Chapter 38
“My son is on that island. With the substantial investment of resources into the infrastructure, experiments, and people, why would we leave the two sides to fight it out and see who prevails?” – Electronic message from Aldous Thatcher to New America President Soren Whitman
Briar
I’m surrounded by a damp ammonia smell. I stir and someone smooths a hand over my hair.
“We’re in the cave,” Amira whispers. “Rest while you can.”
I’m curled up on my side, the cave’s floor a cold, hard mattress. My head is in Amira’s lap.
The smell of bat shit is downright invasive. It didn’t smell this strongly when I was last here with Marcus. I shift and get into a sitting position, my head heavy with grogginess.
“How did I get here?” I whisper.
“Pax carried you. You passed out, but Ellison says you’re fine. She thinks it was just from exhaustion.”
I remember the light in my mind flickering out, but after that ... nothing. I shake my head.
“When was that? I don’t remember what happened.”
“A couple of hours ago. Seriously, go back to sleep. Do you want some water first?”
I nod and she grabs a canteen, her outline barely visible in the near pitch-black darkness of the cave. She unscrews the cap and passes it to me, making sure it’s in my hands before she lets go.
After a few sips, I’m more awake. I pass it back to her and ask, “Is everyone okay?”
“We’re all okay. Ingrid’s guys not so much.”
A dim light appears at one end of the cave; I don’t know if it’s the cave’s belly or its entrance.
“That’s Pax’s torch,” Amira whispers softly. “He and Olin are checking the cave.”
She doesn’t sound like herself. Amira can usually crack a joke no matter how serious things are, but she seems almost scared.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She sighs heavily. “There was a snake hanging down from the top of the cave by the entrance. I ran into it and genuinely thought I might die of a heart attack.”
“Oh god.”
“Yeah. I guess we’re safe, but with quote marks around the word safe? I’m dissociating since I can’t see anything or scream if something slithers over me.”
As Pax moves closer, I can make out Nova and Ellison sitting across from us, their backs against the cave’s wall. Ellison is resting her head on Nova’s shoulder.
“What happened to Ingrid’s guys?” I ask, sensing I already know.
“The vines killed all of them,” Amira says. “They ... wrapped around them really fast and cut off their heads and legs. Some of them just got squeezed into like ... human pulp.”
“Oh.”
“They all had guns. They’re our guns now. We couldn’t have defended ourselves against them and Theron. Don’t feel even a little bit bad about it.”
I cross my legs, remembering the raw power that flowed through me. It was almost electric and unlike anything I’ve ever felt. I was more deeply connected to the plants, trees, and vines on this island than I’ve ever been.
Fight for us.
“There’s a little pond about a quarter of a mile away,” Pax says softly when he reaches us.
“You didn’t drink from it, did you?” I ask sharply.
“No, but—”
“No one drink the water in here,” I say. “It could have leptospirosis. We could get histoplasmosis just from the air in here. We need to stay as close as we can to the cave entrance.”
I think McClain might have been affected by histoplasmosis, a fungal lung infection, in addition to cancer. We’ll never know for sure.
We aren’t very deep into the cave, but we all move closer to the entrance anyway. The cover of flowering vines over the entrance doesn’t allow any light to penetrate.
“We need to be careful about talking,” Nova whispers.
“What are we going to do?” I ask, my eyelids heavy. “Do we have a plan?”
Pax crouches down beside me and puts a hand on my shoulder, his expression solemn. “We’re the plan. When you’re rested enough, we’re going to use your vines and my snakes to clear out the rest of Ingrid’s people.”
Clear out. It’s a nice way of saying make them into human pulp. Which I’ll do without regret.
Ingrid’s fuck-around phase was whatever she did to Marcus. Now she’s going to find out.
“I don’t know if I can differentiate, though,” I say. “If we go back to camp, I don’t know how to control who the vines attack when there are that many people. I don’t want to hurt our people.”
“I’ll show you how. Don’t be afraid of your power.”
I meet his eyes, wishing I felt the certainty I see reflected there. “I couldn’t even see what I was doing.”
“You saw it through them. Snakes have eyes, so I can see like you and I do when I’m fully connected because it’s through their eyes; but your vision when you’re fully connected is just different.”
I drop my brows, realization setting in. “How many anacondas are on this island?”
The corners of his lips quirk with a smile. “A lot.”
He’s had the power to destroy all of us this entire time. When he had Theron take Ellison, he was just flexing his muscle, establishing himself as a leader. Virginia couldn’t have taken all of us out with her ravens, but Pax’s snakes are terrifyingly fast and deadly when he wants them to be.
“Get some sleep,” he says. “Fully connecting depletes you. When you’re rested, we’ll come up with a plan.”
Amira is smaller than I am, but she still wraps her arms around me in a protective embrace.
“You need to sleep, too,” Pax tells her.
“I don’t think I can. I’m all set on nightmares for the rest of my life.”
The snake. I can’t imagine the terror she must have felt.
“I’ve got something to help,” Ellison says. “In my bag.”
