The Reaping (10 page)

Should we?

Jack nods. “It’s our best bet. It will be easier than scurrying across the open like mice. And it will be easy to hear people coming.”

Which means they’ll hear us too.

“True.” Jack pulls me close and buries his face in my hair. “But I know you’ll plunge down there anyway, so I’m not going to think about whether or not anyone can hear us.”

I hold him close, suddenly aware what he just realized—we’re going into the lion’s den.
What do we do?

Jack holds my face in his hands, his eyes searching mine for fear. He’ll find it in spades, but that doesn’t matter now. Nell and Red are right in front of us, and we have to save them.

“You mean once we’re inside?”

I nod.

Jack turns to look down the tunnel, still keeping a hand on my cheek. “Find a doctor’s uniform, I think. Scrubs or a doctor’s coat. Anything to make it look like we belong there. I know enough about medicine that I’m sure I can play the part. You could be a patient. That way no one will expect you to say a word.”

I bristle at the insinuation—that patients are nonentities—but it’s true, the way the government sees us. We’re commodities, nothing more. The only thing we’re good for is slave labor and experimentation. Jack sees the look in my eyes.

“Don’t waste that energy on me. You’ll need it later.”

I suck in a breath and close my eyes. He’s right. I’ll need all my energy for what’s ahead of us. I put my foot on the first step. Jack touches my arm.

“Let me go first.”

I roll my eyes. I love the chivalrous side of him, but if one of us is going to get captured—or heaven forbid, killed—it should be me. Jack is too good and kind.

He laughs. “I know, I know. You’re not going to listen to me. It was worth a try, though.”

I squeeze his hand and take another step and head down into the tunnel.

Chapter Seven

I trail my fingers along the bricks as we go down, and I feel like I’m in a cave. The lights flicker every so often and cast long, wavering shadows down the corridor. There is nothing but red bricks on all sides of us and other brick corridors that lead away into darkness. I cling to the side of the passage. I feel like a rat in a maze down here, sniffing my way to the reward. Jack follows me so closely his breath is warm on my neck. I’ve been so used to treading lightly in the forest that the
scuff scuff
my shoes make on the floor hammers in my ears. Up ahead two tunnels fork off from this one, and I slow down. All the way from the train station, we never came across an intersection of tunnels, and the fact that I can’t see what lies around the corner unnerves me. My fingers creep along the wall toward the corner, and I’m ready to peek around and down the passage next to us, when Jack grabs my arm and yanks me back. He puts a finger to his lips.

I hear voices.

A man and a woman, but I can’t make out their words. They speak just above a whisper, and their voices float toward us from the tunnel I almost looked down. Jack and I flatten against the wall and I barely breathe. Another sound comes—the creak of wheels. The man raises his voice.

“I told them he couldn’t withstand much more. We may have an unlimited supply of test subjects, but if we seriously damage each one just at the verge of a breakthrough, we’ll never succeed. The schedule is too rigorous; surely the president can see that.”

The woman snorts. “And do you want to go to the government island and tell her?”

The footsteps and wheels stop. The man clears his throat. “Please don’t tell anyone I said anything.”

“You honestly think I would? Why do you think I prefer the tunnels? I don’t like my every word recorded by a watcher.” The wheels and footsteps resume. “I don’t know how I ever got myself into this mess.”

The woman’s voice is close now. I turn my head, expecting to see her at any moment. There’s a click and a soft whoosh, and the tunnels are silent.

Where?
I ask Jack. His eyebrows turn down and he shakes his head. I wriggle free from his grasp and inch my head around the corner. All I see is a tunnel identical to this one.

Gone
, I tell him, and he creeps around me and stands in the open.

“They can’t have disappeared.”

I narrow my eyes and study the corridor. The walls are perfectly uniform except for there, just past the wire-caged light. A slight bump stands out. I touch it, and Jack comes over to look.

“A door?”

I nod. There’s nothing else it could be. I dig my fingers around all the edges, but I can’t see how to open it.

“Are you sure you want to go in there? Those people could be in there and we’d have nowhere to go.”

But I do want to get in. I need to see what’s inside. A door with no handle and no obvious way in just begs to be opened. Jack knows I’m not going to relent, and he joins me, his long fingers tracing the wall on either side, looking for a button or keypad. He puts a hand on the back of his neck.

“I don’t know, Terra. Maybe it only opens from the inside.”

How did they get in?
I shake my head. There has to be another way. I push on the door with both hands and all my weight when it starts to slide left-to-right under my palms and a blast of warm air that smells like burning meat hits my cheeks. I jerk back and stare as the door slips away and I’m standing face-to-face with a man in a doctor’s coat. His mouth drops and his face pales, and he looks as surprised to see me as I am to see him.

The closest I’ve come to a confrontation like this was with Smitty all those months ago in a mountain forest. I can still see his angular face rippling with shadows, and I can still feel the weight of the gun in my hands. I can never forget those things. I can never forget the small
o
of surprise on his mouth when I killed him. I want to close my eyes and shake the image from my mind, but my eyes are so dry right now as they’re riveted on the doctor that I don’t think they’ll ever close again.

Then the same reflexes that pulled my finger tight around the trigger fly into action as my fingers curl into a fist and slam across his jaw. My knuckles feel like I just pummeled a rock, and both the doctor and I stagger back, but then he slumps to the floor and holds his face. Jack rushes in behind me and stands over the doctor. My eyes move to the woman just a few feet behind them. Then my eyes widen even more.

The woman stands before a huge metal furnace. Her fingers have just closed a door and her other hand is frozen in the act of pushing hair away from her face. The heat has put roses in her cheeks. Her eyes stare at me, unblinking, like she’s not even sure I’m there. Her mouth slips open and she gapes.

