Madelyn's Mistake

by Ike Hamill

  Harper blinked and looked away.

  “I have a theory about them,” Madelyn said. “I think they wanted me to hate them. They say that everyone in a dream is just a reflection of you. I think that the ghosts I saw knew I would never quit mourning them until I learned to hate them.”

  Harper looked Madelyn in the eyes and then shook her head.

  “It wasn’t like that for me.”

  “No?” Madelyn asked.

  Harper wasn’t crying, but she still rubbed the corner of her eye, like she was brushing away a tear. “The little people showed me the future. They showed me how futile everything was and how whatever I tried would only make things worse. I had almost lost all hope when you guys found me.”

  Madelyn rubbed her chin.

  “Was it true?” Madelyn asked.

  “What?”

  “The future they showed you—has anything come true?”

  Harper clenched her teeth and shook her head, like she was trying to dismiss the question. She answered slowly.

  “Only some of it turned out to be true. Most of it was false. Honestly, it’s hard to remember. It faded fast. I remember when Elijah was bringing me back to Fairbanks, I was trying to remember everything I could so I wouldn’t forget, but it was like trying to put my arms around smoke. I think they weren’t showing me the future so much as showing me what I feared the most, you know? You try to make a difference—we’re all trying to build something here—and you fear that everything you do will come to nothing. Or worse.”

  Harper swallowed and exhaled. “What did your ghosts tell you?”

  “That everything I ever did was wrong. They all blamed me for their deaths in one way or another. Sometimes I think that the more time you have to prepare for a death, the harder it hits. If someone dies unexpectedly, you have the luxury of knowing that there’s nothing you can do to avoid it. But my father kept telling us that he was going to go and we shouldn’t be sad about it. Just that knowledge is enough to plant doubt. To this day, I regret that I didn’t do more.”

  “If you could go back, what would you do differently?” Harper asked.

  Madelyn smiled.

  “I would have told my dad that I loved him and then I would have killed him with my own hands. That would have given his ghost something concrete to complain about.”

  Harper laughed for a second and then looked down. “Some days I feel fine, and then I miss my grandfather so much that it almost makes me unable to function. He pretty much raised me after my parents died. I lived with Claudia part time—her daughter was my best friend—but my grandfather did everything he could for me.”

  Madelyn nodded and took Harper’s hand.

  “You were everything to him. When he came down out of the mountains, he begged me to go back for you.”

  “Sometimes, I wish you hadn’t,” Harper said. “I know it’s weird to say, but sometimes I think that if I had just died up there I would have joined him. I would have been done with all this.”

  Madelyn shook her head. “That’s what The Wisdom wants you to think. Don’t give into it. It wants you to lose your courage. Don’t let it win.”

  Harper didn’t respond. She searched Madelyn’s eyes and then took her hand back.

  The door at the top of the stairs opened.

  Chapter 20

  {Revelation}

  “IS EVERYONE READY?” CALEB asked. He glanced around at the three stations. According to his model, the three machines were unnecessary, but this was uncharted territory. He wasn’t going to take any chances.

  “I’m good,” Niren said.

  “Full charge,” Amelia said.

  “Yes,” Brook said.

  “Okay. I’m going to give this thing a little leash and we’re going to see what it does against a square wave.”

  Caleb hit the switch on the device. Brook designed it. Niren built it, and Caleb had tested it. Amelia had come in after the fact and had reviewed every detail. It was truly a collaborative effort, but as he looked around the room, Caleb saw that none of them trusted the device.

  In the center of their triangle, the coils vibrated as the power decreased. The oscillation rattled the frame and then it stopped. Their demon was loose for the first time since its creation.

  Caleb caught his breath at the first click. He was expecting it, but somehow it still startled him.

  Niren fumbled with his panel.

  “Hold on,” Caleb said. “Don’t panic.”

  The thing clicked again.

  “I was just making sure my hand was in the right place. Don’t worry. I’m not going to panic,” Niren said.

