Digory shakes his head. “I don’t think so either … ”
Viral Infection is complete. You are now ready to commence this Trial.
thirty-six
Viral infection?
But deliberately making us sick is just the kind of thing the Establishment specializes in. I close my eyes against a wave of dizziness.
The vent in my chamber during that last trial. Digory said there was one in his, too. They were meant to gas either one of us, as each other’s Incentives.
Which means if we’ve both been infected with some disease prior to starting this Trial, then-
“Cole!” I shout at the speakers. “What’ve you done to him, Slade?”
All of the Incentives have been infected with a mutated form of the Reaper virus, including Recruits Tycho and Spark. The virus has an extremely short incubation period.
Images of Mrs. Bledsoe hacking up blood bubble to the surface. Except her face changes to Cole’s. My knees buckle. Stark desperation rips through me.
When the gateway opens, your task is to retrieve the vials of antivirus and deposit them in the marked cryogenic chamber at the top of the stairs corresponding to your respective Incentives. In the case of Tycho and Spark, should you each procure an additional vial, you’re allowed to inject yourselves or each other with the antidote. But be cautioned that there are only four vials total.
Despite the increasing thudding in my head, my thoughts spin through a cloak of fog, calculating the different scenarios based on the amount of remedies versus the number of Incentives. The results of my calculations knife through my Reaper-dulled senses.
Ophelia doesn’t need the cure, so all she needs is one vial for Maddie.
I’ll need a vial for Cole-that makes two vials claimed. Then another one for Digory. That’s three.
That leaves Digory with only one vial, the final one, with either his husband or me as its recipient.
Which means I’m a dead man if he’s forced to choose.
Once you have deposited the antivirus in your respective Incentive’s chamber, they will be transported via pneumatic tubes to their final location and you must immediately proceed to your final Trial. Prepare to enter the gateway, Recruits.
The mechanisms on the door to the Biogenetics Laboratory grind and creak. The sound hurts my ears, which ache with a dull throbbing. Digory and Ophelia crowd against me, each of us facing our potential doom.
The gears of the door stop crunching and the locks spring free.
Even if I were to use my second vial on myself instead of Digory, then he’d be left to choose between the life of his husband and his own.
A quick glance at Digory’s pained expression tells me he’s been doing some arithmetic of his own.
The door arcs inward with a high-pitched squeak, exposing a flight of stairs. I fight the urge to push through.
The only way both Digory and I can both survive, with both of our other Incentives intact, is if we find all four vials-including the one intended for Ophelia’s sister. Effectively murdering Maddie.
The door swings open all the way with a deafening clank.
Already a fever’s baking my brain. Cold sweat weaves down my face. A vise squeezes my chest and I cough into my palm.
“How’re you holding up?” Digory whispers into my ear. A red trickle’s threading its way down his left nostril and teetering on the edge of his lip.
I shake my head. It’s already started.
“You poor dears,” Ophelia clucks in mock sorrow. “See you on the other side.” She eyes us both up and down and tsks. “Well, one of you at least. Maybe.”
A broad grin tears across her face, growing wider and wider until I realize I’m seeing double. I grind the base of my palms into my eyes, then let my hands drop back to my sides. I blink a couple of times. Ophelia goes from a total blur to slightly out of focus.
Panic chews on my heart. I have to be quick if I’m going to find those antidotes before the virus takes hold. If I should go blind …
Cross the threshold and begin antivirus retrieval, Slade’s voice booms.
Ophelia shoves me into Digory and disappears through the gateway.
I almost topple to the floor, but Digory’s arms engulf me and his hands lock against my stomach, propping me upright against him. My eyes finally tighten their focus on the blood streaking through his interlaced fingers.
“You have to keep it together,” he says. “We can’t let her get this, Lucian. Do whatever you have to-she will. Understand?”
I nod.
Then he releases me and dashes through after her. I seize a painful breath and lurch through behind him.
The gateway slams shut, with a terrible echo that penetrates my throbbing brain like shards of jagged glass.
“Careful! ”
Digory’s warning startles me. I expected him and Ophelia to be way ahead of me. But they’re both standing close by, eyes riveted ahead.
I follow their gazes …
And gasp.
The wide steps that dominate the dimly lit compartment are no ordinary steps. For a horrified second I think that the virus has seriously impaired my faculties, to the point where I’m severely hallucinating.
“What is that?” Ophelia asks, all traces of bravado leeched from her voice.
The stairs are not so much hewn from the earth as growing from it, each step pulsating with slimy moisture. Translucent membranes separate each rise. Pressed against these are writhing shapes, twisted bodies with misshapen fingers trying to claw their way out.
“The sign on the door,” I croak. “Biogenetics. It must be where the Establishment experiments with genetic manipulation … ” I stifle a cough with my fist.” And biological weapons, like the virus.”
Throbbing red and dark purple tendrils cling to the surface of each step like an arterial system, squirting random jets of a sickening yellow pus-like substance that coats the chamber floor in a gooey mess. With the door closed, cutting off any fresh air, the confined space reeks-a mixture of excrement and vomit … and something else …
Rotting meat.
I double over and cough up a dark wad that looks like tar.
But I know it’s not.
Digory rubs my back. “Lucian … ”
I shoo him away and straighten up.
Groans all around us, getting louder and louder.
It’s those shapes, trapped behind the stairs. Their moans rise and swell in intensity until a crescendo of doom vibrates through the air.
Above, on the landing of this organic nightmare, are three circular steel tubes, each large enough to fit a grown man. Even from down here I can make out the designations stenciled on each one.
Tycho Incentive Storage
Juniper Incentive Storage
Spark Incentive Storage
Ophelia pushes past us. “Maddie’s up there! ” She bounds up the first two steps. One of the undulating tendrils wraps around her ankle and slams her down.
Splat! She hits the viscous rise headfirst.
Without missing a beat, Ophelia pulls her torso up with her arms. Blood trickles from her forehead, mixing with strands of gelatinous slime that sticks to her cheek. The slime gives way with a sharp rip the more she pulls her way upright, tearing flesh from her face until she’s free.
“Ophelia!” I pitch forward.
But Digory’s arm shoots out and barricades the way. “Look for the vials.”
His eyes plead through the glaze that encases them. More blood oozes from his nose, as if it’s a spigot. Heat radiates from his body like a furnace.
I half nod to him and manage a grunt of agreement. When I swivel my head from left to right to pan the room, it feels like it’s going to slip free of the creaky bearings barely attaching it to my neck. I take in the solid walls, which ripple in the heat of my burning vision.