Survival of The Fittest | Book 3 | Final Ride

by Fawkes, K. M.

  “They talk more than you might believe, once you get them away from the guards,” he said, his voice dropping. “That guy you were talking to the other night, Louis? He’s a freaking wealth of information.”

  At that moment, someone yanked open the door of our room and we jumped apart like we’d been caught doing something wrong. The person, whoever they were, just slid a tray of food into the room though, and slammed the door shut again.

  I went quickly to the tray, remembering now that I was actually starving, and saw a bowl of chicken noodle soup along with a salad and what looked like quite decent fresh bread. They’d also given me a glass of water.

  “Where the hell are they getting this food?” I asked, grabbing the tray up and taking it back with me to the bed, already dipping the bread in the soup and shoving a piece into my mouth. “I mean, aside from what they’re obviously growing themselves.”

  I was already sort of wishing they’d doubled up on the amount of food they’d given me. Because we hadn’t had breakfast or lunch (or at least I hadn’t) and I’d seen more action in the last week than I’d seen in… well, ever. My body felt like it was running on a constant deficit when it came to calories.

  “They must have had enough stored down here to last hundreds of people for months,” Will guessed. “If the place was as well-prepped as I’m thinking it was.”

  “You have no idea,” I said, trying to chew and talk at the same time. “And I don’t think Dear Old Dad was exactly what he said he was. Or rather… I don’t think he’s the one that built this place.”

  Will looked at me with questions written all over his face, and I dove right into what I’d learned during the day, starting with the fact that I’d used his hotwiring knowledge to spy on Adam and Zach and heard them talking about blueprints, architectural plans, and salvaged machinery, and that none of it made any sense.

  “So you were spying on them,” he said approvingly.

  I shrugged. “The women in my group were literally told to walk around and try to build a plan for how to take apart the rollercoaster. It was a stupid task and we all knew it. I could see that the women were just waiting for someone to do something about it. Personally, I didn’t see much point in sticking around to try to help with this walking and gazing around. Figured my talents were better used elsewhere.”

  Will leaned forward suddenly and pressed a soft, urgent kiss to my forehead, and I froze mid-chew.

  “You,” he said, “are one of the most badass—and most reckless—women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Continue.”

  I told him everything I’d heard—including some of my guesswork about all of it—and then told him what I’d guessed about Zach and the rest of the guards, given the way they treated—and were treated by—Adam.

  “I don’t think any of them is happy, and I think we can use that,” I finished. “I’m thinking they were a big group of friends before the attack and Adam was never the smart one. But it was his dad that built the bunker, and once they came here and Adam was in charge, they were all demoted. They can’t be happy. And. I also got to see the prison cell.”

  That right there was an important piece to the puzzle, and I used it to transition into my thoughts about the military, and the idea that this might have been a military base at one point. How it was the only thing that explained the idea that a bomb had exploded right here, in the middle of nowhere… over a freaking amusement park.

  “And it would also explain all of the equipment they found,” Will concluded slowly. “Because there’s no way Adam’s dad just happened to collect that much stuff. He surely didn’t have the contacts.”

  “If he had contacts like that, he would have done something to at least get Adam an honorable discharge rather than a dishonorable one,” I agreed. “I mean, not that it’s all that easy, but it’s also not common to have military equipment coming out of your ears, as a civilian. I just can’t make the two match up.”

  “And you’re right. It also explains the attack,” Will said. “Why would they send a bomb to take out a freaking amusement park full of people?”

  “They wouldn’t bother,” I answered. “Unless they thought this was still a military base.”

  Will frowned at that, though. “But simple research should have told them if this one had been decommissioned. If it was hidden in the first place but they were able to find it, then they should have been able to figure out that it had been deserted. It might have been secret from the public, but it obviously wasn’t secret from them. They had an inside track.”

  That was a good point, and one that I hadn’t thought about up to right now. But there was really only one answer.

  “So they’re not infallible. They don’t know everything. They’re good, but they’re not unbeatable. Great at hacking… but not perfect.” Then I remembered that I was actually missing out on a huge part of my day. “And,” I said, my voice picking up speed again. “That’s not all.”

  I told him about being taken into Adam’s office, and about what he’d said about the solar panels and how they only partially worked. I told him that it had evidently been Zach’s idea—more proof that he might be an ally, if we played our cards right—and that I thought that was how they were powering this place, since we already knew the electrical grid was down.

  “And he wants me to fix it all so that the entire park above us will also run on those solar panels,” I said finally.

  Will frowned. “Then why the hell is he having us take the amusement park down?”

  “Huh?” I asked intelligently.

  And that gave him the start he needed to tell me about what he’d learned during the day. The men were tasked with taking the rollercoasters down, just as I’d heard they were doing. But they weren’t getting rid of anything. Instead, they were very carefully taking everything apart and saving it, categorizing it into different bins so that it would all be easily found later on. Saving the metal, saving the screws, saving the wood braces.

  Saving the engines that ran the chains that powered the rollercoasters.