  Caleb looked down. The square wave was running full power. Aside from the indicator light and the ammeter, he could only trust that their unit was actually doing something. As far as he knew, there were no instruments sensitive enough to detect the field that their machine was producing.The next click sounded different. When the Hunters made their sound, it was impossible to tell the origin of the noise. People said that Hunters did that so their victim wouldn’t know which way to run. Surrounded by the concrete walls of their laboratory, it seemed like the click had moved towards Amelia. It echoed in an unfamiliar way as well.

  “I’m getting an elevated thermal reading and a spike in air density,” Amelia said.

  “Nothing here,” Niren reported.

  “Nothing,” Brook echoed.

  “I’ll boost the power,” Caleb said. He touched the control. He didn’t want to push the power too far. If he went up too high, it would disprove his theory. The square wave should have worked at moderate power.

  “Still going up,” Amelia said.

  They could all hear the tension in her voice. Her hand hovered over the switch that would jar the coils back to life.

  The next click was loud. Caleb’s hand flinched when he heard it. He accidentally goosed the knob higher than he intended. At that power, their artificially-created Hunter should have been crippled. Amelia’s eyes grew even wider.

  “It’s going critical,” she said. Caleb wanted to yell at her to hold off. He wanted to give the Hunter a chance to respond properly to the square wave. He refused to believe that his theory had been so far off.

  Niren screamed and fell away from his station.

  They all turned in disbelief. For one horrible second, they watched the skin disappearing from Niren’s face before Brook had the presence of mind to pound her switch.

  The coils rattled on their frame and hummed with throbbing power. The lights dimmed. Caleb heard the Hunter’s last click as it was sucked into containment.

  As the hum of the coils died away, Niren screamed again.

  Caleb waited for his indicator lights to shift from amber to green, meaning everything was safe again. His eyes shot to Niren, rolling on the floor, and his hand throbbed sympathetically. Caleb was just getting feeling back in his fingertips. If Niren survived, his recovery would be much worse.

  Amelia didn’t wait for the safety signal. She bolted from her station and ran across the center of the room. Brook hesitated and then followed. Finally, Caleb’s light went to green. He reached Niren last, but he came with the crucial element. They had pooled all their health credits and compiled the best first aid kit that any of them had ever seen. Caleb went right for the biggest wrap that they had.

  “Hold him down,” Caleb said. He made a hole in the sheet for Niren to breathe through.

  Brook and Amelia got on their knees and pinned Niren’s arms down to the concrete. The young man was thrashing and fighting against them.

  When Niren opened his mouth to scream again, Caleb paused. The inside of Niren’s skull was destroyed. It seemed hopeless that he would live more than a few seconds. The wrap would be wasted on him.

  “What are you doing?” Amelia screamed. “Put it on him.”

  Caleb was startled to action. He pressed the wrap down on Niren’s face, muffling his next cry for help until his mouth found the hole in the sheet. A second later, Niren slu
mped to the floor. Brook fell back from him. She put her hands to her face to hide her sobbing.

  Amelia held Niren’s hand and checked his pulse. She looked up at Caleb. “His heart rate is slowing down.”

  Caleb watched Niren’s chest rise and fall. His breathing seemed to slow as well. Caleb looked up to the coils where the monster was once again contained.

  “What are we doing?” Brook asked. “We run experiment after experiment and they all go wrong. We have no ability to predict what that thing is going to do. Nothing we try works.” She burst into fresh tears and pulled her knees to her chest.

  Niren let out a moan and his hands flew to his face.

  “Grab him!” Amelia said. “He’ll pull it off.”

  Caleb took up Brook’s position. He and Amelia subdued the young man until he collapsed once more. Brook’s sobbing was the only sound in the room. Caleb turned around and looked at her.

  “You’re not helping,” he said.

  “She’s not wrong,” Amelia said. “It seems like all we do is theorize, build, and then fail. It’s an endless cycle.”

