Numb

by Isabelle Carey

  "I started to grow impatient, something I prided myself on not feeling for the longest time. I was careless and I wanted to know where you were hiding the drive while Aidan worked on cracking the code. I attacked you while you were sleeping at my house. Catching you off guard, Charlotte, was the only way that my powers would work on someone like you. I created an illusion of a shadowy attacker but you threw me off of you and when I hit my head on the bedpost, I was forced to flee, the illusion shattered."

  "And then you pretended that the attacker had gotten to you as well," Charlotte surmises. "I should have realized that your wound was in the same exact spot where your head had struck the bedpost."

  "Yes, it was a mistake on my part like I said, a moment of impatience," Lilly insists. "But then, Aidan figured out the code and we found out what must be done. The only way to view Dr. Cato's entire message was to use her computer inside of BioLife. I no longer needed Aidan because the task was simple from that point forward and I knew you could accomplish it. So, I called in the ambush on the monorail. You see, Aidan is one of the most powerful Empaths ever. He's the first to possess two abilities, as he's a Drifter and Reader, who can teleport and communicate with electronic devices. I saw a use for him with the Coalition but they have other plans for him. They deem that he's too talented and that he can't be trusted, given that he went AWOL from the Amber Army. The Coalition wants him dead. Unfortunately, he escaped from the Amber Army soldiers that were to turn him over to us. We have his little brother though. He has been sent to the Project Lightning facility. Hopefully little Elijah can help us draw Aidan out into the open where he can be dealt with swiftly."

  "You're heartless!" Charlotte screams. "I can't believe that you manipulate people to serve your needs and when you have no need for them any longer, you throw them away like the trash your parents used to eat!"

  That should have stung Lilly but she has thick skin. "Hello, I am a Trickster," Lilly reminds her. "Manipulation is what I do best."

  "No, you're just a bitch!" Charlotte tweaks Lilly's depiction of herself.

  "Language, Charlotte. Language." Lilly looks at the two of us, from one to another, and back again. "Now, the moment has come. As I've mentioned already, the Coalition wants the two of you, the best privilege you can receive. All you have to do is cooperate, Charlotte. You already made it easy for me with the Hippocampus, but I know you have another copy of Dr. Cato's message. I know Aidan gave you a device, so I want you to hand it over to me. If you do that, the two of you will make it out of here and everyone will live happily ever after. If you don't do as I say, you die. Now, look at Liam. Look at that handsome face. Show him how much you love him and work with me here. You don't want to leave him alone, do you? Other girls will take note of his beauty and will scoop him up as though he's ice cream. I know you don't want that."

  "Since you're keen on talking about him, what about Liam?" Charlotte wants to know. "If I don't hand it over, what will you do to him?"

  "He will be mine," Lilly puts it bluntly. "He will be my partner and serve the Coalition faithfully. He will also . . . serve me faithfully." She smiles maliciously. "Behind closed doors."

  Charlotte trembles violently with rage then. I don't like how Lilly speaks about me as if I'm not even here handcuffed to the air duct.

  "It's your choice," Lilly gives Charlotte two options that don't benefit her in any way other than leaving Lilly's home alive. "Either way, this will make for a suitable and epic ending. I must add that the Coalition doesn't take rejection very kindly. We won't stop at your death if you refuse to give me the drive. We will kill everyone who has ever been close to you. We will spare Liam because of me, but everyone else won't be so lucky. Except for perhaps Scarlett and Abigail. They may prove valuable too. We shall see."

  "You're not going to lay a finger on anyone," Charlotte attempts a threat but even I realize how pitiful it sounds given the mess we're in. Then, she asks Lilly, "What do you know about Scarlett?"

  "More than you know," Lilly replies as if gloating. "She's a part of a special program and the rest is classified information. Consider yourself lucky that I revealed that much to you. But trust me when I say that you will be seeing a lot of your twin sister soon enough, if you cooperate."