  “He’s building something,” I said, remember what he’d said about that. “And it’s something big. Big enough that he wouldn’t be able to find enough metal just laying around in a city or something. Big enough that he’s actually stripping the rollercoasters themselves to do it.”

  “And apparently using the machinery as well,” Will added. “But… for what? What could he possibly be building that required all of that, plus power? And why?”

  I thought about it for several long minutes, trying to put myself in Adam's place, all paranoia and narcissism. What would someone who thought he might actually be the most important person in the world do in this situation? Someone who thought a cult had already attacked him, and that they were going to try to do it again? Someone who had limited resources… but an entire amusement park at his fingertips?

  Architectural designs. Blueprints. Reclaimed machinery. Solar power—enough of it to power an entire amusement park.

  Solar power that he expected me to fix for him. And I thought I could probably do it—as long as it was run on some sort of computer network, with standard wiring and a program that was at least fairly easy to navigate.

  The question was still the same, though: What would I be powering? And was he going to leave me alive if I did that for him? Or would he kill me right after I was done, in payment for all the trouble I’d already caused him?

  Or, more likely, to keep me from telling anyone what I knew about what he was doing?

  Chapter 21

  We slept in the same bed that night. Not because we were doing anything, but because it just felt like the thing to do. Will was also stripped down to underwear and a T-shirt when I came out of the bathroom and we gave each other equally long, equally weighty looks.

  Then I climbed into my bed and he climbed in after me, pulling the covers up to our chins, wrapping his arms around me, and pulling me close against his body. I sighed and melted back ag
ainst him, thankful beyond belief for the solid feel of him and the knowledge that he was right there if I needed him.

  No, it wasn’t romantic. No, it didn’t mean anything more than it meant. It was just that we’d been through so much already, and were looking at going through so much again tomorrow, and neither of us really knew, at this point, whether we were going to see the next day… or not.

  And if there was ever a time to hold your trusted ones close, that was it. I think we both realized that, and though neither of us said anything, that was just because we’d already said all that needed to be said.

  I fell asleep feeling safe for the first time in a long time, and though that didn’t really make any sense, I knew in the last moments that I was awake that it was all down to Will’s arms around me and the knowledge that no matter what, we were going to stand next to each other and fight until we couldn’t fight anymore.

  The next morning, when I opened my eyes, Will was still lying behind me with his arms firmly wrapped around me. He must have felt me stiffen, because he said, “You awake?”

  “Just now,” I said. “How long have you been awake?”

  “Long enough to do some thinking. I’m guessing we’re going to be separated again today. If they have a specific task for you—”

  “Then they’re going to take me away from you again,” I filled in. “And given our history, I really doubt they want to keep us together. I’m surprised they let us sleep in the same room, honestly.”

  He snorted. “Where are we going to go? They’ve got a padlock on our door, and who knows what else.”

  I turned to face him, giving him the ghost of a grin. “If we want out badly enough, a padlock isn’t going to stop us. You know it, I know it, and I suspect they know it, too.”

  He reached out and touched the end of my nose gently. “Then I guess you’d better spend the day convincing them that you’re not actually as dangerous as they think you are, so they don’t decide they have to kill you when you’ve finished your task. I know it’ll be tough for you. But try to play nice. Keep that mouth of yours under control. Just for today.”

  I touched the tip of his nose in return. “Well, I can’t make any promises in that regard. But I’ll try.”

  Then I watched him push himself up—favoring the injured shoulder—and hobble toward the bathroom, stiff with the morning and seeking a shower to help him loosen up. God, I wished we could find a doctor. What good was an entire bunker of food and electricity if you didn’t have a doctor to see to the people you were counting on? The people you were supposedly saving?

  Or did they actually have a doctor out there somewhere? Was it just that said doctor hadn’t been told about Will? Was it just that Will was being kept from him or her?

  I didn’t like that thought. I didn’t like it at all. But I had to admit that there was a good chance that it was the truth. Given what I’d seen of Adam already, I didn’t think he would be above something petty like that. Hell, for all I knew, I was going to get to his office this morning to hear that I had to get those solar panels working, stat, and as a reward, I’d get a doctor’s visit for Will.

  But only if I succeeded. And only if I kept my mouth shut while I worked.

  And I’ll tell you what, if I had thought that Will would get some treatment, I would have kept my mouth shut for the next week. Longer, if he’d gotten to see a real live doctor who made him feel better.

  In the end, of course, it was even more complicated than I had imagined.

  The moment our friend Jerry showed up at our door, Will and I were indeed separated.

  “You, to the stairs at the front. You’re going up top for salvage duty,” he barked in Will’s general direction.

  “What about a doctor for his shoulder?” I snapped. “How much salvage do you think he’s going to be able to do with such a limited range of motion? We need to know if something’s broken in there. We need to know if there’s internal bleeding.”

  “Won’t know either of those things if you don’t keep your mouth shut and get to work,” he said, though I could hear that his voice didn’t have the edge of nastiness it had held yesterday.

  Was it just me, or was Jerry actually warming up to me?

