Resurrection

by Katherine Macdonald

  “That’s good,” she agrees. “What about transport?”

  Dell sighs. “We have one van.”

  “We could probably borrow the medical one, face a few repercussions?” Mi offers. “It’s parked outside. Not much Rudy can do after the effect, right?”

  We could all fit in two, and Sia agrees that transporting everyone out of the Institute simply isn’t going to work. We tear down the facility, destroying as much of the opposition as we can. Everyone escapes and goes their own way. Besides, she admits regretfully, they have no way of knowing who wants to escape and who’ll be their enemy. This is not the stance she took previously. Something changed her mind.

  “So, when are we doing this?” she asks.

  “If we’re going to raid the warehouse for supplies, we need to get out of the city immediately afterwards. Can’t risk them finding us, or stopping us from getting out–”

  “Agreed. So we go as soon as we have a plan?”

  “The plan would come easier if we knew what weapons we had access to,” Abi adds from her corner of the room. She and Lili are sitting around a set of blueprints.

  “Not sure we have much of a choice.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  A dozen heads swivel towards the back of the room. Usually, we’re pretty good at noticing when other people come and go, but there are simply too many of us in the room. If anyone noticed an additional member, they probably assumed she was meant to be there. They likely all met her before.

  “Julia,” I say, dumbfounded. “How long have you–”

  “Did you think I wouldn’t notice such an increase of people in my infirmary?”

  “Um–”

  “It’s all right. I know what you’re planning. I won’t stop you. In fact, I’d like to help.”

  “Rudy made it very clear that–”

  “Do I look like Rudy?” she snaps. “I didn’t think so.”

  “But, if you help us…”

  “He’ll huff and he’ll puff, but what’s he going to do? I’m his only doctor. He couldn’t tie his own shoelaces without me.”

  It occurs to me that that may not be entirely an exaggeration. A prosthetic as advanced as Rudy’s probably required surgery. She must have helped Harris with it.

  “I can get you whatever you need. Another van? Explosives? Weapons? I can sign that out for you. I have only one request.”

  “Which is?”

  “Take me with you.”

  The room falls silent.

  “Julia–” Mi stars softly.

  “I know, it’s dangerous. And I know you’re a very confident medic, Mi. But… I need to go. Please. You can do this without me, I know you can. But it’ll be easier with.”

  It’s not a hard bargain. I’m worried for her safety, of course, but it’ll save us a lot of trouble and make the entire thing less risky.

  “All right,” I nod. “Abi– let Julia know what we need.”

  Chapter 47

  We spend another two days finalising our plan of action, while Julia secretly organises a third van filled with the requested equipment. I cannot believe that no one questions her in this, but why would they? She’s one of the oldest members of the crew, everyone trusts her. She’s probably done everything Rudy has ever asked of her since day one.

  She’s right when she says there’s a limit to the trouble she can get into for this, but this kind of act… it will change things. Between her and Rudy, definitely. For the others? I’m not sure.

  But she will not be swayed, and even though she won’t share her reasoning with us, I know she has to do it. The determination in her eyes is a mirror of my own.

  The plan is relatively simple. We attack during the shift change if we can –although we have no guarantee the changeovers remain the same– and take command of the tower. We blast our way into the main compound, with me covering everyone with my fire. We take no prisoners. We stop anyone before they stop us.

  This is not my usual style, but there is no other way to do it without risking serious injury to ourselves.

  Everyone is assigned a role. Julia is convinced to remain behind with the vans, along with Joni, Bullet and Ben. I do not want Ben coming into that place, not when I’ve fought so hard to keep him out of it. I didn’t even want to take him with us, only we couldn’t think of a plausible reason to leave him behind when everyone else he knew was on the mission. He cried at the thought of us going, and I can’t say I blame him. He doesn’t fight too much when I make him responsible for looking after Julia, although she’s still itching to come inside with us.

  At one point during our preparation, Abi pulls me aside and presents with a dark, skin-tight suit made from a thick, surprisingly flexible material.

  “What’s this?”

  “Something Harris and I made. So you don’t keep ruining all your clothes. It’s pretty darn fire retardant, as long as you don’t… you know, explode.”

  “Thanks, Abs.

  “Ashe?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Please don’t explode.”

  I loop an arm around her shoulders and kiss her curls. “I’ll do my best.”

  On the third day, we load up the vans and head out. It’s a long, long drive, but it’s over a lot more quickly than the colossal walk I faced leaving it. We stop only once for a break. Mi challenges anyone who’ll listen to a game of I-spy, which has become his custom on long drives. When his first round of victims stare at him incredulously, he bursts into song.

  “Anything you can spot, I can hear louder, I can hear anything louder than you–”

  At this, Scarlet whispers something underneath her breath so inaudible that even I can’t make it out. It gets a blush out of him, something I’d begun to think he was immune to.

  “Kiss your boyfriend with that mouth?” he says, aghast.

  “Yes, quite a lot actually.”

  Gabe coughs uncomfortably, reminding them of my presence, and we climb back into the vans and set off again.

