by Tara Brown
“Yeah, I saw the artwork in the round room.”
“Exactly my point. I don’t know if Liam sees the irony in zombies—humans without humanity—making tributes out of humanity’s triumphs and tribulations. He doesn't see he’s ruining everything we are because he’s never been able to understand or enjoy the messy parts of being human.”
“He’s not exactly wrong on some parts,” I confess, still sensing the truth of his words ringing in my head.
“No, he’s not. His intense brand of brutal rationality is not wrong. It’s just not human.” Dr. Jacquard wrinkles his brow. “Let him think you are starting to see his point of view. That he might be winning you over after this little meeting. Give me a chance to rework my plan and set everything up. I’ll need to reach the girl and make it back here. Tonight, meet me in the field north of the castle. We’ll do it there, then you must get to the girl as quick as possible. And end this.”
“Tonight.” I nod once but I’m not entirely ready for this. I don't fully understand what this is. And I won’t until I have his bots in me.
“No matter what, he can’t figure out a way to harvest bots and absorb them. The moment he has that, we’re done,” he says the most important part of this.
But I don't have a chance to respond as the door opens and Lee comes sauntering in. She smiles wide. “Any idea what’s going on with our little patient?”
“Damage to the frontal lobe from the initial electrocution. Other than that I’m baffled as to why her eyes would glow when no one else’s do.” Dr. Jacquard shrugs then unstraps me from the machine. “You are free to go, Lou.”
“Gee thanks.” I get up abruptly and walk past Lee, not hiding my annoyance with her or him. It’s not an act, but I need to make sure I’m convincingly pissed.
“Why are you still mad? Dude, you see the plan. You see what King Liam is trying to accomplish.”
“Yeah, I get it,” I say as I turn and face her, ensuring the tone is legit. “I understand and even see his point. But you know what I don't get, is how you can turn your back on all of us. The Littles, me, Erin, all of us. You chose some guy over us? That’s lame, Lee.”
“You’re lame.” She folds her arms. “If you can’t just admit he’s right and this is the solution mankind has needed for like a thousand years, then you’re stupid and lame.”
“You’re stupid!” I snap back. “If you think Liam will ever have your back or protect you the way your family would, then I can’t help you. He might be right about a few things, but he’s manipulative and secretive and kinda evil. He just tranqued me to let that psychopath dissect me!” I point toward Dr. Jacquard’s door.
“You could have just let him see what’s wrong with you. How hard would that have been?” She steps forward. “And it’s King Liam to you!”
“Whatever!” I throw my hands in the air and turn, stomping along the corridor. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Downstairs.” She stomps after me.
“If one hair on their heads is harmed—”
“Why would he hurt them? We are the future, Lou. You’re being like this on purpose. You just want to be the special one. The chosen one. The only one who’s got the powers.” Her words cut into me but I have to maintain this. “You hate that he’s the savior and not you.”
“Oh yeah, I feel really special with my glowing eyes and tiny robots trying to control my thoughts,” I shout back.
“You didn't want me to be like you—”
“No, you idiot. I didn't.” The act is gone and I am just screaming at her, “You ever think maybe I wanted to protect you from this? From him? Maybe I could see this happening?” I point at her. “You’re like his little Stepford wife. He’s your master. Does that seem normal to you? Or can you even tell what’s normal anymore? Or does forming your own opinions go against his plan?”
Her eyes narrow and her lips lift into an evil grin. “You’re jealous. You want him all to yourself and you see how he looks at me. You have Kyle—you don't get to have everyone, Lou.”
Taking a deep sigh, I realize I will never be able to reach her like this. The combination of bots, Liam, and Lee is not awesome. At all. “If you think for one second, I want to be with Liam, a guy I don't know, over Kyle, a guy who has done everything to protect me and be with me, then you don't know me very well.” I turn on my heel and stomp to the stairs, hurrying down them.
