Heartless (36 page)

Lucy tumbled backwards, off my father’s shoulders, and landed on Eli with a crash.

From the floor, Eli groaned. “Really? You had to fall on me? Ouch, Luce, just ouch.” He sounded pitiful.

My father and I stood together and stared up into the opening in the ceiling. “Can you see anything?” he asked.

I smiled, my face cracking and popping. “I see another chain, going to a light bulb. Fingers crossed it lights!”

He nodded. “Does it look safe?”

I shrugged. “Safer than meeting the Order of the Idiots, armed and dangerous, while we stand here, undefended, in a pitch-black tunnel.”

“Good point. Who’s going up first?”

Lucy popped up, barely even fazed by her six foot fall to the floor. “Me!”

Without another word, my father pulled Eli to his feet, and together they boosted Lucy up into the ceiling. Eli winced from the exertion, and he almost fell, but Lucy pulled herself up and turned on the light. As the square of brightness burned their eyes, my parents and Eli all turned away. Seconds later, Lucy called, “You guys, get up here!”

They boosted my mother next, and then looked at me. “Oh, no,” I said. “You guys next. Climb on.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, let me try something.” I reached for my father, held out my hands for him to step into.

“I don’t know, Jo. This isn’t…” But I pushed as hard as I could, and he acted on instinct and vaulted himself up into the hole. He tumbled in, and I heard another grunt, and Lucy cried out in pain. “Sorry,” he said. “Jolene, how did you do that?”

“Don’t know,” I said. “I just had a feeling I could…come on, Eli, let’s go.”

He gave me a look. “Be gentle.”

A brief moment later he was safe up above.

I couldn’t describe it to them, but ever since I’d heard Strong talk about how powerful I could be, I had been noticing things.

Things I’d been too terrified to notice before.

Like the fact that, since I felt no pain, I could push myself harder than I ever knew possible. I thought of my run through the woods on that first terrible night, and I realized I’d been doing it even then. I’d never stopped, never slowed, but it hadn’t occurred to me until that moment just how powerful that made me.

“What’s up there?” I whispered.

Lucy stuck her head down, her red ponytail falling down like a lava flow. “It’s a huge vault or something. Solid walls. There’s like, food and stuff. Get up here, you can see for yourself.”

I shook my head. “No. Close the door. I have a plan.”

“What? No!” Lucy scooted back. “Mr. Hall, get over here! Help me pull Jo up!”

My father’s head appeared in the rectangle of light. “Here, sweetie,” he said, reaching his hands down to me. “Come on, we’ll get you up here.”

“No,” I said again. “I have a plan. Get back, get down, close the door. They’re coming. Fast.”

“Get up here,” he said.

Instead, I reached up, used the hanging chain for leverage and slammed the door on him. I was bathed in darkness once again. I liked it, I won’t lie. I felt safe in the dark, protected, like I held the secret advantage. I listened in my parents’ direction and heard my mother whispering. “David, you have to go down there. Go get your daughter.”

He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was strained. “No. She’s a grown woman now, and she has nothing to lose. Nothing but us. We have to let her try.”

I tried to cry for a split second, but failed. It didn’t matter. I turned my hearing to the bad guys to distract myself from my roaring emotions. They were close.

“Turn off the flashlights now,” Martha whispered. “If they didn’t get out, they’ll be stuck right up ahead. The Master and I explored this tunnel when we first moved in here. It ends soon. They don’t need to see us coming.”

Suddenly, I remembered: I didn’t
actually
have a plan.

E
ach second took hours.

I was naked. I was mostly dead. I was short a toe, several fingers. My arm was broken, my nose gone.

How the hell was I going to help
anyone
? Let alone, all the people I loved most in the world.

I tried not to panic.

“This isn’t going like we planned,” Sondra whispered. They were close, less than a hundred feet away. The tunnel was bent, though. They couldn’t see me yet. “I’m not supposed to be a part of these types of things. I just find you girls.” She sounded terrified.