  “One of these experiments is going to work and we’ll have a repeatable way to disperse those things for good,” Caleb said. “Did you think this would be easy?”

  Amelia put her hand to her forehead and squinted, like she was getting the mother of all headaches.

  “It’s only a matter of time before that thing kills one of us. What have we really learned?” Amelia asked.

  “Plenty,” Caleb said. His anger was turning his face bright red. “Nobody in history has been able to create and control one of those things in a laboratory setting. We’re breaking ground here.”

  “How would we know?” Amelia shouted. “We know enough to know that we can’t document this, or tell anyone. How do you know that people twice as smart, with a building full of resources weren’t right where we are? They wouldn’t have documented it or told anyone. They could have gone to their graves with secrets that we can’t even fathom.”

  Caleb opened his mouth and then closed it again. He wanted to argue, but she was completely correct. He lost his balance and fell backwards onto his butt. His eyes went to Niren, who was motionless with the wrap covering his face. The young man might as well have been dead under there. With their limited supplies, he might be permanently disfigured, or worse. He might not even live to see the next day. And they had nothing to show for it.

  The experiment was over.

  # # # # #

  Amelia sat on the end of the bed. She squeezed Niren’s foot through the blanket. Caleb sat in the chair with his head in his hands while Brook paced.

  “I don’t understand,” Brook said. “I heard the thing going towards Amelia, and she was the only one of us who showed elevated levels. How is it possible that it attacked Niren?”

  Amelia didn’t answer.

  “We’re going to have to get more wraps from somewhere,” Caleb said. “I’ve got some things at my place I might be able to trade. Anyone have favors they can call in?”

  “Shhh,” Amelia said. “If you’re going to argue and fret, please go somewhere else. He needs rest.”

  “We should take him to the healer on Flower Street,” Brook said.

  “And say what?” Amelia asked. “They won’t treat him.”

  “We all agreed,” Caleb said over his shoulder. “We all knew the risks and we all agreed that we would deal with injuries ourselves.”

  “Ask him,” Brook said. “Ask him what he wants to do. Maybe he wants to take his chances on Flower Street.”

  Amelia sighed. “He can’t answer.”

  Caleb slid his chair over to the table and grabbed the first aid kit.

  “It’s time to change the wrap. We have two left, but they’re small size. Do we use both?” Caleb asked, holding up the wraps.

  “We have to see how bad his eyes are,” Amelia said. “Maybe he just needs it on the lower part of his face.”

  They all moved to the head of the bed. Aside from the slow rise and fall of his chest, Niren hadn’t moved in an hour. Caleb reached and began to peel the wrap down from the top of Niren’s face. At first, it looked encouraging. The skin on Niren’s forehead was healthy and pink. His eyes were a different story. The alterations—nanoscopic machines distributed by the wrap—had dissolved the necrotic tissue in Niren’s eyes. His eyes hadn’t begun to regenerate yet. The result was two bloody holes where Niren’s eyes should have been.

  Caleb inhaled through his teeth and kept pulling the wrap.

  “We have to get more wraps,” Brook said over his shoulder.

  Niren’s nose was just as bad. Some of the dead tissue pulled away with the wrap. They had a horrific view of their friend’s sinus cavity. Amelia held steady. Brook backed away and started pacing again.

  Caleb pulled the wrap off the rest of the way. Apparently, the alterations had focused on the young man’s mouth. His lips and teeth looked like they were in decent shape. It was the opposite of what they had expected to find.

  Amelia jumped when Niren’s mouth opened and his tongue darted out to lick his lips.

  “Niren?” Amelia asked. “Are you awake?”

  The tongue came out for a second pass. They saw his throat move as he swallowed.

  “Itches,” Niren whispered.

  “That’s good,” Amelia said. “That’s really good.” She tried to smile and then folded her lips in to hold back her emotion. She put a hand on Niren’s shoulder.

  “The itching means you’re getting better,” Caleb said. “I’m going to cover your nose and eyes now, okay?”

