“Yes, Tessie. It’s about the end of days.”
…
George took me down to the basement. I had to force my legs to continue moving as we delved deeper and deeper into the belly of the beast. My time spent roaming around basements had never ended well. It didn’t help that I was traveling to one with the most maniacal man I had ever come across.
The enemy of my enemy—wasn’t that how the saying went? Except I still wasn’t sure why George hated the council. All I knew was that he seemed hell-bent on taking it down.
As we walked through the halls of the headquarters, no one even looked up at us. I understood the frenzy of the men who zoomed past us now; they were trying to stop the destruction of the world they worked so hard to create. They didn’t care that a chosen one was escorting me through the halls. They had stopped caring about my kind. I was simply a toy bought to amuse those too weak to be of any use in the coming final battle. Little did they know, I was planning on fighting, too.
Much like Templeton, as we voyaged down below the surface of the headquarters, the marble and finery of the world above gave way to cold grays and violent silvers. I wrapped my arms around myself to stop the shivering.
“They have to keep it near freezing down here. Helps preserve the specimens till they are ready,” George said.
“Specimens? You know I have no idea what you’re talking about, right?” I snarked. I was growing tired of his relentless word games. He enjoyed flaunting my lack of knowledge in my face.
George rolled his eyes as he slid a card though an access panel. “Soon, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about,” he said, a glint of enjoyment in his eyes.
Standing before me in a room constructed of cement and steel stood dozens and dozens of incubation stations. They were the containers that housed the chosen ones until they reached maturity, their holding cells till they had been formed into the perfect solider—their minds filled with endless propaganda and subliminal messages while they slept.
“I’ve seen those before. Back at Templeton,” I said.
“Not like this you haven’t. Go on, take a closer look.”
Maybe it was my imagination, but the lights above our heads flickered. I took a hesitant step toward the incubation stations. As I crept closer to the sleeping chosen ones, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
Lying in front of me were the monsters of the woods, replicas of the deformed chosen ones that hunted us down while traveling to the community. All of the creatures had misshapen skulls covered in unnatural ridges and bumps. Their eyes were sunken in, and in most cases, one was larger than the other. Scars cut across their faces where science had failed. They were taller than I had ever seen any natural man.
They were monsters.
“They have sped up the creation process,” George said. “The East has been doing this forever. Creating a masterpiece takes time. These things don’t even have fully functioning brains.”
“You’re talking about your own people,” I reminded him.
“They’re nothing like me, and I advise you never to say anything of that nature again,” he warned.
“Why are you showing me these?”
“There’s a control panel behind that door there,” he said, pointing across the room. “The code is 45981. Enter it and you’re in. Then you can dismantle all of the cords. Just like your friend Henry did. Where is my favorite natural? Not hurt, I hope.”
“You want me to kill them?” I asked, shocked. I ignored his jab at Henry. There would be time to fight for his memory later. Besides, nothing George said was untrue. Even his death couldn’t erase that. Now, George was asking me to become a murderer as well.
“I’m giving you the option. I’m giving you the information. You must do with it what you will.” He shrugged.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You gave me a code. It’s the least I could do. These days you’ll find I’m all about a good partnership. You help me and I help you,” he purred.
The code. When he had helped me out of the closet, grabbing for my hand, he must have read the code. I suppressed the urge to reach for the map hidden in my pocket. If he got it, he would have everything he needed to enact the fail-safe. And until I knew what that meant, I couldn’t let it happen. I hadn’t had enough time to truly study the map, which meant if he touched me, he wouldn’t know where it was because I didn’t know. He would just know that I had the map. I had to get away from him as quickly as possible and hide it. If only Stephanie had still been around, then I could have given it to her to hide, and then its location would be free from my mind as well.