Rebellion (31 page)

As they approach, my mind goes through all the possibilities. If it's an Enforcer, I'm going to have to be smart how I approach this. I am trying to get them on my side, after all. If it's anyone else, whether it's a Guard, or some other random Citizen, then I'll just knock them out and drag them out of here so they don't get hurt.

Either way, I tell myself, the worst case is it's an Enforcer, and I'll have to hope they're as willing to listen to me as I think they might be. The footsteps slow down as they draw closer, but it isn't until they stop just on the other side of the green stuff that I can make out who it is. My heart stops. It's worse than my worst case. It's Dr. Friar.

I push myself even flatter against the wall behind me. If I can just wait him out, he'll probably leave and I'll get on my way and leave him to whatever horrible thing he's doing here.

He's muttering to himself. “… know I heard someone … just the building giving me the creeps … should just flood the whole thing like I said months ago.”

But instead of leaving and returning to what he was doing before like I'd hoped, he kneels next to the green ick and pulls his Slate out. For the next several minutes, he continues tapping away at the screen. Then he pulls out one of those silver remotes and touches a button on it. The blob bubbles and makes a horrendous sound, almost like it's screaming.

I slam my hands to my ears and the movement must give me away, because Dr. Friar's head jerks up and his eyes meet mine. I stop breathing and don't even dare to blink. I'm in a shadow. It's possible he can't see me. I hope.

Until that sickening smile of his slices across his face and he pushes up to his feet. “Well, well. What do we have here?” He slowly walks toward me, while I measure my choices.

It seems I only have two. Run deeper into the building and hope to outrun him—if I remember correctly, there's a stairwell around here—or stay and fight.

When the building lets out another loud groan, I realize I have to fight. There's no way I'm running around a building that even he thinks should be abandoned completely.

His grin grows even more wicked when I step into the light of the hallway. “Evelyn! How wonderful to see you alive! Mother will be so pleased to know that.”

I just stare at him. Really? Does he really think I'm that stupid?

When he laughs, I realize that no, he doesn't think I'm stupid. He's just as mad as Mother is.

Suddenly, my whole body feels aflame. Screaming, I collapse to my knees, and even though they hit the concrete with all of my body weight, the pain of that doesn't even compare to the agony ripping through my body.

As quickly as it started, it stops, and I peer up through tear-coated lashes to see Dr. Friar standing over me. “Mother doesn't want me to kill you, but she's not happy with you.”

I try to force myself to my feet, but before I can even get one foot under me, I'm back on the ground writhing as more volcanoes erupt through my skin to scorch my flesh.

“No. Don't get up. I need some answers from you.” He leans over me as I curl into myself, trying to escape the pain, but I see the silver remote between his fingers. Not that I'm surprised. “Where have you been hiding?” he demands.

The pain stops long enough for me to spit out, “Not. Telling.”

He presses the button again, and this time the pain feels like I'm being electrocuted. I bite down so hard on my tongue, I taste blood in my mouth, but I can't let up as what seems like every muscle in my body contracts at once.

“Want to try that again?”

He releases the button and, with it, my muscles.

I glare at him, but don't answer him. I don't care how much it hurts or if he
does
kill me. I'm not telling him anything.

“Aw! Catfish got your tongue?” He laughs at his own joke as more red-hot agony tears through me.

I struggle against it. If I can just manage to tap into the Enforcer part of me, I'll be able to ignore it. Or at least I think I can. I did when I got shot, back when I first met Gavin. Every time the Enforcer part of me kicked on, the pain dulled. This has to work the same, too, right?

He leans down, presumably to whisper something in my ear, but I force myself to focus all my energy on him and I shove up, slamming my head against his. He howls in pain, dropping the device to grab for his nose.

While he's busy with that, I belly-crawl toward the silver object. I hope he's too busy dealing with his own pain to worry about me, but just as my fingertips touch the cold metal, he stomps on my hand, breaking fingers I'm sure, before he swipes the device from the ground with clawed fingers.

