The Death Code Page 8

  Footsteps come from the darkness.

  I hold tighter to her wrist, assuming it to be Initiative guards. Soon they will come and bind her with MagnaCuffs, take her back to Headquarters. She doesn’t run.

  She stays by my side. There is a sudden change in her eyes, a sadness that wasn’t there before, as she looks at me.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry, Meadow.”

  “Sorry for what?” I ask.

  She opens her mouth, leans in to whisper. I hear her words, beg them not to be true.

  What she is saying cannot be true. My world shatters.

  “Meadow . . .”

  “Stop,” I say. I shove her words away. Lock them deep in my heart and choose to believe they are false.

  She opens her mouth to speak, and for one moment, I think she is going to apologize for everything. Everything she’s done to me, to my family, to the world, for the secret she just told me. I need this moment. To truly begin to forgive her, I need to hear her apology.

  But she never gets the chance to say it.

  Instead, she lurches forward, like she has been pushed from behind.

  She gasps.

  A trickle of blood slides from her lips.

  “No,” she whispers. “No!”

  Then she falls.

  I see it all happen in slow motion, hear myself screaming, feel myself drop to her side. “Mom!”

  There is an arrow protruding from her chest. Blood blooms like a fresh rose on the fabric of her shirt.

  I don’t have to see the wound to know it was a perfect hit. I know she has seconds before she dies. I know that everything around me is a blur, and I can’t focus on the hidden killer.

  All I see is my mother.

  Dying.

  Again.

  She coughs, gasps for breath. She opens and closes her mouth like a fish. “You have to . . .” she gasps. “Stay.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” I whisper. “You’re going to be okay.” I rip the arrow out, push my hands to her chest, but blood bubbles through my fingertips.

  A gushing river.

  It’s too much. Too fast.

  She is going to die.

  “No!” she yells, and her eyes go wild, like she’s staring into bright light. About to cross over. “The revenge order,” she gasps, and suddenly she’s gripping my wrists so tight that I cry out. “Stay!”

  “I will,” I promise. She is leaving the world behind. Leaving me behind. I thought I’d gotten her back. I thought I wouldn’t be alone in this any longer. She could have taken control again, sent me to the Ridge, set Peri free, removed our Regulators, or demanded my family to be sent home. She could have fixed it all.

  Tears splash down my cheeks, onto her forehead, as her grip goes slack. I can’t stop the bleeding. “Don’t. Don’t go. Don’t leave me again. Not now. You can’t!”

  A tear rolls down her cheek. “Forgive me,” she says. She reaches up to touch my Regulator.

  She takes a deep, sputtering breath.

  Then her eyes glaze over. Her hand drops, leaving a trail of blood on my cheek.

  I am vaguely aware of a voice that sounds like Zephyr’s, calling my name, and the footsteps of many, racing toward me.

  But none of that matters.

  Nothing in this world matters, not even me.

  My mother is dead.

  CHAPTER 25

  ZEPHYR

  Lark Woodson is dead.

  The Creator is finally, finally dead.

  And I shot the arrow that killed her.

  It’s the only thing I can think. The only thing that comes to mind.

  I should be happy. I should feel my entire body relax, my heart grow so full it’s about to burst. The woman who ruined my life has finally gotten what she deserves. I see Sparrow hobbling next to Rhone, rushing from the shadows.

  Rhone reaches Meadow, tries to pull her away from Lark’s corpse.

  Meadow is sobbing over Lark’s dead body. There’s something black and unnatural sticking out of Meadow’s skull. I freeze as I look at her.

  This can’t be Meadow. A sobbing, shell of a girl, covered in cuts and bruises, half of her hair cut away. She screams, and the sound rocks me backward a step.

  What did the Leeches do to her?

  Meadow shakes Lark’s body, shouts curses at her.

  I want to explain myself. I want to tell her why I killed her, that it was for us, for everyone.

  But suddenly there’s a flash. Blinding white light behind my eyes.

  A horrible ringing pierces my thoughts. It’s worse than the Night Siren, worse than Meadow’s scream.

  I can’t hear anything but the ringing.

  I can’t see anything but the white light.

  And then there’s a word. A single word in Lark’s voice, that surfaces through the chaos. The word comes again, over and over and over, the sweetest one I’ve ever heard.

  Revenge.

  CHAPTER 26

  MEADOW

  My mother is dead.

  My mother came for me, came to help me save Peri, and she tried to apologize, and now she is . . .

  She is only asleep.

  She is dead.

  She is asleep, right here in front of me, waiting for me to wake her up.

  She is dead.

  “Get up, Meadow! Leave her!” A man’s voice, and I think I feel hands tugging at my shoulders, trying to pull me away.

  I throw them off.

  I need to hear my mother’s apology, to know that she was truly sorry for everything that she had ever done. She asked me to forgive her. I have to tell her that I want to, that I want things to be the way they always could have been.

  First I need to hear her say she’s changed.

  “Say it!” I shake her, but she won’t move. Her eyes roll back into her head, and her mouth flops open in a silent scream. “Say it! Wake up!”

  It’s only when Zephyr’s face appears in front of mine that I look away from her.

