pulled Jacob off balance towards the door.
Madelyn looked up and saw that Harper was about to pull Jacob from the room. She moved like a blur. In an instant, Madelyn zipped around Harper, slammed the door shut, and circled back in front of Jacob.
“What are you?” Harper asked.
Chapter 26
{Aware}
SHE DIDN’T WANT TO remember—that was the problem. Every time she thought of the word, “hanging,” she conjured an image of the world swinging back and forth. She was looking out at a crowd that was beginning to disperse. The world was disappearing into black and sparkling white.
Her life was contracting inside herself.
Madelyn remembered her organs shifting themselves into an emergency state. Her cells were preparing themselves for the worst. Communication between her brain and body was limited—most of the channels had been severed by the snap of her spine. She had no idea why she had a memory of all these autonomous processes, but she did.
Harper’s question echoed in her ears.
“What are you?”
Madelyn didn’t know what she was until that question sunk in. The answer came in a flash. There was only one good explanation for how she had survived a hanging, and how she had recovered so quickly. There was only one possible way that she was able to see, and smell, and hear, and move the way that she could.
“Optioner,” Madelyn whispered.
Harper gasped.
Jacob put his arms back and shielded his girlfriend from Madelyn. The two pressed back against the wall.
Madelyn laughed a sad laugh. “It’s a stupid label, in my case. I didn’t choose the Option—it was chosen for me.”
“I should have known,” Jacob said. “When we dug you out of the cellar, you shouldn’t have been alive. You were buried under that sand, but you were somehow still alive.”
“I didn’t choose this,” Madelyn said. She looked down at the floor as she started to doubt herself. Her memory had failed her before. She had a bad habit of glossing over memories of her own terrible decisions when they brought her too much pain.
“You killed that man,” Harper said from behind Jacob. “You killed Henry Fletcher. His only crime was guarding your dead body.”
“I never did,” Madelyn said, looking up. “I never killed anyone in Fairbanks on purpose.”
Her mouth fell open as a new stack of images flooded into her brain. These went back well before the hanging. They went back before her trial, too.
Chapter 27
{Building}
BACK IN BUILDING THREE, Elijah had been unsuccessful at pushing the door open. He had tried to save all the people she had trapped in the place. In her eyes, they weren’t even human and didn’t deserve to be alive, but Elijah had insisted on saving them.
In hindsight—after being tried for their deaths and seeing their pictures over and over—Madelyn knew all their names.
Horatio was the man who had tumbled over the low railing to land on the concrete floor below. Patton had desperately tried to press himself through a tiny gap in the stuck door.
Elijah had nearly carried a woman named Luca, after Madelyn had put a bullet through the woman’s leg. The other woman, Alexandra looked like she would have taken a bullet too, but Madelyn had destroyed her console in a burst of blue fire.
She had known Carter—the man had supposedly worked for Cleo, but he had really been Ryan’s man. That day, as the building collapsed, Carter was working with one good hand. The other was bandaged up, and Carter kept it close to his chest. He was helped along by a man named Oliver. Madelyn remembered the crazed look Oliver had shown when the wall of their room exploded with a cloud of dust.
“The ceiling!” Elijah had screamed, pointing across the room.
Over on the far side, the ceiling had sagged and separated from the wall. Through the jagged hole, they saw a tiny patch of night sky. It would be impossible to reach. Elijah vaulted over the railing, leaving the platform that led up to the door. He landed on the concrete next to Horatio as the dust cloud overtook them.
Madelyn looked back at Alexandra and Luca. One woman was helping the other down the steps. Oliver was right behind them.
“This way,” Madelyn said to Patton. She grabbed the lower bar of the railing and slid under. They dangled and then dropped. Elijah lifted Horatio to his feet.
As the dust thickened, it was impossible to even see the far side of the room. They followed Elijah’s shuffling steps as he helped Horatio.
The building groaned above them as another wall collapsed. Something exploded.
There had been a phony sign on the outside door, talking about a Q-battery breach. Madelyn blinked against the dust and wondered where the Q-battery was located in this building. If the Q-bat really did breach, the collapsing structure would be the least of their problems.
Madelyn heard a scream and turned to see what was left of Carter. A length of metal had fallen and crushed him. There was no need to try to help him. The beam had nearly separated his upper and lower halves.
Oliver scrambled away from the wreckage, with that same madness in his eyes. She wondered if there was a tiny amount of joy there as well. Oliver had been freed of his anchor—not that Carter had really slowed him down much.
They all veered left when another patch of ceiling collapsed.