“It’s this way,” she snaps, turning to the left at the bottom of the stairs where I went right. I grumble and follow her into the hallway, then into the round room.
“Lou!” Kyle rushes forward, taking my hands in his. He doesn't buzz the same way Liam does and that bothers me. My bots are against us and I’ve never felt it as much as I do now. “You okay?”
“No. Liam shot me with a tranquilizer and Lee let that crazy doctor do experiments on me. I want to go home.”
“It wasn't experiments,” Lee says sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “They were checking for damage. You’re so dramatic.”
“And you’re being a bitch,” Erin snarls at her sister. “And my sister has never been a bitch, not one day of her life.”
“Maybe growing up with the queen of bitches taught me a few things,” Lee growls back. They step to one another and I’m certain, more than I’ve ever been, this needs to end.
“Liam has invited us to stay for dinner and for the night,” Leah mentions quietly, her eyes meeting mine specifically. “He insists.”
“Fine, but we’re leaving tomorrow.” I try to sound as disenchanted as possible. But the truth of the matter is that I can’t wait to spend the night. I can’t wait to sneak into the northern field and begin the end of this.
Chapter 19
Watching Kyle sleep makes me tired. I want to close my eyes and fall into the dreamworld where he is. Truthfully, what I really want is for this to all be a dream. I want to wake up to Furgus hogging my bed and Joey coming in early to tell me Dad’s home and he’s made waffles. I want my mom to be working at the counter, eating her waffles silently.
Alive.
I want them both to be alive.
But that is just a dream.
And this, watching Kyle drift off into a beautiful slumber, is the reality. It took him forever to fall asleep. He grilled me relentlessly about the Liam tranquilizer thing. I had to talk him out of going and killing Liam right then and there. Because it wouldn't have been Liam dying. If Liam were easy to kill, Dr. Jacquard would have done that already.
I slip from the bed, tiptoeing to the window to see the moon rising over the weirdly barren hills. There are trees, but it just isn’t how I imagined Canada. It isn’t lush or damp or snowy. It’s dry and arid and there are fields and rolling hills as far as the eye can see. Small clusters of trees dot the hills, but they’re nothing compared to what I imagined was here.
My heart wants to race as I slide the window up, making small noises, but my bots lower my heart rate and keep me calm. Giving Kyle and his slowly rising and falling chest one more look, I climb out the window onto the weirdly peaked rooftop of the tower where we’re sleeping. It’s a completed part of the castle.
Liam went on and on about it at dinner. We ate roasted venison and boiled potatoes and homemade soda bread. The meal was outstanding, as they always are with him, but the company was tense and fake and even Leah’s sweet and smiling face couldn't lighten my mood.
Or Liam’s. He was excited to see her, calmed even. But it changed nothing for him. He showed them his entire evil plan, told them of his ideas. He was the pied piper of zombies and bots, filling their heads with ideas.
By the end of the meal, he had Miles “convinced of the truth” in his words. Everyone else seemed a bit shell-shocked.
They were even more shocked to watch Miles and Lee nod along like puppets, the same as I did when I first heard it. He is amazing at sales, I have to give Liam that.
My bare feet grip the wooden shakes on the roof as I crawl down to the next roofline. Trying not to ma
ke any noise isn’t easy when jumping from one part of the ridge to the next, but I do my best until my feet finally land with a thud on the cold grass.
A sound makes me turn, seeing Leah land behind me.
“What are you doing?”
“I don't know,” she says, glimpsing behind her. “I just had a feeling I should follow you.”
“How did you even know I was leaving?”
“I don't know!” she whispers harshly. “Why are you leaving?”
“We can talk about it on the walk,” I say, hurrying away from the castle and heading toward the hill in the northern field.
“This place is making me crazy. I swear it. I have had the strangest vibes. Like seriously crazy, man.” Leah sounds as lost as I am. “When Liam invited us to stay for dinner and overnight, I desperately wanted to. I don't even know why. And then I had this weird feeling I should be watching out the window for you at bedtime. Like I knew I would see you out there on the rooftop. And when I did, I knew to follow. Did you do something to me?”