  Charlotte stands there, thinking long and hard. She knows what she has to do but she doesn't want to. I know what she has to do too because she doesn't have another choice. At least if she gives in to Lilly's demands now, Charlotte and I may have a fighting chance later.

  "Do it," I tell Charlotte quietly. "You know you have to. There is no other way."

  "No," Charlotte says defiantly, the look on her face hard enough to shatter glass.

  "You have to. Do you really want to die over this?"

  Charlotte nods. "Yes," she responds without hesitation.

  "She has the other device, Charlotte. Think about it. She will find out what's on it regardless of what you do. Besides, she'll just pull the one you have off of your . . . your dead body."

  "So."

  "So? Think about your family and how much they will suffer if you're not alive to help them. Think about everyone else you know and how the Coalition will kill them. Think about . . . think about me and how I won't be able to go on without you. Think about it all and do what you know is right."

  Charlotte glances at me, her face stained with tears. She stares at me, almost silently pleading for me to fix this mess and make everything better. But there's nothing I can do. It's all on her.

  She silently reaches into her pocket and pulls out a tiny flash drive. She holds it up for Lilly to take from her.

  "Glad to see that you have decided to cooperate, although it's a shame, for me anyways, that you really do care about Liam." She then turns and walks away, back towards the other room. Is she nuts?

  "Where do you think you're going?" Charlotte demands.

  "This is going to suck for both of you, but it'll be all over in a jiffy. The Coalition doesn't like they're prizes spoiled and this is the only way I know to ensure that you are both delivered in one piece and without gunshot wounds."

  I watch as the glass separating the two rooms materializes again. Through the glass, I see Lilly tampering with the computer. A hissing sound issues overhead and suddenly, the room starts to fill up with gas spewing from the sprinkler devices I noticed earlier. The gas is pink and very familiar.

  Lilly has released the Purge in here.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Charlotte

  Currently Listening To: "Never Let Me Go" by Florence and the Machine

  The gas starts to fill up the room rather quickly and the first thought that comes to mind is that Lilly is going to kill us anyway, despite her promise that she wouldn't if I complied. I still have the disk though so maybe I can figure out something.

  Thinking of a plan would be a lot easier if the Purge wasn't clouding more than my sight. All around me, everything is pink. The gas hovers like a dense fog and I can barely make out Liam who's cowering on the ground next to me.

  I cough and hold my breath, trying to keep the gas out of my lungs for as long as possible. It becomes more and more difficult to see through the haze of gas with each passing second. Liam and I could probably ambush Lilly when she comes for the device but I can't free him from his bonds. I don't have the key. Maybe I can surprise her myself somehow but I won't be able to if I start breathing in the gas. I need my emotions to drive me. Forget what Lilly said about anger. I am enraged right now and it's persuading me to make Lilly pay for what she's done.

  I still can't believe it. I wish this was a nightmare that I could wake up from and that everything would be all right. But it's definitely not a dream. I already pinched myself for good measure earlier. This is real. Everything. And Lilly's betrayal was unexpected, cutting me like a thousand knives.

  "A little Purge gas never killed anyone," Lilly's voice rings through the speaker, which means that she's still inside of the separate room, giving me more time to thi
nk. "And a lot can kill you. Fortunately for the two of you, I am not pumping enough gas into the chamber to kill you. With the right amount though, you can incapacitate a person. That's the dose I'm giving you today. I want you dreaming of the wonderful life you'll have with the Coalition as the cops come to take you away to a better future."

  Great. Cops are on their way. If Liam and I are going to escape, we have to first deal with Lilly, the psychotic back stabber. We'll worry about the cops later.

  I stuff the flash drive back into my pocket and my fingers close around something that I forgot was there. I pull it out of my pocket and look at it. Thank you Granny Rosie, I whisper to myself, as I clutch the mechanical filter in my hands.

  Below, and lost behind a wall of swirling pink mist, Liam starts coughing violently. I stare at the filter and I consider giving it to him. But it would do us no good. He's not in a position to do much of anything. I need it more than he does.

  I'm sorry, Liam. Just hang in there a little while longer . . . .

