Evita
Sheer's office looks the same as the other times I've been here. Same bare desk. Same unassuming door to the left of it. Only this time the air is charged and the door is calling to me.
The weight of the gun in my sling makes my pulse race. I grasp the handle to the room. What if we were wrong? What if this is just a closet and there's no way to turn off the alarms? I picture the test subjects trapped in their rooms as smoke seeps under the doors.
I turn the handle and push the door open. It's not a closet, but I also don't see any screens. A floor length grated cabinet on the opposite wall catches my eye. Inside are rows and rows of guns. Closing the door behind me, I walk over to the cabinet and tug on the handle. It doesn't budge. There's no lock or place to put in a code either, just a small circle next to the handle. I yank a few more times but it's no use. It won't open.
I turn my attention to the rest of the room. The walls are blank. My heart plummets. This can't be right. I was so sure there would be controls here. Now how will Dale know to set off the bombs? How will everyone get past the alarms? The door to the room swings open and I gasp.
Sheer stands in the doorway.
I back up against the wall, glancing around wildly for a weapon. The gun in my sling rests against my chest. Not that. Not unless I have to. I mentally curse myself for not taking a few extra sedatives just in case.
"Nice to see you again," Sheer says. Her face is still, giving away no hint of surprise at seeing me here. However, she's not as calm and collected as she normally is either. The skin under her eyes is dark, and she's rubbing her wrists. Her gaze falls on the cabinet.
"Came for the guns, did you? That's your bad luck. It only opens for me, Brandt, or Ellis." She pauses. "Well, not Ellis anymore, I suppose."
She holds her wristlet up to the circle on the gun cabinet and the door pops open. Inside, the cabinet is filled with rows of small guns, like the one in my sling, and below that longer guns, like Trenton carried.
Sheer picks up one of the smaller guns and turns it over in her hands. As she does she moves across the room, closer to me. I press myself against the wall, trying to hide the fear on my face. Sweat beads on my hairline.
"Ellis gave you his badge, huh?" She shakes her head. "I knew he didn't have the guts to kill you." My adrenaline spikes. She takes a rectangular piece of metal from a slot in the cabinet and jams it into the bottom of the gun.
Then she points the gun at me and I suck in a breath. She laughs. "Don't worry, the safety is still on, see?" Turning the gun to the side so I can see, she presses a button in. "Well, not anymore."
"You've been such a hassle, Evita. Why couldn't you just be a good little girl and forget about where that gun came from?" Sheer sighs. "Then I bring you in here to keep you out of trouble, and the next thing I know you've contrived this ridiculous escape plan."
The hair on my arms stands up. "You know about that?"
She laughs, the sound echoing harshly off the walls. "The young Asian boy who follows Ellis around like a puppy informed us days ago." She waves her hand dismissively.
Weston. How could he?
Sheer places her hand on one of the tiles on the wall and slides it back, revealing a circle like the one on the gun cabinet. She holds her wristlet up to it and the surrounding tiles slide back, and then the next tiles and the next, until the entire wall reveals a set of screens and controls.
I suck in a breath. The screens display video feed from all over Elysia. On one, Weston walks up and sits next to Dale. My hands tremble and I feel like I might collapse. Dale has no idea. Below the screens, a panel of buttons and lights blink. One of those must be the switch to turn off the alarms.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Sheer says. "And you're planning to burn it all down."
I look over the many switches and lights. I have no idea what I'm looking for. A giant flashing sign that reads 'Alarms' would be nice, but no such luck. I spot a small switch, near the top, labeled 'Security'. Could that be it? What if I'm wrong? What if it doesn't turn off the alarms, but calls security into the control room instead? I don't have time to scrutinize every single button on the panel. Dale and the others are waiting for my signal.
This is it. If we don't get out now we'll never have another chance. I eye the gun in Sheer's hand. I might not make it out of here at all. I have to give them a chance.
Sheer continues, "I should have just killed you the first time you tried to escape. I would have, if it weren't for the pills." Her eyes take on a wild gleam. "The pills should have worked!" She slams the gun against a screen that shows Leah waiting in her room, shattering the image. Glass falls to the floor and I jump, holding back a scream.
Turning her back to me, Sheer presses her forehead against the wall, banging her fist against it. Now's my chance.
I bolt forward, and before she can stop me I flip the switch. As soon as I do her cold fingers wrap around my wrist. I look up to see her studying my hand, her face flushed.
"You," she whispers.
Dale
It's time.
I signal to Nadya and she nods, striking a match. She pulls the alcohol bottle from behind her back and lights the fuse, tossing it into the foliage to her left. The branches and leaves flare brightly, and around the room similar bursts of light burn. I watch the solar room, waiting for the walls to explode and crumble.
They don't.
What is Weston doing? Nadya runs toward me, and as she does I notice her tucking something into the bag at her hip. It's one of the stone ducklings from the fountain. I groan. It will only weigh her down. Taking her hand, we turn to the solarium doors, ready for the guard to evacuate us.
Brandt hasn't moved.
He stands at the door, arms folded, a smirk smeared across his face. Test subjects crowd the door and I push to the front.
"The smoke," I gesture. "We need to get out of here."
"No one's leaving." Brandt's smirk turns into a sneer. "Do you think we're stupid? We knew what you were planning."
The words are ice in my veins. How did they find out? There's still no explosion from the solar room, and I shift, pressing my lips together. Come on, Weston. Set it off.
Brandt laughs, loud and full of bluster. "You're all going to burn alive." He backs through the doorway.
