Her feet dangled precariously in open air for a moment.
“Zoey!” Mira called out in terror below.
Then the little girl pulled herself up into the dark tunnel, twisting and wiggling until she disappeared inside.
Holt smiled in relief. This just might work.
He grabbed the rope below him in his hand. “Zoey, take this!” He handed it up to the little girl. When she had it, he swung back over, and reached up with one hand to grab the ledge.
Holt let loose of the rope and forced himself to grab the ledge with his other hand. His weight pulled him downward, and he almost fell, but Zoey grabbed his hand, pressing it into place on the rough rock. Desperately, Holt started pulling himself up onto the ledge, groaning with the effort. With the last bit of his strength, he climbed into the tunnel with Zoey.
“Holt!” the little girl cried, wrapping her arms around him.
“Hi, kiddo,” he said, breathing hard. “Back up for me—we have to get the others up.”
He took the rope from Zoey, held it in his hand, and pressed his back into the wall of the tunnel, bracing himself with his feet.
“Mira, go!” he shouted down.
The rope pulled tight in his hands as her weight hit it and she began to climb. She was lighter and wasn’t carrying anyone else, so she made much better time than he had. Max stared up at them all, whining softly.
When Mira reached the tunnel, Zoey helped pull her inside and over Holt. Then they all started pulling the rope upward, end over end. There was a yelp as Max’s feet left the floor, and he dangled helplessly as he rose in fits and starts.
And then came a flash as the black energy field finally collapsed below. Dozens of kids poured inside, looking furiously up at them. They had slings, and rocks quickly flew through the air, sparking all around the tunnel entrance.
But it was too late. Holt and Mira pulled Max up and into the tunnel, free and clear.
“Mira!” an intense, feminine voice yelled from underneath them. Holt watched Mira lean out over the tunnel and peer down to the floor far below.
Lenore stood there, glaring up at them, a purple bruise on the side of her head.
Mira gazed down at her. “It was good seeing you, Lenore. But I think this’ll be the last time.”
“If you do this, Mira, if you steal what’s mine”—Lenore replied—“I guarantee it won’t.”
“The artifact isn’t yours. It never was.”
“What belongs to one Gray Devil belongs to them all,” Lenore stated.
“Yeah, it’s like you said, though,” Mira answered. “I’m not a Gray Devil anymore.” And then she pulled away from the hole in the ceiling, and they all quickly crawled into the dark.
Even with all the thick rock between them, Holt could still hear Lenore scream Mira’s name.
38. DIFFICULT QUESTIONS
TO ZOEY, the unmapped parts of the cavern seemed beyond massive. They were frightening, twisting pathways of darkness that opened and closed, widened and shrunk, and the only details she could make out were what was revealed by Holt and Mira’s flashlights.
Max walked next to her, which made her feel better. He didn’t seem bothered by all the jagged rock and the strange, eerie shadows the lights projected onto the walls. If he could be brave, then so could she.
Holt made sure they wound through as much of the cavern as possible before stopping, so that even if the Grey Devils did manage to follow them, the odds of them finding the four would be slim. That was the plan anyway, and Zoey hoped it would work. Mira’s old faction hadn’t seemed very friendly at all.
The cavern they finally stopped in was oval shaped, and a hole in one of its walls provided an overlook to one of the city’s main areas: the Scorewall—the strange, massive collection of names and numbers Zoey had seen before. They were situated far above it, staring down into the room from a corner of its ceiling.
Zoey wondered just how many little caverns and entrances there were that blended unnoticed into the walls all throughout Midnight City.
They all laid on their bellies at the edge of the cavern, studying the Scorewall room underneath them, trying to stay out of sight. Even though it was early morning, people were already gathering below.
“Why do they get here so early?” Zoey asked.
“For the best spots,” Mira answered. “It fills up quick. Give me your binoculars.” The last part was meant for Holt, and he handed them to Mira.
