Demitria Lunetta - In the End

Brenna looks at Rice, eyebrows raised. “Wow,” she says.

Rice shrugs sheepishly as the door opens and a scared researcher pops his head out, his eyes darting over us and down the hallway. “Have any of you been bitten?”

“Yeah,” Brenna blurts out before I can say no, “but it was forever ago and I’m doing just fine.”

The researcher moves to slam the door, but I jam my foot in it, and Kay and I push our way in past him. Brenna and Rice follow, securing the door behind them.

“I’m going to get Baby,” I call back to Rice as I hurry away down the corridor. Maybe this time I can convince her not to scream. She just needs to be reminded of the dangers, to remember how she used to avoid Them every day.

The door to Baby’s room is already open. I rush inside and find her sitting at her table across the room, coloring, completely oblivious. But she is not alone.

Dr. Reynolds looks up at me from his seat next to her and smiles. “Hello, Amy,” he says, the loose flesh under his jaw jiggling as he speaks. “How nice to see you again.” His hand rests on the table, gripping a gun. Before I can think of moving, he stands, sweeps up Baby in his free arm, and presses the gun to her temple. She doesn’t even look frightened; she just blinks blankly a few times, her eyes unfocused.

“No,” I say, stepping forward. “I’ll do whatever you want. Don’t hurt her.”

“He won’t,” Rice says, appearing at my side. “He has twenty different researchers analyzing her blood. He won’t kill her. She’s too important.”

“Are you certain of that?” he asks, staring me down. “You have managed to be quite the disruption. You’ve rendered your mother useless to me. You’ve turned her against me, her and I don’t know how many Guardians.” He looks past us and cocks his head. “Kay, is that you? Why don’t you put your weapons on the floor? All of them.” He digs the gun deeper into Baby’s skin, and Kay begrudgingly throws her gun and knives onto the floor. His gaze falls back on me. “You too, Amy.”

I nod and slowly place my weapons at my feet.

“Good girl,” Dr. Reynolds tells me.

Unable to contain the fury welling up inside, I take another step forward—only to stop myself. He holds Baby’s life in his hands.

“It’s amazing that one emotionally disturbed girl could cause so much trouble.” Dr. Reynolds shakes his bald head. “And you,” he spits at Rice. “You’ve been completely useless. I should have left you in that orphanage, alone and unwanted. I should never have taken you into my care. You’ve become such a disappointment.”

Rice looks as though he’s been slapped, his face blazing red. “‘Taken me into your care’? Is that what you call it?” I realize he isn’t ashamed, he’s livid. “You think I don’t know about my parents’ car crash? You think I don’t know you had them killed so you could use me? What a sick, sad lunatic you are. You had to have been cooking up your crazy plans long before then, raising your stable of super-geniuses to do your bidding. What a gift the Florae infection must’ve been for you.”

My heart breaks for Rice. How hard it must have been for Rice to work with Reynolds, filled with hate and bitterness.

But far from being taken aback by Rice’s words, Dr. Reynolds’s grin has been widening all along, and now he laughs out loud.

“A ‘gift’? Are you serious? For a ‘super-genius,’ you’re terribly slow on the uptake, boy. You think the Florae outbreak was an accident ? You insult me. When I saw what this mopey young girl’s mother had created, I alone realized its full potential. I saw it as a way to correct all the mistakes humanity had made. Everything could be undone, and the very building blocks of society could be reconstructed. New Hope is my Eden!”

No one in the room moves. No one can believe what we’re hearing.

Dr. Reynolds created the After, on purpose .

My mother may have given him the weapon, but Dr. Reynolds is the one who pulled the trigger. It hits me like a gunshot. He killed everyone—my father, my friends, my neighbors. Everyone. Dr. Reynolds ended the world.

Rice keeps talking. If he’s as stunned by this as I am, he gives no sign. “So,” he says, “in that formulation, you would be . . . who? God? ”

“And why not?” Dr. Reynolds says, beaming. “As if things were working so well before? At least now humanity can be controlled. I decide who lives, who breeds. I alone decide the future.”

My attention is brought back to Baby as Dr. Reynolds shifts her weight in his arms. I’m so in shock, only now do I see that Kay has been creeping closer to Dr. Reynolds as Rice talked, keeping his attention on him. In an instant, Kay rushes him, dropping low and driving at him. Without thinking, I join in.

Seeing our charge at the last second, Dr. Reynolds swings the gun wildly and knocks Kay against the wall. He aims wide, the pistol discharging. The bullet flies harmlessly past me as Baby drops to the floor. I’m on him, driving my fist into his neck before he can begin to turn back, ripping the gun away from him. Brenna is at my side. She’s grabbed one of the guns from the floor and now has it trained on him.

“Wow, what an asshole,” she says.

Kay joins us. “Kid, you have no idea.”

Kay hands me some cinch ties to bind Reynolds’s hands and feet, and I turn to check on Baby, who sits in a ball, arms wrapped around herself, staring across the room. I crawl to her to check her for any injury. She’s clear, though she may be badly bruised later on.

“Baby, are you okay?”

She doesn’t answer but looks past me, over my shoulder. I follow her gaze to Rice, slumped against the wall.

Blood seeps through his lab coat.

“Rice?”

I pat his cheek to wake him. I’ve already stanched the bleeding by bandaging his upper arm with ripped sheets from Baby’s bed. He opens his bright blue eyes, then squints, confused.

“I think I hit my head . . . on the wall,” he says. He lifts his arm and winces. “What happened?”

“Dr. Reynolds shot you,” Brenna calls from across the room. “You’re lucky he has sucky aim.”

“Where is he now?”

“We tied him up and stuck him in a broom closet,” I say. “I took away his earpiece, so he’s neutralized. I think now we should get back to my mother, and make sure she’s safe, ask her what we should do next.” We never got the research, but with Dr. Reynolds contained, we should be able to accomplish more. He can’t give orders from a broom closet.

“Can you stand?” I ask Rice. He tries, and I have to help him get to his feet. He’s still a bit wobbly.

“I’m going to scout the hall, make sure it’s clear.”

“It is,” Brenna tells us. “I can tell.”

“Brenna, can you help Rice while I carry Baby?” I ask.

Brenna takes Rice’s good arm, propping him up. I go to Baby where she sits, staring blankly at the wall, and I pick her up.

I cradle Baby close and whisper in her ear, “I know that you’re Hannah now. That this is your home. But you used to have a life with me. You used to be very good at keeping quiet, at avoiding the monsters. Do you remember?”

She doesn’t respond, but when I carry her to the door, she doesn’t scream, either. Maybe she can be Hannah, but still be Baby as well.

Despite Brenna’s assurances, Kay goes ahead to check that the hall is clear, then we make our way to my mother’s office. There are no other Floraes in sight—if the Guardians haven’t gotten them all, they’ve at least severely cut their number. Now, if we can just stay out of the way of those same Guardians, who’ll still be on the hunt for us in the absence of any orders to the contrary, we might be okay.