Z 2135 (30 page)

Jonah released the man, who jumped off him and ran back
toward the rear cars, where the orb had come from.

“Destroy the orb,” the old man screamed in Jonah’s ear. The
camera feed must have started working again. Jonah realized the problem: if the
orb killed all the infected, the plan would fail.

“How?” Jonah cried out.

“There’s an orb jammer in your belt.”

“Well why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” Jonah screamed.

He stood up, wiping the blood, ashes, and grime from his
uniform. He hadn’t a second to rest.

Jonah walked forward as fast as he could, grabbing the orb
jammer and holding it as he’d held the trigger for the poison device just
moments before.

He pushed into the car and saw the orb still killing people
inside, with no discernment for infected or noninfected.

Jonah pressed the button.

Immediately, the orb’s lights went dark and it fell with a
heavy clang.

“Now get off the train!” the old man yelled. “Quick!”

“How?”

“Head out of the rear car, climb the ladder to the top of the
train. You’re coming to a bridge in about two minutes. Jump off. There’s a
river below. Follow that north until it turns, and you will find your way out
of The City; we’ll have someone pick you up and bring you back to Hydrangea.”

Jonah raced through the cars until he found his blaster on
the ground, picked it up, and turned around, heading past cars of corpses to
the rear of the train, where the orb had not yet started firing on passengers.

He pushed and shoved his way past scared people blocking
aisles, staring ahead and trying to see what was happening.

“City Watch, out of the way!” Jonah yelled, making his way
to the rear.

He reached the final car, and stopped short.

It was packed with the infected feeding on not-yet-infected,
maybe immune. One of the infected, the conductor, jumped at him, mouth open,
snarling.

Jonah fired into the man’s chest, sending him back, taking
five people with him. Jonah used the moment to scramble over the fallen before
they had a chance to regroup and recognize him as fresh meat. He made his way
over the pile and was three feet from the rear door of the train.

Someone grabbed Jonah’s arm and yanked the gun from his
grip.

He turned, to see not an infected, but a woman grabbing him,
begging him to help her.

He looked down, past her scared eyes and wide open mouth to
an infected man behind her, holding onto her legs and biting her thigh.

There was nothing Jonah could do.

He shook her loose, and vaulted ahead.

 He reached the back door, then pressed through it to the
outside, into the whipping wind. The bridge was quickly approaching and past
that, a cluster of towers—what looked like City 1’s beautiful beating heart.

The train was an arrow right toward it.

Jonah found iron rungs on the train’s rear and started to
climb, clawing to the top one rung at a time as the angry wind beat on his back
and threatened to yank him down to the railing. He nearly fell once—sending his
heart up his throat like vomit—and then again, two rungs from the top. The
second time he was sure he was dead.

But Jonah made it to the top just as the train whooshed onto
the bridge. There was too much wind and they were going too fast. Jonah
couldn’t stand.

He thought of everything that had happened to him. Injustice
filled him with enough fury that he made himself stand. Jonah pushed hard
against the wind until he was upright and he trembled for a few do-or-die  moments
before the end of the bridge forced him to jump.

He leapt.

Seconds were long as Jonah fell through the air, cold air,
and then water blasting him as he sliced into the river, praying he wouldn’t
smash into a rock.

He plunged deep and stayed under, swimming for as long as he
could before gliding up to the surface, grabbing a lungful of air, then diving
back down below.

Water felt amazing on his skin. He felt clean, washed.
Renewed. Almost hopeful.

 He didn’t know what he was supposed to do next, but the
worst was over. He had gone behind the City 1 Walls and done what he never
expected: he had become the monster he was painted as prior to exile.

 He did the job he was coerced into.

Now he could find Ana, then hopefully Adam after that.

Jonah was instructed to follow the river north, and then
he’d be picked up. He wondered if he really would be picked up. And if so,
would they kill him? Or would they live up to their end of the devil’s deal he
made? If he was allowed to live, Jonah already decided that he would kill
Sutherland. That was the only way to secure Ana’s safety.

Jonah estimated he was in the water for two hours when the
river finally turned and he pulled himself up onto a bank and felt his pruned
skin baking under the early afternoon sun.

He had no idea where he was in relation to the hangars, but
figured if nobody showed up, he’d find his way to the coast and navigate his
way back into The City to get a vehicle, assuming he could get in safely.

