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  “R-R-Rylan,” I started. I wasn’t sure she could even understand me. My voice trembled, and a dark pressure crushed my spine. “Rylan’s shot. He’s shot bad. I…I don’t know what to do.”

  She searched my eyes for a second then spoke to the air. “You see him?” She had to be speaking with Josalyn via radio. Sun Hi nodded a few times. “I’ll be here,” she told Josalyn. Her expression focused on me. “Josalyn’s coming. You need to go get your gun.”

  “But Rylan. Rylan needs help.” I wanted to listen, but Rylan’s safety shredded my mind.

  Sun Hi grabbed my shoulders. “I’m with him. We need help. Go get your damn gun!”

  I stumbled away from her, shocked by her tone and the chaos. I fumbled up and ran toward the ladders to take me to my room. Once I got to the third floor, I threw the door open and grabbed my backpack. My nervous fingers frantically tossed the contents, looking for my gun.

  My backpack slipped and fell to the ground. I reached in scrambling to find the black Glock. Once it was in my hand, the world around me chilled into an icy cloud. “Mari and Miko.”

  I was so shocked by what happened with Rylan that I had completely forgotten about the kids. They were my whole reason I had the shakes when it came to guns.

  My hand tightened around the gun’s grip. I was not going to lose the kids—not today, not ever.

  A noise of rushing feet spun me around. A gun leveled with my face. I was half in shock, half worried sick. My body felt like a frantic hive of bees ready to attack anything.

  A policeman eyed me. In less than a second, an explosion blasted from the barrel of his gun. I almost couldn’t believe it. He got off three shots before I started pulling the trigger. I wasn’t that accurate at a distance or when I was moving, but when I was still, I was pretty lethal. I ducked and fell to my knees. Two shots flared from my Glock and struck him. He tumbled over.

  I got up and slowly walked around him, but a nagging voice in the back of my mind said to grab the automatic weapon that he was holding. I forced my gun into the back of my pants. I reached down and grabbed the automatic weapon. The policeman woke up like out of a dream. He yanked back hard on the gun. I tripped but kept my balance. I pressed forward and pulled back as hard as I could.

  “Crix.” I cursed myself, and the world around me. I needed his gun. He could kill me if I went for mine. This was all or nothing.

  His left hand left the grip. While he held on with his right hand, he reached for a thin pocket of leather near his lower thigh. My gaze jumped around as adrenaline pumped through my veins. I kicked him with my boot then grabbed his thigh. A gleaming knife appeared. His fingers fought with mine for a brief second before I seized the knife. I flipped it around in my right hand before ramming it into his side. I plunged a few more times in my panic before ripping the automatic weapon away from him. I spun it around. Five splashes of body armor and blood erupted atop his abdomen.

  I fell back against the wall. My breath echoed long and deep in my ears. At that moment, just like when I killed Governor Read, I couldn’t go on. My stomach lurched and vomit pressed into my throat. I forced my hands over my mouth and sucked the bile back down. I glanced at the blood spreading toward me. My spirit tore—the nightmares of death entered my mind.

  I exhaled and forced whatever this was back. Gripping the weapon, I spun out onto the walkway. Two policemen dropped from their ropes about fifty yards away. As soon as they saw me they took out their guns and ran in my direction. I kneeled down to try and get some kind of cover. I rotated the gun around and fired. I refused to look. My eyes stayed on the walls, but dozens of gunshots shook my hands as I gripped the weapon. When I heard a break in the gunfire, I dashed for the ladder that would take me to the second floor. Sparks exploded around my feet and hands as I worked my way over the ladder.

  My brain fried. I could barely walk, let alone think. Mari and Miko should’ve been in the room beneath mine. I had Sun Hi make sure they were close to me so I could check in on them. I tore the door back, but the room was empty.

  “Mari? Miko!” I yelled. “Come out, it’s me, Paeton. Are you in there?”

