The Labs (The GEOs Book 2)

by Ramona Finn

  “I could come with you,” Dax offered.

  I seriously considered that offer. But then, I knew it would be impossible. Dax had been born in the Labs. There was no way he could survive on the surface. I was immune, but he wasn’t.

  “Thank you, but you should stay and take care of the survivors.” I squeezed his hand. His pale skin turned a bright pink. “This is my journey, and I have to go this part alone.”

  “What a touching scene this is.” The booming voice echoed behind us.

  The gasp that spread through the room felt like the after-effect of an explosion.

  We all turned to find R.L. Farrow, dressed in his shiniest white suit, glaring at us with flared nostrils. Behind him stood an entire platoon of Emergency Forces.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Somehow, I knew I’d find you here, in the basest of places, mixing with your own kind. Seems like a leopard can never change its spots.” R.L.’s eyes glowed in the artificial lighting of the survivors’ room. Strands of his usually waxed-neat hair hung over his forehead—something that I’d never seen before. I also didn’t know what a leopard was, but I got the gist of his meaning. “You certainly deceived us. My son will be devastated.”

  “I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I never meant to hurt Ben.”

  The head of the family stood tall over me. “You still have time to change your mind.”

  I trembled uncontrollably, feeling like a complete fool. I stood there like that before R.L. Farrow for what felt like forever, staring into his dark eyes and trying to come up with the courage to defy him to his face.

  “No,” I finally said, swallowing the lump in my throat that was threatening to choke me. “I cannot.”

  “I thought as much.” He huffed. And then he gestured with a finger, and the platoon of EFs descended on every survivor. I watched, frozen in horror as the first EF pulled out his weapon and fired on Dax. He was there one second, and then in the next, my friend was gone—lying on the floor with a hole in his head.

  Cries went up all over the room as EFs slammed survivors against the walls, tying their hands up behind their backs. Some tried to fight back but ended up being kicked in the back or slammed in the head with a stick. One EF fired his weapon at the ceiling, causing part of the material to fall onto the floor with a smash. That stunned everyone, stopping any more resistance. Once they got everyone under control, the EFs lined the survivors up against the far wall as R.L. Farrow tilted his head, watching each one. He shook his head and clicked his tongue.

  “To think of the life I gave you, you ungrateful animals,” he said. “You could’ve all died a horrible death in the Geos or on the surface. And this is what I get in return.”

  “You call this a life?” Tam spat back. She was the first in line, standing next to Joe. “You’ve used us like lab rats, and you expect gratitude? Loyalty? You’re going down, R.L.”

  R.L. said nothing. He gave an almost imperceptible nod to the EF nearest her, and the EF thrust his weapon into the middle of Joe’s body. Joe yelped and went down like a crumpled towel. Tam screeched his name, and I cringed.

  “That’s how this works, Tylia,” R.L. said to me. I wasn’t being tied up like the others, but I was very aware that four EFs—the largest in the platoon—were standing right behind me as I stood beside R.L. “If you defy me, I simply destroy all those who you care about.” He spoke with no intonation, no emotion, but his words sent chills through me.

  He nodded once more, and this time an EF opened fire on one of the survivors. An old woman—the one who I’d seen working the computers last night. She fell onto the floor with a terrible thud. The others around her cried out, but it wasn’t in fear, as R.L. was hoping. It was in defiance. Some tried to charge the EFs, even with their hands tied behind their backs. They were quickly knocked down. One old man tried to bite the EF nearest him. He got a weapon to his temple and lost consciousness as soon as he hit the floor.

  It was chaos for a long second. Then R.L. Farrow raised his hand, and it all stopped. In spite of my own fear, I was in awe of the power this man had.

  “That’s quite enough of a demonstration,” he said. Turning to me, his eyes narrowed. “So, what will it be, Tylia? Will you sacrifice all these lives for your whims about being a hero? Or will you be a good girl and complete the ceremony?”

