Specimen (28 page)

I follow the stairs marked “roof access” as I listen to Isaac’s steps following close behind.  When I get to the top, I slam the door behind me.  There’s a chain on the ground, one that used to bar the door.  I pick it up and secure the chain around the latch.  There’s no padlock for it, but it should delay Isaac for a few seconds.

The roof is flat with a short barrier around the outside of it.  I head immediately to the edge closest to the next building and look at the gap between the structures.

I can’t make it.

I know my physical limitations, and the gap between buildings is just shy of what I can manage.  There’s a fire escape with a ladder up against the building, and I might make that if my jump is perfect, but I could just as easily fall to the ground.  The impact wouldn’t kill me, but it might slow me down enough for Isaac to get to the ground before I can escape.

Behind me, I hear the door to the roof slam open with a loud clang.

There’s no other choice.

Backing up a few feet, I sprint to the edge of the building and jump into the air, arms out.  I fly over the gap between buildings but start to fall too quickly to reach the other side.  Extending my arms as far as they will go, I barely catch the edge of the fire escape with my finger tips and grab tight, tensing my shoulders.

With a jerk, my body comes to a stop, nearly pulling my arms from their sockets.  I pause to take a breath before I start to climb up.  I hear Isaac yelling at me from the other side.

“You can’t win this, Sten!  We’re going to bring you back home!”

I take one last look at my friend as I press my fingers against the interface chip in my neck, shoving it back into place.  I feel the sting of the prongs followed by a sharp click inside my head as the device reconnects.  I have no way of knowing for sure if the interface has been damaged, allowing me to be tracked, so I have to move quickly.

I speed off between buildings and down alleys, taking a haphazard route back to the edge of the city and then around to the east.  The checkpoint isn’t far from here, and I’m sure I haven’t been followed.

The abandoned service station is deserted and dark, just as it had been the first time I was here.  Remembering Wick’s words, I creep forward and check for a card in the window.

There is nothing.

No white card, no red card.

In fact, the window is broken.  There’s no shattered glass on the ground outside, so someone must have forced their way from the outside in.

My skin chills, and I check around the area with all my senses to determine if there is someone else about, but I get no sense of life at all.  Cautiously, I head to the back of the building.

The back door, previously padlocked, stands open.

Pressing my shoulder to the outside wall just to the side of the door, I tilt my head and cup my ear, listening for anything at all.  There is a humming sound of electricity in the walls but nothing else.  No footsteps, no shallow breaths.

I slide through the doorway and inside.

“Wick?”  I call out softly, but there is no reply.

If he’s here, he’s dead.

My defenses are on alert as I come around the corner.  It’s dark and silent; I still hear nothing.  It’s such a small building, I should be able to hear something.  Wick should be here in this area.  Even if he’s in hiding, I should have some sense of him, but there’s nothing to detect.

I open my mouth slightly and inhale slowly.  The smell and taste of blood is faint but detectable.  I follow the scent through a small doorway and into a storage closet full of electronic equipment in various states of disrepair.  I find Taylor Wick’s body shoved between two shelves.  There’s a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead, but the bruising around the rest of his face tells me his death wasn’t that quick.

Isaac knew where I would be, and the route has been traced back here.  If they found Taylor Wick and questioned him before killing him, they may have discovered my point of origin.

“Riley.”

I sprint at top speed from the service station to the small town of Marra.  I never slow down, and I take the straightest trajectory to my destination.  When I arrive, the town looks deserted.  Even at this late hour, someone should be out and about, but I see no one.  Every structure’s windows are dark, and there is no one on the streets.

I run through the center of town instead of skirting around the outside.  I keep to the shadows of buildings, knowing I’m far more exposed, but Riley is in danger, and I can’t let anything delay getting to her side.  I need to know that she’s safe.  I need to be there to protect her.

As I approach the house, my skin prickles with gooseflesh.  The feeling is deeper than just a notion that someone is watching me.  I don’t know how much is blocked by the chip in my neck, but something is getting through.

There are other specimens in the area.

Inhaling deeply, I smell a strong scent of diesel fuel though I can’t see any trucks or anything in the areas that would use it.  No one is visible from the outside of the house, but I can see lights on inside through the drawn curtains.  I can’t tell if there’s movement or not, so I inch up until I can get a better look.

In the front room, Riley stands against the wall with one of the soldiers positioned slightly in front of her, protectively.  It’s the same man who said he’d look out for her while I was gone.  They’re facing one of the other soldiers, who points a handgun at them.