“Shut your mouth and hustle up.” Sondra cried out as, I guessed, Strong shoved her forward as he spoke. Or maybe slapped her. I couldn’t be sure.

I didn’t care in the least.

“Psst, Jo,” came a whisper from above my head. I looked up and saw the trapdoor was again cracked open. They’d turned off the light in the vault, and Lucy hung through the opening. This time, however, she was holding an ax.

“Here,” she said. “We thought it might help with whatever you have planned.”

I reached up and wrapped the remaining fingers of my right hand around the blade.

“Careful,” she hissed. “Take the handle instead.”

“Like it matters.” I winked at her, but she didn’t see. I didn’t tell her another finger dropped to the ground. The ax was sharp. “Where’d you get it?”

“I told you this place was stocked. Looks like somebody planned to live down here for months or something. Your dad said maybe it’s a leftover shelter from the Cold War or something…
hey!
” My father had pulled Lucy back into the vault. She was gone from sight and the trapdoor closed.

I slid down the hall, further away from the hunters. My plan settled. I could corner them, let them come. If I kept them hunting me, or if I corralled them in the corner with my new super-strength, my parents and friends could sneak away, back the way we all came. I tried to telegraph my idea directly into Lucy’s head, but apparently the Order hadn’t seen fit to give me the powers of telepathy. I’d just have to hope for the best.

I stopped walking when I reached the wall at the end of the tunnel. Crouching down, I gripped the handle of the ax and said a silent prayer.

Dear God, if you’re there, please save my family and my friends. Please get them out of here. Please don’t let this happen to them.

There was no response. No lightning came and struck Adam down. No flash flood washed Martha and Sondra away into another world. Not like I had expected that to happen, but a girl can dream, even in an impossible situation.

So I let the bad guys come while I waited in pensive silence. I had no choice.

I got my first view of Martha when they rounded the corner. She was tall and skinny, even taller than Lucy. Gorgeous. In the darkness I judged her hair to be a coppery auburn. Even in an area devoid of light, it seemed to sparkle and curl, all the way down to her waist.

She wore a long, flowing, robe-like garment and way too much makeup. Her lips glowed in the dark, they were such a bright red.

I wonder if there’s any lipstick on her teeth
.

I wanted there to be lipstick on her teeth. Perfection like Martha’s had to be marred in some way. She looked just like a high priestess from any book I’d ever read that actually included some sort of Woman of Power. Like she
wanted
to be a cliché in a movie.

Or like she was hiding something under those robes. I wondered what it could be.

And with only a glance, I saw how much both Strong and Sondra worshipped her. How in charge of them she really was. They walked a step behind her, flanking her, each with a hand stretched out and touching her back. It could have been a safety thing, but in the way their hands rested so lightly, I read love. Adoration. Even…fear? In their opposite hand, they each held a gun.

I tried not to flinch when I saw them. I couldn’t get used to the idea of all this danger.
I’ll never really be a superhero, will I? But it doesn’t matter. I can help.

In front, Martha was unarmed.

Or so I thought, until I saw, nestled in her hand, a small black object. It took me a second to figure it out.

A Taser. Crap. Electricity is my Kryptonite. I’m sure of it.
I couldn’t let her reach me with that thing.

I was grateful for the silence in which I could exist, since I didn’t have to breathe, and couldn’t feel my arms or legs going numb as I crouched. In front of me, Martha glided and Sondra and Strong stumbled forward. I flattened myself even closer to the wall as they passed.

“Do you see them?” Strong whispered, and Martha shushed him.

They neared the wall, and me, but they didn’t know it yet. The darkness was my friend, and I hoped to use it.

