We watched as the light flashed red and then green, the seal of the door opening with a sucking sound.
*****
The machine was the same as the one from home. I placed her gently on the slab and started inserting needles in her skin, as many as I could find. I tried to pretend she was sleeping, but it didn’t work. I knew this might not work.
The glass coffin wobbled and lowered. I urged it to hurry up. They would be coming soon.
“Block the door!” Deshi yelled as he quickly pried open Rosa’s cold, stiff hand and pressed two pills into her palm, closing it over roughly.
I grabbed a chair and shoved it under the door handle, turning to see the glass close over her body. A glass coffin for this nightmare fairytale. Deshi was frantically typing and pushing buttons at the control panel, his eyes darting towards the blocked door.
He slammed down a final key and then looked at me, his eyes apologetic but fierce. “We have to go.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not leaving her. I can’t.” I pressed my hands to the glass separating us. The machine started whirring in the background.
Deshi grabbed my arm and pulled. “What about Orry?”
I shook my head; my legs were cemented to the floor. Deshi sighed harshly. “Rosa didn’t throw herself on that knife so both of you could die and leave Orry an orphan.”
The machine clicked. I imagined the door started vibrating from people pushing it from the outside, but it was silent. Dead silent like my girl, lying in front of me.
“Oh God.” I put my hand to my forehead. “But I won’t know. I won’t know if she lives or dies.”
Deshi gave me a half-smile, but I knew he wasn’t sure either. “This is Rosa we’re talking about.”
I laughed. Because I knew as soon as I left that room, the grief would crush me. But at that moment, I could believe that she might live and that if she lived, she would somehow find her way back to me.
We ran to the window behind the control panel and kicked it in, just as blinding light sparked and swirled around Rosa’s body like a miniature storm. My blood red handprints turned black as the light got brighter.
Deshi pushed me through the window, the night air pricking the hairs on my arms. But I couldn’t feel the cold. I couldn’t feel anything.
JOSEPH
From this height, we could see the whole compound spread before us like the segments of a pie. Este’s slice was crowded compared to the other three. They looked more like Salim had described. Open, grassy green mounds separated by low, stone walls, demarcating each Superior's section of land. Desh’s hands were in my back, and he pushed me gently.
“We need to move now,” he said in a coarse whisper.
I blinked away the stray tears that seemed to be making their way down my face and jumped to the veranda and then the ground below, Desh right behind me. I stood in the garden, the grass wet with dew. I could have stayed there. Let the guards, who I was sure were on their way, take me. Desh’s long legs clipped my shoulder as he fell off the roof. I looked down at him and tried to remember. Orry. I had to get home to Orry. But fear seized me. When I saw him, I’d have to explain to him that his mother was not coming home. I froze in the grass, like one of the concrete statues.
Desh shook me. “This way.” He pulled me through the garden, the light from inside casting lines over the bushes in the shape of the iron-framed windows. I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to. The images of what lay in that room were burned in my brain.
I followed Deshi like a robot. My emotions shoved deep down.
We moved silently through the garden. Wet leaves smacked my face. It should’ve stung, but I was numb to it. We didn’t speak. Talking would take us both under. Desh led us away from Este’s compound and into another piece of the pie.
“We’ll go through Sekimbo’s grounds,” he said. “He’s always too drunk to notice what’s going on. His guards often join him at this time of night. And Grant, well, Grant will take his time. Calculating bastard.”
I grunted, a very real pain throbbing in my hollow chest. If she lived, she would wake up and find me gone. She would think I deserted her. I stopped and turned around.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Desh remarked, grabbing my shoulder with his thin hand and dragging me forward. I didn’t fight him very hard. I was lost. Being pulled between my son and Rosa was slowly breaking me into two useless pieces.