In the distance, I hear helicopters.

“Fuck.”

I slam open the front door, and see Riley and the soldiers jump at the noise.

“Galen!” she calls as she starts to head toward me.

Before he can react, I grab the man with the gun, and smack it from his hand.  He barely resists me.  There’s something about the look in the traitor’s eyes that doesn’t sit well with me.  He’s not a man looking to win—he knows he’s going to die.  He’s just trying to delay us long enough for the others to arrive.  I grab his neck and twist until I hear it crack.  He falls to the floor, where I notice the bodies of the other two soldiers.

“We have to get out!” I yell at her.  “They’re coming.”

“They’re here.”  I look to the soldier closest to Riley as he steadies himself and heads for the door.  “You two get out.”

“Get to the back door, Riley!” I yell.

Riley nods and heads farther into the gutted house toward the metal door that leads to the back room and then outside.  The helicopters are landing in the front of the house, and I can hear the sound of boots as they hit the ground.  A second later, the front door flies open, and people star to pour inside.

“Go!” the soldier yells.  A moment later, shots ring out, and he falls to the ground.

“Riley—move!” I yell, and she picks up her pace as I start to head in her direction.

There are fifteen of them, three of which are specimens.  They carry their rifles at the ready.  I’m still twenty feet from Riley, and there are too many of them to fight in such close quarters without a weapon.

Riley struggles with the latch on the door but can’t open it.  She’s panicked, and her fingers are fumbling.  I press the balls of my feet against the floor, propelling myself toward her so I can get the door open.

All at once, the soldiers raise their weapons, gun down the Carson soldiers, and then aim at Riley and me.

“Riley!” I scream as I lunge at her, pinning her to the metal door.  Grabbing her shoulder, I pull her against me and tuck her head to my chest.  I wrap her in my arms, shielding her with my body as the shots ring out.

When the first bullet penetrates me, I close my eyes and concentrate on the sensation as time slows to a crawl.  I feel the tip pierce my skin at my lower back, and I shift slightly.  I force the muscle to flex as the bullet enters, tightening around the projectile and holding it fast.  As I capture the first bullet with my body, the second enters my shoulder.

I raise my shoulder just enough for the bullet to go over Riley and into the wall.  The next one hits, and I catch it with my thigh.

Again and again, I take every hit, manipulating my body to hold the bullets and prevent them from going all the way through and hitting the woman I hold close to me.  She’s screaming my name over and over as I’m hit, and my body quivers with the impact, but I can’t listen to her.  It’s taking everything I have just to keep her from harm.

I can’t even tell how long they continue to shoot.

The shots stop.  I have no idea if they’re all reloading at once or if they figure we must be dead by now, but I embrace the opportunity.  I pull my arm back and slam my hand into the handle of the metal door.  The latch breaks with the impact, and I shove Riley through the opening.

“Go!” I scream at her.

Riley turns and stumbles forward.  As I start to move, the pain in my body doubles me over, but my implants immediately begin to compensate.  The pain is muted, my thoughts focused on making the damaged muscles in my body act.

Running footsteps behind us start to get closer.  There are three in front—the specimen team.  Riley has no chance of outrunning them.  Given my injuries, I’m not sure I can, either.

I have to.  I have to save Riley.

“Keep going!” I yell as I shove her head of me.

I’m starting to slow down as I become increasingly aware of the damage to my body.  The implants can’t seem to compensate for the pain any longer.  Seventeen bullets have hit, four going through me and the rest captured inside.  I fight through the pain in my legs to force myself forward.

I can see the exit just ahead of us.  Once through it, I can get her into the forest and find cover long enough to determine the best strategy to get out of Mills territory and back to the farm.  The trees are only a few feet away from the house, and the bog directly behind that.

If I bar the door behind us, stay and keep it closed, Riley has a chance to get away.

I know she isn’t going to like it.  I can already hear her protests in my imagination, but I won’t allow for any argument.  She has to run, with or without me.  It may be the only way to save her.

I have to save Riley.

I’m right behind her.  I can feel the heat of her back on my chest, and I remember how she curled up against me last night after I made love to her.  She’d sighed softly as she drifted into sleep, and I’d just lain there, watching her.

I can’t let that be our last night together.

I reach my arm over her shoulder, ready to hit the door with full force and get through it as quickly as possible, but just before we reach it, the door flies open.  There are a dozen Mills soldiers and three specimens I don’t know but recognize immediately as my kind.

