Into The Fire (The Ending Series) (9 page)

She was in a classroom—in a speech class of some sort—and
she was learning how to pronounce vowel sounds. She was wearing white scrubs,
just like the rest of the people sitting at the desks that filled the room.
Colorful posters covered the walls, like those you’d find in a foreign language
classroom, except everything was in English. A middle-aged woman with black
armbands was weaving among the desks, praising and correcting her pupils as
needed.

A few more of her memories flashed in my mind’s eye before I
blinked myself free of them. My Ability had been strengthening over the past
month, allowing me to see more of people’s memories and feel more of their
emotions than I necessarily wanted to. Unfortunately, my control hadn’t been increasing
at the same rate.

I’d felt and seen enough from Becca to know her mind had
clearly been tampered with. As far as I could tell, her memories only spanned
back a few months. She’d been rehabilitated, trained in basic self-defense, and
taught to speak and how to act within a matter of weeks.

I studied her face from a distance. It was just as I
remembered it from Jake’s memories—only her eyes duller and lifeless—and I
painstakingly waited to glimpse an irrefutable memory of Jake to force her to
admit, even to herself, that she
was
who she denied to be.

But her mind was an impenetrable vault of things forgotten,
possibly gone forever. There was nothing in her mind connecting the two of
them; it didn’t make sense.

In the distance, gravel crunched under horse hooves,
followed by a whinny and the sound of clanking metal bridles.

Jason?
I straightened and started walking toward the
noise, an unexpected string tugging at my heart. But the rider wasn’t my
brother.

Carlos and his horse, Arrow, clomped through the line of
trees edging the northeast side of camp, their outline barely visible in the
dying afternoon light. Ky and Ben followed directly behind them. Not
surprisingly, Ky brought his flask to his mouth as he swayed atop his horse. He
tipped his head all the way back to savor every remaining drop.

Chris ran out from the barn, and I caught sight of the
scathing look she shot Carlos. As he dismounted, his eyes met hers, and I felt
her relief before her expression softened. Jack barked and trotted toward us
with his tongue hanging from the side of his mouth. Jason, sitting atop his
nameless horse, brought up the rear.
Thank God.

My brother eyed me for a moment, his gaze lingering before
shifting to Chris. She was fretting over Carlos, her hands hovering around his
body as she inspected him for injuries. Wiping a smudge of dirt from his cheek,
she scolded, “I had no idea how to find you. You’re lucky—”

“It’s my fault,” Jason said evenly. “Blame me.”

Chris glared at him. “Oh, I do.” Pulling away from Carlos,
she rounded on Jason. “Get your head out of your ass. What were you thinking?” She
snorted, her arms flailing as her anger flared to rage. “Oh, that’s right, you
were thinking about
yourself
. It’s not like no one cares what happens to
you, but you just go off, oblivious to the repercussions of your stupid actions.”
She peered up into the sky, her claw-like fingers balling into fists. “I can’t
even look at you right now.” She reached for Carlos’s arm and led him into the
barn.

Even though Jason was nulling me, I could see the defeat in
his eyes as Chris and Carlos disappeared inside. I didn’t know why my brother
had come back, but I was grateful that he had.

“What’d we miss?” Ky asked, climbing clumsily from his
saddle. “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Then he flashed a crooked,
drunken smile. “Or is it just that you all missed me terribly?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “We have a visitor,” I said quietly,
and nodded toward the campfire and Becca.

Jason handed his reins to Ben, who led the horses to the
stable, and then my brother turned his attention to the stranger by the fire. “So
who is she?”

“Jake’s sister,” I said.

“He has two?”

I shook my head.

Jason eyed Becca. “I thought he said she was dead.”

“She was.”

“Come inside,” Chris called from the barn. “I’ll fill you
in.”

“I thought you couldn’t stand looking at me,” Jason said.

She barked a laugh. “I don’t have to look at you to talk to
you.”

I followed Jason into the barn, wondering what plan the
others had come up with in the hour since we’d returned from Cañon City. Grayson,
Carlos, and Sarah passed us on their way out as we stepped inside, leaving Chris,
Harper, Biggs, and Sanchez huddled around a workbench. Jake wasn’t there.
How’s
he doing?
A horrifying thought crossed my mind.
Is Father toying with
us? With Jake? Does he
know
who Becca is to him?
Based on her
memories, it didn’t seem likely.

