Chapter 31 #2
Having a mental breakdown and spending the last three months living as the twin sister that I lost in a traumatic flaming… that would definitely qualify.
I’m not better. I don’t know if I ever will be.
In this fucked-up world we live in, there’s a chance that I’ll forever carry that baggage, the same way I toted a backpack and sleeping bag all over New Jersey.
In the before times, I was going to school to eventually become a psychiatrist. I know better than anyone how fragile a mind can be.
Which is why I let Maverick have his space. Whatever the Doctor did had to have been as bad as what he put me through… I’m almost positive of that. He suffered, and he did that so I at least had one last moment with Chase.
He’s still with me. I know we both expected that one of the goons would tell him it was his turn to be taken to the Doctor. Only… that’s not what happened. Once Maverick was brought back, they left the three of us alone.
Who knows? It’s getting late, and though there aren’t any windows, I’ve gotten used to the rhythm of my body’s internal clock.
If it’s not dark out yet, it will be soon, and I can only imagine that asshole of a Doctor and his creepy team taking a break out of torturing their “subjects” to have a quick dinner.
I don’t care. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have left with Chase.
Already, it seems like I lost so much of it.
Now that I know exactly who I am, it’s like we have a second lease on life together.
I need him so badly that the idea of watching him walk out the door with one of those agents… I cling to him.
No one comes back. On the one hand, that means they don’t even bring us anything to eat or drink.
We can sip water from the sink in our cell, but I’m sure the guys are hungry by now.
Me? I’m so anxious, my stomach is twisting.
I never thought I’d miss the way that the lurkers make me feel sick when they’re near, but this is so much fucking worse. I don’t know if I’ll ever eat again.
As I curl up next to Chase, I think about the sensing ability that I took for granted. It never triggered when I was around Maverick. It’s the same with everyone we’ve come across in the NRI. They all took the Injection, but because they didn’t Turn, I don’t think of them as a threat.
Great job, Hallie. I can handle lurkers. I’ve proved myself even as I pretended to be Xandra. The Doctor and his goons? I’m in way more danger than I’ve ever been.
And I’m thinking that as the front door to the cell eases inward and another agent steps into the room.
Same dark suit. Same grey tie. Same black glasses… at first glance, it seems like another one of the same agents, only with one noticeable difference: it’s a woman agent.
She’s shorter than any of the others with a thick, curvy build and her dark hair slicked back in a bun even tighter than Elissa’s. She walks like she has a pole up her back, and she turns her shielded gaze on each of us in turn.
She looks familiar. Weird that I think that. I’m pretty sure that Maverick is the first almost-lurker I’ve ever met, but as I stare at her… my jaw drops.
I know exactly who she is.
Veronica. What the hell is Veronica doing here?
The flirty rogue that disappeared into the woods with Maverick before heading off on her own… it’s her. I know it’s her.
What the fuck is going on here?
Well. At least I finally know why Veronica teased me when I asked her why she wore sunglasses. I thought they were blue, but if her eyes are black like Winston’s… like Mav’s… then I would’ve known there was something up with her when she called herself a rogue.
But she’s not a rogue. She’s an agent.
I open my mouth, but before I can say a damn word, she clears her throat.
“Get up. All of you.”
Maverick’s head whips around at the feminine voice.
It’s one hell of a relief when I see that his eyes…
while the rims around the irises are much thicker than they were before, some of the black has faded.
There’s still some Maverick Brooks in there, and I see pure relief crossing his features as he jumps to his feet.
Chase hesitates. I know what he’s thinking.
That this is some kind of trap. But she’s not here for him.
She said for all of us to get up, and shimmying out of his hold, I get to my feet.
I’m fully dressed now—from Rory’s jacket to my boots—and I’m glad that Chase is, too.
I grab his hand, tugging him so that he’s standing.
Veronica holds open the door. “The Doctor will see you now.”
That’s what she says. Just out of sight of the cameras as she steps into the hall, she shakes her head and flaps her fingers, gesturing for us to follow her.
Should I? Is she a part of Project Phoenix? Is she a member of the NRI?
Or is there more to her than meets the eye?
She mouths two words, pointing in the direction of the emergency stairwells. Two syllables as she leads us away from the direction of the Doctor’s office.