"Wait!" Weston pushes his way through the crowd. "I made a deal. We get out alive." He grabs Nadya's wrist and pulls her forward. I blanch, my mouth slackening. No. He didn't. He couldn't.
Brandt exhales. "Fine. Let's go." The fire crackles behind us, edging closer.
Nadya yanks her arm out of Weston's grip. "I'm not going with you."
"Don't be stupid." Weston grunts, grabbing for her arm again. I jolt forward, ready to shove him away, but Nadya holds up her hand.
"I've got it." She turns to Weston. Her lips press tightly together, but her shoulders are back. The top of the duck's head peeks out from her bag. "We trusted you."
The other test subjects look nervously behind us and push toward the door. Brandt takes out a gun and waves them back. "Let's go, kid. It's now or never."
Weston's gaze darts from the door to the fire to Nadya. "Please, Nadya. Come on!"
She shakes her head and Brandt huffs. "That's it." He grabs Weston's arm and drags him to the door.
"Please," Weston chokes out, making one last grab for Nadya. His eyes tear up. "You're going to die in there."
Nadya's eyes well and tears spill down her cheeks. She stands unmoving as others rush around her, groping for the door before Brandt can slam it shut. I rush with them, but we're too late. Something heavy slides into the handles on the other side. The door won't budge.
Nadya coughs, and only then do I notice how thick the smoke is.
We're trapped in with the fire.
Evita
Sheer looks up, her eyes wide. "You," she repeats. She sets her gun down on the console and grips my arms with both hands.
I try to pull my hand away but her grip is strong. "What?"
"You've been taking the pills." Sheer laughs, covering her mouth. She lets go and grabs at the sides of her face. "Do you know what this means? We don't have to shut down the experiments anymore!" Her eyes are wide and shining.
My stomach rolls. Behind Sheer, the screens show fire leaping in the Solarium. Why haven't they left yet? I chew at my bottom lip.
She frowns. "But why did they work on you, and no one else?"
That gets my attention. "No one else?"
"You didn't think Nadya was the only one getting the formula did you?" My eyes widen and she laughs, a dry crackly sound. "You did. You thought we'd leave the fate of the experiment in your hands. The hands of an inexperienced little girl. No, there were others. But it didn't work on them. So why did it work on you?"
Sheer grabs my shoulders and I recoil. She studies me, like she can find the answers just by looking closely into my pores. "I never imagined this would happen when I put that gun in your purse," she says.
My mouth falls open and I stiffen. "You did that? But why—"
"That boy who escaped," she says, her expression pinched. "I knew he would come after me. He wanted to kill me. And he knew I'd be on campus giving a speech."
I try to swallow but my throat feels thick. Dale was right. Trenton hadn't been planning to hurt anyone. Anyone besides Sheer, that is. And I killed him. My breath hitches.
Sheer continues. "I couldn't let him get taken into custody. I couldn't shoot him myself, either. Too many questions. I needed someone else to do it for me."
"But why me?" My voice cracks.
Sheer smiles. "I'd noticed you as an intern. You worked the hardest, you were willing to do anything to get ahead. Like me. I knew you'd do what it took to survive. When you threw your phone in your purse instead of docking it to your wrist, I realized you'd have to retrieve it to call the police, so I planted the gun there."
I stare at her.
"I know what you're thinking. It was risky. How could I know you would be in the right place? How could I know you wouldn't drop the gun squealing? But I didn't have any other options. If the media traced that boy back to me, it would expose everything we're doing here."
Sheer reaches out to touch my hand, beaming again. "Everything will change now, Evita."
I back away.
"Come with me. I'll get you a spot in soil fertility. An apartment in the city, overlooking the windmills. Wouldn't that be nice? We can work together on this. "
Sheer is offering me everything I wanted before all this began. Everything I spent years working towards. A prestigious job in soil research. A place away from Grandfather. A chance to start over fresh, with a plan, a future ahead of me.
On the screen behind her, Brandt slams the door on Dale and the others, locking them in. Dale pounds at the door, but it won't budge. I can't abandon them. Panic ripples at the edge of my vision.
"Evita." Sheer smashes the screen, and the image goes black. "Your friends are trapped. Come with me now and we can save them. It doesn't have to end like this."
The cracks in the screen zig zag from the center, like a convoluted spiderweb. If I go with Sheer, this will never end. Dale and Nadya will still be test subjects. I will too, under the guise of a normal life. I can't let that happen. I take a deep breath. I have to trust that Dale will find another way to get everyone out.
"I won't go with you." My voice doesn't crack this time.
Sheer's nostrils flare. "I don't have to take you alive. We can study a body just as well as a living person."
I eye the gun she set down on the console, every nerve in my body on fire. I never thought it would come down to this. The last time I shot someone it turned out to be a mistake. I never thought I'd be put in the position a second time. A third time. But here I am.
This time, I know a lot more than I did then. I know that Sheer will never let this go. She will never stop hunting me down. She will never stop testing her drug on unwilling subjects, perfecting it. I know what I have to do.
Lightning quick, I pull the gun from my sling and take aim.
Sheer's eyes widen. "Evita, no."
I pull the trigger.
It's not easy, but I do it.
Blood sprays. I turn my head, but not before I feel the droplets splatter my face and hair. Sheer falls to the ground. My head swims, and I reach a hand out to the wall to steady myself. I can't faint. Not this time. I'm not done.
My stomach recoils and I retch in the corner until I'm dry heaving because there's nothing left. Then I wipe my mouth and look up at the screens for Dale and Nadya.
***
Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! Please don't forget to vote if you liked this chapter :).
And thank you to the readers who have enjoyed Escaping Elysia so far and left me comments and votes!