CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“HOW HURT IS HAL STILL?” I ASKED THROUGH LABORED breaths.
My lungs burned as Gerald held my hand tightly, pulling me left and right as we sprinted through the dark tunnels, each step tucking the hurt away, burying it somewhere I wouldn’t be able to find it.
“He punctured a lung when he got hurt. He can’t keep up,” Gerald told me, turning at the last second. I blindly followed him.
“Good,” I grunted. I didn’t want him to follow us.
A ding sounded from Gerald’s pants pocket. “Fuck. Fuck.”
“What?”
“Messages mean the lower systems are rebooting. We’re running out of time.”
“Run faster,” I urged. Gerald didn’t look back. He began to sprint, his hand sweaty in mine.
My recurring dream found me as we ran through the dark, our footsteps thundering through the tunnels, the only sound besides our heavy breaths, the pace too demanding for conversation.
His Comm Device sounded again as we skidded to a stop outside the door I had entered from.
He punched a code into a panel on the wall. The door slowly began to move.
“I was really hoping that wouldn’t work. Help me,” Gerald panted as he forced the door open.
I threw my weight into the door, and it inched open enough for us to slip through. Gerald released the door and pulled me in after him. The room was empty. A golden flash filled the room, but when I looked down, my wrist was dark again.
“Come on, we’re almost out of time,” Gerald commanded.
I followed, too out of breath to talk as Gerald darted down the hall and into a room on the opposite side, near the elevator. A panel lay on the floor.
A small circular hole sat exposed, revealing a narrow crawl space. Gerald stuck his head in. “Barrett,” he called. He whistled in a song-like way.
No one answered.
Gerald thrust a black cube into my hand.
“Keep this safe. Climb the chute, then take the middle tunnel. Go straight. When it dips, go slow. You’re going to get to a circular room.
Do not leave the tunnel. There’s a huge metal device in there.
It powers the chips. Toss this onto the device.
Then get out quick so I can activate it. ”
Gerald knelt before the opening, his hands outstretched, waiting to help me in. A million questions raged. Why was this here? Had they always known about it? Why put something so vital on a floor with Minors? What did the cube do? How did Gerald know how to work it?
“Emeline, look at me.” I turned toward him.
“I can’t answer your questions right now.
We are out of time. If the power grid comes back up, everyone out there could be lost, those with chips tracked.
The rebellion will fail. I need you to do what I said or move so I can try.
I promise I will come back and answer your questions. Just go. Please. I need your help.”
I tucked the cube into my pocket and put my foot in his hands. Gerald hoisted me up. Adrenaline rioted through me as I began to climb.
“Middle tunnel, do not go into that room. The moment that cube hits the device, shout to me and get the fuck out of there. I’ll do the rest. Go!”
I didn’t look back as I moved. My sweaty palms slipped against the sides of the tunnel. I didn’t stop even though my body urged me to. I pushed against the sides and my thoughts that waited, ready to drag me down.
I had wanted to help, not by being a Mate or being used. This was what I had wanted. I didn’t agree with the Reaper fully—more than those beneath deserved to be saved—but the Illum were wrong too. This wasn’t peace.
The chute leveled out to reveal three openings barely visible in the dark. I crawled through the middle one, my eyes trying to adjust. A low humming sound filled the tunnel.
“Emeline, hurry.” Gerald’s voice echoed, urging me on. I swore I heard him say something else, but I couldn’t make it out over the humming.
I picked up my pace when the floor suddenly dropped, and I slipped. The descent was too steep. I tumbled down.
I kicked my feet out helplessly, clawing at the sleek metal sides. My heart sat in my throat, my thoughts rolling free with me.
Follow the Illum’s protocol, abide by the rules of the Minor Defect population, and constantly seek self-improvement, and you will rise, fulfilling your use for the Greater Good.
I didn’t believe in the Greater Good anymore.
I wouldn’t mess this up too. My fingertips attempted to dig in to abate my fall, scrambling for purchase. A sickening squeal of flesh on metal filled the tunnels as my fingers burned viciously and my shoulder slammed into the side.
My foot caught on the edge of the chute, bringing me to a halt. My heart refused to slow even as my body came to a stop.
I dug my hand into my pocket, scrambling for the cube as I took in the sight before me.
I had never seen anything like it. Metal wrapped around the sides, caging in a massive pulsing device the length of several Pods. Gears slowly moved around the edges. The hum came from a central bluish light.
My name echoed down the tunnel. I tossed the cube, and it attached onto the device as if it were magnetic. I glanced down to see hundreds of black cubes, varying in size, upon the floor. How many times had they tried this?
“It’s on,” I yelled.
“Get out,” Gerald shouted.
A ringing started. I turned and fled, moving up as fast as my body would let me. My sweaty hands stuck to the metal. I released a long breath as I reached the top.
“Gotta activate now, cover your ears,” Gerald called up.
I crouched down, covering my head as hot air whooshed through the tunnel. The groaning sound from earlier was deafening from this distance.
“You good?”
“Yes,” I called, my head aching. I shifted my body until I slid down the chute, my feet colliding with the floor.
“You did it. Systems are down. The black hole wasn’t that strong. It won’t hold forever. Maybe ten more minutes, but that should be enough.” Gerald checked his silent devices. “Thank you.”
I nodded at him. “I have questions.”
Gerald blew out a breath, a knowing smile etched with relief upon his face as he took me in. “You’re not deterred easily, are you?”
“No.”