  “Zephyr,” I gasp.

  He is alive. Here, in front of me.

  “We have to run,” he says.

  He grimaces, like he’s in pain, like he’s fighting the Murder Complex, but how can anything be more painful than the reality that my mother is dead?

  “Meadow, now!” he growls. He tears me from the ground with such strength that I gasp. “She’s dead. It’s time to go.”

  I nod through my tears.

  I take his hand.

  My fingers are covered in blood.

  We stand up, and together, we run.

  CHAPTER 27

  ZEPHYR

  REVENGE.

  It’s the call of the system. It’s her fail-safe, just like Sparrow warned me about, tried to prepare me for.

  I breathe deep, in and out.

  I hear the word screamed over and over again. I fight as hard as I can. Meadow’s hand in mine is the only thing steady, the only thing holding me here and now.

  We make it halfway to the marshes, almost to the edge of the city, when I can’t control it any longer. The Night Siren goes off, even though it’s early morning. Leech soldiers rush into the streets, their eyes wide like they don’t know what’s going on.

  I see others like myself. Patients, sprinting forth into the new light of day.

  We look into each other’s eyes, and we know.

  REVENGE.

  I dive for the Leech closest to me and tear his throat out.

  CHAPTER 28

  MEADOW

  The Patients turn into monsters, killing with a grace that only comes from years of training.

  The Night Siren wails, out of time and place in the daylight, a screech that normally sounds like a mother mourning her child.

  Not today.

  Now it sounds furious, like a vicious monster.

  Mixed in with it is the sound of the Commander’s voice. You did this, he says.

  The pain comes. Peri’s screams ring in my ears, and I tell myself this isn’t real, thi
s isn’t real, this Is. Not. Real.

  I focus on the world around me, fight through the pain, hold on to it like an anchor to keep me in this moment.

  Zephyr’s hand leaves mine.

  He leaps, and lands on top of an Initiative soldier. I watch as he rips the man’s throat apart. Blood sprays and hits me, warm and thick on my face.

  This is real. My father’s voice comes to me from the deep. I free him. I let his voice flood into me, and it is so beautiful, so alive. Hold on. Focus, Meadow. Stay alert. Don’t lose yourself yet.

  Someone runs up beside me and touches my shoulder. I whirl around.

  I stare into my mother’s eyes.

  “Meadow,” she says, but she is mutilated, half of her face scarred and her hair has turned dark. She is not my mother, but a broken, twisted copy of her.

  And of me.

  “Who are you?” I gasp.

  I tear my hand away, stumble backward, but someone comes up behind me. I whirl, see it is Rhone from the Resistance team, whose father knew my father. He is solid and steady, and he wraps his warm hand over mine.

  “Come with us!” he begs. “We have to escape here.”

  I look for Zephyr in the chaos.

  “I won’t leave him,” I say.

  “Zero will find us,” Rhone says back.

  The streets are a blur, as people sprint past, pushing and shoving and crying out for loved ones. Patients are attacking the Initiative, all around. Guns fire. Knives are thrown.

  Soldiers drop to the city streets, and the citizens trample their bodies in their rush for cover. It’s all happening too fast, out of nowhere.

  And then I realize why.

  My mother is dead.

  The Patients are reacting to her fail-safe. Soon, the world will burn to ashes around us. This is the only chance to escape from here. Now there is nothing left for me.

  I let Rhone and the strange, broken woman lead me away.

  It’s only when we make it to the edge of the city that I see Zephyr again.

  He is leading a wave of Patients toward Headquarters.

  CHAPTER 29

  ZEPHYR

  Dust and smoke and death.

  The revenge of the Patients is in full swing.

  It’s different from the Murder Complex.

  This is the Creator’s order, and we know exactly what we’re doing.

  We march in a solid line, taking out Leeches as they try to run away. When they shoot us with their rifles, some of us drop.

  But then something amazing happens.

  A group of citizens emerges from the city. They follow in our wake, with pipes and sticks raised over their heads. I can’t hear them over the sound of revenge, revenge, but I can see the anger in their eyes.

  The hope.

  We reach Headquarters, hundreds of Patients and citizens of the Shallows.

  We’re showered with bullets.

  My leg is hit. I know it, but I can’t feel it. The sound of revenge only gets louder, fueling me forward. I have to kill the Leeches.

  I have to make them pay, because Lark Woodson is dead.

  CHAPTER 30

  MEADOW

  The citizens of the Shallows have joined the war.

  In this moment, I know that I should be with them, fighting for freedom, fighting for justice against the horrors my mother and the Initiative caused.

  Instead, I am running.

  I sprint with Rhone and with Sparrow, who holds my hand and tells me to go, keep going, and don’t look back.

  I listen, because I am tired of thinking. Because everything is happening too fast, and this moment all feels like a dream.

  Or a nightmare.

  I go from smiling about my mother’s death, to horrible, heart-wrenching feelings of loss. There’s no time to think, or process, or worry about her secret.

  I can only drown in the feelings.

  “Get down!” Rhone shouts.

  We dive in the grasses just fifty yards from the building. A group of Initiative soldiers sprints past us, heading into the battle.

