He got out of the car. Marissa and a guy I hadn’t seen before were striding from the main building toward us.
“I can see you’re a smart young woman,” Michael said to me. “I’m hoping you’ll make a smart decision.”
Then Marissa was snapping the cuffs around my wrists, and Michael stalked off toward the building without looking back.
When Marissa hustled me back to the jail cells, Leo, Justin, and Anika were already there, in approximately the same spots as before.
“Are you okay?” I asked as soon as Marissa had ambled off, keeping my voice low. “What did they do to you?”
“Just talked,” Leo said quietly. “Brought us into a room with Michael, he asked a bunch of questions, and then they stuck us in a different room to wait.” He paused. “Mostly he asked about you.”
“We didn’t tell him anything,” Justin jumped in. He glanced toward the doorway, and dropped into a whisper. “I even managed not to tell him to go screw himself. And that was hard.”
“He’s so creepy,” Anika murmured with a shudder. “The way he just sits there with that look on his face like he doesn’t care whether you even answer him or not. Like whatever you say, he’ll just know what’s really true. Now I get why everyone in Toronto talked like he might be listening over their shoulder.”
Michael couldn’t read minds, but he’d known enough. I remembered what he’d said at the lab—There is no puzzle. You know where everything is—and had to suppress a shudder of my own.
“What happened to you, Kae?” Leo asked. “It looked like they were giving us all the same treatment, one by one, but when they finished with Anika, they brought the three of us back here together, and you were gone. For a while.”
“He drove me to a lab he’s set up,” I said, sitting on the floor. “To try to convince me that we should hand over the vaccine.” I didn’t want to mention why he’d focused on me. If he was sure I had all the information he needed, that meant the three of them would be expendable in his eyes, didn’t it? Was that how he’d try to get to me: by hurting them, punishing my silence with their pain? I pulled my knees up to my chest, hugging them with my free arm.
“Did he say anything about what he’s going to do next?” Anika said.
“Only that he’d come back tomorrow,” I said. “I don’t know what’ll happen then.”
He could change his mind and show up earlier, but I didn’t think he would. I got the feeling he made a point of keeping his word.
We lapsed into an uneasy silence. The guards outside changed, and then changed again. Anika called to them, cajoling them for more water, but they didn’t even acknowledge her. She slumped back against the wall.
Michael had told them to ignore us, I guessed. To remind us that he had complete control over us now, down to whether we ate or drank. The morning’s stale cracker breakfast felt like it’d been years ago. My thoughts kept creeping to the glimpse of the kitchen I’d gotten upstairs, the salty smell in the air. The gnawing in my stomach expanded into a steady ache. My mouth felt grittier every time I swallowed.
We each drifted off for moments here and there, exhausted after the tense and uncomfortable night. Once, I woke from hazy sleep at the sound of footsteps, and my mind immediately leapt to, Drew! But it was only another pair of guards taking over.
The lights dimmed. Night had fallen. Our time was slipping away.
I could hardly expect Drew to come again so soon. He might never find a way to get us out. How could we possibly get the entire distance from these cells to the front gate without someone catching us?
If it really was impossible, what was left for us to do? Stay here, holding out, until…what?
Maybe Michael had been smart to let me stew this over.
“I think we should talk about our options,” I said quietly.
“What options?” Justin asked, and covered a yawn. Anika shifted around to face me.
“The options we have to choose between if we’re stuck here,” I said. “If we don’t get a chance to escape.”
On the other side of the barred wall, Leo lowered his head. “You’re not sure how long the vaccine will last, where it’s hidden,” he said. His expression was solemn. He knew where I was going with this.
“I think a few days should be all right,” I said. “But more than that…I just don’t know.”
“So we could go through hell here to save a vaccine that’ll be ruined anyway,” Anika said.
“So what?” Justin said. “There’s no way we’re giving it to these pricks. Right?”
