The Similars (The Similars #1)(97)

I feel the familiar prick as the injective pierces the skin of my upper arm. I know I only have moments before I’ll be at the mercy of whatever memory or darkness is to come. Before the injective takes hold of me, I scan the room for help, but I’m on my own. Levi has picked up Pru and is carrying her toward the exit, while Oliver tries to run interference. At least preserving Gravelle’s precious data means not killing us. The bullets have stopped flying for the time being, though the guards are wholly focused on keeping us in this room.

No one’s concerned about me anymore. I’ll be compromised in seconds. As soon as I’m thrust into the virtual reality, I’ll be helpless. I fight the sinking feeling in my gut that tells me I’m as good as dead because I won’t be able to defend myself. That’s when I notice the case of injectives. The guards have left it open. I drag myself over to pull two of the syringes and shove them into my pocket, then muster all my energy and concentration to follow Levi toward the door.

Pru insists that she’s regained her strength, and Levi sets her down.

A guard comes from the side, blocking the door. Pru surprises him with a kick to his groin. He bends over in pain, and we push past him into the hallway. Pru takes the lead, shouting that she knows the way out. Just before the injective overtakes me, a bullet strikes Ollie in the leg. I pray that when I finally return from this memory—if I ever return from this alternate reality—we’ll both still be alive.





Injected


I don’t know what I expect when my vision returns. My childhood home? Hades Point? Instead, I’m right where I was moments ago—in the hallway of the compound.

Oliver is only a few yards away, gingerly testing his weight on his injured leg and wincing in pain. Pru is farther down the hall. Is this real or just a memory?

A bullet flies past my head.

I don’t know if it’s possible to die in a virtual reality, but I don’t want to find out. I have to move. I need to get out of here.

I reach an arm out to Oliver, urging him to lean on me. He does, and we make our way with Levi toward Pru, who holds open a door at the end of the hallway.

“Come on,” she urges. “I left a small boat anchored to the dock. We can take that back to the mainland.”

I assist Oliver through the exit and wait for Levi and Pru to pass before going through it myself. The door shuts behind me, and I exhale. Even though we’re still not in the clear, I’m relieved. My friends and I will make it out of here—out of this vision I’m experiencing, and in real life too. We will leave this island for good. We have to.

My friends. Suddenly, I’m in a dark hallway. They aren’t here.

“Pru?” I cry out. “Ollie? Levi?” I turn around, squinting in the dark, praying that they’re up ahead or around a corner. But from what I can see, the hall is empty. They’re gone, and I’m entirely alone.

Fueled by my desperate need to survive, I jog down hallway after hallway, losing myself in the heart of the compound. When I reach the end of a long corridor, I pause, wondering whether to go left or right. Two guards grab me. Before I can resist, they carry me off. I try to free myself from their grasp. It’s a futile effort. They are too strong, and their grip is as unmovable as a vise.

Within moments, we are back in the big room where Gravelle kept Pru. The room looks the same as it did when we left it, only the floor is covered in blood. New terror grows in the pit of my stomach. They are bringing me here for a reason. That reason must be to kill me.

The guards strap me into the manacles that bound Pru to the wall. They yank my arms to the ceiling and handcuff them into the shackles. They bind my feet too, then hook me up to electrodes. I scream, and they poke needles into my veins. I imagine myself trapped here indefinitely—my friends gone and unable to save me. That’s when I realize there are worse things in life than death. Like this. Definitely this.

No! I scream in my mind, as the guards stab me with more needles, conversing in a language I can’t understand. No, I plead, tears pooling in my eyes.

Someone appears in front of me, pacing back and forth, surveying his handiwork. I blink out my tears, expecting to see Gravelle—the madman himself. But it’s not him. Instead, Headmaster Ransom is the one studying me. He watches from a comfortable distance as the guards finish their work.

“Emmaline,” Ransom booms. “It’s a pity things had to end this way. But you always were so…fascinating. My research on the Similars is plateauing. I need a new subject. Someone with potential. Someone like you.”

“Never.” I grimace, the pain of the needles and the throbbing in my shoulders beginning to make me woozy. “I’ll sabotage the data. You’ll never get anything from me.”

Ransom sighs. “I do wish duty had taught you a lesson, Emma, but I can see it had little effect on you. Guards? Can we see how her body reacts to the drowning sensation?”

“No!” I shriek. I won’t let him torture me. I wrench my hands and my body against the binds that hold me. In one excruciating motion, they pop. The handcuffs release.

Wait—how…?

And that’s when I remember: flying from Hades Point. Floating, freezing in midair, and flying upward, not falling down onto the rocky crags. Saving myself.

This isn’t real, Emma. It’s only a simulation. A fabrication. A fiction.