Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, Book 2) (34 page)

Regina turned back to Michael, who
gave Alessa and Janie a quick but enthusiastic wave, and a pang of
guilt riddled Alessa’s chest. She would miss Michael.

But it was now or never – she was
finally alone with her sister, and Janie seemed to be standing a
little taller already. Maybe she’d be able to pull this off after
all.

Alessa turned her back to their
friends. “Janie,” she began in a hushed voice, “I need to talk to
you about something.”

Alessa placed her arm around Janie’s
shoulders and gently turned her to the side, facing away from the
rebels for privacy. It was utter chaos on the platform at the
moment – as long as they kept their voices low, they’d be able to
speak in confidence.

Janie gave Alessa a puzzled look but
followed her lead. “What’s going on?” she muttered.

Alessa hesitated. “I wasn’t going to
give you a choice – since you owe me,” she twitched a meaningful
eyebrow at Janie, “– but you don’t look like you’re in great shape
at the moment, so I want to talk to you first.”

“
Less, I told you, I’m
fine. I just need some food and a good night’s rest and I’ll be
good as new. Once we reach the base, I’m sure there will be plenty
of opportunity to relax for once –”

Alessa shook her head. “That’s just
it, Janie… we’re not going to Raptor.”

Janie scrunched up her face. “What do
you mean we’re not going? Of course we’re going. We’re here, aren’t
we?” She motioned at the crowded platform, all the rebels waiting
to leave.

Alessa looked around furtively, to be
sure no one was watching them. “We’re just here for Isaac. Once he
comes, the three of us are heading out.”

Janie grimaced in confusion. “I don’t
understand… Is this a special mission or something?”

Alessa sighed. “Something like that.”
She bit her lip – she just couldn’t lie to her sister. “Listen,
Janie. Things are bound to get messy for the rebels, and I want us
out of here before they do. I stashed some supplies outside – we’ll
grab them once Isaac gets here and then we’ll go.”

“
We can’t just
leave
,” Janie protested,
too loudly. “Not
now
.”

Alessa gave her a warning
look. “
Shh
,” she
mouthed.

“
But I don’t
want
to leave,” Janie
scowled. “We’re so close. We finally have a chance. I want to
fight.”

“
Please
, Janie,” Alessa begged. “All I’ve ever done is try to keep
you safe. I’ve never steered you wrong before, have I? Just trust
me – it will be the best thing for all of us.”

“
For
you
, maybe. You have Isaac, at
least. Am I just supposed to be your guys’ sidekick for the rest of
my life?”

Alessa rolled her eyes.
“I’m sure
eventually
we’ll find some other survivors – this is just a temporary
thing, until the dust settles with this whole war between the
rebels and Paragon.”

“
And what if the
rebels
lose
? What
if they lose because we’re not with them?”

Sighing, Alessa argued,
“Do you really think that the three of us will make or break the
rebels’ chances? I know Regina’s taken you under her wing, but
please Janie – be realistic. Look how many people there are here.
We won’t make a difference one way or the other – all we’ll do is
put ourselves in unnecessary danger. It’s not worth the risk. Isaac
and I already
know
we can make it on our own out there. We already got through
the hardest part of winter, the disease appears to be gone, and all
there really is to worry about is those creatures. Even them we’ve
managed to evade thus far…”

Janie shook her head
vehemently. “Even
if
I was on board with this – which I’m
not
,” she emphasized, “– Isaac will
never go along with it.”

“
I know, I know,” Alessa
admitted. “That’s why we’re not going to
tell
Isaac –”

“
Not going to tell me
what?”

Alessa’s stomach jumped at the sound
of his voice. She turned to find Isaac beaming over her shoulder,
and he leaned in to give her a firm kiss on the lips. “I see your
mission was a success,” he said, turning to Janie and picking her
up in a bear hug. “Good to have you back, J.”

Janie smiled brightly at
Isaac. “It’s good to
be
back.”

“
Oh don’t I know it,”
Isaac laughed. “If you remember, I spent my fair share of time in
the
luxurious
accommodations of Paragon’s solitary unit.”

“
I give it four lonely,
dank, rat-gnawed stars,” Janie joked.

“
At least,” Isaac
agreed.

Alessa watched their
banter with growing trepidation. Time was running out. Janie wasn’t
convinced, and Isaac would never agree. How was she supposed to get
them out of there? She knew she should have just conned
them.
Why
did she
have to let her conscience get to her?

“
So what was I so rudely
interrupting?” Isaac asked.

“
Alessa wants to
–”

Alessa cut off Janie’s tattling – she
needed a few moments to figure things out. “Nothing, just catching
up. How did things go for your team at the med center?” she asked.
If she could keep Isaac talking it would buy her some
time.

“
Good, good. I got what I
was looking for…”

“
Prisoners?” Janie
guessed.

“
Well,” Isaac looked away
briefly, “
one
prisoner – Lizzie, actually,” he explained.

“
Oh, that’s great!” Janie
added. “I was wondering where she came from.”

“–
and a little something
else,” Isaac continued. He glanced down the platform. “You’ll see
what in just a minute.”

Janie furrowed her brow.

“
Oh, and –” he dropped his
voice low. “– keep this quiet for now – I assume Regina will call a
meeting about it, but I’m not sure if Lizzie told her yet. I
overheard some pretty disturbing stuff at the hospital.”

“
About the stitch?” Janie
asked.

Isaac shook his head.
“About the
virus
.”