  I stuff the filter into my mouth and my lungs are at ease, able to function properly again.

  But I don't even get a chance to breathe a sigh of relief. I hear footsteps approaching. Lilly is coming for the device. I look around frantically for something I can use as a weapon, as I back away from her general direction to buy me more time.

  I run right into Liam and trip over his outstretched legs. I fall backwards, throwing out my hands to catch myself. I collapse to the floor and something jabs me hard in the ribs. It wasn't the floor that poked me though. I'm certain of it.

  "Charlotte?" Lilly calls through the gas, her shadow appearing before her physical form. Her voice is distorted. She has a mechanical filter as well. "What are you doing?" She asks in a sing song type of voice, as if she's playing with me.

  I lift myself up to a crouch and look down at whatever pushed itself hard into my ribs when I fell. I pick up the flashlight. It's heavy, sturdy, and perfect. I wait until I see Lilly emerge through the gas and then I start pretending to cough madly.

  Lilly comes over to me. "Give it to me, before you—"

  I don't even allow her to finish. I leap up suddenly and with all my might, I swing the flashlight like a miniature baseball bat. The metal tube filled with large-sized batteries strikes the side of Lilly's head hard. Blood splatters across my front, staining my clothes red. I watch, almost horrified at what I've done, as she falls to the floor, dropping in a heap. And she stays there, unmoving, knocked out cold or worse.

  I have to check. I have to be sure before I can do anything else. I drop down next to her body and grab her limp wrist. I press my fingers against the correct spot and feel her heart continuing to circulate blood throughout her body. She's still alive and I don't know when she'll be waking up.

  I stand up and stare down at her in disgust. I notice that I hit her in the same place that she banged her head on that bedpost when she attacked me that night. I almost laugh in spite of everything, but Liam's feeble coughs get my attention again.

  I snatch the mechanical filter out of Lilly's mouth and rush back over to him, careful not to trip over him again. When I find him, I kneel down beside him. He's laying there, eyes closed but coughing faintly.

  I shake him. "Liam, here! This will help!"

  He opens his eyes a little and I force the filter into his mouth. He coughs a couple more times and then the coughing stops as the filter starts to block out the gas.

  "Charlotte," he speaks with a modulated voice.

  "I'm here," I assure him, helping him up slowly to a sitting position. "How are you feeling?"

  He doesn't answer my question but instead asks one himself: "Where's Lilly?"

  "I knocked her out," I tell him hastily, reminded of our urgency. Overhead, the valves continue to spew the Purge. I don't think they are ever going to stop. Lilly was probably going to shut them down after she had seized the disk from me. "We need to get out of here quickly. Do you know of a way for me to free you? Is there a key? Did Lilly have a key?"

  Liam shrugs and then cries out in agony. "I don't . . . I don't . . . I don't know. The . . . the . . . the pain in my head. It hurts really badly. I'm . . . I'm s-s-so weak and d-d-d-dizzy." A tear trickles out of one of his eyes as he clenches his fists together in an attempt to endure the pain of the super dose of Purge.

  "Hang in there, Liam." I feel awful for him but I have to be strong right now. I can nurse him back to health later. I can help him with the pain as soon as we get out of here. "I'm going to search Lilly for keys and maybe check the other room she was in. Just stay awake and hang in there. I'll be right back." Before I rise, I take one of his hands in mine and squeeze it gently.

  Then, I'm walking blindly through the gas and back to Lilly's unconscious form. I check everywhere on her, afraid that she might wake up in the middle of it all. But I'm still clutching my trusty flashlight that's caked around the edges with her blood. I won't hesitate to use it a second time if I have to.

  I don't find a key anywhere. Her skirt and jacket don't yield any pockets that might conceal the key to the cuffs. I leave her there and hurry towards the other room, willing her to remain unconscious. The glass is gone so I step straight into the connecting room. I search the desk, the only piece of furniture in here but I can't find a single key. All of the drawers are empty. Damn!