“That’s what we have to figure out,” I said. “Wouldn’t it be better for them to have it than for no one to have it?” Especially if the lives of the three people staring at me could be on the line too. Expendable meant Michael could go as far as killing them to make me talk. I drew in a breath. “Their lab looks good. I think they could replicate the vaccine pretty quickly.”
To my surprise, it was Anika who protested first. “You know what they’d do with it? Hold it over the heads of everyone who didn’t want to join up with them, or wasn’t smart or strong enough for them to use. Like they’ve been doing with everything else they have. They’re bad enough already!”
“Would you still say that if giving it to them was the only way you’d get vaccinated?” I asked.
“I turned it down before, didn’t I?” she said. “I never let anyone push me around before the friendly flu came along, and I was a lot happier then.”
“Yeah!” Justin said, and quickly lowered his voice again. “If we give up, they’ll just keep running things; nothing’s ever going to get better. Gav and Tobias died so we could get here. We can’t let them down. Or everyone else who’s not with the Wardens.”
My throat tightened, but I managed to say, “I think we’d be letting them down more if we let the vaccine get ruined completely.”
“Kaelyn’s right,” Leo said. “It’s not that simple. I don’t want to live in a world where the Wardens decide who gets the vaccine and who doesn’t. But I don’t want to live in a world where the virus rules, either.”
Of course, even if we did manage to escape and bring the vaccine to the CDC, it’d just be a different set of people deciding for us. I trusted Dr. Guzman far more than I trusted Michael, but if she had the vaccine, that might mean condemning Samantha, and Drew, and Zack, and anyone else who’d gotten caught up in Michael’s schemes out of necessity rather than greed and cruelty.
It wasn’t simple at all.
“I don’t want to do it,” I said. “I don’t want to give up. I don’t want the Wardens having that power. But I also don’t want to be the person who stops the rest of the world from getting that vaccine, you know?” I paused, rubbing at my bleary eyes. “But we don’t have to make up our minds now.”
“Right,” Justin said. “You said we’ve got at least a couple more days. I’m ready. Let Michael bring it on.”
Michael would. That was what I was afraid of.
Leo shifted along the wall and reached between the bars to squeeze my shoulder. I leaned into his touch, taking a small comfort in the warmth of his fingers. How was I supposed to choose when the only options I could see both felt wrong?
Leo turned his hand to cup the side of my face, his thumb skimming my cheek. “We’ve made it through a lot,” he murmured. “We’ll make it through this too.”
I twined my fingers around his. In that moment, I didn’t care what this gesture meant or what the exact nature of my feelings was. I just ached to feel his arms around me. This was as close as I could get.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
We sat like that for a long time. I dozed with his breath grazing my skin, until a nightmare whirling with knives and blood and a face that shifted back and forth between Nathan’s and Michael’s jerked me awake, my nerves jangling. The jitters stayed long after the room around me had come back into focus. Letting go of Leo’s hand, I stood up and stretched my legs.
“Come on,” Anika ca
lled toward the doorway, with a hoarseness I didn’t think she was putting on. “Just a little water. Please?”
I couldn’t see the guards, but the low muttering of their voices told me they were still there. No one responded to her plea. I sat back down.
My nerves were just starting to steady when a new set of footsteps echoed down the hall.
“Time to switch off,” the newcomer said. My head jerked up at the voice. It was Drew.
“Where’s your partner?” one of the guards asked.
“He said he’d be down as soon as he’s grabbed something from the dorms,” Drew said. “We can wait if you want. But I’m pretty sure I can handle standing here by myself for a bit.”
“Well, let’s give him a minute.”
I held myself completely still, straining to hear over the thumping of my heart. The seconds ticked by, and the guard who’d spoken sighed.
“To hell with it. This has got to be about the most boring job around—you’ll survive on your own.” There was a clink as she handed off the keys. “Just make sure you call for someone if the guy who was supposed to join you doesn’t turn up soon. You’ve got a two-way, right?”
“Of course,” Drew said.