“Who are you?” Her voice is no more than a whisper.

I’m so used to the agents, the soldiers, the people like Dr. Benedict who take so much pleasure in hurting us. The fear that riddles this woman’s entire posture is such a surprise to me that I can’t move. Jack steps forward.

“We need his doctor’s coat.” He nods to the doctor on the floor. The doctor still whimpers and doesn’t move.

The woman’s hand moves from the door. I notice a gurney beside her. A rumpled sheet drapes half of it, and there’s an impression on the thin mattress still. A human shape. My eyes flick to the furnace. Then a howl escapes my lips.

“What?” Jack asks.

I point to the gurney and to the furnace, and the gears click into place for him. His eyes narrow on the woman.

“What is the furnace for?”

She shifts her weight and looks at the floor. Her shoulders slump. “For the patients.”

“Please tell me they’re dead first.”

She looks up at him, and her eyes are shining with tears. “Of course they’re dead. I would never. . . . I could never do such a thing. They may all be monsters up there. You might think I’m a monster, and maybe you’re right.” She puts a hand out and limps to the wall, bracing herself there. She looks like a breeze could knock her over. “I’m no better than any of them.”

I glance at Jack.
Who?

“Who are you?” he asks.

“Just a physician’s assistant. I’m no one important. Of course I’m no one important. That’s why they gave me this job.” Her voice wavers over the last two words, and she puts a hand to her mouth. All the color has drained out of her. “I went to school to learn how to heal people. Not to do this.”

“Who’s he?” Jack looks down at the doctor.

“The doctor I’m assigned to. To make sure this gets done.”

The man finally stirs. “Shut up!” he snaps at the woman. He points a finger at her. “You don’t even know who they are. Nomads by the look of them.” His eyes rake all over me as he rubs his jaw. “And you just asked for trouble. Did you really think you could get into the hospital? And what’s your plan this time? A bomb? A raid? Kill the chief medical official? You nomads are all the same. Pathetic, weak, and shortsighted. And you all end up the same way. Burned to ash.”

It may be the heat from the furnace or it may be the man’s words, but I fly into such a fury that I don’t even realize what I’m doing until Jack’s voice is in my ear and his hands are on my arms pulling me back. I look down, and the doctor moans once and then loses consciousness. My knuckles are bleeding. I fold my arms, burying my fists, and lean against Jack.

The woman sags against the wall. “Please don’t hurt me,” she begs. “I want to help.”

The funny thing is, I believe her. Her eyes are tired and her mouth frowns like it’s been a long time since it’s done anything else. She looks like she never asked for any of this. Jack nods.

“I need his doctor’s coat.”

The woman’s face clears, and she stumbles from the wall and onto her knees next to the doctor. She grunts as she pulls one arm out of the coat, flops him over, and pulls out the other.

Jack goes to the gurney and straightens the sheet. “How do you access the hospital? Does he have a keycard?”

She yanks the coat out from under the doctor and stumbles backward. Then she hands it to Jack. “That name badge on the front has a code on it that is automatically scanned at every door. He has clearance to the whole hospital except high-level security areas. Those are marked with red doors. Stay away from those.”

I narrow my eyes and grab her hand. She flinches.
Why are you helping?

“Because this—all of this—is wrong. I went into medicine hoping to help people. Hoping I could help the citizens and even the nomads. Instead I was put here where all I do every day is watch people lose their minds and then watch their bodies shut down under the stress of it all. And what do I do to help? I burn them to make room for more.” She closes her eyes and tears slide down her cheeks.

“We need to find someone,” Jack says, slipping his arms into the coat. The sleeves are too short, but it’ll have to do.

“Please don’t tell me what you’re going to do because I don’t want to be able to tell anyone.” She straightens the badge over his left pocket. “All I’ll tell you is that if you’re looking for a patient, they will be on levels two or three. If you’re looking for the medical officials, they’ll be on level eight.”

I drop her hand and turn to Jack.

“Lie on the gurney,” he says.

I sit and swing my legs up. The woman shakes her head. “That will never work.” She reaches into a drawer below the bed and pulls out a hospital gown. “No one will believe you’re a patient wearing outside clothes.”

Jack turns his back as I slip out of my pants and shirt and pull on the gown. I grab the woman’s hand again.
How do we get there?

“This room is on the main tunnel. Go left. Follow that past two more intersections. There will be a gray door at the end of the tunnel. That door is the hospital’s freight elevator. Take that to wherever you need to go.”

I lie down and Jack pulls the sheet over me. The woman grabs my shoulder.

“How are you getting out?”

Jack’s hands freeze and the sheet hangs half over me. “What do you mean?”

“If you are here for a patient, you should know they will hardly be able to walk.”

I look up and feel the tears coming to my eyes. The closer I get to the hospital, the more scared I am to actually find Nell and Red.

The woman looks down at her hand and slowly draws it away. “I’m so sorry. Truly. But if you want me to, I can help you get out.”

Jack and I look long at each other. My heart wants to trust her, but my head is screaming at me to stop being so stupid, to remember what happened the last time I trusted someone on “their” side. Jack gives a slight shake of his head, but I turn back to her and nod.

Yes.

“I’m scheduled to help with a medical shipment in one hour. If you take the freight elevator to the loading dock, I can get you on a supply truck. You’ll need to figure out the rest.”

Thank you.

“One hour. If you’re not there, I can’t stay around to help you. We’re watched so closely, and if I do anything out of the ordinary—” Her eyes dash around the room like she’s waiting for someone to snatch her and take her away.