Resurrection Page 18
“Gabe?” I push back the door and peer into the dark. “Gabe, are you awake?”
The murmuring mounts to a moan. I can see him on his sleeping pallet, writhing, thrashing, the covers twisted around him. “Gabriel!” I hiss. “Wake up!”
The noise snaps him out of unconsciousness, but it snaps something else, too. He launches off the bed and grabs me by the throat, pinning me up against the wall.
“Gabe!” I croak. Gabe. It's me, it's me, I'm here, I'm here.
Slowly, his twisted features slide back to normal. His hands drop away and I slip back to my feet.
“I… I’m sorry…” he pants.
“It was a nightmare. It’s all right. We all have them.” I massage my throat. “Been a while since I tried to strangle someone during them, though...”
Gabe doesn’t laugh, and I can’t say I blame him.
Four years, to be more precise. It took a long time to convince myself no one was coming for us. I drop my hand from my throat and place it against Gabe’s shoulder. “It… it gets better,” I whisper. “I promise you. We’re here. You aren’t alone. I’m here.”
His head falls to my chest, and he stays there, shaking, gripping my arms for support as if I am the only solid thing in the world. If I move even an inch, I feel like he will slip away and shatter into oblivion. I cannot let him go, I cannot slide back into the void without him. Not again. Please, please no…
He stays there in my arms, half-sobbing, until Mi comes in and pries him from me. I crawl back to my own bed, arctic and alone.
Chapter 42
I sleep in late the following morning and miss my training session. By the time I arrive at the base, my little stunt last night has become public knowledge. It does something to elevate the miasma of grief crawling around the walls, but it’s unnerving. Some people give me a wide berth, others whisper, and some even ask me for demonstrations of my fire. I tell them that it’s not safe to do inside and invent other business that needs attending. There can be no joy today, no pride.
I liked Chuck. I didn’t know him well, but he was friendly with a heart almost as large as he was. I wonder if he used it to shield someone last night, or if he was just the biggest target, the easiest to hit.
Nick liked him. Nick had known him for years. And now he feels nothing at his death.
I call in on Julia. “How’s the patient from last night?”
Julia gestures to a curtained-off corner of the room. “She’s resting. She’ll pull through. Long recovery ahead of her.”
“Good. I mean, that she’s OK.” I shuffle. “Did… did Nick come to you last night?”
“Nick? No, why?”
“He… fell off a building. Jumped, really. It was a good jump, but… it was several stories.”
Julia swears under her breath and stands up rapidly. “I should go and–”
“He walked away from it. I checked him over–”
“He’ll need an x-ray!”
“I’m sorry, I should have mentioned it–”
“Yes, you should!”
Julia’s words hit me like a punch to the gut.
“I’m sorry,” she says quickly. “I just… he can’t be… responsible for himself. Not right now.”
“I get it. He’s like your kid.”
Julia swallows uncomfortably, as if she isn’t used to the weight of such words. Or perhaps it’s just another reminder of how much she loves him and how incapable he is of loving her back, of how he was her child and isn't. Wasn't. Never will be.
Suddenly, I feel the weight of that too.
“I’m not going to apologise again.”
“What?” says says, baffled.
“I’m not going to say I’m sorry for this! He did this to himself, to us! It’s his fault, it’s his fault–”
“Ashe–”
“You told me not to hurt him,” I bite at Julia. “You never warned me he could hurt me. I'm... I'm human too!”
For the first time, I think it's a real shame that the Institute couldn't make me more of a robot, that despite all the gene splicing and animal DNA, at my core I have a simple, stupid, weak and vulnerable human heart.
Nick told me once, he'd find my kryptonite. Looks like he found it. It's the same as everyone else's.
Julia knows better than to come near me when I’m like this. She hands me a handkerchief and steps back. I almost set it on fire, but bury my face in it before it becomes too appealing. I sob noisily, for Nick, for Chuck, for Julia, but mainly for myself. Then I weep because I’m weeping, because I let myself feel and let myself show it.
I am better than this, tougher than this.
Surprisingly, it is Rudy’s words that circle back to me.
No one is tougher than that.
I wipe my eyes. “Julia?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Is... is it normal? To... to feel this way after... after heartbreak?”
Julia pauses. “I'm not sure there is a 'normal' way to feel about not being with the person you love. We just... we just need to find healthy ways of coping.”
“What if we can't?”
“Then two people are lost, instead of one.”
“Have... have you ever been in love?”
“Once or twice.”
“Did you lose them?”
“Yes and no,” she replies. “Relationships are... complicated. Even when there's mutual affection. You could still make each other unhappy.”
“How did you cope?”
“I focused on my work. Tried to… do the right thing. The thing they’d do.”
“What… what do you think Nick would want me to do?”
Julia swallows. “Stay safe,” she says, “first and foremost. Secondly… save the world.”
“What if I can’t do both?”
“Then pick the one which makes you happy.”
One of them might make me dead, permanently this time. But the other… staying safe and ignoring all the evils of the world I know I stand a chance of fixing… isn’t going to make me happy. It’s not a matter of picking which one makes me happiest. It’s a matter of picking one I can live with.