  “Okay,” Niren said.

  Caleb took one of the small wraps and used it to cover the holes in Niren’s face. The young man flinched when it was applied, but then he seemed to relax a little. He parted his lips and breathed through his mouth.

  “You’re going to be okay,” Amelia said. This time her voice was thick with tears. She shook her head and cleared her throat.

  Caleb nodded.

  “Better than I thought,” he said. He leaned back in his chair. “Yeah. Not too bad.”

  “Listen,” Niren whispered.

  “What? Do you hear something?” Brook asked. She came to the side of the bed again.

  “No,” Niren said. His head was perfectly still as he talked. Only his jaw moved. “I know why it came after me. Caleb is right.”

  They all held their breath and waited for him to say more. After a few seconds, they started to look at each other, wondering if there was something they should do or ask.

  Niren finally spoke again. “They’re starting to suspect what we’re doing. If we’re not careful, our work will make them react.”

  “How do you know this?” Caleb asked. “Did they communicate with you in some way?”

  “Think,” Niren said.

  They waited again. Caleb touched Niren’s shoulder.

  “Think?”

  “I think they did,” Niren said. “They changed me.”

  Amelia wiped her eye with the back of her hand.

  “They want me to sabotage the work,” Niren said. “Made me want to.”

  “That seems silly,” Brook said. “We’re not making any progress. Why would they be worried about trying to sabotage us?”

  “Unless we are making progress, but we don’t know it,” Caleb said.

  “It’s not about how they work,” Niren said. “It’s why.”

  “What do you mean?” Caleb asked.

  Niren breathed deep, like he was trying to gather steam for what he had to say.

  “They’re not here to kill. They come to convert, but we’re not ready. So it destroys us.”

  “Not ready? They destroy people, cell by cell. All they leave behind is hair,” Brook said.

  “Not ready for the Option,” Niren said.

  Brook covered her mouth. Amelia stumbled backwards until she found a wall to support herself.

  “You’re saying that the Hunters are what convert people to the O
ption?” Caleb said. “They told you that?”

  “Take my cells from the wrap,” Niren said. “Compare the DNA. You’ll see the repairs. I wasn’t ready to accept them, so it killed the cells. They’re repairing what they killed.”

  “No,” Brook said. “That can’t be true. We would know if that were true.”

  “The Optioners were monsters,” Amelia said. “The Hunters are monsters, too. Maybe he’s right.”

  “No,” Caleb said. “What Brook said—we would know by now. They couldn’t hide that secret for this long.”

  “Who is ‘they’?” Amelia asked. “Who would be left with this knowledge? There are no Optioners around to give up the secret and anyone else who came in contact with the things died. We don’t know where they came from, so why is any explanation out of the question?”

  Caleb glanced at Niren and then waved Brook over to where Amelia was standing.

  He lowered his voice so only they would hear.

  “Plenty of people have been attacked by the things. Why would Niren be the first one they reached out to? And why would they tell him their secrets? If he’s right, and they do know that we’re trying to find a way to destroy them, then he would be the last person they would tell. We’ve never heard anything like this, and to have it come as a revelation from a guy who was nearly killed by them… It just doesn’t make sense. He told us that they made him want to sabotage us. Why wouldn’t we believe that this misdirection is the sabotage?”

  “Fine,” Amelia said. “Then ask him that.”

  They turned back to Niren. He was breathing slowly through his mouth. The rest of his body remained perfectly still.

  “Niren,” Caleb said, “How do we know that what you’re saying isn’t the sabotage?”

  “Of course it is,” he said. “They want us to understand that they’re not here to hurt us. They want to stop us with the truth.”

  “But there’s no way to verify this truth,” Brook said. “So why would it work?”

  “I told you—look at my cells. Look at the DNA repairs they enacted,” Niren said.

  Caleb bent down. Using one of the gloves, he lifted the spent wrap that he had pulled from Niren’s face. He peered at the blood and tissue. He looked to the others.