The other guards walked off. The door at the end of the hall squeaked open and shut. I got up again, stepping closer to the front of the cell, and the others roused at my reaction. Drew waited the space of two of my breaths, and then ducked into the room.
“Okay,” he said, fumbling with the keys. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“What are we doing?” I asked as he opened the cell and reached to unlock our handcuffs. “Where do we go from here?”
“Up the stairs to the left, out the door, and around this building to the right until you reach the parking lot,” Drew said. “As quickly and quietly as you can. I think I’ll be able to distract the people who’ll be watching the doors, but if anyone spots you, there’ll be trouble. I managed to pick up your radio transceiver, and a little food—stuck them in the fastest car we’ve got.”
He pressed a car key on a steel fob into my palm after releasing my wrist. “Nathan’s going to be pretty pissed.”
The image of the shiny red convertible popped into my head. It wasn’t the most discrete of vehicles, but that didn’t matter at night, and it did have quite the engine on it.
“Sweet!” Justin said. “That’ll teach him to mess with us.”
I slipped the key into my pocket. “How did you get it?”
“The cars are supposed to be shared,” Drew said as he freed Anika and then moved to the guys’ cell. “So Michael makes people leave the keys on a rack in the foyer. Nathan put word around that if anyone touched ‘his’ car he’d slice and dice them, of course, but it’s not as if you’re going to let anyone catch you.” The corner of his mouth curled with the start of a smile.
“So we have to just hope we can outdrive the others?” Leo said.
Drew shook his head. “I poured water into the gas tanks of the other cars here. That should make the engines stall—right away, or a little ways down the road. You just have to keep ahead of them long enough for it to kick in.”
My skin went cold. “They’re going to know you helped us, aren’t they? Forget Nathan—what will Michael do to you when he finds out? You have to come with us.”
“It’ll be fine,” Drew said. “I think I’ve made it look as if it’s all someone else’s fault. Except this.” He tapped the door of the cell. “So I’ll need a little help. They have to believe I just made a mistake.”
He stepped back, having released the guys, and spread his arms wide. “Take a swing at me, Leo.”
“What?” Leo said, his eyes widening.
“They’ve got to think I put up a fight,” Drew said. “Or else it’ll be obvious I was in on it. Just a couple good punches should do it. I’ll live.”
When Leo hesitated, Justin pushed in front of him. “I’ll do it,” he said brusquely. “You want it in the face, where they’ll see it?”
Drew nodded, his body tensing in anticipation of the blows. I looked away as Justin let his fist fly, cringing at the smack of knuckles against skin. Drew swayed to the side, grabbing a bar for balance.
“Good,” he said, a little roughly. “One more. How about here?” He pointed to his jaw.
After, he sank down on the floor and spat a little blood onto the concrete beside him. “Okay,” he said. “Get going. I’m going to buy you your window of opportunity now.”
“Drew…” I said. He waved me off when I stepped toward him.
“Go.”
If it had been just my life I was risking, I might have taken a second to hug him. But it was his and the others’ too. So I hurried with Leo, Justin, and Anika through the doorway and down the hall. As we left Drew behind, I heard the crackle of static as he faked a deep voice into his two-way.
“I think I saw someone running by the south fence. There they are! Can I get some backup? They’re heading east now.…”
We fled up the stairs and paused outside the first-floor hallway, but the lights there were dim, and I saw no one patrolling. We darted to the nearest exit. If Drew’s ploy hadn’t worked, if there were Wardens standing right outside, I wasn’t sure we could outrun them. Justin was still limping.
But it appeared everything was going to plan. We slipped out into the night. Somewhere beyond the neighboring building, flashlights flickered and someone shouted. I didn’t stop to listen. We hustled around the corner toward the parking lot. Justin started to drift behind, his bad leg wobbling, and Anika fell back beside him. I slowed enough so that we didn’t lose them completely.
A single pale light shone on one of the fence posts around the lot. I caught the crimson gleam of Nathan’s convertible, top up, partway down the second row. Motioning to the others, I veered toward it.