The virus? Alessa paused her internal
plotting and perked up.

“
Apparently the leaders of
the Ruling Class – the Engineers, they call themselves – want to
call some kind of truce, so they were keeping Lizzie hostage and
brainwashing her with all this information about how Paragon came
about and why things are the way they are, why whatever they did
was justified…”

“
Brainwashing
her?” Alessa interjected.

“
Well, they claim they
were just nursing her back to health after some injuries and
‘explaining’ their side of things so Lizzie could represent them
fairly in peace negotiations, but,” he rolled his eyes, “I don’t
buy it.”

Isaac was an avowed skeptic, but
Alessa was a little more optimistic. Was it possible that Paragon
really did want to call a ceasefire?

“
Anyway – are you
listening, Less? This is the important part,” he
admonished.

Having gotten Alessa’s
attention, he dropped his voice even lower. “They
admitted
to releasing
the virus.” He let the words hang there for a moment while Alessa
and Janie tried to grasp the implications of what he’d
said.

“
You mean, like, by
accident?” Janie suggested.

Isaac very slowly and
deliberately turned his head from one side to the other and back.
“They
wanted
to
kill everyone.”

Janie and Alessa gasped in
unison.

“‘
A reset’ they called it,
to save the planet supposedly. This one guy – the Developer – he
used a
computer algorithm
to pick who should be vaccinated.”

Alessa’s head was throbbing. It
couldn’t be. She knew Paragon leader’s – these Engineers – had done
a lot of questionable things on the compound. But driving the
entire human race to extinction?

Was
anyone
capable of that?

“
Wait, wait, wait…” Janie
was still flabbergasted. “Does that mean
we
were all saved?”

Isaac shrugged. “I guess so. And
everyone else we ever cared about – our parents, your brother, all
of our friends and neighbors, even our government – wasn’t. They
killed all of them. They killed everyone we knew.”

Alessa couldn’t make sense of it.
They’d killed everyone?

They’d killed everyone.

They’d killed
everyone
.

Every nerve ending in her body tingled
with rage as it finally sunk in for Alessa, and she fought the urge
to cry and scream and hit something all at once.

Paragon wasn’t just misguided – it was
straight-up evil. She’d tried, so many times, to make excuses for
her society, to find the good in whatever mistakes their elusive
leaders had made. But this – this was just too much.

There was no way to
justify mass murder. There was no way to excuse the
massacre
of an entire
planet full of people. There was no way to rationalize one man’s
twisted desire to play God.

They had to be stopped.

It looked like Alessa would be going
back to Raptor after all.

36. RESOLVE

Alessa knew now that theirs was a
battle worth fighting – worth even dying for, if she had
to.

She owed it to her parents, to her
brother, to Isaac’s family, and to everyone who had been unlucky
enough not to get a stamp of approval from some stupid machine.
Someone had to make the Engineers pay for what they’d done. And if
that someone was the rebels, Alessa would play whatever part she
could to ensure their success.

She just hoped she wasn't being rash.
Between her outrage over Isaac’s revelation, her concern over
Janie’s weakened health, and her desire not to tear Isaac away from
his family again, Alessa had to admit that it was easier to stay
the course and follow along with the rebels’ plans.

But in the back of her
mind, she questioned if that wasn't why she
should
leave. Wasn’t the right path
usually the harder one?

She prayed she wouldn't regret
this.

Suddenly, a low rumbling rose from the
cavernous depths of the train tunnel and the ground began to quiver
under Alessa’s feet.

Isaac smiled knowingly. “Looks like
it’s time to go.”

A faint violet light peeked out from
the mouth of the passage – growing stronger with every second – and
a booming rumble issued from whatever was coming up the
tracks.

Janie took Alessa’s hand. “You’re
coming, right?”

Alessa simply nodded, and
understanding cascaded through Janie’s features. Alessa didn’t have
to explain – she knew Janie wouldn’t say another word about
Alessa’s wavering.

The blue-violet glow grew brighter and
brighter, and long twisting shadows stretched along the tracks in
front of the platform. The rebels stood in awed silence, watching,
waiting.

And then in a triumphant burst, a
massive train engine came roaring into the station and the rebels
erupted in applause and cheers. The engine glowed periwinkle from
within, light radiating through the gaps in the metal casing like a
star. Carlos leaned out the conductor’s window while Sato sat
astride the engine, spurring it on like a giant iron horse, a
massive grin plastered on her face. Alessa caught a glimpse of
Alicia running beside the train, laughing.

Janie whooped and jumped with the
others, her fist held high in the air.

“
So much for a stealthy
escape, huh?” Alessa commented to Isaac.

He smirked. “Don’t worry about it –
Regina’s got it all covered. The train will bring us to the city,
where an envoy of shuttles will be waiting to transport everyone to
Raptor. There’s a diversion distracting Paragon’s army as we speak,
so by the time they catch up, the train will be deserted and we’ll
all be safely tucked away at Raptor.”

Alessa closed her eyes and shook her
head – she couldn’t believe she was actually going along with this,
that she’d thrown caution to the wind and was back in this
fight.

But she couldn’t quite suppress the
smile pulling at her lips, either. As she watched the train pull in
to cheers and applause, she realized that Isaac had made this
happen – that his mission this morning had made it possible for all
of these people to escape. As usual, he’d managed to impress
her.

The train thundered to a stop in front
of the platform and the rebels piled on, streaming into the dusty
old freight cars lining the track. Within seconds, the platform was
empty and they were on their way.