“That was the old me.” My next words were
bitter but necessary, “That was Celeste. I’m not her anymore.”
“We’ll see.” She didn’t sound convinced. “Do
as you’re told, and I’ll make sure you see the Surface again.
Otherwise, you’ll be down here forever.”
“Mother, be honest with me,” I said, deciding
to try and get answers to questions that had plagued me since being
brought back here. “What happened up there? The Surface isn’t like
the pictures and videos you show us. What really happened?”
She didn’t answer immediately, as if parsing
her words before saying them. “You went through a lot up there. You
saw some things that I wish you hadn’t.”
“The zombies.”
She nodded and said, “Yes, among other
things. The Surface you saw isn’t the way the world really is.
There are better places; other places that aren’t as bad as the
world you saw. The pictures and videos the Administrators show you
are of those places. The places where you and the other Dawns will
live.”
“And what about the people like Kim and Hero?
What about the people that were killed in Vineyard? What did they
do to deserve to be stuck in this world instead of wherever it is
that you’re taking the Dawns?” I tried not to sound argumentative
or accusatory, but merely curious.
“They’re part of the problem, Cobra.”
“What do you mean?”
“The people you met on the Surface aren’t
like you or me or the rest of the Dawns. They’re…” She searched for
the right word. “They’re not as evolved as we are.”
“Evolved?”
“Yes. The Dawns are the next step in human
evolution. You and the other girls represent the future of mankind,
and the people like Levon are from a dying age. They don’t have a
place in our new society.”
“What makes them different?”
“Quite a bit,” said mother. “You’re a perfect
human, Cobra. You were created that way. We took great pains to
ensure that your genetic code was as close to perfect as we could
make it. You’re everything that normal humans can only hope to be.
From head to toe, you’re perfect.”
“According to you.”
“No, Cobra, according to science.”
“But out there,” I pointed up, “not everyone
looks like we do. They don’t all have blonde or red hair, and they
have skin of all sorts of colors, not just white like ours. What
makes us better than them?”
“It’s complicated, Cobra. You’ll just have to
trust me.”
“You’ve given me so many good reasons to
trust you.” I couldn’t hide my contempt anymore.
“Don’t test me. I’ve been good to you.”
“Not a test,” I said as I laid back down.
“I’ve learned all I need to know.”
Beatrice Dell
Jerald was up to something. He’d been
avoiding me all day, despite my multiple attempts to contact him.
The other members of The Electorate that were stuck here with me
pleaded for information, but it was necessary to keep them in the
dark about a great many things. Nothing destroys a game quicker
than too many players, and I didn’t need their help. I also didn’t
need their input. There were too many fractures in The Electorate
these days, but what we needed was a single, unified plan. I had to
be the one to take charge of the situation, and I was confident
that I could make everything turn out to our benefit.
I had the ability to leave if needed. I’d
taken Hank’s badge, which would grant me access to the rest of the
facility, but I didn’t want anyone to know that I had it. I’d snuck
off during the night, and got to the Administrator’s area to
contact Cobra, a risky move even at night, but I had to make sure
she was warned about what might happen.
Hero’s blood was still with me, tucked into
my coat pocket, and I would use it to force Covington to lock down
the facility if needed. However, I was hoping that Jerald could
manage to capture the Rollers first. He was supposed to have met
with me in the morning, but he never showed up. In fact, none of
the guards or doctors we usually saw ever came. We were left here
to wonder what was wrong, and every minute I grew more
impatient.
There was something wrong, I was certain of
it.
Unlike Richard, Jerald was a wildcard. We
were running out of time to protect ourselves from the ravages of
the Tempest Strain, and Jerald was fighting against the plan that
The Electorate and Covington had agreed to. I knew that Richard
still consulted Jerald, which meant it was possible that he might
change his mind about a great many things that I depended on
turning in my favor.
I knew that a release of the infection within
the facility would force Covington to lock the facility down. I’d
found a way around Covington’s uncertainty, and made it possible to
save the Dawns, as well as myself, no matter what occurred.
