3.13. Attack
18 days until Roberts' crew lands.
The Immortal is packed full of supplies and rebels coming to Virginia with us. The animals are secured on the Beast, and the pods are welded to the Immortal with reinforced chains so travelers can get their sleep or use portable latrines or open the pod for air during our journey. Long wagons attached to the pods carry whatever other supplies couldn't fit on either of the tanks. We leave behind two pods for the Originals to keep.
Just in case.
Because we're kinder than they are.
Tears are shed and goodbyes are said until we're nearly an hour past our intended departure time of 8:00 am.
Mom paces the patio, frazzled and deprived of sleep. She wanted us out of here an hour ago, and has been far too focused on that to notice any new jewelry on my finger. "In the tank, boys!" Mom shouts down the side of the Immortal. She throws her arms up. "It's like they never want to leave."
Declan, whose arms are crossed in front of him, leans against the door to the labs. "Maybe they don't," he says in defeat.
"Stop that," I tell him. "They're just being thorough. If they didn't want to come, they would be back at camp with the Originals."
A soldier opens the patio door from the stairwell. "All secure," he reports.
My mom holds her walkie to her mouth. "Daniel, are you all secure on the Beast? Over."
"All secure. Over," Daniel's replies. Does his voice sound lighter now? I fiddle with the ring on my finger and smile thinking about him.
"General Kazemi, are the pods all secure? Over."
"We're ready to go Legislator Blume. Over."
Mom breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness," she says between just the three of us, then lifts the walkie back to her mouth. "Off to Virginia, everyone. Remember we are not stopping until we reach St. Louis."
The Immortal rumbles to life, and within seconds, we begin rolling eastward. But the three of us can't relax now. As leaders, we have to make our rounds. Mom and Declan check the laboratories first to make sure all the equipment has been safely secured, and I make my way to the infirmary.
Flynn sits with his legs crossed and his head in his hand. His other hand drapes off the bed, an IV connected to a bag of saline solution, hanging from the machines behind him. Winston hovers over Phoebe, who still sleeps in the bed beside Flynn, and Joe remains resting in his coma. Eleanor lies asleep in the farthest bed, sleeping in to reduce her stress levels for the baby.
"Good morning," I say into the room, and Flynn tilts his head up, squinting his eyes in the light.
"Good morning," he replies groggily.
Winston notices me and springs up from his seat. "Isla, I'd like to show you what I've done with the room."
I follow him as he pulls up all the bed sheets so I can see beneath every last one of them. "As you can see, I've been keeping the infirmary spotless. Just like you told me."
I can't tell if he's genuinely proud of his work or if he is just being condescending, so I peer at him without speaking.
"And, if I may," he continues, "I'd like to show you what I've done using the network." He holds up a rectangular tablet, like Gunther had used to transcribe his autobiography, and turns it on. A screen immediately lights up with the patient's names and vital signs. "Dr. Patel and I talked about this, but he never had the time to implement it. But since I'm not leaving Phoebe in here by herself, I had the time. Now nurses and doctors can observe patients from anywhere on the Immortal, and they can share their notes as well. This isn't a new idea, but it's new for the Immortal."
He stops for my reply, but I still can't tell if he's just acting like a sore loser for no longer being a leader or if he's truly waiting for my praise.
"Why are you showing me this, Winston?" I ask.
He pulls me away from Eleanor, checks the room, and then proceeds to pull me into the hallway. He shuts the door behind us.
"Winston?"
"You saw me at the estate," he says. "I'm not a leader. Especially not after I did what I did to Daniel's detectors. I'm no one to be trusted."
"What did you do?" I ask, but as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I know the answer: Winston is the one who changed the function of the detectors so that they work as gamma ray lasers. That's why Gunther wanted Winston to go with them, why they killed General Sato instead of Winston, why Gunther needed Phoebe to leave on missions with him: So Winston could reprogram the detectors without argument.
