Chapter Sixteen: You Can’t Run
Lena
THEIR RED EYES gleamed in the darkness, staring me down. I couldn’t afford to be afraid. Fear would lead to my death. I wasn’t human entirely, neither was Theo. Neither was the person whose red eyes were looking at me.
We were equal, but one of us had to win. Theo’s hand was still in mine. We had to get down the stairs to swim to the shore, because the door behind us wouldn’t open. It wouldn’t lead us to safety. Safety was past these red eyes.
Then the face in front of me screeched again. I had never heard such screeching sounds in my life. I had seen some creepy things in my lifetime now, but this was unbelievably peculiar. I took my flashlight from my back pocket, and shined the light in the face of the screeching monster in front of me. I nearly dropped the flashlight. This time, I did feel fear because of what I saw. I was shaking, and the light was flickering on and off his face.
The face before me was Max. My previous next-door neighbor. He was almost completely devoid of any human feature. The skin on one side of his face was gone. One side of his face was metal, and the other was human skin. His eyes were red, and his left eye bulged out from the metal.
“Max?” I said gently, reaching my hand out to comfort him, and maybe remind him that it was me, Lena, his neighbor for fifteen years. His hand jerked out with supersonic speed, and he grabbed hold of my hand. He held it there. Not moving, not screeching.
Theo spoke up slowly. “Gabe’s new system wipes out all human characteristics. He’s gone, Lena. He is lost. Let him go.”
I jerked my hand away, but he held it tightly. It felt like I’d be stuck there forever. “I am not holding him. He is holding me.” I whispered feverishly back. I looked down to see that his entire body was metal. He was a full on robot. The only skin remaining was the half face he had. It was a futile attempt, but I had to try. I used my eyes to burn through his metal to make him let go of my hand.
He screeched and punched me right in the gut. I flew backwards, hitting the door behind me as I went. There was a loud snap as I fell to the floor. The door still didn’t open, even though the crash was fierce.
I held my arm in slight pain. Something had to have broke by the impact. I lifted my shirt up to see the damage. My rub bone was protruding through my skin. I gritted my teeth, already seeing the skin closing around the wound. I was healing. I pushed the bone in with a cry. Blood poured down until it stopped completely. The wound was healed. I never clicked the button in my necklace to turn myself back into a human, thankfully.
I jerked myself off the ground. Max was screeching in Theo’s face, ready to punch him too. Theo was unprepared when the blow landed on his face. He lurched through the air and into the door, slamming his head. “Theo.” I cried out, but he popped up quickly, unharmed.
“I have had enough of you.” I screamed and to my surprise, green encircled my body. My scream seemed to echo through the stairwell. My necklace lifted off my chest, and I grabbed Theo to move behind me. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew. I knew exactly what to do in this moment, to defeat Max.
Max cowered down by my fury. As the scream stopped echoing, he screeched at us, revealing bloodstained razor sharp teeth. That was when I saw many others just like him joining behind him. This was it.
They were right in our faces and that was when I unleashed my power. I pushed my hands forward, and screamed once more like a banshee. I felt Theo hovering behind me, gripping my shirt in what I could only guess was panic.
The power behind my hands was extraordinary. The entire stairwell lit a bright green, before it was blown into obliteration. The only ones protected in my bubble were Theo and I. The screams died down, and Theo and I were the only two left in sight.
“What the fuck was that?” he screamed in my ears. His voice was shaky. Was he afraid of me?
At the end of his sentence, a rumble began beneath our feet. The sound was deafening as it sounded as if the entire place would cave in. One thing was for sure that the staircase was going to collapse at any moment.
“No idea. Let’s get a move on.” We ran past the ash, which were bodies of robots just moments before. Some eyeballs were on the floor, still twitching. I tried not to look at that.
The staircase kept rumbling and I finally reached the bottom, but Theo was not there. “Theo!” I shouted. He was on the bottom step, when it collapsed.
