“What is it?”
“An old drive of some kind.” Kora turned the tiny device over in her hand. “I bet it was originally in Mud’s brain. Let’s see.” With Vaughn’s help, Kora turned Mud onto his side. Someone had removed the entire occipital bone allowing them to peer into Mud’s empty skull.
“How did you know it was in his brain?”
Kora thought for a moment. “He wanted a photographic memory so Caleb added this drive for storage. Mud was a demanding guy.”
“But why go to all the trouble of removing something from his brain to stuff in his chest cavity?”
Kora rolled Mud gently onto his back once again. “It has to do with the sign for love.” She crossed her arms over her own chest. “Mud is the reason Caleb and I both know sign language. It was the only way to communicate with him.” She smiled down at Mud's quiet, destroyed face. “He was wonderful.”
“If he was so wonderful, what was he doing living here by himself?”
“He was a hermit.” She grinned at the look on Vaughn's face. “I know, but it's how he wanted to live. He preferred to be among the dead.”
“Where did everyone else live?”
“On the other side. It's hard to explain. Would you like me to show you?” The idea of seeing her old home, once again, filled her with excitement.
“Maybe some other time,” said Vaughn. “We should head back up to the surface.”
Kora backed away from him. “You can go, but I'm staying here.”
A quick series of emotions spun over Vaughn's face, finally landing on outrage. “The hell you are!”
He tried to grab her hand but she fled to the far wall. “If I go back, Ruby will have you, Ivan, and Caleb killed.”
Vaughn stalked toward her. “She's threatened that for years.”
“But this time it's real,” pleaded Kora. “She's angry that I fixed your stomach.”
“Good. I'm glad.” He lunged at her but she managed to shove the table between them.
“I need to stay here, Vaughn. There are other parts of the catacomb where I can live. I've done it before and I see, now, that Ruby was right—it's where I belong.”
“Ruby's never right! This is madness. You're coming with me if I have to throw you over my shoulder!” He tossed the table aside and it crashed into the kitchen.
Kora felt the cold wall against her back. She knew she could hurl Vaughn away like Caleb, but she didn't want it to come to that. Unlike Caleb, Vaughn was the last person on earth she wanted to harm. “I don't like who I became up there. You've seen for yourself what Mirafield turned me into and I won't let it happen again.”
Vaughn leaned an arm on either side of her and their eyes met. He was so close that if she wanted, she could push up onto her toes and kiss him. “We've all done things we regret,” he said calmly, “and if you stay down here, I'm staying with you. I'll die before I let you bury yourself alive in this hell all alone.”
She'd expected a lot of things from him, but not this. Kora hung her head. While she belonged down here, he didn't. “What should we do, then?”
Vaughn smiled in relief. “We'll steal a car from the garage and escape. I left a device in the Aston that lets me disrupt the force field.”
He picked up Mud and she followed him back through the maze to the first room. He swiftly deposited Mud back on his high burial shelf, then grabbed her hand and guided her to the water.
She gazed into the dark, murky pool that moved slightly with the swaying of the tide. “I'll have to drown again.”
Vaughn put his arms around her and this time, she didn't pull away. “I'll move fast and before you know it, we'll be back on shore.”
Kora leaned back against his chest. The only other arms that made her feel this safe were Ishmael's but unlike her squid's friendly embrace, Vaughn's touch made her tremble in a way that had nothing to do with cold or danger. “If I wake up a thousand years from now embedded in a glacier, I'll be really pissed.”
He laughed and she could feel it vibrate his chest. “Then I guess it's a good thing I'll only to live to five hundred.”
Vaughn took her hand to help her wade in and when the water reached her shoulders she stopped. “I'm sorry for how I've treated you. I—”
“You don't need to—”
“No, let me finish. I don't remember everything about myself, but I remember enough to know that I was a better person when I made you, and being with you this past week has reminded me of what I once was. When I'm with you, I'm who I should be.”