  No response. I zipped inside. I tossed the mattresses aside. My hands fumbled through the sheets making sure they hadn’t hidden anywhere. I jogged back to the front of the room. My head twisted back and forth in the hallway trying desperately to figure out where they may have gone.

  A red dot appeared off the left side of my vision slowly moving over the walls and floor. Crix, it was a laser sight.

  I dropped to the ground and spun around. A cop hung from a cord a few feet from the walkway. He aimed his rifle. I pulled up the automatic gun and fired into his face and torso. After a few hits, his body jolted. He fell a few inches and then stopped, circling slightly on the cord—dead.

  I swallowed a second glob of bile. My eyes didn’t search for another ladder. I dashed forward, flung my body over the safety rail, and then leaped to the first floor. Maybe, Mari had run off with her friend. Surely, that was where they were. I forced myself to believe it, but I couldn’t. I had to see them, touch them, know that they were alright.

  I took a few, quick steps before shots rang out around me. Columns were all around the center room holding up the walkways. I scrambled behind the closest column to me, trying to discover where the bullets were coming from. I put my back against it, only to feel tiny impressions in the metal where the bullets struck. I glanced at the column and watched the metal warp into small, circular bumps with each impact.

  My skin pimpled, and the marrow in my bones shook. I didn’t know how much time I had before this thing tore into shreds.

  I put the gun over my head and started shooting backward. I sprayed the area left to right with bullets, hoping to hit something or at least get a moment to think. Far to my left was the cafeteria. To my right was the entry to the lower floors and the Corridor of Death.

  A flurry of bullets banged into the metal behind me. The gun fumbled in my hands. My fingers tightened their grip. I was so nervous—too nervous. My adrenaline faded as fear took over. Every part of me twitched and my breath was ragged.

  “Paeton!” someone yelled.

  I spun my head around trying to discover who it was. In the cafeteria, Josalyn’s head peeked out from behind one of the tables. She waved me toward her before ducking back behind the table. Bits of wood burst from the table’s edge as bullets tore into it.

  I studied the distance between my present location and a place inside the cafeteria that I would consider safe. Twenty-five distant yards stretched before me. Her head reappeared, and she studied my expression. I wanted to run to her, but an oozing fear settled around my stomach, draining half of my adrenaline.

  My head shook side-to-side twice. My body gave up without my permission. I was in a daze. Seeing Rylan’s bloody face brought back all the imagery of Capt. Davis’s face turning into a dripping bowl of muscle and bone.

  It was too soon. Too many were dead.

  An android turned the corner and stood between me and Josalyn. It was about six yards away, and I was in its firing range.

  My android phobia quaked my knees and elbows. Every part of me jerked in odd intervals. My muscles were out of control. I tried to lift the gun, but it was a thousand pounds.

  The android took a few steps toward me and aimed his gun. My mind envisioned the Lieutenant Governor’s face popping into the facemask of the android. His dark hair and ghostly, blue eyes cut into my flesh, chilling the marrow in my bones. My fingers twitched. My voice caught in my throat. Fear caught me in its murky waves.

  Something happened in that moment. The world slowed down. The gun I held fired shots into the Android’s abdomen. I didn’t see where they hit or how, but I was up off the ground. My body moved away from the cafeteria, but I didn’t know who was controlling it. The gun in my hands shot at various places, at people, androids, scrappers.

  Everything was a blur. My body turned and slid under the second-floor walkways. Sparks and
debris exploded everywhere. My body exited the safety of the walkways and sped across the room toward the cafeteria. I saw Josalyn clearly, but I didn’t know what was going on. I glanced at Rylan, who watched me come closer. He was still pressing his hand against his face. A black, flakey gel of dried blood dotted over his cheek. The world was clear yet distant.

  In a far corner of the room, my name echoed through the metal walls. I turned and saw Mari holding Miko’s hand. Someone yanked them down a corridor. Were they safe? Who had them?

  Something struck me across the shoulder. It burned hot but felt sharp.