We used the border wall as a guide. There was no sign of anybody until we got close to Sekimbo’s house. Drunken laughter spilled out the windows, men shouting raucously and women giggling. We ran around the outskirts of his exotic-looking garden. Strange, spiky-looking plants shot out of sandy ground. I reached out to touch one. Rosa would have loved this. It pricked my hand, and I withdrew. There was no one guarding the gates leading towards the outer wall. Desh scanned his wrist, and it opened easily. “Why scanners here and padlocks in Estes sector?” I managed to stammer.
“You saw her, she’s nuts! She loves the technology but doesn’t trust it.”
My mind flashed back to that first meeting with Rosa. I’d held her wrist, turning it slowly to scan at the clunky scanner for Ring Three. She’d glared at me, but the pink flush to her cheeks told me the contact was creating a reaction in her. I remembered the feel of her skin under mine, soft, thin, the barcode breaking up the small veins that poked up on her tiny wrists. And those eyes. When she looked up at me, I was gone. Gone and shocked at the strength of my feelings. Scared too. She was intense, beautiful, and a complete surprise. I breathed in. There was no way all of that had vanished. She was too big, too much to just disappear.
Desh tugged at my sleeve. “Joe, keep moving,” he said between pants. “Just keep moving.”
I trudged forward, my footsteps punishing the earth. And as I stared down at my boot print like it wasn’t my own, the alarm sounded. The same sound the old megaphones made in Pau. It was a high-pitched warning that used to summon us to the center circle. This time it was alerting everyone to the scene at Este’s compound.
Desh cursed under his breath. But this would work in our favor. If everyone was heading towards Este’s, then there would be fewer guards to face on this side. Again, I felt the pull to go back. We ran through a crop of some sort; it smelled sweet. Sticky, green tendrils kept grabbing at my legs. The last gate to pass through glinted in the moonlight. I nodded to myself and swung around, just as the gate in front of us creaked open. Desh jumped into the plants. I just stood there, my rage heating up inside me.
Before they had a chance, I was on top of them. I swung out wildly at one, my fist connecting with his jaw. It crunched satisfyingly. He fell forward, clutching his face. I elbowed him hard, and he collapsed into the field. The other guy took one look at me and turned to run, but I grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back, flinging him to the ground. He squirmed under me and opened his mouth to shout for help. Desh was there in a second, covering it with his palm.
This kid was a coward. He was going to leave his partner and run. Just like I did. I thumped his head into the ground hard, and his eyes stared up at me woozily. I could have killed him right there. But I had to do something. I might have failed Rosa, but there was one thing I could do before I left. It was why we came here.
I shoved Desh’s hand off and stared down at the young soldier shaking under my hold. “You tell your Superiors some of the babies may have a G6PD deficiency.”
He looked at me blankly. “Say it!” I threatened, lifting him by the shirt, ready to slam his head into the hard stone path beneath us.
“G6 P...?”
My hands crept around his throat. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted him to refuse me and give me an excuse. “G-6-P-D,” I said slowly, emphasizing each letter and number.
Alarm sharpened his senses. “Ok. Ok. G6 PD deficiency. I’ll tell them. I-I promise,” the soldier said quickly.
I saw myself reflected in his eyes, and I dropped him. Grabbing his gun from its holster, I training it on
his chest, my hands shaking. “Don’t move until we’ve passed through the gate,” I said as I walked backwards, letting the fear in that kid’s eyes punch me over and over. I needed to get a handle on my emotions, but I didn’t know how.
We went through the gate, and I heard his footsteps running away from us.
JOSEPH
The sirens brought everyone who lived in the outer ring onto their doorstep and into the street. At least a hundred people crowded near the little shed, which I knew led to the elevator underground. There were several guards ushering everyone into one area, as they prepared to address them.
I pointed subtly towards the shed. “There. We need to get into there.”
Desh nodded, his expression tired. The events of the night were catching up to him too.
I looked down at my blood-crusted hand, quickly shoving it in my pocket. I put the other arm across my chest, trying the hide the blood spatters. The realization of what I’d just done hovered over my head like a blinking arrow.