“Thanks, Jules,” I whisper, still dabbing at my eyes.
She nods. “I really should go–”
“Please,” I wave my hand, “I don’t want to be seen like this anyway.”
She grabs her bag and shoots off. I stand there a little longer, trying to erase all evidence of tears and not concentrate on the laboured breathing of the patient behind the curtain. I’m not there for long before Harris comes scooting around the corner.
“Ah...” He brakes. “I was looking for Julia.”
“I didn’t think you came for my witty company.”
Harris doesn’t laugh. “Is she…?” He gestures to the curtain.
“No, she’s gone to find Nick.”
“Is he OK?”
“Still standing, last I checked.”
“Right…” He swivels around, but then stops abruptly. “Police presence in Luca has doubled overnight,” he informs me. “I can’t be sure they’re looking for you, but… be cautious. Particularly when coming to and from the base. You don’t want to lead them here.”
“Duly noted.”
“You really should consider leaving the city. Even for just a little while.”
I groan. “Not you, too!”
“You aren’t safe, Ashe.”
“I can, have, and will take of myself.”
“And your family?”
“Always.”
“Well then… do as you will. You always do.”
He’s mad at me, I realise, either for the stunt I pulled, for ignoring his advice, or for deceiving him on the way to Luca. Maybe he’s mad at himself, for not noticing. Maybe he’s angry that Abi might be in danger, but she’d be furious if I tried to leave. Sometimes family means being together no matter how much danger it places you in.
I don’t care enough to fight him. I say nothing as he wheels away.
Chapter 43
Life returns to the base slowly, the film of grief inching back a little every day. Chuck, it appears, was popular, although I am ashamed to say I notice his absence more than I ever noticed his presence. I try to focus on the things I can control; my ever-increasing powers. I take my small team down to the basement and have them spar against me. It teaches them adaptability while I focus on self-control. I do not want to hurt them.
“Do you think you could go all flame?” Bullet asks seriously.
I shrug. “Possibly, but I’m not keen to try it. I like my hair. And my clothes.”
“You need to get a special suit,” says Joni, just as earnestly. “Like the Fantastic Four. And a cool catch-phrase.”
I frown. “Who are the Fantastic Four?”
Bullet and Joni roll their eyes. “They’re superheroes! That guy gave us books about them.”
“Books? You mean… comic books?”
They nod.
Nick. They mean Nick. He must have shown them to the comics before, before…
“I liked him,” Joni sighs, “but then he went all weird.”
I swallow. Me too, kid.
“Let’s go outside today,” I say hurriedly.
Lili raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure? Police presence is still high–”
“Good practise for escape and evade. Come on.”
I round up Abi and Ben and drag them along too, taking them to the outskirts of the slums where many of the buildings have been reclaimed by the earth. Even the high rises are thick with green, moss meshed with concrete. Half the structures look ready to slide back into the soil, but are anchored by the trees and twisted roots that have sprung up around them.
We play a good old-fashioned game of Capture the Flag, albeit with very small teams and less violence than was permissible at the Institute. Mi joins us when he’s done for the day, although he brings Scarlet and the teams are still far from even. I climb to the top of the tallest building and watch them rush about, less concerned with what they're accomplishing and more concerned with if they’re enjoying themselves.
It would be foolish to practise my fire out here, but I do hop from building to building every now and again, just to keep moving.
A breeze sweeps across the morning, pleasant at first, and then I catch the scent of something festering. It’s a common enough smell here in the slums, particularly in the unpopulated areas where no one cleans up rotting animal carcasses. My head turns involuntarily towards the source of the smell.
There’s a dark lump at the base of one of the buildings, half-hidden by bushes. It’s too large to be an animal. Some poor homeless human, although he looks a bit on the fat side to have died from starvation.
For whatever reason, I jump down closer to get a better look. Maybe I should bury the poor wretch, or hide him at least, so he doesn’t startle the young ones.
Then another smell hits me. Cheap whiskey and tobacco.
I pull the body over.
It’s Abe. He’s been dead several days, judging by the flies on him. He must have met his end shortly after leaving the base. There’s horror, of course, at seeing anything in this state, but there’s relief too, even as I see the thick, purple bruises on his neck. This was not a natural end. Someone murdered him.
Abe had many enemies, but I wonder in the end if it was his allies who killed him. Did The Chosen end his life when they heard he’d co-operated with us?
A shadow prickles against the back of my neck. Someone is watching me. On the roof behind me, crouched, there is a figure. He’s dressed in black, but he isn’t a guard. His clothes are too rugged and loose. Nor does he appear to be armed. How did he get up there? The fire escape crashed to the floor decades ago and most of the floors have fallen through.
I freeze, and the figure stands up and waves at me.
I don’t like it. I don’t know who he is, and I have no desire to find out. I careen around the corner of the building. I need to get to the others–
“Whoa!” The figure sails overhead, following my trail. A chimera. He has to be. “Stop!”
