“Dr. Evans?” I said, stepping toward him.
He still didn’t respond.
I took another step forward and placed a cautious hand on his arm.
His instincts, impossibly fast, took over and he lashed out, wrapping a hand around my throat.
“Dr. Evans,” I choked out. Everyone stepped forward, their weapons steadying on his form. “It’s me. Eve Two. We need you right now. We need you here, with us.”
His hand did not tighten, but it did not relax either. His fully cybernetic eyes were fixed on me and I couldn’t tell if there was still any emotion behind them or if he was gone to us forever.
Vee stepped forward, Creed held securely in her arms. “Dr. Evans,” she said, her voice calm and even. His eyes shifted over to her. “It’s Eve One. I know you can’t hold on much longer, but it is almost over. Just help us with this last thing, and it can end.”
He stared at her for a long moment. Fractionally, I felt his fingers relax.
When his hand released me, I rubbed at my throat and suppressed a cough. His eyes slid back to me and he took two steps back.
“I…” he tried to speak. “I…am…sorr…sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said, but I didn’t take my eyes from him. “But I don’t think we can wait any longer. It’s time to do this.”
He looked over at the rest of the group gathered around him and something told me there would be shame in his expression if he still retained any human qualities to express emotion.
“Yes,” he said, stepping forward to the device. “I suppose…it is.”
I turned to Vee and Creed and had the urge to hug them. I wasn’t sure why. She and I didn’t have the sisterly bond people talked about. But I felt like doing it anyway.
She stiffened a bit when I wrapped my arms around her, but she didn’t push me away or act like she didn’t want me to do it.
“I’m glad you are here for this,” I said quietly into her long hair.
“I think I’m glad too,” she said back.
I released her, a small smile upon my lips. I pressed a kiss to the top of Creed’s head.
It was time to give her that future I’d promised her mother before she’d died.
Royce opened the door to the lead box and the two of them stepped inside. He sealed it behind them.
I turned to Avian. His eyes were terrified yet determined.
“I meant to show you this,” he said as he took my left hand in his. “But things just kept happening.” Taking my ring between two of his fingers, he slid it down my finger just a bit. There, indented into the skin of my finger was what looked like a number eight, turned on its side.
“What is it?” I asked.
“An infinity symbol,” he said.
He didn’t have to explain any more than that.
I placed my hand on his rough cheek and tried to smile. His eyes were intense and hopeful and scared. “Infinity.”
“Infinity,” he breathed back.
A low hum drew my eyes back to the Nova. Dr. Evans was pressing buttons, fiddling with something on a digital screen. I looked up at the satellite, pointed up and to the right just a bit. Somewhere, up above us so far that it escaped even my eyes, there was another satellite orbiting us, partnered by hundreds of others. But we had no idea if any of them were still functional.
If they weren’t, we were all dead.
The sweep was at our doors. There would be no time for the emergency water evacuation.
I walked to the Nova and stepped between two of the panels. I looked up, studying the three bars that connected to one. The dish sat high above my head.
Addie and Dr. Evans fiddled with the controls. She kept looking over at Dr. Evans warily and kept her distance as best she could.
I looked up at the others, who stood twenty feet away.
Avian. Bill. Tristan. Elijah.
They all stood as stony faced as I felt.
“I will input the code…here,” Dr. Evans explained to Royce with difficulty. He sounded every bit like a machine. “You will push…the initiate button…and then immediately the transmit one.”
Royce nodded, his eyes studying the screen before him. His face was pale white.
Dr. Evans pulled a piece of paper out. His fingers hovered above the keypad. And he suddenly seemed to freeze.
“Dr. Evans?” Addie said, her voice quaking.
Dr. Evans didn’t respond.
His fingers crumpled around the paper in his hand. The one with the kill code written on it.
“Dr. Evans,” Royce demanded. “I need you to enter that code.”
But he didn’t move. His finger remained poised above the keypad, his other hand locked around the paper.
Royce swore under his breath.
“It’s okay Royce,” I said, forcing myself to take a deep breath. I then rattled it off to him. Each and every letter and number. “He had me memorize it back at NovaTor, just in case.”
Normally, Royce would have made some sarcastic or annoyed comment at this, but he just gave a single nod as he entered the code.
The thought that I’d never talked to him about how we were family crossed my mind just as shots were fired below us.
An explosion sounded and then I could make out the pounding of footsteps on concrete below us.
The sound of the air changed immediately after that, more rapid and choppy than it should have sounded.
It was a sound I knew well. A sound that ended lives and changed the course of futures.
“They’ve got a chopper,” I breathed. I turned to search the skies for it, but saw nothing.
Avian, Bill, Elijah, and Tristan ran to the side of the building, scanning the skies and the streets. But they suddenly backed up, guns drawn, bullets firing. The sound got louder and the wind picked up in intensity.
The chopper came up to eye level.
I was staring directly at the two Bane who piloted it.
“Now!” Royce bellowed.
An electric charge ripped through my skin and the air was sucked from my lungs.
There was a sharp ringing sound, so high pitched and intense I was sure my eardrums had burst.
The sound of crashing metal and breaking glass erupted through the ringing, the ground beneath me shook, and then—
THE END
PART ONE
I could only recall a small number of times the intercom had come on in the hospital. It sounded into every room and into every corner of the building.
“I need every able-bodied person to the armory, now!” Graye’s voice bellowed throughout the building.
Screw what Dr. Sun and everyone else had said about me resting. My hands still worked.
There was a set of crutches leaning against the far wall of the infirmary room I was told to recover in. I hopped across the space on my good foot and grabbed them. Next I slung my rifle over my shoulders and made my way down to the armory.
The halls were loud and chaotic. Everyone ran around with a firearm. As I glanced into the dining area, I saw that the steel, protective window coverings had been drawn back a few inches. Two teenage girls were firing shots out them.
“What’s going on?” I asked as soon as Graye came into view.
He was standing just inside the armory and was handing out weapons like candy.
“There’s hundreds of them out there now,” Graye said, not even glancing at me as he tossed a handgun to a boy that looked no older than twelve. “I think Eve told some of them to destroy other Bane, cause some of them seem like they’re fighting, but most of them are trying to get inside the building.”
Finally, I noticed a noise over the chaotic sound of our residents heading to firing posts.
A pounding.
“They’re trying to break through the walls,” I said.