Suddenly, I feel like he crushed my trachea instead of my fingers. I can't breathe. I scratch at my throat, trying anything to get oxygen flowing again. But all I'm doing is tearing my flesh from my body.

“Can't … kill … me,” I gasp out, hoping a reminder of Mother's wrath will stop him, but it doesn't.

“She'll never know,” he hisses at me. “And with you gone, your mutiny dies with you.” He glares at me.

Spots form in front of my eyes and I realize, I'm going to die. He's going to kill me and he doesn't care what Mother wants. I have to stop him, no matter what it takes. I survey my surroundings for anything that could help me. That's when my eyes land back on the goo again.

Somehow, during the fight, I forced him closer to the spider web of ooze along the window and beam. One shove and he'd end up right in it. It's my only choice, if I want to live.

Gathering all my strength, my lungs burning, and red and black spots flashing in my eyes, I lunge toward him again and push with all my strength. He lets out a surprised gasp and drops the remote, pinwheeling his arms as he falls backward into the goo.

I don't waste even a second. My fingers just barely find the remote as darkness leaks in from the sides of my vision. I mash down on what I hope is the right button as I collapse face first onto the concrete.

Almost immediately the pressure in my chest leaves and I'm able to drag in enough air to push back at the darkness. But as the pounding in my ears dissipates, I hear another sound. High-pitched screaming. Dr. Friar. Panting, I push onto my hands and knees and watch in horror as the slime sucks him into it as fast as it had done Asher's shoe when we first ran into the stuff.

Guilt now eats at me instead of my own nanos, but I don't have a chance to even remind myself it was either him or me, when the sludge suddenly lurches toward me. I push myself up and hobble toward the Tube. Last time, we were faster than it. I have to be faster than it now.

But it's different than it was before, and I'm slower, so by the time I force open the door to the Tube, it's practically at my heels. I rush through and immediately shove the door back down, but it slides through after me before I can get the airlock closed and grabs ahold of my ankle.

The fire I thought I'd felt when Dr. Friar turned the device on me is nothing compared to acid devouring my leg. I rip my leg from it, but it clings to me and I can't shake it off. Stupidly, I try brushing it off, but it sticks to my hands, burning them as well.

Then, as if someone is screaming it at me, I remember what Father said about seawater and its effect on the goo. Without thinking of the consequences, I run to the control panel near the door, and shove up the lever that fills the Tube with seawater.

The water rushes in so cold and so fast it takes my breath away, but it's relief I feel most as the goo just falls away from me like it had never been. My flesh underneath is bloody and raw, but at least it'll heal.

Relief making me giddy, I try to yank on the lever to stop the flow of water, but it doesn't budge. Frowning, I tug again only to be met with the same resistance. I laugh and roll my eyes when I remember I can't shut it off because I have to unlock it. Only Citizens can unlock it. A safety measure in case of Surface Dwellers. I press my hand against the plate and wait for it to flash green, but it doesn't. It flashes red.

I press my hand against it again. And again. The water starts closing in over my head. Panic kicks back in as I remember.

I deleted the Citizen's registry.

I can't open the door, because the registry that the computer needs to unlock the door is gone.

 

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-
SIX

The beginning cannot start without there first being an end.

—U
NKNOWN

Gavin

It's been four hours since Evie left. I thought being away from her for two months was bad, but I was wrong. These have been the longest four hours of my life. Each tick of the second hand on my watch is like a countdown. I'm in the Square, standing in a sea of sameness. All the people here are dressed the same as me, with exactly the same face. The mask, of course. I can honestly say I'm proud to be here, with all these people showing their solidarity against someone they've feared since they came to be living in the city.

Some people at first glance would say that nothing has changed. But I can see that everything has. Even in the short time since I came back, since Mother's irrational and wildly publicized atrocities have taken place, I can see it. This time they
choose
to be the same. They're not forced to be that way by selective breeding, or whatever Mother calls her brand of hate.

