Infinity Reborn (The Infinity Trilogy Book 3) (17 page)

“Finn!” Bit’s muffled voice issues from the radio inside the satchel. “I got my computer slate, and I’m heading back to you. See you soon!”

Startled by the sudden transmission, Infinity whips open the satchel and pulls the walkie-talkie out. It slips from her grasp, and she juggles it awkwardly in her hands before she manages to get a good hold on it and muffle the speaker with the palm of her hand, but it doesn’t work very well, as I can still hear Jonah’s muted reply seeping from the sides of Infinity’s clutch.

“Copy that, Bettina,” he says. “Good work.”

Infinity pulls her hand away and is searching for the “Off” switch when Bit blurts out, “Thanks, Major Brogan!”

As if reacting to Bit’s voice, the giant burrito begins writhing with a crinkling, rustling sound. Infinity immediately raises her fists, holding the radio out in front of her like a weapon, but a grin spreads across my face from ear to ear as I suddenly realize exactly what that weird-looking thing really is.

“Brody!”
I shout out into the darkness.

Infinity clearly must’ve heard me, because she repeats his name, albeit with a very quizzical tone. “Brody?”

“Finn?” Brody’s voice replies from inside the cocoon.

Infinity shoves the radio back into the satchel and quickly jogs onto the grass. She kneels beside the silver burrito and begins pulling the rolled layers of foil blanket down to expose Brody’s face.

Somehow he wasn’t taken, and I feel a fantastic mix of elation, surprise, shock, and grateful disbelief.

Brody looks up at Infinity, blinking wearily. “Oh my god, Finn,” he says with a huge sigh of relief. “I’m so glad to see you.”

Maybe Infinity’s mind is just as boggled as mine is right now, because she doesn’t even bother to correct Brody when he calls her by my name. Instead she stares at him, shaking her head in wonder, but there’s more to it than that. Deep down inside her, I can feel a bizarre welling of emotion. I know it isn’t coming from me, because it’s rippling toward me through the void in a similar way to how the waves of sound did only moments before. As the feeling shudders over me, the first word that comes to mind to describe it is . . . admiration.

“I thought those brain spiders had you for sure,” says Infinity as she helps Brody unravel himself from his thermal foil wrapper.

“So did I,” he replies. “But then I remembered a survival show I saw once. It said these blankets hold in all your body heat, and Dr. Pierce said those things see body heat, so I guessed I’d try to, well, y’know, roll myself up in one.”

“It looks like you guessed right,” says Infinity, and I feel that same warm pride rise from the depths of her core again as she helps Brody to his feet. “Well, the spider bite has clearly worn off,” she says, slapping a hand onto his shoulder. “What were you doing just lying there?”

“The poison spread all the way through me, and I couldn’t move at all,” Brody says solemnly. “I didn’t know how long it would last, so I just waited, and . . . I think I fell asleep.”

I can feel Infinity smile.
“You liar!”
I call out into the darkness.
“You do care what happens to him!”

I know she hears me because I can feel that very same smile vanish as she quickly withdraws her hand from Brody’s shoulder. “You should get out of here,” she says, her tone now harsh and cold. “Get back to the underground shelter or something. Those spiders might head back this way any minute, and there’s still a R.A.M. wandering around here somewhere.”

Brody points back toward the promenade. “The R.A.M. and all the spiders went that way; I heard them.”

“Back toward Sector C? That doesn’t make any sense. Major Brogan, Percy, and that old bastard are in the tunnels, so what could be setting off motion sensors enough to draw them all back that way?” says Infinity.

“I don’t know,” says Brody. “But at least Brent and Margaux can make it to the bus now.”

“Don’t waste time worrying about them,” Infinity says with a sneer. “You get yourself to safety, Brody.”

Suddenly Bit’s voice issues from the satchel at Infinity’s side. “Finn, I’m still inside the dome.”

Brody’s eyes widen at the sound of her voice, and he eagerly thrusts his hand out toward Infinity. She lets out an indignant sigh, but she indulges him as she pulls the radio out of the bag and slaps it into his hand. Brody stares at the walkie-talkie in his palm, smiling as Bit keeps talking.

“I can’t find Dr. Pierce,” she says, obviously shaken. “He wandered around the other side of the wreckage while I was trying to get my slate, and I don’t know where he is! He’s not answering me! Major Brogan? Are you there? I think something is wrong. What should I do?”

