First I need to hear her say she’s changed.
“Say it!” I shake her, but she won’t move. Her eyes roll back into her head, and her mouth flops open in a silent scream. “Say it! Wake up!”
It’s only when Zephyr’s face appears in front of mine that I look away from her.
“Zephyr,” I gasp.
He is alive. Here, in front of me.
“We have to run,” he says.
He grimaces, like he’s in pain, like he’s fighting the Murder Complex, but how can anything be more painful than the reality that my mother is dead?
“Meadow, now!” he growls. He tears me from the ground with such strength that I gasp. “She’s dead. It’s time to go.”
I nod through my tears.
I take his hand.
My fingers are covered in blood.
We stand up, and together, we run.
CHAPTER 27
ZEPHYR
REVENGE.
It’s the call of the system. It’s her fail-safe, just like Sparrow warned me about, tried to prepare me for.
I breathe deep, in and out.
I hear the word screamed over and over again. I fight as hard as I can. Meadow’s hand in mine is the only thing steady, the only thing holding me here and now.
We make it halfway to the marshes, almost to the edge of the city, when I can’t control it any longer. The Night Siren goes off, even though it’s early morning. Leech soldiers rush into the streets, their eyes wide like they don’t know what’s going on.
I see others like myself. Patients, sprinting forth into the new light of day.
We look into each other’s eyes, and we know.
REVENGE.
I dive for the Leech closest to me and tear his throat out.
CHAPTER 28
MEADOW
The Patients turn into monsters, killing with a grace that only comes from years of training.
The Night Siren wails, out of time and place in the daylight, a screech that normally sounds like a mother mourning her child.
Not today.
Now it sounds furious, like a vicious monster.
Mixed in with it is the sound of the Commander’s voice. You did this, he says.
The pain comes. Peri’s screams ring in my ears, and I tell myself this isn’t real, this isn’t real, this Is. Not. Real.
I focus on the world around me, fight through the pain, hold on to it like an anchor to keep me in this moment.
Zephyr’s hand leaves mine.
He leaps, and lands on top of an Initiative soldier. I watch as he rips the man’s throat apart. Blood sprays and hits me, warm and thick on my face.
This is real. My father’s voice comes to me from the deep. I free him. I let his voice flood into me, and it is so beautiful, so alive. Hold on. Focus, Meadow. Stay alert. Don’t lose yourself yet.
Someone runs up beside me and touches my shoulder. I whirl around.
I stare into my mother’s eyes.
“Meadow,” she says, but she is mutilated, half of her face scarred and her hair has turned dark. She is not my mother, but a broken, twisted copy of her.
And of me.
“Who are you?” I gasp.
I tear my hand away, stumble backward, but someone comes up behind me. I whirl, see it is Rhone from the Resistance team, whose father knew my father. He is solid and steady, and he wraps his warm hand over mine.
“Come with us!” he begs. “We have to escape here.”
I look for Zephyr in the chaos.
“I won’t leave him,” I say.
“Zero will find us,” Rhone says back.
The streets are a blur, as people sprint past, pushing and shoving and crying out for loved ones. Patients are attacking the Initiative, all around. Guns fire. Knives are thrown.
Soldiers drop to the city streets, and the citizens trample their bodies in their rush for cover. It’s all happening too fast, out of nowhere.
And then I realize why.
My mother is dead.
The Patients are reacting to her fail-safe. Soon, the world will burn to ashes around us. This is the only chance to escape from here. Now there is nothing left for me.
I let Rhone and the strange, broken woman lead me away.
It’s only when we make it to the edge of the city that I see Zephyr again.
He is leading a wave of Patients toward Headquarters.
CHAPTER 29
ZEPHYR
Dust and smoke and death.
The revenge of the Patients is in full swing.
It’s different from the Murder Complex.
This is the Creator’s order, and we know exactly what we’re doing.
We march in a solid line, taking out Leeches as they try to run away. When they shoot us with their rifles, some of us drop.
But then something amazing happens.
A group of citizens emerges from the city. They follow in our wake, with pipes and sticks raised over their heads. I can’t hear them over the sound of revenge, revenge, but I can see the anger in their eyes.
The hope.
We reach Headquarters, hundreds of Patients and citizens of the Shallows.
We’re showered with bullets.
My leg is hit. I know it, but I can’t feel it. The sound of revenge only gets louder, fueling me forward. I have to kill the Leeches.
I have to make them pay, because Lark Woodson is dead.
CHAPTER 30
MEADOW
The citizens of the Shallows have joined the war.
In this moment, I know that I should be with them, fighting for freedom, fighting for justice against the horrors my mother and the Initiative caused.
Instead, I am running.
I sprint with Rhone and with Sparrow, who holds my hand and tells me to go, keep going, and don’t look back.