The Death Code

  I long for revenge.

  Finally, the door to the room opens.

  A woman dressed in Initiative black marches in.

  CHAPTER 70

  ZEPHYR

  The woman looks strong and courageous, which isn’t a good sign.

  She’s got an angular face, her dark hair pulled back so tight I’m surprised it doesn’t rip from her scalp. She looks at us with so much disgust that I know instantly we’re all fluxed.

  She marches in with two armed Leeches at her sides. One of them pulls up a chair for her, swings it around so it’s facing the cage.

  The woman sits.

  “I am Doctor Jameson,” the woman says. “The head scientist in charge here, at the Ridge.”

  Meadow is still weak beside me. She slumps her head against the bars so she can see the doctor.

  Sketch just rolls her eyes, like she’s sick of hearing the woman after only a few words.

  “Normally, I would kill anyone on sight, for brutally murdering twenty-three of my soldiers, injuring seven others, and destroying years of work in some of my labs. Years,” Jameson hisses. She crosses her legs, sits straight up in the chair. “But you three don’t deserve death. It’s too quick. Too final.” She looks at us with so much hatred I swear she’s going to burst. “I know where you came from, and I know exactly who you are.”

  “So ship us back to the Shallows already,” Sketch says. “We all know that’s what you’re going to do.”

  Jameson narrows her eyes. “Did you think you could simply come in here, destroy us all, and walk out with your lives? What are you really here for?”

  I don’t say a word. Sketch just groans and looks away.

  It’s Meadow who speaks. “We came to ruin you,” she whispers. “Just like we ruined the Shallows.”

  Jameson’s dark eyes meet Meadow’s light ones. Together they’re two hot flames, out for someone or something to burn.

  “The Shallows still stands, despite the death of Lark Woodson and the Commander.” She nods at Meadow. “You are the precious daughter she spoke so highly of when we were in training together. If I didn’t support her cause, I’d already have carved you from ear to ear.”

  Meadow laughs. “You and I both know you can’t hurt me.”

  “No,” Jameson says. “But I can hurt your friends.”

  “I’ve already been through this, back in the Shallows. Hurt them, hurt me. It’s a waste of time. Send us back home and move on with your life.”

  Jameson stands, paces back and forth. “I would love to send you home,” she says. “Especially because you escaped.” She stoops to one knee in front of our cage. She’s so close I can see the muted brown flecks in her green eyes. “No one escapes the Initiative.”

  Sketch spits at her, then laughs. “We did.”

  Jameson wipes her face. Then she pulls out her pistol and levels it at Sketch’s head.

  Suddenly the soldiers rush forward, but Jameson screams an order. They freeze.

  “The new Commander has ordered that I send you into the Ridge,” Jameson says.

  The new Commander?

  I hope it’s Rhone. I hope he took control, like he said he would. I hope Dex is there beside him, singing her crazy songs, giggling like the beautiful maniac she is.

  “The new Commander is a fool.” Jameson’s eyes go to Meadow. “If you die in there, imagine the waste. I should take out your brain now. I should start my own testing site and use you as my prototype.” She growls, runs a hand across her face. “You have put holes in our system. You have ruined the order we worked so hard to gain. Don’t you understand? We’re trying to fix the world. And you’re working against us, to break it all over again!”

  She throws back her head and screams.

  “Doctor.” One of the soldiers steps forward, reaches a hand out to her, but she turns and shoots him. I hear his head smack the concrete with a wet squelch of blood and brains.

  She turns back to us and kneels, close enough to look Meadow eye to eye. “You were never meant to escape the Shallows.”

  Blood drips from Meadow’s nose. She’s too weak to move to wipe it away.

  “You’re dying,” Jameson says. “Aren’t you?”

  Meadow glares at her.

  Blood drops. Splatters on the cold floor.

  The doctor’s lip curls in disgust. “What a waste.”

  She stands, moves for the door.

  “I do hope you enjoy the Ridge. This time, there is no escape. And what you’ll find inside, I can assure you, is worse than death. I’d put the new Commander in there myself, if I could.”

  She marches from the room, slamming the door behind her.

  CHAPTER 71

  MEADOW

  I’m young.

  Lying on the bow of the boat beside my mother, the first few weeks we had it.

  It’s nighttime. The stars are out, and we’re staring at the sky, counting the constellations. It amazes me how vast the sky is, even when the world feels so impossibly small.

  I close my eyes. Begin to drift away.

  I hear my mother’s voice whispering, whispering.

  “I’m sorry,” she says, “for what I’ve done.”

  It’s a dream, only a dream, and I am too young to understand.

  “I will always give you a way out,” she says. “Maybe someday, you’ll make the choice to die.”

  I am nearly gone.

  “If you leave here,” she whispers, “it will happen. My gift to you, Meadow.”

  I feel her lips touch my forehead.

  Then my dreams whisk me away, beneath the sky and the stars.

  PART THREE

  THE RIDGE

  CHAPTER 72

  ZEPHYR

  Morning comes like a strike of lightning.

  Too fast, and impossible to avoid.

  We march down the valley behind the Leech building, skidding on loose gravel and stones, patches of grass.