“As much as I love this, it's sounding a bit like a confused eulogy. I won't drop you, Kora, I prom—” She cut him off with a kiss. His eyes opened in surprise but it wasn't long before his lips moved against hers as she wound herself around him in the freezing water. “I'll never let you go again,” he said before pulling her under.
Chapter 28
Joshua squatted behind the propane tank and listened as the forth shot rang out followed by a swell of agonized wails. He kept still as three soldiers banged through the door, dragging five bodies between them. They heaped them next to the back tire of an old pickup truck, then one of them pulled out a bottle and they passed it around. Joshua glanced at the bodies: three old men and two old women shot through the head. Wherever Ruby was sending them, old people weren't welcome. He recognized the faces but didn’t allow himself to think too much about them.
He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and swaggered out from behind the tank. “You fuckers with your guns. It’s a sad state the world has come to. Used to be a man proved his worth by killing with his bare hands.” Joshua twitched his fingers in the air as if casting a spell, and the men stared at him as if he’d just arisen like flames out of the brush.
They stepped down from the platform and surrounded him on all sides. “Where the hell did you come from?” asked a fat one with a gray stripe in his beard.
“I snuck out the back. Sick of watching you girls whack the old folks,” said Joshua.
A skinny kid with long arms cackled. “You’re one stupid dead man.” He raised his rifle to Joshua’s head, but the man with the gray beard glared at him. The kid lowered his gun and glared back, his green eyes menacing slits in his bruised face. “What?”
“Take your gun and go stand by the door. If this prick comes after your skinny ass, you can shoot him but we’re going to honor his last request.”
“Why do I have to watch?”
“Because all you know how to do is shoot and you can’t even do that worth shit. Now go guard the goddamn door.”
The kid spat on the ground beside Joshua and tromped away. He leaned against the corrugated metal, his hands toying with his gun as he watched. The bearded man and a younger one with dark skin and pale eyes circled Joshua like wolves, their arms out to the sides as if they expected him to run. Joshua stood still, moving his eyes from one to the other as he waited for the first blow. It came from the dark man who lunged forward and punched Joshua in the stomach. He crumpled to the ground, unable to breathe. The man with the beard swung his fist into Joshua’s jaw and blood gushed from his mouth, the strange warmth of it saturating his neck.
Joshua tried to get back up, but the dark man whirled in the air and kicked him in the head, knocking him back down. They closed in at the same time and Joshua writhed in a pool of his own blood as heavy boots pounded him from all sides, snapping his bones like twigs. The dark man raised his boot one final time to bring down on Joshua’s head, and even though his eyes were closed, he could feel its cold shadow crossing his face. Joshua waited, but the blow never came. He heard the dark man step back and the sound of a bottle opening. It was over.
“Nate, you load that dead bastard into the truck,” said the bearded man somewhere off to his right.
Joshua heard a groan of protest and seconds later, he felt the ground moving under him as the kid dragged him up into the pickup and slammed the gate closed. He listened as the engine started up, and only when they were thumping across th
e uneven ground did he dare open his eyes. At first he couldn’t see at all, but then he made out the face of the body across from him. It was Ben, the newly elected clan leader. He had a bullet hole in his forehead the size of a quarter.
He couldn’t see out of his left eye. He tried to reach up to figure out why, but his arm wouldn’t move. Instead, he craned his head to the side and felt something wet roll along his cheek. After moving his head back and forth a few times, he decided it must be his eye dangling from the nerves like a root refusing to let go of the soil. His other eye was still intact, but it was swelling shut and he knew it wouldn’t be long before that was useless as well.
The pickup stopped and the kid got out to open the gate. He then pulled the truck up next to the pile of bodies Joshua had observed from the hill. He pictured Berta sitting beside him, her long hair pouring over her shoulders as she strained to look for her family. It seemed like weeks had passed rather than minutes. If he lived through this, he’d never heal. Never be the same again.
