Chapter 26
Mariah
The world was silent.
I’d shifted back and was kneeling beside Elsie’s body, my hands still shaking, blood sticky on my palms. Her eyes stared at nothing, the wild grin still frozen on her face.
The hallway around us was wrecked, glass glittered like frost while the walls were painted in smoke and blood.
The sirens had stopped screaming, but the silence was worse.
She had done it. She had saved me, saved all of us, and it had destroyed her. My chest felt like it was being crushed under the weight of her sacrifice. I touched her face once, gently, like maybe that could make her move again, but her skin was already cooling beneath my fingers.
“You said no quiet exits,” I whispered, my voice shaking with sorrow. “Guess you got that right. You are a hero, my friend. We’ll never forget you.”
Tears burned down my cheeks, but there wasn’t time to grieve. I needed to move. The serum hadn’t been destroyed. Neither had the fertility drug.
Elsie hadn’t died for half a victory.
I stood, my legs trembling, and scanned the corridor. The guards she’d killed were scattered like broken dolls. One of them, roughly my size, lay face-down near the door. I pulled at his jacket with shaking hands, forcing my mind to stay focused.
The fabric was stiff with blood, but it would have to do.
I stripped the jacket and pants from the corpse, my fingers clumsy, and dragged them on over my bare skin.
The clothes hung loose, the smell of smoke and sweat clinging to them.
I slung the guard’s rifle over my shoulder and found a half-full magazine of bullets in his pocket and tucked it into the belt.
Lastly, I pulled off his boots and slipped them onto my feet.
When I caught my reflection in the shattered glass of a lab window, I barely recognized myself. There was soot streaking my face, blood on my neck, and my eyes were wild and hard. I looked like someone else.
I walked over to where the rage serum was housed.
For a heartbeat, I hesitated, staring at the liquid that had twisted Elsie into such a monstrous and magnificent creature.
Then I grabbed the nearest crate and slammed it against the cabinet, glass shattering like ice.
The chemical hissed as it spilled, searing through the metal floor and filling the room with a harsh, acidic fog.
I smashed every vial, one after another, until the nothing was left but shards and the smell of burnt ozone filled my lungs.
Just as I was about to leave the room, I spotted an unused grenade that had rolled from one of the soldier’s hands nearby and grabbed it.
I pulled the pin, tossed it behind me and ran.
As I sprinted away, the room exploded. I didn’t look back, but I could feel the heat from the fiery blaze on my back.
The lower corridors were a maze of reinforced steel and flickering lights. The deeper I went, the stronger the chemical smell became. When I reached the storage vaults, the air burned in my throat.
Rows of containment units lined the walls, each labeled Project: Genesis Fertility Enhancer. My pulse spiked.
The fertility drug. I had found it.
The glass cylinders glowed faintly pink from the liquid inside. I stepped closer and smashed the butt of my rifle into the nearest container. Glass shattered, the fluid hissing as it splattered across the floor.
I didn’t stop.
I smashed another, and another, the chemical stench growing unbearable. The liquid hissed where it met the air, turning to vapor that rose in faint tendrils. It felt good to destroy it, to take back power from the people who had taken everything from us for decades.
When the last vial hit the floor, I stood in the middle of the wreckage, chest heaving, ears ringing.
That was when I heard the slow, deliberate clap of gloved hands.
I turned.
Council soldiers in black armor filled the doorway, their rifles trained on me.
Behind them stood a tall figure in a long gray coat, silver insignia gleaming at his throat.
His eyes were unsympathetic and cruel, the color of ash.
I didn’t need to be told who he was. Every human who’d ever lived under the Council knew that face.
It was the Council Commander, Darius Voss.
“Impressive,” he said, his voice smooth and ice-cold.
I raised the rifle I’d stolen from the guard, but the nearest soldier slammed a baton into my ribs before I could fire it. Pain exploded through my side. I stumbled, gasping. Another struck me across the back of the head.
The world spun. I dropped to my knees.
The soldiers parted and the Council leader stepped closer, his boots echoing on the steel floor. He crouched in front of me, his gloved hand gripping my chin hard enough to hurt.
“You’ve caused quite the mess,” he said, studying me like a scientist examining a specimen. “But don’t worry. You’ll still serve a purpose before this is over.”
I tried to snarl, but my head was swimming, my body too battered to shift again.
He nodded to the soldiers. “Take her to the courtyard. I want her where everyone can see her.”
They yanked my hands in front of me and cold metal clamped around my wrists. The soldiers hauled me to my feet and dragged me from the lab, past the shattered glass and the blood, past the ruin Elsie had left behind.
My vision blurred, but I fought to keep my head up. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear the thunder of battle—gunfire, screams, and terrible explosions, one after the other.
They led me through the base and out into the open air, into the ruined streets where the world was engulfed in flames.
And when a Council soldier forced me to my knees and shoved a knife against my throat, pressing hard enough to draw blood, I borrowed inspiration from Elsie and smiled through the pain.
Because I wasn’t done fighting.