He made it four steps before hair on his neck was standing.
Jonah heard the first orb before he saw it, but it and seven more were all in
his view a second later.

The device Jonah had used to cripple the orbs was gone, lost
along the way.

Before he could react, or get his hands in the air,
something flew from the closest orb, right into his neck, stinging like an
injection.

The orb said, “You are under arrest by authority of City
Watch, Jonah Lovecraft. You’ve been implanted with an explosive. If you do not
follow and stay within range, the implant will be detonated and your body will
be blown to pieces. There is
no
disarming the explosive.”

The orb that shot him hovered in front, leading Jonah from
the bank.

He had no choice but to follow, a prisoner shackled to an
explosive leash.

Keller sounded happy to hear from Adam, and invited him over
as soon as he called. Jacqueline was out at her knitting circle and the Chief
was only having leftovers, but if Adam didn’t mind, he was welcome to join him
for dinner. That sounded perfect to Adam … and Michael.

Michael gave Adam a stunner that sent the drug through a
long, slender black-and-purple tube. He had to aim the skinny metal cylinder,
then squeeze from its rounded end. Electricity shot through the tube, and if
well aimed into a person’s body, a single dose could get a victim twitching for
half an hour. The device was good for two shots, Michael explained. Even if
Adam missed the Chief’s skin with the drug, the electric charge would still
paralyze Keller long enough for Adam to get a second shot into his skin.

Adam was certain the Chief would be on to him.

He was scared, even though the plan was simple: Adam was
supposed to wait for the perfect opportunity. When the Chief’s back was turned,
and Adam thought he had enough time to draw the tube and squeeze, he was
supposed to aim at the back of his neck. Once the Chief was poisoned, Adam
would call Michael who was waiting with a few members of The Underground two
blocks outside the high apartments.

The door opened before Adam could knock. The Chief
practically yanked him inside. He seemed insistent, not mad. Maybe upset. He
released Adam’s wrist and kept walking, leading him through the apartment to
his study. At the door, Keller stepped to the side and gestured for Adam to go
first, then the Chief stepped inside the study behind him.

He pressed something on his desk and the wall screen lit to
life. He said, “You need to see this.”

Footage started in the middle of something, and that
something was certainly awful. There were large seats, two per side each row,
running down what looked like a long hallway. Adam realized it had to be a
train, though he’d only seen them on Old Nation movies.

In the train, carnage. Men, women, and children in a mass of
torn flesh, blood, and chewing. They were eating one another alive, tearing at
one another, zombies.

“What is this?” Adam couldn’t believe his eyes, and already
wished he could forget what he was seeing.

“This is in City 1,” the Chief said. “From earlier today.
This footage is only a few hours old, and top secret at the moment.”

“Oh my God.” Adam felt weak in the knees.

“As far as the world is concerned, you’ve seen the worst. As
for your personal world, Adam, I’m afraid that’s yet to come.”

Adam started to sweat.

He couldn’t imagine what might still be coming.

The Chief swiped a finger and fast-forwarded the video to a
man running from the chaos. The man wore a disguise, but it wasn’t enough to
fool his son, or the man’s former commanding officer.

The Chief said what Adam knew was true.

“Your father committed this atrocity, Adam.”

“No,” Adam started to cry. “No, no, no! I thought he was in
City 7!”

The Chief’s face seemed somehow hollow, whiter than usual.
His hooked nose was sharper and his face uglier. The Chief seemed …
worried.

“I’ve no idea what happened,” Keller said, “or why. But your
father showed up in City 1 late this morning, unannounced and unexpected. They
say he slipped in beneath The City like a scurrying rat, killing hundreds on a
train by unleashing some sort of weaponized virus. It looks like your father
was trying to bring down The State. Fortunately, he failed. City 1 is fine, and
your father in custody.”

“This is a lie!” Adam screamed. “I don’t believe it!”

“It’s on video,” Keller said. “You can’t make up video.”

“Oh, yeah,” Adam said, “what about my sister?”

The Chief’s face grew even uglier.

“
What
are you talking about?”

“Ana’s alive! I saw for myself. The Network showed her dead,
but she and Liam are
both
alive! The State’s creating news, just like they create movies and
instructionals.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid,” Adam said, getting angrier. “I deserve
the truth!”