Grabbing Riley by the waist, I start to turn, but the specimens and soldiers from behind us close in.  My mind flies through every available avenue—calculating nearly four hundred possible courses of action in a half-second—and finds no means of escape.

Two of the specimens grab hold of my arms, but I don’t release Riley.  The other specimen grabs a hold of her shoulders, pulling as hard as I am to keep control of her.  Riley’s mouth opens in a silent scream.  I’m crushing her diaphragm with my grip.  If I keep my hold on her, she’ll be torn apart.

I loosen my grip, allowing her to be ripped from my arms.

“No!”  Riley screams.  She thrashes in the specimen’s arms, kicking and yelling.  “Let me go!  Leave him alone!”

“Riley!” I scream and fight against the arms that hold me, but I can’t break the grip they have on me.  I’m forced to my knees as one of the specimens grabs my head and holds it to my left shoulder.  The implanted chip is pried roughly from my neck, and I feel blood dripping from the wound.

I can only struggle fruitlessly as I stare at Riley.  She keeps fighting against her captor, but she has no chance.  As she’s dragged backward, Dr. Helen McCall walks through the door with a self-satisfied grin.

“You bitch!  Riley screams in the other doctor’s face and kicks out at her, but Dr. McCall only tilts her head and smiles.

“You knew it would end this way,” Dr. McCall says.  “You never had a chance.”

“You can’t do this!” Riley screams at her.  “You fucking bitch!  Leave him alone!  Leave him alone!”

“You’re a traitor,” Dr. McCall tells her.  “Lucky for you, we have a solution that will benefit everyone, and you’ll be able to return to your work.”

“No!” I scream as I struggle.  “I made her go with me!  I abducted her and forced her to go!  It was all me!”

“No one believes that.”  Dr. McCall tilts her head and raises her eyebrow at me.

“I will
never
work for Mills again!” Riley screams at her.  “You can’t force me to do that!  I’d die first!”

Dr. McCall laughs.

“You will do exactly as you will be programmed to do.”  She steps up to Riley as the specimen holds her arms to her sides. She leans close and sneers. “This time, we’re going to do things my way.  Take her away!”

She gestures toward the door, and the specimen hauls Riley through it.  I scream her name again and again as she is dragged from my sight.  I can hear the whirring of helicopter blades outside.  The sound increases as the machine takes off into the sky, Riley held captive aboard the craft.

She’s gone.

I can’t breathe right.  I can barely bring myself to move at all.  She’s gone, and the very idea of existing without her is moot.  It’s pointless and without meaning.  I look at my hands as they’re bound in front of me and try to figure out what I should have done with them to keep this from happening.

I failed.  I failed.  I failed.

I continue to stare at the door as a gurney is brought next to me and I’m lifted into the air and deposited in the center of it.  Hands hold me down as straps circle my body, restraining me on the rolling table.  I look around me at the faces of those who have defeated me, and I don’t even want to exact revenge.  All the tactical information in my head tells me there is no chance.  No matter what I do to them now, she’ll still be gone.

“Put him down.”  Dr. McCall sneers every word as she glares down at me, gloating.

I feel a sharp stabbing sensation on the right side of my head as a hundred metal probes are shoved into the skin of my neck and behind my right ear.  I try to pull away from the pain, but someone’s strapped my head in place.

  I can’t let this happen.

“Riley!” I scream again.  I twist my arm, hear the tear of muscle under my skin, but manage to free myself from the restraint.  I grab at Dr. McCall, catching her by the lapels of her lab coat, and turn the fabric in my fingers until she’s gasping and choking for air.

Someone is pounding my chest while someone else hits my face over and over again.  Dr. McCall’s face turns red then blue.  There’s a knee on my shoulder, and a hand pushes against the device they put on my neck and head right before a pulse of electricity runs through me.

My hand shakes.  I lose my grip, and hear Dr. McCall gasp before she drops to her knees, clawing at her throat.   Another jolt goes through me, and everything in my head starts to merge together.

Inside myself, I begin to fall.

It’s a long drop.  Images of my life fly past me.  I see my parents sitting in the sun on our front porch—Dad is smiling, and Mom is holding my baby sister.  I see my sister skipping home from school as I tend the dry fields.  I see Riley’s face when I first wake up in the lab.  I see her beautiful smile as I lay her down on a soft mattress and press my lips to hers…

My eyes fill with a bright white light and then nothing but darkness.