by Angel Lawson
I’d come to reason with Jane and get her to stop the development of her Hybrid army when Chloe initiated a coup. Jane and I escaped, along with three other soldiers, but that didn’t stop Chloe from pushing forward. First she traveled south, building up her Hybrid army all the way to the sea. There she encountered General Erwin and his army of survivors, many members of the rebellion I started before I headed north. I have no idea what happened to Erwin or my friend Paul, but with Chloe here I’m not hopeful.
Paul was our first signal that something good could come from my sister’s bio manipulations. He was kept as a guinea pig for Jane’s early vaccine trials, half dead when we found him. Ultimately, though, he survived and not only regained his health, but the cocktail he’d been fed gave him enhanced strength and skills without the crazy that went along with it. Paul falls into a third category, a Mutt. He’s immune to Eater bites, is crazy fast and strong, but also maintained his empathy and humanity. Only one other person that we know of is a Mutt.
Cole.
Cole took the second vaccine on purpose. He knew and understood the outcome but felt it was the only way to fight Chloe. Unfortunately, his twin sister’s torture and abuse has pushed his humanity to the brink.
“I know how all this started, Jane. I was there for every hellish step. What does Chloe want you to do now?”
“Right,” Jane says, pushing her brown hair over her ear. She’s slight—smaller than I am, with blunt bangs that cover her eyebrows. Her hair used to be short but it’s grown out now and our eyes are a similar shade of gray. “She didn’t give me a lot of details but specifically asked me to repair the Hybrid vaccine so that it didn’t conflict with EVI-1.”
“She wants to make sure people with the EVI-1 vaccine can get the EVI-2 injection and have the desired transition?” I ask, mulling over the idea.
“Yes, she wants the enhancements as well as absolute mind control over everyone.”
“Unlike the Mutts, who were given the Hybrid injection after being given EVI-1 and maintained their independent thought.”
“Yep,” she says.
I think on this for a moment. “The EVI-1 was given to very few people. The Fighters, like myself, who went to the first distribution center, and later Erwin’s soldiers and the recruits we picked up along the way.”
“Yes.” She doesn’t meet my eyes when she adds, “The remaining civilians at The Fort were given the Hybrid injection shortly after you left. I’d already transitioned into using them as my main force.”
I recall them storming the vaccine center, looking for me and my friends. We’d narrowly escaped until we were cornered soon after by Chloe.
“With the millions of survivors out there that never had any inoculations, why is she worried about a clean Hybrid vaccine?” I ask, wondering if Chloe is just making Jane run in circles the way she has me cleaning baseboards and windows.
Jane sits in the chair next to my makeshift hospital bed. She doesn’t answer my question but I know she, at the very least, has some ideas.
“Other than Cole, when would Chloe have realized that Mutts are useless to her?”
I think back to what Wyatt told me when we found one another last year. That he’d escaped the south looking for me just before the Hybrid army found him and Erwin down in Savannah. I look up at my sister. “She captured Erwin’s army and injected them with the EVI-2.” Jane holds my gaze, giving me no signal that I’m right, but the goose bumps on my flesh tell me that I am. “She accidentally created an entire army of super-soldiers that she can’t control.”
Jane simply says, “I don’t have any confirmation on this theory, Alex. Nothing at all. She may have figured it out long ago and slaughtered Erwin’s entire base.”
“But if it’s true,” I whisper, suddenly worried I’ll be overheard. “It means Erwin may still be out there with his men and he could be stronger than ever.”
*
They come for me as expected, two Hybrids dressed in full black. They cut the ties that bind me to the table and I sit up, stretching my stiff back.
“Help her dress,” one of the soldiers says to Jane. The woman stands at the door while Jane helps me back into my prison wear. I inhale sharply when she accidentally grazes the bruise.
“Sorry,” she says.
“It’s fine.”