“Keep looking, Bettina,” replies Jonah. “You’re in an enclosed space. He can’t have gone far.”

“The dome is huge,” says Bit. “I’ve been searching for ages!”

Brody quickly squeezes the “Talk” button. “I’m coming to help you look!” he barks into the walkie-talkie.

“Brody?!” exclaims Bit.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he says with a huge grin.

“But . . . how?”

“I used my brain, just like you would’ve.”

“Oh, Brody,” Bit says with a happy tremble in her voice. “I’m so glad you’re OK.”

“It’s wonderful to hear that you’re alright, Mr. Sharp,” Professor Francis says in the background.

“Absolutely,” agrees Jonah. “I don’t know how you avoided the X-27s but, well done.”

“Thanks. I wrapped myself in a foil blanket, and they couldn’t see me,” Brody says with a goofy chuckle. “They walked right over me.”

“Well I’ll be damned,” says Jonah. “There are three radiation suits in one of the storerooms; hopefully they should work in a similar way. Unfortunately nothing down here can help us stop the X-27s, but thanks to you, Brody, we might be able to survive if we run into them. We’ll suit up and join you as soon as we patch up my leg and the Professor’s hand. We just got clipped by a little errant shrapnel when the R.A.M.s fired at us. We’ll be fine, and we’ll be there as soon as we can. Be careful, everyone, and, Bettina, keep looking for Dr. Pierce.”

“I will,” she replies.

“I’m coming to find you, Bit!” Brody shouts into the radio.

“Thank you, Brody,” she replies happily.

Brody releases the “Talk” button and smiles at me. But then his eyes widen. “Sorry, Finn, I totally forgot to mention you! I meant to say that
we
were coming,” he says, putting the radio to his lips again. Infinity quickly snatches it out of his hands before he has a chance to press the button.

“Hey!” Brody protests.

“Don’t be an idiot! Otto will be just fine,” grunts Infinity. “Get to the underground shelter before those spiders decide to come back this way.”

“What? Why?” asks a clearly confused Brody. He leans forward and squints, studying Infinity’s eyes. “You just called her Otto,” he says, frowning suspiciously. “And why are you going that way?” He nods back in the direction of the promenade. His expression drops as the realization dawns on him. “Finn would never leave Bit alone like that. You’re not Finn . . . are you?”

“Ding, ding, give the boy a prize,” Infinity says dryly. “Take my advice, Brody. Find somewhere to hide until this is all over, or you won’t walk out of here alive.”

And with that Infinity thrusts the walkie-talkie into his hands and turns away from him. She jogs across the grass and takes off running along the path, even faster than before.

“Where are you going?” Brody calls after her. “You can help us!”

She glances back over her shoulder at Brody as he snatches the foil blanket from the ground and begins folding it, muttering under his breath. Even when she isn’t enhancing her hearing, Infinity’s ears are sharper than mine, and I can hear every word that Brody is saying. They’re all about Infinity, and not a single sentiment is flattering. She turns back to look at the path, and a new emotion ripples through the void. It’s uncomfortable, disagreeable, but completely unmistakable. Infinity feels guilty.

“The emotions you’re feeling right now are not mine, Infinity. You care what happens to them!”
I shout toward the eyeholes as I crawl along the tether.

“Shut up,” she growls between breaths.

“You’re a better person than you think you are! Deep down you’re good!”

“I said . . . shut the hell up!” she barks, and the waves of guilt are quickly overridden by new and much more turbulent vibrations of anger. I hold on tight as I’m buffeted up and down by the emanations of rage, but Infinity’s defensive protests only serve to prove that somewhere underneath all her stubborn denials . . . she knows that I’m right.

Infinity glances over her shoulder, back the way we came, and Brody is now a tiny figure in the distance behind us. Infinity looks ahead again. “I’m a weapon,” she whispers. “That’s what I was made for; that’s what I am.” She mutters the words in time with her footsteps, like some kind of twisted mantra, as the intensity of the rippling anger reverberating around me begins to settle into a shuddering hum of controlled fury. The whipping of the tendrils thankfully lessens to a degree where I can carry on clawing my way forward, and I shake my head in disappointment at Infinity’s pigheaded stubbornness.