I killed a Superior.
Desh and I melted into the crowd, searching for a way to slip past everyone and head for that shed. Its door was hanging slightly ajar. The sirens had everyone confused and wandering aimlessly, like they’d never heard one before.
I looked sideways at Desh, who was moving his face around, scanning the area. We were only about ten meters from the opening but making a run for it would attract too much attention. We were enclosed on all sides by a crowd of people that was getting tighter and tighter. A woman pushed me in the back, and I turned around. She looked up at me, and her eyes widened. It was the woman from Este’s house. The one who had to vacuum the tapestries over and over.
A guard yelled over the crowd. “There has been a disturbance in Este’s compound.” The crowd grew quiet. “We are unsure how many casualties at this point, but we can confirm that Este had been murdered.”
Murdered.
The word pounded me in the chest.
Murdered.
Murderer.
I gasped for air, and the small woman pursed her lips as she stared at me. She gripped my hand for a moment and squeezed it. Then she let go and pushed her small, round body through the crowd. She was enveloped by the sea of people.
“No!” A tortured scream echoed over the crowd. “Superior Este is dead. No!” The woman’s screams flowed over the crowd. “Is it a takeover? Is it war? What do we do?” she shouted. Her arms waved about frantically in front of the guards. Their eyes were all on her.
Others picked up on her false panic and started throwing questions at the unwitting guards.
“How did they get in?”
“How many are there? Are they dangerous?”
The people surged at the men standing, clueless in their black uniforms, as their emotions started to build.
We took the opportunity, broke from crowd, and entered the shed.
*****
The voices outside rose in volume, and I could hear the clamor of people bumping up against each other and the guards getting more and more frustrated. Responses on both sides got louder and angrier.
Desh and I stood in the dark, breathing hard, not knowing what to say to each other.
“It’s going to be all…” Desh started
I cut him off. I didn’t want to hear it. It wasn’t going to be all right. How could anything be after tonight?
I grabbed his hand roughly and tried to scan his wrist against the reader for the elevator.
Nothing happened.
“Damn it,” I said. But a big part of me didn’t care. I was ready to surrender.
“Relax,” Desh said smoothly as he pried the control panel open, and manipulated the wires inside until the lift light came on.
We stepped in, and he pressed the button. The sound of voices instantly cut off once the door closed.
We stood there, side by side, nothing but our breathing to break the silence. My eyes went to the poster. A girl with blue eyes and dark hair, her skin that perfect All-Kind tone. I snorted. She was boring looking, her expression dull. It was what all of us felt like inside the walls of the Woodlands. The doors slid open, and we ran down the dark tunnel.
When our heads popped up from underground, we both scrambled out and hit the ground running. I just did what I was told to do. I ran towards the meeting point, the sirens and Rosa getting further and further away with every step.
My body was reacting, fleeing. But I got the sense that I wasn’t really there. That the real me was still pressed up against the glass, waiting.
I was light, my feet barely seeming to touch the ground. Because I was empty. I would be empty until I knew what had happened to her.
SUPERIOR GRANT
She was too brown. The color of Cocoa. I shook my head at the comparison. No, Cocoa was rich and delicious. She looked more like an overcooked bird. Bony, dark, and delicate. I ran my hand over my jaw. The guards were watching me intently, gauging my reaction. I tried to maintain a balance between mild irritation and looking unsurprised, like I had expected a girl to be lying in my untested healing machine.
I swept my hand over the cabinet, avoiding the unsavory blood smears on the glass near the girl’s head. It was beautiful, an elegant, effortless reproduction of the original. President Grant had hugely underestimated the Chinese. When they bombed the US, he thought of nothing other than revenge. He didn’t think to poach their scientists or take control of their technology. He was a fool, as foolish as Este.