“Toy.” It suddenly made sense. I took a few hurried steps closer
to the workbench. “H,” I said, reaching for Harper’s arm.

He turned to me. “What’s up, Baby Girl?”

“Becca—she’s his ‘toy.’ The men in Cañon City said they had
to ‘get his
toy
home safe and sound.’ It’s gotta be her. I’ve seen the
man I think they’re referring to in her memories.” I quickly filled them in on
the disturbing scenes I’d gleaned from her mind. “They’re sending a retrieval
team for her tomorrow, and they’re going to raid us.
For sure
.” I
glanced at Biggs and then out at the fire, where Sarah was chatting with Becca.
I didn’t miss the way Becca’s eyes narrowed and lingered on Sarah’s round
belly. “Whatever happens, we’ve gotta get Sarah outta here.”

“Who the hell
is
this broad?” Biggs asked. His
easygoing attitude had been completely dormant since we’d first heard Dani’s
scream.

“It
is
Becca,” I told them a little defensively. “She
just doesn’t have any memories past a few months ago. It’s like they’ve been
wiped away—or she has amnesia, maybe?”

“Then how do you know it’s really her?” Sanchez asked,
clearly unconvinced.

“I’ve seen her in Jake’s memories. She looks exactly the
same.”

“Well, clearly she didn’t die then,” Sanchez mumbled and then
swore under her breath. “This is unbelievable.”

“Where’s Jake?” Harper asked, placing his hand on my
shoulder.

I shrugged just as Ky and Ben walked into the barn. Ky was a
little wobbly and steadied himself on a central support post.

“Take it easy, Ky,” Ben told his brother, his Japanese
accent faint.

“Should he…sit down, maybe?” Sanchez asked, smirking.

“I’m fine,” Ky said hoarsely.

“You’re not fine,” Chris said as she turned to walk back
outside. “I’ll get you some water.” The edge in her voice worried me. With
Jason and Carlos back, I figured she’d feel less anxious, but Ky’s frame of
mind was deteriorating; I could feel it, and I knew Chris could too. She was
doing all she could to keep the surrounding negativity at bay, but the Colony
was too close and too strong to ward them completely away from Ky’s absorbent
mind.

“Actually, I feel pretty good right now.” Ky smiled to
himself and closed his eyes as he leaned against the post.

“Sit down before you fall on your ass,” Jason said, sounding
exhausted, and he pointed to a hay bale near the entrance.

Ky saluted Jason playfully and did as he was told, wavering
the entire way.

When I turned my attention back to Harper and Biggs, they
were in heated discussion. I didn’t like the ominous look on Harper’s face.

I took a steadying breath before I asked, “What is it, H?”

He swallowed. “We need to trade—” he started to say before Sanchez
held up her hand to stop him.

She strode to the entryway, confirming no one else was in
earshot. “We only have one option,” she said, returning to the workbench.
“There’s really only one way to get your fr—”

“Trade?” Jason asked, interest clearly piqued.

Harper stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “We trade Dani
for Becca, or Rachel…or…anyway, the Colony’s coming for her, we already know
that. They’re risking lives to extract her.” Harper looked back at me. “You’ve
seen how important she is to them, and you overheard their conversation today. They
want her back. We can use that to our advantage.”

Waves of dread rolled through me.

“It’s a good plan,” Jason said, looking around, measuring
our resolve. “What are we waiting for?” He turned toward the barn doorway.

“Jason, wait!” I clutched on to his arm before he could walk
away. “It’s Jake’s sister, we can’t just…”
…hand her over.

But it could bring Dani back.
“We need to think about
this more,” I said. “I mean, don’t we?”

He turned on his heel. “What the fuck, Zoe. You—”

Chris reentered the barn, murmuring something under her
breath as she set a cup of water next to Ky’s unconscious form.

“Just give him some time. He’ll be fine,” Jason told her.

“No, he won’t,” she said. “Not if we don’t get him out of
here.”

Hearing Sarah’s laughter, I glanced outside to see Becca and
Grayson smiling with the mother-to-be about something. “We can’t do this to
Jake, you guys. That’s his sister sitting out there.”

