Prometheus Mode, page 5
“Lucky for them,” Brother Matthew adds. “We shut the gate and reset the switch. But the Deceivers were already inside. This is what happens when people start messing with things they have no idea about.”
“Nobody here messed with anything!” I say. I can feel my blood pressure rising, and my voice right along with it.
Brother Matthew frowns. “Opening the gate and shutting off the current to the fence requires someone to physically access the panel and key in the proper four-digit code. Same with shutting the gate and reenergizing the fence. If not your friends, then who?”
“Maybe it was you,” I say. “You obviously have the code. How do I know you didn’t do it? How do I know you’re not with Arc?”
“We aren’t.”
“And why were you following the Players in the first place?” I demand. “The Deceivers, I mean.”
“It’s our job.”
“Your... job? What, like, you get paid to babysit them or something?”
“Something like that.”
“But then you killed them. Not all of them were Deceivers.”
“Only to save your friends. Otherwise, we might’ve left the Elders alone. They don’t know any better.”
“Maybe it’s too late to save Jake,” I say, “but I need to get Kelly to Arc Headquarters so they can give him the cure.”
Brother Matthew’s head pops up. “Did you say cure?”
He turns to Brother Nicholas, who shakes his head and says, “We would’ve heard if they’d developed one.”
“Excuse me,” I say, “but you’ve been stuck in here for thirteen years. There’s probably a lot you haven’t heard about.”
“We may be trapped, but it doesn’t mean we’re out of touch.”
Brother Nicholas clears his throat. “Why would this Kelly need a cure? Was he bitten, too?”
“It wasn’t a bite. He was injected with a new variant that doesn’t activate until you die. But it has some serious side effects. It’s like it’s leaky or something. We already lost one member of our group from it.”
The men exchange another troubled glance. “Enoch?” Nicholas says, and Matthew nods.
“Who’s Enoch?” I demand.
“Wait here,” Brother Nicholas says, and he pulls Brother Matthew aside.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I shout after them.
He pauses, then turns. “Nothing yet. But if what we fear is true, then we may all be in imminent danger.”
Chapter 6
“How’s the recovery effort going?” I ask Ashley.
I speak quietly so I can still hear the two men talking, even if I can’t quite make out what they’re saying. They’re arguing again, which in an odd way gives me hope. For what exactly, I’m not sure, but if they’re disagreeing with each other, maybe it’s about something that might actually help us.
Ashley shrugs. She eyes the two men warily and says, “Haven’t heard a peep from the boys in a while. Guess that’s a good thing. Means they’re out of range.”
I nod and eye the elevator call button. It taunts me, wanting me to push it, to bring them all back, along with Ashley’s Link, but Kelly’s still down below. The car could crush him.
“It’s just so hard to stand by and do nothing,” she says.
“I know.”
She heaves a deep sigh. If she hadn’t left her Link for me to watch through, Jake wouldn’t have been bitten. There wouldn’t have been any need for me and Micah to come here. Once they confirmed my fix worked, they would’ve returned straightaway to the house. We could’ve been over the wall by daybreak and back to LaGuardia by nightfall. Then off this island.
We could all be waking up in our own beds tomorrow morning.
Now one of us is going to have to deal with Jake, and soon. Before he turns.
I guess it has to be me. I don’t want Kelly to do it. He’s always been a healer; he doesn’t need this on his conscience. And Micah’s out of the question. Jake deserves better than a traitor. And forget Ashley. Never happen. Too squeamish.
Which leaves me and Reggie.
I can’t see Reggie doing it, either. More than Kelly, I think it would break him, break his soul.
Ash glances over at the men again. They’ll still deep in discussion. “What are they talking about?” she whispers. “What did you say to them?”
Brother Nicholas is still nodding and Brother Matthew is still shaking his head. Honestly, I’m baffled that they could argue about anything for so long. Brother Matthew reaches up like he’s going to backhand Brother Nicholas in the face. Instead, he starts massaging his shoulder. The collar of his shirt pulls down and I see a scar there, nearly white against his sun-browned skin. The mark looks like the brand on Brother Nicholas’s hand.