  “Which way?” Rhone asks. Sparrow is lying beside him in the grass. “Perimeter?”

  “We can’t climb the Perimeter. It’s impossible. Go for the building, side door. It’s a coded entrance, but I can hack it.”

  Her voice is painfully familiar, the sound of an old memory, an old, near-forgotten dream.

  And then, as Rhone calls the all-clear, and we start to run again, I remember.

  She is my aunt.

  She is the woman who once held me as an infant, who gave me presents every year on my birthday. She is the woman who put me into the system, who tried to get me killed so that the Murder Complex would die with me.

  I follow her, but not because I trust her.

  It’s because it’s my turn to be the killer.

  My turn to get revenge on the woman who I am sure murdered my mother.

  CHAPTER 31

  ZEPHYR

  A bomb goes off.

  Bodies drop, others are thrown to the air. Some are blown to bits. I feel hot blood on my face, a gash running down my temple. Screaming that I think might be my own.

  My good ear rings. I can’t focus.

  Punish them, Lark says in my head. Make them pay for my death. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge.

  I scream the word.

  I lift my fist into the air.

  Behind me, an army of voices responds. It’s the final wave, the final war cry.

  We push forward, and the Leeches pull back.

  They can run, but we will chase them. They can hide, but we will find them. They can fight, but we will fight harder.

  We are the Patients of the Murder Complex.

  And we will win.

  CHAPTER 32

  MEADOW

  My body is drenched in blood.

  Guards lie dead at my feet, just outside the Headquarters building.

  “Hurry up,” Rhone hisses.

  “Shut up, and maybe I will,” Sparrow says, as she leans against the building, working. Trying to break through the codes that hold the door in place. The NoteScreen embedded in the wall shows a series of numbers and symbols, soaring across the screen.

  “We have minutes, maybe, to get out of here,” Rhone says. “If the Patients fail, and the Leeches gain control . . .”

  Sparrow whirls on him. “They won’t fail. That’s the beauty of it. They can’t fail, because my sister programmed them not to. Now shut the hell up and get inside.”

  The NoteScreen turns green.

  The door hisses and soars up into the ceiling, just as there’s a horrible pain in my skull. You cannot escape me, Miss Woodson, the Commander says, and his voice is rushed, breathless, like he’s been running.

  I have to find him and kill him.

  Peri’s voice starts screaming in my head. She is sobbing uncontrollably, and her cries no longer form words.

  I drop to my knees, press my hands to my ears, but it cannot drown out the sound. “Make it stop!” I scream. “Make it stop!”

  I can see Rhone and Sparrow leaning, trying to speak to me, but I can’t hear anything they are saying. All I can hear is my sister, drowning in pain that mirrors my own.

  My sanity is cracking, slipping through my fingertips like fresh hot blood.

  Rhone lifts me, hauls me inside the building. He is about to shut the door behind us when I shove my shoulder in the way.

  “Zephyr” is all I can manage. Rhone nods, runs back outside. Sparrow says something to me, puts her hand on my shoulder, but I can’t hear her.

  The pain intensifies until it’s too much. I throw my head back and scream.

  I have to stop this.

  I turn and run down the halls of the building.

  I am going to make the Commander bleed.

  I am going to make him beg for death.

  CHAPTER 33

  ZEPHYR

  The Leeches set off another bomb the second we breach the building.

  It happens so
fast. I’m in the air. Then my breath is gone. I’m lying on my back, staring up at the sun, and I don’t know if I’m dead or alive.

  There’s a ringing, everywhere. A hand grabs mine in the chaos, holds on tight. I roll over, see a Patient girl with tears in her eyes. Holding me while she dies.

  More gunfire goes off, and people scatter, dive for cover. I want to scream at the Leeches, kill them all. Because they’re not just shooting at adults. They’re shooting at kids.

  The anger helps me to my feet. The command keeps speaking to me, the only thing that pushes me on.

  I use the hatred that I used when I first found Lark outside of this building, near this very spot.

  I’m about to sprint forward when someone tackles me.

  We go down.

  I spin, growling, ready to snap the Leech’s throat.

  But it’s Rhone.

  “Zero, come with me!” he shouts. His face is flecked with blood and sweat.

  “Revenge,” I gasp, because it’s the only word that makes sense. The only word I can form.

  “Meadow is waiting,” he says. He rolls off of me, and I try to sprint away.

  I have to fight. I have to kill.

  “Just stop!” Rhone screams. “Don’t make me do this!”

  I don’t listen, because I can’t.

  Something smacks me in the back of the head.

  Lark’s voice calls for revenge as the darkness takes me away.

  CHAPTER 34

  MEADOW

  Sparrow trails after me, shouting my name.

  A guard steps out of a room to our right. He sees us, spins with his rifle. I kick the barrel hard, and it falls out of his hands.

  No, please, no. Peri’s screams don’t stop.

  I harness the pain, fight through it, but I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.

  I dive for the guard, grab the back of his hair, knock his head against the wall so his nose shatters. I take his rifle, shoot him twice, then sling it over my shoulder. He has a dagger tucked into a sheath on his thigh.

  I grab it, whirl it around, and tuck it into my waistband.