The Life Beyond (14 page)

They exchanged looks and slowly, one after the other, nodded. It showed how much they’d gone through that they accepted it without complaining.

“We’ll follow you wherever you go, Quentin,” Marty said.

Quentin didn’t say anything but I could tell that the boy’s words meant a lot to him. The Undergrounders trusted his judgement.

“What about your dad, Sherry?” Joshua asked gently. “He needs the cure. It’s been six days since he started showing symptoms. Maybe you should go back with Tyler and the others.”

I looked at him then, gratitude swelling in my chest. But I realized that a big part of me wanted to help Joshua and Quentin gather evidence against the government. This had been my idea from the start and I wanted to make sure it was successful.

“I’m taking the cure with me,” Tyler said. “Geoffrey and I can go to your home in L.A. We don’t need to wait for you.”

I couldn’t believe Tyler would offer to do that for me. But Joshua spoke up. “Wouldn’t you want to do that yourself?”

“I think Sherry could,” interrupted Quentin. “I don’t want to stay on this side of the fence any longer than I have to. We could get it done in a day. If we hurry, maybe we can even catch up with the others. Traveling in large groups always takes longer.”

I glanced at Joshua. He didn’t try to talk me into coming with him but his eyes said it all. No matter what, he wanted me with him; wanted to be there so he could be the one to keep me safe.

I took the vials out of the bag except for one – in case we needed it – and handed them to Tyler who stuffed them into his backpack.

“It would be good if you could leave a car on the other side of the fence for our return,” Joshua said. “We might be on the run and won’t have the time to search the area for a ride.”

“Sure. I’ll hide it in the bushes near the tunnel entrance.”

I hugged Tyler. “Stay safe,” I whispered. After a moment he returned my hug. “You too,” he said. “And keep Joshua out of trouble.”

“I will.” As I said it, I realized that was another reason I couldn’t go with Tyler and the Undergrounders. I had become as protective of Joshua as he was of me. I had to make sure he made it home alive.

As I stepped away from Tyler, tears filled my eyes. This could be the last time we saw each other.

Joshua and Tyler now faced each other, hands in their pockets. “Be careful,” Tyler said before pulling Joshua into a brief embrace.

Quentin rubbed Alexis’s back as she buried her face in his chest. It was the first time I’d seen those two so close. With an embarrassed smile, she took a step back to give Marty room to shake Quentin’s hand. The rest of the Undergrounders crowded around their leader, hugging him and saying their goodbyes. I realized then how much he was risking by leaving them in the care of Tyler and helping us on our mission.

Eventually Quentin joined Joshua and me in the old Nissan we’d chosen for our journey.

Quentin and Joshua took the front seats. I sat in the back, staring out of the window as the car moved away. Tyler raised one hand in a final goodbye. I held my hand up to the window and waved slowly. I kept on waving until they had completely disappeared from view.

Chapter 13

We searched two stores before we found a couple of old cameras and some batteries.

1 hour and 37 minutes after we separated from the Undergrounders we finally reached the military base, which was a few miles outside of Vegas. We parked a safe distance away and decided to walk the rest.

“We’re almost there. Let’s stay here until nightfall. It’ll be easier to get inside then,” Quentin said. We leaned against the wall of a run-down building. A faded sign announced that it had been a motel long ago. Windows and doors were missing and the inside was blackened. It looked like it had been set on fire.

“How will we get inside?” I asked.

Quentin searched his pockets and pulled out a cigarette. “We’ll use the airshafts. There are no cameras and we can observe the rooms through the grids before we go in.”

“Grids?” Joshua said. “What will we do with them?”

“We’ll screw them off. I’ve got pliers.”

“Won’t that take too long?” I asked.

“Not if you’re fast.” Quentin let out a cloud of smoke and closed his eyes. He seemed so sure of himself and his plan. I wished I could share his optimism.

Now that we were near, it was hard to sit and wait, to feel the minutes and hours go by while Tyler and the Undergrounders were risking their life getting past the fence, while my dad was alone in L.A. turning into a Weeper.

In the night we moved on and the grey walls of the barracks came into view. A chain-link fence surrounded the entire complex with a crown of barbed wire on top. I expected watch towers and soldiers armed with machine guns but this looked like a normal military base.

Spotlights illuminated almost every inch of the fence. “We’ll have to cut through the wires there.” Quentin pointed at one of the few places that was cloaked in darkness. We hurried toward it and crouched in the shadows.

“Most of the staff are in their barracks. They should be sleeping.” Quentin’s whisper cut through the silence. He pulled a knife from his pants and started cutting the wires of the fence. “A little help?” He raised an eyebrow. Joshua crouched beside him and used his own knife to sever the wires. I knelt beside them in the small space that lay in darkness and watched our surroundings. A few soldiers crossed the distance between the two closest buildings. A flag hung limply from a white pole. It was at half mast. I couldn’t help but wonder if something terrible had happened or if the current situation of our world warranted keeping this sign of sadness permanently.

Quentin and Joshua cut out a small patch of the fence.

“Isn’t that too small?” I asked.

“Give it a try,” Joshua encouraged me.

I got down on all fours, then lowered myself to my stomach. With my arms I pushed through the fence.

A creak, then laughter and I froze. A group of four men, dressed in military uniforms, walked out of the prison-like building and toward the sleeping quarters – the only one without bars on the windows. We stayed silent until they were gone.

Joshua was next up to get through the fence. He pressed his arms against his sides but the edges of the wires dug into his shoulders. Grimacing, he pushed himself through. Quentin made it with only a few scratches.

We crept from building to building until we eventually got to the main site.

“What about alarms?” Joshua asked.

Quentin shrugged. “They have alarms for the labs but once I’ve hacked into their system, I’ll disable them. It might take me a bit longer if they’ve improved their computer system. But the way I’m planning to get us in should be fine.”