Members of the same fraternity after all? Explains them calling each other brother.
The bell for the elevator dings and the motor inside comes alive. I’m only remotely aware of it, too focused on the men. Ashley touches my arm. I can feel her apprehension. I hope she doesn’t think we’ll be able to leave the moment she gets her Link back.
ding
I just can’t get that odd-looking brand out of my head.
“Jessie?”
ding
“Jess?”
“Yeah? What?”
“The boys are coming back.”
“Okay.”
ding
“I hope they got it.”
“Uh huh.”
That scar...
ding
“Jessie, what are you looking at? Hey!” She jostles me.
“Stop!” I say, irritably.
“The boys are coming back.”
ding
I blink stupidly at her. The half-formed thought in my head quickly fades. I feel like I was right on the edge of understanding something very important.
“What were you looking at?”
I look back to the opposite side of the room. Matthew’s still rubbing his shoulder and there’s that scar again. I know I’ve seen something like it before, and not just on Nicholas’s hand. It looks like—
ding
I turn to her. “They’re arguing about whether they should save Jake.”
She gives me a confused look.
I push away from her. I’ve finally figured out what I’m looking at. It’s not a brand, it’s a bite.
An old bite that’s completely healed over.
Chapter 7
“Why didn’t you tell me you have a cure?” I demand, shoving Brother Nicholas aside and confronting Matthew directly. “When I mentioned Arc had one before, why didn’t you say you already had one?”
He blinks at me in surprise. “We don’t. What makes you think we do?”
“Don’t bullshit me!” I grab Brother Nicholas’ hand and shove it in his face. “This mark here? It’s a bite. A human bite! Don’t even try to tell me it isn’t. And you’ve got one just like it on your shoulder. You both have been infected. And you’re both healed.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“What I think is that you’re both not dead and reanimated. That’s impossible... unless there’s a cure. So why won’t you share it with us? For that matter, why won’t you share it with the world?”
Brother Nicholas yanks his hand back. “Even if we did have a cure — which we don’t — we still wouldn’t be able to help your friend. I’m sorry, but he’s too far gone. We just can’t help him.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“If it were possible, we would, but—”
“But we’re just stupid kids, aren’t we?” I spit. “We’re not part of your stupid little fraternity!”
Behind me, the elevator dings one last time and the doors open. I ignore them.
“What if it was your daughter?” I demand.
Brother Nicholas looks away.
I turn to Brother Matthew. He opens his mouth to say something, but then Ashley lets out a cry. I spin around and find her sitting on the floor. She’s sobbing again, and the three boys are surrounding her. Reggie’s on his knees, his arm around her shoulders, keeping her from completely collapsing.
“What’s going on?” I say, hurrying over. “What happened?”
Kelly gives me a pained look. His face is smeared with soot and grease. He shakes his head. “I couldn’t reach it,” he says. “I’m sorry, Ash. I tried. It’s a really tight fit, and there’s a lot of machinery down there, and I couldn’t—”
“I’ll never leave here!” she wails.
“We’ll get it,” Reggie says, trying to comfort her. “I promise, babe. It’ll be okay.”
“No, it won’t! We’re all going to die! We’ll all end up like Jake!”
“I don’t believe this!” I march angrily over to the elevator door and look down through the crack. “There has to be a way. I can see it. It’s right there!”
“I know, but there’s a cage around the motor housing and the other equipment, and it’s padlocked shut.”
I stare at him for a moment, completely dumfounded. “Really?” I finally say. “What about the bolt cutter? Remember? Do I have to do all the thinking around here?”
Kelly shakes his head again. “I already thought of that, but it’s not accessible. The lock sits in a little niche. It’s already a tight fit, and the angle’s all wrong for the bolt cutters.” He holds his hands apart about a foot.
