I stood a good chance of not making it out of there alive, but I would do it a million times over without thinking twice about it.
We finally stood a fighting chance.
As I walked back through the doors just before dawn, I was immediately greeted by Dr. Beeson. My stomach leapt into my throat.
“The test results just came in,” he said quietly, fidgeting with an envelope in his hands. “I haven’t looked at them yet. I wanted you to see them first.”
I swallowed hard, nodding. We started for the elevator, working our way through the crowded lobby.
“Eve,” West called as he crossed the room towards us. “I need to talk to you.”
“Not now,” I said as I held my hand up to him, shaking my head.
“But I need to talk to you,” he said, his step unfaltering.
“I said not now!” I bellowed as I stopped, my eyes fierce as I locked eyes with him.
My vision flickered. I was about to lose myself.
West’s eyes were large as he finally stopped in his tracks. I felt a hand close around my forearm and I was pulled toward the elevator.
Dozens of eyes watched me as the doors slid closed.
“It was happening, wasn’t it?” Dr. Beeson said quietly as we rose.
“Yes,” I replied simply.
We walked silently down the blue hall to his office and closed the door quietly behind us.
“West is a smart young man,” Dr. Beeson said as he leaned against his desk. “He has been up here most of the night with me, asking questions about the wireless system. I showed him how it works and I believe he understood everything I said. He got his grandfather and father’s brains.”
I nodded mindlessly as he handed me the envelope. I held it with shaking hands.
My stomach rolled as I tore the envelope. The edges of my vision started to turn black as I pulled the sheets of paper out.
The words seemed to move and shift around as I skimmed through the information that didn’t mean much to me.
But they froze near the middle of the page. At the only line that mattered.
DNA TEST RESULTS: NEGATIVE MATCH.
“Negative,” I breathed, my heart racing.
“Dr. Evans was not your father,” Dr. Beeson said quietly, though my brain barely processed what he had said.
“He isn’t my brother,” I said as I pressed a fist to my lips. “West isn’t my brother.”
I was confused at the sting behind my eyes at first. It took me a moment to realize that I was trying to cry. My body just didn’t know how.
Dr. Beeson eased me down into a chair. My eyes scanned the page again and again, processing nothing but the line that mattered.
“I assume this is good news to you,” he said quietly as he sat.
It took me a moment to nod. “Yes,” I whispered, my eyes still glued to the page. “Yes it is.”
We were both quiet for a moment, both processing the news.
“I’ve been thinking about something,” he said quietly as he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “The way your emotions were blocked, it was just done wirelessly with the chip in your brain. I think I can remove the programming.”
“I’d feel things everyone else feels?” I asked, my eyes shooting to his face.
He nodded. “I think we would have to do it slowly. I’m afraid if I just erased it all at once it would overwhelm you. Your body and your brain couldn’t handle it. But I think if we do it bit by bit, over a length of time, you could be brought back to normal.
“You wouldn’t have blackouts anymore.”
My eyes dropped to the floor, my breathing coming in shallow swallows. I would finally understand what everyone else felt. I could allow myself to feel. There wouldn’t be any danger of me attacking anyone any longer.
“Would you like to give it a try, Eve?”
My eyes stung all the more as I nodded my head.
“I can start it right now,” he said as he glanced at his computer screens. “It won’t take very long. I will however, have to kind of shut you down for a while to do it. It will take a reboot, if you will, for everything to take effect.”
“Do it,” I said as I let the pages and envelope slip from my hand to the ground.
THIRTY-FIVE
I shifted the weapons that were strapped to me, counting again how many grenades were attached to my belt. I pulled at the vest strapped around me, feeling uncomfortable. It might have been bulletproof but it was torture to wear.
I glanced around at the four men that sat nestled in the tank with me. Their faces were set hard, no emotions present.
The noise from the track wheels died away and I knew we were there. It hadn’t taken long to get from the hospital to here. It was only a few blocks away.
One of the men opened the top hatch and we all climbed out. We were only one hundred yards away. I could see them even from here, rows and rows of Fallen, standing on and around the plant.
“We’ll take out as many of them with this as we can,” one of the men said as he patted the firing turret. “We have to be careful not to damage the plant though. The rest of us will pick them off one by one, as quickly as we can.”
I nodded, my eyes never leaving the gleaming bodies ahead of me.
Two of the men unhooked the mile long power supply line from the back of the tank. One end of it trailed behind us, going directly back to the Pulse. We unwound the rest of it, attaching the end of it to a hook on the back of my vest that I could easily release once I got inside. I shrugged my shoulders, testing its weight. It would have been too heavy for me to carry if I had been a normal girl. It had taken two of them to carry the entire line.
As one of Royce’s soldiers handed me my weapon, I couldn’t help but smile. I had to admit, the M4 assault rifle was beautiful.
“You ready?” one of the men asked, gripping the firing turret.
“Fire away,” I said as I trained my eyes ahead of me.
The blast from the tank shook the ground and nearly knocked me off my feet. Gleaming metal eyes jumped to life as they turned in our direction. I took off running toward them as the second blast was fired.
Gleaming parts exploded and flew through the air as dozens of them leapt at me. I fired, flashes of light illuminating the streets. Bodies dropped, metal frames shattered, wires sparked. Shots fired from behind me dropped more bodies. Still more and more of them woke to life, leaping to attack their intruder.
The line attached to me slowed my progress more than I would have expected. I put all of my weight into it, dragging it behind me as I fired. The plant suddenly seemed miles away, even though I was closing in on only a few dozen yards.
I pulled the pin of one of the grenades and tossed it at the chain-link fence that surrounded the plant. I almost couldn’t see it through all the Fallen that surrounded it. A few seconds later, metal flew through the air, raining down on me with deadly force.
A hand grabbed at my right arm, closing in with nearly crushing force. I jammed the butt of my firearm in its face, knocking it away for just long enough to blow its head off. Another leapt at me, its eyes gleaming through the dark. It was blasted apart before it even hit the ground.
I remembered the advice Dr. Beeson had given me and focused all my thoughts on pushing the Fallen away as my feet pounded the pavement. A few Fallen hesitated as they ran at me, their movements becoming jerky as they fought my wireless commands. I couldn’t transmit to them all and keep a very strong connection.
The plant was a mere twenty feet away. While plenty of them had woken, most of them stood there motionless, their eyes fixed on the source of electricity ahead of them. I had to push my way through mechanical bodies, firing as I went to take out as many of them as I could.
I was plowed into from the side, knocking me to my back. I rolled as I went down, the line wrapping around my midsection. A body leapt on top of me, its hands closing around my throat. Before it could even squeeze, its head burst open from a bullet coming from the tank. I jumped to my feet again, untangling myself as I sprinted.