Light bounces off the cemetery of Prowler corpses, and stings my eyes. The wall and yard have been destroyed, shot through, and the Immortal rests like a great ship on an ocean of green.
Survivors and soldiers alike line up to enter the tank through it's one, flawed entrance, and we take our places at the back. Using pulleys, soldiers lift equipment, boxes, and experiments up to the patio, where they can easily push the supplies into labs. That's how they lift Nina's body too.
Daniel, Eleanor, and a group of soldiers take me and Celia to the Immortal's infirmary, not the one they've set up for the overflow on the first floor with the detention cells, and I see Ian on one of the beds, his face swollen with bruises. Down the line of hospital beds, I see Phoebe, Winston, and Joe asleep as well.
I lie back on the bed beside Ian, and watch as Celia's wound is stitched on the bed to my left. Nurses begin tending to my many wounds: the shallow puncture wound on my stomach, the pus-filled incision behind my ear, the stitched line down my forearm where my glowing blue panel waits to be removed, the defensive cuts on the other side of my arms from the drone propellers, the bruised spot on the back of my skull, and the Prowler claw-shaped bruises across my abdomen and back. The nurses hover around me, so I can barely see Daniel or Eleanor anymore.
"Where's my mom?" I ask. She should be here. She could hold me and I could cry in her arms, and it wouldn't stop me from feeling broken, but it would help me get back to my core. To the girl who first woke up in this place.
"She's on her way," Eleanor responds from behind the nurses. "She's the Vice President now."
I manage to smile. "She is?" I ask too softly for anyone to hear over the nurses' tape and stitches and mumbles. They are worried about the pus from my wound infecting my brain, and about whether or not Nina had any bloodborne diseases I could have contracted. I don't have any more strength to worry.
The line of nurses breaks and a friend walks toward me. "Didn't think I'd see you back in this room, Scout Finch," Declan says with a smile, but his eyes reflect the nurses' worry.
I begin to cry at the sight of him. "Declan," is all I manage to say.
One of the nurses elbows him on accident and mumbles an apology, "Sorry, Mr. President."
"President?" I ask. He nods, and I manage to smile. "I didn't think we would have a President after McCleary."
"Yeah, well, after you all were taken, we weren't sure if anyone would come back. We had no idea where you all were. So, the entire camp decided we needed a leader, called the position 'President,' and had an election. Somehow, I guess 'cause I was the last of us left, they chose me."
"C'mon," I say, lifting my arm weakly to nudge his, "you earned it."
He half smiles, looking at me. "Nurses, would you leave us a while?" he asks.
All but one of the nurses nod and walk out of the room, past Eleanor. She holds Daniel in her arms while tears fill his eyes. The two of them make their way to the other side of my bed, blocking Ian from view. Not that he cares, he's out cold, whether from sleep or injury, I don't know. It shouldn't be from the implant, since I'm awake and conscious now, but he had his longer. So did Joe, and so did Phoebe. Maybe Joe was right: The damage is irreversible.
The last nurse secures a bandage over my stomach wound, and pops two antibiotic pills in my mouth before leaving. While she does, Declan whispers, "I saw him. I saw Hugh. Do you... do you know what happened?"
I want to tell him right there, but I suddenly can't find my words. "Declan... I... I'm so sorry."
His eyes moisten and he holds up his hands. "It's okay. I thought I lost him before. I'll just pretend like there was never any hope of getting him back."
"President Kunkle," a voice sounds over a walkie-talkie attached to his belt.
"Hold on." Declan blushes. "I'm still not used to that," he says, then lifts the walkie-talkie to his mouth, "Yes?"
"We're all loaded up and accounted for, sir."
"Thank you, I'll be up in a moment." He slips the device back over his belt, and looks at me. "Want to watch the estate explode?"
"No, Declan, you can't. I have to tell you what happened. I saw so much death. Sato, Alexander... There was a World Council of men who were part of Roberts and Cooper. They were the ones who organized the blast. They all met at Cooper's a few nights ago, and Gunther, he... Gunther killed all of them. Including Cooper. Then Gunther killed all of their pilots. I almost helped him."
Daniel's mouth hangs open in shock, as does Eleanor's. Declan looks angry. He must know somehow Gunther tricked me into it.
"Wait, where is Gunther?" Celia asks.
"He wasn't there," Declan says, slowly as if I've missed something. "Mitchell said he left after... after Hugh."
"If Gunther left, how did he access the program?" I ask. No one answers, no one even seems to know what I'm talking about. "The immersion program. I was in it while the implant was working. Gunther filled Nate's avatar and chased me. He changed himself into a Prowler, so I thought he must have still been here making Mitchell control it."
"He wasn't there," Declan assures me, "otherwise I would have killed him myself." His words would have seemed too strong for him weeks ago, but now, after what happened to Hugh, they fit.
I shake my head. "I made everything worse."
"But you didn't help him, and that's what matters," Eleanor says, rubbing my head. "Cooper is dead. The Council is dead. And now we have stopped the people in that mansion from ever hurting anyone again. Mitchell is captured, the soldiers are being held prisoner, we got their equipment, and everyone is now safely aboard."
