Eaters (Book 2): The Resistance (33 page)

Her arms were wrenched behind her back, constrained so tightly it seemed they must be prickling with pain or entirely numb. Somehow, her involvement with the RT had been discovered, and there was no doubt what her fate was meant to be. As the priest in the white collar read the charges against her, her short brown hair fluttered in the wind, and her face remained placid. Then, the guard next to her threw out his hand and gave her a shove. She tumbled down the steps, rolling and bouncing until she landed in the pit. For a few seconds, her screams reached an ear-shattering high pitch…then there was silence except for the sound of ripping flesh and the crunching of bones as the cameras recorded every grotesque detail for the crowd to see.

Cheryl covered her mouth and looked away from the screens.

Aidan averted his gaze too and whispered in her ear. "Choke it down. Don't do anything to draw attention to yourself."

She swallowed hard, steeling her nerves as she realized that many in the crowd around her were cheering even louder. Seeing them celebrate Ruth's death was heartbreaking. Didn't they realize they were all being fed a load of candy coated dung? She hadn't been in Sedona when O.N.E. overtook the town, but she supposed they'd done it slowly—come in first as some sort of relief group after the epidemic started, and then made changes bit by bit until they townspeople accepted the most horrific ideas as matter of fact.

They were celebrating death… unbelievable.

The ritual execution was completed over and over again until the steps were empty. Cheryl didn't recognize any of the other victims, but felt sadness in her heart for every one of them. Her gut-wrenching misery was amplified into a powerful hatred for O.N.E. and everything they stood for as the Senior Warden appeared again on the screens. Luke held his arms wide. "We…One New Earth…are The Chosen Ones of the universe. Tonight, you are witnessing history in action as we rebuild a population with true Virtue…true Obedience…and absolute Cohesion. Never again will an epidemic like we witnessed darken our lives. Melding science, technology, and biology, we have become our own gods…"

Cheryl stopped listening as she saw a crane lower its black-draped prize over the apex of the pyramid as the Senior Warden, the priest, and the others stepped lower to allow room for it to drop into place.

"It is no accident that we've chosen to build the pyramid on top of Airport Mesa. This special area is a power vortex, a psychically charged area of the earth that will enhance the power of Cyclops."

Confused murmurs swept over the crowd.

When the Cyclops device was set into position the Senior Warden raised his arms again, this time holding them wide like a circus ringleader about to reveal the greatest trick the world had ever seen.

Feeling Aidan's arms wrap around her from behind, Cheryl's knees went weak.
It was happening! Where was the RT? Had their plan to take the armory been foiled? They'd seen the smoke signal. It didn't make sense…

The crane pulled away, taking the black cloth covering with it and revealing O.N.E.'s crown jewel.

Cyclops.

It was a triangular machine, shaped like a mini pyramid, but it was something altogether different. It was something unholy—an abomination.

A thousand eyes.

They were human eyes, and they were still at first, looking like some sort of strange, but artistic bas relief made of painted marble affixed to the sides of the metallic structure.

Then, she heard a buzzing sound in her head and felt a strange tingling coursing through her fingertips.
What was happening?

The eyes.

They were coming to life—they blinked. They moved. They watched…

Worse than that…
they spoke
. There seemed to be a thousand voices in her head, all talking at once in a horrible cacophony.

As the cameras panned around, they showed all three sides of the Cyclops, capturing the eyeballs in telescopic detail, so you could see the rainbow colors of the irises. The eyes moved up, down, and sideways, staring down at the crowd below as the people looked up at them. Aidan and many of the people around her seemed mesmerized. Some stared up with open jaws while others covered their ears, trying to shut out the voices.

Luke Marshall was still speaking. Through the haze of the voices, Cheryl tried to focus on his words booming from the loudspeakers.

Chapter 25

The Senior Warden did not seem to be distracted by any subliminal voices being broadcast by the Cyclops. His tone was boastful and sure. Cheryl only caught snippets of his speech, but it was enough to cause her grave concern.

"…Afghan subjects showed positive responses to remote information sending and retrieval…the Beasts as test subjects… XCGen scientists have figured…merge a human eye, camera technology, and telepathic communication. Using this revolutionary system, O.N.E….truly all-seeing and all-knowing…the eyes see and record every action and every thought of every citizen."

Was he really saying what she thought he was?

"It is time to celebrate, my dear citizens. For now, your safety is complete. Never again will you have to worry about your neighbor, your friend, or your co-worker doing something to thwart the peace of our society."

The implication of what he was saying slammed into her hard.

Mark…

Was XCGen's research the reason why Mark had been able to communicate with her telepathically when he was alive? Was it because he had been given some experimental drug or implant during his last tour in Afghanistan that produced his ability to have this type of communication? There didn't seem to be any other logical explanation for it.

All the wind left her lungs. She stopped breathing for a few seconds. The bigger picture right now was that Cyclops was now recording every citizen's actions and thoughts, possibly even implanting ideas in their heads. Both combined would mean an end to all organized resistance and any individual's attempt to thwart authorities. And, the end to all privacy was only one of the repercussions. Such power in O.N.E.'s hands might mean that you could be executed for simply having an unorthodox thought.

