Addie shrugged. “Sounds like it. It’s just going to take time. It seems like everyone is on the tail end of things.”
“Do you remember what happened this time?” Avian asked, turning back to me. He eased me down onto a fallen tree. When the world swayed to the left a bit, I didn’t fight him.
I shook my head. “Just pain all of the sudden. And then passing out. Just like before.”
“And this is the second time this has happened since you were released?” Addie asked.
Avian took a small, silver cylinder from her and crouched in front of me. He pressed a button on the bottom and a tiny beam of light erupted from it. He shone it in my eyes, using his thumb to open them wider.
“I did this same thing two days ago,” I said as I looked into the light.
“This isn’t at all like before,” Avian said as he stood, clicking the light off, and handing it back. “When she’d get emotionally overloaded and shut down. She was never in pain before.”
“Well, she’s not supposed to be feeling pain at all,” Addie said. I stiffened momentarily. I wasn’t particularly comfortable with her knowing all of my hybrid details. “Whatever is going on inside of her head must be pretty intense.”
“What were they after?” Royce asked, always direct. “What did Margaret want from you?”
“They seemed the most interested in the reason why I don’t spread the infection, why I can’t be infected,” I said, climbing to my feet as Royce pulled me upright. “I think they thought they might find a cure or something.”
“Did they find it?” he asked, his interest piqued.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
Royce nodded, his eyes drifting up to my new scars. “Bald is a good look on you,” he said. He tried to keep a straight face, but I saw it crack, just slightly.
“Not funny, Royce,” Avian scolded, glaring.
“Who says I’m joking?” he said, winking at me.
I just shook my head and lay back on the tree, blocking the sun with my hand. I felt out of sorts and violated. I was fifteen hundred miles away from the Underground and they were still torturing me somehow.
“Royce, we have to get the Pulse back up and ready,” I said, looking up at him. “I’m assuming Gabriel told you what’s going to happen?”
He nodded, his expression darkening. “Dr. Beeson’s team is finishing up the energy storage devices. They’d started them just before you were taken. They’ll get them wrapped up tonight and then get the Pulse prepped tomorrow.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t just end with the beacon, Royce. Things are changing out there. The Bane, they really are getting smarter. They’re sweeping through the country.”
I recounted every horrifying detail I’d learned from Tom.
“They’re going to come for us,” I said, imagining how it would play out in my head. The buildings that would fall. How we would cower inside the hospital until they started ripping it apart one steel beam at a time. “We’ve got to fight back.”
“Fighting back is what you and I do best. Let’s get you home so we can figure out how.”
“Royce, I can’t go back into the city,” I said, shaking my head. “If the Bane really are attracted to me, I could call them back into New Eden without even meaning to. And we have no idea what the Underground did to me. I won’t put everyone at risk.”
“I’m a little insulted that you doubt my abilities to protect our people,” Royce said, actually looking offended. “We did survive in the city for five years before you wandered into town. We’ll turn the wireless transmission system back on. If you do call them, we’ll have it and the Pulse ready. We’ve always got bullets.”
“You’re sure I should come back?” I asked.
Royce nodded.
“We’ll be able to do further testing back at the lab,” Addie said. “There isn’t much I can do out here with no equipment and no electricity.”
Avian’s hand rested on my shoulder and I turned to look at him. There was understanding in his eyes. He knew I didn’t want to go back into the city. But he also saw the fire in me. It was time to fight back.
I turned back to Royce. “Let’s go then.”
The four of us hiked back down to the main road. Avian climbed into the driver’s seat when Royce said he wanted to talk more. We headed back for the hospital.
“They all jumped?” Royce asked, looking at me like he might be able to see what was inside of me that had changed. “Hundreds of thousands of them?”
“Yes,” I said. “They didn’t hesitate.”
He was quiet for a moment but his eyes never left mine. I could see the wheels turning in his head. Royce was one of the smartest men I knew. If anyone could figure out how to use my new ability to its full advantage, it would be him.
“Got anything?” I asked.
“Not yet,” he said, breaking eye contact.
“Whoa,” Avian suddenly said, grinding to a halt. “Did you guys feel that?”
“What?” Royce asked, leaning forward in his seat, his eyes sweeping the road and the buildings around us.
The ground shook and there was a great rumbling sound.
“That,” Avian whispered.
The ground vibrated harder, the air filled with the sounds of the earth grinding and shifting.
“It’s an earthquake,” Addie said, her voice rising.
“Drive!” Royce shouted.
Avian slammed on the gas and we rocketed forward.
The truck shook back and forth violently and for a moment it tipped up on two wheels.
I looked out the window to see all the other abandoned vehicles outside shifting and rocking in place. The mostly dead palm trees swayed.
“Ever had an earthquake out here before?” Avian shouted above the din.
“We always get a few little ones every year,” Addie shouted. “Nothing like this though.”
The ground gave one last quake and finally, as we rounded the corner and came up to the hospital’s underground garage, the earth stood still.
“Check that everyone is okay!” Royce bellowed to his men as soon as Avian stopped the truck.