  I fell forward and the daze I was in vanished. The vibrant world tore at my senses. I understood everything. I pounded the ground, spreading my hands out to soften the impact. After sliding a few feet, my hands pushed off the ground. I crawled forward trying to make it the last few yards to safety. I saw Rylan’s face. I focused on his gray eyes. I was going to make it. It was not my time to die.

  A figure moved out from the shadows. Over six feet of darkness stood before me. It took something that resembled a gun and swung it around before I could blink. Something struck me hard against the side of the head. It felt like my skull had broken in two. I slammed into the cold, concrete floor. The figure glanced down at me before everything went dark.

  ***

  “Rylan!” I screamed.

  I wasn’t even sure my eyes were open. Darkness enveloped me as I listened to my voice echo off the walls, like ghosts mocking me.

  A clank sounded before lights blinked on the ceiling. Through squinted eyes, the lights popped on one at a time until the whole room was illuminated.

  A small, square, white room stood around me. Dark mirrors covered most of two of the walls. I’d bet half of what was in my backpack that there were cameras and people on the other side of the mirrors, watching me. There was no doubt that I was in the middle of my worst nightmare. The police had caught me.

  I glanced down at the pretty outfit Sun Hi let me borrow which was dirty and had a few sprays of blood on it—Rylan’s blood. I struggled against the restraints on my wrists and ankles. I yelled Rylan’s name into the white room, hoping that somewhere, somehow he could hear me.

  Minutes passed. My limbs ached from flailing around, and hoarseness settled on my vocal cords. I could only hope that Mari and Miko were safe. Rylan had been shot. The memory of his face exploding pressed against my temples. The taste of his blood bore a hole in my tongue.

  Tears slid out of my eyes even though I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want the monsters behind the mirrors to know how I felt, to know whom I loved.

  I gritted my teeth and a jolt of pain shot into my brain. My whole head erupted in flame. Something had hit me, I think, but what was it? Who was it? I could barely remember. The room spun, and screws drilled into my eye sockets.

  A door behind me opened. A soft click followed by the brushing of wood and squeaking of metal. Soft footsteps started and grew in intensity. A woman wearing a lab coat with long, dark hair and glasses came into my vision.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “My name is Clarisse Browning.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “To know what’s in your mind, Paeton.”

  Her words, calm and sure, gave me the shivers. What did that mean? What was she going to do to me? I was a private person. I told few people anything. The thought that someone would or could get into my mind was terrifying.

  She walked out of my vision. I struggled to turn and look behind me, but there was something around my stomach that prevented me from moving. My gaze barely contained a table with a few, shiny objects.

  My breath shot through my nose in hard blasts. No matter how much I tried to be strong, I couldn’t resist the worry spreading at the back of my mind.

  Clarisse came back over with a hypodermic needle. Inside the syringe was a pinkish liquid. She tested the needle by allowing a few drops to spill out of the tip.

  My body tightened. I didn’t know exactly what was in that needle, but I had an idea. It would be worthless to simply torture me. They wanted to see what came out with ease first. That had to be some kind of truth drug.

  She pulled out a tiny pair of scissors and cut a hole in the blouse’s sleeve. After my skin was exposed, she punctured my skin with the tip. The cool liquid flowed into me. My mind tore through thousands of ideas as the serum made it to my heart and blasted to my extremities.

  This wasn’t how my life was supposed to be. I was just a normal girl. Why was this happening to me?

  She glanced at me with a reassuring smile. “Rest, Paeton.” It was almost like how Dhyla would have spoken to me. The two women had to be close in age, maybe, mid-forties. For a second Dhyla was back with me.

  I listened to Clarisse’s footsteps as she exited the room. Half of the lights clicked off. I was left alone with my thoughts.

  I didn’t know how this stuff worked. I tried to suppress all knowledge of Escerica. But, what did I really know? I wasn’t some upper echelon general or anything. I didn’t even know where the base I had been staying on was. All I knew was that… was that…

  CHAPTER 4

  Someone called my name over and over again. Following the voice helped me navigate through the fog that trapped my mind. When I regained consciousness, Clarisse sat in front of me with a table off to her right. She appeared distant, even though she was no more than four feet in front of me. I couldn’t get a grasp of what I was feeling. On the one hand, I was floating as though I could drift right up and touch the ceiling, but a part of me was trapped in a box.

