Deadlocked (Book 8): Sons of Reagan

by A. R. Wise

  I kept my mouth shut about Annie.

  “After that, we tried to create clones using the information from Ben’s tests, but none of them ever had the same immunity. Still though, we found ways to make them useful.”

  “And how’s that?”

  “We did our best to implant the clones with memories that we thought Ben would’ve had, and we sent them on their way to kill off some of the people that had been giving us trouble. It seemed like a good plan, but the memories didn’t stick, and the clones started to turn against us. Some of them even joined Jerald. If the Ben you met is the original, then he might have the antibodies that we need.”

  “And if he’s just a clone?” I asked.

  “Then he doesn’t matter, and we’ll need Kim’s son.”

  I smiled at her. “And you thought I’d tell you where he might be?”

  “I know you’re not a fool,” said Beatrice.

  “Then you don’t know me at all.”

  “If you cooperate, then you’ll be saving your family and friends, and thousands of other lives as well.”

  I knew all of The Rollers’ favorite camping spots, but there was no guaranteeing they’d be at any of them. After what had happened, there was a good chance they would flee south to seek out The Department. If that were the case, then there’d be no telling where Jules might’ve hidden them. But I wasn’t about to tell Beatrice that. This was the first time since being brought here that I felt like I had the upper hand on these bastards.

  “Why are you working with Jerald now?”

  Beatrice’s expression turned sour as she said, “Because I know how to choose my battles. He still has access to The Electorate’s database, and was able to hide what’s been going on out here. I was just the first of several members of The Electorate that fell into his web. If we die out here, then everything we worked so hard for will be lost.”

  “You fell off the ark,” I said with weak satisfaction as I stared up at the acoustic, white ceiling tiles that were dotted with black specks.

  “What?” asked Beatrice.

  “You fell in your flood,” I said while still staring up. “You set up your island out there with all the people and animals that you wanted to survive, and then flooded the world. Right? That’s why you called it The Noah Initiative. But your ass got booted off the ark, Bea.” I chuckled before glancing over at her, enjoying her stern look. “You’re out here drowning with the rest of us.”

  “But we don’t have to drown out here, Levon. Doesn’t that matter to you? Are you really going to let your pride get in the way of saving your family?”

  “Pride’s got nothing to do with it. Pride’s not worth shit. It’s about doing the right thing, no matter what. It’s about honor, Bea, and I’ve got enough honor for the both of us.”

  “The honorable thing to do would be to swallow your pride and save your family.”

  “Nah. I’ve seen some seriously honorable shit in my day, Bea. I saw Reagan kill himself to save Billy and me. I saw the video of Kim killing herself to save her family. I saw Kim’s mom lying near dead after she took a lethal amount of pills so she could ignore her pain and fight to save her kids. You want to talk to me about honor? Shit, babe, I’ll school your ass ten times over.”

  “So you think the honorable thing to do is to lay here and waste away while everyone else around you dies?” Beatrice’s anger was showing. She’d been trying to stay calm, but I’d annoyed her enough that she was now standing as she launched her reproach. “Do you know what’s in store for you, Hero?” she said my nickname with thick distaste. “Do you know what’s happening inside of you?” She didn’t bother waiting for a response before launching into a list of symptoms I was already suffering. “The drugs are going to start eating away at the protein structures inside of you. It’s delaying the spread of the disease, but it’s not stopping it. They thought these LiMM chairs could kill the disease, but they were wrong. Every time they think they’ve killed the virus in you, they find more traces of it. You’re going to start falling apart, Levon. It’ll start with a tingling in your fingertips, and then your toes, and before long you’ll lose feeling in your legs. You’re never going to walk again, and they’ll probably have to cut off your arms and legs. You’ll be a stump of a man in here, laying on this bed while they watch you die. It’ll be hell. You’re going to be in pain every second for the rest of your life, because they’re not going to let you die as long as there’s a chance they can find a cure in you.”

  “Thanks for stopping by,” I said as I relaxed my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes.

  “Hero, listen to me, damn it.” She slapped my cheek. “They know you spent time around Reagan, and his immunity affected you. Whatever it was that happened with his son was transferred to him, and then to you. They know that if they can get the cure working in you, then they’ll be able to save everyone here. Otherwise, they’ll have to continue producing any cure they can create, and they’ll run out of supplies. Do you understand me?” She hit me again. “They’re not going to stop. They’re going to keep pumping you full of these experiments.” She rattled one of the tubes that were stuck in my side. “But if you just let them bring in your friends, then you can stop suffering.”

  “So that they can plug these tubes into my friends?” I asked, finally understanding the implication of her offer.

  Beatrice didn’t have anything else to say. She just stood over me with a scowl before giving up and turning to leave.

  “Next time you come by, make sure to stop in at the gift shop and grab me something to read. It gets boring in this place, and I’m going to be here awhile.”

  7 – Mother Will Learn

  Celeste

  I convinced the Administrators that time had beaten me down. I allowed them to think they’d won.

