I swallowed hard.
“Are you ready?” he asked. His eyes fell to me again. His words were heavy and full of meaning.
It took me a moment to reply, because I wasn’t sure how to answer. I hadn’t really allowed myself to picture what life would be like if this did work. I had become depressed months before, when I had felt like I had no purpose because we had no Bane to fight off in this city.
Soon, that’s how the entire planet would be.
This would be different though. If it worked.
“Let’s hope so,” I replied.
THIRTY-ONE
SIXTEEN HOURS UNTIL SET OFF
There were less than twenty-four hours until we knew if we were going to live or die.
Some people celebrated. They laughed and spoke loudly and dared to discuss how they would live their lives tomorrow and the next day and the next.
Some people sat in the background, staring blankly ahead, too overwhelmed to think about the future when there might not be one.
Others went to bed to stare restlessly at the ceiling above them, afraid of the too hopeful dreams or the too near future nightmares that were sure to haunt them.
Twenty-two men, women, and teenagers went back outside for the night guard. Royce was among them, now finished with the device. So were West and Vee.
I sat in a chair in the middle of the lobby, facing the front doors that were blocked off with reinforced steel. I could hear voices just outside them, speaking harshly and loud. Every once in a while I would hear a gun fire.
Avian paced the space before me, gently bouncing Creed, who lay wrapped up in a blanket against his chest.
Lin sat next to me, a stack of magazines sitting in her lap.
“I think this style would look really flattering on you,” she rambled, holding a magazine in front of me. I didn’t bother to look down at the bridal pictures she was trying to distract me with. “But then again, you might be too tall to pull off that look.”
She shuffled a few more pages and then I heard her drop that magazine to the floor and pick up another. “Ooo,” she said. I could tell her eyes had widened without even looking at her. “Look at this cake! Doesn’t that look amazing?”
But I couldn’t make myself look at the amazing cake. I could only look at the steel doors and imagine what must be going on out there.
So far, in the last three hours since security detail had switched, I’d heard no fewer than eighteen gun shots and one blast from the southern tank.
And it was barely midnight.
Another shot was fired and Creed burst into hysterical cries. Avian adjusted his hold on her, placing her against his chest and increasing the depth of his bounce. He did manage to drag my eyes away from the door for a moment.
But they snapped back when three more shots were fired. Two people shouted and then I heard the tank fire.
Creed wailed harder.
Lin put her hands over her ears and twitched into a ball for a moment as another blast went off.
“It sounds awful out there,” she said. She looked up, slowly relaxing back into a sitting position. Her expression showed her fear openly. Tristan was out there.
The shooting ceased, but Creed didn’t stop crying. Avian patted her back and spoke soothing words to her. She continued to scream.
Springing to my feet, I crossed the lobby and took her from Avian. He looked up at me with slightly surprised eyes but handed her over, her blankets coming unwrapped from her tiny body. I don’t think he thought anything could pull me from my anxious zoning in.
I had worn a low cut shirt that day, exposing much of my chest. It was loose fitting and comfortable. Creed’s wrinkly cheek met the skin of my chest and her cries calmed to a small whimper. She kicked one of her feet and turned her head so the opposite cheek touched me. She calmed. Her left fist came up to her mouth and she started sucking it happily.
“Wow,” Lin said, standing and walking over to us. “You sure have the magic baby touch.” She reached out to brush her finger against Creed’s other cheek. Creed twitched against the unexpected touch and pushed her face into my chest.
“Eve’s always been the one who could calm Creed down,” Avian said, looking at the both of us with love radiating off of him. I actually managed to smile a bit. “I think she somehow understands that they are alike.”
“Once you two are married, you’ll have a proper little family here,” Lin said, placing her hand on Creed’s back. It covered it completely.
“I don’t know about that,” I said, resting my cheek on the top of her head carefully. I spotted one of the families from the Underground watching me. Their eyes were wary, but not hostile. Things between the two colonies were still uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t really call them tense any longer. “I will always be here for her, but I don’t know that I can be her mother.”
“Well,” Lin said, her voice growing quiet. “She’ll never be lacking for love.”
“Never,” Avian and I both said at the same time.
THIRTY-TWO
FOUR HOURS UNTIL SET OFF
My eyes slid open to see the light gray tiles of the ceiling above me and instantly everything felt different.
Every breath I’d taken the last nineteen years, every gunshot I’d fired, every seed I’d planted, and every scrape that had drawn blood led up to this single day.
The day everyone thought I would save the world.
I sat up and looked around the lobby. Sometime during the sixth longest night of my life, I’d fallen asleep. I lay on the floor, my jacket wadded up under my head. I spotted Avian sleeping in a chair not far away. His head was tipped back, his mouth slightly open. Creed lay on his chest, fast asleep as well.
Lin was asleep on the floor, not far from me. Her cheek rested on her stack of bridal magazines. Her neck was kinked, causing her to snore softly.
Just as I was quietly climbing to my feet, the steel doors burst open and people stumbled through them. Graye and Tristan supported one of our soldiers, Lex. He coughed violently and there were bruise marks already forming around his throat.
