by A. P. Kensey
“Where are we going?” asked Haven.
Bastian turned around in the copilot’s chair. “There’s a facility two hundred miles east of here. We think it’s a manufacturing plant for the Fade virus.”
“How do you know it’s there?”
He grinned. “Mr. Skinny told us at the airport after some…hmm…convincing. He’s actually quite nice when he’s not trying to murder you.”
“Is Alistair there?”
Bastian shook his head. “I doubt it, unless we get really lucky. Hopefully someone at the facility will know more.” He turned back around and Marius handed him a set of headphones. Bastian pulled them over his head and tapped the small microphone next to his mouth. Marius had on a matching pair and spoke to Bastian quickly. He pointed to an instrument panel in front of the copilot’s chair and Bastian flipped a couple of switches and turned a dial. Marius nodded and settled back into his seat.
Haven looked at Roku. His face was sternly set, as if he were forever struggling to make the hardest decision of his life. He didn’t notice when Haven got up and sat in the seat next to him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. He flinched in surprise and his trance was broken. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t scare me,” he said. “I was thinking.”
Bastian turned in his copilot’s seat. He watched the two of them for a moment. Haven thought she saw either jealousy or caution in his eyes. He turned away and spoke to Marius.
“The memory you shared with me,” said Haven to Roku, “was it from your home town?”
His frown deepened and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Finally, he nodded. “I didn’t want to show you, but there was no other way for you to see.”
“I’m sorry you had to share something so personal,” said Haven.
He looked at her briefly, and he looked surprised that she understood his pain.
“My family was taken from me as well,” she continued. “I only have my brother, Noah.”
“Did you get revenge?”
Haven thought for a moment. The image of Lee jumping to his death from a building in Chicago flashed across her mind. “In a way.”
“No, you didn’t,” said Roku. “I can read it on your face.”
“The ones who burned our homes are dead.”
“But not the one who told them to do it,” said Roku. “Alistair.” His teeth clenched and his hand balled into hard fists when he spoke the name.
“That’s the main reason you’re here, isn’t it?” asked Haven. “It’s not really about finding a cure for the virus or anything else so noble.”
“There are many reasons I am here.”
Haven chose her next words carefully. “You and Bastian knew Alistair was looking for the Dome. You knew he wanted to infect everyone inside.”
“We suspected. He has been using the virus against our kind for months. The Dome seemed like a logical target, but we didn’t know where it was. Then we saw you at the airport and knew it was our chance to catch up with Alistair. We failed to convince you of the real danger.”
Haven looked away. There was no way she could have known whether Roku and Bastian were really trying to help. Her one thought at the time was keeping the Dome safe along with everyone inside.
“We hoped we could get there first,” said Roku. “To stop Kamiko from releasing the virus. I am truly sorry we could not.”
She turned away, unable to stop tears from welling in her eyes. “It’s fatal, isn’t it?” she asked. “The virus.”
“Everyone who has been infected has died.”
“Is it contagious?”
“We don’t think so. The virus must be directly injected into your bloodstream.”
“How long before it kills you?”
“It varies. We’ve seen anything from one week to several months. It always strips your abilities before it moves on to attack the rest of your body. Sometimes that only takes hours, and other times, days. It attacks your immune system, slowly at first. After your abilities are completely wiped out, it works faster. Eventually your organs shut down, and—”
“I get the picture,” interrupted Haven. “How do you know there’s a cure?”
Roku said nothing.
“It’s okay,” shouted Bastian from the front seat. “Tell her.”
Roku looked at him and Bastian nodded.
“Tell me what?” asked Haven.
“Bastian worked for Alistair,” said Roku.
“I thought he said he worked with you at Helix.”
“I worked for Helix alone. Bastian is still ashamed to admit the truth, even though it is obvious his heart was never with Alistair’s cause.”
“I know something about that,” said Haven, thinking of Colton and his temporary, manipulated allegiance to Alistair and Bernam. “When did Bastian work for Alistair?”
“Up until a year ago when he was injected with Fade. The first round of tests were just getting started, and Bastian was ‘volunteered’ to be in the first batch of test subjects. Alistair used his virus on his own people before hunting down others with abilities. He wanted to see how it worked, to be sure he wasn’t wasting his time. Bastian was one of the lucky ones who got the cure. Alistair had to be sure there was a way to undo his damage in case he ever became infected with his own weapon. He didn’t just want a cure, but also an inoculation to ensure that someone who was cured could never be infected again. Most of the test subjects were left to die, but Bastian and a handful of others were successfully cured.” He paused for a moment. “Bastian told me about someone else who works for Alistair, someone else who was infected and then cured.”
“Who?” asked Haven.
“A boy named Reece. And there was a girl, too.”
“Shelly,” said Haven quietly. She remembered the bitter parting between Colton and Reece after the destruction of Bernam’s medical facility.
“Yes,” said Roku. “Shelly.”
“They’re still alive?”
“The last time Bastian saw them, they were with Alistair, a part of his inner circle. Very high up in the ranks of his new army.”