The stage lights shine brightly on a banner that states L
ONG LIVE
E
LYSIUM.
But a smile pulls at my lips when I see the small, hand-painted message under it. L
ONG LIVE
E
VIE
. It's painted in the same stark white color as the printed words on the sign. And even though it's smaller and messier than the original words, somehow it stands out more, its message as loud and clear as the masks the people around me wear: “We're here. We're alive and we're not disposable.”

I look around and see hundreds, if not thousands of replications of those words. Written in different colors. Different hands. Some still wet and gleaming. Others faded because Mother tried to wash them away. But they all are still there, and just the thought that they couldn't be washed away sends a happy thrill through my veins. Mother can't get rid of them, any more than she can get rid of the things Evie stands for. She could kill Evie today. Take the very breath from her lungs. But she'll never take what Evie's done.

I glance around again, this time looking for Evie. I know even in her mask I'd be able to see her. It worries me that I can't. She should have found me already. In fact, she should have met us back in the Caverns, but she never showed. We had to make the decision to continue without her. The snakes writhing in my stomach tie themselves into knots as I think about what that could mean.

“Does anyone see her?” I mutter into the mouthpiece attached to my mask.

“No,” comes the answer from the three other people in the crowd with earpieces.

“Asher?”

It's quiet, except a soft buzzing, and my heart beats a little quicker. What if Mother got to her? Maybe the reason Mother is ten minutes late for her own assembly is because she's got Evie and she's planning on executing her publicly.

Finally the earpiece buzzes again. “No,” Asher says, and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. “I just did another quick scan, but I can't see her. If she's here, she's well hidden.”

Damn! I want to leave my post to find her, but if she's around here and I do find her, she'll be upset I'm not in my position. Besides, I'm closest to the stage. If Mother is planning something on the stage with Evie, I'll be able to get to her faster than anyone else.

“She's here,” I finally say. “She has to be.”

No one answers me.

Finally, the Square dims, and the spotlights highlighting the sign focus instead on the podium. A group of ten Enforcers step onto the stage. They line up next to the podium, five on each side. My eyes scan them quickly, trying to see any differences in their stature or stance. Anything. But there's nothing.

Shit!
I scream in my head as my heart shatters and the hole it leaves in my chest threatens to suck me in.

“She didn't do it. She couldn't pull it off,” Eli says, and along with the pain I hear in his voice there's also something like disappointment.

“We don't know that,” I say. “Enforcers are trained not to show anything. We must continue with the plan as if nothing is wrong. Even if Evie is…” I can't force myself to say dead. “… gone. We have to finish what she started. For her. So that her sacrifice isn't in vain. That's what she'd want.”

I shove my own pain down. I'll deal with it later. I have to finish this for her. I do another skim of the crowd around me to see if I can see any other Enforcers.

“I can't see any more Enforcers than those on the stage,” Asher says just as I'm thinking it. “The infrared doesn't show anyone in the shadows and unless she's got more hidden somewhere with her … Eli?”

“No, Mother's placed everyone she has left on the stage with her,” Eli says.

“She's scared,” Evangeline says and I can hear the smile in her voice. “She's never had more than two on stage with her. The rest circulate through the crowd.”

She says it like it's a good thing, but I know better. “She may be scared, but she's still being careful. A scared animal can be even more dangerous than a confident one.”

The mumbles in the crowd quiet slightly as Mother takes the stage. She's wearing a red suit. The color of power. Of blood. Of death. It's not a good sign. But I try not to let it get to me. It's probably just a show. Like how an animal tries to make itself look bigger to scare things away.

As soon as Mother takes her place behind the podium, the crowd starts shouting at her. Every once in a while I can make out the chant of “Evie lives,” but mostly it's just a mess of voices tangling in and around each other.