A black cauldron of bubbling hatred boiled up inside of her. What hubris and audacity this asshole and his organization had to assert control over all of them in such a fashion! She fantasized about what she'd do if she had a gun at this moment. With one carefully placed shot, she could send O.N.E.'s smug leader into oblivion.

A second after she had the thought, the cameras switched their viewpoints to the guards on the pyramid and the guards posted around the perimeter of the crowd. They looked agitated as they began scanning the multitude of faces, panning around from left to right. One by one, each of them aimed his gun in her direction, including the guards just a few feet to the rear of them. Her face appeared on the big screens.

Stand down.

The voice in her head was a deep growl. It was authoritative and deadly serious.

So, it was too late now? Cyclops had been activated, so any resistance was futile? She refused to give up that easily. "Did you hear that?" she asked Aidan.

He stared at her image on the screen and nodded as the cameras panned to include him. His face appeared next to hers on the screen, his one green eye a giant, unblinking orb next to her frightened gaze.

"Clear your mind," she told him, hoping there was still some chance of thwarting the omniscient power of the Cyclops device. She tried to wipe her own mind clean, erasing any thoughts of the present. A white moth darted over the crowd. As it swooped and soared above the thousands of spectators, she looked up at it and meditated on its pure, simple essence.

She felt a moment of triumph as the cameras panned away from them. But then, they focused on a man with closed eyes who had his fingers crossed in the RT symbol. The screens showed his body crumpling to the ground, and it wasn't certain if he'd been shot or had been taken out by some other method.

It was apparent now why the RT was so desperate to take O.N.E. down on this date, even at the cost of many lives. Unfortunately, something had gone awry, and they had failed.

If that realization wasn't enough to send chills rippling down her spine, there was even more disturbing information to come.

The Senior Warden continued to speak. "…even better news! Cyclops is so powerful, it can detect when a citizen has become infected. It is sensitive enough to know this before a person succumbs to the disease and becomes a danger to others." He cupped a hand over his ear. "Prove it, you say? Well…I can do that right now. Scattered amongst you right now, there are hundreds of Beasts."

A collective gasp soared through the crowd.

"Oh…don't worry, friends. They're all fitted with EM boxes, so you are not in any danger. However, since they carry the marker of the virus, Cyclops can pinpoint each and every one of them."

The cameras honed in on a sequence of faces. Some wore dark sunglasses, obscuring their dead, opaque eyes and hats that hid the black boxes affixed to their scalp while others were obviously one of the legions of the walking dead—their gray, flaking skin and gelatinous eyeballs highlighted on the big screens in grotesque detail.

The revelation that they were all shoulder to shoulder with so many Beasts seemed to cause no panic in the crowd. It was as if they had complete faith in the Senior Warden. Then, a barrage of shots rang out followed by a series of bloodcurdling screams amplified by the speakers.

Cheryl's first thought was elation—finally, some of the RT had arrived to create a distraction! As soon as some of the guards by the ropes dispersed, they'd be back in the game.

But, the guards didn't disperse. They stood their ground as more shots were heard. For a moment, the Senior Warden's face lost some of its confidence. His expression on the big screen seemed as confused as the rest of them as to what was going on. Then, he regained his composure and urged calmness. "Everyone be still…this is just an example of what Cyclops can do. It's pinpointed threats in our midst and alerted the guards to eliminate them."

His façade of control was belied by one of the cameras. Its skewed shot of the chaos unfolding meant that it was likely no longer operated by a live human. One of the big screens told the unfolding the story: bodies of the executed people that had fallen into the pit had piled high along one wall. They were stacked tall enough that the Beasts were climbing up them and escaping from the pit. They were attacking people, and a handful of the guards were flailing with their guns, trying to mow them down without taking out too many of the bystanders.

The other cameras still showed shots of the Beasts embedded in the crowd. A few of them were collapsing just as the RT had planned, but the rest seemed to have simply gone offline—their EM boxes simply failing. Those returned to their normal predatory state lunged at the people closest to them and began feasting.

As more and more of people became aware of the bloodbath beginning around them, a stampede began. People ran, screaming, trampling those who had fallen underfoot, and headed towards the ropes. The ground shook as their feet thundered on the pavement like hooves of thousands of wildebeests.

Cheryl and Aidan ran like the rest of them, bypassing the few remaining guards who were firing wildly into the crowd.

"The armory!" she shouted after they ducked behind a dumpster

Before they could find a hole in the river of people coursing past them to merge into, Cheryl felt a tug on the back of her shirt. She turned around just as the open jaws of a Beast, a rotund man with fresh blood dribbled down the front of his chin, snapped towards her. She threw an elbow into his chest to knock him free then kicked him to the ground. There was no time to consider finishing him off before another one, a tall ghoul with skeletal hands appeared on her other flank and grabbed for her hair.

"Come on!" Aidan said, pulling her into the melee rushing past them.

