Sophie Littlefield - Unforsaken

I was half expecting the doors to open on someone pointing a gun in our faces, but the corridor was still eerily quiet. Bryce moaned as Kaz shifted his weight on his shoulders.

“This way,” I said, guessing. A door marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY was propped open. I felt for a switch, found a bank of lights and shoved them all on.

Kaz followed me into the room and I kicked the doorstop out of the way. The door slammed and we were alone-and safe, for the moment.

We were in the industrial heart of the building, a cavernous room housing massive heating and cooling units with dozens of huge white pipes curving into the ceiling. Ladders and fire extinguishers were mounted on the wall. The equipment hummed, echoing off the concrete floors.

“I’m setting you down,” Kaz said, easing Bryce to the floor and then standing painfully, massaging the strain from his shoulders. Bryce flopped like a rag doll and lay still.

“We can’t take him out of the building now,” I said. I knew they must be sounding the alarm throughout the building, trying to find us. “You have to do it here.”

“But he’s out,” Kaz said.

I knelt down next to him. “I’ll just heal him a little more,” I said. “Then I have to go.”

“Go where ?”

“To get Rattler and Prairie. I’ve been thinking about what you said.”

“You can’t go out there now,” Kaz protested. “It’s too dangerous.”

“I have to. We need them to help us get Chub out.”

“But there’s-”

“And you have to stay here with Bryce and make him help you destroy it all.”

Our eyes locked for a moment, Kaz’s fear for me battling his determination, and then he nodded. There was no other way.

THERE WAS A DIAGRAM on the wall that showed the heating and cooling infrastructure throughout the building. “See if you can figure out a route to the garage,” I suggested.

And then I took Bryce’s hand.

I was pretending bravado I didn’t feel, but as I bent over Bryce, I forgot my fears and focused on making him just a little bit better. I had to be careful; I would be no good to anyone if I let the healing sap too much of my strength. I needed only to keep Bryce conscious and alert.

For the first time ever, I was aware of holding back. I had said the words often enough that they came automatically to my lips, and I envisioned a barrier in my mind, a black velvet curtain lowering and sealing off most of my energy, releasing only enough of my gift to settle and calm Bryce’s overtaxed heart, to restore enough health to his lungs and throat that he could breathe and talk.

And then I pulled back. I sensed the gift returning to me, and swallowed the healing words.

But it had helped. Bryce’s skin looked better, and a downy fuzz of hair had appeared on his skull. His eyes were bright and alert, and he licked his lips and raised his hand to scratch at his neck. He no longer seemed to be drowning in pain.

“Mr. Safian,” I said carefully, worried that he would turn back into a ruthless maniac now that he was feeling better, “you must help Kaz now. You need to tell him the commands to wipe out your remote backups. Can you do that?”

For a moment he said nothing and I wondered what we would do if he refused. Now that I had brought him some relief from his suffering, I doubted he would be as cooperative. Not only might he have decided he no longer wanted to die-but he might be eager to protect his life’s work.

“I will do that,” he said, his voice sounding rusty from lack of use.

“It’s really important,” I said. “You have to make sure that-”

“No more,” Bryce rasped. “No more healing, no more zombies.” He pointed to himself. “I was wrong. I deserved to die. The things I have seen them do, since they brought me here-evil things. I never understood… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

His hand lifted weakly off the floor and he pressed his fingers to my face. They were barely warm, but I didn’t pull away.

“How can I believe you?” I asked.

“Before, I wanted… money… power. Since I came here, I have wanted only to die. I never sleep, the pain keeps me awake, and I think of those young men… every one of them. They never leave me.”

I didn’t know what to say. His regret seemed genuine, the tears sparkling in his eyes real. I wanted to believe. But after everything he had done…

“Hailey, you have to go now, ” Kaz said. “We’ll be fine here. Come take a look at this.”

He led me to the diagram and showed me that the garage was located directly above us, one floor below ground level.

“Look here,” Kaz said, pointing to a box with an X in the far corner of the square labeled “HVAC.” “This vent goes straight into the garage.”

He pointed to the corner of the room, where a large square grate had been installed in the ceiling.

“You want me to crawl up there?” I asked skeptically. “That’s got to be fifteen feet off the ground.”

Kaz pointed to the ladders.

At first the task seemed hopeless, even with the ladder we dragged over. My fingertips barely touched the grate. I could reach one of the clips holding the grate in place, but even if we moved the ladder so I could loosen each of them, I’d still have no way to get up there.

“I need your help,” I said. “A boost…”

I climbed down to the floor, and Kaz hoisted me onto his shoulders. I blushed when he grabbed my ankles to keep me steady, but he didn’t seem to mind. He climbed the ladder slowly, my hands wrapped tightly under his chin, until he was standing on the top step.

Now that I could reach all the clips, I worked at them frantically. Looking down was scary, and several times Kaz wavered and I almost lost my balance.

But Healers aren’t like ordinary people. We’re stronger, faster, hardier, and more coordinated, and when the last of the clips clattered to the floor, I reached up for one of the braces holding the ceiling in place. I gripped it tightly and swung myself up, sliding my feet into the opening and scooting into the tight space. I blinked away cobwebs and saw that beyond the opening was a large hollow vent.

“Go,” I said to Kaz. “You have to hurry.”

“Wait, Hailey.”

I turned, my hair falling in my face, and saw him framed in the opening, his gray eyes flickering with uncertainty.

“Just… be careful,” he finally said, and held up his hand. I reached back down, and our fingers touched for a second. I closed my eyes and let the energy travel between us, the attraction of the Banished, the strength of our blood and our history.

And then I pushed forward as though all our lives depended on it.

SOON, SOON.

Hailey had come to see him and that was good and Kaz came and that was good too. He showed Hailey the book with the worm. He wanted to show Hailey the book with the spider but Hailey and Kaz had to go, Hailey had to fix the Monster Man and Kaz had to help.

Chub was ready, but he was scared. He had a mind-picture of where he had to go, and he had to go soon, and he hadn’t had a chance to tell Hailey. He had to go, the mind-picture showed him where. That way and then turn and turn and turn. Big room, box piles, all the boxes and the cans. The door at the end. The door at the end was open and that was where he had to go.

Chub was scared, but he knew he wouldn’t get in trouble. He was scared and he wished he could have told Hailey where he had to go. But the mind-picture didn’t come until after she left. He wasn’t going to tell anyone else. Something was wrong with the lady with the brown glasses. She wasn’t coming. Someone else would come.