The Extinction Trials(73)

“Then why did they shoot you?” Owen asked.

“Like I know,” Alister muttered. “Probably my artificial knee. Forgive me for working my whole life and breaking down in the service of a bunch of thankless, ungrateful animals.” He pointed at Will. “I’m not the liar here. You should be asking him.”

“I never lied,” Will said. “Yes, I kept things from you all, but I was bound by my creator to follow those instructions. They were designed for your benefit—for the benefit of the trials, so that we might rescue those kept at the Garden.”

Will’s gaze settled on Cara and Alister on the floor. “But I am not the only one who has kept secrets.”

“What does that mean?” Owen asked.

“It means he’s a liar,” Alister shot back.

“Again,” Will said, “I never lied. I didn’t tell you the full truth because I couldn’t—until you knew, or it became necessary to inform you in order to save your lives. That time has come. There will be a time when the other secrets in this room—secrets others are keeping—must be revealed, but that time is not right now. Right now, you all must leave. I counted twenty spiders out there. If I’m right, more will come. They will wait outside until we exit.”

Alister shook his head. “The spiders don’t matter. They are only hunting me—and you, Will. The others can go. And they should. The storm is coming.”

“The storm is precisely why you all should go,” Will said. “But it’s not the only thing coming.”

“What do you mean?” Owen asked.

“Others.”

“Other what?”

“Extinction Trials participants. They have suits and I can hear their radios. They saw us coming in and have been tracking us. They’ll find us soon.”

“You all need to get out of here,” Alister said. “Enough talk.”

Owen shook his head. “We’re not leaving you.”

“Yes, you are.”

“We don’t leave people behind,” Owen said, his voice firm.

“That’s cute. It sounds nice. But this is the real world—”

“Yes, it is, Alister. It’s the real world. A ruined, messed up world, and all we have left is each other—in a world that is out to kill us. You know what I think is important?”

Alister exhaled heavily.

“What we do about it,” Owen said. “We’re the last people standing. We get to decide what the world is now. We decide what matters. This might be our last stand. We might walk out there and get taken down by the people who left The Extinction Trials before us—the people that decided that hunting each other and leaving people behind was an acceptable way to live. Maybe the storm will get us. Or the robots. Or something else. But if this is our last stand, we’ll go down with the last thing that matters in this world: our dignity and our humanity. We’ll die the way we lived: with our values.”





Chapter Fifty-Eight





For a long moment, the observation room was quiet. Everyone in the group seemed to be considering what Owen said.

Cara broke the silence. “I have never agreed with anything more in my life. We go together or not at all.”

“I also agree,” Maya said.

“Me too,” Blair said.

Alister rolled his eyes. “I really hate you people.”

Owen smiled. “We feel the same way, Alister. I’ll carry you if I have to, kicking and screaming.”

“I can walk,” Alister muttered. “They shot me in the shoulder, not the leg.”

“But you’ll get winded,” Owen said. “And you need to tell us when you do.”

“We should hurry,” Will said. “My guess is that this station is merely a trap. There’s chatter over the radio from the others. I think they know we’re here. They obviously have another station where they’re charging their oxygen tanks. I suspect they left this numbers station on as a way to draw in other trial participants. After all, there’s only one way out of here.”

“What’s the plan?” Owen asked.

“You all should put the suits on to protect you from the storm,” Will said. “It’s unclear when it will hit the city. In fact, it may already be here. I will lead the robots away. When I’m sure they’re following me, I’ll signal you over the suit radio. You’ll exit then and try to reach The Colony. You will need to hurry. Your only hope will be to outrun the others and reach The Colony before your oxygen expires.”

Without a further word of discussion, they moved to the airlock and donned their suits, Alister grunting and complaining the whole way.

Will handed Owen the GPS. “The Colony location is programmed in there.”

He gripped the handle to the outer airlock door, but he paused and looked back. “Good luck to all of you. I wish I could’ve done more.”

With that, Will opened the door and charged out, disappearing in a superhuman flash of speed.

Through the suit's external microphone, Owen heard gunfire in the distance, loud then growing more faint.

“You should go now,” Will said over the radio.

Owen and Alister led the group out into the small alleyway, then crept to the opening and peered out into the street.