“Get those barrels,” Elijah yelled over his shoulder.
Madelyn guessed what he wanted to do. Against the wall, there were some blue plastic barrels that they might stack up to reach the gap in the ceiling. It might be their only hope.
Oliver ran towards the barrels with Madelyn and Patton at his heels.
She felt the heat on her skin. Something had caught fire. She didn’t deduce the likely source of the heat until the first barrel exploded. Oliver caught the worst of it. The force of the blast drove him back into Madelyn and Patton. Oliver rolled away, trying to snuff the flames that engulfed him. For a moment, the sound of his screams were louder than the collapse of the buil
ding around them.
A few of the barrels were empty, and the explosion had sent them towards where they needed to be. Patton and Madelyn ran from the flames, dragging barrels as they went. They met Elijah with three of the blue barrels in tow.
Elijah propped Horatio against the wall and placed the barrels.
Madelyn looked back to where Oliver lay. Parts of him were still on fire, and the man had stopped moving. Alexandra and Luca were on their feet. The two of them caught up as Elijah and Patton climbed. They could reach the gap in the wall, but just barely.
“Madelyn!” Elijah yelled. He held out his hand.
She shook her head and pointed to Alexandra. Luca would be difficult because of her leg, but Alexandra should be able to make it through. The woman was eager to try. She took Madelyn’s spot without hesitation and Elijah and Patton helped her up. They each took a leg and hoisted Alexandra until she could grab the torn away section of wall to pull herself up. Once she got a grip, they crouched on their perches and shifted down to her feet so they could really elevate her.
Alexandra pulled as they lifted and she got her midsection over the edge.
Hope filled Madelyn for the first time since they had found the door stuck shut. Alexandra wriggled herself higher. Elijah and Patton reached down again and Madelyn helped Luca forward. They managed to pull Luca up to the barrel. She needed a lot of help getting up to a standing position.
Alexandra was still in the way. Her progress had stalled. Elijah tried to push on her foot, but she kicked his hand away.
Elijah looked at Patton and then down at Madelyn. She saw a decision forming behind his eyes.
Elijah jumped straight up. With one hand, he grabbed a piece of the collapsed ceiling that had to be three meters above where he had stood. Madelyn’s mouth fell open as he used his other hand to lift Alexandra by her belt. She was stuck on the jagged hole. Elijah was helping her work herself free.
It was too late. Before he could shove Alexandra through the hole, the wall began to crumble.
Alexandra’s legs began to kick wildly as the buckling wall pinched her hips. Elijah let go and dropped back down, landing back on his barrel as Patton and Luca fell away from the destruction.
Horatio, still holding himself up against the wall, was the next casualty. A chunk of debris knocked him down and pinned him there.
Madelyn lost sight of Patton and Luca as the ceiling began to come down.
Elijah grabbed her hand and the two of them escaped as the dust became too thick to see through.
Something hit the back of Madelyn’s legs and fire ran up her spine. Elijah picked her up and kept moving. She closed her eyes and prayed for a quick death.
# # # # #
Madelyn remembered the cool air on her face and Elijah’s hands pushing on her. She had opened her eyes and caught a beautiful sight—the light from the flames danced in the trees, casting crazy shadows into the night.
He had found another gap.
When she looked up, she saw the building looming over her. It was going to fall, and it seemed that it would fall directly on her if she didn’t move. Her legs were still trapped in that fiery hell. She pulled at the grass and dirt, pulling big chunks. Glass rained down from above.
He legs came free and she spun around, reaching for the hole. Her hand found his and she pulled. He didn’t budge. She imagined she might pull his arm from the socket and come away with nothing more than a limb. Her brain told her to let go and get free from the wreckage before it killed both of them. Stubborn Elijah was probably trying to stay down there. He was probably committed to rescuing more people before he saved himself.
Madelyn didn’t give up. She pulled his hand with both of hers, propping her feet against the bulging wall and grunting with the effort. The building let out a terrible sound, like the scream of an injured animal as it fights for its life.
“Come on, Elijah,” she shouted. She could barely hear her own voice over the destruction. “Come on.”
She felt miraculous slack and realized that his arm had moved. She pulled even harder. He popped free, bloody and torn. One side of his face was muscle and bone—the skin had been ripped away. One of his feet was turned around on the ankle.
Madelyn heard shouts.
“Over here!” she screamed. She doubted she still had the strength to get away from the place before it fell on her.
“No,” Elijah screamed. She turned away from his face. She couldn’t look at his clacking jawbone as he spat out words. “I can’t.”
