Botanicaust (41 page)

He jerked the restraints free. Her muscles spasmed and she nearly fell off the table. He caught her in his arms and settled her to the floor. In the other room, he heard arguing, but no one appeared at the door. Tula
’
s scalp diodes slid off easy enough. The IV lines in her arms were trickier, but he loosed her from them, as well.

“
Tula, are you awake?
”

She didn
’
t respond. Her shuddering and twitching reminded him of caring for her at the lake, before he knew what sun and plants did to her. These lights must be causing a reaction in her body.
And not a good one.
She needed shelter.

He pulled the knife from his pack and bashed the handle against the overhead bulb. But light still flooded the room from the other fixtures. What about these other poor people? He moved between the gurneys, smashing bulbs, one after another, plummeting the room into darkness except for the blinking lights on the monitors.

He hurried to release the others
’
restraints. Never in his life had he imagined he would be aiding the escape of abominations. But he was no longer sure the color of someone
’
s skin meant anything.

Without warning, the monitor lights went out, along with every other device in the room.
From the open door, only blackness.

“
Levi.
”
Dr. Kaneka
’
s voice called from the outer room, not through the speaker system.

Scrounging in his pack, Levi located the flame rod and clicked it to life. Skirting the other beds, he found Tula
’
s prone figure and squatted.
“
Tula, can you hear me? Please, wake up.
”
One of the other Blattvolk groaned and thrashed.

He had no idea what they
’
d been doing to her, but this could not be the medicine she
’
d expected. He had to get her out of here.
Away from these Fosselites.
He could not leave her to this. Lifting her over his shoulder, he strode to the door. Dr. Kaneka stood waiting, wielding a weak flashlight. Behind him, another man held a gun at the ready.

Levi hesitated.
“
Let us by.
”
Farther back, shadows of more people stood in the corridor.

Dr. Kaneka pushed up his glasses and shone the flashlight directly into Levi
’
s eyes.
“
No.
”

“
I mean it.
”
Feeling sick to his stomach, Levi realized if he wanted to escape this place, if he wanted to save Tula, he
’
d have to use force. But how could he fight a man with a gun? Levi moved a step forward.

The armed man raised the weapon to aim it directly at Levi. Dr. Kaneka barked at the man.
Something about a Haldanian.
The man skewed his gun to one side.
They want Tula alive
. Doubt washed over Levi. Maybe Tula did want whatever they were doing to her.

A loud click sounded as emergency lights came on.
The doctor
’
s eyes widened in horror.
He stepped back, hands up to defend himself. Of the doctor
’
s frantic words, Levi picked out,
“
…
Haldanians
…
free!
”

A glance over his shoulder revealed the other Blattvolk stumbling through the antechamber. People in the hallway erupted into shrieks of terror. Dr. Kaneka shouted what Levi thought must be orders no one heeded. The man with the gun swung the muzzle wildly, unsure what to do, but not firing.

Pulse thundering, Levi sprinted past the doctor. A moment of regret washed him as he spotted Rosalee
’
s inert form slumped on the hall floor. Of Michael, there was no sign. The crowd in the corridor consisted of Fosselite children. They squealed and scrambled over each other, out of Levi
’
s way. Behind him, Dr. Kaneka screamed orders.

The rest of the hall lay empty before him. Dousing the flame rod, he hurried back to the room where he
’
d found Michael crying. Without hesitation, he continued in the same direction and hoped it led him to the massive entrance hall. When he came to a branch in the corridor, he paused, out of breath and at a loss. Once again the siren resumed its wail. Along one hall, someone poked
their
head out a door, and then slammed it shut.

Levi chose the other hall. His legs burned with the extra weight of Tula over his shoulder. The residual sting of the blister across his back made him grit his teeth, but he pressed on. Nothing looked familiar. The hall ended in metal double doors with a lock system. Levi slammed against the handles. He
’
d left the card in the slot in the other room.

Lumbering back the way he
’
d come, he prayed silently for God to intervene.
To save them both from this place.
Pursuing footsteps slapped the concrete as he reached the branch in the hallway. He shot a glance behind him and saw Dr. Kaneka with the guard approaching at a dead run. Turning down the second hall, Levi pounded the floor as fast as he could. The unencumbered pair edged toward him. A gunshot echoed off the white walls and Dr. Kaneka shouted in alarm.

Levi didn
’
t look back.

By the time he reached the antechamber and the doors to the bunker, his legs trembled with exhaustion.
One step at a time
.
The recycled air burned his lungs. As he descended the stairs, he kept one hand against the wall for balance. His vision swam with the beating of his heart. Tula
’
s body resisted the descent. Confused, he twisted to see someone gripping her arms. His heart threatened to explode. Pivoting to jerk her free, he lost his balance and tumbled to the bottom of the steps, landing painfully on his side. Tula flew from his grasp to crumple in a heap several feet away.

