The Extinction Trials(14)

Alister scoffed. “Well, I favor assuming the worst. It’s the only way to be prepared for it. Assuming people are going to do the right thing only sometimes pays off. Being a skeptic always pays off.”

Cara shook her head. “That’s not true. Distrust is a burden on any relationship—”

Alister reeled back. “Relationship?”

The older man held his hands up. “If I may. You both make valid points. Who is right? I submit that we don’t know for one simple reason: we lack, frankly, enough information. So, let us learn what we can.” He nodded to Maya. “And I suggest we start with you, Miss…”

“I’m Maya Young.” She paused, inhaled, and simply stopped at that.

Alister raised his eyebrows. “You unemployed?”

“Well, to be quite honest, I don’t recall precisely what I did before…” She turned to Bryce, who supplied the term she was looking for: “The Change.”

Maya nodded. “Before The Change.”

“How can you not remember what you did?” Alister muttered.

“Reasons for memory loss are vast,” Cara said. “And, I imagine, given the shock we’ve all had, not too uncommon.”

The older man turned to Owen. “And you? What about you? You ferried me out of that tube. I assume you’re another proctor for the trials?”

Owen reeled back, caught off guard. “No. I woke up here the same as you. I’m a fireman.”

The older man squinted. “Another lucky break—someone else with experience in emergency situations. Will you join us?” He motioned to a chair.

“I’ll stand,” Owen said. He really didn’t like this now, for two reasons. One, the man hadn’t invited Maya to sit. And two, he had yet to say a single word about himself.

The older man eyed the young girl in the corner, who was still sitting on the blankets.

“And who might you be, my dear?”

Her eyes went wide, and she simply shook her head.

Maya took a step toward her and knelt, wrapping her arms around the young girl. “She’s a little shaken. Her name is Blair—”

The sound of the crash shattered the quiet in the room. The noise was that of metal on metal. At first, Owen assumed someone was coming through the door. He spun around, moving his gaze from Maya and Blair, and he was horrified by what he saw.

The older man held a folded metal chair above his head. Bryce lay on the floor, twitching. The older man brought the chair down again, slamming it into Bryce’s head.

Owen expected to see blood. But there was none.





Chapter Twelve





Maya pulled Blair closer to her, burying the girl’s face in her chest.

The older man slammed the metal chair into Bryce again and again until the young man lay prone on the white tile floor, unmoving.

The shock of the assault was quickly replaced by a new realization: Bryce wasn’t a young man at all.

Where the chair had split his head open, Maya saw wires and hard plastic.

He was an android.

The older man was panting hard, eyes wide and wild, darting back and forth as he scanned the room, perhaps waiting for someone to attack him. When no one moved, he tossed the chair aside. “We have to get out of here.”

Owen moved toward him, carefully avoiding stepping on Bryce. “Why?”

The older man spoke quickly as he inhaled, trying to regain his breath. “The Extinction Trials aren’t what you think they are.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you outside.”

“We can’t go outside. The storm—”

The older man shook his head. “Lies. I suspect there’s no storm—and if there is, it’s likely no harm to us.”

He bent down and pulled on Bryce’s arm. The heap of mangled machinery barely moved.

“Help me,” he said to Owen. “Please. Every moment we stay here, we’re in danger.”

Reluctantly Owen helped lift the android and drag him to the door, where the older man pressed Bryce’s thumb into the panel.

The lights went off again. Blair nuzzled into Maya’s neck and clung to her. Slowly, the young girl began shaking again. Maya squeezed her tight.

In the darkness, Maya heard the door to the room open. Cold air rushed in. The red light from the hall flashed and went out, briefly lighting the scene in a crimson hue. In that momentary glimpse, Maya saw Owen and the other man in the hallway dragging Bryce behind them.

For reasons she couldn’t understand, Maya felt a surge of fear. This was wrong. Dangerous.

But why?

In her mind’s eye, she saw a memory of herself. She was standing in a decontamination chamber, putting a spacesuit on. This memory was from a place where she had worked—similar to this one. But what did it mean?

“Cara,” Maya called out in the darkness.

“Yes?”

The red light in the hall flashed, and at that moment, Maya made eye contact with the doctor. The woman appeared to be about Maya’s age, maybe slightly older.

“Can you take Blair?” Maya called in the darkness.

At the next flash of red, Cara was kneeling close to Maya, reaching out, taking Blair from her arms.

“I’ll be right back,” Maya whispered.