The Extinction Trials(79)

A voice over the speaker boomed in the room. “His real name is Guthrie. He’s the agent that brought them in.”

“Oh. Okay, get him in here after they’re treated.”

He focused on Maya. “It’s good to see you again, Maya. I know you don’t remember me. Or what happened between us. We’ll talk about that as soon as you remember.”

He motioned to the tray and the injectors. “And that will happen very soon. This is a cure for the Genesis Virus, or GV as we called it.”

“You have a cure?” Maya asked. Even Owen could hear the hopefulness in her voice.

The man exhaled and then laughed. “The irony. Yes, Maya, we have a cure. You developed it. Just like you helped develop the virus.”





Chapter Sixty-Three





Maya allowed them to inject her with what they claimed was the cure to the Genesis Virus. She didn’t see what choice she had. Apparently, Owen and Cara didn’t either. They could have fought against it, but that would have been a useless endeavor. And besides, if the injector held an actual cure for the virus, Maya was ready.

She was also ready for answers.

And ready to remember.

And to get out of here.

Had she truly been part of the team that created the virus and the cure? If so, she was partially or perhaps even fully responsible for The Change and the war that followed the Fall. That thought weighed on her as she paced the room where they were being held.

The door opened and Alister strode in, a somber look on his face. He wore clothes similar to Blair’s father—a gray tunic and pants, and the man had clearly had a bath. The arm below the shoulder where he had been shot was in a sling. Overall, Alister looked, in a word, renewed.

Owen and Cara spoke at the same time, and Alister held his good hand up. “I know you have questions. Let me just… try to explain.”

“Who are you?” Owen asked.

“My name’s Guthrie.”

“Not Alister?”

“No. Alister was some guy that died in the chamber. I found him in Station 17 and assumed his identity when I entered the station.”

“Back up,” Maya said. “Start at the beginning. I want to hear your whole story.”

Alister smiled. “You already have.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The journal.”

“From the boat?”

“Yes. I wrote it.”

Maya was shocked. She never saw that coming. She turned the revelation over in her mind, willing herself to remember the details.

“So, you’re not a city bus mechanic?” Owen asked.

“I am, actually. Everything I told you was true. I was a city bus mechanic, and I was there the day of the Fall. I marched into that server room and nearly died when that bus crashed into it.”

Alister held his hands out. “But the other part of my story was in the journal. I woke up in The Extinction Trials just like you all did. I woke up in that city out there that we just traipsed through. It was a war zone. I wrote the journal because that’s what they told me to do, and back then, I was still who I was before—a civil servant who did what he was told.”

He let out a laugh. “What a crock. I wrote that journal, and you know what happened. The world out there picked us off one by one. We betrayed one another. We got killed. And two of us were saved.”

Alister motioned to the room around them. “By The Human Union. They brought us here, to The Colony, and fed us and protected us.”

“And you joined them,” Owen said.

“I had no choice.”

“Why?”

“Love.”

“I don’t follow,” Maya said.

“I put it in the journal,” Alister said, turning away from them. He didn’t seem to want to say any more about it.

Maya tried to remember what she had read. “Yes, you said that you’d fallen in love with one of the other trials participants.”

Alister nodded. “She and I were the only ones left. Carmen is her name. She had the Genesis Virus, just like you. They cured her. And they showed us what our life could be like here at The Colony.”

“And what is that life like?” Owen asked.

“It’s not perfect, I’ll grant you that. But we’re not running for our lives every day. And there’s food. And… well, the other aspect is hard to explain.”

“Where are we?” Cara asked. “Where is The Colony?”

“In truth, I don’t know. It’s underground, a vast bunker city with connecting tunnels to entry terminals like this one.”

“Entry terminals?” Owen asked.

“Basically, holding areas where field agents like me enter—a place to quarantine and confine anyone who might be dangerous.”

“And who might be dangerous to The Colony?” Owen asked.

“Everyone who hasn’t joined The Union,” Alister replied. “The Change War isn’t over. It’s still raging. You saw it out there. It’s become a global trench war, both sides in their bunkers, returning to the surface only to look for survivors and to wage war.”

“Is that what you were doing out there? Waging war? Or looking for survivors?” Maya asked.