Let’s go.
What choice do we have? Sit here and wait for Chase to take his turn with that sadistic prick?
Let’s go.
Why not?
I don’t know where the other agents are. I have no idea if the cameras in our cell worked or not—though I’m leaning toward not unless they really didn’t mind watching me and Chase get busy—but as soon as the four of us reach the hall, I expect it to have been a test. Or a trap. Something.
Nope.
Veronica tears down the hall. Maverick is right on her heels. Chase refuses to release my hand, and the two of us run together toward the stairwell.
Once we’re inside of it, Maverick throws him arms around Veronica. “You did it. You fucking did it!”
Excuse me?
Veronica gives him a quick squeeze, then backs out of his embrace. “V told you I would, didn’t she? Come on, Mav. You think I wasn’t going to get revenge on what they did to my team? For Jules and Lindsay?”
She says all that as she takes the stairs two at a time. I’m confused as all hell, but I’m a survivor through and through. I don’t miss a step, and neither does Chase.
Even if I have to ask, “Veronica?”
She shakes her head. “Delilah.”
Huh?
“I don’t get it.”
Maverick chuckles. He’s the happiest I’ve seen him in weeks, all while we’re running for our lives through a narrow, gloomy stairwell. “Really, Xandra? I would think, of anyone, you’d recognize a twin when you saw one.”
At first I don’t get it. That’s probably because hearing him call me by my sister’s name is a pang I wasn’t expecting. As we take the next landing, turning to head up another flight, I can’t help but gasp out, “Hallie. My name is Hallie.”
Yup. I was right. The lack of any reaction on his part tells me that Maverick was just waiting for me to come to my senses. Oh, well.
“Wait… twin? What do you mean, twin?”
“You met her,” Delilah answers. “I spoke to her the other day when I was granted a morning leave. She said you guys were coming and I should keep an eye out for you.”
“Veronica runs a collection of rogues,” explains Maverick. “I met her on my travels over the summer, and I knew she kept her base around the Pulaski Skyway. It wasn’t luck that we found her. I was looking for her.”
Of course he was. “But why?”
“Because Delilah is her twin sister.”
“I also worked with Lindsay at the NRI,” Delilah adds. “She was my best friend. I’m doing this for her.”
“Lindsay,” pipes up Chase. “Who’s Lindsay?”
“Maverick’s wife,” I tell him. “She died in the Turning.”
Chase blinks.
I pat his arm. I know, baby. It’s a lot.
Delilah scowls as she keeps an easy lead on us. “Some of us were lucky enough to get the first trial of PP-55. Lindsay… she hated shots. She didn’t get it, and by the time she did… she got the bad dose.”
“It’s my fault,” begins Maverick.
Delilah shakes her head. “No. It’s Project Phoenix’s fault.
You know that, Mav. That’s why I told you, if you ever come after them, I’ll help take them down from the inside.
” She pauses for a moment, and even with the sunglasses on, there’s no hiding the hurt in her face.
That… that’s an expression. “I lost Jules because of them. Fuck ‘em. It’s time I finally quit, and I’m taking you guys with me. ”
I don’t understand half of what’s going on here. Honestly? I don’t care. Somehow, this Delilah has led us through the stairs, shoving open a door that has brought us onto a side street.
A dark side street.
No wonder none of the agents have bothered to come after us so far.
We’re two survivors, an almost-lurker, and whatever Delilah is without a single match or a way to strike a flame.
We’ll be easy pickings for lurkers—and the burnt caramel smell coming from every direction tells us that they’re everywhere.
We try. I can’t say that we don’t. The four of us run, but we only make it two blocks away from the NRI before we run into our first horde of lurkers plodding toward us, their long, ragged cloaks dragging against the asphalt.
Somehow I’ve gotten disconnected from Chase. Staring at the approaching lurkers, knowing it won’t do any good, I take his hand in mine and give it a squeeze. I spare a look over my shoulder at Maverick, at Delilah, and I nod.
The lurkers are closing in. I’m sure the NRI won’t be far behind them.
And you know what?
Just then I swear the spirit of Xandra is hovering somewhere nearby. A whisper on the breeze causes my hair to whip around me and I can almost hear her, like always—
“Got a light?”
And I grin.