“But Babies?” West questioned, his voice hinting at mockery.
“Babies come into this world screaming, kicking, and fighting like you can’t believe. But they’re also weak, not very smart. They run off of instinct. Just like a newly infected.
“Sleepers are self-explanatory. They’re the ones that just stand around, watching us. Are you familiar with how the tech works after you are infected?”
“What is there to understand?” West said. “You get touched, the cybernetics start to take over, and after that all you care about is infecting everyone else. Spreading the cybernetics and creating more Bane.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that,” Royce said, shaking his head. “Just after you get infected your brain and body go into overdrive. Survival instincts take over. But your brain can’t handle the new technology. They conflict. That’s why the Babies don’t stay Babies for long. Their brains eventually shut down.”
“And they become Sleepers,” I said.
“Exactly,” Royce said. “The Bane basically go into a coma after a few weeks. Their minds just shut down. It takes time for the brain to be rewired. The technology works its way into every part of you quickly, but the brain isn’t so simple. Sleepers stay asleep for a long time.”
“Like how long?” Avian asked.
“Like a few years usually,” Royce answered. “The process is slow. But deadly effective. They wake up and are ready for action. They’re ready to complete their task.”
“So it is the Hunters that are so aggressive,” I said. “They’re the ones who are attacking us?”
“The last class of Bane aren’t just aggressive,” Royce said, his eyes clouding in the way only eyes that had seen too much destruction could. “They’re getting smarter.”
His words hung in the air for a moment. None of us said anything, unable to accept the truth.
“The Bane, they’re starting to think like machines,” Royce finally continued. “They’re calculating, they analyze. They are starting to think about their actions and they’re trying to outsmart us. And it’s just going to keep getting worse, the longer they’re alive.”
“Then how are you all still alive here in the middle of a city?” West questioned.
“Like I said, Erik has developed technology that interfaces with the Bane,” Royce continued. “We wouldn’t be alive without his research.”
That explained how he’d been able to make my adjustments.
“You can control them?” West asked.
“What we can do is very limited,” Dr. Beeson said as he tore his eyes away from the screen before him. “It’s difficult to transmit information to such a large amount of receptacles. If we could focus only on one Bane we could probably make it do just about anything. But with so many, pretty much all we can do is tell them to keep away from this building.”
“So in a way, you make this building invisible, or make them forget that it’s here?” West questioned. He eyed the information on the screens closely. I wondered if he understood any of it. “It’s kind of like when Eve controls them.”
“You can?” both Royce and Dr. Beeson exclaimed at the same time.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’ve just made them stop what they were doing before. All I did was tell them to get away. For some reason they listened.”
Dr. Beeson’s eyes narrowed at me and that look crossed his face again. “The chip in your brain is set up for wireless transmission. As you know, that is how we made adjustments. You were never supposed to be able to send signals.”
“Evolution, Dr. Beeson,” West said as he glanced over at me.
“So, could I be controlled with that?” I asked hesitantly, pointing at the screens. Dr. Beeson looked back at them.
“I don’t see why not. The technology is virtually the same. But this computer is password protected, the door constantly locked, so that only myself and my assistant have access to it. No one is going to hijack your brain,” he said with the hint of a smile.
“So you see why we are safe here?” Royce said. “In the four years that we have had this set up, we have never had a breach. The Bane are getting smarter, but we’re still outsmarting them.”
For now, I couldn’t help but thinking.
“It’s impressive,” West said, studying everything before him. “Would you mind if I came back later and talked to you about this some more?” he asked Dr. Beeson.
“Of course,” he said with a nod. “Now, I hope you will excuse me. I’ve got to get back to work.”
“Thank you, Erik,” Royce said as we walked back out into the glowing hall and closed the door behind us. “This way. There’s something else I want you to see.”
We walked further down the hall and opened another heavy black door. The room we entered into was largely dominated by a terrifying looking steel chair in the center. Bands for securing a person’s hands were welded to the arms of the chair, another set of bands for the ankles. The entire chair was surrounded by five metallic arms that rose from the ground, curving in a bowl shape, giving the slight resemblance to a terrifying bird cage. They shone in a menacing and primal way.
“We’ve been lucky to have the best scientists and engineers who survived at this facility,” Royce said as he approached the contraption. It almost seemed to glow under the blue lights. “We worked on this for four years before they got it right. We started on it before this facility was even fully developed.
“I worked in weapons development and warfare research for the United States government for seventeen years before the Evolution. It was my concept but I couldn’t have done it without the entire team here in LA.”
“What is it?” Avian asked.
“It’s an extractor.”
“For what?”
“TorBane.”
We all stood in silence for a moment, processing what Royce had just said.
“It extracts the infection?” West said, his voice doubtful. “As in takes the cybernetics out?”
Royce nodded and started circling the extractor. “It isn’t always successful. The person who has been infected must start treatment within an hour of being touched. After that time frame it seems to always be too late.”
“And it’s worked?” Avian asked in awe.
