by Tina Chan
The rifle clattered out of Kristi’s hands and skidded out of reach. She held her breath and tried not to gag on the rank breath wafting off the devil-dog. A giant, gooey, glob of slobber plopped onto her sternum. Tears welled up in her eyes from the burning sensation.
Kristi struggled to wiggle out from beneath the devil-dog, but the dog placed one heavy paw on her chest, stilling all movements.
“Help!” she yelped.
Naturally, her voice attracted the attention of the other devil-dog. Why am I so stupid? Of course I had to forget devil-dogs are attracted to noise!
The devil-dog pinning her to the ground stuck its face near hers. More droplets of acidic saliva splattered on Kristi’s bare skin, causing tears to flow freely and run rivets down the side of her face. The muzzle of the devil-dog rubbed against her tearstained cheeks.
Hiss.
The devil-dog jumped backwards, allowing Kristi to get back onto her feet. The fur near the nose and mouth of the devil-dog was gone, and the exposed skin appeared to be red and raw. Kristi realized her tears—which contained water—must’ve eaten away the devil-dog’s fur.
Both of the devil-dogs were more cautious now, knowing she had the potential to harm them. For once in her life, Kristi wished she would cry more tears. She wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and flicked the droplets at the devil-dogs. The dogs skittered backwards when the teardrops rained down upon them; but Kristi knew eventually they would overcome the fear of her tears. Although the droplets did indeed blister their pelts, the injuries were only superficial.
She risked a glance to see how the guard was faring with making a fire. He had managed to light the pieces of paper she had given him by rolling the paper in a torch-like fashion.
“Do you think you can distract the devil-dogs while I try to set off the smoke detector?” Kristi asked.
“Yes.” He passed the smoking bundle of paper to her and then grabbed the fallen rifle from the ground.
The sprinklers better work, Kristi thought. She held up the makeshift torch to the smoke alarm, hoping it would still detect the smoke since several of the wires were ripped. The little green light on the alarm was still blinking, so she had hope.
“Umph!” the guard grunted.
He had taken off his shoes and thrown them at the devil-dogs; his shoes were basically useless at this point as the acid had melted most of the rubber soles. The devil-dogs were momentarily distracted by the objects being chucked at their heads. However, the price for a few seconds of distraction was high. The guard had to be extra careful as to where his feet touched the ground—one step in a pool of devil-dog slobber and he was a goner.
Kristi squeaked and turned her attention back to the improvised torch she held. Her fingers were slightly singed.
“Come on,” she whispered partly to herself and partly to the smoke alarm. “Please let this work.”
There was little more than two inches of paper between the flames and her hand now. She would be forced to put out the fire soon if she didn’t want to burn herself.
THUD!
The sound of a heavy body hitting the ground made Kristi lurch in surprise.
“One down, one more to go,” the guard announced.
The dead body of the smaller devil-dog slid towards Kristi along the slippery floor. She stuck her foot out to stop the body from colliding into her. The devil-dog had been clubbed to death, from the looks of the wounds on its body.
The blank eyes of the animal stared unfocusedly back at Kristi and its large, slimy tongue drooped out from the corner of its mouth. Blood crusted its mouth along with bullet wounds. She shuddered and averted her gaze from the corpse.
THUD!
Kristi looked back towards the direction of the guard and the devil-dog, expecting to see a second dead devil-dog come sliding towards her. Instead, she saw the devil-dog slamming the guard into the ground.
The guard let out a bloodcurdling howl that was quickly cut off when the devil-dog killed him with a bite to the throat. The body of the guard lay in a limp and crooked position. The devil-dog sniffed over the guard to make sure its prey was dead then started trotting towards Kristi.
She dropped the torch and grinded out the fire with her boots (the torch wouldn’t have lasted another ten seconds anyways—there was less than half an inch of paper left to burn). Her chances of making it out of the building alive were growing slimmer by every second. She needed a miracle.
Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!
“Thank heavens!” she exclaimed.
The sprinklers sprang into action at last. Lifesaving water drizzled down onto the devil-dog. The devil-dog stopped in its steps, confused by the sudden change in the environment. Kristi prayed the devil-dog would retreat and leave her alone.
It didn’t.
Undeterred by the fact it was steaming water from its pelt, the devil-dog still stumbled towards Kristi, albeit its steps were shakier and slower. The nearest emergency exit was two hundred meters down the hall. There was no way she would be able to make it there before the devil-dog was on her.
Kristi fake lunged towards the left to evade the dog by dodging to the right. Too slow. The left paw of the devil-dog hooked around her legs and she tumbled to the ground.
Her head cracked against the marble floor and silvery stars exploded across her visions. I refuse for my life to end like this, Kristi thought. Oh yeah? Well, it sure seems like your life is about to end soon, a little voice whispered in the back of her mind. SHUT UP! She ignored the pessimistic voice and focused on getting her head together.
The devil-dog leaned closer, ready to tear through her throat. Her hands blindly swept the area round her. Her fingers wrapped around something small and slim. It was the tranquilizer the guard had threatened to use on Troop and her earlier. The small dart must’ve slipped out of his pockets.