  Gabe sits beside me, a coiled lump of iron and nerves. When I offer him my hand, I feel like he might break it.

  ◆◆◆

  We reach the compound a few hours later, parking our transport out of sight at the points Lili and Abi have selected for us. We test our comms, linking with our other team.

  “Sia? Come in?”

  “Roger that, Firebird. We are in position.”

  “Is everything present and correct?”

  “Yes…” she says slowly. “It’s very quiet.”

  There’s a beep on the other line. “Dell?”

  “I think… we may…” he falters. “You should come see this.”

  Curious, we slide out of the vehicle and head towards their location. Even Julia and Ben follow. Delta and a few others are crowded on a mound, peering at the tower.

  “What is it?”

  “Take a look.” He gestures to the spot beside him, which offers a decent view of the watchtower.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Exactly.”

  It takes me a minute to realise what he means. There’s no machine gun, no guards even.

  I tap my communication device. “Sia– do you see any guards?”

  Silence. “No,” she says eventually. “I don’t see anyone.”

  I glance at Mi. “Are you picking anything up?”

  “There’s no one in the tower. The compound is too far away.”

  Joni shivers. “I don’t like this…”

  I don’t like it either.

  “Come on,” I say. “Let’s head in. Ben, Joni– stay here.”

  “OK…” For once, neither looks disappointed to be left behind. I don’t blame them. I feel like I’m walking into a graveyard.

  At the base of the tower, two of the chimeras on Delta’s team offer me a boost. I spring to the top, doublechecking for anyone, but find it clear. I head down to the base to open it from the bottom. We pool in through the first gate. I update Sia, but she’s already sprung over t
he wall, followed by the rest of her team. Lili and Abi lay the explosives at the second door, and we pass into the main compound.

  The silence is overwhelming. It’s as if it’s been sucked from the world.

  “Mi?”

  He shakes his head.

  Sia’s eyes settle on the dormitory block, and she bolts from my side. Her brothers follow her. The rest look to me, still wrapped in shocked silence.

  “Take the mess hall and classrooms,” I tell a group of them. “Stay on high alert. Dell, take yours to the laboratories. See what you can find. You three– the gym block. The rest of you, follow me.”

  No one utters a question, and we rush off in different directions. Sia has already reached the dormitories. She peers in through the first window –Alpha’s– and lets out a fractured moan. She moves onto the next door, the next… and then stops at the Delta’s.

  For a moment, nothing happens. She stands at the door, still and silent. Then she lets out a howl so awful it grates against my insides.

  I glance through the first door. Six beds. Three empty, three full… but the figures in them are utterly immobile, and the one face turned towards me is white and glassy-eyed.

  Sia starts pulling desperately at the door, her brothers pulling with her. They are stuck fast, but Abi’s fingers move along the wall. She asks Gabe to punch open a panel, and yanks out a couple of wires. The lights flicker. The doors hiss open.

  All four of them race inside, towards a bed in the centre of the room. They wrench off the covers and pull the stiff, cold body of Fee into their arms.

  Five years of searching, to end like this.

  Julia steps into the room after me. She examines one of the bodies, and looks upwards to the ceiling.

  “Gas,” she deduces. “They must have pumped it into the room.”

  “But… but why?” asks Scarlet. “Why would they kill them all?”

  A hard, cold lump forms in the pit of my stomach. “Because they knew we were coming,” I realise. “And they didn’t want to be here when we did.”

  “How would they know that?”

  “Because I asked to see Delta-1. I broadcast it over the cities. They must have guessed what I planned to do.”

  “Ashe,” says Mi softly, “this isn’t your fault.”

  “Then whose is it?”

  “Theirs!” he snaps. “Always them. Never forget that.”

  He might be right, but in this moment, I can’t believe him. There are too many cold bodies around me.

  But not a full room.

  I tear back into the corridor and run to the Beta chamber. It’s empty. No Adam… no Eva.

  “Adam’s not here,” I rush.

  “They would have taken those that they knew were loyal to them,” Abi says. “Moved them to another facility.”

  “Why not the others?”

  “I imagine they didn’t have the space. Why risk it for ones they weren’t sure about?”

  Another game of numbers, of playing at being God. They got to decide who lived and died.

  “When I find them, I’m killing them,” I say darkly. I have never meant it more.

  Julia is still standing beside one of the bodies. Sia looks up at her, her face clawed with tears.

  “How long have they been dead?” she asks.

  “I can’t tell for certain. The room is cold, there’s no signs of–”

  “Just tell me.”

  “At a guess? Three days.”

  I have a feeling that she would like to lie, let them know it was a week ago, that it happened immediately after my little stunt. Let them think that there was no chance we had to save them.

  But there was, and we missed it.

  Their fault, their fault, not ours…

  “I’m sorry,” I tell Sia. “I’m so sorry. I never thought.”

  “You couldn’t have known…” she whispers, “I should have… I shouldn’t have taken so long to…”

  Maybe I should have tracked her down another way, tried a different method of contacting her. I shouldn’t have been so bold, so daring. If I hadn’t, they’d still be alive. Imprisoned, but alive. I would have saved them eventually.