  This wasn’t a race. It didn’t matter how quickly I broke free and hunted them down. All that mattered was that it happened. I played the part they expected of me, and cowered at their might. I stopped taunting them, and I quit inciting the knock-out gas to spew from the vents. I already knew how long it would take for the gas to render me unconscious, and I’d memorized the design of the guards’ suits so that, when the time was right, I could incapacitate them. Now I needed more information about what was happening here. I needed to placate them; to comply until they no longer suspected the revolution I would inflict upon them, because that had become my new goal.

  Revolution.

  It could be nothing short of that. I loved the word. It had been one of the many words the Administrators had stricken from the Dawn’s education. No sense in giving voice to ideas you hoped never to inspire. They’d been so careful to craft our experience, but I broke free, and once you know you’re living in a cage the dream of freedom is all-consuming.

  However, I’d come to realize something in my time back in the facility that I couldn’t ignore. Every time I dreamed of Hailey and returned to the nightmare of reality, I became more focused on what I had to do here. Hailey’s glowing smile, now a denizen of fantasy instead of reality, inspired me to free our sisters. The Dawns stuck down here with me had no idea about the world they were being hidden from, and despite the myriad of terrors waiting for them on the surface, they deserved to know that they were living in a false reality. Being caged down here was no life at all. While I wanted to escape, I couldn’t leave without bringing my sisters with me.

  That presented me with a challenge. If I managed to break out of this place by attacking the guards and then absconding through their secret passages, just like I had with Hailey, then there would be no way for me to inspire the other Dawns to come with me. I needed to be allowed back into their ranks, but how could I convince the Administrators to allow it?

  I waited for the view screen to click on. I stood on the grey footprints, patiently waiting for mother to call.

  Finally, the screen clicked to life, and I saw my digital doppelganger staring back at me. “Hello Celeste,” she said as she st
ared at me. After so many weeks of arguing about it, my mother accepted my new, self-given name.

  “Hello, mother.”

  She cringed when I said the word, but I was continuing to reinforce our relationship. I didn’t want to be viewed as a commodity anymore. I wanted her to see me as more important than that.

  “How are you feeling today?”

  “Lonely,” I answered, seeking empathy.

  “You have me. You’ll always have me.”

  She was all I had, and despite the hatred I had for her, it was impossible to ignore that she was the closest thing to human contact I had here. “I know, and I’m thankful for that. But…” I looked sheepishly down, and then to the door that led the way to the rest of the facility, past my shower and ready room. “Still.”

  “You’re not going to be allowed back in with the others,” said my mother with assurance, but I sensed a modicum of sympathy in her tone. “You know that.”

  “I know,” I said quickly, having played out this conversation in my mind several times already. “I’m not asking to go out there and be with the others. I know that’s not possible. But what if…” I was nervous. It was a rare emotion for me, but so much rode on my ability to convince her to placate me. “What if you found one Dawn that could come and visit me. You could monitor us the whole time. And I swear I won’t do anything to confuse her, or let her know that I made it to the surface.”

  She shook her head and said, “No,” but I continued unabated.

  “We could explain that I’d been refusing to take my pills at night, and that I got sick because of it, and that the Administrators need to introduce me back into the group slowly. I’m sure they’re all wondering where Hailey and I disappeared to. They have to be curious, and I bet they’re scared. After that man fell from the ceiling, the other girls saw Hailey and me getting carried out by the guards. I’m sure they think our disappearance had something to do with coming in contact with that dead man.” I knew that I must’ve sounded frantic, but I continued anyhow, desperate to plead my case before she shot me down. “The Dawns used to get nightmares from seeing an Administrator with brown hair, for crying out loud. They must be tossing and turning in their beds in terror of what they think happened to us. If you let me meet with one girl, just one, and monitored us, then she could explain to the others all about what’s really going on. She could help explain how important it is to do as the Administrators say, and take the pills, because otherwise they might get sick like me. Think about it.”

  “Celeste, I…”

  I interrupted her, “Just promise me, mother. Promise me you’ll consider it.”

  She paused, which I thought was a good sign. After a long sigh, she asked as if pondering to herself, “What happened to you out there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “On the surface. You went through so much. I can’t even imagine.”

  I didn’t dare respond. Was she hoping I regretted my escape? Certainly my actions after being returned here ensured that she didn’t mistake my current docility with any sort of relief at having been captured.

  “Did you love her?” asked my mother, and I knew exactly who she was talking about.

  I considered saying that I wasn’t sure, because I’d never loved anyone before and that it was impossible for me to understand such a deep emotion. I thought that was what she wanted to hear, but I knew that I couldn’t express that with enough honesty to convince her I wasn’t lying. She needed to trust me.

  “Yes.”

  My mother stared out at me, studying me. Then she looked away, as if focusing on something else that I couldn’t see. “She was quite pretty.”

  I nodded, and the emotions that threatened to surge through me caused my hands to tremble.

  “Would you like to see her again?” asked my mother.