"Daniel blames himself for what happened to those pilots," I say, trying my best to suppress the rage. "He has been working to figure out what happened to his machines, and all along it was you. You changed them." I take a breath and lower my voice. "You can't let him continue like this. You have to take responsibility," I say.
"I know. I will. He seems like a good kid."
"He is, and he's hurting without the truth."
He nods his head in understanding, then looks around the room. "I will, I promise." And then his true motivation for sucking up to me comes out: "Thank you for assigning Dr. Guzman to find a way to get the implants out."
Before I can yell at him for changing the subject, a loud bang sounds from outside the Immortal.
Winston and I both duck instinctively. We look at each other and without saying a word, race back into the infirmary to check on our friends. Eleanor is startled awake, and after Flynn's head flies up, he shouts, "What the hell was that?"
"Stay here," I order Winston as I race out of the room toward the patio. I have to get a look at what made the noise. Heads peep out of the laboratory doors. "Stay inside," I shout to them. Just in case.
Another bang. Then three more in quick succession.
"What's happening?" Mom shouts as she darts out of the chemistry lab.
"I don't know," I say, waiting for her to catch up. Once she's at my side, we burst out of the hall and onto the patio. I run ahead of Mom to check the side of the Immortal, but before I can, Mom tackles me to the ground. It's the first time I've been this close to the patio deck since my combat training with Nate.
Then another bang, just above my head, and something slams against the deck. I turn my face to see what it is was. This is the worst possible source of the banging, worse than even I could have imagined: Drones.
Only this model is different. Now they have eight arms, like mechanical daddy long legs, and at the end of each leg is a long sharp needle. What are the needles for?
"Mom, get up!" I yell. "Get inside!"
I push her back through the doorway to the laboratories, and once the door shuts behind us, I watch through the window as hundreds, no, thousands of drones fly overhead toward camp. I yank the walkie from my belt and say, "Everyone stay inside. The drones are Gunther's, and I have no idea what they are supposed to do. They're different than they were before. Stay inside for your own protection. Someone make the announcement over the loudspeakers, and through the radios in the pods."
The announcement echoes over the loudspeakers, and then General Kazemi's voice comes through the walkie. "Permission to engage, over."
"No, stay where you are," I reply.
There's a crackle over the line as more drones hit into the body of the Immortal. One even crashes into the door behind which my mom and I duck for cover.
"With all due respect Isla, this is what my men have trained for. The drones are headed for the camp. We can't let them fight alone."
Then another voice chimes in over the walkie. Declan's. "You're right, General Kazemi. Permission to engage."
The Immortal stops so that soldiers can race out, and I feel anger bubble into my cheeks. "Where is Declan?" I turn to Mom and ask.
"Biology sector, but Isla...."
I'm not listening. I sprint toward my sector and burst into the room. Declan is at my desk, biting his lip and drumming his fingertips on the surface.
"What the hell was that?" I yell at him.
He stands up in defense. "I made the right call."
"You have never fought these drones. One is fine, but this many of them... There are thousands of them outside Declan, and you have no idea what fighting Gunther's machines is like. You've never even fought a Prowler."
The color drains from his face. "Our soldiers can handle it."
"Our soldiers? All, what, one hundred of them? We need them to fight off Gunther at the landing site. Don't you get it? Gunther has found us somehow, and he is trying to drain our limited resources. C'mon, Declan, use your brain!"
"Isla, stop it!" Mom shouts from behind me. She's standing in the open doorway. "He made a call, just like you did. The three of us are the leaders here. We have to be in agreement. Neither of us can make a call without the others, that goes for you too, Isla." She takes a few breaths to calm down as the door shuts behind her. I turn back to Declan who looks like he might cry. "Now the orders to engage have been placed. A good leader fights with his or her troops. We have to make sure our people in the pods and in the Beast are secure as well. We are going to stop fighting amongst ourselves, and we are going to start fighting the enemy. Do you understand me, Isla?"
