I Am Phantom (24 page)

“You
aren’t who I thought you were, Drake,” he said. I continued circling around
him. Despite all I had seen him do and all I knew he was capable of, he held me
immobile by the mere inkling that he might know something more about me. “We’re
the same, I said, practically brothers. Right now, right here, there are only
the two of us who could possibly understand what the other is going through.
And yet you sided with those who were lesser than us.”

“I
saw the videos,” I said. “You were normal before all this. I think I understand
now. You never wanted any of this but they forced you to do it. I’m sorry,
Sykes.”

“I
don’t want your pity!” Sykes snarled. “I helped you because I thought you of
all people would best see my grand vision and what we could do for everyone by
ridding the world of Project Midnight and any of those who didn’t believe in
what we were doing. I told you not to listen to Ryans, and you did. I warned
you not to interfere in Project Midnight and yet you did. You did everything I
warned you against all the while claiming you wanted answers, and I gave them
to you. You wanted me as your enemy—”

“No,
I—”

“—from
the very start and now you’ve got it. It’s obvious I can’t trust you to help
me. So it’s time for a little revenge, plain and simple. You hurt me, I’ll hurt
you right back.”

I
tried to get closer to him but Sykes took a step back. “There aren’t any sides!
I’m like you, but murdering innocent people to get back at those you feel
wronged you? You have no accountability. You just do as you please and don’t
answer to anybody. You’re right, I wanted answers from you, but now I’m done.
I’m taking you down, Sykes.” My throat caught. “Whether you’re like me or not.”

“Police
are almost here,” Cody said. “People from outside must have called them or the
jamming signal is down.”

I
lunged at Sykes, but he jumped back.

“The
police are almost here. You’re done, Sykes.” I punched but he ducked under it.
His attacks were controlled, calculated. He deflected me and shoved me back,
like he was wasting time for something.

I
shot forward with an open hand strike. Sykes sidestepped and caught my arm and
flipped me.

“Too
slow.”

I
jumped up. “Guess I’ll try harder, then.”

Sykes
leapt back from me again. “There’s one more lab, Drake.”

“It
doesn’t matter anymore, Sykes. You’re through.”

“Oh,
but it does. The last Project Midnight lab. I’ve got an appointment to destroy
it, the final scourge on this city, and I want you to be there.” He paused and cocked
his head, like a dog listening for his masters’ call. “Tell me when the police
are right outside the gym.”

At
first I didn’t think I’d heard right.

“What
did he say?” Cody asked. Then he stopped, as if reading something. “They’ve
surrounded the gym.” Sykes read my pause. His demeanor turned serious in an
instant.

“I
take it they’re there now, aren’t they? Well then, time to wrap this up.”

Wrap
this up? I was frantic now, driven by the ever-growing panic in my gut of what
he was going to do, whatever it was. I fired the grapple at him but Sykes
leaned back and it shot over. He grabbed it and swung me away.

“Drake?
What’s going on?” Cody said frantically. “Take him down and get out of there!
The police are preparing to come inside.”

“Tell
me if you’ve heard this rhyme before, Drake. I’m sure you have,” Sykes said.

I
missed him again as he danced away, toying with me.

“
When Sykes burst in with a roar and a
clatter, Queensbury’s finest came to see what was the matter—
”

I
missed again.

“
And all the men in the street and the
students in their rooms, jumped at the sound—
”

He
pulled a gleaming black cylinder from his coat pocket. A detonator.

“
Of a great—
”

“Cody!
Get out of the dorm!”

“
Big—
”

“Drake,
buddy, what’s in his hand?”

“
Boom
.”

He
pressed the button.

 
Cody screamed in my ear as an explosion
ripped through his end. And then a second one followed just outside the gym,
the lights died for the last time, and my world collapsed.

Chapter
Fifteen

Phantom’s
Fall

Darkness
blanketed us again. Not the beneficial darkness of my making but the kind only
caused by something very bad happening. It was like the darkness of Monstaff,
where this all began. The darkness of Project Midnight’s laboratory. Sinister.

Sykes
was gone by the time my eyes adjusted. He must have gotten away already. I
didn’t care.

“Cody,”
I said, tapping the earpiece. “Answer me. Are you there?”

Only
static. I looked around the gym. The stands were clear. A fine layer of dust
rained from the roof and coated the floor. I jumped and crawled my way up to
the second floor and out the entrance into the blinding sunlight.

A
wrong world greeted me.

 
Trees were not supposed to be upside
down, police cars not blown in half and on fire. And the bodies—human
bodies did not twist that way, should not have been spread across the ground
like careless child’s forgotten playthings. Crackled black skin and pink, raw
flesh hung from limbs. Blood gushed down drainage canals made for rain.

I
sprinted pointlessly around trying to find people who needed help. There were
only two kinds: the unhurt and the dead.

My
stomach suddenly heaved. Under the cover of rising smoke, I pulled off my mask
and threw up. The splattering sound must have jolted my memory, for all I could
think about after that was Cody’s final scream. The dorms.