The devil-dog’s teeth flashed dangerously close to Kristi’s face. With all her strength, she thrust the dart into its gaping maw. In its weakened state, the highly concentrated sedative knocked out the devil-dog within a few seconds. She barely had enough time to roll out of the way before the devil-dog dropped down cold onto the space where she had just been lying.
Kristi permitted herself a few seconds to catch her breath. Then she dusted some debris off of herself and took off running out of New Genes Lab without a second look back, leaving the pandemonium occurring in the South Wing far behind.
chapter forty-five
[ Troop ]
“Zala’s definitely going to actively pursue us now,” Chelsa said.
She hit the brakes of the Cleandows van as a stop sign loomed into view. Her driving skills were questionable when she was under pressure.
“Since Zala knows I’ve switched alliances, there’s no questioning that she’s not going to allow us off scot-free. She’ll be promoted to vice commander of the United Regions Homeland Security if she’s able to turn in the four Naturals to the current president of the Homeland Security.”
“Since when did you find out about this?” Troop asked.
“Rosa’s electro-slate,” Chelsa said. “I picked it up after she dropped it and read over some of the instafications they exchanged.”
The van lurched back into motion.
“Do you still have the slate?”
“No. I ditched it after reading through her messages. I didn’t want to risk bringing her slate with us in case it had a tracker in it.
“Do you think the release of the devil-dogs was Finn’s doing?” Kristi asked.
“If it was, he has a lot of questions to answer,” Chelsa said. “He could’ve killed us all.”
“But he didn’t,” Troop pointed out. “As Machiavelli would say, ‘The end justifies the means’.”
“Whatever.”
Kristi didn’t say anything.
“You feeling alright?” he asked.
Kristi nodded, but Troop could tell she was lying. He placed himself in Kristi’s shoes and tried to work out what was upsetti
ng her.
“You couldn’t have helped them,” he said. “You barely got out alive by yourself. If you had tried to save an Accident, neither of you would’ve made it.”
“What type of person am I?” Kristi said, her words low and shaky. “How can I be so self-centered that I didn’t even think about saving the Accidents until after I escaped the lab?”
“You’re a brave, smart and honest girl. Kristi, whether you like it or not, you can’t save everyone,” Troop said. “If this helps, think of it this way: you’re ultimately preventing more deaths by escaping New Genes Lab today.”
“How?”
“The video footage you captured with the contact-cams is solid proof of where the Accidents are ending up.”
“So? How does that help?” Kristi asked.
“If we can broadcast the footage to the Perfects, then they’ll know the truth about what the government has been doing to the Accidents. Then the government will have to stop abducting Accidents or else they’ll have to face a rebellion from the citizens.”
“But what if the Perfects don’t care?” Kristi countered. “What if the Perfects felt that the price of better genetics is worth it? You know how most of the population is obsessed with receiving the latest surgeries in search of perfection.”
Troop creased his forehead.
“Sorry for raining on your parade,” Kristi mumbled. “I know I’m being such a downer.”
He shrugged it off. “Reality sucks.”
“We’re here,” Chelsa announced from the driver’s seat.
She parked the van and they jumped out. Troop shed his Cleandows uniform and went to the storage shed where they had hid the three Cleandows employees earlier. There was no one inside, so he assumed they had woken up and left.
“Ready to go?” he asked when he returned back to the others.
“Yep. Let’s head back to the Filches,” Chelsa said.
The walk to the Filches’ apartment felt like an eternity to Troop, even though it wasn’t supposed to be very long. He checked out the name of the street they were walking on. We’re not even halfway there yet.
Everywhere he looked, public news-screens bombarded the community with the news of the New Genes Lab break-in. Citizens watched wide-eyed with horror of the footage being shown of the devil-dogs attacking the people in the lab; some people huddled together and gossiped while others trawled the government news site on their electro-slate, searching for any updates regarding the break-in.
“Nobody cares about the Accidents,” Kristi hissed into his ear. “None of the footages being broadcasted show the Accidents being kept at the lab.”
Troop cast a fugitive glance over his shoulders, afraid someone might’ve overheard her comment. “I know, but now isn’t the best time to be talking about this.”
He made sure Chelsa, who was walking on the opposite side of the street, was still visible ahead of him and Kristi; Officer Zala had already made a public announcement notifying all citizens should be on the lookout for three teenagers: two girls and one guy, that seemed different—that seemed imperfect.
Keeping his head down while he walked, Troop overheard snatches of conversations.
“I don’t understand why the government allowed them to live.”
“I agree with you. Accidents are a danger to the public—”
“—I don’t know…There must be a reason why they would break into New Genes Lab—”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Havanah. I’m telling you, Accidents are nothing but trouble.”
“How do you know? You’ve never met one yourself.”
“Just trust me on that.”
Troop felt a tug on his jacket. He immediately pushed the offending hand away, thinking some stranger had recognized his face from the public new-screen. His panic was diminished when he realized it was just Kristi, though.
She jerked her arm back and said, “Hold on a second. Give her some time to get into the apartment before we do.”