The calls of large horns of some kind, dozens and dozens of them, suddenly blared all throughout the city, echoing against the thick, black rock. The sounds seemed angry to Zoey, angry and urgent. She saw the people below stop as the sounds bounced everywhere, continuing for a few more moments before shutting off. Even then, it took a long time for the noise to dissipate, ricocheting back and forth between the thick cavern walls until it was finally drowned out by angry murmurings and yells from the kids below. Zoey watched them turn away from the Scorewall in disgust and head away.
“What was that?” Zoey asked.
“The Gray Devils just sealed the city,” Mira said. “No one comes in, no one goes out.”
Holt looked up at Mira, surprised. “They can do that?”
“They’re the Prime Movers, so yes, but the other factions won’t be happy. Closing the city means no trade comes in, and it also means faction members on the surface can’t get in either. It all effects the Scorewall, and the Gray Devils’ Points will start to drop the longer they keep the city shut down.”
“You don’t seem all that surprised,” Holt said.
“It was the only thing Lenore could do. Trap us inside, try to find us before they lose too many Points.”
“That’s all well and good, but how the hell are we supposed to get out of here now? Los Lobos are after us too, now that they didn’t get their plutonium.”
“We needed it to barter our way out of here,” Mira said. “And Cesar can’t help with that.”
“But you said no one comes in, no ones goes out,” Zoey said, confused.
Mira smiled, stroked Zoey’s hair. “There’s always a way.” She lifted Holt’s binoculars up to her eyes and trained them on the Scorewall below. Zoey could sense she was looking for something specific, and when she found it, she felt a wave of emotion from Mira. Shock mostly, but also pain tinged with anger.
Holt couldn’t feel it the same way Zoey could, but he sensed it nonetheless.
“What?” he asked.
Mira lowered the binoculars, but kept staring at the Scorewall.
“Mira?” Holt asked again.
She blinked, looked up at him. “It’s Ben,” she said. “He is on the Scorewall, Lenore was telling the truth. And he has his Points. Twice as many as he ever had. There’s no way he could have got that many without…”
“Taking your Points,” Holt finished for her after her voice faded away. She was visibly shaken.
Back in the dark passages, Mira had told them everything Lenore had said about Ben. That he had tricked her and taken her Points, that he was in the Strange Lands now, trying to reach “the core.” Zoey didn’t know what that was, but it sounded scary. When Mira recounted Lenore’s story, Zoey had felt only a little bit of doubt from her. Now, it was much stronger. A large part of her was starting to think Lenore had told the truth, and the more she came to think that way, the more it hurt.
“Maybe she staged the Points to incriminate him, in case you ever came back,” Holt suggested.
Mira shook her head. “That’s Point Fabrication. It’s the worst crime you can commit here, it’s what Lenore accused me of, and it means death, even for the faction leader of the Prime Movers. She wouldn’t risk it.” Mira looked back up at the Scorewall in the distance with a dark stare. “No, those Points are real. Ben is alive and he’s free.”
Holt looked away from Mira, staring at the Scorewall along with her. “Do you love him?” he asked after a long moment of silence.
It took awhile for the words to register, but w
hen they did, Zoey felt new emotions from Mira. Doubt, guilt, confusion … and something warmer, something Zoey had felt growing in Mira for a while.
Mira stared at Holt, hesitant and conflicted. “Ben and I were … close,” she said. “There was no one better than him in the Strange Lands. He had an almost sixth sense when it came to it. He could tell you just from how the air felt on his skin whether a Pulsar Chain was nearby or an Ion Storm was coming, and the farther we went in, the harder it was to get him to come out. We made it all the way to the end of the fourth ring once, even though I never wanted to go that far. That was how Ben was. He always had a way of convincing me to do things I shouldn’t. Sometimes I didn’t feel safe with him at all.”
Holt listened, but it wasn’t until she finished that he finally looked at her. “That wasn’t what I asked,” he said. “It’s not a hard question, Mira,” he said. “Either you do or you don’t.”