Rolling, he saw Dr. Kaneka holding a gun pointed directly at him. The man snarled something, his hands trembling in fury. No sign of the guard. A bullet ricocheted off the concrete to Levi
’
s left. Flinching, Levi didn
’
t wait for another shot. Arms outstretched, he jack knifed up the steps to place himself between Tula and the bullets. Kaneka cried out in alarm and stumbled two steps back, missing the step on the other landing. He pin-wheeled backward, swearing. Another shot pinged off the ceiling. His cursing ceased with a sickening crunch as his head hit the pavement at the bottom.

Time stopped.

Blood spread across the pale concrete under the doctor
’
s head into a pool more black than red in the dim light. His slippered feet twitched. In horror, Levi watched the light fade from the man
’
s upward staring eyes.
“
Lord, have mercy.
”
He didn
’
t know if he asked for himself or the man he
’
d killed.

I killed a man
.

Numb, he returned to Tula. She was awake, but not coherent. He helped her to her feet and stumbled them toward the massive door at the entrance of the cavern.
Get her out of here
. Her fevered skin felt like a branding iron.

A door slammed. Levi spared a glance back and saw Michael at the top of the steps. The giant looked down at the prone body of Dr. Kaneka and made a strange noise before lurching down the steps and crouching by the dead doctor. Again, horror at his own actions filled Levi. The doctor had been a monster, but judgment belonged to the Lord. Killing Dr. Kaneka made Levi no better than the Fosselites.

He clenched his jaw and turned back toward the exit. Now was not the time for self-recrimination.

They reached the giant door and he lowered Tula to slump against a granite wall. He worked the locking bolts on the portal,
then
pushed against the metal with all his might. The door would not budge.

“
Lord, help me.
”
He strained again. Three men had greeted them when Levi arrived. How could he expect to move the door on his own? He was no Biblical Sampson.
“
Tula, get up. Get up! I need your help.
”

She barely opened her eyes.

Scuffling feet alerted him to pursuers. In the dim light, three Blattvolk swayed across the expanse toward him. Behind them, Michael followed, head and shoulders taller. The Blattvolk seemed less than human, and more like the marked monsters the Old Order spoke of. With clawed hands, they reached out, unclipped nails long and curled. Their dilated pupils looked like hollow pits. Levi backed up to protect Tula.

She
’
d gotten to her knees. Her voice emerged as a gasp and a croak, words he didn
’
t understand, but the other Blattvolk lowered their arms. Two girls
—
twins by the look of them
—
clung to each other and moaned.

Two more Blattvolk appeared, moving toward the exit like dogs on a scent, with Michael slogging stolidly behind them. The big man set his shoulder against the enormous door and shoved. Tula spoke and the Blattvolk joined Michael, combining their strength to swing the door open. The bright light of sunrise at the end of the tunnel looked so far away, yet at the same time, blinding, after so long in the dim compound. Blattvolk swarmed down the exit tunnel, three, four, then
a
fifth dragging a wounded leg.

Michael pushed Tula through the exit after them. Levi caught her arm as she stumbled, and beckoned to the big man.
“
Come on.
”

He shook his head.

“
You don
’
t have to stay.
”

Lifting a huge palm, he shaded his eyes from the light and stepped back.

Levi let out a breath. The man couldn
’
t come. The light must affect him as it did the adults. Throat thick with sorrow, Levi let Tula lean against a wall and offered a hand in gratitude.
“
You are the best man I
’
ve ever met.
”
He didn
’
t know if Michael understood him, but he meant every word.
“
Thank you.
”

Michael looked from Levi
’
s hand to his face and back to his hand, and then engulfed it in a gentle clasp. He nodded toward Tula.
“
Doooo aaaa. Zaaaaave.
”

Then he stepped backward into the mountain.

Tula squinted her eyes shut
when they emerged into the sunlight. Tears streamed down her face
—
from the light, from relief, from despair. Her body felt wracked and exuberant at the same time. What the artificial UV lights had damaged in her body, telomerase immediately healed, and all the chemicals running through her system warred with one another for dominance. She didn
’
t know whether to run down the mountain in joy or lie down and sleep for a year.

Levi wouldn
’
t let her do either. He pulled her toward the line of metal posts leading away from the entrance.
“
Wait, the others.
”
She lifted a weak wrist to point toward the converts standing at the entrance.
“
They
’
ll be captured again.
”

Levi hesitated and then went back and took the others by the hands. In a line, they trekked past the old cars and ducked through the hole in the fence. The youngsters wanted to stop and stare at things around them, but Levi kept them moving. The sun beat down mercilessly, adding to the chemicals in her bloodstream. Tula
’
s vision ebbed and flowed with the hammering of her heart.