The elastic waistband is loose enough that it doesn’t hurt too badly and I’m able to move around a little better than I had the day before. I’ve just slipped my feet into my pathetic shoes when the guard at the door jumps to attention and Chloe breezes into the room with two additional Hybrids following her. It’s the first time I’ve seen her face-to-face in months—since the night she killed Wyatt.
“Alex,” she greets me with a wide, weird smile. “You look like hell.”
“Yeah, I feel like it too, but thanks for noticing.”
“Give her a hairbrush or something,” she snaps at my sister. “It’s like a beast was unleashed on top of her head.”
Jane opens a desk drawer and pulls out a small, travel-sized hair brush and hands it over. I begin the tedious process of working the bristles through my thick hair.
Chloe moves behind Jane’s desk, picking up various reports and papers she’s accumulated. It probably reads like nonsense. I certainly can never understand what she’s scribbling on the paper. I think it’s some sort of shorthand only Jane understands. Although it’s possible my father and Avi are privy to her language.
Chloe once was the flip-side to Cole’s coin. Twins that favored one another with matching ice-blue eyes and blonde curly hair. The medics shaved her hair after she’d been shot in the head when we first got to PharmaCorp, but it’s regrown now, wilder, but a shade darker than before. Her eyes are the hard black that signals the Hybrid transformation, similar to an Eater but without the sickly spider-webbed veins that criss-cross the whites of their eyes.
It makes me physically sick to look at her, to know what she’s done to so many people and to think I once considered her a friend.
“Sit down while you tame that mess,” she points to the chair across from Jane’s desk. She looks up at two of the guards. “Please take the former Director on a walk. We need a little privacy.”
The room has a small flurry of activity as everyone follows directions. The remaining guard lingers at the door until Chloe gives her the signal to leave too. My stomach twists nervously as the guard leaves the room. I know the Hybrids will not help me, but honestly? I’d like a witness to whatever she plans on doing to me next.
“It’s been a while since we spoke,” she says once the room is clear. “I know you’re angry about being kept here but it was a necessity. For such a small, inconsequential girl you’ve been a thorn in the side of the new world order from the beginning. First with your sister and later with me.”
“What’s this about Chloe? Just another opportunity to let me know how worthless I am while being absolutely terrified of me at the same time? We’ve been doing this for a year.” I hold up my rebound hands. “You won. I’m at your mercy. Is your self-esteem so bad that you have to denigrate me to make yourself feel better?”
Chloe leans back in the chair, kicking her boot-covered feet up on the desk, attempting to show how unconcerned she is with me. I wiggle my toes in my flimsy shoes. I don’t feel very powerful at the moment but it’s hard for me to admit that.
“Do you know why I’ve had you training with Cole all these months?”
I have some theories but I shake my head. “Not really, other than, you know, you’re insane.”
She smiles at my quip. She loves it when I play. “There are a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to punish you both for your betrayal. You thought you could flee my army and the eventual control that I will have over all of the survivors in this country. Cole thought he could double cross me by transitioning into a Mutt. He thought he could fool me.” Her eyes narrow. “You were both wrong.”
I hold her gaze. “What’s another reason?”
> “Because one day your sister is going to develop the perfect genetic alteration and you’ll be the first to receive it. I want you strong and ready, mentally and physically so that when the time comes, you’ll be the next leader of my army.”
I fight back a hysterical laugh because she’s so freaking deranged. “And what about Cole? Will he lead it with me?”
She brushes aside the lone hair that has slipped from her braid. An excited, evil glint reflects in her eyes. “Oh, no. Cole lost his opportunity to be a leader in this army. I have little use for him other than as a training tool for you. I actually have a very different plan for him and it does require your involvement.”
“What sort of involvement.”
“I need someone to kill my brother. I’ve decided that person is going to be you.”
Chapter Five
“You’re crazy.” My instinct is to reach out and slap her but it’s impossible since my hands are tied together. “I’m not doing it.”
“No?”
“No.”
“So even after all we’ve been through these last couple of months you think you have free will? That your actions and decisions don’t have an effect on others? What do you think happens to Cole if he isn’t put out of his misery?”
