Into The Fire (The Ending Series) (31 page)

“You need practice,” Sam said dryly. “But that wasn’t too
bad.”

We continued practicing, and after sighing at me a couple
times, Sam finally smiled with pride. After each shot, he had me back up a yard
or two, testing me. When I’d let my seventh arrow fly, he crossed his arms over
his chest and smirked. “Good,” he said, walking beside me to retrieve the
arrows.

“I kinda like this,” I admitted.

“I knew you would.”

I pushed his shoulder playfully. “You
think you know me so well, Sam?”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“Having fun?” Tavis called as he pushed
away from the side of the sheriff’s building.

I jumped. “Jesus! I didn’t know you were
watching.”

He laughed, clearly amused. “Not long.
How’d you do?”

“I think I did pretty good, actually,” I
said, handing Sam his bow. I tied my hair back into a knot to keep it out of my
face. “But you’ll have to ask my teacher for an unbiased opinion.” I looked
back at Sam.

“Zoe did better than you,” Sam interjected with a subtle
smirk, and I winked at him in gratitude as my own smile grew.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I said with a teasing
shrug.

Tavis pointed to himself. “Better than me? This guy right
here?”

Sam peered up into the sky, squinting and ruminating like he
wanted to make absolutely sure. “Yep.”

Tavis’s mouth was gaping in mock horror, and then he gave
Sam a wry look. “Well, we can’t all have perfect aim like you, Sam.” He ruffled
the boy’s brown hair.

Having collected all of Sam’s arrows, the three of us headed
back toward the boarding house. “Did you guys bring back more water?” I asked, realizing
I was thirsty.

Tavis nodded, his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans.
“We did, and Harper’s making rabbit stew, so I hope you’re hungry.”

“Ravenous, actually. How about you, Sam?”

“Meh, I could eat,” he said casually right before his
stomach grumbled.

I nudged his shoulder with my elbow. “‘Meh?’ I don’t think
your tummy agrees with you.” I laughed, and when I glanced up, I noticed Jake
and Sanchez watching us from the stable. Sanchez acknowledged us with a nod and
turned toward the paddocks, but Jake’s eyes lingered on the three of us. His
eyes met mine before he turned and followed Sanchez.

23

DANI

MARCH
21, 1AE

I twirled my fork, making a nest of noodles and tomato sauce
on my plate. This evening was the first time I’d been in Gabe’s house, but it
wasn’t much of a change in scenery. His kitchen was much like mine, filled with
taupe counter tiles, walnut cabinets, and an asymmetrical island. We were sitting
across from each other at the small, square oak kitchen table.

“Are you sure?” I asked after chewing and swallowing my
latest bite. It tasted of garlic and tomato sauce from a jar. Gabe wasn’t a bad
cook, but his skills didn’t come close to Cam’s.
I was spoiled in my
previous life.

“I’m too recognizable to be out after curfew. It’s an
impossibility…and you shouldn’t go either. It’s too dangerous.” He watched me,
his pale blue eyes pensive. “Maybe you can just tell those Re-gens—”

“Camille and Mase,” I corrected. I was getting tired of
everyone—except for Dr. Wesley, I acceded reluctantly—treating the Re-gens like
dogs. They were trained, experimented on, and kept ignorant in the most
ludicrous, disturbing ways, and though I knew their brains worked a little
differently, they were still human, more or less. They had human emotions and
human reactions, and I wanted Gabe to treat them like…well, humans.

Gabe took a deep breath and gently set down his fork. “Maybe
you can tell Camille and Mase what you’re looking for, and they can carry out
the search for information for you.” After a pause, he added, “I really don’t
think you should endanger yourself, especially not with everything going down
tomorrow night.”

I not-so-softly dropped my fork. “Oh, but I should let
them
risk their lives because they’re what…not
real
people? They have
feelings like you and me, Gabe, you just have to give them the chance to show
you.”

“But they’re
not
like you and me, Dani,” he snapped.
He lowered his hands to his lap, but I could see his arms tensing as he
clenched and unclenched his fists. “Not anymore. I know they look like normal
people and they talk like normal people and, hell, they probably really do have
normal human emotions to some degree, but they’re not the same as us…they’re
not the same as they used to be. She…their brains are different…closed off to
me.” Running his fingers through his blond hair, he sighed. “I don’t trust
them.”