“No.” I gasp, giving her a scowl. “I think the bots are losing their botiness.” I make up a word. “Mine are acting insane. They want me to listen to Liam and let him touch me and they’re all playing The Little Mermaid soundtrack in my head every time he and I are alone.”
“Lemme guess, the ‘Kiss the Girl’ scene?” She laughs, making me smile.
“Yes! I have my own personal set of matchmaker bots trying to convince me of things I don't want to be convinced of.”
“Magoo’s favorite scene. She always sings along at the top of her lungs.”
“I can picture that.” I’m so comfortable with her, always have been, that I share my thoughts comfortably, “Anyway, the bots are against Kyle. They’re crushing my feelings. It’s creepy.”
“That is creepy. But I can say, before Davis got the bots, I felt it too. They wanted me to like Liam. They wanted me to be with him. He and I fought a strange and instant attraction to one another, and I never considered it sexual, but it’s there. Stronger after Grace died.”
“What was he like with her?”
“Normal, ish. Normal for Liam. He was in love so deep, I suppose now I see how his mental health diminished from the loss of her, even with the bots. I mean, maybe it was the kind of love that could have switched to obsession if she hadn’t felt the same way about him. But she did. She was crazy about him.” She sounds breathy as we climb to the top of the hill.
Dr. Jacquard’s lone silhouette is there, standing in the field waiting for me.
“Who’s that?” Leah asks, pausing.
“Dr. Jacquard,” I say. “Maybe wait here.”
“Okay.” She stays behind and I walk faster, hurrying to him. A sense of urgency springs inside me.
“Why did you bring her?” he questions me quietly when I get closer.
“I don't know. She just knew to come.”
“Her bots wanted her here?” He sounds leery of that.
“I think so,” I admit but I have no answers for him.
“We better hurry.” He reaches behind his back and pulls a sword. The silver blade reflects the distant moonlight, glinting in the dark night.
“A sword?” I can’t believe he wants to die by sword. This is barbaric.
“It’s so sharp it’s ridiculous. One swipe, you’ll take my head clean off. I’ll feel nothing.” He hands it to me.
“It’s heavy,” I whisper, taken aback this is how he wants to die. The hilt in my hands suits the backdrop of the castle behind us.
“You’re strong.”
“Why did you choose me? How did you know I would do this?” My mind screams, Why me?
“Your father. He was the bravest of us all. He wasn't just a science geek. He was a true soldier, and I knew the moment I met you, you were his daughter. His strength lives inside you.” He takes a deep breath and drops to his knees in the grass, making a rustling sound. “Do it before I lose my nerve.” His voice wavers and I realize I’m not ready.
He wants me to kill him unprovoked. That makes me uncomfortable.
It takes me several deep breaths before I bring the sword back. I nearly close my eyes and swing, but I hear a sound. Footsteps in the grass. Someone is coming, and it’s not Leah. I still hear her heartbeat across the hilltop, in the opposite direction.
Dr. Jacquard’s eyes lift to mine, glistening in the moonlight. “Do it, hurry,” he insists.
My eyes are wide, my heart races, and my hands are sweating, despite the bots calming me. The hesitation is theirs. They don't want me to do this. They see Dr. Jacquard as part of the greater good.
I’m halfway through talking myself out of it when I just swing, forcing my body to push the sword through the air. My hands squeeze and instead of closing them, my eyes mark the target perfectly. I turn the hilt slightly, evening out the blade so when it hits him it’s completely flat and smooth as it slices the skin of his neck.
It’s like cutting through a banana. Except I hear every sound and register what they are. Skin, meat, tendons, bones, spinal cord, and then the reverse of that.