“They’ll be close, and unarmed,” whispered Martha, her impossibly shimmering mouth curling into a cruel smile. “Try not to kill Lucy. We need her. And do remember not to damage Jolene’s heart pump. We can’t waste materials, you know.” She paused, took another step. They were less than a dozen feet from me. “And…
now!
”

Strong and Sondra let go of Martha, who allowed them to step in front of her. They each pulled out an economy-sized Maglite from behind their backs and turned them on. I flattened myself to the ground on top of the ax, so the light trained on nothing but blank, cinderblock walls.

“What the…” Strong said. “Where’d they go?”

Sondra’s light cast down, and it shone on me. She screeched and jumped back.

I had no idea what I looked like under the harsh spotlight, but seeing her jump away in fear gave me an inkling. Keeping my body on top of the ax, I looked up, slowly. With the light in my eyes, I snarled. I growled. Letting my sparse hair fall before my eyes, I reached out my decimated hand toward them, channeling a ghost in a movie I’d seen as a child.

The threesome stepped back.

It was just a small step, but it was a step.

I began to crawl forward, jerking and twitching.

And Sondra Lewis began to cry.

The gun in her hand began to shake. She sniffled and sobbed. “No, Jo. Jolene. No. You were going to be our best soldier. The scientist assured me. You were strong, and I was so glad I found you. My favorite student. But now look. Look what we’ve done to you, Jolene. Such a beautiful girl. So far you’ve fallen.” She dropped to her knees and dropped the gun.

Strong and Martha turned to Sondra. Behind the trio, I saw something move. With the light in my eyes it was hard to see what it was, but I took a leap of faith.

I leaped to my feet, pulling the ax up with me. Strong and Martha turned to me, but Sondra remained collapsed on the floor.

I stared into the black eyes of Martha, and pulled the ax over my shoulders like Casey at the bat.

Then I smiled, baring my teeth and licking my lips with my parched tongue. “Thanks for all you’ve done to me…
bitch
.”

She wasn’t fast enough with the Taser. I closed my eyes and swung. The ax landed with a dull, sick thud, and I tumbled to the ground. Someone screamed. A gunshot rang out. Rocks exploded behind me and showered down around me. More screams, and then I heard Lucy’s voice, above the other noise. “You bastard!”

I opened my eyes and immediately wished I hadn’t. My hands still gripped the ax handle.

In front of me stood Martha, her head split in two. Her face, in two parts, pulled backwards in a silent shriek, her mouth opened like a lunging shark. She and I were both splattered in the thick, viscous substance that filled my veins, and Martha’s.

Martha was one of the Order’s soldiers. She was the successful version of me. An older model, I knew in that moment during which time stood still. She had none of the enhancements I enjoyed. She couldn’t see in the dark, couldn’t hear. She was limited by her human abilities, while I was not.

But still, she continued her attack, her arms spread wide, her mouth in two parts ready to swallow me whole.

I screamed, and so did she. I swung the ax again. It hit her shoulder, embedding itself in flesh and sinew. I yanked back as she continued to drive at me, and I swung again.

An arm flew from her body, squirting fluids from the stump.

Her body was knocked backwards by the blow, and I hacked away at her as she fell. Finally, a blow struck true, and I decapitated the monster woman before me. She froze for a second, and then collapsed to the floor in a sticky, messy heap.

I fell to my knees beside her. The ax stood, embedded deep into her neck. I closed my eyes and folded in on myself.

And then came silence.

Or at least, mostly silence.

Someone was sobbing. Uncontrollable, choking sobs.

I was shocked when I realized it was me.

I wanted to open my eyes, but the sobs that shook my decrepit body made me terrified to move any other muscle for fear I’d dissolve into nonexistence.

And then suddenly there was pressure on my body, and there were arms around me, pulling me up. Someone slid their legs beneath my head and stroked my matted, stringy hair.

“Shh, baby,” whispered my mother. She’d maneuvered so that my head rested in her lap. “It’s okay, baby. You did what you needed to do. It’s okay, my love. Stop crying now, baby. It’s going to be okay. I love you. Mama’s here.”