We all ran for the stairwell and our footsteps reverberated off the walls. We burst into the main lobby and our ears were assaulted with shouting and screams.
There was glass all over the floor in the lobby where the computers had fallen and shattered. Papers were scattered everywhere. A screaming woman cowered under one of the desks, clutching her wrist which was bleeding profusely.
“I got her!” Avian shouted, breaking off and pulling off his shirt to press into the bleeding wound.
“Anyone else need medical attention?” Royce bellowed, pausing momentarily in the lobby. Everyone else seemed to be okay.
“Eve, take the second floor, find Elijah if you can. Make sure everyone is okay,” Royce ordered. “Send everyone out the south doors. Addie, the blue floor.”
We all broke off.
I dashed up the stairwell, taking them two at a time. They all seemed to be intact.
“Get off the stairs!” I shouted, dodging around a small group of older women cowering on a landing. “Royce wants everyone outside the building now! South entrance!”
They looked at me fearfully, but nodded and started down the stairs.
I stepped out into the hallway and started knocking on doors.
“Everyone alright in here?” I asked, finding a couple inside. There was stuff covering the floor, but nothing looked terribly damaged.
They nodded their heads. “You’re back?”
“Yeah,” I said, suddenly feeling self-conscious of my shaved head. “Royce wants everyone outside the south entrance.”
They slipped into the stairway.
I continued to check doors. A woman had slipped in the shower when the quake started and hit her head on the sink. There was blood gushing from her eyebrow. I sent her in Avian’s direction.
Elijah had worked his way down from the opposit
e end of the hallway and we met in the middle.
“Welcome back!” he shouted as the ground shook once more.
“Again?” I said, struggling to keep my balance.
“Aftershock,” he said, waving me back toward the stairway. “They’ll keep coming for a bit.”
When we got to the stairway, we found a stampede of scientists in white lab coats frantically carrying equipment down the stairs. They shouted in angry, stressed voices. I made out words like “broken equipment” and “years of research”.
The damage would be worst on the blue floor.
And my heart sank into my stomach.
“The Pulse,” I said to Elijah, my eyes wide. “It’s on the roof!”
“Don’t worry,” Elijah said as we waited for the scientists to clear out. “After those people took you, Royce had it moved to an underground, secure location.”
“Is that going to be any better?” I asked as we descended the stairs.
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Let’s go check it out.”
After we were sure everyone had made their way outside, we searched briefly for Royce to tell him where we were going. When he was nowhere to be found, we passed the message along to Avian as he stitched people up.
Elijah and I sprinted down the road. Another aftershock hit, nearly knocking us to the ground. He led me two blocks away and down into a parking garage.
There was a large steel door blocking off the entrance and Elijah pressed a number into a keypad. It beeped twice and retracted.
Dust billowed out at us as soon as the door started opening and Elijah swore loudly. We ducked beneath the door and Elijah shined a flashlight through the dust.
It looked like the back half of the building had collapsed down into the garage.
And one side of the Pulse was crushed completely.
Elijah swore again.
“It would have been perfectly safe from people like the ones that took you,” Elijah said as we approached to inspect the damage. “Who would have anticipated that it would be Mother Earth that would turn on us this time?”
As we looked closer, it was only a quarter of the gigantic ring that had been smashed by a pillar that had toppled over on it.
“This took them four years to build,” I said, panic building in my system. “We’re going to have thousands and thousands of Bane falling on us in three days.”
“So it’s true?” Elijah asked, glaring at me through the dim light. “They really left a beacon here in the city?”
I nodded. “Come on,” I said, turning and sprinting back outside.
We found Royce immediately when we got back to the hospital. The aftershocks seemed to have finally died out. He was barking for Elijah when we came up.
“The Pulse,” I said, my voice anxious. “You’ve got to get it out of that garage. The entire building is about to collapse on it. It’s already damaged.”
Royce’s face reddened further and he took half a moment to formulate a plan. “Get a team. Take one of the tanks. Pull it out of there!”
Elijah started shouting for his crew.
“You got this?” I asked Elijah, who nodded and headed for our own underground parking garage for one of the tanks.
I turned to see what I could do to help Royce when a bolt of lightning flashed through my brain and my knees buckled.
Everything illuminated in green. Numbers flashed everywhere. Suddenly they all pulsed and formed into a zero point one two in the center of my vision.
And the world was black again.
TWENTY-TWO
I was lying on a cot when I came to. It was dark and the air was cold.
I sat up and looked around.
It seemed everyone was sleeping outside. It must have been late, considering it looked like most everyone was in fact sleeping. Several small fires were scattered about, a few lone figures sat around them, warming their hands and talking.
I heard Avian speaking not far away and found him with Royce, their heads low, their voices heavy and quiet. I rose to join them.
They stood over a man and my entire body felt cold when his face and all of the blood came into view.
Eli. Morgan’s husband. Expectant father.
“Is he…?” I tried to ask.
Avian met my eyes and nodded his head.
“What happened?”