I don’t. I race into the building where I last saw Mi. Back-up never hurts.
“Eve! Wait!”
Somewhere, before I manage to call for my team, it occurs to me that he might be one of the chimeras that escaped when I set the Institute ablaze. He might not know to call me Ashe–
I spin around to face him. He stops sharply.
“Still the fastest, I see!” he pants, quickly catching his breath. He smiles at me.
He’s about my age, brown-haired and dark-eyed, stubbly, shabby, not bad-looking. Muscular, as one would expect. I don’t recognise him, like I recognised Sia and the others.
“I don’t know you,” I state.
“Well, it has been a long time! Six years? Seven? I was only a kid last time you saw me!” His grin widens, as if he expects this to be enough information for me to realise something. “Really?” He frowns. “Nothing? But… you called me here.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Eve… it’s me! Delta-1.”
I stare at him, harder than before. Had Sia developed some strange shape-changing ability? Along with a new personality? But to say six years had passed…
“You’re… not Sia.”
“Who’s Sia?”
“Delta-1. Sia is—was—Delta-1.”
“Did… did she take over after I escaped?”
“What?”
“After I escaped. Six or seven years ago. Did she take my number?”
No one escaped the Institute before we did. No one. We would have heard. We would have noticed. Only then do I realise what this Delta-1 is talking about.
There have been rumours…
Before I went to Phoenix, they knew what I was. They’d heard some kind of whisper. Nick’s grandfather knew something too. I always assumed it was from Sia and her brothers. But they’d kept a low profile, living in the wilderness most of the time, being even more careful and secretive than I was.
The rumours hadn’t come from her. They’d come from others. Other Institutes.
“Oh,” I say quietly, “I’m… I’m sorry, but I’m not who you think I am.”
His brow furrows. “But you… you answered to Eve.”
“I am Eve,” I tell him. “Or at least, I was. But not… not the one you knew.”
“I’m not following.”
“There are… more of us. Clones. Multiple Institutes.”
Delta-1’s face drains of all its colour. He goes almost grey. “You… you’re serious?”
“Yes. I was re-captured a few months ago. I saw footage of another Eve. Same name, same face. Not me.”
“You… you’re sure? They didn’t like… tamper with your memory or something? Because that sounds like something they’d do.”
“I watched them kill her.”
He swallows. I wonder if he’s wondering if that was his Eve. I have no way of knowing. “That sounds like something they’d do.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Damn. I really thought that place was done messing with me.”
It’s never done messing with us.
“Did you… did you escape on your own?”
He shakes his head. “I’ve got out with a couple of buddies, but we split up to evade capture. We never met up again. I was kinda hoping...”
That I could tell him if they’d been brought back. Or maybe… maybe use Phoenix to reach out to them. Maybe he was even hoping that they’d seen my message too, and had come to Luca to find him. So many hopes dashed.
Mi calls down to me from above. “Ashe? Who’s with you?”
“Er…”
He flips off the top floor and lands a few feet away. He’s getting much more confident at that, I realise. He usually hates pitching himself into the air, not knowing where to land. Has he been practicing?
“Hey, Alpha-2!” Delta-1 says, trying to sound cheerful.
&
nbsp; “Alpha-2b, actually,” Mi corrects him. “Who are you?”
“The name’s Dell,” he sighs, “I’m a chimera. I’m here to help. What can I do?”
Chapter 44
Dell shoulders his disappointment well, and even his shock when five other chimeras and Scarlet appear out of nowhere. He recognises most of them. He tries not to say anything, but his eyes betray him.
We compare notes, his version of the Institute versus ours. From what we can tell, there is no discernible difference. They were just as harsh, just as brutal. They ran the same tests, inflicted the same punishments. So what was the point in separating us?
“Maybe they didn’t want to put all their eggs in one basket?” Mi queries. “Abi? What’s going on in that brain of yours?”
“A lot of things,” she admits numbly. “Their motivations remain… hazy, however. They must have been looking for something. There were similar dynamics with the units, you say?”
He nods. “Similar, but not identical. There was Eve, and Adam, of course. You were there…” He points to Mi. “But you weren’t so…”
Mi raises an eyebrow. “Blind?”
“Funny. He was a bit serious and silent.”
“Did he have a twin? Because that sounds like my brother.”
“You have a twin?”
“Yup. I'm the funny one.”
“Also the cute one,” Scarlet adds.
Mi grins.
“There was only one of you… I mean, him, back at my Institute. You had a… a clone there too.” Dell points to Abi. “There was another girl. We called her Silver because of her hair–”
“Moona,” I whisper. “And the other two?”
He gives a brief description. They match Archer and Forrest.
“What about me?” asks Ben.
“I don’t remember anyone who looked like you, but you would only have been a baby if… if…”
The ages don’t fully line up. Dell is eighteen, his Eve was older than that by at least a year. I really wasn’t the first. Why even tell me that I was? How much of my childhood had I spent lording that over the others? It was even more stupid now than it had been back then. What a fool I was.
“The other Eve,” I ask, “what was she like?”