I moved around the glass container, weighing up the best response to this disaster. Fifteen minutes ago, we found Vivienne and all eight of her personal guards in a pool of blood. I couldn’t say I was sorry to see her go. The woman was obsessive, unpredictable, and paranoid. Not good traits for a leader. I snorted, thinking of the number of times I had ignored the alert. She had called me and the others to her home for what she called ‘Serious matters,’ so many times that it had become protocol to ignore her. Topics such as pest control and double-glazing on her windows were some of the more ridiculous panics. Her absurd behavior had been her undoing, as no one responded for well over an hour when she sounded the alert this time.
“Superior Grant…” A twitchy guard shuffled over to me. “The other two have escaped, should I issue a lock down?” I tapped my chin, trying to look calm. I was furious at these Survivors, yet impressed at what they had managed to achieve with such limited resources. But to send the guard out now to pursue them was a waste of time when we were so close to completion.
“Sir?”
I gave the guard a hard look, wondering how he was so poorly trained to believe he could speak to me in this manner. I made a note to find out whom his supervisor was. The young man startled, and I forced my face into a relaxed smile. “Let them go,” I said nonchalantly. “We have what we need.”
The girl twisted ever so slightly on the table. I wheeled closer, so that we were face to face.
“Leave us,” I instructed. The men paused, looking down on me with concern. I cringed inwardly. I despised their pity. “Go clean up the mess in the reception hall and report the situation to Superiors Poltanov and Sekimbo,” I barked, leaving no room for insubordination. They moved awkwardly around my wheelchair and out into the hall, closing the door behind them.
I clenched my fist on my knee. Her tattooed wrist told me she was once one of us, which made my blood boil. This small, insignificant child had infiltrated the Superior’s compound. She had made fools of all of us and killed Este. So before I made her suffer, before I made her regret she had ever had the gall to enter this world, I wanted to meet her.
…………Promise.
I ran my tongue along the inside of my cheeks. My mouth tasted like I’d been sucking on an exposed electrical cable. Charred and metallic.
I was disoriented and couldn’t seem to backtrack to where I was before; only that it was a nice place, somewhere safe, warm, and peaceful. I shifted, the cold surface under me slicing into my skin. I shivered involuntarily.
I heard a dull, but impatient-sounding tapping above my face. I took a breath and the air felt new, like this was the first breath I’d ever drawn. Something tightened around my stomach and little slivers of a scene flashed at me like warning signs. Joseph lunging at the young guard, the tip of a knife glinting under soft light, my body used as a shield, a barrier. A realization as chilling as the cold, wet blood that poured out of me hit slowly, numbly. I was dead. I died. I was sure of it.
My breath caught again.
Joseph.
The tapping continued, but it was hard to open my eyes. It felt like I was learning to do everything anew. My muscles reacted slowly, waiting for my memory to kick in. I forced my eyes open like an uncooperative blind, and unfamiliar light flooded my sight.
He was a shadow. Then, slowly, his face pulled into focus, a face I knew from a long time ago. His eyes tightened, wrinkles spread like Vs from the corners. His smile was cruel and painted on. “Waell, at least we knaow it woarks.”
JOSEPH
Questioning eyes tried to find mine, but I couldn’t meet them. I was a void. A shell. I watched as their faces fell to the forest floor. I hadn’t even opened my mouth, but they knew. Here was Deshi by my side, but there should have been three. It sucked any victory right out of the picture. Deshi had a hold of my arm, as he had most of the journey to the meeting point. It was a comfort to me, but mostly it was to stop me from turning around and heading back into the Superiors’ compound.
How could I leave her there?
Matthew eyes asked the question, and I shook my head. I wanted to say, ‘Wait. Don’t start grieving yet. We don’t know,’ but was that worse? Maybe.
He walked away from the group, far into the trees, until he was just a shadow amongst the other shadows. I saw him kneel down and put his hands to his face.
The lump that was lodged in my chest worked its way up to my throat.
The Wounded (The Woodlands Series) Page 27