“Oh.” Troop watched Chelsa push through the glass doors. “Okay.” He thought he heard Kristi mumble something else, so he said, “What did you say?”
“It was pointless, wasn’t it? Trying to find out where the Accidents were and breaking into the lab.”
Troop yanked Kristi off the streets and through the doors of the closest building, which happened to be a hardware store. “I told you not to talk about that in public,” he whispered tersely. “It’s not safe.”
Kristi looked troubled, but didn’t say anything. They left the hardware store and arrived at the Filches’ apartment. Troop called up the elevator and jabbed the correct button. They stood in a strained silence, waiting for the elevator to reach the thirty-seventh floor.
He gave the door a sharp knock with his knuckles and waited for someone to open it.
“Coming!” someone yelled from inside.
The doorknob jangled, and then the door was flung open by Jane.
Finn, Nick and Chelsa were seated on the couch in the living room. Finn seemed to be terribly excited about something. His knees were bouncing up and down so fast Troop wouldn’t be surprised if all of a sudden he jumped up and ran a marathon without crutches.
Jane locked the door behind them and motioned for everyone to take a seat. Troop popped out his contact-cam and handed it to Jane for her to sync onto her electro-slate; then he dropped onto the synthetic leather couch.
He turned to Finn and asked, “Was it you who caused the malfunctioning of the fingerprint, retina and DNA scanners in the South Wing?”
“Yeah. Nick helped me with temporarily blocking the internet in the South Wing so that the machines couldn’t access their database,” Finn said, looking pleased with himself. “But I swear it wasn’t me who let out the devil-dogs,” he added before Troop could ask his second question, which was whether or not Finn freed the devil-dogs from their cages.
“If it wasn’t you, then who was it? The timing of the devil-dog’s release was very convenient. Maybe a little bit too convenient, wouldn’t you say?” Chelsa said.
chapter forty-six
[ Kristi ]
Kristi nodded to whatever conversation was being held in the Filches’ living room; she wasn’t listening, partly because she didn’t care at that moment and partly because her mind was reeling with thoughts. What sort of selfish, egocentric person am I? Did I really not even stop to think about attempting to save those Accidents in my own desperation to escape the lab?
“Isn’t that so, Kristi?” Troop asked, breaking through her reflections.
“Huh—oh, yeah, right,” she said.
Troop gave her a look as if to say, “You have no idea what you’re saying, do you?”
She gave the barest hint of a shrug and tuned out whatever Nick or Finn or whoever was rambling on.
But honestly, what is the point of solving those two cases? I mean, yeah, so we found out where the Accidents are ending up, but so what? There’s nothing I can do about that. And as for the Individualism Case, maybe I’ll just turn it over to Finn’s mom; she’ll be happy about that since she didn’t think I was experienced enough to attempt to complete the two cases.
“Alright,” Chelsa said. “We’ve found out where the Accidents are ending up. Now what?”
My thoughts exactly, Kristi thought.
“We tell the world about this conspiracy,” Troop said.
“Uh-huh. And how are we going to do that? And why are we going to do that? What is the point of releasing this information?” Kristi immediately felt bad for raining on his parade for the second time in a day. I must be in a worse mood than I thought I was.
Troop said nothing and she could sense the gears in his brain clicking and turning.
Hmm, perhaps I should give both the Individualism and Disappearance case to some other Revealer member to solve. I’m not exactly the ideal person to be doing this job.
“I think I have the answer,” Troop said. “Wait for it, wait for it…”
“I think we have some trouble,” Chelsa said.
Kristi looked up. Chelsa was focused on her electro-slate, which was broadcasting the official government news station. Chelsa angled her slate so that everyone in the room could see it.
Kristi took a huge gulp when she saw who the guest speaker was: Officer Zala.
“Good afternoon, citizens. I’m Debbie Kruz reporting from GN Headquarters. Officer Zala is here with me today to make an important public announcement.”
Zala made an irascible sound with the back of her throat, as if she was barely restraining herself from knocking Debbie out of the way and declaring her announcement. Debbie noticed this and hurriedly wrapped up her sentences.
“Stay tuned! I’m going to hand it over to Officer Zala, head of the East Region Homeland Security.”
Debbie almost tripped over her heels when Zala pushed herself forward, right in front of the camera. Zala flashed a quick grimace that Kristi assumed was supposed to be a smile.
“As many of you already know, there has been a major break-in at a government funded lab. Although everything is now under control, the United Regions Homeland Security is asking all citizens to be on the lookout for the Accidents responsible for this infringement. The East Region Homeland Security’s forces will be doing a door-to-door search for the Accidents. Any resistors to our search will be taken into custody.”
Zala stopped talking while pictures captured by the lab’s cameras flashed onto the screen, showing Chelsa, Troop and Kristi.
“Help keep the United Regions safe by reporting any sightings or tips of these fugitives. Citizens aiding the Homeland Security protect the United Regions from these terrorists will be handsomely rewarded.” Zala gave a brisk nod to show she was done speaking and the camera panned back to Debbie.