The floor continued to rumble beneath me. If I didn’t move fast, I would fall under too, but I couldn’t leave Theo alone. I soared into the air, searching the wreckage.
“Theo?” I shouted in to the air. “Please be okay.” Thank god I was in the air, because the floor began to crumble. My powers were too strong for me. I was destroying everything. The walls were spider cracking along the wall. Everything was collapsing.
“Theo.” I screamed once more. The ceiling started caving in. I couldn’t leave Theo though. He saved me on the roof. He was my friend. He risked it all for me.
That was when I soared where the stairs had just collapsed. Underneath was rubble everywhere. I didn’t see him anywhere.
That was when more debris fell. Closing the hole that I had just flown through. “Crap.” I whispered under my breath. “Theo?” I shouted into the darkness. That was when a groan answered me. “Theo?” I screamed in return. I followed the moans.
When I reached him, he was under a lot of the wreckage. “I can’t lift it off of me. I have strength and I can’t even use it. Why?” He said as he tried to lift the fragments off of him.
“Stop moving for a second.” I was looking to find what held him in place. I lifted the first piece of cement off of him. I found the culprit. Theo had his shirt stuck under cement blocks.
I moved it quickly and he tried to stand, but couldn’t. What was going on? More pieces of ceiling fell on us each moment we stayed there. I took the blows, breaking them with my fist. I had to get us out of here.
That was when I saw it. Theo’s leg. Protruding through his skin, was a giant nail. The nail was glued to the ground. I ripped his pant leg open, to see that the nail had healed inside his leg.
“Theo. This is going to hurt.” I didn’t give him time to ask what or why. I just lifted his leg off the nail quickly. He screamed in pain, but his leg was already on its way to being healed.
I looked up to find that the hole in the ceiling was completely exposed. The invisible wall seemed to have dropped with the explosion, allowing the water in. It pounded down on us at full force.
“Let’s go!” I shouted to him before we were crushed in the face with ocean water. He seemed to be in a state of shock because he remained frozen after I pulled his leg free. I grabbed him quickly up. We began swimming together against the pounding of ocean water on our heads.
Theo was fine, but he was swimming slower than he had before. It was driving me crazy, so I grabbed his arm and did all the work until we reached the shore.
As soon as we broke our heads through, I let out a sigh. Gabe’s control center was destroyed.
“We destroyed his control system room.” I said simply.
Theo looked at me with a funny look on his face.
“What?” I asked staggered.
“Lena, if it were that simple. I would have blown the place up last week.”
“Then what just happened? The water destroyed everything.”
“Lena, the control room isn’t damaged.”
“I am confused.” I felt like my head was spinning.
“The computers revive themselves. They’re advanced. Hello, Gabe created them. The invisible wall will restore itself, and there will be no water damage. Go back down and see yourself if you don’t believe me.” he pointed down.
“Then why did we have to escape so quickly?” I was at a loss for anything else.
“It would have rebuilt on top of us. We would have died.” He shrugged.
“Well now what should we do?” I screamed to Theo. He was too distracted to hear me. He was pointi
ng in the air. I followed his hand, until my gaze fell on top of the roof.
Aiden was beside Jared with a sort of pole in his hands. He lunged for Jared and that was it.
Then I was screaming in denial. Jared went flying through the air, and I shot out of the water and into the air in an instant. Theo shouted to me, gripping my hand harshly. “No. You can’t do this. You’re too important to the world.” He screamed in my ear but I jerked free of his hold, and I kept going.
I flew through the air to reach Jared, to save him, but I felt a large hand on mine, pulling me severely back to the ground. “Let go, Theo.” When he didn’t let go, I whipped sharply around only to find it was Joseph. He punched me sharp in the nose. I felt like I had gotten whiplash from the impact.