“Hey!” a voice bellowed, so close my stomach flipped over. “Stop right there—one more step and you’re dead!”
As if we wouldn’t be dead if we stayed. I bolted forward, and the others followed. Our boots thudded across the pavement, but there wasn’t any point in trying to be quiet now. The convertible was just a few car-lengths away.
I dug out the car key with shaky fingers. We could still make it.
A shot crackled through the air. Anika let out a startled gasp. I glanced back to where she was running next to Justin, who was staggering now as he tried to keep up, his face contorted. Anika had glanced back too. I saw her flinch, and then she lunged at Justin.
“No!” The word broke from my throat before I had a chance to process what was happening. The idea flashed through my mind that she was betraying us after all, using Justin to save herself. Then, as she hit him and shoved him to the side, the gun thundered again.
Justin stumbled between two cars. Anika lurched and tumbled forward. Her hands didn’t come up to break her fall. Her head hit the pavement with a sickening crack, the impact rippling through her body. And then she was still.
“Anika!” Justin yelled. A dark blotch was spreading across the back of her sweater. Her head had twisted to the side, and her eyes stared blindly. She didn’t so much as twitch. A little cry filled my throat, but in the same moment I saw the figures rushing at us from the edge of the parking lot. Justin threw himself at Anika, and I threw myself at him.
Leo met me there, the two of us grabbing Justin by the elbows. An iron taste was seeping through my mouth where I’d bitten my lip, and a sharp ache filled my chest. But the rising shouts drowned out everything else.
Anika was dead. And the rest of us would be too, if we didn’t get out of here now.
Justin stumbled with us the last few feet to the convertible. I yanked open the driver’s-side door while Leo leapt for the back. The key jarred against the ignition and then slid in. I took a quick glance around to make sure Leo and Justin were inside, and then I pressed my foot to the gas.
Nathan obviously knew how to pick a car. The engine responded instantly. The convertibl
e roared forward, swerving around the other cars as I jerked the steering wheel. We had only a twenty-foot run down the drive to the locked gate.
A Warden stood on the other side of the gate, raising a gun. Drew hadn’t said anything about this part of our escape, but I couldn’t stop. So I jammed my foot down harder. The engine thrummed, and the car ripped over the pavement toward that narrow chain-link square.
I tensed, fighting the urge to close my eyes, as we barreled straight into the gate. The convertible’s hood crashed into the metal links, and the gate’s hinges wrenched open with a shriek. The guard on the other side dove out of the way, his shot going wild. The gate clattered against the concrete curb, and we were out, tearing down the road.
The lights of the training center fell away behind us. I became aware of the raspy hitching of my breath, the sweat that was now cooling on my arms and neck. I wiped my damp bangs away from my face.
In the back, Justin was staring out the window, moisture glinting in his eyes. Leo leaned against the front passenger seat.
“You know the way back to the house?” he asked softly.
“I think so.” I tried to dredge up my memories of the drive here in the back of the station wagon, and my thoughts blurred together. I was hungry and dehydrated and sleep deprived, running mostly on adrenaline. And a cool haze of shock was creeping over me. The image of Anika hitting the ground flitted through my mind. I clenched my jaw against a sudden rush of nausea.
She’d been one of us, in the end. A real part of our makeshift family. And I hadn’t protected her any better than I had Gav or Tobias.
I’d done even worse by her. Right up until the last moment, I hadn’t totally trusted her not to give us up somehow, whether strategically or out of weakness. And then she’d sacrificed herself for us, for Justin.
Maybe she’d seen that niggling uncertainty in me. Maybe I’d made her feel she hadn’t done enough after all, like she still had to prove her loyalty. Would she have been so quick to throw herself in front of a bullet if she’d really felt accepted in our group?
I couldn’t ask her now. I’d been so incredibly wrong, and there was no way I could ever tell her that. All I’d done for her was leave her body to the Wardens—the people she hated the most.