And
I ran.

I
passed a few shell-shocked people stumbling up. They didn’t notice me, either
dazedly looking around or focusing on the billowing plume of smoke rising from
where my dorm was.
          

The
dorm looked worse than the street outside the gym.

At
least half of it was blown away; the once stark green lawn was blemished with
furniture, rubble and debris and I heard screams from inside when I reached it.
Thick black smoke rose above fires still raging on parts of the first and
second floor. The rubble had smothered most of the flames. Where I once lived
was unrecognizable.

I
jumped over scattered brick and mortar into what part of our hallway still
remained standing. Slivers of paper reading:
Am Phan—
and shreds of Easter decorations that had been
plastered on room doors blew by.

I
stepped over what was left of Cody’s room.

“Cody!”
I yelled. “Anybody!” I heard a muffled cry across the hall. It was a girl. Half
her body was pinned beneath an overturned dresser. I heaved it off of her and
carried her out to the lawn, laying her in the shade of a nearby tree.

“Thank
you,” she mumbled. She was too stunned to move, but didn’t look too hurt
otherwise. For the next ten minutes I was on autopilot, carting wounded
students back and forth from the dorm to the shade. I found some hurt, some
still breathing. I found some bleeding or unconscious. I found some dead. Those
I couldn’t bear to move. Their vacant eyes haunted me as though they knew this
was all my fault. It was only the adrenaline that kept me from breaking down
right there. Actually, I didn’t feel much of anything. Part of me, maybe the
emotional part of me, had died for a bit.

I
returned to Cody’s room. “Cody!”

I
pushed aside the furniture, the rubble, the last of the laptop that had
connected him to me moments before—

“Cody!”

I
saw the glint of an earring and his spiky hair sticking out from the rest of
the rubble.

“Hold
on, I’m coming.” I clawed at the dirt and tried pulling up the concrete slab he
was under. The gloves contracted and dug into the brick and I heaved until my
arms felt like they would rip off, but it wouldn’t move.

Somebody
grabbed me from behind and I spun, ready to fight, right in to the
smoke-stained, tear-dried face of Melanie. Only then did I notice that
ambulances and fire trucks surrounding the dorm. Some of them were helping the
students I had lay beneath the tree.

“You
need to leave now, Drake,” Melanie said. Her voice was monotonous and stunned.
She refused to look where Cody lay. “They’re here. They’ll help now but you
can’t stay.”

I
shoved her off and kept digging but she grabbed me again.

“They’ll
arrest you! And then what will you be able to do?”

“Let
go! This is my fault. I can save Cody, I can save all of them!”

“But
not now! It doesn’t matter if you’re helping, they won’t care about that!” She
glanced at a firefighter running towards us and shoved me away. “Go!”

And
again, for what felt like the hundredth time, against everything I felt and
everything I wanted to do, I ran away.

I
didn’t even bother finding my motorcycle. Right now I needed to feel the
pounding of my feet and sharp air in my lungs. Anything to remind me of
something that once was enjoyable. I don’t know how far I ran into the city.
I’m sure tons of people saw me but I didn’t care. I eventually found an
abandoned apartment complex and scrambled up towards one of the windows.

Halfway
up the wall, my chest seized up like my costume was trying to crush me. My
vision tunneled and I managed to lower myself a bit before my grip failed. I
fell, slamming my back into some trashcans and rolling off. I waited for
someone to come out into the alleyway and see me curled up in a ball, head
throbbing and erratically breathing. The adrenaline was draining out of me. My
limbs sagged like I had just finished a marathon. The realization of what had
just happened hit again and I curled up tighter, my vision darkening from lack
of air.

“
Breathe
.” I heard Sonam’s frustratingly
calm voice. “
Breathe,”
he commanded.
Couldn’t he see me lying here? Couldn’t he see what had just happened?

Breathe
, Sonam repeated. “
For you’re no good if you’re dead. Breathe
.”

Things
had gotten so out of hand so fast. How could I have been so stupid?

 
Air came suddenly followed by sobs. My
hands unclenched and by the time three cars had passed I could sit up. I forced
myself to move and mutely stood and finished climbing.

I
smashed in the window and without stopping punched the wall and collapsed on
the floor. Blood ran from my fist and soaked the wood.

In
that moment I hated Sonam. I hated what he preached. I hated how the things he
said about the world just seemed so simple and straightforward and made perfect
sense like there were only two sides to everything. Like the decision was so
easy to make, so easy to do. Things don’t make sense like that.

I
leapt up and punched the wall with my bloody hand again. Over and over until it
was just a mass of pain and shredded nerves I couldn’t feel anymore.

I
saw the students clearly in my mind. The bodies in the street, the copper smell
of blood, the bodies in the dorm. I kicked the wall.

Had
they thought they were the safe ones and everyone outside was in danger? Were
they planning what to do once Sykes was gone and they were free to go see their
friends or family again? What had they been thinking when it all ended?