Nate opened the gate, unloaded the bodies, and flipped back the tarp. Once again the flies rose up, so thick that it seemed as if night had suddenly descended. The boy dragged the bodies up to the edge of the pile one by one and left Joshua for last, pulling him by his broken leg. Joshua would have screamed, but luckily his jaw was so smashed up he couldn’t open his mouth. Nate walked back to the truck but instead of leaving, he returned with his gun.
Joshua felt the cold steel barrel press against his forehead and waited, wondering if he’d even have time to hear the sound of the gun firing before the metal tore into his brain. Then the muzzle lifted and Joshua felt a hard kick in his chest followed by a series of blows to his head and stomach. When Nate was done, he stood up panting and somehow didn’t notice Joshua twisting in pain as he yanked the tarp down, dispersing the rage of flies before stomping back to his pickup. The sound of the truck door slamming was the last thing Joshua heard before he passed out.
He awoke when something smacked into his face. He opened his good eye, which was now swollen to a mere slit, to see several more bodies had been heaped on top of him, all of them old people from the clan. Nate closed the flap again and Joshua waited until he heard the sound of the truck engine starting up. He listened as the truck paused outside the gate while Nate got out to close it behind him.
Joshua had a feeling the kid would be back within the hour for another delivery, so he struggled to sit up but pain shot through every limb. Instead, he squirmed over the pile, leaving a trail of thick blood. He fixed his good eye on the nearest rig parked at the edge of the lot, stopping to rest after a few feet of progress. From where he sprawled on the ground, the truck looked miles away. More than anything he wanted to sleep, but he continued to writhe through the dirt until a pile of rocks and debris had gathered against his shoulders and pressed into the open wounds in his neck. The pain and the sound of his own grunts seemed to keep him awake while the moments when he lay still, he could feel everything drifting away.
Half an hour later, Joshua lay on his side, staring at the bottom of the truck cab's metal step. He tried to calculate how in the hell he was going to reach it; slithering over the dirt was one thing, but rising up on his stack of shattered bones was another. He shoved himself up against a metal grate and tried to cling on with his useless arms. When he finally managed to pry himself up, he looked down at his body for the first time: he was a bloody pulp, his left leg bent completely the wrong way at the knee. “Holy mother of hell,” he said in a faint voice he hardly recognized as his own.
After careful testing, Joshua found he could raise his right arm more than his left. He watched as his hand rose higher and higher until it nearly touched the door handle, then cried out in agony as he shifted onto his busted knees. He grabbed the handle, pulled as hard as he could, and the door swung open on creaking hinges. Joshua hung there for a while unable to move, gritting his teeth against the pain. He looked down to see a pool of blood below him and knew he was growing weaker by the second.
A seat belt dangled down, the metal buckle shining in the morning light, and he grabbed it with shaking hands. Joshua dragged himself up onto his broken legs, then flopped onto the seat where he wound his wrist through the strap to keep from toppling back to the ground. Using the belt for leverage, he swung his legs under the dash and hauled himself up an inch at a time.
When Joshua finally sat looking out through the windshield, he knew it’d been nearly an hour since he crawled out from the death pile. Nate’s pickup would be back soon. He knew the moment he got the truck started, he would have to move fast because everyone would come running. He peered around the side of the steering wheel, relieved to see the keys dangling from the ignition. That would have sucked.
He drew in one last ragged breath and turned the keys. The truck started up like a great, waking beast and the powerful engine nearly knocked his foot off the accelerator. It took all his strength to hold it down as the tires rolled forward. Joshua crashed through the fence, lodging it above the cab like a net that dragged along the ground on either side. He managed to steer the truck around to face the warehouse as men poured from the portables, their faces blank with confusion. Before anyone had time to think, he gunned the truck straight at the main entry to the warehouse where he guessed most of the guards were hanging out.