Quentin edged toward the far corner of the building. Above his head was a small vent. He turned to me. “Sherry, you’re the smallest. We’ll lift you up and you can remove the grid. Climb on my shoulders.”

Quentin knelt and I swung my leg over his shoulder and held onto his head to keep my balance as he straigtened.

I took the pliers he held out and reached for the screws attaching the grid to the building, twisting them until they came loose. Quentin gripped my calves to keep me in place, until I pushed the grid into the airshaft. Then he set me down on my feet.

“Can you give me a boost?” he asked. “I should go first.”

Joshua entwined his hands and held them out for Quentin who used them as a ladder. The muscles in his arms quivered when he pushed himself into the airshaft. I was next. Joshua hoisted me up and I pulled myself into the opening. It was too small to turn around or even crouch, but the inside of the duct wasn’t slippery so my hands found purchase. I wriggled further into the shaft until my knees and feet were inside. I crawled forward until my face was inches from Quentin’s shoes. Inside the tight confines of the shaft, my head throbbed in rhythm with my pounding pulse. I tried to look over my shoulder for Joshua but I couldn’t even angle my head in the right direction.

After some shuffling and swearing, Joshua was behind me. He touched my ankle to let me know he was there.

Next, Quentin began threading his way through the narrow ducts. Sometimes we passed grids that allowed us to catch a glimpse of what lay below; corridors with grey floors and glaring light from halogen lamps illuminating parts of the shaft. Soon Quentin stopped and raised an arm, palm outward.

“It’s one of the staff rooms,” he murmured. “There are computers.”

“Let’s get down there,” Joshua said.

With the light from below, I saw Quentin shaking his head. “There are still people around. We need to wait for them to leave.”

Minutes trickled by as we lay motionless on our stomachs. Voices carried up through the grids but I couldn’t make out the words. I wished I was in Quentin’s place so I could watch what was going on. Finally, there was silence.

“It’s okay. They’re gone,” Quentin said.

There were no lab tables or Weepers or human lab rats in the room, only rows of desks and shelves with folders and books. There weren’t any windows and only one door.

Joshua checked the ceiling. “No surveillance cameras.”

“But the labs and corridors are full of them,” Quentin said. He sat down on a chair in front of a computer and started tapping on the keyboard.

Shivering, I rubbed my arms. “Is there anything we can do?”

“You could film the folders and maybe what’s inside while I try to break into their system.”

Joshua pulled the camera from his backpack and turned it on. We walked up to the shelves. I picked up a folder marked “resistance”. Joshua held the camera on the pages that described tests on Weepers. They’d exposed them to extreme heat, cold, hunger, pain – all kinds of things.

“It’s horrible,” I whispered.

Joshua’s face was fierce. “If you build an army, you want to know what they are capable of.”

Suddenly, Quentin cursed.

“What’s up?” Joshua asked.

“It’s not letting me open the documents folder with the locations of their labs and military bases. I could probably break their coding if I had a few more hours.”

“You don’t,” Joshua said.

“I know,” Quentin said impatiently. “I’ve hacked into their surveillance system and disabled the cameras. They’re now frozen on a static picture. Eventually someone will notice but it’ll give us some time.”

“Did you find more info about the collared Weepers or the tests?” I tried to catch a glimpse at the computer screen but it was filled with some kind of coding.

“I could try to open those folders but like I said that’ll take more time. For now we should just film the folders on the shelves and try to film the labs with Weepers.”

“Then let’s move.” Joshua walked up to the white door of the room and pressed down the handle. I held my breath as he opened it.

We slipped into the corridor, keeping our backs pressed against the grey walls.

“Take the stairs,” Quentin whispered as he led us through a steel door into a hallway. “The floorplans haven’t changed since I worked here.”

Joshua bent over the banister and looked down. The staircase seemed to go down forever. How many floors were underground? It smelled of concrete and sterility. The air got stuffier the farther we descended.

Quentin stopped in front of a door that had “-2” written on it. “This is it,” he whispered as he pushed open the door and peeked out.

The corridor was dimly lit. It reminded me of a prison with its rough concrete floors and walls. It was completely silent down here. I kept close to Joshua as we crept along the corridor. We passed several more steel doors but Quentin led us to the one at the end. As we entered, a wave of smells hit me and rooted me to the spot. Desinfectants, wet dog, urine, waste, blood.

Rows of lab tables and cages filled the room. My eyes darted over the unmoving human-looking forms lying on a few of the tables. I couldn’t tell if they’d been infected with rabies. There were a few Weepers and half-turned humans in cages. Joshua raised the camera and swept it over the tables. It felt bad, exploitative almost, to be filming them like this but we had no choice.

Joshua held out a second camera to me. “Quentin and I will film the files and the test persons. Can you film the Weepers?”

I took the camera and approached the cages. Some of the Weepers looked up. Their eyes were unfocused, their faces smeared with drool. I adjusted the focus to show a Weeper in detail, its eyes empty, but still too human. Before the rabies it had been a middle-aged man, I guessed. It was naked and cowered in the corner of its prison. It didn’t even notice me.

I moved on to the second cage. This Weeper was caught somewhere in the middle of the change and smaller than the one before. Its gaze flickered up when I appeared before it and I could tell that its features were female. It opened its mouth but instead of a growl or whine, only air came out. It was trying to form words. I stumbled on to the next cage and the next. How could the government do this to people?

“Sherry, are you almost done? We need to leave.”

“Just a sec.” I hadn’t filmed everything yet. Only two more cages and then another sweep of the room. My hands were clammy around the camera.

I zoomed in on the Weeper in the next cage. It had a shock of blond hair on its head and the face …

I clapped a hand over my mouth and fought a wave of sickness.

It was Bobby.