Jared was falling through the air towards the ocean to my left. I was screaming for him. I had to use my power, to get rid of Joseph. I took my hands out, ready to destroy everything in my path until I could reach Jared. I pointed them directly at the glass building.
“Theo. Duck.” I screamed through my teeth.
I screamed as my necklace pulled from my chest once more to glow emerald. The entire glass building shattered around me, the glass freezing in the air at my command. I took my hands towards Joseph.
Every piece of glass was flying right towards his face. Shards of glass pierced the sand but more importantly, pierced Joseph’s face. He stood shocked, but I didn’t get the pleasure of seeing the glass pierce his entire body.
I didn’t see glass stab his eyes, puncture his heart, or destroy his insides. They were already rotten like the disease he put in so many humans. I had too much to do than to watch him die, but I knew he would die. He was human, after all. I searched the sky endlessly for him, hoping he had used a jet pack, or was still mysteriously falling through the air. When I reached the building, he was gone.
“Jared.” I cried towards the water. I flew in circles above the water. The waves crashed viciously. Jared was lost to the waves. I couldn’t find him anymore.
I landed on the roof in a rush, to find Aiden, to kill Aiden, but he was nowhere to be found just as Jared was gone as well.
I felt the world collapsing around me. I had to be better for him. I had to stay in control. I had to beat them. They couldn’t win. Not anymore.
Chapter Seventeen: Bad Dream
Jared
I saw her. She simply lifted her hands in front of her face, and then she screamed. She blew up the entire building, only taking the glass with her. I saw her as she pushed the spikes of glass right into Joseph’s face. There was no stopping her. There was no way to stop the imminent either. He was dead. He had to be dead. Shards of glass puncturing every part of the body would leave no survivors.
Theo was pushed deep into the sand, and was completely unaffected by the debris. It happened so fast that I almost forgot I was falling through the air, until I hit the glass. Nope, it wasn’t glass. It was freezing cold water.
The water sloshed all around my body, pushing me against the rocks to the side. It felt like I was being stabbed with glass myself. I swam against the waves, but the waves were too rough. I was a fragile man after all. I was no match to the beast that was the waves.
My body was slammed against the rocks, and I tried to push against it but I just couldn’t. I had to fight for my life. Lena could take care of herself, this much I knew, but I couldn’t bear to leave her. I couldn’t let the waves win. There was too much that I needed to do. There was too much to live for.
I had said it all night. Let them win or let them kill me, but this time it was different. I had so much to live for. We all did. This world was cruel and ruthless, but there was also love. It was all I had in this world. It was all anyone had to live for, and it was enough.
That was when I heard her scream. It carried throughout the water to me, and I felt a shove against me in the water. The push was enough, because I slammed against the rocks once more, but it didn’t stop there.
Instantly, I was thrust underneath the rocks. I hadn’t prepared. I hadn’t taken a deep breath. My panic was already drowning me. I was swallowing so much water. It would be amazing if I didn’t die right there.
I pushed against the rocks that were now above my head. I was just losing oxygen faster with each heave. I couldn’t push the rocks out of the way.
That was when a gush of water swirled around me, until I was pulled further under water. I tried to fight and swim up, but the gush was tugging me down. Down. Down.
I felt my air becoming less and less. I tried not to panic, so I could keep my oxygen just a little bit longer. I had no way to get back to the surface, because the rocks were above my head now. I tried to swim to the side again, but there was no use. The water struggled against me as I tried to swim back to the top.
I let my body sink with the gushes. I fought as hard as I could, and it just wasn’t enough. That was when I felt like I was falling through the air. I screamed, and I could hear it.
How can I hear myself scream under water? Was I already dead? Was this heaven? That was when I felt air. Smack. I harshly slammed to the ground.
I could breathe. I was no longer in the water. I gasped for air and coughed, spitting out water. I looked around me. I was underground. I was in a sort of safe house. Under the island? How was this possible at all? I knew instantly that this was all Gabe’s doing. He could make anything possible. You imagine it, and Gabe could create it.