  My lungs momentarily lost their ability to draw in breath. I seized up, as if time itself had halted. “What?”

  “Not her, exactly,” said my mother, recognizing in my reaction that I’d misinterpreted her. “We have the video from your escape. Some of it is rather unsettling.” She cringed as she stared down at something I wasn’t privy to. “Most of it is unsettling, but I could find a moment in this somewhere that I could capture for you. Something free of violence. Would you like that?”

  I needed to stick to my plan. I’d been practicing this for several days, planning my response to each rebuke she might offer. Nothing was supposed to matter to me other than convincing her to let me meet with another Dawn. Yet now, I was all but speechless. I uttered a weak response, “Yes.”

  She was still looking down, and I took the opportunity to wipe away the tears that glassed my vision. “Is there any particular moment you can think of that you’d like to have? Something that would help you remember her. Something that will help soothe you.”

  There was, but I hesitated to tell her. I knew that seeing Hailey again wouldn’t help me get over her loss, but all I had left of her were memories. Mother was offering me the chance to see her again, and I couldn’t refuse.

  “Outside.” My voice escaped as little more than a whisper. I cleared my throat and spoke louder, “When we got outside. When she walked out into the sunshine.”

  I knew there had been a camera there to see us. I remembered the guard that Hero had shot talking with someone else on his radio. The voice on the radio had spotted Hailey and me trying to escape.

  My doppelganger was staring down again as she watched the video I desperately wanted to see. It must’ve been the first time she’d seen it, because she became momentarily startled and I guessed it was from when the guard had been shot. A moment later it looked as if she was about to say something, but then her attention was grabbed and she watched the video intently. A smile crept across her face and she snickered when she said, “Well what do you know about that.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’d heard you met Levon,” she said with a coy grin.

  “His friends call him Hero,” I said and she nodded.

  “Give me a moment,” said my digital representation before the screen went dark.

  My heart raced, and I cursed myself for not sticking with the plan. Her diversion had been too powerful to ignore. The hope of seeing Hailey again was almost physically debilitating. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to see her.

  The screen came alive again and mother walked into view. I stood straighter in expectation.

  “We were able to isolate a nice picture of Hailey Dawn, right as she stepped out into the light. Her beauty was…” she halted in search of the proper adjective. “Remarkable.”

  “Can I…” my question trailed off as my heart continued to pound.

  Mother lifted her hand and expanded her fingers, causing a new window to appear on the screen. Within the new window was a picture of my lost treasure.

  I gasped and my eyes filled with tears. I wiped them furiously and then stepped forward. Hailey was turning back to look at me after just passing from the shadow of the facility’s entrance. Her red hair was aglow in the sunlight, giving it a fiery life it had never known under the buzzing halogen bulbs that lit our existence. Her emerald eyes were wide with fear, and her lips had parted as if she were about to call out my name.

  Then, as suddenly as her beauty had come back into my life, she was gone. The window closed and disappeared into my mother’s clenched fist.

  “Bring her back,” I said.

  “Perhaps,” said my mother through that wicked interpretation of myself. “But you have to do a better job of working with me.”

  “Please let me see her again.” I was disgusted by the desperation in my own voice.

  “Then do as we ask,” she paused before exemplifying her point with my old name, “Cobra.”

  It stung.

  The only success I’d enjoyed since being locked up back in this hell was forcing them to start using my new name. Now she was exerting her dominance, and I was complacent. As much as I hated her f
or it, she’d beaten me.

  I nodded.

  “Good,” she said.

  “Can you show me the picture again?” I asked. “Could I watch the video of when we…”

  “Not now,” said my mother sharply. “You do as you’re told, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”

  “But I…”

  “Don’t get greedy,” she said before the screen went black.

  I was left alone again, and the silence caused my own heartbeat to drum in my ear. I placed my hand on the screen where Hailey’s picture had been, and closed my eyes. It was hard to believe that she was prettier than my memories of her, but she was. I concentrated on the fading image in my mind, determined to memorize as many details as possible.

  I thought of her lips, and how they’d just started to part in the picture mother had shown me. I tried to recall that moment. What had she said to me? Had she called out my name?

  “Celeste.”

  No. That couldn’t have been what she said. Hailey never knew me by that name. She knew me as Cobra.

  That realization is what I needed to snap myself free of the despair mother had manipulated in me. She’d used my love of Hailey to beat me down. Just the promise of the sight of Hailey had been enough to cause me to curtail any rebellion I’d hoped to start.

  I wouldn’t be cowed so easily.

  Mother would learn that.

  8 – The Snake

  Jerald Scott

  “I don’t think that was a good idea,” I said to the stuffy old bitch. When we’d first brought her to the facility, I assumed it was as a prisoner, but things change quickly, especially when the world’s gone to shit. And our world had most definitely fallen straight into the porcelain throne, even more so than it had been before. Now that the Tempest Strain was out, all bets were off. Any plan we’d been cooking up had been tossed aside. Now we were all just trying to figure out a way to survive.