Nate was just backing his pickup away from the building with a new load of bodies when Joshua plowed into him, dragging him along as he burst through the metal walls. Joshua had guessed right. At least fifteen men crowded the area before the doors. He slammed their bodies against the far wall so hard, the entire building collapsed around the truck. He heard screaming and the sound of gunfire from all directions, bit it grew fainter as if a great battle was receding into the distance. He fell to his side on the seats that were already sticky with his own blood. He heard the passenger door click open and Berta appeared above him in a glowing light, her long black hair brushing his cheek. She pressed her lips against his forehead and Joshua knew, after years of swindling death, it had finally caught up with him.
Chapter 29
Kora awoke while Vaughn carried her up the cliffs from the beach to the back of the castle. “You can set me down now,” she said.
Vaughn held her tighter against his chest. “Are you sure? You just drowned for the second time in one day.”
“I'm fine.” As nice as it felt, now wasn't the time for snuggling. Kora struggled out of his arms and crossed the brick driveway on her own feet. They stood before a vast garage door carved with a great, winding sea serpent. Vaughn pulled a lever and the door groaned open to reveal an army of black cars. “Gus gave me the key to the Rolls Royce but I left it in the cell. It didn’t occur to me that I’d have to make a fast getaway tonight.”
“I have a key.” Vaughn prowled through the rows of cars and stopped before one that was completely covered in dents.
Kora tried to hide her disappointment. “This is the one you have a key to?”
Vaughn's face turned red. He reached in and plucked something off the dash. “No, I drove this one a few days ago. Just needed to grab the force field disruptor.” He continued over to a lime green wonder that shined beneath the gas lamps like an alien spaceship.
Kora slipped into the passenger seat and watched as he fiddled with the knobs and pedals until he finally got it started. “You know how to drive, right? Or is this car going to wind up looking like that other one you drove?”
“Not a chance.” Vaughn screeched through the garage, hitting the side of a shiny coup. Kora covered her ears as they scraped along, watching in horror as smooth metal buckled and paint flew into the air. Finally free of the carnage, Vaughn blasted up the driveway and Kora jerked on her seatbelt seconds before she heard a loud thump on the roof. Vaughn jammed his foot down on the accelerator and gunned the car up Dume Drive before slamming on the brakes. A lithe form slid down the windshield, performed a neat flip, and landed in a crouched position in front of the grill. When
the figure rose, she recognized Alex.
“We’re being attacked by Brigitte Bardot,” said Vaughn.
He shifted into reverse, rocketed backward, and sat revving the engine. He and Alex glared at each other for a minute before he shot toward her in a green blur. Alex jumped straight up in the air like an acrobat, landed on the hood, and sliced her arm through the windshield, exploding the cab open like an eggshell. Then Alex hauled Vaughn through the glass and metal like a slab of meat through a grinder. The car glided to a stop while Kora screamed at Alex to let him go, but instead the girl punched him in the jaw so he flew over the car, landing in a heap on the pavement twenty feet away.
Kora scrambled out the door. “Why the hell did you do that?”
“It’s the only way to tell if he’s human or synthetic,” replied Alex, jumping down off the mangled car. She winked at Kora. “I already know what you are.”
Kora wondered what the hell Alex meant by that. She pressed her fingers against Vaughn’s neck and breathed a sigh of relief. He was still alive.
“Were you trying to escape, Doctor?” asked Alex.
“Of course, and if we’d left sooner we would have made it.”
Alex lifted Vaughn into her arms. “Where'd you find this guy? He's wimpy but cute.” She marched Kora down to the castle’s service entrance. “What’s in your bag?”
“None of your business.” Kora had forgotten it was still strung around her shoulders. She should have left it in the car where Ivan could have found it.
“Open the bag.”
Kora opened it and looked away. “See, it’s nothing but my wet clothes.”
Alex pulled out the smaller bag containing the drive and the camera they’d removed from Mud. She looked at the objects with disgust and grabbed Kora by the arm. “Let's go.”
Synthetic: Dark Beginning Page 23