I didn’t even have to ask what happened as the three of them dashed for the stairs and headed for the blue floor.
A woman I knew to be Lex’s wife came running down the hall, a young boy on her hip.
“Lex?” she cried frantically. “No, this can’t be happening. Not now!” She scrambled up the stairs after her husband.
But Jeb was already in the Extractor. In a race to get the cybernetic scraps out of him before I killed all of TorBane off.
Avian and Lin had been startled awake by this point and Creed started crying again. I took her from Avian as he asked the returning soldiers what happened.
“There were probably fifty of them,” Bill said. A heavy sheen of sweat covered his skin and there was a gash above his right eye. He wasn’t the only one who looked injured. “They started throwing explosives at our line. Most everyone made it okay, but three of them broke through the perimeter. Lex was attacked in the process. They got him.”
“There’s already someone in the Extractor,” I stated.
Bill nodded, his face grim.
“It’s early,” Avian said. “He hasn’t been infected long. If we get the Nova set off soon enough, there’s a chance he might survive the TorBane in his system being killed off.”
I nodded, but knew the chances were very slim.
“Is the perimeter contained?” I asked, my brows furrowing together as I held Creed a little tighter to my chest.
Bill’s eyes fell and he shook his head. “Graye and Royce ordered everyone back inside the hospital. Dr. Beeson’s turning the wireless transmission system on full blast.”
“How many of them are coming would you guess?” Avian asked as a second wave of soldiers came in before the steel doors slid closed again.
“There will be hundreds of them outside our doors by noon,” he said. “At least.”
I looked and saw Vee walking towards us slowly.
West had an arm draped over her shoulders and he limped heavily. Avian and I rushed over.
“I’ll be…” West trailed off, his face exhausted and slightly delirious sounding. “Fine. I’ll be just fine, before anyone freaks out.”
“He’s been cut,” Vee said. I saw something stirring behind her eyes. Panic. Fear. Her emotions were begging to be let loose. “A window exploded when one of the grenades went off and he was caught by the shrapnel.”
Avian bent and pulled up West’s shredded and bloodied pant leg. His calf down to his ankle was a ragged mess. There were large chunks of glass embedded into his skin.
“Let’s get you to the medical wing,” Avian said, looping West’s other arm around his shoulders. We slowly made our way down the hall.
“This is it,” West huffed as he attempted to walk. He left a solid trail of blood on the floor behind him. “If this doesn’t work today, we really are done for. That isn’t exactly a Bane sweep out there, but they’re coming faster than we can wipe them out.”
“They’re being smart about their attacks too,” Vee said. “They’re using vehicles, trying to sneak around us. Using weapons.”
We stepped into a room and Avian eased West down onto a bed. West leaned back and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. He hissed in pain as Avian cut away the rest of his pant leg. “This isn’t like before,” he said, looking up at the ceiling while Avian started picking shards of glass from his leg. “When Royce and everyone holed up inside the hospital. They’re too Evolved now for steel doors to keep them out. They’ll come at us with bombs and go straight through the concrete walls.”
So this was the point where we couldn’t fight them off anymore.
It was time to kill them off or be killed.
“Vee,” Avian said as he pulled the last of the glass from West’s leg. “Can you hand me a suture kit from that drawer?”
She turned and rummaged through the drawer. Avian set to cleaning the wound with alcohol. West screamed, his entire body locking up.
Creed screamed too, and I stepped out into the hall. Royce and Lin came hurrying down it.
“We need you, now,” Royce said. Behind him stood Bill, Elijah, who limped along, and Tristan. Lin rushed forward and took Creed.
“What’s going on?” I asked. I glanced back at Avian nervously. He was stitching West’s leg up. West’s jaw was clenched tight, his entire body stiff from the pain.
“We need to set this thing off the instant it’s charged,” Royce said, handing me an assault rifle. “Since the Nova is five blocks away and how many Bane are closing in, I thought it best to head out right now. Dr. Beeson will take care of things here with Graye and Gabriel’s help. Addie’s coming with us. But you need to come now. Dr. Evans is already there getting things set up.”
I let out a slow breath and turned back toward the room. Everyone was looking at us.
This was it. It was time to see if we could save the world.
“That’s going to have to do for now,” Avian said, clipping off the ends of the threads. “Lin, could you call for Dr. Sun to finish cleaning him up?”
“Of course,” she replied.
West hissed and pulled himself up into a sitting position. Avian took the rifle Bill handed to him as he stepped out of the room.
“Give Creed to Vee,” Royce said, looking at Lin. Vee looked nervous about holding Creed, but took her with careful hands. “I’m going to need everyone else ready to help get us to the transmitter.”
“Wait,” West said, attempting to stand from his bed. “I’m coming too.”
“You can’t walk,” Vee protested, taking a step back toward him. “You’re still bleeding.”
“Sorry,” I said, meeting his eyes. “Not this time.”