They weren't immediately able to veer to the west towards the Armory, because they were caught in the tide of bodies heading in the other direction. Shoulder to shoulder with so many, there was no discerning which of them were alive and were just trying to flee and which of them were attempting to eat the others. Since every Beast with a black box had its vocal chords cut, they were silently mixed in with the moaning Beasts and the screaming humans.

Cheryl picked up a wooden stake along the way that had held a sign about the May 1st
Celebration
. She managed to whack away a couple of Beasts that tried to grab her, but the weapon broke in half when she fought off a third. Her luck got better when she saw a guard on the ground who was long beyond saving as one Beast feasted on his bicep and another tore out his spaghetti-like innards. While Aidan grabbed the automatic rifle from his lifeless hand, Cheryl took the pistol from his holster. Then, they waited until there was a break in the horde coursing by and darted across the street.

Making their way towards the Armory seven blocks away, they killed nine Beasts and witnessed unbelievable carnage. Cheryl did the math in her head, adding the numbers that were in the pit to an estimation of the numbers that had been in the crowd. Two…three thousand altogether? 
Don't think about it…just run!

The office building that O.N.E. had converted into an armory was in sight now. Black smoke billowed from its terra cotta roof and flames licked out through its broken windows. There was a crumpled body on the curb in front of the entrance. Dozens of people rushed by it without giving it a glance.

"Paige!" Cheryl yelled, rushing towards her after recognizing her red hair, matted with a dark, sticky mess where her head had been bashed or bitten. As Cheryl bent over her, she saw a pool of blood oozing onto the pavement around her abdomen. "Paige…Paige…what happened?"

"Dead…" the woman said in a weak, barely audible voice.

"Who's dead?"

"Vin…"

"What about the rest of the RT? The armory…the guns?"

She didn't answer.

Cheryl grabbed her wrist and felt for a pulse. With a frown, she looked up at Aidan and shook her head. He reached down to grab something out of Paige's limp hand. As he reached for it, an explosion rocked the building, throwing them back a couple of yards and knocking them to the ground.

After regaining consciousness a few minutes later, Cheryl opened her eyes. Her ears were ringing, and Cyclops was speaking to her.
Stand down. Remain in your homes...

Shutup
, she told the voice.

She raised her head and saw Aidan a few feet away. He was lying on the ground with his face towards her; there was a gash in his forehead where he'd hit the pavement and blood streamed down his cheeks in bright red rivulets. She tried to pull herself to her feet to go to him, but her head was still spinning from the impact.

On her hands and knees, she looked around for the pistol and finally spotted it against the post of a stop sign on the street corner about ten feet away.

Before her fuzzy brain could decide to head towards it or Aidan, a shadow loomed over her. She looked up, trying to focus on the face with the halo of the round moon behind it.

It was Jake…

…
but it wasn't
. He had turned, and now his eyes were filmy and his skin had a sickly pallor. His t-shirt and jeans were slick with blood, and there was a strip of torn flesh hanging from his mouth.

She scrambled backwards, towards the burning building, realizing that he was in between her and the pistol, and the rifle Aidan once had was nowhere to be seen.

A woman ran past them, screaming in a high pitch. Jake cranked his head towards her for just a second then turned his attention back to the prey closer at hand. He came at her in a rush, arms and foul mouth sprawled wide. She kicked at him, knocking him off balance then ignored the pain in her legs and hopped to her feet. They wobbled underneath her as she stumbled towards the pistol. Her hand was just inches away from it when Jake grabbed her shirt from behind.

She screamed and wrenched herself away then picked up the gun and turned it towards him, pointing it as his head. There was no fear in his dead eyes when she pulled the trigger.

The chamber was empty
.

Instead of keeling over, he lunged towards her again. She did a few backwards steps and saw that her scream had drawn the attention of five more Beasts hobbling up the far end of the block. She could probably outrun them, but if Jake didn't get Aidan…then they certainly would. They both needed to get out of there fast.

She noticed a dark green SUV parked next to the curb across the street and ran towards it, hoping to use it as a temporary barrier between her and Jake if nothing else. Still holding the empty gun in her hand, she made it to the far side of the vehicle with Jake on her heels. Out of desperation, she tried the handle on the passenger side
. Of course, it was locked.

But, there was a ray of hope—through the tinted window, she saw keys dangling from the ignition and that the door was not locked on the driver's side.

She played chicken around the Jeep with Jake, going around it in circles a few times. Then, she saw that Aidan was on his feet. As the other Beasts were closing in, he was staggering, and still not recovered enough from the blow to his head to even realize that he was in danger or that his rifle was dangling from his right shoulder by the strap.

Narrowly escaping Jake's grasp, she ran around to Aidan and grabbed the rifle.

"You son of a bitch!" she yelled. Then, she pulled the trigger.

The head of the Beast that had been Jake shattered into fragments of skull, gelatinous brain matter, and blood as his body crashed to the pavement. For half a second, she stared at his corpse, feeling a little satisfaction in her revenge…but more remorse about how things had turned out.