“What other choice do we have, Baby Girl?”

As if on cue, Jake strode out of the stall we’d been using
as our room and down the corridor, running his hands over his head fervently. “No,”
he said, his voice as cold as ice.

“Jake,” I breathed, and when our eyes met, his darkened.

“No.”

Sanchez took a step toward him. “They’ll be here within the
next twenty-four hours. We need to get some of these people out of here—Sarah,
Grayson—and we need to move camp.”

“Fine, but you’re not using Becca.”

“She’s important to them,” Harper said, trying to get Jake
to understand. “If we use her to—”

Jason opened his mouth, but before he could say anything,
Jake rounded on him. “Would you do that to Zoe?”

“It’s not the same. For all we know, that woman isn’t even
your sister.”

When Jake’s eyes met mine, they were pleading with me to
understand or to back him up, but I was starting to second-guess my initial
certainty.
Do we just
want
it to be her? Is it just a coincidence? Is
it just a resemblance?
“Jake, I—”

He shook his head and strode out of the barn, leaving the
rest of us staring after him in momentary silence.

“What do we do?” I whispered. I trained my eyes on the
doorway, wishing Jake would come back, that we could figure this out together.

“We vote,” Sanchez said. “It’s all we
can
do.” I turned
to face her as she continued, “We already know what Jake’s vote is.” Her eyes
swept around the group, giving us a moment to think. “Who thinks we should use
the woman as a bargaining chip to get Dani back?”

Biggs raised his hand, then Jason and Chris. Sanchez’s eyes
rested on me, waiting. My mouth was suddenly dry and my heart racing.

“Uh, guys…” Harper pointed toward the doorway.

We all looked over to see Becca standing there.
How much did
she overhear?
With her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes fixed on us
thoughtfully, I could tell she’d heard enough.

“What does it mean, ‘bargaining chip’? Who is Dani?” Becca’s
tone was flat, like she was trying to act offended, but I could feel a genuine
curiosity stir inside her.

“She’s my best friend, and your ‘Father’ has her,” I spat,
my concern for her melting away a little, but only for an instant. Her eyes
widened with surprise, and her curiosity was replaced with something that felt
almost like concern. “She’s the telepath he was looking for…the one you were so
excited that he’d found.”

Becca stood there quietly, her cobwebbed mind coming to
life.

I could hear someone moving around behind me, but my eyes
were glued to hers. “What’s he going to do to her, Rachel?” Her false name felt
strange on my tongue, but I didn’t want to argue with her.

Becca took a few steps inside, the conversation she’d had
with “Father” about the telepath replaying in her mind.

“You know what he’s capable of,” I said, my voice breaking a
little. “What—”

Simultaneously, Jason sidled up to Becca’s right while Biggs
moved in on her left.

“Put your hands behind your back…please.” Biggs’s voice was
stern, but there was a note of discomfort in it.

“What are you…” Becca shook her head and began backing away
from them.

“We’re restraining you,” Jason said. “Don’t bother fighting
us—you won’t win.”

She looked up at him. “But why?”

“Because we can’t take the chance of you running away,”
Sanchez said from beside me, and when I glanced over, her face was completely
unreadable.

“But I
want
to go back to the Colony. I
have
to.
You do not need to tie me up.” There was a hint of desperation in Becca’s husky
voice.

But Jason had finished tightening the rope around her
wrists, and as she seemed to realize there was nothing she could do, her gaze
shifted frantically around the room. Fear poured out of her. “You do not
understand. I have to be ready for the escort when they return. If I fail…”

“Jason,” I hissed. “We don’t know for sure she’s not Jake’s
sister.”

Jason looked into Becca’s eyes. “
Are
you Jake’s
sister?”

She slowly shook her head.

Jason’s eyes shifted to mine. “If she doesn’t believe she’s
his sister, that’s good enough for me.”

Pointing out toward the fire, Biggs nudged her outside.
“Come on, let’s go.”

With pleading eyes, Becca urged me to help her, but I felt
frozen in place, torn.

On his way out the door, Jason smacked Ky’s knee. “Come on.
Let’s get you packed up. I’m sending you and Ben with Sarah.”