“On one man. We’ve tried it on two others but it was not successful. They had been infected for over two hours though. The process, however,” Royce paused, looking us in the eye as he rested his hands on the back of the intimidating chair, “is very painful.”
“These are magnetic, aren’t they?” West asked as he approached the extractor and touched one of the rounded arms. They were taller than he was.
Royce nodded. “Surgery could never find all the tiny parts. And you could never operate fast enough. They’d turn on the table and heal before your eyes. And then they’d infect you. With this method, it gets every little piece. And pulls it right out through your skin.”
“But how could anyone survive that?” Avian asked, his brow furrowing. “The process would kill you just from the pain you would experience.”
“Anyone going through the treatment is placed in a medically induced coma. It’s a slow process. If we pull too fast, all of the person’s insides will be shredded to bits. We have to extract everything slowly, allowing the body to heal as everything is being pulled out. And then this,” he said as he pointed to a round disk in the ceiling above us, “keeps it from spreading. It’s an electrical pulse that contains it. It’s not strong enough to wipe everything out. If we crank it up too far, it would kill the person too fast.”
“You wanted to see me, Royce?” a voice from behind us said. We all turned at once.
“Yes, please come in, Elijah,” Royce said as he stepped forward. “Elijah underwent extraction five months ago. He has fully recovered with no traces of cybernetics left.”
Saying this man had fully recovered seemed like a cruel joke. He wore an eye patch; the eyes were usually the first thing to turn. Half of hi
s face looked like it had been dragged over the crumbling road, and not let up for hours. The short sleeved shirt he wore exposed the pocked and scarred skin of his arms. His hands looked similar.
“Elijah had been on scouting duty when a Hunter cornered him. As you know, one touch is all it takes. One of our other scouts killed the Bane and brought Elijah back here. It had only been just over a half an hour when he started the treatment.”
“How long did it take?” Avian asked. I saw him swallow hard. I wondered if he was thinking of Tye, like I was.
“Almost three weeks,” Elijah said. His voice was as rough sounding as the rest of his body looked.
“This is really amazing,” Avian said, shaking his head. He just kept blinking, as if what he was seeing would disappear at any moment.
I didn’t blame him. This didn’t seem real.
“I have to get back to my duties,” Elijah said, looking over at Royce.
“Of course,” he said. “Thank you for coming.” Elijah stepped out of the room and I heard his footsteps fade down the hall.
“I see no reason for you not to stay,” Royce said as he turned and looked at the four of us. “We can keep you fed, keep you safe, comfortable. I think we have an obligation to keep the human race alive. We all do.
“But, I understand that you need everyone to make a decision. We can send vehicles after the rest of your group if you like. We have military tanks that will keep any Bane out and there is room enough for all the members you brought with you.”
“If we could have a bit of time alone to discuss this, it would be appreciated,” Avian said, glancing at West, Tuck, and I.
“Of course,” Royce nodded. “You’re welcome to use one of the offices if you’d like. I will be in my own if you need me.”
We followed Royce back to the elevator. We entered into an empty room just a few doors down from Royce’s office. It was devoid of anything but two wooden chairs.
“This is amazing,” West said as he closed the door behind us. “I wondered how they kept them away here but I never would have imagined it was through wireless communication.”
“And that extractor is incredible,” Avian said, the same excitement in his voice.
“I see no reason we shouldn’t go get everyone else,” West said as he slowly paced the room.
“If they have military tanks they would probably be safe to even go out during the day,” Tuck said quietly. He’d been so quite this whole time that I’d almost forgotten he was with us. “Not that they would, but it would be better than us trying to sneak out and get them ourselves.”
“I agree,” Avian said. “What do you think Eve?”
I shook my head. Maybe I should have waited until things settled a bit more before I let Dr. Beeson work on my brain. I still felt foggy. “I think we should think about it for a few hours. This all seems very exciting and perfect at the moment, but it might look a little different tomorrow. There’s no rush to do it right this second.”
None of them said anything for a moment and I could see it in their faces that they wanted to just do this now. But slowly they came down off the high and back into reality.
“You’re probably right, “Avian said, rubbing a hand over his head. His hair was getting long from the lack of a shave the last nearly two weeks. He looked over at West and Tuck who both finally gave a nod.
“Let’s sleep on it,” Avian said with a small nod. “We can go tomorrow night if that’s what we decide is best.”
They all nodded and headed for the door.
I was the last to exit the room and had gotten just two steps from the door when I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to see Royce standing just to the side of the door, a finger pressed to his lips for me to stay quiet.
I glanced back at the rest of my group, seeing Avian, West, and Tuck retreating back toward the stairs.
“I wanted to speak to you, alone,” Royce said in a quiet tone.
I glanced back toward my fellow scouts just once. And then I nodded to Royce.
We returned to the blue floor. I followed Royce down the hall, to the very end. Two armed guards stood to either side of a thick black door. This one was closed, heavier and stronger looking than all the other ones. Royce punched a few numbers into the keypad attached to the handle. It beeped twice and I heard it unlock before he pushed it open.