  I spy Lilly's Discharger though. It's on the top of the desk next to an outdated computer monitor that would have made Aidan proud. I pick it up and then stare at the monitor, trying to figure out how to shut off the gas valves. But everything on the screen looks complicated. I don't know where to even begin, so I leave and make my way back over to Liam. The gun might be the only solution for freeing him. And as long as we both have filters, we can make it out of here without the Purge obstructing anything but our vision.

  I step over Lilly and when I find Liam again, his eyes are closed and his head droops. "Liam! Wake up!"

  His eyes open to slits at once and he stares at me weakly. "Charlotte . . . ."

  "Liam, I know it hurts. I know you're in a lot of pain but I really need you to focus right now." My voice is shaking as much as my hand holding the pistol. "I've never fired a gun before. Since I couldn't find a key for the handcuffs, this is our only option. Liam, stay with me please? How do I, you know, shoot this thing?"

  "Th-th-there's a safety on the grip. Just flick the switch . . . ow . . . there. Then, aim and squeeze the trigger. Don't angle the gun straight down or the b-bullet might ricochet off the tile. You can do it, Char-Charlotte . . . ."

  I follow his instructions carefully, my fingers trembling so much that it takes three of them just to turn off the pistol's safety. Then, I hold the Discharger with one quivering hand and point it at the chain connected to the handcuff around Liam's left wrist. I tilt it forward a hair, place a finger on the trigger, and pull it back cautiously.

  The gunshot is loud and echoes around the room. I closed my eyes out of fear of shooting Liam when I heard the gun fire. I open my eyes tentatively now and look down to find a sizzling bolt lodged in one of the tiles with black scorch marks surrounding it. The bullet still crackles with a pathetic electric charge after slicing right through the metal chain. Liam is now able to move his left arm as he pleases, wearing the handcuff like a bracelet. I'm grateful I didn't shoot him.

  I did it but there's no time to celebrate or to feel great about shooting a gun for the first time in my life. We need to go.

  "Now, for the other one," Liam whispers.

  I repeat the process to similar results, a little more confident the second time around due to the success of the first shot. Once Liam is no longer restricted by the chains, I help him up to his feet. He stumbles but I catch him, holding him up until he can stand on his own.

  "Are you going to be able to make it?" I can't help but ask him.

  "Do I have another choice?" He retorts, slipping into sarcasm with ease.

  "Good point," I tell him. "Let's go."

  I
walk and Liam shuffles through the gas, which is now so thick that I can barely see my own hands, one of which has the Discharger at the ready just in case. Lilly's still out of commission though, so no worries there.

  "What are we going to do with her?" Liam wants to know.

  "Kill her," I answer coldly and a little too quickly.

  "You're . . . you're not a murderer, Ch-Charlotte. Neither am I."

  "I know," I agree with him. "Although she certainly deserves it."

  "Not by your hand," Liam says wisely.

  "We leave her then," I make the nicer decision, although I would rather bash her brains in with the flashlight or shoot her at point blank range with the Discharger. But Liam was right. I'm not a murderer. Lilly deserves worse than death and I have in my pocket, as well as inside the neuro player within my head, the power to destroy her family—the Coalition. I relish in the fact of watching her lose everything like I have.

  "Why?" Liam disagrees after wincing, his face so pitifully pained. "We need to take her with us outside. I can stay and keep an eye on her until the c-cops c-c-come. You need to get out of here and—"

  "No, no, no," I say defiantly, shaking my head. "I'm not abandoning you again. We need to stick together and leave her here. She works for the Coalition, Liam. They are the true driving force behind everything that Paradise represents. We won't be able to pin anything on her and I will still be caught an imprisoned for Emerson's murder if we don't leave right now. Then, you and I will become tools of the Coalition. I'd rather die than let that happen but if we get out of here, the two of us can release the information from your mother to the public. We can inform everyone of the truth and destroy the Coalition once and for all."

  I made a valid point and he knows it. He considers it for a moment and then he nods, "Okay. You're right. Let's get out of here. I can already hear the Zeppelins approaching."