“So, we find this production facility,” said Haven, “where they’re manufacturing Fade. And that will lead us to the cure?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
Roku was silent.
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Haven leaned back in her seat and watched the desert below. Dark sand blurred past, occasionally pocked by quick flashes of shrub and rock. Time passed slowly and she drifted off to sleep. Her superficial dreams were filled with images of red flame and death, and when she awoke, her body was covered in a thin sheen of sweat despite the cold interior of the helicopter. “How long till we get there?” she asked.
Marius looked down at the instrument panel. “Not long. Fifteen miles ahead.” He reached out to adjust a dial and the entire panel went blank.
“What’s wrong?!” shouted Haven.
“Is not good,” said Marius. He frantically moved the steering column, but it was loose in his hands. The instrument panels in the cockpit were blacked out. Marius flipped switches and twisted dials, then banged his fists against the panel in frustration. He had no control over the chopper.
With slow dread, Haven realized the rotor was slowing down. The rapid whup-whup-whup of the blades became a dragging whoooosh, whoooosh, and it was only getting slower. A red light popped on in the ceiling and a loud alarm blared as the helicopter drifted closer and closer to the ground.
“We will hit,” said Marius. He tightened the straps on his chest and seat belts and braced for impact. Bastian and Roku strapped themselves into their chairs. Haven buckled her seat belt. She slipped her arms through the chest straps on either side of the chair, almost like the straps of a backpack, and worked quickly to buckle the clasp over her chest. Her hands shook and she dropped both pieces.
The alarm beeped louder as the ground outside rushe
d up to meet the chopper. Haven could no longer hear the spin of the blades. They were in free fall. She fumbled with both pieces of the buckle and brought them together over her chest. There was a firm click as they locked, and she yanked on the loose strap dangling from the buckle until the chest belt was nearly restricting her breathing.
She looked out the side window and everything moved in slow motion. Sound disappeared. Her hair floated in front of her face as if she were underwater. Across from her, Roku squeezed his eyes tightly together and gripped the sides of his chair with white knuckles.
Through the window, Haven saw the horizon rise up and disappear as the helicopter rolled onto its side. She was looking straight down at the ground, and even in slow motion, it rushed past the window with sickening speed. Haven opened her mouth to scream when the helicopter hit the ground.
Roku’s side of the chopper hit first. There was a scraping sound that drowned out the screams. The noises of the world around her came back to Haven’s ears louder than ever as the blades of the chopper bent against the hard ground and snapped off the rotor.
Metal groaned as the body of the chopper twisted in two different directions at once. With an ear-piercing explosion, the back segment of the body ripped off and tumbled away behind the craft. Cold wind tore at Haven’s body as she watched the back third of the chopper disintegrate across the sand.
“Hang on!” shouted Marius, right before the nose of the chopper hit a huge rock.
The broken tail rose up into the air and the helicopter flipped end over end. Haven saw dark sand, then night sky—sand, sky, sand, sky, in rapid progression as the chopper tumbled through the air. The last thing she saw was the ground as it rushed up and slammed into the open tail of the helicopter.
18
It took them a long time to get Colton down from the gaping hole at the top of the dome room. He lay up there for hours, staring up at the stars in the night sky. One of Kamiko’s soldiers had to scale the ladder on the inside of the dome wall, just as Colton and Marius had done to get out. The soldier made better time than they had originally, but he also had the benefit of a fully illuminated dome room to help ease his journey.
When the soldier finally got to the top of the ladder and swung one of his legs up unto the sand, there was a moment when Colton could have easily nudged him back over the edge. With both of his hands groping for a handhold on the ground next to the hole, the soldier would have fallen all the way down to the concrete floor of the dome room. Splat.
Instead, Colton grabbed the soldier’s armored vest and helped pull him all the way up. He didn’t know what his previous insubordination would cost him or the others in the Dome and he didn’t want to add any more punishment to the long list.
The soldier got quickly to his feet and unslung the rifle that had been strapped tightly to his back. His face was covered by one of the tight-fitting black masks. The sensor patches over his eyes were iridescent and honeycombed, like the eyes of an insect. Now that Colton was getting a closer look, he thought they might let the soldier see in several different wavelengths of light. If so, it was a miracle none of them had looked up while he and Marius were making their escape.
The soldier was a beast—easily over six feet tall with shoulders broad enough to get stuck in a doorway. Every soldier that Kamiko brought along had the same physical build and the same gear. Colton’s optimism at somehow getting the upper hand through brute force wavered and died. Without his ability, he was nothing.
The soldier growled at Colton to stand up. He did, and the soldier quickly shouldered his rifle and produced a black belt from a pocket of his armored vest. The soldier slung the belt around Colton’s waist and clasped a chrome buckle in the front. Then the soldier knelt down and felt around under the lip of the hole in the dome. He grunted and unclipped a large carabiner from the last ladder rung, then snapped the clip over the chrome buckle on Colton’s new belt. A long black rope trail from the carabiner down into the dome.
“Hey, wait a second,” said Colton, but it was too late.
The soldier gave a quick tug at the belt to make sure it was secure, then gave a small salute right before he pushed Colton over the edge of the big hole.