Almost immediately inside the door was a set of stairs. All three of the men glanced back at me before starting up them, making me feel uneasy.
My eyes grew wide when we got to the top of the stairs. They opened onto the very top floor of the hospital, one big room. But all the walls and the entire ceiling were made of glass. It was almost as if we had just walked out onto the roof.
Dominating the center of the room was a ring. A fifteen-foot wide ring, balanced on five steel legs about four feet off the ground. Inside the ring were more rings, gears, mechanical devices I didn’t even have names for. But I knew what it was.
“It’s a CDU,” I breathed as I took it in.
A small smile crossed Royce’s face as he looked at me and nodded. “Yes it is. We call it the Pulse.”
“It’s massive,” I said as I started to circle it.
“It’s taken us a long time to build it,” Royce said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re not sure exactly how far the blast will reach but we are certain it will at least clear the city.”
“Why haven’t you used it yet?” I asked as I ran my hand along the smooth metal surface. I immediately withdrew my hand though, remembering what it would do when it was live. It would kill me immediately. My thoughts turned briefly to the designs at the end of West’s notebook. We hadn’t needed them after all.
“It’s not quite finished,” he answered. “It still needs a power source.”
I nodded as I stopped, coming back around the gigantic ring. “I suppose you can’t just plug it into any normal outlet.”
“The amount of power this thing requires is astronomical,” Royce said, his eyes fixed on me. “Even directing all the power that runs to the hospital wouldn’t be enough to charge this thing and set it off. We need to tap directly into the power plant that is three blocks from here.”
“Why haven’t you done it yet?” I asked, my brow knitting together.
He looked at me for a moment before he replied. “Because it is crawling with Bane. Even at night.”
The pieces to Royce’s puzzle slid into place without much effort. “You need me to go in,” I said. “I’m the only one that can’t be infected.”
He simply nodded, his eyes fixed on me.
I looked back at the Pulse, thinking of what it could mean if it really did work. This entire city, maybe farther, free of any Bane. At least for a while.
“If I help set this off, what’s to keep it from shorting me out and killing me?”
Royce adjusted his stance, pushing his hands in his pockets. “We’ve been working on proofing the entire hospital for the last two years. This room was added a while ago, completely sealed off from the rest of the building. The glass is all going to blow, but the rest of the hospital won’t be affected. You’ll be perfectly safe inside, along with all of our other electrical equipment.”
“And how do I get into the plant without being torn apart, limb from limb?” I asked.
“Heavily armed,” he said, a sly smile tugging on his lips.
“No,” a voice suddenly said from behind us. Both Avian and West stepped into the room, looks of rage and fury on their faces. “She’ll never make it out of the plant alive,” West said through clenched teeth.
“You can’t ask this of her,” Avian said, his eyes dark.
“Apparently Lex forgot to close the door behind us,” Royce said as he glared at one of the armed men behind him. The man just gave a shrug.
“You realize what this device will do for us? For humanity?” Royce asked, turning his eyes on Avian and West again.
“But not at the cost of losing Eve,” Avian said, his
hands forming fists.
“We will not be sending her in there naked,” he said with harsh eyes and annoyance. “A tank will drive her as close as possible, our men will take out as many as they can from a distance. She will be armed.”
“No,” West said, shaking his head. “It’s too great of a risk. There will be hundreds of them there, if not thousands.”
The three of them stood like that for a long moment, staring at each other with unrelenting eyes.
“I’ll do it,” I finally spoke. “When will everything be ready?”
“In a few days,” Royce said.
“No, Eve!” West hissed at the same time.
“You can’t do this!” Avian chimed in.
“Yes, I can and I will!” I nearly shouted back. “Neither of you are in charge of me. I’m the only one that can do this and I am going to do it.”
“Wonderful,” Royce said as he clapped a hand on my back. “I’ll let Dr. Beeson’s team know and we will get things prepared.”
Avian looked at me with cold eyes and I read a million words of shock, hurt, and betrayal in them. Without another word he turned and walked back down the stairs.
“You can’t do this Eve,” West said, closing the gap between us. He took my hands in his. “You most likely won’t walk out of this. Don’t kill yourself to make life a little easier for us.”
“Maybe you’re underestimating me,” I said quietly, slipping my hands out of his. “I am doing this.”
Before he could say anything else, I stepped around him and walked down the stairs.
I stood a good chance of not making it out of the power plant alive, but I would do it a million times over.
We finally stood a fighting chance.
THIRTY-THREE
West and Avian still wanted to go pick everyone up the next day. And I had to agree, it felt like the right, and safest thing to do. Eden would join the residents of Los Angeles.
We informed Royce of our decision and he set up a team that would go with us and take the tanks to pick everyone else up.
I stood at the back door, the one we had been brought through when we first arrived at the hospital. I looked out into the dark night, keeping guard while others behind me prepped for our departure. I could hear Avian talking to Royce, telling him about Morgan and her pregnancy, making plans for her care. West chatted with one of the other soldiers.