So I grabbed the damned flashlight in my utility belt and swung it toward her face, images of Gardiner being smothered by Alan in shadow form coming to my mind.
Only to freeze when I found Alan not suffocating her to death but shielding her.
“What are you doing?” Dawn’s brother said.
“I thought—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We need her to bring this information to the police. You—look out!”
I spun around just in time to catch a punch from the armored man as it came swinging at my face.
Years of boxing immediately kicked in. I went for body blows. Some of them were deflected, but most struck true. And, well, it would have done my pride a lot better to see him react to some of those blows. But just like before, he shrugged them off as if they were kisses, focusing his attention on pushing me backward.
It was probably why he didn’t see Lilah coming.
With a cry, she launched herself onto his back, wrapping an arm around his neck. I watched as the glowing ball of energy around her right arm shaped itself into claws, which she raked across the armor in a long, diagonal line. He let out a grunt and struggled backward, trying to shake Lilah off. When that didn’t work, he backed up against a wall, hard, pinning the Actual between himself and the solid surface.
“Faultline, the armor!” she said, obvious strain in her voice as she let go of the man and slid to the floor.
All it took was one good look to catch her meaning. The armor was now covered in cracks from the blows that both Dawn and I had landed, and scratches from Lilah’s power. Gritting my teeth, I stomped my feet against the hardwood floors beneath my feet, only this time instead of cracks in the floor, I felt it shake. The miniature earthquake blew toward the armored man in a controlled wave before climbing up his body and hitting every fault in his armor. Here, I released it with a nice big “fuck you” of anger to the guy who had tried to beat up my girlfriend. The upper part of his armor all but exploded off him.
That was enough to catch him off guard. He stumbled forward and fell to one knee. His head ducked down, a blond lock of hair falling over his face.
But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what was going on with the rest of him.
“My God,” Lilah breathed.
His body was covered with a second layer of armor the color of old blood. And it wasn’t until he lifted his face and I saw the way his skin peeled back from the left side of his face that I realized that it wasn’t body armor at all, but a layer that sat beneath his skin. His eyes were blue, expression deadpan. He looked familiar but I couldn’t quite place him.
“Mark?” I heard Alan say.
Dawn
“Diego?”
My podmate’s name escaped through my lips in a half whisper as I stared into his lifeless gaze, blood still running from his nose.
“Dawn!” Gerry said, a note of panic in his voice.
I spun around to see him, crouched near Karen, his overshirt wrapped around her torso in a makeshift bandage.
A bandage that appeared to be doing nothing to staunch the flood of blood.
It wasn’t unusual to see Gerry uneasy, but I had never seen him panicked before, not even when bullets were flying. I smoothed my lips and crouched down next to Karen, careful not to touch the blood pooling around her.
“D-Dawn,” she said. “Are you…is everyone all right?”
For a second, I thought about Diego, lying several feet away from us. His body…
I pushed that thought away.
“We’re fine,” I said, forcing a smile. “All of us, we’re fine.”
“Good,” she said. “You…you’re so close. The exit…it’s just past that garage. You need to move before—”
“We know,” I said. “We know.”
“Good,” she repeated.
And then she died.
I felt tears well up in my eyes. Tears for my podmates, Karen and Diego. Tears for my fellow prisoners, even the ones I had barely known, for Justin, Luiz, Anna, Khuong and Sam. Hell, even Bixby. Because none of them deserved this. None of them deserved to die.
But those were tears I did not have time to shed.
“The garage is clear,” Mark said from behind me. “But it probably won’t be for long.”
I turned to see him standing among the bodies, not even casting Diego a second glance.
“He’s right,” I said, turning back. “Gerry.”
For a second, he didn’t respond, just stared down at the dead woman in front of him.
“Gerry,” I repeated.
“You know,” he said. “There are times when I’d wake up at night and forget where I was.” He shook his head. “And then it would all come back, and it was like I was experiencing it for the first time. But then I’d remember Karen, and that made it easier. At least I didn’t have to go through this alone.”
And I realized in that moment that I didn’t know the exact nature of their relationship. They had always seemed like partners, but was that because they ran Pod Four, or had it been something more?
No. They had been together for months, resisting Project Regen in every way they knew how. It didn’t matter what their bond had been, exactly. What mattered is that they had cared for each other.
He paused, shaking his head. “We need to go,” he said. “It’s time for me to see my little girl again.”
With that, he pulled himself out of his grief and onto his feet.
The three of us ran across the room. The garage led out into a long hallway that sloped upward. I could see the open door at the top, and sunlight pouring out of it. And for a moment, I felt an emotion I had not allowed myself to feel in over a month and a half. Hope. We were going to get out. Find justice for our fallen friends.
And then I heard the rhythm of gunfire.
I didn’t know where it was coming from. I just reacted, pushing Gerry down to the ground, attempting to shield him. I heard additional blasts and jerked as two bullets hit me in the back. I looked up to see a single guard, who had come out some sort of a side door, a weapon in his hand.
And then Mark stepped in between the two of us.