“Maybe you’re right, maybe they are different, but you’re
right about another thing that’s more important—they
are
my friends, as
much as you are.”
More so, even,
I thought.
They haven’t betrayed me.
Pulling a folded-up piece of paper out of my jeans pocket, I said, “Any
information you can give me to answer these questions will help us plan our
escape better.”

“
Our
escape…” Gabe repeated as he reached across the
table to snatch the paper from my fingers. It was filled with the many
questions I’d written to gather information about the Colony after my mind-convo
with Zoe and Jason the previous afternoon. After several long, silent minutes,
Gabe stood, strode over to the sink, and pulled a lighter out of a nearby
drawer. He held the piece of paper over the sink, and with a flick of the
lighter, set it aflame.

“What are you doing?” I screeched, jumping up as I watched
the paper shrivel into an ashy ball.

Gabe dropped it before the tiny flames burned his fingers,
and shook his head. “It’s evidence against you—against both of us. I’ll gather
as much information as I can tomorrow morning, but no list. Someone might find
it,” he told me.

I forced myself to reclaim my seat. “Why’d you say ‘
our
escape’ like that?” I asked softly.

“Like what?”

“Like you aren’t actually planning to join me. We’ve been
over this. You promised,” I reminded him.

He didn’t answer immediately. “Why do you even want me to
leave with you?” he finally asked into the sink. “After what I’ve done to you—”

“Because I care about you!” I blurted without thinking, and
it was true.
I do care about him…probably more than I should.

He spun around, facing me, his look hopeful. “What are you
say—”

Before he could finish, I added, “I’d hate to see you stuck
here forever, or worse, hurt because I left you behind. I couldn’t live with
myself knowing I’d done that.” I shrugged. “Besides, I’d like you with me while
I plot to take
his mightiness
down. You know things…you’re useful.”

Gabe leaned back against the counter. “It might also be
useful for me to stay here…for you to have someone on the inside. I can do more
from in here.”

What’s his deal? Why could he possibly want to stay? Is
it Dr. Wesley?
“I already have someone in the belly of the beast, and she’s
far closer to the brain than you are. You’re, like, down in the intestines, but
she’s working her way up the esophagus.”

I’d hoped my ridiculous analogy might wipe some of the torn
expression off his face, but it only deepened it. “Wes shouldn’t have to—”

“Why not?” I snapped. “She owes us. She owes everyone.”

He held my eyes for a moment longer, then looked away as he
walked around the island to reclaim his seat at the table. “She’s not the
monster you’ve made her out to be in your mind. She didn’t have a choice. Maybe
she can come with us, too.”

Bad
,
bad
idea.
There was no way I was
letting Jason and Zoe find out the truth about their mom…about what she’d done
to protect them. “She’s seeking redemption, Gabe. I highly doubt she’d ever
agree to leaving”—desperately, I hoped I was right about that—“but if it makes
you feel better, ask her. Invite her, whatever. I don’t care,” I lied.

Gabe was silent for a long time, looking into my eyes like
he was studying my soul. “Fine, I will. And I
will
leave with you,
regardless of her answer.” He looked away, staring down at the table like he
was trying to burn a hole in it.

“How long have you been working with her?” I asked.

He said nothing for a while, then finally, “I knew of her,
but I didn’t
know
her until the Virus started spreading throughout the
base.”

So he didn’t help kill everyone.
My relief almost
choked me. “Good to know.” I watched him for a few heartbeats, wondering what
he was thinking about.
Is he making plans for tomorrow…for the escape?
“Do
you have a way to get your friend out?” I asked. Gabe was always very guarded
when he spoke of the woman who was “like a sister” to him—I knew next to nothing
about her.

“I, uh…I’m taking care of it.” Before I could ask for
clarification, he said, “You, uh, probably need to leave soon to get ready for
your excursion tonight, but before you go, I want to give you something.”

Wait…what?