His hand finally pulled free from hers. She saw his twisted form disappear into the woods.
A second later, people came around the corner of the building and one of them spotted her.
They dragged her off. Her eyes fell shut again.
Those people who rescued her were the last kind hands she had felt. Even as they made attempts to stop her bleeding, Madelyn heard accusations from the bystanders. The building collapsed on itself amidst screams and shouts.
“She let them die in there,” someone said. “The video was transmitted to Building Two.”
“What did he say?” she asked.
Madelyn never spotted who said it first.
By the time they hauled her to Flower Street, nobody was bothering with her wounds. The healers gave her a bed and left her to tend to herself. Madelyn passed out in that bed and her memories faded like a nightmare as she slept.
When she awoke, she hadn’t remembered anything of the escape. Her last memory had been Patton trying to squeeze through the too-narrow gap in the door as the building collapsed. The rest had been a complete mystery.
She heard the rumors and accusations as she slowly recovered, waiting for her trial. Somehow, multiple people claimed to have seen video of Madelyn shooting Luca and threatening Ryan. They knew all about how she had blasted the equipment and caused the explosions that eventually had taken down the building. When pressed for the evidence, the witnesses all evaporated. What ended up convicting Madelyn was her own refusal to deny the accusations. She admitted to everything, but added in her testimony that she had eventually tried to help save the people. It didn’t help.
Chapter 28
{Hate}
“BETTER DEAD THAN AN Optioner,” Madelyn said. She looked at her nephew. He was afraid of her, as he should be. She was still processing the memories. The implication was clear—she was an inhuman Optioner. She didn’t know how it had happened, but the truth of it was inescapable.
Now that she remembered the collapse of the building, it was undeniable.
Nobody but a filthy Optioner could have survived.
“I don’t believe it,” Jacob said. “How did it happen?”
Madelyn ignored the question.
She knelt next to one of the office chairs. With one missing wheel, it sat at a weird tilt. Madelyn flipped it and gripped the leg. She saw Jacob and Harper slide closer to the door as Madelyn bent the leg and snapped it free. The way she had bent it, the piece of metal had a sharp tip and edge. She stood back up and put the tip of the metal against her chest.
“Better dead than an Optioner,” she said again.
“Wait!” Jacob said. He reached out. Harper reached around him and pulled his arm back. They seemed divided on whether or not to support her suicide attempt.
Madelyn looked down.
With fresh eyes, she saw how boney her arms were. Her fingers were like fat-jointed spider legs. Once again, she had become a monster. Maybe it was her natural state. Her body seemed to return to it.
Jacob’s horror glowed in his eyes.
“This won’t take it back,” Madelyn said. She dropped the piece of metal. “I don’t know how to take it back.”
“You don’t have to,” Jacob said.
Harper whispered in his ear. “You can’t reason with her. She’s not human any more.”
Madelyn laughed. “What is human?”
“We hate Optioners because of what they do, not because of what they are,” Jacob said
. “Don’t do those things and you don’t have to be a monster.”
She could sense his heartbeat quicken. He was getting ready to attack or run. She saw the heat blossom in his face and knew that the stress was overtaking him. Perhaps Harper was right. In fact, she knew Harper was right. Madelyn believed the same thing—Optioners weren’t human. They gave up the right to that claim when they abandoned their mortality.
“I didn’t choose this,” Madelyn said, reminding herself as well as them. Since she hadn’t chosen the Option, had she really given up on being human? Or was that enough to strip the humanity from her?
“Help us,” Jacob said. “Help us figure out how to survive The Wisdom. You’ve survived it before. Maybe you can show us how to live through this and save the community.”
“Maybe I only survived because my body was unable to quit,” she said.
“That’s not true,” Harper said. “I survived.”
“You were rescued,” Madelyn said.
“So were you,” Jacob said.
Madelyn considered that for a second. “So there’s your answer.”
She looked closely at Jacob and Harper. They were becoming agitated. She saw it in their skin, smelled it on them, and heard it in their respiration and heartbeat. Her new senses were beginning to feel like a curse. All this new information was coming to her, but she didn’t know how to make sense of it. The sensation made her uncomfortable.
She turned her head. Someone was stirring in a nearby room. Maybe one of the others had decided to come back. More for their safety than her own, she made a decision—it was time to break off from this human contact.
With a blur of movement, Madelyn jumped for the hole where she had come in. It was akin to her memory of Building Three, in a way. Elijah had been capable of escaping that crumbling ruin the whole time, but he had chosen to help the weak humans. Madelyn was the opposite.