“Goddamn it!” I growl. Why the hell can’t anything ever be straightforward? I’m so irritated that I want to scream at Ashley to shut up, that her damn crying all the time isn’t helping anyone, especially herself. I have to talk myself down. I remind myself that she’s unwisely pinned all of her hopes on Kelly retrieving the Link. Of course she was bound to be disappointed. “There has to be a way,” I say. “They wouldn’t build it so it’s impossible to repair.”
“I think they were more worried about sabotage,” Micah offers.
Oh, how ironic, I nearly reply.
“We’ll keep trying,” Reggie offers. “We’ll get it out. It’s just not going to be as easy as we thought it would be.”
“Fucking Jake!” Ashley screams. “He’s ruined everything!”
No one disagrees.
“Look, Ash, it’s not hopeless. We can see the Link. We just have to think a bit more creatively. But first,” Reggie says turning me, “did I hear you say something about a cure?”
“They have it,” I tell him, pointing at Brothers Matthew and Nicholas. “They’re denying it, because they don’t want to share. But I know—”
“Now wait a minute,” Brother Matthew cuts in. He steps over. Brother Nicholas follows behind. “We do not have a cure. That’s the truth.”
I grab the collar of his shirt and yank it down. Brother Matthew doesn’t flinch or try to hide the mark. He sighs and shakes his head.
“What am I looking at?” Kelly demands.
“A scar,” I tell him. “What does it look like?”
He shrugs. “It could be anything. Just because it’s circular doesn’t mean—”
“It’s a bite, a human bite!”
“Or it could just be a nasty burn in the shape of a bite, Jess. It’s obviously old, and he’s obviously not undead, so—”
“So they have a cure!” I show him Brother Nicholas’ hand. “Tell me this is a burn mark.”
He doesn’t respond.
“They’ve both been bitten. It happened ages ago. And yet they’re both fine.”
I turn to the rest of the group. Thankfully, Ashley’s stopped crying. She sniffles, her tears completely forgotten, and stares at Brother Nicholas’s hand. “Is it true?” she asks. Her voice trembles. “Can you cure Jake?”
“There’s no cure!” Micah insists, even though the proof is right there in front of our eyes. “Everyone knows that.”
I turn to Reggie. He looks uncertain, as if he’s also reluctant to accept it. Is it too much to ask for? Why won’t they believe?
“It’s not a cure,” Brother Matthew repeats. “It’s a... It’s too late for your friend.”
“Why?” I demand. “Why is it too late?”
And then a horrible realization comes to mind: Maybe he’s been telling the truth and there really isn’t a cure. Maybe the reason they’re not undead is because what they do have is immunity, like from a vaccine, just like the one Stephen claimed to have had— and may actually have had, since he didn’t turn after Tanya bit him. If that’s the case, then it really is too late for Jake.
“Is it a vaccine?” I whisper.
Brother Nicholas sighs. “No.”
“Then... I don’t understand.”
“There is a treatment. It’s not a cure. It doesn’t get rid of the virus. But we don’t have it here, and by the time we can fetch it and bring it back, your friend will have already died.”
Nobody speaks for a moment. We all just stand there blinking like idiots.
“Also, it doesn’t always work,” Brother Nicholas adds. “And there’s a significant risk of... of side effects.”
“What kind of side effects?” Micah asks.
“I don’t care,” I say, stepping over to the Brothers. “He’s dead either way, right? If we don’t try, he will die. If we do try and we don’t get back in time, he’ll die. If we do get back and it doesn’t work, he’ll die. The outcome is the same. But maybe, just maybe, we try and it works.”
“And he lives,” Ashley says.
The Brothers exchange glances.
“We’re out of options. Please.”
“Where is this treatment?” Kelly asks. “Is it somewhere in Gameland? What do we have to do to get it?”
“It’s on the island,” Brother Matthew says. “Outside the arcade. But it’s too far away and it’s too dangerous to try and traverse the distance in such a hurry.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass how dangerous it is!” I scream. “Tell me this fucking minute where we have to go!”
