Rhone reaches Meadow, tries to pull her away from Lark’s corpse.
Meadow is sobbing over Lark’s dead body. There’s something black and unnatural sticking out of Meadow’s skull. I freeze as I look at her.
This can’t be Meadow. A sobbing, shell of a girl, covered in cuts and bruises, half of her hair cut away. She screams, and the sound rocks me backward a step.
What did the Leeches do to her?
Meadow shakes Lark’s body, shouts curses at her.
I want to explain myself. I want to tell her why I killed her, that it was for us, for everyone.
But suddenly there’s a flash. Blinding white light behind my eyes.
A horrible ringing pierces my thoughts. It’s worse than the Night Siren, worse than Meadow’s scream.
I can’t hear anything but the ringing.
I can’t see anything but the white light.
And then there’s a word. A single word in Lark’s voice, that surfaces through the chaos. The word comes again, over and over and over, the sweetest one I’ve ever heard.
Revenge.
CHAPTER 26
MEADOW
M y mother is dead.
My mother came for me, came to help me save Peri, and she tried to apologize, and now she is . . .
She is only asleep.
She is dead.
She is asleep, right here in front of me, waiting for me to wake her up.
She is dead.
“Get up, Meadow! Leave her!” A man’s voice, and I think I feel hands tugging at my shoulders, trying to pull me away.
I throw them off.
I need to hear my mother’s apology, to know that she was truly sorry for everything that she had ever done. She asked me to forgive her. I have to tell her that I want to, that I want things to be the way they always could have been.
First I need to hear her say she’s changed.
“Say it!” I shake her, but she won’t move. Her eyes roll back into her head, and her mouth flops open in a silent scream. “Say it! Wake up!”
It’s only when Zephyr’s face appears in front of mine that I look away from her.
“Zephyr,” I gasp.
He is alive. Here, in front of me.
“We have to run,” he says.
He grimaces, like he’s in pain, like he’s fighting the Murder Complex, but how can anything be more painful than the reality that my mother is dead?
“Meadow, now!” he growls. He tears me from the ground with such strength that I gasp. “She’s dead. It’s time to go.”
I nod through my tears.
I take his hand.
My fingers are covered in blood.
We stand up, and together, we run.
CHAPTER 27
ZEPHYR
R EVENGE.
It’s the call of the system. It’s her fail-safe, just like Sparrow warned me about, tried to prepare me for.
I breathe deep, in and out.
I hear the word screamed over and over again. I fight as hard as I can. Meadow’s hand in mine is the only thing steady, the only thing holding me here and now.
We make it halfway to the marshes, almost to the edge of the city, when I can’t control it any longer. The Night Siren goes off, even though it’s early morning. Leech soldiers rush into the streets, their eyes wide like they don’t know what’s going on.
I see others like myself. Patients, sprinting forth into the new light of day.
We look into each other’s eyes, and we know.
REVENGE.
I dive for the Leech closest to me and tear his throat out.
CHAPTER 28
MEADOW
The Patients turn into monsters, killing with a grace that only comes from years of training.
The Night Siren wails, out of time and place in the daylight, a screech that normally sounds like a mother mourning her child.
Not today.
Now it sounds furious, like a vicious monster.
Mixed in with it is the sound of the Commander’s voice. You did this, he says.
The pain comes. Peri’s screams ring in my ears, and I tell myself this isn’t real, this isn’t real, this Is. Not. Real.
I focus on the world around me, fight through the pain, hold on to it like an anchor to keep me in this moment.
Zephyr’s hand leaves mine.
He leaps, and lands on top of an Initiative soldier. I watch as he rips the man’s throat apart. Blood sprays and hits me, warm and thick on my face.
This is real. My father’s voice comes to me from the deep. I free him. I let his voice flood into me, and it is so beautiful, so alive. Hold on. Focus, Meadow. Stay alert. Don’t lose yourself yet.
Someone runs up beside me and touches my shoulder. I whirl around.
I stare into my mother’s eyes.
“Meadow,” she says, but she is mutilated, half of her face scarred and her hair has turned dark. She is not my mother, but a broken, twisted copy of her.
And of me.
“Who are you?” I gasp.
I tear my hand away, stumble backward, but someone comes up behind me. I whirl, see it is Rhone from the Resistance team, whose father knew my father. He is solid and steady, and he wraps his warm hand over mine.
“Come with us!” he begs. “We have to escape here.”
I look for Zephyr in the chaos.
“I won’t leave him,” I say.
“Zero will find us,” Rhone says back.
The streets are a blur, as people sprint past, pushing and shoving and crying out for loved ones. Patients are attacking the Initiative, all around. Guns fire. Knives are thrown.
Soldiers drop to the city streets, and the citizens trample their bodies in their rush for cover. It’s all happening too fast, out of nowhere.
And then I realize why.
My mother is dead.
The Patients are reacting to her fail-safe. Soon, the world will burn to ashes around us. This is the only chance to escape from here. Now there is nothing left for me.
I let Rhone and the strange, broken woman lead me away.
It’s only when we make it to the edge of the city that I see Zephyr again.
He is leading a wave of Patients toward Headquarters.
CHAPTER 29
ZEPHYR
Dust and smoke and death.
The revenge of the Patients is in full swing.
It’s different from the Murder Complex.
This is the Creator’s order, and we know exactly what we’re doing.
We march in a solid line, taking out Leeches as they try to run away. When they shoot us with their rifles, some of us drop.
But then something amazing happens.
A group of citizens emerges from the city. They follow in our wake, with pipes and sticks raised over their heads. I can’t hear them over the sound of revenge, revenge, but I can see the anger in their eyes.