The next two shots hit him across the chest. On anyone else, these would have punctured vital organs, but on Mark they ricocheted. He closed in on the Black Hat, the older man’s eyes widening when he saw his attacks had no impact. He began to turn, but it was too late. Mark pulled the gun from his hands. It clattered to the floor. This noise was eclipsed by a scream as Mark reached out and pressed his hands against the side of the man’s face. The man’s cry was loud, terrifying, and short. I felt myself gasp when I saw the grisly, horrible results. Mark dropped him to the floor.
He turned around back to me, the red exoskeleton showing through the holes in his shirt, his eyes dull and dead-looking.
“We should go,” he said, voice deadpan.
I nodded, uneasy. I pulled back from Gerry and hissed at my own injuries. My image faded again, switching back and forth between Dawn and this new form. I felt my healing powers begin to kick in, the bullets popping from my back, the wounds beginning to close.
Only just as it finished, I blinked back to Dawn again. And this time, I couldn’t change back. I felt my eyelids grow heavy as my body was coaxed into unconsciousness.
“Well,” I heard Gerry say. “That’s unfortunate.”
I looked down at him and gasped when I saw the red stain spreading across his shoulder.
The shock of it was enough to draw me back to reality.
“Gerry,” I began. “You’re—”
“It’s fine,” he said, pushing himself to his feet with obvious effort. “With medical attention—”
He tried to take a step forward, and then stumbled. He looked up through the open doors.
“The trees,” he said, and my sleepy mind immediately made the connection.
“We can hide,” I replied. “Bandage your wound. Send Mark to get help—”
“Exactly, Anna.” He shoo
k his head. “I mean—never mind. We need to get going.”
We made a sad group, the three of us limping up and out of the door. Mark, his clothing torn, his face a mask. Gerry, his shoulder freshly injured. And me, half hunched over from the exhaustion that was threatening to consume me. About halfway up, Gerry let out a cry, stumbling to the ground. I watched as Mark bent over to pick up him, carrying him the rest of the way. How long had he been this strong?
The moment the sun hit my face, I came to a full stop.
For weeks, I had stood under harsh fluorescents, their light controlled by the flip of a faraway switch. For weeks, nothing that we had experienced, from the food we ate, to the blood we shed, had been under our control. And now…
“Dawn?”
I looked up to see Mark, who had begun to walk up a hill close to the giant doorway we had just exited, Gerry in his arms. We walked into the woods a little way until I noticed something very important.
Gerry’s wound was still bleeding.
“Gerry?” I asked, “are you sure you’re okay?”
He looked to me, eyebrows knit together in confusion.
“Do I know you?” he asked.
I felt my heart sink. “Mark, we should stop,” I said. “Bind his shoulder, or something. Do either of you know how to do that?”
“Maybe I do,” Gerry replied with a frown. “I was an Eagle Scout…I think.”
Without needing to be asked twice, Mark sat him up by a tree. Gerry looked up at him, and for a second, I had thought he had forgotten about Mark too. What a horror it would be just to look up and see that face, with no context.
“How many bullets did you take, Mark?” Gerry asked.
In response, Mark shrugged.
“I’ll go watch for Black Hats,” he said, then moved away from the clearing.
“Okay, Gerry,” I said, removing my jacket. “How do we do this? We need to get you stable, because I don’t know how long it will be before we find…Gerry—your eyes!”
I watched as his normally hazel eyes turned to bright, glowing gold.
“What about my eyes?” He asked.
“They’re…well, they’re glowing.”
“Huh,” he said. “So strange. I wonder what that means… Dawn? It is Dawn, right?”
“I…yes.”
“Do you think that Summer will still recognize me?”
And then, those gold eyes went very, very still.
“Gerry?” I said, reaching out for him.
The second I touched him, the wave of gold pulsed outward, throwing me from atop the embankment and into a tree. And being in regular Dawn mode, boy did I feel that hit. Paralyzed by pain and fear, I watched a golden shell settle down over the clearing like clumps of pollen in the spring, settling over my bare arms. And across the way lay…
What was his name again?
I realized what was going on a second too late. My memories, they were being erased! But I had promised to find justice for my friends. I had—
Everything went dark.
Alex
I’ll admit it, I was shocked into silence as Mark drew himself to his full height.
Alan was thinking a lot quicker.
“Mark,” he said, drawing up next to me. “I trust that you remember me. I know we didn’t always get along…”
Mark blinked, took a cautious step toward Alan—
And then punched him across the face, sending him sailing over the crouch.
“Shit,” I said, rushing toward him. “Are you—”
“Stop him!” Alan said, voice half choked.
I turned around in time to see that Mark had crossed the room, bearing down on Dr. Hale. Her calm demeanor vanished in the span of two seconds; about the same amount of time it took for Mark to wrap his hands around her throat.
I jumped to my feet as Lilah began to dash across the room, both of us knowing that neither of us could cross the space in the single second it would take for Mark to break Dr. Hale’s neck.
And then a figure jumped in through the open window, soaring across the room in a sea of red and black, striking Mark across the jaw.