They
had all relied on me. Cody had relied on me. And if I hadn’t jabbered with
Sykes, hadn’t wanted answers in the first place, had just attacked him and
wrestled the detonator out of his hand…

The
tears felt hot and sticky against my face and clogged the mask so I had to take
it off.

I
sat there for a long time. At some point the tears stopped falling and dried
up. And still I sat. And as I sat I came to one simple truth that made
everything else so very clear.

I
had selfishly put so many in danger by letting him go this long: Cody, Matt,
Melanie, Liz. So many innocents had died because I hadn’t stopped him, because
I believed he still had something to offer me. I was only deluding myself.

Sykes
had to die.

And
I had to kill him.

It
was
an easy decision. There would be
no holding back this time. Sykes, who had killed so many, was going to die. And
only a superhuman could kill a superhuman.

I’m
not entirely sure how long I stayed there. The painful reminder that where I
lived was gone came about eleven at night when I decided to leave the empty
apartment. I wasn’t going back to the dorm. There was nothing left for me
there. I was going to the hospital. I didn’t know if that’s where Cody was, but
I had to check.

Before
I left I realized I had no change of clothes. My backpack and cell phone were
in the gym. I took off the top half of my costume, leaving only my long pants,
boots and undershirt on. I rummaged up a plastic sack in the alleyway and
stuffed the top half in it. I’d look weird but anybody other than Police Chief
Ryans would just think I was going through a Goth phase.

Something
was wrong with the city. Sure, I still passed late night clusters of people
out, but they seemed subdued and nobody would meet my eyes. An unusual,
smothering mist crept into the cracks between the buildings, obscuring the
fading streetlights and blanketing the street to the hospital in a grimy haze.

Something
was off, though, more than the atmosphere. And then I realized what it was: no
fewer than four helicopters had passed overhead, and while I stood there three
military convoys had roared by. The closer I got to campus the more barricades,
closed off roads and soldiers I saw.

At
one of the blocked off roads a soldier did a double take at my clothes and
quickly switched routes to the hospital.

It
was in chaos. Orderlies, nurses and doctors hustled back and forth over the
gleaming linoleum lobby. The doors leading to the back were constantly moving,
swinging back and forth as carts and trays were pushed through under the sound
of phones ringing off the hook. I didn’t see any police.

I
approached a distressed looking lady behind the front desk, cradling two phones
with files spread in front of her.

“Excuse
me?” I said.

“What?”
She snapped.

“What
room is Cody Richards in?”

“Are
you family? Can’t let anybody but family in.”

“He’s
my family.” She readjusted the phone on her ear and opened a dog-eared file.

“I
know they’re still coming in, ma’am, but we’re doing the best we can. I don’t
know how he’s doing right now. All ambulances are out so I’ll have to ask you
to be patient. 193,” she told me, then swore as two more phones started
ringing.

I
found the room easily enough. I didn’t go in right away. The presence of death
hung heavy in the hallway, and I didn’t know if any of it was coming from
inside the room. Brief flashes of Cody’s trapped body almost made my knees
buckle. I turned the handle.

“Drake!”

Melanie’s
puffy red face, scared and now relieved, buried into my shoulder, her arms
squeezing me like I would vanish if she let go.

“Where
did you go?” She asked after a beat, pulling away. She gasped. “What happened
to your hands?”

“I’m
okay. Sorry to worry you guys.”

Matt
sat in a visitors’ chair at Cody’s bedside, face taunt and his hollow eyes
fixated on the TV playing reports of the National Guard coming in to
Queensbury. This was followed by videos of parents meeting their kids at school
earlier today. Everybody was terrified, understandably. In a matter of a few TV
frames Queensbury had turned into a war zone.

I
turned away.

“Since
we’re all here then I guess we’re all family,” I said. “How is he? Do his
parents know?”

“They
should be here any minute.” Melanie didn’t meet my eyes. “Cody’s alive, Drake.
That’s more than I can say for those other poor people. But Drake,
he’s—don’t blame yourself—he’s—”

I
brushed past her and stood over Cody’s bed. The bed, the sheets, the bandages,
everything was crisply pressed and white like he was some sort of invalid
angel. Deep cuts covered his face, and his right arm…and right leg…

“Where
are they?”

 
What I was seeing didn’t register. Where
his right arm and leg should have been was now only a lump of shoulder and hip
covered with bandages.

I
could only stand there while his chest rose and the heart monitor beeped
rhythmically. I turned away. The relief of seeing him alive was gone. I wasn’t
going to cry, but man, the guilt was going to crush me.

“He’ll
live, Drake,” Matt said robotically from the chair.

“Yeah,
he’ll live as half of what he once was. He’ll live knowing that who did this to
him could have been stopped.”

“No,
Drake, this isn’t your fault—”

“IT’S
ALL
MY FAULT!” I roared, making Matt
jump. “I was the one who could have stopped Sykes but I thought that maybe he
could help and he—and he—” I waved my hands helplessly.