James Dashner - The Hunt for Dark Infinity

“Quite smart, aren’t you?” Master George replied.

A grin appeared on Sato’s face, a grin so evil it made him look like a demon. “Yes, actually. I’m very, very smart, George. Which is why you’ll never succeed in creating a cure for Dark Infinity.”

“Who said anything about a cure?”

“Very well, George. Play your games, insult my intelligence. The day is coming, and very soon, when I will have an apprentice strong enough to make Dark Infinity fully functional. Everything will change, then. You’d be wise to consider your allegiances-I could use your help as well.”

“What’s your plan, Reginald?” Master George asked, knowing he should just walk away but unable to. “Haven’t you enough power? Why must you ruin so many lives? Why can’t you use your skills to better the Realities? Still not powerful enough to wash away your pathetic loathing of yourself? Quite sad, really.”

Sato’s face tightened, reddened, any semblance of a smile gone. “What I do, I do for the good of all mankind, George. The Realities need me, and this is the only way to gain the power necessary to change things. In the end, you and everyone else will thank me.”

Master George leaned forward, elbows on knees, his eyes narrowing. “That sounds quite familiar, Reginald. I’ve heard almost the exact same words come out of the mouth of Mistress Jane. The both of you have merely cloaked your evil with good intentions. We will win in the end, I assure you.”

“You have-”

“Silence!” Master George yelled, standing up. “I will hear no more of your lies!”

He walked out of the holding cell immediately, slamming the door shut with every ounce of strength left in his old body.

“I’ve never seen such a thick forest before,” Sofia said as they picked their way slowly-very slowly-through the thickly clustered trees. Hoots and howls rang through the air, as if every zoo in the world had released their animals into the woods surrounding them. Pungent smells of rotting foliage, leaves, and bark mixed with the pleasant scents of pine and wildflowers. Tick felt as if all five of his senses were overloaded.

He and Sofia walked alongside Paul, helping him as best they could when he needed an extra hand. Both of his were occupied-one useless because of his broken arm, the other busy holding the bad limb against his body.

“Dude, I know I sound like a sissy,” Paul said through his pain. “But this is killing me, man. I want my mom.”

“Unless your mom is a doctor,” Sofia said, stooping under a massive, moss-covered limb, “I don’t think she’s the one you want right now.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Paul replied. He struggled, doubling over to go under the same branch, his rear end and skinny legs the only way to balance himself with no arms to use. “I want a doctor. Then I want my mom.”

“ My mom would tell me to quit whining and put a bandage on it,” Sofia said. “Frupey’s the only one who’d care in my house.”

Tick faltered for a second, almost tripping Paul, then kept walking as if nothing had happened. Paul’s silence showed he must have felt the same way-awkward at yet another sad reference to Sofia’s home life.

Despite the approaching noon hour, the forest was dark from the tall canopy of limbs and leaves overhead, everything masked in shadow. As Tick pushed through a thick tangle of brush, scratching his arms and legs, he couldn’t help but feel a little desperation at their predicament. They had only a few hours to get back to Circle City, run to the intersection that represented five o’clock, and then find whatever talisman marked their way out of this Reality.

After exiting the crashed Portal Number Seven, they’d seen the huge swath of ruined forest they’d left behind them, a wide slice of knocked-down trees, many of them burning or smoking. Based on the direction of the fiery trail, they could only guess-and hope-that continuing in the direction the Portal should have been traveling would lead them to their destination. But with the towering trees and thick undergrowth, it was almost impossible to know if they were walking in a straight line or wandering in circles. Everything about the place looked the same.

“Any guesses on what happened?” Sofia said, practically pushing Paul over a boulder wedged between two trees. His only response was a grunt when he thudded back on the ground.

“A bomb or something,” Tick said. “It’s probably just another part of Chu’s game. To see if we’d give up or not make it back on time.”

Paul pushed past an outreaching limb with his shoulder, then let it fly backward to smack Sofia in the face.

“Hey!” she yelled.

“Sorry,” Paul said, his pain-racked face somehow showing the slightest hint of amusement to Tick. “No arms, ya know-not much control.”

“How’d you like to have two broken arms?” Sofia replied.

“Wouldn’t be much worse than now.”

They entered a short break in the trees and found a clearing about twenty feet across, covered in bright green ivy. Rays of sunlight broke through, glistening on the dew-blanketed leaves, still damp hours after dawn. Without discussion, all three of them sat down to take a short rest, each finding a fallen tree or rock on which to sit.

“This is kind of cool,” Paul said, looking around at the border of trees, the green ivy, the cascading sun.

“Looks like something out of a fantasy book,” Tick said.

Paul nodded, then winced as if the small movement had hurt his arm somehow. “Yeah,” he said through a tight grin. “Maybe we’ll see some elves.”

“Or vicious, man-eating monkeys that glow in the dark,” Sofia added.

Tick sniffed. “Way to look on the bright side of things.”

“I just thought of something,” Sofia said, ignoring his remark.

“What?” Tick asked.

“Chu wouldn’t have any way of knowing we’d take that train today. How could this be part of his plan?”

Tick shrugged. “We know he’s following us, spying on us. With all his freaky techno gadgets, I’m sure he could make a train crash whenever he wanted.”

“I guess.” She didn’t sound convinced at all.

Paul stood after a few minutes of silence, his face wrinkling up like an old man’s. “I can’t take this much longer. We need to get back.”

“Come on,” Tick said, standing and pointing across the clearing. “I’m pretty sure we need to go that way.” He walked in that direction, Paul and Sofia right behind him.

“We’re getting close on the antidote.” Master George leaned forward, resting his folded hands on the kitchen table. Mothball sat to his left, Rutger to his right, Sally across from him. Muffintops curled on his lap, sound asleep. “Rutger, why don’t you give us a full report?”

The robust little man sat back in his chair, somehow resting one pudgy foot on his other knee-a feat that seemed impossible at first glance. “This plague is just about as fascinating a thing as I’ve ever seen. It’s completely nanotechnology based, yet it shows qualities of an airborne virus, as well as some bacterial characteristics. It’s basically an unprecedented mixture of biological manipulation, microarchitectural nanotech computer processing, and cellular airwave transmissions the likes of which we’ve never seen.”

Sally slammed his thick-knuckled hands on the table. “George, what in tarnations is this fool-headed sack of pork-and-beans yappin’ about?”

“Fool-headed?” Rutger countered. “Sally, you couldn’t add five plus five using your fingers.”

“So ya admit it, then?” Mothball said.

“What?” Rutger asked.

“That yer a sack of pork-and-beans? Only complained about the fool part, ya did.”

“Ten!” Sally shouted out.