The Extinction Trials(77)

“Let’s go.”

At that moment, Cara arrived. She bent over, placed her hands on her knees, and sucked in air. She had been running as fast as she could.

Alister trotted into the small clearing next, panting, but it wasn’t clear to Owen if it was from his shoulder wound or his journey through the woods.

The four of them marched through the forest then, Blair leading the way, Owen close behind, and Alister and Cara bringing up the rear.

Ahead, Owen saw what he thought was a sinkhole in the earth, an almost square divot that led down into darkness.

Blair stopped on the precipice and pointed downward. Owen snapped his flashlight on and shined it down into the darkness. There, lying on the ground, was Maya, her eyes closed, unmoving.





Chapter Sixty-One





Maya awoke to a tapping sound.

Her head ached. Body too.

The tapping noise came again, a loud rapping on her helmet visor.

She opened her eyes and instantly closed them when she saw the bright light shining down on her face.

The light shifted away, and she opened her eyes again to see Owen peering down at her. Blair stood behind him.

His voice came over the radio. “Are you okay?”

She reached for her arm panel, attempting to enable her radio.

“I turned your radio on,” Owen said.

“I’m okay,” she breathed out, her voice a mere croak.

“Your suit’s okay too,” Owen said.

Maya realized that Cara was beside Owen. The doctor reached out and helped Maya sit up, the hand on her back gently pushing, the pain growing worse with each movement.

Sitting up, Maya saw what had happened then: she had fallen down a set of concrete stairs that had been covered with limbs and leaves. The darkness from the storm blotting out the sun and the falling debris from the trees had made the steps impossible to see.

She turned and glanced behind her. There was a hatch there, with a keypad beside it.

“How’d you find me?” Maya asked, her voice steadier now.

Owen turned his helmet towards Blair. “You are very lucky. Blair came to find me, and I gathered the others.”

“It was very touching,” Alister grumbled, “but we should hurry now.”

He moved to the keypad at the hatch and began typing in numbers.

“You know the code?” Owen asked.

“Stay. Off. The radio,” Alister spat out. “In fact. Turn them off.”

He reached out to his panel and tapped quickly. Then he pointed at the GPS and then at his head. Maya knew the man well enough to understand exactly what he was saying: use your head, idiots.

He had reasoned that the key code to the door was the GPS coordinates, and he was right. The hatch popped open, revealing a dark room beyond.

Owen helped Maya to her feet and through the hatchway, Blair following close behind. Cara slammed the door shut and Alister shined his flashlight in the space. Maya had expected to see the decontamination chamber. Instead, she saw only a cramped, dark room with concrete walls. A single small corridor led out of the space.

Owen took the lead, venturing into the passageway and the darkness. Maya followed, the rest behind her.

The passage ended at another hatch with another keypad. Owen glanced at the handheld GPS, then typed the numbers into the pad. A red light blinked.

For a moment, nothing happened. Everyone simply stood there, staring at one another, wondering what to do next. Alister scratched at his forearm and shifted uncomfortably. Maya assumed that the exertion of the trip and the gunshot wound in his shoulder were starting to get to him. She was a little surprised he was still on his feet. She could see him sweating profusely in the helmet.

To her surprise, the hatch popped open, revealing what she had expected after the first hatch: a decontamination chamber. The group shuffled in and the door closed behind them, and the nozzles above opened up, raining down milky-white fluid.

When the shower was over, a man’s voice came over the speaker. “Suits off.”

Maya didn’t see what choice they had. Apparently, neither did the others. At once, they all stripped the suits off, placing them in crumpled piles on the floor.

As Maya wiggled out of her suit, she pulled out the blank page she had found in the envelope from Station 17. It floated to the floor and landed in a pool of decontamination liquid.

Maya bent down, picked it up, and was about to slip it in her pocket when she noticed that faint black lines had formed on the page where the liquid had soaked through. She desperately wanted to inspect it, but she knew that would draw attention. She sensed that she should hide the new information until she understood what it was—and until she figured out if The Colony truly was a safe place.

She slipped the page in her pocket as she stood.

“Any weapons?” the voice asked over the radio.

“No,” Alister barked. “I’ve been shot. Let us in!”

Over the speaker, the man chuckled. “Glad to see the time away hasn’t changed you, Guthrie.”

The inner hatch opened, and a tall man stepped through. He had short hair and a long beard, and he smiled at Alister. “Welcome back. And well done.”





Chapter Sixty-Two





For a long moment, Owen could barely process what he was seeing. This man knew Alister. Alister—or Guthrie, whatever his name was—had been here before.