She stands and says, “Bring her.” to the nearest guard, a stocky Hispanic man in his mid-forties. His eyes are Hybrid black and he reacts instantly to her command by yanking me out of my seat and pushing me toward the door.
In the hallway we pass the two other guards and Jane kneeling, eyes cast on the ground. I desperately try to make eye contact with her but she never looks up.
“Jane,” I say her name knowing this may be the last time we see one another.
Chloe abruptly stops and turns. I realize too late to do anything but watch the swinging slap she lashes against my sister’s cheek. Jane grunts and tips to the side from the force of the hit but manages to stay upright. Rage burns in my limbs.
She steps forward until our faces are mere inches apart. “You don’t get it do you? You step out of line and someone gets hurt. You fail your duties, someone gets hurt. You even whisper the wrong way and…” She lets the last part linger.
“Someone gets hurt,” I say quietly.
She turns without another word and we continue to follow her out the front door of the infirmary. We exit the building and despite the circumstances the warm fall air feels amazing on my face. I tilt my neck up and try to soak in every ray. We reach the security office and one guard sprints ahead to unlock the door with a thick ring of keys attached to his belt.
I feel more sadness than dread as we approach the building. My reprieve is over and I realize now, more than ever, how trapped I am. I fight back tears when we enter the building and I’m assaulted by the familiar stale scent of my prison. I expect Chloe to leave me with one of the guards at the desk, but she pushes past them and I am given a shove from behind to keep going. The surprise comes when we don’t turn down the hallway toward my cell. We head toward the training room and my stomach tightens. I’m not ready to fight. Not yet, and I’m certainly not prepared to kill Cole today. But again, Chloe does the unexpected and passes the room and enters a door I’ve never used at the end of the hall.
The hallway is dark but she has no problem, her eyesight enhanced. We reach another door and step inside to a flight of stairs going down. The steps are metal, echoing from the soles of her boots. I wobble, unable to use my hands or see until she finally clicks on a flashlight. At the bottom of the steps, faint lights tracked on the ceiling reveal a small room. A long window stretches across the wall. Whatever lies beyond it is masked in darkness.
Before I can ask one of my million questions Chloe says, “When Cole brought you to the infirmary that day he violated every protocol we have in place. He overpowered my Hybrids and took their weapons. He demanded you be seen by a physician. He exerted strength and compassion we long thought had been eliminated from his system.”
She grabs my arm and drags me toward the window. I hear the click of a lever and dim, yellow lights reveal the room beyond the wall. Cole huddles in the corner, bloody-faced and shirtless. The genetic alteration makes his muscles taught and firm despite his thinness. Red gashes stripe his skin—whip marks? His face exposes his fragility. His eyes are glassy and distant as he stares into space, lips moving as he mutters to himself.
“As a Hybrid he is a complete and utter failure. As a Mutt he’s a dangerous enemy, even though I have done my best to rid him of the toxic nature of compassion.”
I press my bound hands to the window and thank him silently for saving my life. He looks up, directly at the window and stares. His altered, freaky senses alert him to my presence. His eyes are sunken, his cheeks thin and gaunt. His hair is a matted, greasy mess.
She turns and eyes me, head to toe. “You lit a spark in him, Alexandra. And that means only one of two things can happen. We have to kill one of you, but like I said, I have a plan for you. You’re still useful to me. Cole? He’s a liability. I can’t get a return on that investment.”
I stare at him, looking lost and battered, and try to conjure to mind the young, vibrant man that my father tasked with making sure I survived the journey south to find my sister. Along the way we became partners and then friends. Eventually we evolved into something more than that. Sadly, he and I have never been more than pawns in a bigger battle.
Finally I gather the courage to say, “I won’t kill him.”
“You will, or things will get drastically worse for him and you.”