He met my eyes and all our history squeezed at my insides. The lies, the passion, the hurt, and the pain. And the friendship that had finally replaced it all. “I’ll see you on the other side of the apocalypse.”
It took him a moment to nod, his eyes seeming to study my face. “See you on the other side.”
“Let’s move,” Royce said.
The crowd that had started gathering in the hall behind us, parted. None of them said anything as we made our way to the front doors. But every one of them held their hands over their hearts and then raised their fingers up in salute.
I could feel their gazes as we passed them. They didn’t know if we could do this. They knew the consequences if we failed. But they were looking at me with hope.
Searching for Avian’s hand, I slipped my fingers into his and held tight.
When we approached the front doors, Royce nodded to a woman off to the side, and the doors ground open.
The air outside was perfectly still after all the chaos that had taken place. The sun shone brightly and I could see little particles of dust floating in the air. The scent of gunpowder hung heavy over the city.
There were at least twenty Bane standing just outside the door. They all stood in a semi-circle, staring directly at me.
Royce stepped out first, his rifle held up to his eyes, ready. Bill followed. I stepped outside, my chin held high.
“Go find the others,” I said. “Don’t leave any of them alive.”
They each turned and darted out into the city.
We headed west, toward the building that had the Nova. The streets were suddenly alive with noise as those I had commanded started destroying those who rushed us.
Just let us get to the building, I thought. Just clear the way.
There was a screech from up above, and I looked to see Bird circling us, calling as if in a war cry.
We had gone half a block when a batch of three Bane stepped from their hiding places.
They approached slowly, their eyes intently fixed on me. Two more came up from ahead of us.
“You got this?” Royce said quietly, his rifle pointed at the ones before us.
I nodded, even though he wasn’t facing me. “I’ll keep them away from us.”
“Just one more block,” Royce said, picking up the pace.
Six more came out of their hiding places. Soon they had formed an oval around us, walking alongside us, staring intently at me. They kept a distance of ten feet from us on all sides. Just outside our perimeter, I saw another of the Bane I had commanded, rip the head off another. It collapsed into a heap. My soldier darted away to look for another Bane to destroy.
Finally, we got to the building. Royce pulled the door open, and held it for the rest of us.
“You will stay here,” I said, addressing the Bane that surrounded us. They all froze on the spot. “You will not move from this spot. Ever.”
They stood still as the buildings around them.
I wanted them to stay here because if we managed to make the Nova go off, I wanted to immediately see if it worked.
“Keep moving,” Royce said, waving us forward with his hand. Vee and Creed ducked inside, followed by Addie, Bill, then Avian, then myself. Royce and Elijah took up the rear.
“We’ve got one more hour until the batteries are fully charged,” Royce said as we climbed stairs. “But I’m hoping by the time we get up there, Dr. Evans will give us the go ahead to set the blasted thing off. I don’t want to wait one second longer than we have to.”
All the full humans were sweating by the time we reached the door to the roof. They breathed hard but I knew it wasn’t just the steep climb that had them huffing.
This anticipation could kill a person.
Vee stepped aside, letting me do the honors of opening the door.
Placing my hand on the cold metal push handle, I leaned my weight into it, and stepped out into the sun.
THIRTY-THREE
LESS THAN ONE HOUR UNTIL SET OFF
Dr. Evans stood on the edge of the roof, staring out into the distance. The wind blew around him, hitting me in the face with an arctic blast. Too afraid to call out, too unable to break the sacred silence of what was before us, I crossed the roof and joine
d him.
I knew what it was Dr. Evans was staring at the moment I saw it. It was far off, far enough out that it was simply a landscape of dark color that moved in a way that was almost imperceptible. But it steadily progressed from the east to the west.
A Bane sweep.
They consumed the buildings before them like a swarm. Explosions lit up the early afternoon sky. Grey dust filled the air.
They had to be less than five miles out.
All ten of us lined the roof of the building, looking out at it. Avian’s hand slipped into mine and squeezed tight. To my right, Royce’s hand gripped my other.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
I could feel this wave surging upon us and the breath within me was being drawn out. The wave would crush down upon me before I would have the chance to draw another in.
This was it.
None of us had to say it, but everyone shared the universal thought.
All those creatures that were rushing toward our city to tear it apart had been people once. They’d been wives and fathers; they’d been students and workers. Billions of normal people living normal lives. They’d felt anger, sorrow, joy, love.
For a moment, I felt sorry that I was about to end what remained of their lives.
I was about to kill off seven billion former people.
I opened my eyes again and a single tear leaked down my cheek.
But now they didn’t feel anything but the drive to spread TorBane.
“Can we set it off now?” Avian asked. His voice was filled with emotion and determination.
Dr. Evans didn’t answer and his silence was like being hit in the face with cold water. We all turned and looked at him.
He stared out over the cityscape. His eyes were open and blank and he stood completely motionless.
Avian, Bill, Elijah, and Tristan backed away automatically, drawing their weapons. Royce stayed put and swore under his breath, drawing his own rifle. Addie just stood there frozen.
“Dr. Evans?” I said, stepping toward him.
He still didn’t respond.