“Well,” Hikari said. “I don’t think I need to comment on the irony of this one, Dr.—”
Dawn’s chatty demeanor was cut off the second she registered Dr. Hale’s attacker.
“Mark?” she asked, as he pulled himself to his feet. “I thought…But you were…” She shook her head. “What did they do to you?”
Mark’s response was to ball his hands into fists.
“Dawn—” I tried to warn, but it was too late.
Mark reared back and gave Dawn a punishing punch to the gut, sending her flying back and into me. We stumbled to the ground, and he pivoted back toward Dr. Hale.
And then Lilah was behind him, her hands covered with golden flames. She pressed them against each side of Mark’s face. A flash of gold, so bright I had to look away, engulfed his head.
I turned around just in time to see Mark collapse onto the ground.
And Lilah looked damn near likely to do the same. She rested her hands on the tops of her thighs to keep her upright.
“How did you know?” I asked, still on the floor.
“Psychic, remember?” she said.
“But I thought you needed permission—”
“In extreme circumstances, I can make an exception.” She looked to Dawn. “Are you okay?”
I looked down at my girlfriend, only to see the superhero I had once labeled as chatty appeared to be at a loss for words. Still on the floor, she stared at Mark in utter disbelief.
“Dawn—” I started.
Then she said the three words that I least expected to hear coming out of her mouth.
“Where’s Leonard Haywood?”
I blinked. Dr. Hale’s dead ex?
“The records said that he was deceased,” Alan said, stepping forward.
Dawn jerked slightly, probably surprised to see her brother in the middle of all this. But to her credit, she hid the reaction by moving to her feet.
“He wasn’t last summer,” she said. “And I’m going to assume that it would be impossible to continue developing the vaccine without him.”
“Of course,” Dr. Hale said, standing tall. “I can take you to him.”
And with that, Dr. Hale exited the room, heading back down the way we had entered. As we walked down the hall, I saw Dr. Hale’s son looking out of his room with big eyes. They widened as he saw Dawn.
I wondered if the kid would ever forget this night.
Dr. Hale brought us to a doorway with an electronic lock (the same type of lock, I couldn’t help but notice, that Project Regen had used). She typed in a series of numbers and then presented her thumbprint. The door let out a clicking noise.
For a second, just a second, Dr. Hale didn’t move. She looked up at us before dropping her gaze, and then she reached out and opened the door.
I heard the beeping of the hospital equipment before I saw him.
A man, tall and skeletal, lay on the bed, hooked up to every tube imaginable. The sound of a respirator filled the room. The sight made my skin crawl.
“What’s going on here?” Lilah finally said, breaking the silence.
“You said vaccine?” Alan said, turning to his sister. “Is this the source of Project Regen?”
Dawn shook her head. “Not anymore.”
25
Dawn
Alex and I stood near the back of Dr. Hale’s house, leaning up against a patch of white wall bookended by a large window and an entrance to her house. Thanks to the late hour, we could hear the lake better than we could see it, the water lapping up against the dock in steady, breath-like patterns. A light breeze picked up from over the water, causing my cape to flutter.
I had only been costumed up for fifteen minutes. I had barely done any fighting. Why did it feel like I was running close to empty?
“So, what do you think?” Alex asked. “Are we done?”
“I gue
ss that’s up to her,” I replied, nodding to the single figure out at the edge of the dock.
She was lit mostly by lamplight. It was almost a moonless night, and few of the houses that surrounded the lake were occupied this time of the year. She had wrapped herself in a large jacket, her breath gathering in front of her in a cloud of frozen vapor.
Of course, it would be cold. Not that I could feel it.
A pair of footsteps cut through my thoughts, and I turned just in time to see Lilah exiting the house, dressed in her full Golden Strike gear. It struck me as odd, since both times I had seen her in costume, I had been too distracted to appreciate the sight of my idol, standing in her full glory.
Although now that I thought about it, that sight of her taking down Mark had been crazy awesome…
“How did it go?” Alex asked.
“To be frank? The Higher-Ups are overwhelmed. The way the Forecaster spoke about the odds, he had primed them for failure. Now we have a mad scientist, an eight-year-old child, an empowered fighter, and a body being kept alive by complicated medical equipment.”
“Gee, sorry to disappoint.” Alex crossed his arms over his chest. “You speak to Forecaster directly?”
“Not yet. Although strangely enough, I can still hear his voice in my head telling me that we should secure Mark a little more thoroughly.”
“You think he’s going to wake up anytime soon?”
“Highly unlikely. But…” She raised a hand, but only the faintest of glows emerged. “I’m almost out. That last hit took a lot out of me, and I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“Can’t argue with that. I’ll help.” Alex moved away from the wall. “Dawn?”
“I…I need a moment,” I said, turning my attention back to the woman on the docks.
“Sure,” he said, giving my shoulder a squeeze before turning back toward the house. “So, what do you think Forecaster would say about the fact that you left Mark alone with Alan?”
Silver and Gold (Red and Black Book 3) Page 27