They stared at each other in uncomfortable silence …
… and then Zoey felt the Tone flare powerfully inside Mira’s mind.
Mira instantly curled into a ball, moaning in pain. Zoey could almost hear the voices erupting within the static and hissing inside Mira’s head.
Holt wrapped his hands around her, pulled her to him, and Zoey felt the desperation overtake him. He looked up at her, and she didn’t need her powers to read what was written in his eyes. “Zoey, I need you to do your thing here,” he said. “For Mira.”
Zoey looked up at Holt in fear. Zoey had no idea how to re-create what had happened in the tent. The feelings had risen inside her and she’d had nothing to do with that. She searched for them regardless, trying to find them in the recesses of her mind … but there was nothing. And Mira continued to groan and shake on the floor.
“I need you to stop the Tone,” Holt clarified. “Like you did back at the river. I need you to do it for Mira.”
“That wasn’t me,” Zoey said simply.
Holt stared at her, and she could feel his frustration. “What?” he asked.
“I mean … it was me, but it wasn’t me either. It was—”
“Zoey, I don’t have time for riddles right now,” Holt said, grabbing her and pulling her close. “I need to you to save Mira. You’ve done it before, I need you do it again. Right now.”
“I don’t know how,” Zoey pleaded. She could feel her eyes starting to tear.
“But you did it before,” Holt said, his voice cracking. Mira continued to shake in his arms. “Please, Zoey, just try? Just try once…” He tried to pull her down farther, to put her tiny hands on Mira, but Zoey yanked free.
“Zoey!” His voice was full of panic and rage, and Zoey stared at him with wide, startled eyes. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but she flinched nonetheless at the pain that swelled inside him. She felt it too, just as intense.
“I don’t know how!” she screamed, tears starting to flow. “Something did it on its own, and it wasn’t me! I don’t know how!”
“Holt.” Mira’s weak voice stopped everything. Holt looked down at her. Her eyes were open, she was staring up at him. “It’s not … her fault.”
At the words, Holt looked from Mira to Zoey, trembling in his hands. Tears ran down her face, and she felt an outpouring of guilt and shame from him, with an intensity she’d never felt from anyone.
Instantly, he let her go, and Zoey pushed back away from him.
“I’m … sorry, Zoey,” Holt said. “I didn’t mean—”
Mira spasmed again underneath him and Holt wrapped his arms around her, held her as tight as he could, whispering into her ear, trying to keep her attention on the real world. It took her almost ten minutes to fight it off and shove it back down into her subconscious, where it whispered just out of reach, but she finally did, and Zoey felt the tension in her body mercifully release.
“Zoey…” Mira said weakly from beneath them. Her contortions had stopped, her eyes were open. It had passed, the Tone was beaten back, and she was fine … for now. “It’s okay, Zoey.”
When Zoey looked into Mira’s eyes, the Tone seemed even more prominent, lacing and crawling through her irises. Mira reached up and pulled the little girl down to her, holding her gently. “It’s all okay,” Mira said. “It’s not your fault.”
But to Zoey it felt like it was her fault nonetheless. Above her, she saw Holt look away, his face torn with anger and pain.
Zoey felt the tension drain out of Mira, could sense her exhaustion. It didn’t take long for her to drift off to sleep.
Behind her, Holt moved moved to the edge of the cavern, to where it overlooked the city, and sat there, staring down quietly at all the activity near the Scorewall. Max whined a little, padded over and sat with his head in Holt’s lap. He scratched the dog’s ears absently.
The intensity of Holt’s emotions had calmed, but they hadn’t changed. Zoey could still feel the worry and the fear projecting from him, but there was something else, too. Resolution. Commitment. Holt had chosen to stay with them instead of heading east, and it had been a difficult decision, she knew. He was risking a great deal for the possibility of saving Mira.
Zoey suddenly realized where all his plans hinged. On her. Holt had stayed in a desperate attempt to help Zoey remember the one power that was lost to her. The one she had just shown she couldn’t use. And the realization filled her with dread. What if she couldn’t remember? What if she failed both of them? What if she lost them both?