Colton fell, waving his arms wildly, hoping to grab the edge of the hole on his way down. It slipped past his vision before he could touch it and he looked down to see the floor of the dome room rushing toward him. He let out a yell just as the rope attached to his belt snapped taught. His body jerked downward with a jarring stop and one of his ribs snapped.
Colton screamed as the rope swung him sideways. His body hit the wall of the dome and he groaned from the electric pain in his ribcage. He tried to grab a rung of the ladder halfway down the wall but his feeble fingers slipped easily off the rung and he swung back out over the center of the floor like a giant pendulum. Above him, the rope was secured a few rungs down from the hole. The soldier looked down on him and waved. If he didn’t have the mask on, Colton was sure he would have been smiling.
Suddenly he was moving again, but much more slowly. The other end of the rope ran through a pulley attached near the hole and down the back side of the ladder rungs. Another soldier at the base of the ladder was slowly feeding out more line to lower Colton to the floor.
He hung limply from the rope, spinning freely as he dropped inch by inch. Most of the dome room floor was empty of people except for a few soldiers rummaging through Dormer’s work area. They were picking up equipment from the shelves and throwing it to the ground if it held no interest. There were three people watching the soldiers from the second tier balcony: Dormer, his brother Adsen, and little Noah. They looked up at Colton and he tried to smile to let them know he was okay, but the rope jerked to a quick stop and his smile turned into a grimace.
He was hanging a few feet above the floor when the soldier tied the line off and walked away.
“Hey!” shouted Colton.
The soldier ignored him and kept on walking. He climbed the steps to the second floor balcony and drew his rifle on Dormer and the others. He ordered them downstairs and herded them across the big dome room and into the Grove.
After they had gone, Colton hung there, spinning in the middle of the room like the forgotten meal of a giant spider.
Across the room from the Grove entrance was the door leading to the garage elevator. Next to that was the small water processing room. The door swung open and Kamiko emerged, her head held high in some sort of victory pose. She didn’t walk across the floor to Colton. Instead, she hovered a few inches above it, propelled forward by some unseen power. No blue lightning crackled from her back like the long legs of a nightmare insect. Instead, only a faint, dark blue glow illuminated her dark eyes from deep within.
As she approached Colton, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, as if she were overcharged with static electricity. He felt his shirt move toward her as she drew near and encircled him, studying his body as if he were a rat in a laboratory. She reached out a slender hand and poked his shoulder, stopping his slow spin. Even that slight touch sent electric streaks of pain through his broken rib, but Colton forced himself to remain silent. Instead, he grit his teeth and glared at her with as much hatred as he could summon. The belt dug painfully into his waist. He grabbed onto the rope above his head to keep from hanging like a broken puppet.
“Where did you take them?” asked Colton.
“They’re in the Grove,” said Kamiko. “It is a beautiful place. I understand it carries a great deal of meaning for your people.”
She looked at him as if waiting for an answer. Colton made up his mind not to tell her any more than was absolutely necessary.
“Are your soldiers in there as well?” he asked.
“Most of them. Right now every one of your friends is staring down the barrel of a gun.”
Colton lunged for her despite the stabbing pain in his torso. His broken rib-bones grinded together as he wrapped his hands around her throat. It was like grabbing an electrified f
ence. His fingers contracted painfully as electricity coursed through his muscles, forcing him to squeeze even harder. Kamiko was unaffected. Her eyes were sheathed in solid blue glass, and she watched Colton indifferently as he struggled to let go. He shook on the end of the rope as if he were having a seizure. Every muscle in his body tightened until he thought they would tear in half.
Finally, the current of electricity stopped. Kamiko’s eyes cleared and Colton’s hands dropped loosely from her throat. His eyes rolled back in his head as he hung loosely from the rope.
“As I was saying,” continued Kamiko. She paced around him, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “The fate of your friends is up to you. Either you choose to cooperate and we can all work together, or you can attempt another escape.”
Colton tried to force a weak smile, but failed. “We’re all dead, anyway. You poisoned everyone in here. We’re just disposable lab rats, isn’t that right?”
Kamiko looked at him for a moment. “Not all of you,” she said at last. “If you cooperate with me, I promise to take good care of your people.”
“And if I don’t?”
She took a step closer. “I won’t hesitate to kill every single one of you, as I’ve said.”
Colton’s first thought was of Noah and Micah. They were just little boys and had done nothing to deserve such a cruel fate.
“What do you want from me?” asked Colton. “What can I give you that you can’t take by force?”
She smiled and her eyes sparkled. “I want the cooperation of everyone in the Dome. You can assure them that they will be well-cared for if they follow the rules. If any of them try to escape—if any more of them try to escape—then I will hold you personally responsible.” Her voice carried a malicious edge, and Colton knew he never wanted to find out what she had in mind as a punishment if anyone disobeyed. “The Russian is gone,” she said. “I am willing to let it go—just this once—if you do as I say without question.”
“You can’t expect us to just lay down and die.”
“I can and I do. But it doesn’t have to be as bad as you think. The sooner I get what I want, the sooner I will leave.”