“Take it,” Pax says. “I’ll keep watch. I don’t need sleep with my aromium on.”
I don’t need any of whatever Ellison has. I curl up on the cave floor, sleep already calling me.
Everything is fuzzy since I’m so exhausted. I’m glad Pax is here because I need someone else who knows what it’s like to do what I did earlier—‘fully connect,’ as he called it.
I still desperately want Marcus, though. Right now, I’d settle for the memory-erased one, as long as he didn’t speak. I want to be back on that tiny cot in our room with him holding me so close I can feel his heartbeat.
If only I’d known the last time we did that that it was the last time we ever would.
My stomach rumbles, uncomfortably empty. I slept all day and now it’s evening. Pax kept watch just outside the cave’s entrance, since his enhanced hearing would alert him to anyone approaching before they could see him.
He said he only came into the cave once, when there were people walking nearby. They never got close to the cave entrance.
I stand and stretch, then pick up my canteen.
“I’m going to pee and get water,” I announce.
“Want me to come?” Amira asks.
“I’ll be okay. I won’t go far.”
Theron doesn’t have aromium, but the six Tiders with him do. I suspect he’s part of some other experiment that gives him superhuman strength.
We have the switch, and we’re hiding it in the cave before we leave. We debated back and forth about a plan, but decided Theron and the Tiders will be a good test for me. I’m going to try directing my plants at certain people.
With their enhanced abilities, I’m concerned they’ll be a bigger challenge than Ingrid’s men, but Pax said they won’t. If I can channel my anger like I did yesterday, and he adds his snakes, it can be done in less than thirty seconds.
Even though the sun is past its peak for the day, it feels good to step out into the light. I breathe the fresh air in deeply.
Dried blood from the megamantis’s slash is crusted into the lower leg of my pants. I can’t take a bath, but I look forward to splashing cool water on my face.
The small waterfall around the corner is the perfect spot. I creep to it slowly, my knife in hand. Once there, I pee behind the cover of bushes and then return to the pool the waterfall pours into.
I stand there for several minutes, unmoving. I only hear the chorus of bugs, the caws of birds, and the chatter of monkeys. I don’t detect any footsteps on the ground nearby.
It’s safe. I get on my knees and bend down to the water, splashing my face. I pull my canteen strap over my head, filling it and drinking nearly the entire thing, then filling it again.
Once I’m back on my feet, I screw the cap back on the canteen and put the strap back over my shoulder.
I’m about to go back toward the cave when a hand claps over my mouth and an arm bands around my waist from behind.
I try to resist, but the arm is like steel—I can’t get it to move even a fraction of an inch.
I’m dragged backward into the cover of trees. I’m frantically inhaling through my nose, my adrenaline spiking.
“Don’t scream,” a deep voice rumbles into my ear. “It’s me. I call you B and you make me so insane I crack the ground open.”
My eyes widen, my heart thrashing against my rib cage. The hold of the arm around my waist loosens. When I turn, the hand slides away from my mouth, but I immediately replace it with my own to keep from crying out.
It’s Marcus. My Marcus. I know not just from what he said, but from the dark, knowing gleam in his eyes.
I burst into tears, my heart singing with joy and relief. He’s himself again. He broke free and found me.
I reach up to his stubbled face, cupping it as I whisper, “How did you get away?”
His gaze darkens. “That wasn’t me back at our camp. It’s a clone.”
I struggle to draw air into my lungs as his words set in. “A clone?”
“Yeah. They cloned some of the original twenty-six on Island Three.”
I pinch my brows together, confused. “But he’s ... your age. How?”
“They’re fucking around with accelerated and decelerated aging.”
I close my eyes, thinking of my mom. Have they violated her the same way they violated Marcus?
“They found out about the ILF guy who helped me on Island Three. They knew I wasn’t coming back here when I left.”
It’s so much to process all at once.
“Island three intercepted Olin’s radio message to someone on their island,” I say softly. “They knew you were against them. I thought they wiped out your memories somehow and reprogrammed you.”
His eyes soften. “No.”
“Where did you go? If you didn’t come back here after Island Three, where were you?”
“It’s a long story. Can we get into the cave? I did some surveillance on our camp, and when I saw you weren’t there, I figured you were here.”
I smile, still not believing he’s here, and he’s okay. “Kiss me.”
He puts his hands on my waist and bends, lowering his lips to mine. It’s a slow, soft kiss, his mouth reacquainting itself with mine. The heat of his body and the brush of his stubble over my lips make me want so much more than this.
After a few seconds, I reluctantly pull away. We can’t risk getting so lost in each other that we forget the danger we’re in.
“I have so much to tell you,” I say.
“Same. But let’s do it in the cave.”
I cringe inwardly. “Okay, but before we go in ... I’m not alone in there.”
“I figured Nova and Amira were with you since I didn’t see them at camp.”
“Right. And also Ellison, Olin, and ...” I wet my lips with the tip of my tongue, afraid to finish.
He arches his brows. “And?”