The Chief’s pale face turned red and blotchy, as if he had
been smacked hard. He was trying to hold his composure as the video of Adam’s
father unleashing a contagion into a crowded train restarted from the beginning
behind him.

His breath fell to a regular rhythm.

“What are you going on about, Adam? I have no idea.
Where
did you see your
sister?
Who
is
telling you such lies?”

Adam had his answer, but it wasn’t what the Chief wanted to
hear. He reached into his pocket, grabbed the stunner, aimed it at Keller’s
face, then squeezed the rounded bottom. A bolt of energy flew from the tube
into the Chief’s neck. He fell to the ground twitching, staring up at Adam with
a
why?
, his eyes
broadened by shock.

“Adam,” his voice rattled. It seemed like the Chief’s mouth
was the only thing he could move in his otherwise paralyzed body. “What are you
doing? Please, don’t do this.”

His
please
sounded like it tore something inside him.

Adam said, “You can’t lie to me anymore. I won’t let you.
You
owe me
the truth.
You have to tell me now, once and for all.” Adam felt a welling rage inside
him. It felt good to add, “You need to stop fucking lying to me!”

The Chief’s face relaxed. His mouth moved as if ready to
speak. The rest of him was still as a statue.

“You’re making a mistake. You can’t believe your friends,
Adam. They’re not good people. You know this. Remember the insidiousness? The
cancer?
This
is what
got into your father, this is what caused him to kill your mother, then to …” to commit today’s unspeakable act. Now I’m afraid the insidiousness has
infected
you
.”

The Chief looked like he might cry. His voice was desperate.
If Adam didn’t know better—if he didn’t finally realize that the Chief had been
manipulating him since day one, just as Michael had said—he might think the man
was genuinely concerned about Adam’s salvation.

Keller continued, struggling through each word, “I can’t
believe you would do this … it’s a betrayal of the worst sort. Worse than
what your father did because your wrongs have been committed after every
kindness has been extended to you, every measure taken to ensure your needs are
met and future provided for. You’re like a son to me, Adam.”

“If I’m like a son, then tell me the truth.”

Adam kneeled in front of the Chief, feeling heavy and
horrible and conflicted. His eyes were watery, sore, and (Adam was sure) red.
He wanted to blink, but they burned too much. He couldn’t cry because there was
nothing left inside him, and not a single good feeling for Keller.

The Chief’s newest lie—showing Adam his father on the
train—had drowned his feelings in blood, and erased any remaining nice thoughts
Adam might have held for the Chief.

Keller said nothing, so Adam screamed for him to speak.

When the Chief remained silent, Adam shot him with the
stunner again, just to see his upper half twitch in shock and keep his lower
half frozen.

The Chief was still silent, so Adam pulled out his com.

“Who are you calling?” the Chief finally said.

“The Underground,” Adam said. “I might not be able to get
you talking, but I’m sure they can.”

“Please don’t do this. Set down the com and we’ll talk this
out. You don’t know what you’re doing, and you can’t comprehend the
consequences of your actions. You’re about to make a huge mistake, Adam. The
biggest. This will ruin the rest of your life. There will be no going back.”

Every word from Keller’s mouth was a lie, born to confuse or
manipulate him. The Chief’s words were strings at Adam’s heart, but not enough
to drive him to murder.

Keller said, “I don’t know if your sister’s alive, and it
would shock me if she is—how could they do such a thing when we all saw her
body?—but
if
she is,
and something bad happens to me, you’ll never find her. Let me help you, Adam.
I
want
to help you.
But my help starts with you doing the right thing, like you’ve
always
done before. Do that
now, Adam. The right thing. It’s what you
want
to do. I’ll gladly suffer consequences for my actions, but can’t stand
to see you suffer for yours.”

“Wow, you’re great with this nice guy act,” Adam said, tears
streaming his face. “And you know what? I
almost
believe you.”

Adam turned away from Keller, and called Michael.

Keller shouted, “You’re going to regret this!”

Adam ignored him, told Michael to hurry, then nervously
paced for five minutes until the home’s intercom rang and Adam buzzed Michael
up.