  My head felt light as a feather, and my breaths began to come faster. How had it come to this? I’d been so close to escaping, to finding Skylar Two and working to save everyone. But who was I kidding? I didn’t have what it took to save my people. I was just me, Tylia Coder, a nobody.

  Yet, I couldn’t go back now. I couldn’t let R.L. Farrow take my future, my life.

  “I…can’t,” I whispered hoarsely.

  R.L. sighed impatiently. “I know you’re a cheat,” he said. “You hacked your way into the Acceptance.”

  My breath caught in my throat. I’d been so careful to keep that from him, and yet he knew everything.

  “I thought I could win…and I did,” I said. I couldn’t stop shaking, but I had to stand firm against him. He represented everything that was evil and wrong in my world. If the survivors could defy him, then so could I. “I survived.”

  “Yes, but that’s all so boring,” R.L. said, examining his fingernails as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. “Survivors are a dime a dozen.”

  “What?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “So, even Kev was immune, after all?”

  “Kev?” He looked puzzled. “Oh, that one. Such a sycophant, he was.”

  Was? “What did you do to him?”

  “I don’t know. He’s somewhere in the bowels of the Sky Labs. What does it matter? The important thing is that you are keeping my son waiting.” He moved as if he was leaving, but only took a couple of steps.

  “Why do you want me if it’s not about the Cure?” I demanded. The EFs behind me shuffled up around me, caging me in with their bodily prison. “Are you going to experiment on me like you did with the survivors? Ben won’t let you.”

  R.L. Farrow whipped around and glared at me. “Let me? No one has any authority over me.” Then he spread his lips and bared his gleaming white teeth in an ugly smile. “Of all the people in the Labs and Geos, you had to be the one with the answer to my problems. You could’ve lived it up in luxury for the rest of your life, and all you’d have given up would be your genetic material.”

  “Why? What is it you want?”

  An EF grabbed my arm and held on so tightly that I winced. I pulled away and another one grabbed my other arm. I was stuck.

  R.L. Farrow stepped closer to me, very deliberately. “Don’t you see? I’ve been working my whole life to find the answer to immortality.” He exhaled loudly, into my face. “You may think that’s a pipe dream, but I’m almost there. You and Ben together, your genes will create the strongest specimen yet. A few tweaks to your offspring and I’ll have the beginnings of eternal life.”

  I struggled against the holds on my arms. “You’re an egomaniac. Why would anyone want to live forever? Even the Earth itself is dying.”

  R.L. laughed. It was a laugh of relief, almost. “The Earth is far from dying. But once we get rid of the surface crawlers and the Geos die out on their own steam, life really will begin again. And I will be there to see it all, to control it all. Small-minded people like you will never understand. So, what will it be, Tylia? Do you agree to fulfil your promise to my son? Or do I kill everyone in this room?”

  He walked back toward the door I’d entered through. The EFs shoved me along behind him. I twisted around to look for Tam and Joe. He was still on the floor and she was staring right at me with tears in her eyes. But the tears were of anger and defiance.

  “Save yourself,” she mouthed.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t let it end this way. I couldn’t be responsible for the death of all these people. All because I didn’t have the nerve to go through with the ceremony. Because I had some ‘pie in the sky’ idea that I co
uld save everyone.

  “All right,” I announced. “I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt anyone.”

  R.L. ran his tongue along his white teeth and smirked. “And you promise to behave for the rest of your life? These people still have a lot left in them—they’ll be around for a long time. My experiments have made sure of that. And don’t you forget, there are your parents, your friends, and anyone else I can find who you care about.”

  “I…promise,” I said, shaking away the tears that blurred my vision.

  “Now, now,” he said in a mocking voice. “You’ll still have Ben. He will know nothing about this little hiccup. We have no reason to share our secret with him, right?”

  I hung my head as the EFs pushed me to the door. “No, we don’t.”

  As I crossed the threshold leaving the survivors’ room, I heard yelling, but no weapons fire. I hoped R.L. Farrow kept his word, even in such horrid circumstances.