Quietly, Zoey pulled free from Mira’s arms and sat next to Holt. Below them, the Scorekeepers had arrived, darting over the huge wall on their ropes, moving up and down, left and right, changing the bevy of numbers that were listed there. Zoey and Holt watched it all dispassionately.
“I still don’t know what I need to do here,” Zoey said. “I don’t know how I can know and feel so many other things … and not that.”
Holt just kept staring down at the people filing into the huge cavern below. “Do you have any clues? Anything at all to help?”
Zoey shook her head. “No. I just know there’s something here for me.”
Holt stayed quiet, thinking. She could feel him bury his doubts and fear, push them back down, the same way he always did. It was what he had to do to keep moving forward, and he’d had lots of practice at it.
“Well … it’s something,” he finally said. “Everything starts from something. Right?”
“Right, Holt.”
They both kept staring down at the Scorewall and the kids hovering over it. Zoey slowly reached over and took Holt’s hand. Holt squeezed it back.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll figure it out. You and me. Okay?”
Zoey nodded and tried to take solace in his words, but it was hard. Behind them, Mira stirred, lost in some dream, and the crowd continued to grow below, churning and cramming forward, completely oblivious to the three figures staring somberly at them from above.
* * *
HOLT AND EMILY LAY exhausted underneath the bright afternoon sky, outside the collapsed truck stop. It was a long moment before Holt heard his sister weakly say his name.
He turned and looked. The color was gone from her eyes; there were only little specks of white peeking out through all the black now. It was the worst he had ever seen it.
No words came to him, and even if they had, he wasn’t sure he could have found his voice. Emily took his hand and stared into him. He felt her fingers trembling.
When she spoke, her voice was ragged, just weak, fragmented whispers. She was fading, Holt could tell. But there were no spasms this time, no moans, no curling into a ball as she fought against the Tone’s waves of voices and static in her mind.
She was calm now, motionless … peaceful almost. The sight filled him with anguish.
Holt felt tears in his eyes; he knew this was all his fault. If he hadn’t gone after her, if he had just done what she’d told him …
Emily was trying to marshal her strength, trying to speak. She could manage only one or two slow, pa
inful words at a time, but she held on long enough to deliver them.
She told him to be strong and brave.
She told him to be smart, like their father.
He needed to understand how happy it made her knowing he would carry all their memories forward.
And he had to absolutely, above all else … survive.
Tears fell down Holt’s face as he listened.
Emily asked him to promise. Promise he would do everything she asked. Holt forced himself to nod, but it wasn’t enough. She made Holt say the words, made him tell her that he promised. Promised to survive. Survival had to be everything for him now, or what she had done here might all be for nothing.
Holt found his voice, promised her, said it with as much conviction as he could.
At his words, Emily nodded and finally relaxed.
Holt watched her body tense and shake one last time, and then her muscles all released. Emily deflated into the grass underneath her, went so completely still, she could have been sleeping.
Holt said her name. She didn’t respond.
He said it again, touched her arm, tried to wake her. But she didn’t stir.
Holt pulled himself up, looked at her eyes. They stared blankly up at the sky.
They were solid black now, and Holt knew what that meant.
He heard a sudden wail of anguish release from some far-off place, and it took a moment for him to realize it had come from him. Everything was like a dream now, blurry and slow motion, and he looked at the world through a haze.
In it, he watched his sister rise from the grass to stand above him. Saw her turn and look to the north with that same mindless, black stare.
Instinctively more than anything else, he reached for his sister’s hand. But it hung limp there, the fingers did not close around his.
A moment more, and she began to walk toward something just visible in the far distance. Something that towered into the sky, black and vile and ominous. The Assembly Presidium.
Holt held on to Emily’s hand, willing her to stop and turn around and be herself again, but she didn’t. Her arm trailed limply behind her as she moved … and then fell loose when her hand tore away from his.
Midnight City: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) Page 28