  I added that to the mental tally I was keeping, and Jerry moved a little closer to the Potential Good Guy column.

  Will, in the meantime, just nodded, ran one finger down my cheek, and leaned in. “Be good,” he said. “Remember, mouth shut. Eyes open. I’ll see you tonight, and I’ll be really pissed off if you don’t show up.”

  Then he was gone, moving down the hallway toward the crowd of people I could see in the next hall. All people bound for the outside world. Bound to salvage parts of rollercoasters for a plan I still couldn’t even guess at.

  Meanwhile, Jerry took my arm and turned me in the other direction.

  “I don’t get to go up top?” I asked—though we both knew that I didn’t really need to. I’d already heard Adam’s plans last night. I already knew where I was bound this morning.

  But what I would find when I got there? Now, that was the big question mark.

  We went to Adam’s office the longer way this time, and I kept my eyes open just like Will had recommended, recording the route in my memory—and watching for the electronics room on my way by. That was still the room that I wanted to get into and fiddle around with, and if we got out of our room again—in the middle of the night, say—then the electronics room was the one I was going for. When we passed it, I noticed that it didn’t have a door on it, which meant that it also didn’t lock.

  That was stupid of Adam, in my opinion. Then again, lots of people didn’t understand exactly how important those electronics were. They didn’t understand how much you could do if you managed to get into them.

  They’d never been on my side of the curtain. Which, I supposed, was a blessing in disguise. Because if Adam had known how important they were, he’d probably be doing a whole lot more to keep me away from them.

  When we got to Adam’s office, it turned out that he was a man who didn’t want to use many words, today. He looked up, gave me one quick glance, and then nodded.

  “Good, you’re here. You’re going to be in the networking room today. Your mission is simple: Get the solar power online. Quickly.”

  He rose and marched with me and Jerry back the way we’d just come, his mouth sealed and his face intent. I didn’t bother with any questions. I took one look at him and realized that he wasn’t going to answer me, no matter what I asked or how important it might be to the mission he’d given me. I also remembered that I was supposed to be keeping my mouth shut and my eyes open.

  And given the precariousness of our situation, for the first time in my life, I did just that.

  When we got to what Adam called the networking room, I saw that it was in fact the electronics room that I’d passed several times already—and marked as the one place I really wanted to get into.

  For a moment, I actually couldn’t believe my luck. They were even stupider than I’d thought if they were giving me access to this room. If I was incredibly lucky, they’d leave me alone in here and I could do all the things I’d been wanting to do since I first arrived. The locks on the doors. The security cameras.

  The exits.

  What the hell were they thinking?

  Then I realized what they were thinking. They thought that I was good with wiring. They thought I could probably figure out a wiring network, and that I’d need the maps on these computers—I assumed—to figure out how to do that. Maybe there was even a software that controlled the solar power network, and they were going to give me access to that.

  Thinking, of course, that I’d need it if I was going to get their solar power hooked up to the amusement park.

  They had no idea that I was a computer hacker. Why would they have known that? I hadn’t told them, and there was no other way for them to get that sort of information. They couldn’t exactly do an internet search on my name.
I mean, they could—except that they didn’t know my last name. And even if they had, they would have found that it didn’t turn anything up. Because my records were under another name—a name I didn’t tell anyone—and they were sealed, since I’d been a minor at the time.

  Since then, I’d just been a newspaper reporter. I hadn’t exactly taken out ads to shop for new hacking clients.

  They had no freaking idea who I was or what I could do.

  I almost smiled right then. I couldn’t help it. It was all just too perfect. Too easy.

  And then Adam gave me the stakes. He stepped forward to one of the computers, flipped it on, and pressed a few buttons. A familiar-looking desktop came up, and he went through a couple quick steps to bring up a folder full of plans.

  “These are the solar plans,” he said shortly. “Figure out how to get them to connect to the park itself rather than just the bunker. Use whatever you need to in these folders. You’ll find all the blueprints for the entire park here.”

  Then he hit a few more buttons and a different picture came up. A shot that looked like it was from a security camera. It was grainy and unfocused, the way security cameras almost always are, but it was easy enough to see what it was showing me. Will, walking along with a drill and a tool belt, his curly hair covered by a hard hat.

  Behind him, a guy with a rifle. A rifle that was pointed right at Will.

  “If I find you messing around—or sneaking around—your friend dies,” Adam said. “Got it?”

  I just nodded in response, unable to take my eyes away from the screen. This confirmed it. Yeah, I got that they wanted me to behave, and that threatening Will was the easiest way to do that. But I’d been in the underworld long enough to know that you only threatened people you were actually willing to kill if things didn’t go your way.

  You didn’t threaten people you needed to keep alive. Because doing that would make it too easy for your enemy to call your bluff.

  If Adam was treating us this way now, it meant we were expendable to him. Picking us up had been an accident, of sorts, and I’d thought he might keep me around because I said I knew about the attack. But it turned out that wasn’t true at all. He was going to use me because he thought I was good at wiring.