  I stare down at their empty faces. I’m sorry, I’m sorry I failed you.

  Gabe’s hand touches the back of mine. “Ashe,” he says, “it wasn’t your fault.”

  I swallow hard. “Your unit–”

  “Three gone. Two here.”

  “Gabe….” The ones left behind would have been the ones whose loyalty couldn’t be determined. It stands to reason they were close.

  “Don’t,” he says. “It’s not on you.”

  Yes, it is.

  There’s a sharp gasp from the corridor; one of the other parties has arrived. I step outside to greet them.

  “Report.”

  “There’s no…” Their eyes dart through the windows on the doors, struggling to keep their focus. “We checked the gym block. Empty. There’s no one here.”

  “All right. Can you locate some shovels?”

  “Shovels?”

  “We’re not going to leave them here.”

  Silently, the group nods.

  There is no life here, but there is one person who might have escaped the carnage. I make my way to the lower levels, Gabe, Mi and Abi and my heels. The door is locked securely, but I melt it off.

  “Xaph?” I call out. My voice echoes. “Are you here?” Please be here.

  I find our old escape route blocked up again, as anticipated. Most of Xaph’s secret tunnels are intact, though. I suppose once they found our logical escape route, they stopped checking. I call out his name, my voice getting increasingly stretched.

  “Ashe,” says Gabe gently, “they might have found him.”

  He’s right, of course, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep searching. I find a nest of sorts in the corner. The old book pokes out of it, even more well-thumbed than I remember.

  “Gabe,” I whisper, “look.”

  Gabe pries it from the debris.

  “What is it?” asks Mi.

  “It’s the book the nice scientist gave me. The one I picked your names from.”

  “How did he get it?”

  “Because I gave it to him, right before I abandoned him.” Julia appears at the bottom of the staircase, whiter than I have ever seen her. “Is he… is he here?”

  “I don’t… Julia? What… what do you mean? You gave it to him? How–”

  “Because you used to work for the Institute, didn’t you?” Gabe says.

  Julia’s eyes fall towards the floor. She nods painfully. “You recognised me. I thought you might have. The others–”

  “I wasn’t sure,” Gabe continues. “I just knew there was something about you.”

  “The nice scientist,” I realise. “All this time… that was you?”

  Julia smiles weakly. “That’s a sweet name for me. I never felt very nice at the time.”

  “You… you worked for the Institute.”

  “Yes.”

  “But… why?”

  “Because I was young, because it seemed like an exciting opportunity. Because they convinced me they were saving the world. Because I believed them.”

  “Did you… did you know who I was? When we met?”

  She nods. “You are fairly memorable.”

  Questions, so many questions, rattle around my brain. Am I angry? Shocked? Should I yell at her for concealing the truth from me, or for abandoning Xaph, even if she did save him?

  But then I remember what she told me she was doing at Phoenix. Her penance. No amount of anger could displace the guilt she feels herself.

  “I always… I thought they might have killed you.”

  “They might have done, if they realised I’d released Xaph, rather than having him killed.”

  “But you left him. You left him here.”

  Julia sighs, her cheeks flushed with shame. “A decision I have always regretted. At first, I just brought him here as a temporary meas
ure. I was going to come back for him, as soon as I found a place for us…”

  “But then you realised the outside world might not be the best place for him?”

  She nods. “Straight after I arrived in the city, there was a pax outbreak. I volunteered to help the patients…”

  “You met Nick.”

  “And Scarlet. Two more orphans, in need of someone to watch over them. Rudy and Harris… they had always supported the infirmary. They offered me a home, and the children…”

  “So you choose the normal looking ones over the weird one?” Gabe asks, his mouth twisted.

  Julia blanches. “It was not an easy decision–”

  “You should have come back for him, at least let him know–”

  “I wanted to! I was going to–”

  “It’s OK,” says a quiet little voice behind us. “I don’t mind.”

  We wheel around. Xaph is hanging from the ceiling, dangling from a tiny concealed tunnel. He drops to the floor in front of us. He grins up at Julia.

  “What took you so long?”

  Chapter 48

  Julia creeps forward at a snail’s pace, one hand outstretched tentatively towards Xaph. She stops several times. Then, in a desperate blur, she falls down on her knees and crushes him into her arms. Her voice shatters on every syllable as begs for forgiveness, crying into his fur.

  Xaph pats her head. “It’s OK, nice lady,” he says.

  “Julia,” she weeps, just as desperately. “My name is Julia.”

  “Julia,” he repeats it carefully. “Ju-li-a…”

  At least, I think bitterly, there was one good reason for coming back. This wasn’t all for nothing, and I can’t be angry with Julia when I’m still far, far too angry at myself.

  A voice stands from the top of the stairs. “Uh, Ashe?” Dell’s voice calls. “I think you’re going to want to take a look at this…”

  I silently excuse myself from the others, and follow Dell up the stairs and into the labs.