“Jessie,” Kelly says, placing a hand on my arm. I shrug it off.
“Now, goddamn it!”
“It’s pretty far, and—”
“Nick!” Brother Matthew says through clenched teeth. “I thought we agreed. What are you doing?”
“They’re kids. They’re terrified. And if we can help, we should. You know what Father Heall says.”
“We can’t help them!”
I force myself between the two men and face Brother Nicholas. “You can take me. I’ll go with you. Please. How long will it take to get there?”
“Not a word, Nick,” Brother Matthew warns. “We can’t risk it! We already know Arc is watching them. Is it worth putting Will at risk?”
“Who’s Will?”
They don’t answer. Brother Nicholas studies my face, and I can see the turmoil in his eyes. This must’ve been what they were arguing over. “It’s thirty miles,” he says. “One way.”
Brother Matthew throws his hands up in disgust and walks away.
“Thirty miles?” I echo, stupidly.
“You’d obviously have to leave him here. You can’t move him. It’d be a roundtrip.”
Sixty miles. No wonder Brother Matthew kept insisting it was impossible. It’d take us days to make that journey on foot. Even on a bike, we’re looking at more hours than Jake’s got left.
Brother Nicholas can see me working out the math.
“You know how to get through the wall?” I ask.
“That’s not the problem, the distance is. And the Deceivers. And Arc.”
I start to pace. “Okay. Thirty miles on a bike. I can do that in a couple hours? Three at the most. Assume another three hours to get back. I could be back by midafternoon.”
“No!” Kelly says. “You heard him. It’s too dangerous.”
“Too dangerous?” I cry. I drag him over to the table. “Look at him! He’s dying, so don’t talk to me about dangerous. What’s dangerous is giving up even trying!”
“What good is it trying to save him if you die?”
It feels like the same conversation I’ve had with him before, back after we escaped Long Island the first time. He thought he could dictate to me what I could and couldn’t do. Then he took everything into his own hands, and look at the mess we’re in now.
But it’s not going to be like that this time. I won’t stand for it.
“I’m going, Kel. I need you to support me.”
He sighs. “Alright. Then I’m coming with you.”
“No. You need to stay here and work on getting Ashley’s Link back.” I look around at the rest of them. Reggie’s my next best bet to accompany me, but he’s not going to leave Ashley’s side. That leaves only one other choice.
Again.
“Micah,” I say. “Me and Micah will go.”
“No,” Kelly insists.
“Yes.”
“No,” Brother Matthew says. “No, absolutely not. No one is going. Nick, tell them.”
Brother Nicholas purses his lips. He shakes his head, then finally says, “You won’t be back today. It’ll be morning tomorrow at the earliest, so we’d be cutting it close.”
“Why tomorrow?” I demand.
“Nick, please,” Brother Matthew hisses. “We can’t.”
“Because the treatment takes time to prepare.”
Brother Matthew scoffs in disgust. “You know he’s not going to make it that long.”
“He might, if we keep him quiet and cold.”
“Put him on ice, if that’s what it’ll take,” I say. I turn to Micah. “We leave in five.”
Chapter 8
I still don’t understand,” I complain, as Brother Matthew accompanies me and Micah through the woods from the compound. We’re heading east, toward the far end of Gameland. “Why isn’t Nick taking us?”
“Brother Nicholas has more business to conduct inside the arcade.”
“What, is he opening a bank account or something? What the hell kind of—”
“Jess.”
“Don’t tell me to shut up, Micah. I don’t have the patience right now.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
“Then what, that I should stop asking questions? Aren’t you even a little curious? For the past ten years or so, we’ve been told that there are no living people here, that the few who got stranded — like, a few thousand at the most, not tens or hundreds of thousands — are long gone. And now we learn that that was a lie. And not only are there still people surviving, but actually forming communities. And they’ve actually figured out how to protect people from the infection!”