He blinks once, his lips twitch, and I have a terrible fear he’s in pain. But his body slumps to the ground and his head topples to the side. I gag as the blood, red and lit with blue lights, begins to slither from him. It crawls in a slow-motion wave from his neck and head through the grass, making tiny noises.
When the warmth of it hits my bare feet, I shiver. The lights glow and pulsate as the bots drive the blood up my legs to my torso and neck. It crawls the way it did before, hitting my ears and riding its way to my brain.
“What the ever-loving fuck?” Leah whispers and I hear her getting closer, but I can’t move. The shudder of the weird and disgusting sensation is overwhelming.
Lights flash behind my eyes.
A movie begins to play.
My dad stars heavily in the performance.
Labs, office, massive conferences.
Scientists around a table.
My dad shouting, slamming his hand on the table. His mouth forms and I see the name he is screaming, “Dr. Arsenault!”
Dr. Jacquard is upset. The world is ending. He talks with the military about mist, the mist from the drones that can stop the bots. They don't have many of them made up yet but what they have they can unleash on the Eastern Seaboard.
They’re boarding a plane, my dad is with them. He’s frantically pacing, he’s talking on the phone. I think he’s speaking to me. He says, “Board up the windows,” and I know the exact moment this is.
My breath hitches as they land in the US and they’re running. Dr. Jacquard gets attacked. My dad saves him.
My dad leaves them behind. Dr. Jacquard meets me. He meets Liam. He’s scared of Liam. The image shifts but I’m shaken out of the daydream, cutting the visions off.
“What the hell?” Leah grabs my arm, shaking me. “We have to run. Now! Someone’s coming.” She drags me to the side of the hill, back toward the castle. The sword is still in my hands, smelling rusty and weighing more than it did before I killed him. “How the hell did you do that? His blood crawled up into you.”
“I don't know,” I whisper back as we crawl through the dark shadows to the castle. “I’m a freak.”
She paces on the outside of the northern rampart and stares at me, her eyes searching my face. “You murdered him.”
“You heard him, he made me.”
“Why? I need to understand why.” She is scared of me, but only a little. As much as we can be scared.
“He wants me to end this,” I admit the truth to her. She might be the only person I would tell this to. “He has a plan to end this. To end everything.” His plan begins to flit about in my head. Not faces or images, but words and descriptions and formulas that make sense. He’s given me something, tainted bots.
“But how did you absorb him? Do we all do that?”
“I don't know. I have a bad feeling this might just be a me thing.”
Her eyes l
ower to the sword. “We need to get back to our rooms and you need to hide that.”
I wipe the blade on the grass and nod. “Okay. We should scale the walls and go back the way we came.”
“You think we can climb this castle?” She gazes upward, wincing.
“We can jump and climb, we’re fine. We just have to hurry.” I’m about to jump up the wall and scale it when I have an idea.
I grab the hilt of the sword and hold it over my head, stabbing down at the grass and driving the sword into the earth. I push hard until the hilt is buried too. Then I smooth the dirt and grass over the hole I made. I step on it a few times to ensure I can’t feel anything, then leap up and begin climbing the wall.
“That was genius,” Leah mutters softly as she follows me up.
“I know,” I agree, not tooting my own horn but because it was. “The bots are problem solvers.” I run along the rampart and leap at the closest distance to the castle wall. My landing isn’t as soft as I want it to be, but this needs to go faster. Voices call out in the distance. Someone has discovered the doctor.
Leah jumps with me and we climb to the shadows, scurrying up the wall as in some kind of monster movie.
“It’s not as hard to grip the bricks as I thought it would be,” Leah says breathlessly. We climb to the rooftops and watch as lights begin to come to life and circle the place where I left his body.
A feeling my bots try to fight hits me, but it’s dulled down. It’s remorse. Killing someone who meant me no harm has a different weight in my heart than someone I defended myself against.
“We have to get out of here.” I offer her a look as the moonlight catches her wide stare. “He’ll know it was me.”