"There's more," I say, and my throat nearly closes with guilt. "I heard one of the radios in a cockpit, so I picked it up and talked to someone. A Sergeant Major Belinda Lawrence. She knows my name, and she knows they're all dead. She thinks I did it, and not just me... she thinks the Deathless did it."
Eleanor groans, "Oh."
Declan pushes his glasses up his nose. "So... this isn't even close to being over."
"No," I say, bowing my head in shame. Celia reaches across the space between our beds, and I take her hand. At least I still have her, but her comfort is different than Nina's. Celia's is a warm glow, a presence that tells me, "Don't worry I'm here." If Nina were here, she would take me into her long arms and remind me life goes on, that I can rebuild myself like she did.
Declan raises the walkie to his lips again. "Stand down. We are not exploding the mansion. Let's move out."
Beeps sound from behind the door and in an instant, my mom, like a warm, clean breath of air, flies into the infirmary. She brushes past Declan and clutches my hands in hers, tears in her eyes. "Isla," she cries. "What did they do to you? I will kill them, I will." She doesn't breathe to let me speak, but her tears fall more steadily. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I should have been with you. You should have had your family there."
"I did," I say, and I take time to make eye contact with Celia first, then Daniel, then Eleanor.
My mom stands and searches the room. "Your dad? Was he there?" she asks, missing my point. "Did you see him?"
Eleanor must not have told her. "I saw him at the bunker," I say, and my mom's face drops in terrified anticipation. "Gunther set a countdown to detonate the bunker, and then knocked everyone out. Dad included. I led them outside, and then all got into the beast in time except for me and Dad. The explosion threw us back into the woods, but he was okay. I told him to run home."
She breathes as if she's never breathed before, and asks, "He's home? He's waiting for us at home?"
"In Pennsylvania, yeah," I clarify, not even sure where home is anymore. "If he made it."
"I have to go," my mom tells Eleanor.
"I'll come with you," she responds.
Then Daniel chimes in, "Me too. I have to see what the Prowlers did to it."
"Wait for me to heal," I beg. "Please, I want to go home. I want to be who I was before all this. I want to be home again. Please let me go." I didn't mean to start crying, but somehow I have.
"Honey, if you're dad has been traveling there, he'll be weak, he'll be malnourished. We need to find him now. There's nothing left to keep him safe and healthy at home. We have to go." She kisses my forehead and, hovering over me, says, "I love you more than you'll ever understand. I will be back soon with your dad and we'll be whole again."
Ben's not with us, I think, we'll never be whole again. But I look at Eleanor and her smile is so strained and so painful, that I wonder if she kept Ben's death from my mom too.
My mom kisses me again, and leaves the room with Eleanor close behind. Daniel sits on the small sliver of mattress at my side and asks that Declan give us a minute alone, even though Celia lies on the bed to my left. She rolls over, as if her back could be a wall, and Declan leaves the room. As the door closes behind him, I hear him begin to explain why they won't be destroying the mansion. "We will have to come up with a different solution. There will be people coming to find us, and it will be better not to give them any more reason to distrust us."
Daniel doesn't pay any attention to anything but me, and when the door finally shuts, he says, "I'm so glad you're okay,"though he stutters over okay as his eyes scan my injuries. "When I came to on the Immortal, I thought I lost you forever. Again. I wouldn't be able to live without you."
I smile. "Yes, you would. You always figure out a way to survive."
He's serious now. "No, I wouldn't. You have to stop acting like a martyr. I know you want to give everyone a fair chance, but you need to give yourself a fair chance too. People need you, Isla. I need you."
"Okay," I whisper, tears filling my eyes. I know he's right, but I hate admitting I'm wrong.
He adjusts his posture before he says, "I know you lied to me."
"What?"
"You know whose baby my mom is carrying. Is it Gunther's? Cooper's? Is that why you don't want to tell me?"
I maintain eye contact with Daniel, but in my peripheral vision, I see Celia turn slightly to hear my answer. I take a deep breath. I can't lie again. He knows me too well. "No, it's not either of theirs. It's..." I have to say it, but I know this will just complicate the situation, despite the fact that I have nothing to do with its creation. "It's mine."
"Yours? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it's not just my DNA. It's mine and... Nate's."
Daniel doesn't say anything, but I hear Celia try to hold in a gasp. "So my mom is having a baby that is yours and Nate's. Did you and him ever...?"
"No, never. I wouldn't."
"So, how does this work?"
"Gunther combined our DNA. Somehow he had Nate's blood, and—"
"No, I mean... how does this work with the baby? Are you its mom, or is my mom its mom, or what?"
"This isn't really a normal situation, is it? We'll figure it out."
"I guess." He sighs deeply and stands. "I should catch up to them. Knowing Beatrice, they're probably all ready to go by now."
"Daniel...," I say, but he doesn't turn around. He walks out of the infirmary and shuts the door. I turn to Celia, who isn't even trying to pretend she's not listening anymore, and I say, "It's not my fault."
She frowns. "Maybe he's in a hurry." I give her a look. "He's probably just mad right now. He had to read all the messages back from Nate about you two. He is probably just remembering those feelings."
"I have to go after them," I say.
"You're too injured. You can't go alone."
"I'll come," a voice groans from behind me, and I turn my head to see Ian stirring. He's okay, the implant didn't ruin him. "Where are we going?" he asks.
I smile. "Home."