“I may not have all the answers, but the ones I do have are yours.” Gerald placed his devices in his pocket.
“And you won’t lie to me?” I demanded.
“I don’t lie,” Gerald assured me in that calm voice. “If I cannot give you the truth because it endangers those I love, I won’t answer, but I will not lie.”
It was better than anyone had ever given me.
“Why don’t you lie?”
“That’s your first question?” Gerald asked calmly, assessing me. “We have limited time.”
“It’s unheard of.”
“It’s simpler. Oftentimes the lies cause more damage than the truth.”
“What was that cube?”
“We call it a black hole. It’s complicated to explain. It’s the same technology as the cuffs. That’s what we based it off of. Most rudimentary explanation: It interferes with the tracking technology, but on a larger scale, by absorbing the energy.”
“Did you invent it?” I asked.
“No, but I altered it to make it effective for our purposes.”
“Do you believe in the Reaper’s cause?” I asked.
Gerald’s jaw flexed as he nodded. My heart found my throat. I needed to know.
“Have I met the Reaper?”
My name filled the hall.
Gerald froze, and my eyes went wide.
“I thought you said he couldn’t run?” I whispered.
“It’s not Hal,” Gerald said confidently. I swore his shoulders sagged. “Someone must have gotten the elevator to work when the systems were coming back.” He quietly put the panel on the wall.
“Emeline.” Footsteps sounded outside the room, but they carried on toward my office.
“Our questions are done for now. Go.”
“What about you?” I whispered as a door creaked open.
“I’m relying on you to keep him distracted so I can get back,” Gerald said.
“Are you not afraid of who might be out there?”
“No, your Mate would only send one person to get you, and I don’t fear him. Go. Your brother is waiting for you.”
I wanted to ask him why he knew that, and why he didn’t fear my brother, but I heard my name again. I turned and left Gerald behind.
The hall was empty when I entered it. I had only taken three steps when a head of curly hair poked out of my office. Phillip stepped into the hall, holding my bag and Comm Device. His hair was a mess, his cheeks pink like he had run here, his clothes wrinkled. I had expected Gregory.
“Where were you?” Phillip demanded.
I ran a hand through my hair, sure my curls were equally as disastrous. “I was looking for a way out.”
“You shouldn’t have left your office.” Phillip took me in. “You’re a mess. We have to go. We can talk in the living quarters. They’re bringing the grid back up now.”
Nerves snaked down my spine. Had the ten minutes been enough for everyone out there? Wherever there was? I suddenly felt I had missed a vital question: What had they actually been doing?
“Why did Collin send you?” I asked, my nerves on fire as we walked past the door Gerald was behind. Phillip’s device dinged. He stopped, taking it out. “Don’t we need to go?”
I swore Phillip looked at the door, and I reined in my panic. “He was needed elsewhere. You’re an Illum’s Mate. A rebel might go after you to get to him and the Illum.”
He kept moving until he came to the elevator. He lifted a wrist to the scanner, but nothing happened.
Phillip typed quickly as his words began excavating the things I had buried on that run. In the silence my broken heart thudded pathetically. How did I tell him a rebel named Hal already had?
“What happened?” I asked, holding the assailment of emotions at bay.
“The Reaper staged an attack on one of the buildings containing the supplements. I don’t know the damage yet.” He looked up from his device as a loud grinding noise filled the hall until it morphed into a hum and the elevator doors opened. “Collin hasn’t contacted me yet. He’s still out there.”
“Out where?” I asked, surprised. I had expected Collin to be safe in the clouds.
“On the ground, managing the attack,” Phillip explained as we stepped into the elevator.
My body trembled as the elevator shot up, my breathing unsteady. Thoughts sprinted around my mind, blurring one into the next. I clawed at all the emotions threatening to undo me, wrangling them into submission as the doors opened. My battle ceased at what waited on the surface.
The usually quiet atrium was a flurry of frantic movement and shouts. Six Elite Force soldiers waited outside the elevator doors, one taller than all the others.
Phillip nodded at them.
“Let’s go,” the tall one yelled, coming up behind me as the rest encircled us. I recognized his voice but couldn’t remember his name. He hit a button on his arm, and we set off.
“Phillip, what’s happening?” I asked, panicked as the soldiers bumped into me. “Phillip,” I called again, unable to see past them and their armor.
“Just follow them, Emeline,” Phillip called out somewhere behind me. I had no choice, my heart in my throat as we made it outside, where smoke filled the air.
What had the Reaper done?
“Jog,” the soldier in the front shouted. I moved my feet at a quicker pace, keeping up.
A Pod sat waiting and the soldier in the front began shouting at someone or something.
I couldn’t see past the circle of Elite Force soldiers escorting me, but I could hear people moving about, running as if for their lives.
Sweat dripped down my neck as my fear held on tight. Tighter than it had in the tunnels.
One of them grabbed my arm. “Get in, go.”
“Systems up enough for this thing to get into the air?” the one behind me barked.
“Here’s hoping,” Phillip responded.
I felt myself being pushed and pulled until I was shoved into a Pod, Phillip right behind me. His wrist went to the scanner, and the doors shut.
I fell into the seat as the Pod shot straight up, slower than normal, leaving the pandemonium below as his Comm Device began to ding rapidly. Did that mean the grid was fully back?
Phillip stared behind me, shock etched across his face. I turned, only for panic to seize me. The destruction that sat in my chest was nothing compared to the destruction before me.
The surface was in flames.