“They were out with the rehoming crew,” Royce said, his voice rough. “They were all cleaning a new building when the quake hit. The roof collapsed on them.”
“He bled out,” Avian said, his voice catching.
I squeezed my eyes closed, shaking my head.
“Where is Morgan?” I asked.
Avian pointed to a cot a ways away. She was curled into a ball around her slowly growing stomach. “She was hit too. It knocked her unconscious. She hasn’t woken up yet.”
“The baby?”
“We don’t know.”
I nodded, hugging my arms around me. “Will it be safe to go back inside the hospital?” I asked Royce. I couldn’t dwell on the death and despair any more.
“Elijah’s crew scouted it out. Everything looks okay,” Royce said. “We want to check it again in the morning. We thought it safest to give everything some time to settle.”
“Do you remember anything this time?” Avian asked me, walking around Eli’s cot, pulling me into his arms.
I shook my head. “Same as the last two times.”
“Once we get this all cleaned up Dr. Beeson will fix it,” Avian said, pressing his forehead to mine. “It looks like most of the equipment made it through. He’ll do what he does best.”
I nodded, biting my upper lip. I suddenly recalled the memories and nightmares I’d had in the Underground, the dreams. Dr. Beeson evaluating me and declaring I didn’t need an adjustment yet.
“Get some rest you two,” Royce said as he covered Eli with a blanket. “There isn’t much more you can do until morning.”
“What about you?” I asked Royce. There were dark bags beneath his eyes.
“Not now,” he said, shaking his head. “There will be no sleep for me tonight.”
I wanted to ask him more questions. I wanted to know if we’d be able to fix the Pulse. We needed to make plans. I wanted to know if everyone else had made it out of the hospital okay. But his eyes told me he was done with questions for the night.
“Come on,” Avian said, taking my hand and pulling me toward one of the fires.
We stopped in the firelight. Avian held his hands up to the flames to warm them. They were covered in blood.
“I’m going to try and go back to the tent tomorrow as soon as I can manage,” I said, a lump in my throat. “I’m going to need some of my stuff.”
Avian met my eyes with sadness. “When you’re this close to the coast and there’s an earthquake, often times the shore gets flooded. We’re lucky a tsunami didn’t rush in on us. There’s a good chance the tent isn’t there anymore.”
I squeezed my eyelids closed, my stomach feeling sick. There was nothing in it that was dire, nothing that I couldn’t find in this city elsewhere. Except for the picture of my mother.
“We’ll check though,” Avian said. He placed a finger on my chin. I opened my eyes to meet his. “It might still be there.”
I could only nod once again.
I didn’t sleep that night. Avian and I curled into each other on a blanket on the ground, never once letting go. While I listened to his steady breathing, I could only gaze out into the dark night.
My thoughts turned to West. I wondered if he was okay. Would Margaret hurt him? Turn him out onto the Bane-infested streets?
I could only pray that Tristan would be able to protect West like he promised.
But would West even want to come back with Tristan? He’d left New Eden willingly to try and get away from me. How was he really supposed to move on if he had to see Avian and me every day? I wouldn’t really be able to blame him if he didn’t want to come back.
&n
bsp; Finally morning started growing in the horizon. I pressed a kiss to Avian’s forehead and went to see how I could help.
Avian’s patients slept, probably with the aid of some kind of medication. Morgan was still sleeping, her eyes moving rapidly beneath her eyelids. While I certainly didn’t want her to die, I almost wished for her to never have to wake up and find the love of her life and the father of her unborn child gone.
I was looking at Eli’s empty cot when Gabriel stopped silently at my side. I observed his face, saw the heavy bags beneath his eyes. He’d been up most of the night, if not all of it. I had little doubt it had been him that had buried Eli.
“It’s not fair,” I said, looking back to the cot. It was covered mostly with a blanket, but it had slipped off one corner, exposing the blood stains. “He survived the Bane this long. And then to be killed by a force of nature?”
Gabriel cleared his throat and swallowed heavily. “No it isn’t fair, but in a way it was a kind of beautiful way to die. Better to be claimed by nature than to be stolen by TorBane.”
“I suppose.”
By now the morning light had broken over the tops of buildings, calling everyone to wakefulness. I turned to see Avian roll over, his eyes searching the crowd. When he found me, a smile lit up his sleepy face.
This time I did manage to smile back.
Something moved in the corner of my eye. I looked over to see two figures down the street, moving slowly, struggling.
I took a few steps closer, squinting to see through the blinding sunlight.
“Tristan?” I said.
He looked up as I said his name. Then he and the figure at his side collapsed to the ground.
“West!”
I rushed toward them, at the same time Elijah, Nick, and Tuck did with guns pointed in their direction.
“No!” I shouted to them, waving a hand at them. “It’s okay. He’s a friend.”
West was laying on the ground, looking totally out of it, his eyes dully searching the sky. He looked like he’d dropped fifteen pounds since I had last seen him. But the inhibitor was gone.
Tristan knelt on the ground next to him, his body trembling slightly in fatigue.