  The EFs walked me behind R.L., on through the dim passages. I thought I recognized the way, but then R.L. took a different turn and we ended up inside a new room—a laboratory. But this lab was like nothing I’d seen before.

  This lab was twice the size of the show set and brightly lit. It had equipment that smelled new as well as looked it. And advanced. I’d never seen computer terminals like this…the screens weren’t even solid. They were virtual, like the one in his office. There was a console table in the middle of the room with complex-looking controls. Out from its center, a three-dimensional model of something that looked like a DNA strand floated and spun in slow motion. Lab assistants in silvery blue coats moved in silence around the room, all of them looking very busy.

  This was the kind of lab I’d always imagined the Elites working in, yet this was something I hadn’t even had it within me to imagine. This place was so futuristic as to seem impossible.

  “I thought you might like to see this place before you move to your next phase in life,” R.L. said, proudly showing off the room. “This is where you’ll be spending a lot of your time. Until I’m done with you.”

  “What is this?” I stared at the console in the middle of the room.

  “This is the latest technology that my people have developed,” he said smugly. “And that model—” he pointed to the twin strands of colorful DNA twirling in midair, “is the answer I’ve been seeking.”

  I shook my head. “Why would anyone want to live forever?”

  He laughed. “That is the question of an ignorant child who cannot see beyond her own menial problems. With immortality comes the end of disease, the end of fear, and the beginning of possibilities. When my mother created the Virus, it was in service of this very same goal.”

  “Your mother created the Virus?” Heat from within me flared up. “Your family destroyed our world?”

  “Destroyed it?” He marveled at my words. “No, we renewed it. By weeding out the weak and finding the strong—we gave humanity a new chance at survival, yes, but even more than survival. Humanity will thrive in my new age.”

  I couldn’t help but stare at this man who apparently desired to be a god. What an egomaniac! Did he seriously believe what he was spewing?

  What had I gotten myself into? If I’d just been satisfied with my little life in the Geos, I would never have become a part of this crazy scheme.

  A bell rang out somewhere in the distance. R.L. Farrow clapped his hands. “Time for the ceremony,” he said, as if it was the happiest of occasions. “How I love a good party!”

  He gestured to the EFs once more.

  “Come along, Tylia Coder. It’s time to make you a Farrow.”

  Chapter Thirty

  The EFs returned me to my apartment. Lia and Tia fussed over the scuffs on my dress and the mess that my hair had become. I could feel judgment oozing out of their every pore. I supposed that they couldn’t imagine how anyone would want to escape from joining the most powerful family in the world. How little they understood.

  This time, there was no opportunity offered for reflection. And there was no Dax to save me. My friend was gone. He’d given his life to save me, and it hadn’t worked. Had I just wasted his precious life?

  Four EFs kept me company the entire time now. Their darkened face masks made it hard for me to tell if they were male or female, but what difference did it make? They were there to make sure I showed up when called.

  “Time to go,” chimed Tia when they were done fixing me back up.

  The EFs escorted me out of my apartment and down the hallway. We got into the elevator and one EF pressed the button for the studio floor. With each floor, my heart raced faster and faster, and it was getting more difficult to breathe. I felt as if I was headed for my own execution.

  But…there was Ben. He still believed that I had chosen him. In his way, he cared for me. I knew life wasn’t going to be awful, but it wasn’t going to be of my own choosing, either. If circumstances had been different, I might have fallen for his dimples and crooked smile all on my own. I might have been flattered that he wanted me. I might have wanted him, too.

  The elevator jerked very suddenly, and I was thrown against the wall, hitting my head. A bolt of pain shot through my shoulders, and then everything went dark.

  I shook my head to stop the room from spinning, but it wasn’t me. The elevator was falling! I screamed. The EFs around me had started to shout, but I couldn’t make out their words. One of them jumped me from behind, wrapping his strong arms around me and squeezing till I could barely breathe. Was he trying to kill me?