Meeting my eyes, Gabe stood. He walked around the table,
pulled out the chair nearest mine, and sat. As he reached into the pocket of
his slacks, he said, “I wasn’t sure I wanted to give you this, but…”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I was getting
the very uncomfortable feeling that he was about to cross the just-friends
boundary I’d carefully constructed. My eyes were wide.

Gabe set a small digital camera down on the corner of the
table. “Take this with you tonight,” he said, looking into my eyes as he nudged
the camera closer to me with his fingertips. “It’s fully charged and has a
sixty-four-gig memory card, so you should be able to take pictures of whatever
you find. Just…” His eyes squinted, his expression turning pleading. “Just
please be careful with it. If anyone finds it on you…”

“Gabe, I…thank you,” I said, picking up the little camera
and turning it on to get a feel for its various settings. “I mean it. This’ll
be a huge help.”

“I wish you weren’t going at all.”

“I know.”

Before she left the previous afternoon, Camille had given me
the address of the location where I would meet up with her and Mase at midnight.
It was an empty house in an unoccupied part of the expansive residential area.

At a quarter to midnight, I slipped out the back door to my
house as quietly as possible.
Ten minutes later, I’d made it a block to the south, flitting from
shadow to shadow, grateful that the moon had waned to a little less than half
its full size. The house where we were to meet was on my right, looking almost
identical to both mine and Gabe’s. It was a two-story, modern craftsman painted
a deep earth tone I couldn’t make out in the darkness. As I stepped onto the
overgrown lawn, I heard a soft whisper coming from the front porch and froze.

“It’s too dangerous,” a male voice whispered. I was fairly
certain it was Mase.

“Nobody’s going to catch us,” Camille countered.

“That’s not what I meant.”

After a brief pause, Camille whispered, “I have to know. I
only know what you told me before…which wasn’t much.” Again, she paused, and
when she continued, her soft voice held a plea. “Giant, I
need
to. Don’t
you
want to know?”

“I’m afraid.”

Camille cooed soothingly. “You’ll always be my Giant, no
matter what we find out, okay?” I heard nothing for a few seconds, then
Camille’s, “Thank you.”

Feeling awkward, I took a few more steps and cleared my
throat. The noise sounded obscenely loud, and I cringed.

“C’mon,” Camille whispered, stepping out of the impenetrable
shadows and onto the porch steps. She was wearing military gear—fatigues and a
few weapons—which made her look more like a girl playing dress-up than a
soldier. “We’ve got stuff for you to put on. You can change inside.”

Camille reached for the door handle, and I started up the
steps. I could finally see Mase in the inky darkness. Only after I stopped
beside Camille did I hear a click, and she twisted the knob. She’d unlocked the
door, but she hadn’t used a key.

“Uh…Camille?” I said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“What exactly is your Ability?” I was pretty sure I’d just
watched her pick a lock with her mind.

She turned her face to me, and her eyes appeared to be
half-dollar pools of night. “I control metal.”

“So…why’d you need me to get Dr. Wesley’s key?”

Camille opened the door and ushered Mase and me inside the
house before answering. “We needed to know how committed she was. She won’t
talk to me, not really, and she almost never interacts with Mase. She still
sees us as, um…”

“Puppets?” I offered. The three of us stood clustered
together in the entry hall. “Someone she can control, sort of like how the
General controls everyone else?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, exactly.”

“And the key?”

“Oh, right. If she gave you the key—an action that could
pretty much seal her death—it meant she was fully committed.”

Committed to what?
But before I could ask, Mase
thrust a black duffel bag at me and said, “Put this stuff on.”

It took me nearly ten minutes and Mase’s help to shuffle
through all the clothing and gear in the bag and get myself fitted up. When I
was finished, I was pretty sure I looked as out of place as Camille. Beside
Mase, we looked like a couple of elves who’d escaped from the North Pole and
bedecked themselves in combat gear. Regardless, I figured it was a better
disguise than running around after curfew in black hoodies and jeans.

“Alright,” I said once my pistol, combat knife, and assault
rifle were situated. I shifted my shoulders and cringed at the noise. “There’s
no way I can move silently wearing all this.”