Feedback

by Robison Wells

Page 38

 

  She stretched her arm forward, like she was reaching toward me, and then up to the ceiling, and then out to the side.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Becky said. “It’s like it’s just regrowing. There’s even skin on it—new skin, not scabs or anything. ”

  “I know. I saw it starting to regrow when we were in the Basement. I don’t know how it’s happening. ”

  Becky motioned for me to sit by her, and she slowly began unwrapping the gauze. The skin underneath was red and puffy and smooth, but had grown entirely back over the wound.

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Not much. It’s really tight. ”

  “That’s incredible,” I repeated.

  She stretched her arm out again. “Mind helping me rewrap it?”

  “Sure. ”

  Becky straightened her arm, resting her hand on my shoulder. I carefully adjusted the bandage and began wrapping.

  “So,” she said, looking at my hands, not my face, “the reason I’m asking about Jane … She couldn’t have done this. Even a real doctor in a hospital couldn’t have done this—not this quickly. ”

  I kept rolling the bandage.

  “Jane had a packet of powder,” I said. “It looked like Kool-Aid. And there was some tinfoil-looking thing. ”

  “I saw that when I took a shower. I threw it away. ”

  I nodded, trying to think of something to say. “The robots can heal really fast. ”

  Her eyes went wide, and then her face contorted in revulsion.

  “No!” I said, laughing. “I’m saying I think Maxfield has that kind of technology. The robots bleed, and their skin feels and looks like ours. They have to know a lot about anatomy and medicine. Jane was just using what was in the first-aid kit. ”

  I pointed over to Gabby, now asleep on her cot. “She should have been dead. And Curtis—people thought he was going to lose his leg. The school can heal humans. We’re valuable here. Well, the kids with the implants are valuable. The school is going to make sure they stay alive, and they have crazy advanced medicine to do just that. ”

  I finished wrapping the bandage and tried to tuck the end under to secure it. She flinched.

  “Anyway,” Becky said, “I’m sorry for implying that Jane was …”

  She lifted her arm off of mine, flexing her biceps and testing the bandage. I grabbed her hand and held it.

  “Becky,” I said, my heart racing. “I know what people told you about me and Jane. ”

  Her face flushed. “You don’t have to—”

  “Just listen,” I said. “What they told you was true. I kissed her. And I’ve regretted it ever since. ”

  “Stop. You don’t have to explain. ”

  “I want to. ”

  She looked up at me, her eyes finally locking on mine. “When I came down from the Basement, when I first talked to Carrie …” Her voice trailed off, but her gaze didn’t. She took a deep breath. “I asked Carrie about David,” she blurted out, and then her voice quavered. “You never knew him. We used to be together. A long time before you ever came to Maxfield. I thought … I thought, maybe …” She looked away, at Carrie sleeping on the floor beside Curtis, her fingers touching his leg while he worked.

  I nodded. Mason had told me that Becky had a boyfriend who was killed in the war. I hadn’t even thought about it, but as soon as she found out about the dupes, she must have wondered whether there was a human version somewhere here.

  In a way, this town gave some people a second chance. But not everyone.

  “I don’t want you to go down the elevator,” I said.

  She squeezed my hand. “I’m going. My arm is a lot better. ”

  “I know. ”

  “I’m getting stronger every day. ”

  “I don’t want you to die. ”

  She wrapped her arms around my neck and nestled her head in my shoulder. “We’ll make it out of here,” she said. “You and me, together. ”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Curtis and Shelly finished the powerheads several hours later. There was no way to test them—we only had the two bullets—so all we could do was hope.

  We watched for the last lanterns to be extinguished in the other barracks, and then we waited for what felt like at least two hours after that before leaving the barn.

  Gabby and Carrie were asleep, and the five of us didn’t wake them as we carried the weapons outside.

  “There,” Shelly said, pointing to one of the chicken coops—the one Becky and I had stayed in.

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  Shelly grinned. “I hide things well. ”

  It stank, and there was chicken crap and loose feathers all over our plastic blanket now. Once all five of us had crammed inside, Shelly shooed some sleeping birds out of the way and pulled up a loose piece of plywood on the floor.

  It was the tunnel.

  There was a sturdy ladder made of rough-cut two-by-fours, and we slowly made our way down. It was deeper than I expected, the dirt sandy and coarse. At the bottom—a full twenty feet underground—there was a small room, large enough for the five of us to fit comfortably. The tunnel, maybe three feet by three feet, extended off into the darkness.

  Everything she’d mentioned was there, though some of the metal weapons had rusted. She said they had been stored here for at least nine months, and water from the fields must have seeped in. Still, there was plenty to use. She’d stockpiled it in anticipation of a more widespread revolt; there was more than enough for the seven of us.

  We added the two powerheads and the Taser to the supplies. We couldn’t risk losing them now.

  “Tomorrow night, after dinner,” Shelly whispered as I closed the box. “We’ll create a distraction and try to get as many of the androids here in town as we can, and then we’ll follow you. ”

  “What are you going to do?” Becky asked, shivering a little.

  “I don’t know,” Shelly said, a look of mischievous glee on her face. “Maybe we’ll burn something down. ”

  Lily grinned. “I volunteer for that. ”

  Shelly kicked away the dirt under her feet. She held the lantern out and pointed toward the smooth, flat surface she’d just uncovered. “This is the roof of the underground complex. ”

  I knelt down and felt the solid, thick cement. The gravity of what we were going to be doing sank in.

  I looked up at Shelly. “Any chance we could tunnel through here? It might be less noticeable than breaking the elevator. ”

  Curtis answered. “It’d take days, probably, and I doubt it would be any quieter. We’d need the pick. And who knows how thick that cement is. ”

  I nodded.

  We all stared at one another for a few moments. This was real.

  We were going inside tomorrow. Soon this nightmare would be over.

  It was well past dawn when I woke. The girls were still sleeping, but Curtis sat at the door, staring out at the fields. Snow had started to fall, but it wasn’t sticking to anything yet.

  “Coast clear?” I asked, standing behind him.

  He shrugged. “You think this will work?”

  “Tonight? I hope so. If not, I’ll be joining you in the implant club. ”