  I struggled and tried to kick him in the shins, but he was huge. The falling elevator forced my stomach up into my throat and it took all of my strength to keep from fainting.

  “Let me go!” I yelled.

  The EF grunted. Another one scrambled his way to the control panel and started hitting it with his thick glove. After the longest few seconds of my life, the elevator slowed. There was a collective sigh of relief, so I took the opportunity to elbow the EF who still had a grip on me.

  There was an ‘oof’ from him as I made contact with his face mask and his head whipped backward. It was enough that he released his hold on me. I turned around and slammed my tiny, pointy-heeled shoe into his boot. I felt the end go right through the boot and into his foot.

  “Ow!” he yelped.

  The other EFs came to his rescue, pulling me off of him.

  “Stop it!” one of them yelled. “We’re here for you!”

  The elevator came to a stop at that moment. The door slid open. Outside wasn’t the well-lit studio hallway. What lay before us was instead a dark, dank-smelling room. Where was this?

  “What do you mean you’re here for me?” I asked as they dragged me out of the elevator.

  I looked around, and as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I realized we were in the transport bay of the Greens. Everything was off because everyone had been ordered to the ceremony.

  “What are we doing here?” I could feel the panic rising inside me. R.L. was expecting me at the ceremony. If I wasn’t going there, what was going on?

  The EF who had grabbed me hobbled over and pulled off his face mask. I immediately recognized the face.

  “Skylar!” I couldn’t breathe. He was alive. This was something I’d hoped for—dreamed of, in fact—for so long that, now that he was standing before me, I didn’t know what to say.

  “Thanks for the hole in my foot,” he said, with a smile that was totally inappropriate for this moment. “And you’re welcome for the rescue.”

  Rescue? He was here to rescue me?

  “No, I can’t,” I said, breathlessly. I wanted more than anything to jump into his arms, to make sure he was real and not some terrible dream I was having. But there were more important things to worry about now. “I have to go back.”

  “What?” His eyes widened in bewilderment. “Do you know what it took to get these uniforms? Come on, the shuttle’s waiting.”

  “You have a shuttle? How?”

  He smir
ked. “Remember when you came to the Geos with Ben, on your engagement visit?” He’d said ‘engagement’ like it was a dirty word, but I couldn’t blame him at the moment. “Who do you think damaged it? And we did just enough so that Ben wouldn’t fly back in it, but we could use it to get our people to safety.”

  Relief shot out of me like water from an old pipe. “You got people to safety? How many?”

  His face told me that it hadn’t been enough. He hadn’t been able to save his father, anyway; that much I knew. “We managed three or four runs before it became too dangerous.” He sighed, then looked at me with those eyes—the eyes that made all my insides melt every time. “Then I had the idea to use it one more time. For you.”

  He took my hand, and so many strange sensations trickled through my body. I’d missed him. I hadn’t known how much until that very moment. “Come on,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

  I pulled away. “I can’t, Skylar. If I go, everyone I love will die. R.L. warned me.”

  The muscles in Skylar’s neck went rigid. He said nothing for the longest time. Then, he blinked and relaxed. He moved in closer and took both my hands.

  “I understand how hard this is,” he began. “But if you stay, nothing changes for us on the surface, or below. You’ll just become one of them, and they’ll keep making excuses to keep us down. Or bombing us—which is something your fiancé seems to like doing these days.” The bitterness in his voice was unmistakable. I just wanted to apologize, but it was Ben, not me, who needed to do that. “People have already died—” his voice broke right there. “And more will die if we don’t act fast. I will do what I can to protect your family, but marrying Ben will not solve anything.”

  “I’m not marry—” It didn’t matter, of course. Technicalities were irrelevant. Skylar Two was right. It was too late to hope things could go on as normal.

  I had to keep going. My limbs tingled with fear as I thought of Tam and the other survivors. They’d be the first to face the wrath of R.L. Farrow. But I remembered the defiance on her face when I’d last seen her. She knew the price. She was willing to pay it.