Ideally, I didn’t want the lockdown to occur
because of an outbreak. That was the riskier option. I preferred
that Covington initiated the lockdown on his own, and thus properly
prepared us for it by securing enough doctors, nurses, and
Administrators to keep the facility running properly. To throw the
entire facility into chaos by releasing the infection was dangerous
and risky.
The Electorate needed Covington dead. They’d
made that clear enough. And I knew that it wasn’t worth the risk
for them to come and save me with Covington still alive. Covington
and I were among few surviving members of The Electorate that knew
the truth about what happened two decades earlier. That knowledge
was dangerous, and the revelation that Covington still owned his
original tablet meant that he had the ability to transfer this
information to an unwitting populace that we’d protected from the
truth for so many years.
While our scientists toiled away on the
mainland, locked in these underground bunkers and working on the
development of the Tempest Strain, we were slowly eradicating
evidence of what we had done. None of the people that lived in this
area were to ever survive The Noah Initiative, which was something
that Covington had learned. His and Jerald’s rebellion was exactly
what we’d feared all along. Knowledge is power, and in the wrong
hands, it’s absolutely deadly.
I was pacing outside of the elevator. None of
the members of The Electorate had been allowed to speak with their
Dawns yet today, and we’d grown restless. I didn’t have the
patience to wait with the others, and had come here so that I could
be the first to chastise our escort once he arrived.
The bell chimed as the elevator reached our
floor, and I was surprised when the door opened to reveal Jerald
himself instead of Gabe or one of his other lackeys. I was further
startled by his appearance.
To his credit he wasn’t disheveled. He
maintained his military-strict style and composure, with his shirt
tucked neatly in his slacks and his weapon on full display in the
holster at his side, but his skin had turned a sickly, pale green.
His pock-marked jaw shuddered as he stood there, and I realized he
was shivering. The behemoth of a man, a tower of strength and
self-assurance, had succumbed to the infection that would
eventually ravage the world.
He smiled down at me.
“Jerald,” I said in shock.
“Just the bitch I was looking for.” He drew
his pistol.
I backed away, but he breached the distance
between us in a flash. He grabbed my shirt and pulled me to the
wall with enough force to cause me to whimper. Jerald set the
barrel of the gun to the side of my face.
“What are you doing?” I asked in terror. “Why
are you…”
“You thought you were so smart. You thought
you had us all fooled.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do. But it doesn’t even matter
anymore. You’re not going to win.”
He pushed the barrel harder against my
temple, causing me to wince. Then he started to tap the gun against
me, taunting me.
“Are you going to cry?”
“Someone’s lied to you, Jerald. I don’t know
what you were told, but it’s not…”
“Stop with the lies, Beatrice. I know about
Hank, and Gabe, and the other people that have been working with
The Electorate.”
I knew about Hank, but I wasn’t certain what
he meant when he said that Gabe was working with us. I didn’t have
to entirely feign ignorance when I said, “I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”
“I found Hank’s communications with The
Electorate. I know how you’ve been injecting Levon with the virus
every night so that we would think his disease was mutating. I know
all about your little scheme, you bitch.” He pushed at me with the
gun.
“If you kill me, then you’ll lose any chance
you’ve got at surviving.”
“Look at me, I’m dead already. I didn’t even
get bit, but apparently your little virus can sneak in through the
skin.”
I was struggling to come up with a way to
save myself. I could feel that gun barrel tapping against my
temple, and sweat began to drip down my brow. “What about your men?
You want them safe, right? Then work with me, Jerald. Stop fighting
the inevitable.”
“You know, there was one thing I couldn’t
figure out about you and The Electorate,” said Jerald as he pressed
me harder against the wall. “You were all so interested in finding
those Sons of Reagan. But if you were going to release the disease
no matter what, then why’d you want them so bad?”
“Do you really think I’m going to tell you?”
