The Extinction Trials(40)

Alister shook his head. “We know the journal is fairly recent—the bodies we found weren’t decomposed.”

“They were in suits,” Owen said, “that were out of oxygen. They would have served as a sort of preservation capsule, minimizing oxidation. And as Will pointed out, we don’t know for certain that either of those two individuals wrote the journal.”

Alister glanced toward the sky. “Okay, now we’re making assumptions about how the suits preserve cadavers and whether the journal was left by literary pirates. This is useless. Let’s just skip to the end and go to The Colony and live happily ever after.”

“It’s too suspicious,” Will said. “It just strikes me as wrong.”

“I have to agree,” Maya said. “Something about it bothers me as well. I can’t put my finger on it.”

Cara steepled her fingers. “For me, it’s a simple decision. We have two destinations. Both are risks. Both unknowns. But we have more reason to believe that The Colony will have what we need than the Escape Hatch. And, assuming you believe that part of the journal, we have reason to avoid the Escape Hatch destination. I vote to go to The Colony.”

Alister focused on Owen. “That’s two for The Colony and two for the Escape Hatch. What’ll it be, Owen? Make a smart decision here.”

Owen didn’t like being pressured. He also sensed something going on here. It was the same feeling he had in the observation room when the old man maneuvered everyone into talking about themselves before he moved to kill Bryce. Or destroy Bryce.

But what was happening here?

“I dispute the premise,” Owen said quietly.

“What premise?” Alister shot back.

“That we need to decide right now.”

“Of course we do,” Alister said. “We have a limited amount of food, and we need to enter those coordinates for The Colony and change course—immediately.”

“We have something else,” Owen said. “Something that can help us decide.” He paused, then said, “Information.”

Alister laughed. “I don’t get it.”

“We have information about the world before,” Owen said. “We have information that might help us figure out what to do. It’s right here and we should go through it before we make a decision.”

Will cocked his head. “I don’t follow?”

“The information is inside of each of us,” Owen said. “We have our stories. Each of us has a story about how the world ended. We saw it from different angles. And we have the stories of where we came from, what we did before The Change. Somewhere in there, maybe there’s a clue about what The Extinction Trials really are, about what ARC Technologies is truly up to—maybe even what The Colony is.”

Alister plopped down on the couch and let his face fall into his hands. “That’s your solution? Let’s all share? This… is a waste of time. A complete and utter waste of time.”

“No,” Owen said, his voice firm. “It’s not. It’s the most important thing we can do right now.”

He took a step into the main deck, out of the sunlight. “Think about this: why did that cohort die?”

Alister glanced up. “You’re kidding, right? Arrows? Stolen food? Weird virus.” His eyes drifted to Maya.

“No. Those are how they died. Not why.”

Maya held up a hand to Owen. “All right. I’ll bite. Why’d they die?”

“Because they simply ran the maze. From the time they exited their station chambers to the moment they were killed or captured or rescued, all they did was try to survive.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Alister said.

“Look at where it got them.”

Cara leaned forward at the table. “What exactly are you proposing?”

“I propose we take a different path. What I think we need to do is solve the fundamental problem: what is The Change and what happened to the world? Once we know that, it’ll help us figure out what to do, maybe even where to go and who to trust.”

“Wonderful,” Alister said. “That’s great. Why didn’t I think of that brilliant breakthrough?”

“Simple,” Owen said. “We were doing the same thing they were: just trying to survive another day. Look at what happened to them. They died because they betrayed each other. Didn’t trust each other. Part of that is because they didn’t know each other. They didn’t share their stories. They didn’t see themselves in each other. Imagine if they had gotten to know one another? What might they have learned? Could they have changed their fate?” Owen paused. “If you ask me, the root mistake they made is not coming together as a team. When it was tough, they pulled apart. They didn’t work together. And if we don’t get to know each other and start working as a team, our fate could be the same.”





Chapter Thirty-Three





For a long moment, the group fell silent. Wind blew through the boat as the outboard motors purred and the waves crashed on the hull.

Maya’s mind was reeling from what the journal had revealed—and the discussion among the group. She had to admit, she was torn on which destination to favor.

She knew she needed medical attention. Soon. More than that, she wanted to know what had happened to her sister and mother. Were they at The Colony? Had they even survived the Fall?