I take a deep breath and nod. I've fought the drones before, even if they were a different model. As long as I have my magnetic slingshot, I'll manage.
"Do you understand, Declan?" Mom asks.
He nods and mumbles an apology. I do the same. I don't want to be mad at Declan, and Mom's right. We have to be united.
"Good," she says. "Now let's go. We have an army to stand with."
The three of us run into the mechanics sector and clothe ourselves in the armor Mom and Celia have been working tirelessly to construct. We arm ourselves with the magnetic weapons too. I wish I had my slingshot here, but I don't have time to be picky. I have to help fight the drones. I hold the button down to charge my gun, and see Declan searching his gun helplessly for the hammer. I reach over and press the button of his gun.
"Thanks," he says.
I nod. "Go up to the lookout," I tell him. "You can pick off drones as they come in, but duck down if they start shooting back. Got it?" He nods. "I'm sorry for what I said."
"I know you are. We botanists got to stick together."
I smile, and pull him into a clanking, cumbersome hug. I kiss his cheek before pulling away.
"Let's go," Mom orders, and we follow her into the hall and out onto the patio.
Declan continues into the hall across the way, toward the Captain's dining room and command center, and we cover him. Mom and I open fire on the drones we see flying overhead, and our bullets send them crashing to the ground.
Buzzing sounds start behind us. I turn around to see the drone that crashed into the deck before rising up.
"Look out!" I yell to Mom. She ducks and the drone buzzes straight for me. I fire my gun and miss. Before I can reload, the drone lifts its needle legs and points them directly at my head. It flies at me, nearly reaching my skull, but I swat it away. As it flies off course, one of the needles hooks through the shoulder plate of my armor.
The other seven legs kick viciously to try to break itself free of my armor. It scratches at my skin, buzzing furiously, but the movement only digs the leg deeper into my armor. "Mom! Help!"
She sprints to my side, taking out drones as they buzz overhead, and tries to yank it, but then the drone stuck in my armor pulls up in an attempt to fly away. The old drones wouldn't have had the strength to carry him, but Gunther must have revamped these. As it attempts to fly off, weighed down by my weight, it drags me with it to the balcony's edge.
"Isla!" my mom yells, but all I can do is scream in panic.
The drone tries to pull up again, and this time, my feet are lifted from the patio. My hips hit the top rung of the balcony, and I look down the five stories to the soldiers fighting below. If I'm pulled any farther, I will fall, and there's no way I would survive it.
Mom has me by my waist, and I reach down to grip the balcony with my other arm. I'm shaking my shoulders to loosen the arm from beneath my armor, but the other legs, now needle-less, jab at my face and head. "Mom!" I scream.
She pants and groans to hold me back while still shooting at other drones with her free hand. She screams for help. I raise my arm to my face to shield it from the drone's legs when a second drone swoops down and knocks my mom away. "Mom!" I shriek. The drone lifts me a few more inches. "Help!"
A smaller arm wraps around me, and I look down. It's Celia. "Don't let go of the balcony," she yells over the sound of buzzing drone legs. She uses her free arm to punch the drone with her spiked glove. It sparks in malfunction, and she punches it again.
"Yeah, get it Celia," I yell, but the drone jerks and I feel my body lean farther over the balcony. "Help me," I panic.
"Hold on," she calls and she releases her arm around my legs to fiddle with the straps of the armor.
Mom jumps up from the patio floor and grabs my legs. "I got her," she tells Celia.
I'm lifted a bit more, and Celia shouts, "No!"
Time slows. The drone leg slips from the armor, yanking me farther over the edge as it tugs away. Now the balcony is at my side, and my chest is suspended over the railing. The side that held the drone stuck to me is unstrapped, and I'm falling, slipping out of Mom's arms. Her face is painted with panic and horror, and Celia grips my arm with all her might. My body swings like a pendulum, and I slam against the Immortal's body.