  Clarisse stared. Her face was calm, and there was a slight rise to her eyebrows. “Paeton, are you awake?” she asked.

  “Yes, I think I’m awake,” I said.

  “Let’s start simple. What is your full name?”

  “My name is Paeton Audrey Washington.”

  “And where do you live, Paeton?”

  Her voice was calm, familiar, and comforting. I felt like I was with Dhyla, and we were sitting atop Café Lanta.

  “I used to live at the Stadium. Now, I live with the Escerica Rebels.”

  “When did you go to live with Escerica?”

  “When I met the Gray-Eyed Fox.” I’m not sure why I said that. Maybe, my mind was recalling the events as they happened. I didn’t know Rylan’s name at the time.

  “The Gray-Eyed Fox?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is he a real fox?” Her voice never wavered. It was always peaceful, hypnotic.

  “No, he’s a boy.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Eighteen.”

  “And what is his name?”

  “Rylan.” As the word left my mouth, something within me stirred. Something told me that I shouldn’t be telling this woman this information, but I was compelled. I wanted to fight it, but I couldn’t. My mind couldn’t lock onto whatever I needed within me to stop.

  “Is Rylan the leader of Escerica?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you know who the leader is?”

  “No.”

  She stopped and massaged her cheek with her perfectly manicured fingers. Her face tightened, and she glanced at me before her expression drew back into a blank stare. Afterward, she grabbed a bottle of water and took a few sips.

  It was hard to focus on her movements. Anything outside of her voice faded away into a monochrome blur.

  She sat forward and began again. “How many people in Escerica have you had contact with?”

  “Five,” I said.

  “What are their names?”

  “Rylan, Sun Hi, Dhyla, AJ, and Josalyn.”

  “And what do each of them do?”

  “Rylan studies maps and blueprints. Sun Hi fights with some kind of blue, glowing, time-warp thing. Dhyla was killed by an android. AJ is a pilot and mechanic. Josalyn is a computer hacker.”

  She wrote down a few notes on her PCD then turned her attention back to me. “The boy, Rylan… are y
ou in love with him?”

  The question confused me. I didn’t understand what she meant or why she wanted to know that. I liked Rylan, but I barely knew him. I didn’t even know if I could be in love him. To love someone deeply, you needed trust, and the only person I trusted was dead.

  “No, I don’t think so,” I said.

  “Then, who do you love?”

  “I love… I love.” My brain knew the answer, but for some reason, I was able to hold it back.

  “The children, Mari and Miko Sampo, do you love them?”

  My mind cracked. “I…I.” Something within me fought the question. I kept thinking, why would anyone want to know that? What does love really mean?

  Clarisse stood and picked up a hypodermic needle from her table. She injected it into a tube that I realized was in my arm. I stared at the clear plastic and watched the yellow fluid enter my body.

  Heaviness pressed against my eyelids.

  Clarisse’s expression relaxed. “Go to sleep, Paeton.”

  ***

  When my eyes opened, I was back at Café Lanta. The sun lingered at the horizon, filling the sky with a deep, amber color. My gaze found the skyline and by instinct, my right leg folded itself under my butt. I leaned forward and put my elbows on the table. My breathing steadied. The air was calm and sweet with sugar pastries and coffee. I glanced toward Perimeter Market a hundred yards or so away. A small crowd of people strolled to various shops.

  A coffee cup with a brown-trimmed wrapper tapped the table before me. I looked down into the smoking, brown liquid within the cup, then up toward the person who gave it to me. Dhyla’s face brightened. She sat down next to me and gazed out at the skyline.

  “How have you been?” she asked.

  The question circled in my head for a brief second. I didn’t feel angry, sad, or upset, but I wasn’t quite me. “I don’t know really. I think I’ve been good.”