I glanced up to see the ocean was above me. It looked as if glass was holding the water in. Computers were all around me. They were all blank screened, and the alarm was still blaring. Red lights flickered on and off. This reminded me of the room to get into our safe house on the beach.
In the corner of the dark room, a computer flickered on, illuminating the face of someone in the corner.
I jumped at the sight. “Who’s there?” I shouted. What a cliché to yell that out to a figure in the dark, genius. Way to be original. No one spoke and I knew I had to get out of here. I stumbled backward, falling. My feet had toppled over from a large lump on the ground. I moved it with my foot, and screamed at the sight of two bloody eyeballs staring up at me.
I continued my scream fest, as I backed away on my hands and feet, only to stumble across more ash, and more eyeballs. What happened here? “They’re dead.” A voice spoke to me.
Clearly they’re dead. “Who is there?” I screeched again.
“Well, I can be your greatest nightmare, or your savior. Your choice.” She said without a hint of sarcasm. She revealed herself in the room.
Panic filled my lungs. It was Lena, but just as soon as she was Lena, she was someone else. Black hair that was parted in the middle that blocked out most of her face. She was fairly thin.
“Lena? What is going on?” I said, and she stood from the chair in the corner. Revealing her face even more in the computer light.
She walked slowly towards me and I felt my heart quickening. I could easily take her, but there was something so familiar.
“Lena?” I said calmly.
The black haired girl transformed once more into my beautiful girl. Lena.
“How are you doing that?” I didn’t think her powers included turning into other people?
“I have my ways.” She responded bashfully.
“Wow. You continue to amaze me.” I briefly stroked her cheek, but she turned quick from my grasp. “How did you find me so fast? You were just on the roof?” I asked quickly.
“Tell me what you’ve found down here.” She smiled at me, ignoring my question, and I had forgotten it as soon as she smiled. I couldn’t help but grin back.
“I know Gabe is behind this, he has to be. Remember the safe house? The layout is almost identical.”
“Gabe, of course. Alec could never come up with this stuff.” She said.
“Alec? You mean Dr. Ravana, my father? I have never heard you call him Alec before.” I said skeptically.
Her face was in a deep frown but she quickly s
miled and recovered. “Of course. I meant Dr. Ravana.” I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different about her.
“So weird to hear you call him that. That’s all.”
“Sorry.” She kept walking around the room, observing each computer. “So what would Gabe make these computer do then?” She asked.
“Gabe was a very organized man. For example, he might have each brain mapped out here.” I stopped for a second. “No. This place probably is the main control system. Gabe would never leave it out in the open. Hence why we are down here, at the bottom of the ocean. What is strange to me is that he doesn’t have the place guarded very well. Maybe this place is a secret and no one knows about it.” My mind was going a mile a minute, but I couldn’t stop. Lena watched on with hunger in her eyes.
I continued, “Gabe must have all the answers in here. He has to. And only one person can answer to it.” A thought came to my mind at that moment. “Lena, we have to transfer this software to you.”
She smiled nervously. “Me? Why me?” she laughed a hesitant chuckle, and I frowned.
“The system can be yours to control. You are the answer. You are the antidote. You know this.” I was about to point to her neck but stopped myself when I was her necklace was gone.
Butterflies entered my stomach. This wasn’t Lena. She wouldn’t ever part with her necklace, not even when she was under control. “Lena, where is your necklace?” Maybe I shouldn’t have asked, maybe I shouldn’t have revealed that I knew she was an imposter, but the damage was done.
Lena’s hand quickly reached for the necklace, and came up short. “Oh no! Where is my necklace?” she asked in an aggravated tone.
“You lost it?” I said in disbelief.
“Yes, I must have lost it. I bet I left it on my nightstand.” That was when I knew she was lying. The necklace had just lit up green, as the real Lena blew up the building, killing Joseph.
Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set Page 41