Putting one hand after the other, I look toward my goal, and through those eyeholes I see Infinity scanning along the path into the distance, focusing on the line of cherry trees approaching up ahead.

She slows to a stop, and as I look out her eyes, I can see why. The walkie-talkie that I dropped when Brody and I were being chased by the Lobots lies on the path at her feet. Quietly catching her breath, Infinity bends down and picks up the radio, but as she straightens, I hear a sound rippling through the darkness from her keen ears. It’s a beat, a barely perceptible, far-off thudding noise. I recognize it immediately, and I can tell Infinity does, too, as a feeling of wary anxiety undulates through the void. Those footsteps can only belong to one person. Gazelle. Infinity looks ahead into the distance, toward the corner near the lamppost. Its light is falling across the piles of debris, casting a patchwork of shadows over the pale surface of the promenade. The rhythmical thumping is getting louder and louder.

Infinity scans the areas of light and dark between the broken structures and toppled towers, and the source of the sound, which we were both expecting, is suddenly revealed as Gazelle leaps into view from behind the crumbled facade of a pockmarked building, flying through the air like she has wings on her heels. She thuds against the ground, and clouds of concrete dust billow around her cybernetic feet as she comes to a skidding halt. Infinity focuses directly on her. I gasp with surprise as the view through the peepholes suddenly rushes forward in a blur of colors, zooming in across the distance to the lamppost like Infinity has binoculars built into her skull. Gazelle’s image now fills Infinity’s whole field of vision. I can clearly see her standing in the light, her Lobot-encased head twitching from side to side, the way a wild animal would if it were sniffing the air for its prey.

Gazelle’s attention is piqued, and her head snaps in one definitive direction. Infinity quickly looks in the same direction, and through her binocular vision I see a magnified image of Brody, far in the distance, his overstuffed satchel bouncing against his hip as he jogs along the path toward the door in the hillside. A horrified ripple of realization shudders through Infinity as her view snaps back toward the lamppost. I see Gazelle do a quick half crouch, and then she takes off. Bounding swiftly in long, leaping strides, she goes vaulting over a six-foot-high pile of rubble as easily as I could step over a curb on the street and hits the ground running on the other side, traveling at an inhumanly fast pace.

“Oh no,” Infinity and I both whisper at exactly the same time.

Infinity has been standing in one spot, watching Gazelle from a distance, while poor, clueless Brody has been tripping motion sensors all the way toward the hillside. Gazelle is going to cut him down. Pop his head open with one swift kick of those lethal legs, just like she did to Jennifer.

I want to shout out into the darkness and plead for Infinity to help Brody, but I clearly don’t need to say a word. Waves of panicked concern ripple through the void, and Infinity suddenly bolts into action, taking off like a shot back down the path toward him. Through Infinity’s sensitive ears, I can hear the thuds of Gazelle’s powerful legs on the ground. Infinity glances sideways at her. Through the binocular vision, I can see Gazelle making short work of traversing a sand garden as she crosses it in a couple of bounds and goes flying between two cherry trees and onto the wide expanse of manicured grass that stretches all the way to the base of the hill.

Infinity’s arms blade through the air at her sides, and I can hear the rapid pitter-patter of her shoes against the pavement as the wind whistles past her ears. I thought Infinity was running fast before, but somehow she’s kicked it up into a much higher gear. I can feel the surging determination coursing through her entire body as she sprints back toward the hillside, tracking Gazelle as she goes.

All of a sudden I see the four red Lobot eyes clamped on to Gazelle’s face turn as she glances in our direction. She’s spotted us, and I silently pray that she swerves this way instead, choosing Infinity over Brody, picking on someone her own size and leaving him alone. But my hope is immediately dashed as the red eyes snap forward again, and she resumes her unfaltering line directly toward Brody as he slowly jogs along the path far up ahead.

Gazelle is still at least three hundred yards from him, and the soft grass is muffling her footsteps, so Brody is oblivious to her approach. If he would just look over his shoulder and see her coming, if only he were closer to the door, he might be able to rush inside and hold it shut against Gazelle long enough for Infinity to get there. But wishing for something doesn’t make it so. Brody isn’t looking back, and even though he’s barely thirty seconds away from the door, three hundred yards are a handful of strides for Gazelle. Infinity is pushing herself as hard as she can and running at a blistering pace, but it’s glaringly clear that there’s absolutely no way she’s gonna reach Brody in time.