I turn to face the woman that was once my friend. “How does it get worse than this Chloe? I’m a prisoner. You’re planning on injecting me with Jane’s next crazy potion to turn me into one of those zombie soldiers. I’d rather be an Eater. At least they aren’t a hostage to anything but their minds before they decay and die. I agree and disagree about Cole. Yes, he’s a lost cause—as a human. He didn’t save me because he wanted to help me. He saved me to help himself, like all Hybrids and Mutts he’s about self-preservation above all else. He’s fully aware of your plot to drive him mad. I’m the only thing keeping him alive right now. If I was dead he knows you’d have little to no use for him at all.” It’s a lie. The fact he saved me, no matter how painful and violent, means he may actually have his soul is in there somewhere. I’m not willing to give up on him just yet.
Chloe studies me closely, like she’s trying to suss out the lie. I keep my face blank but her reply knocks me back a couple feet, at least emotionally. “You want to know what else I can do to you if you don’t follow orders, Alexandra?” I want to reply, give her back some snark and sass but for once don’t. The bloody welts on Cole’s body are enough proof to keep me quiet. She glances at the guard behind her. “Take her to her room and await my orders.”
I’m yanked from behind, hard enough to make my ribs feel like they’re being stretched and torn. The guards drag me up the stairs and back down the hall until I see the plain white door of my cell. It’s unchanged from when I left it days before. Chloe doesn’t come with us. I don’t know where she’s gone, and even though I put on a brave face I’m terrified of the results I will cause. The binds are cut from my wrists and door slams and locks. I sink to the bed, biting my lip to keep from crying.
Someone has to stand up to her and right now that someone seems to be me.
*
If I think I’m going to get a break, I’m a fool. A familiar guard appears soon after I returned to the cell with my workout clothes.
“Put those on. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
I stare at the workout shirt and pants for at least half of that time before coming to my senses and just get dressed. The elastic on my ribs is painfully tight and pulling the stretchy top over my head nearly wipes out my energy. The guard returns as I’m tying the lace on my left sneaker.
We travel back down the hall and I brace myself. I’m not going to fight him. Chloe already tipped her hand that she doesn’t wan
t me dead. And I’ve already told her I’m not killing him. We’re at a standoff until something gives. I just hope she leaves Jane and the others alone until I figure out some way out of here. That, or until Erwin and his double-juiced army finds us. Ever since Jane revealed that information to me I’ve had a renewed spark of hope.
The guard unlocks the door and I step inside, recoiling at the stench. Cole has been brought from his cell in the basement and left in the corner, chains attached to his wrists and the floor. He’s covered in his own filth. He barely looks up to acknowledge me in the room.
“So I’m supposed to fight him today?” I jerk my thumb toward Cole.
“Actually, no,” The Hybrid says and looks across the room at the opposite door Cole usually comes through. One that I know leads to his underground cell. I notice the guard’s knuckles are scraped and raw. He’s been beating on someone recently. I assume it’s Cole. “You’ve got a new partner.”
Fear rolls down my spine. It could be Jane or Avi. God, it could be one of the Mennonite kids. A deeper fear washes over me when I realize Jane could send an Eater in here and leave me weaponless and Cole defenseless. Two birds—one cannibalistic, bloodthirsty stone. I told her I would rather go that way. Maybe she was bluffing about not wanting me dead. Maybe this is all just more mind games.
Shit, I realize a second too late. It is all just more mind games and I’ve probably just walked into her biggest one yet.
The door opens and a figure is shoved into the room back first. My first instinct is relief. He’s too tall and broad to be Jane or the Mennonites. Confusion takes over quickly as I notice the green and gray camouflaged pants and muddy boots. A sick feeling rolls in my stomach. He bangs on the door, swearing and kicking with the toe of his boot. Familiar inflamed red marks circle his wrists. The sound of his voice resonates deep in my soul and my heart drops to the pit of my belly. He runs both hands through his shaggy hair and spins, taking in the room and then me. We face one another, mirrored images of confusion and shock. I’m not the only ghost walking the halls of this building. This one actually came back from the dead.