I asked. “Why would I do that? So I could give you some
satisfaction before you kill me?”
He grunted as he squinted at me. Then he spat
in my face before releasing me. I inched along the wall, certain he
would chase me, but he stayed put as I wiped his saliva off my
cheek.
“Doesn’t matter anyways, because I already
found them.”
“You did?” I asked.
He grinned and said, “Last night, one of the
drones took a photo of a bunch of trucks moving out south of here,
around the Castle Rock area. It looks like the High Rollers are
setting up a new settlement, and I’m about to put an end to them
once and for all.”
“Jerald, no,” I said and took a step closer
to him. He pointed his gun at me, daring me to take another step.
“You can’t kill them. Jerald, please. Listen, you’re right about
me, about what I was doing, but you can’t possibly want to put so
many people in danger like this. If you kill Levon’s friends then
you’re putting the entire Dawn program in jeopardy. I know you hate
The Electorate, and what we did, but those girls never did anything
to you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” he said as he savored the
rare power he suddenly had over me. “Give me one good reason why I
shouldn’t put a bullet in you right now.”
“Because a gunshot inside the facility will
trigger an alarm, and there are still people here that are loyal to
The Electorate.”
He laughed and said, “You think they could
stop me?”
“Go ahead and do it,” I said as I stood tall
and defiant. “At least then there’s a chance someone can stop you.
The Electorate needs the Sons of Reagan more than it needs me, and
I’m willing to die for what we believe in.”
Jerald laughed again, but this time I
detected the uncertainty in him. He lowered his gun and slipped it
back into his holster. “Don’t worry, Beatrice. I’m not going to
kill you because there’s a worse fate in store for you. In the next
couple of days you’ll get your just rewards, I promise.”
I was curious, but didn’t dare ask. He was
about to leave me, and I’d come close enough to dying already. I
watched as he walked to the elevator, a wry smirk on his ugly
face.
“You really thought you’d win.” He couldn’t
help but gloat at his apparent victory. He pointed down at the
ground and said, “This is my house, you stupid bitch. My
house.”
I stayed silent, which irked him more.
“Nothing to say now, you fucking snake?
You’ve got nothing to say?”
“No, Jerald. Not unless you’re willing to
work with me. Please don’t kill Levon’s friends. Do whatever else
you need to, but let them live.”
He eyed me with suspicion, and for a brief
moment I thought he might consider appeasing my request. Then his
lips curled into a devilish smile before he said, “I’m going to
enjoy wiping them off the face of the Earth.” The elevator opened
behind him and he stepped inside as he continued speaking. “I’ve
wanted to kill them for years, and now I want it even more. Thanks,
Beatrice. You’ve made my day.”
The elevator closed, leaving me alone to sigh
in relief. Then I couldn’t help but smile.
Jerald was going to go out and finish the one
task I’d been woefully unable to accomplish. Not only was he going
to die from the infection that addled him, but he was going to lead
his men on a mission to murder the only other people that could’ve
threatened The Electorate’s plan.
Charles Reagan and his group of terrorists
had been a concern for The Electorate for years. Covington had
assumed that we were looking for Reagan’s group because of their
immunity, and we’d been happy to feed him that false information.
On the contrary, it wasn’t simply that immunity to the virus that
was a concern, it was their knowledge of the truth about the
apocalypse that we needed to eradicate. It was dangerous to have a
group of terrorists on the loose that were immune to the infection
and also knew that we were the ones responsible for the original
release of the disease. The members of the group we referred to as
the Sons of Reagan carried the truth in their blood, and now they
would finally be erased.
All of the pieces were coming together
nicely.
Annie Conrad
We’d planned on making it out to the water
tower that Harrison had marked on our map before the end of the
day, but Ben refused to leave his friend lying face down in a
ditch. I wasn’t sure if Ben clung to Red world sentimentality about
the dead, or if he thought Harrison did and wanted to honor him,
but either way I wasn’t willing to argue.