  Every step gets us closer to the Ridge.

  Every second gets Meadow nearer to finding her family.

  We’re almost to the edge of the Ridge when the Night Siren goes off, even though it’s morning. But the sound is still the same. It’s like the wailing has come right out of my memories, piercing my ears, stabbing my heart.

  Meadow stumbles and drops to her knees.

  The Leech guards laugh and kick her.

  “Get up,” they say. “Move.”

  She’s too weak.

  Seeing her there, broken on the ground, almost breaks me. But then she looks up, and instead of fear or sadness in her eyes, there’s the promise of death.

  “You’re all bastards,” Sketch says. “You know that, right? Come on, Woodson.”

  She helps Meadow up. We put her in between us and practically carry her the rest of the way down the hill.

  “I don’t need help,” Meadow says, but it comes out like a gasp. “If I had my weapons . . .”

  Her eyes flick toward me just for a second. “You’ll switch again soon,” I whisper. “Then you won’t need your weapons.”

  “How long before the switch kills me for good?” she asks. “How long before I’m dead?”

  “Don’t think like that,” I say. “We’ll figure it out.”

  She nods, grits her teeth, and fights like hell to stay on her feet.

  From here, I can finally see the Ridge in detail. A giant dome, towering over the world, at least twelve stories high. Probably impossible to break. From here it looks like the top is a thick web of titanium, with just enough spaces to let the sun and rain break through.

  There’s an outer gate surrounding the dome.

  A Perimeter, almost identical to the one in the Shallows. Only this one has coils and loops of barbed wire across the top.

  Beyond it all, the mountains look like monsters. They stretch as high as I can see, and somewhere, I can hear roaring water. Almost like the mountains have a voice, and they’re warning us.

  Stay away.

  There are
others, making their way from the trees at the base of the valley, heading toward the Ridge, escorted by Leeches. They’re chained, like us. Looking scared as hell as the Leeches shove them along, force them to march toward the Perimeter.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I whisper to Meadow and Sketch.

  They don’t answer. I look up at the Perimeter. Another world full of walls and lies, and whatever else waits for us inside.

  I wonder why I ever thought to say it would be okay at all.

  CHAPTER 73

  MEADOW

  We are separated once we get close. Boys left, girls right.

  It is like a flashback to the day I got my job as a rations worker.

  Two lines. One place to go.

  Last time, I was in line to save my family from starvation. This time, I am in line to save them from death.

  “Meadow, look at this place,” Sketch hisses. I hang on to her, and she holds me up, gasping. She’s exhausted, and I am sapping her strength just to stay upright. I grit my teeth, try to force the switch to come, but I can’t reach it, don’t think it is possible. My body is beyond my control. “There are Leeches, everywhere.”

  I look up at the top of the black gates that surround the opening. On either side, stationed with guns, are Initiative guards, watching our every move. They march back and forth, probably on a platform behind the barbed wire.

  There are also Cams that rise from behind the wall, buzzing about.

  Why do they need an extra wall outside of the dome? The New Militia will never be able to get us out of here. Even if I send the signal, they could still fail.

  One of the Cams dives low, swoops toward us. My instincts tell me to turn my face. Look away. But I force myself to stare.

  The line moves slowly forward, and I get a closer look at the entrance.

  There are two doorways. One with a male symbol, the other with female, embedded on the front.

  There are guards manning the doorways, and a HoloScreen that hangs in between. A woman appears on-screen. She flickers, pale cheeks and white hair. I notice that, like the Initiative guards holding us, she does not have a Catalogue Number. “Males to the left, females to the right.” She smiles, waves her hands out to both directions. Like we should be pleased to be here.

  A boy in shredded clothing stumbles toward the left door. It slides open for him, and he disappears into darkness. The door slides shut. I think I hear him scream, from inside. But maybe it is only my imagination, my fear coming forth in the shadow of this new place. Zephyr is close to the front of the line. He looks at me.

  For a moment, I remember the boy he once was, the very first time that I saw him. He was lying broken in a puddle of tears on the floor of the Catalogue Dome.

  It would have been easier if we’d never met, if I hadn’t placed those crushed white flowers by his side.

  But then he nods at me, and his emerald eyes are strong and steady. And I know that without him, I would never have made it here.

  Without Zephyr, and Sketch, I would still be on my own.

  I’m angry at him. A part of me craves his touch, while the other hates him with a fire that cannot easily be extinguished.

  He murdered me, my mother’s voice says, in my head. I flinch, shove her ghost away. Focus on what is more important.

  Sketch is the first to enter. “You’d better bring that strength back soon, Woodson, because something tells me once we get in there, we’re going to need you,” she says with a wink. But she looks sad, and I know she’s thinking about what we all know to be true. That I’m dying. I’m actually dying. “See you on the other side.”

  Males to the left, females to the right.

  She steps in. The door slides closed. When it opens, only seventy-two seconds later, there is an empty space, a tiny room large enough for one person to stand inside.

  The HoloWoman speaks, waves her hands wide.

  I step inside, and I am alone.

  CHAPTER 74

  ZEPHYR

  I step into the box.

