Hidden (Book 3 of the Immune Series)

Whether I Am or Not

Sakir

Athena and I move into the other room to watch Quinn and his company leave. Papa and Isaac stay behind to get the video ready for release.

"He's come a long way in a week," Athena says as she takes a hold of my hand and gazes out the long window. The compound unrolls under us. Snow covers the ground now and makes it easy for us to see the bodies bustling around below.

"Who- Quinn?"

She nods.

"I talked to Lexi more than I did Quinn himself. I was in charge of making sure he remained stable while he was in recovery. According to her, he used to be a little wimp."

I laugh and squeeze her hand.

"It seems like he's learned how to stand up for himself," I say.

Below us, the small group of Quinn, Lexi, Ashford, and the guards exit Headquarters. Lexi doesn't hold the ex-president anymore. Instead, he walks between two navy clad, well armed guards. Lexi follows behind while Quinn leads the convoy.

"Apparently," Athena mumbles.

The group moves in and out of buildings on their way to the gate. Compound 1 guards greet them, but they remain unarmed and helpless. I wish I could see their faces.

Quinn motions something to his group, and they lead Ashford to the nearest truck. Lexi follows and hops into the passenger seat of the same vehicle. After saying something to the Compound 1 guards along the wall, Quinn slides into the driver's seat.

The world stands still as he backs the truck up and then drives through the crowd of his own army. No one on the wall moves, much to my surprise. I think they must be too stunned to do much of anything.

Once Quinn's truck moves out of sight, the rest of the dark blue vehicles turn and follow behind. It takes three minutes for everyone to clear out and for the landscape to return to its once barren state.

For a minute, none of the Compound 1 guards move. They stare at the now empty space and each other, but they remain still. Then, a woman walks towards the ladder and begins to climb down. Several of her coworkers follow.

While we watch, a crowd forms in the space in front of the building we stand in. Guards, regular civilians, scientists, doctors. They crawl out of the woodwork and populate the snow covered ground wearing gray uniforms. To the side, a leather wearing group stands with their arms crossed over their chest. Trackers.

"Let's go see if Isaac's ready," I whisper to Athena as I turn and pull her towards the door. Her hand goes limp in mine, as if she expects me to let go, but I cling to her regardless. I need someone to ground me.

As we come into the second room, Papa waves us over.

"Watch this," he instructs, "and make sure it doesn't look like he's being held against his will."

We stand behind Isaac, and he presses play on the tiny tablet screen.

Ashford's calm face appears on the screen. They edited all the blood out of his beard and off his cheeks. Instead, he looks spotless and regal- just like he did in my head before he went feral. The background behind him is solid black.

He opens his mouth, and the words that come out next shock me.

"Good afternoon. I hope I find you happy and well-rested on this winter afternoon."

"Where did you get this footage? You didn't take this," I point out, looking up at Isaac.

"We found it saved on the device. Apparently, Ashford makes weekly public announcements. There are hundreds saved on here, and he starts every single video this way," Isaac says. "We thought it might be more convincing if we started it off like a normal announcement."

I raise my eyebrows.

"How did you learn how to do all this? I know they didn't have this technology in 4."

"You keep forgetting I didn't come from 4 originally," Isaac says with a smile. "Born outside the walls, raised in Compound 5. This is basic video editing. I've known how to do this since I was in 5th year. Although, I am surprised I didn't forget it after being gone so long."

Isaac presses the play button again in the bottom left hand corner, and the image shifts. The change is minute and almost unnoticeable. It's as if Ashford moved to the left a little. Now, though, there's a look in his eyes- fear.

Will they be able to see it?

"In my absence, I appoint-"

I stop listening and focus instead of Ashford's face. It remains steady throughout the video, but he glances up at Quinn on the other side of the table more than once.

"Is it believable?" Isaac asks as the United States presidential seal passes over the screen. The red, white, and blue circle, clad with an eagle mid flight, has been the same for as long as I remember. Why we use the same seal confuses me. Especially when we are nothing like the original United States. We've fallen so far from grace that there's no going back now.

"Yeah. I think the beginning and end were good touches."

Isaac nods and runs a hand across his face.

"The crowd is massive," Athena says from the other room. I hadn't noticed she had left me. Isaac straightens his shoulders.

"You can't go out there yet," I say.

"Why not?"

"Because you're drenched in blood." I point at his chest, and he looks down with a grimace. "Everyone will think you're unstable if you go out there like this."

"Wouldn't be the first time," he mumbles as Athena reappears.

"Maybe we could dress him in clean lab clothes? There's a whole closet full of them in here."

"That'll work," I say, and Isaac turns and walks into the other room.

"You should change, too," Papa says softly as he takes the tablet from Isaac.

"Why? I'm not being presented as the new leader."

"Maybe not," he says, putting a hand on my shoulder, "but you'll feel better once you get out of those soiled clothes. Plus, it's cold out, and you're shirtless."

I laugh and shake my head, but I know he's right. Maybe I'll forget the hands when I cover my skin up. Maybe the blood won't weigh me down anymore when the liquid is gone.

Ten minutes later, Isaac, Athena, and I join Papa in the first room again wearing clean, scientist uniforms. We look like coworkers, which is better than we ever did before. Athena brushed Isaac's hair and washed his face. In the white coat and gray underclothes, he looks regal almost, mature in a way he didn't before.

"Ready?" I ask as I grab the door knob.

Isaac laughs.

"What's so funny?" Athena whispers as she joins us.

"Nothing. This just reminds me of the time Jay asked me that two years ago," Isaac says with a soft smile.

I want to point out that it's a pretty common thing to ask someone when they spend as much time together as the two of them did. Yet, I bite my tongue. It's a little sweet that he remembers a conversation from years ago, I guess.

"What was your answer?" Athena asks.

"'Whether I am or not, it's time.'"

With the saddest smile I've ever seen, Isaac nods. I type in the code and let us out.