Fuzzy light dances in front of my eyes, and my headband nearly flies off my head. I secure it in place as I hold my skull in pain. As I hang upside down from the Immortal, my knees bent over the balcony and Mom and Celia desperately trying to pull me right side, I see something in the distance coming toward us. Prowlers. Three of them. A message displays across their bodies in white paint: "I will always find you."
I was right earlier: This attack was sent by Gunther, probably without the Sergeant Major's knowing. Hopefully without her knowing, otherwise, what has happened to Ian?
"Pull her up," Mom grunts, and she and Celia start to yank me back to the patio.
"Give me your hand!" Celia calls. When our hands finally meet, her palms are too sweaty for me to grab, so I grip my hand around her wrist.
"Pull!" I plead as tears fall to the earth below.
Finally, with one last tug, they yank me up and I fall from the railing into Mom's arms, though I never let go of Celia.
"Stay with her, Celia," Mom orders, as I'm being pushed into the hallway. Before I can get a word out to beg Mom to stay, the door slams behind us, and Mom slides one of the fallen drone legs through the door handles to lock us in. Tears collect in her eyes. She calls to me through the glass window, "I almost lost you. Never again."
She looks to someone behind me and nods before turning away to run down the stairwell and out to the fight. I spin around to see who she was nodding to. Eleanor.
"Is she with you now, Mom?" Daniel's voice sounds through a walkie in Eleanor's hands. She smiles weakly as Celia rubs my back, both of us still catching our breath.
"Yes. A little scratched and shaken, but she's here. She's safe."
Daniel breathes a sigh of relief into the walkie. "Thank you, Mom. Isla, stay inside the Immortal. I saw you almost fall, and... I don't know what I would have done. Please, just... stay safe."
I bite my lip to keep from crying and nod.
"She nodded," Eleanor says.
Then two loud crashes—far louder than the drones hitting against the Immortal—boom from outside, and the Immortal shakes. Eleanor, Celia, and I stumble to catch our balance.
"Daniel, can you see what that was?" No response. "Daniel!"
The walkie scratches awake with sound, and in the background, I hear yelling. Daniel responds, "It's the Prowlers. They're attacking the tanks." More noise in the background, as another crash sounds from outside. Then the sound cuts out.
Another crash from outside, and as the Immortal shakes again, Eleanor clutches her baby bump, her eyes closed and her teeth clenched. When the ground settles, she opens her eyes, and says unconvincingly, "They will be fine."
"No," I say, "my mom and Daniel can't be alone out there."
I push past her and run to the unmarked door across from the infirmary, the command center.
"Isla wait," Eleanor yells to me, but I can't stop.
I have a plan.
"Celia, come here," I say, and she runs to join me. I point to the keypad on the outside of the door—I can't remember Declan's passcode—and ask Celia, "Do you have anything magnetic to take this out?"
She smiles and takes out her magnetic gun. We step back and she fires at the keypad. After a moment, the door opens.
"Guard the door," I tell Celia. "Just in case... we have no idea what else Gunther might have planned for us." I nod toward Eleanor. "And I want to know she's safe."
She nods. "Okay."
I barge into the command center, and the soldier who I met when Declan and I were goofing around in here lowers his weapon at the sight of me. He stands at the panel, leaning against it to catch his breath. "Judge Blume, is there something you need?" he asks. His words are calm, but the shaking in his voice gives him away.
"Go out there and guard the hallway with Celia Rivera." He looks at me with a dumbfound expression. "Now," I order. He hurries out of the room, and I move to the ladder leading up to the lookout, where Declan still fires at the drones. I call up for him to come down, and he does as quickly as he can. "I'm trying not to believe that Gunther knows where we are," he says as he descends the ladder. "But I know that's stupid. Did you see the Collector Droids?"
"Yes," I say, "and now we're going to run them over."
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro