I listen, because I am tired of thinking. Because everything is happening too fast, and this moment all feels like a dream.
Or a nightmare.
I go from smiling about my mother’s death, to horrible, heart-wrenching feelings of loss. There’s no time to think, or process, or worry about her secret.
I can only drown in the feelings.
“Get down!” Rhone shouts.
We dive in the grasses just fifty yards from the building. A group of Initiative soldiers sprints past us, heading into the battle.
“Which way?” Rhone asks. Sparrow is lying beside him in the grass. “Perimeter?”
“We can’t climb the Perimeter. It’s impossible. Go for the building, side door. It’s a coded entrance, but I can hack it.”
Her voice is painfully familiar, the sound of an old memory, an old, near-forgotten dream.
And then, as Rhone calls the all-clear, and we start to run again, I remember.
She is my aunt.
She is the woman who once held me as an infant, who gave me presents every year on my birthday. She is the woman who put me into the system, who tried to get me killed so that the Murder Complex would die with me.
I follow her, but not because I trust her.
It’s because it’s my turn to be the killer.
My turn to get revenge on the woman who I am sure murdered my mother.
CHAPTER 31
ZEPHYR
A bomb goes off.
Bodies drop, others are thrown to the air. Some are blown to bits. I feel hot blood on my face, a gash running down my temple. Screaming that I think might be my own.
My good ear rings. I can’t focus.
Punish them, Lark says in my head. Make them pay for my death. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge.
I scream the word.
I lift my fist into the air.
Behind me, an army of voices responds. It’s the final wave, the final war cry.
We push forward, and the Leeches pull back.
They can run, but we will chase them. They can hide, but we will find them. They can fight, but we will fight harder.
We are the Patients of the Murder Complex.
And we will win.
CHAPTER 32
MEADOW
My body is drenched in blood.
Guards lie dead at my feet, just outside the Headquarters building.
“Hurry up,” Rhone hisses.
“Shut up, and maybe I will,” Sparrow says, as she leans against the building, working. Trying to break through the codes that hold the door in place. The NoteScreen embedded in the wall shows a series of numbers and symbols, soaring across the screen.
“We have minutes, maybe, to get out of here,” Rhone says. “If the Patients fail, and the Leeches gain control . . .”
Sparrow whirls on him. “They won’t fail. That’s the beauty of it. They can’t fail, because my sister programmed them not to. Now shut the hell up and get inside.”
The NoteScreen turns green.
The door hisses and soars up into the ceiling, just as there’s a horrible pain in my skull. You cannot escape me, Miss Woodson, the Commander says, and his voice is rushed, breathless, like he’s been running.
I have to find him and kill him.
Peri’s voice starts screaming in my head. She is sobbing uncontrollably, and her cries no longer form words.
I drop to my knees, press my hands to my ears, but it cannot drown out the sound. “Make it stop!” I scream. “Make it stop!”
I can see Rhone and Sparrow leaning, trying to speak to me, but I can’t hear anything they are saying. All I can hear is my sister, drowning in pain that mirrors my own.
My sanity is cracking, slipping through my fingertips like fresh hot blood.
Rhone lifts me, hauls me inside the building. He is about to shut the door behind us when I shove my shoulder in the way.
“Zephyr” is all I can manage. Rhone nods, runs back outside. Sparrow says something to me, puts her hand on my shoulder, but I can’t hear her.
The pain intensifies until it’s too much. I throw my head back and scream.
I have to stop this.
I turn and run down the halls of the building.
I am going to make the Commander bleed.
I am going to make him beg for death.
CHAPTER 33
ZEPHYR
The Leeches set off another bomb the second we breach the building.
It happens so fast. I’m in the air. Then my breath is gone. I’m lying on my back, staring up at the sun, and I don’t know if I’m dead or alive.
There’s a ringing, everywhere. A hand grabs mine in the chaos, holds on tight. I roll over, see a Patient girl with tears in her eyes. Holding me while she dies.
More gunfire goes off, and people scatter, dive for cover. I want to scream at the Leeches, kill them all. Because they’re not just shooting at adults. They’re shooting at kids.
The anger helps me to my feet. The command keeps speaking to me, the only thing that pushes me on.
I use the hatred that I used when I first found Lark outside of this building, near this very spot.
I’m about to sprint forward when someone tackles me.
We go down.
I spin, growling, ready to snap the Leech’s throat.
But it’s Rhone.
“Zero, come with me!” he shouts. His face is flecked with blood and sweat.
“Revenge,” I gasp, because it’s the only word that makes sense. The only word I can form.
“Meadow is waiting,” he says. He rolls off of me, and I try to sprint away.
I have to fight. I have to kill.
“Just stop!” Rhone screams. “Don’t make me do this!”