Two minutes later, he opened the door to eight masked men
storming into Keller’s apartment. Adam wondered how masked members of The
Underground could walk high apartment halls in a building where the Chief of
City Watch lived without worry of reprisal, and realized that The Underground
must be larger than he thought, and that maybe they had someone on the inside
of the high apartments. And if that were true, maybe there really would be
revolution in the streets.

Adam knew which of the masked men was Michael, but did
nothing to surrender his identity. The leader was in front, dressed head to toe
in black, standing in front of the slightly shorter Michael.

The leader said, “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Chief
Fucking Keller.”

Keller said nothing, glaring at Adam and shaking his head.

“Don’t look at him,” the leader said, grabbing Keller by the
collar and hoisting him to a sitting position in the chair.

Keller spat, right at the man’s face.

The leader balled his gloved fist and swung so hard he
knocked Keller to the ground. The leader leapt on Keller and began choking him
until the Chief’s face was turning purple.

“No!” one of The Underground members said. “We want him
alive.”

The leader got off of Keller, laughing.

Then, to Adam’s surprise, Keller started laughing back.
Lying there, helpless on the ground, the Chief had the balls to laugh at a room
full of enemies.

Keller stopped laughing, then said, “I feel sorry for
everyone in this room. Yes, including you Adam. Everyone in my home right now
is a dead man, a worthless pile of shit not fit for The Underground. You’re
vermin, each of you. And you will all die, either in front of a cheering crowd,
or right here, right now, where no one will mourn you. Do you have a
preference? I’ve learned in my years as the man running this City, sometimes it
is best to get the worst over with so the rest of your day will go better.”

The Chief moved his eyes across the room seeming to look
through the men’s masks, one at a time. “Which one of you bastards planted the
bomb that killed my son?”

The leader stepped forward, raising his fist as if to shut
Keller up. “I’ve no idea who killed your son,
Chief
,
but whoever did is a national fucking hero.”

Adam felt a chill.

That probably wasn’t the best thing to say to the Chief.

Now Keller would get really angry. And even though he was
the one paralyzed, and there were many guns aimed at his body, he still somehow
seemed in charge.

Adam cursed himself for still surrendering authority to
Keller. Had the man really brainwashed him so much that he couldn’t see the
reality before him?

No,
Keller’s not in power. We are.

Keller shouted, challenging the leader. “Are you so cowardly
that you can’t show me your face? Are you the leader of weaklings and cowards?”

“There are no leaders in our group. We are one: The
Underground.

“Just as well,” Keller said. “That’s very cute when children
play games they can’t even conceive.”

The Chief smiled and met Adam’s eyes, sending a horrible
chill through Adam.

Keller then yelled, “Alert 717. Repeat, Alert 717!”

“What the fuck does that mean?” the leader asked Adam in a
scream, probably thinking the Cadet would know.

“I have no idea!” Adam yelled, looking back and forth with
the others. From another room in the back of the house, they heard the
unmistakable robotic voice of a hunter orb coming to life, saying, “Stop
intruders! Stop intruders!”

Adam ran toward the door, along with everyone else, Michael
and the leader included. Metal plates slammed over the windows and door before
they reached them.

The hunter orb whirred into the living room, probably from
Keller’s bedroom. It vaporized the leader first, Michael a half second later.

Adam screamed, ran to the kitchen, and hid behind the sink
as the hunter orb continued firing on The Underground members.

He fell to the floor, heart pounding in his chest, breath
rapid, and hairs on end.

Play
dead, play dead. Just lie here and wait.

Adam planted his body on the ground, listening as the men
screamed before being vaporized to ash.

Then there was silence, save for the orb’s whirring.

Is it
coming? Is it looking for me?

Or is it
just hovering?

Adam didn’t dare look.

He lay still, eyes closed, afraid to do anything.

Afraid to do nothing.

The silence was finally splintered by Keller’s hysterical
laughter. “Oh man, did you pick the wrong side, Adam!”

Adam cried out, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry.”

The hunter orb whirred into the kitchen. Adam opened his
eyes and looked up as it spun to a stop just above him—hovering, humming,
seconds from firing.

“Please!” Adam screamed.

A high pitched whistling came from the orb, charging its
energy.

Adam wanted to run, dodge, something, anything.

But he was as paralyzed as Keller.