Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)(86)

I keep the light pointing straight ahead and my eyes and ears open. Whoever is down here isn’t sane. And if the people behind us are any indication, I’m sure they aren’t friendly, either.

With Gavin tapping me on the shoulder each time we need to turn, we finally find another room. The door is partially ajar. Lucky, I think, until I see what is holding it open.

The body of a girl in Enforcer garb is lying in the doorway. Blood puddles around her body. She’s young, younger than she should be. Is Mother getting so desperate she’s bringing them in earlier? Which begs the question, is she skipping parts of their training? Or just training them faster?

Trying not to gag, I step over her. Gavin does the same, but I notice he doesn’t even flinch when he sees her.

For some reason, that makes me livid. She looks barely old enough to be an Enforcer, and she’s already dead. He should be as shocked as I am.

I bite back the urge to yell all this at him. It’s just the Conditioning making me feel this way, I remind myself. He’s not saying anything because it won’t help us. It will only make things worse. And he probably doesn’t want to set me off again. But I can’t help but glance down at the girl one more time before I straighten my shoulders and follow Gavin to the power console.

There’s a series of levers, dials, and switches and I don’t know which does what. I stare blankly at it. Gavin seems to understand how it works, however, and quickly starts turning knobs and dials, and flipping switches. Then he goes to a big metal box secured to the wall and lifts a lever on the side.

I narrow my eyes. How does he know how to do that?

I’m distracted when light floods into the compartment, blinding me. There’s a whoosh-thud-squish sound and I realize with horror that it’s the door. It’s opening and closing on the girl. Every time it closes, it tries to latch, but can’t. Because of her head.

I rush over and try to pull her out of the way. But I can’t, because an experiment has decided now that he can see, he’s got himself a feast.

He makes a high-pitched scream when I yank her away and swipes out with a knife. The first swing catches my bad shoulder, tearing the skin. I scream and he lashes out again, just barely missing my stomach. Again I try pulling her out of the way, but another experiment rushes through the open door and plows into me. We both slam into the ground and he knocks the breath out of me.

Gavin pulls out his plasma pistol and shoots both men. They disappear in a burst of flames. Then Gavin sweeps me up and over his shoulder. He runs with me down the corridor, while I fight to get down.

Anger swiftly flows into me as another horde of Mother’s mistakes file into the hallway, instantly giving chase.

Trying to channel the anger into something other than shooting Gavin in the head, I pull my pistol out and start shooting behind him. One by one, the experiments fall, but for every hit there’s a dozen more chasing after us.

Gavin jumps nimbly over the piles of dead bodies, somehow making sure to avoid stepping on anyone, or slipping on the slick floors.

I don’t know where all this is coming from, but I’m not complaining, since he’s saving my life.

Gavin flies into the stairwell and up the flights of stairs. By the time we reach the top, he’s winded and wheezing, and I can tell his legs are weak and shaking, but he doesn’t stop to catch his breath. He continues down the corridors the way we came until we’re back in the submarines’ bay.

All in all, we’ve only been gone maybe thirty minutes. How did he know how to work the power generator? What else hasn’t he told me?

I shake my head furiously. It’s only the Conditioning. He saved me.

There’s shouting and running feet from the corridor and I know it won’t be long before those things find us.

Gavin sets me down on my feet, then goes to the control panel. “Evie, I need your help. We need to lock ourselves into the room until we can get in the subs. Do you remember how?”

I try, but I can’t. “No. I’m sorry.”

The shouts come closer and I panic. We’ll be trapped if I don’t remember how to work the controls.

My heart careens around in my chest and I can’t catch my breath as the entire room spins.

I stare at Gavin in horror. He’s going to die if I don’t do something. I rip off the bandage, shove my thumb into the wound in my shoulder and twist, hoping the pain will help clear my head. Then, suddenly, I hear that click again. The click of my Enforcer training. And I do remember. I remember everything Mother taught me. I walk to the control panel and lay my palm flat on the hand plate, then flip the switch for the doors to lock.

Gavin exhales in relief. “Can you work the subs? We need to get the hell out of here.” His eyes are wild with fear, but all I see is a dirty, manipulative, and dangerous Surface Dweller. One who killed your best friend and her boyfriend, a voice says in my head.

No, that’s not right. I did it. Nick killed Macie and I killed Nick.

No. He did. You remember. He killed them—he only made sure you thought he did. And he let that little girl die. He could have saved her, but he didn’t.

“No,” I whisper, pressing a hand to the sharp pain forming above my right eye.

Yes. He’s the one who let that poor little girl die in the power control room. She couldn’t have been any older than seven. A promising young Enforcer snuffed out by a vile Surface Dweller. He’ll kill you next. He’s been lying to you this whole time. He was sent to destroy Elysium. That’s how he knew how to work the generator. He’s just manipulating you.