  The door slides shut behind me, and my heart hammers like crazy in my chest.

  There’s a voice that comes from the walls, the same one as that pale lady whose Holo was out front. “Please place your left wrist into the designated slot.”

  A hole in the wall glows red. I stick my hand inside and wait.

  “It is highly advisable not to move.”

  There are three quick beeps. I feel something solid and heavy snap over my wrist.

  “Commence Cataloguing,” the voice says.

  There’s a whirr, and a pinch of pain, like someone’s sliced me with a knife.

  “Citizen Red. Number P375320. Blood Level—Clean. Please repeat your designated number.”

  I repeat the number, get it wrong, and have to do it again.

  Then, finally, there’s a hiss, as the door in front of me starts to open. I pull out my wrist, see the bloodred metal cuff locked around it, the numbers P375320 inscribed into the metal. There’s a small screen on the center of it. A letter C appears on it, in bright red.

  “Citizen Red, P375320. Operation: The Death Code. Trial Stage: 17.” Her voice is happy. Sugary sweet, like Lark’s. My cuff blinks bright red, then goes dark again. “The Initiative thanks you for your service. Welcome to the Ridge.”

  A rush of cold air. I take a step out, blinking, as the cold and daylight settle back over me. The door slides shut behind me, locking me in.

  And then I get a look at the Ridge, for the very first time.

  CHAPTER 75

  MEADOW

  My strength comes back to me in one solid burst.

  I gasp, feel my limbs tingling as energy spills into them. My head stops spinning. My vision gets clearer, and I feel as if I could run a hundred miles, fight a thousand enemies.

  The door to the Ridge slides open.

  Trees, all around me, as far as I can see.

  A forest.

  Something about this forest feels different from the palms that lined the beach in the Shallows. There, death was around each corner, its whisper calling to me as I made my way into the city.

  But here, everything feels like it is alive. I get the shivery feeling that I am being watched. I wheel around, looking overhead and behind me. There is no one here, just me and the trees, Sketch and Zephyr standing in front of me, staring at this new world. I force myself to relax. To think.

  I expected a city. Destruction. Initiative guards, ushering us inside, rifles in our faces.

  This is different.

  This gives me the illusion of freedom, and that unsettles me the most.

  I turn in circles. Behind us, the wall towers like a dark demon, its arms spreading far and wide. I look up, and instead of sky, I see only metal. Solid and impenetrable.

  We’ve come in.

  There is no going back out.

  I look down at the red cuff locked on my wrist, the letter C a bright, blood red on its screen. Sketch’s and Zephyr’s are the same.

  “I’m guessing you both heard the message?” I ask.

  Zephyr nods. “The Death Code. What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means what the General told us it means,” Sketch says, with a hiss. “It means they’re going to try to find a way to kill us, without putting their hands on us at all.” She nods at me. “You look better. Back to the old Meadow again?”

  “No,” I say. “The new Meadow. The old one died a long time ago.”

  The door in the wall behind us opens. A girl with a yellow cuff steps into the woods. I see the same letter C on her screen.

  “Hey!” Sketch says.

  The girl spins. Her eyes widen when she sees us, and she turns and runs, fading into the trees.

  “Fine, run away!” Sketch yells after the girl. She turns to me. “We didn’t want her anyways. Idiot.”

  A shrill cry sounds from above. I duck down to the ground on instinct and reach for the dagger at my thigh that is no longer there.

  Zephyr sighs. ??
?Meadow. It’s okay. Look.”

  He points up at the trees over our heads. Perched atop a branch is a large brown bird, staring down at us with one beady green eye.

  The bird opens its mouth once and makes a strange clipped sound, then pushes off the tree branch. Its long wings make huge strokes as it disappears into the forest. I watch in awe for a while, desperately wishing I had wings like that bird.

  I could soar high.

  See my family from above. Find a way to give the New Militia the signal that much faster and get us all away from here.

  “We should move,” I say. “Find out where everyone is.”

  “And water,” Zephyr says. “I’m dried up like a corpse.”

  “Really?” Sketch groans, clutching her stomach. “You’re disgusting, Zero.”

  I forge ahead, leaving them to follow.

  They argue like children.

  We walk for a while, weaving through the forest. Every so often, I stop, listen for noises in the woods. There are voices, far off. I think I hear the trickle of running water, but I can’t see it.

  The world is one shade, and my eyes hurt from all of the green. “We have to find weapons.”

  Zephyr and Sketch are shoving each other like kids. She pushes him against a tree, and he tackles her to the ground, cursing while she laughs. It reminds me of Koi and me, fighting on the houseboat, tackling each other overboard into the waves. It reminds me of Peri, how I used to tickle her above her hips, and her bright laughter shattered the darkness of night.

  The memories bring on the pain, and suddenly I have to get away, do something productive, before I lose myself to the madness of missing them.

  I pick the tallest tree and climb. Branch over branch, hands and feet on solid bark, until I’m at the highest point before the tree threatens to bend.

  The forest around me is endless. Trees stretch on for as far as I can see, a line of green and brown like sturdy Initiative guards placed throughout the forest. A thin ribbon of silver snakes its way through them.