Kay sighs. “They’re taking her blood day and night, following up any lead that comes to them. It’s blood draw after blood draw, and Rice says Baby’s anemic and really weak. She’s hanging in for now, but she’s not in good shape.”
The blood pounds deafeningly in my ears. This can’t be happening. My greatest fear.
“You said she’d be safe there!” I hiss. “I could have taken her with me!”
“Amy, she was safe. How was I supposed to know Dr. Reynolds would take her?”
“You should have contacted me sooner.”
“You don’t know what it’s like here now. Everything’s changed. I’m not even in charge of the Guardians anymore. Marcus is. He could try to kill me at any time.”
“I’m coming back. To get her. Now.”
“Amy, you can’t.”
“Why?” There is a pause. “Kay? Are you there?”
“When you escaped, Dr. Reynolds went nuts.” I can hear the regret in her voice over telling me. “The doctors in the Ward, the Guardians, even your mother. Everyone was punished.”
“And Rice?” I wince at the concern in my voice, but I can’t help it.
“He’s fine. He wasn’t suspected.”
In spite of myself, I’m flooded with relief.
“I’ve got to get Baby out of there.”
“No. You’ve got to go to Fort Black and find my brother. Ken. That’s how you can help Baby.”
“Why? What can he do?”
“He’s a researcher. For New Hope. But he’s in Fort Black working on developing a Florae vaccine.”
“Why?”
“New subjects. Also, Dr. Reynolds doesn’t want all his researchers in one place. So he’s got a lab set up there.”
“What does that have to do with Baby? What can Ken do for her?”
“He’s ruthless about his research. He’d do anything to get a test subject like Baby for himself, even if it means breaking her out of New Hope. And he could do it. He’s been with Reynolds for a long time, since before the Floraes. He has access.”
“But he just wants to run tests on her too!”
“Yes, but you could monitor the situation. You could protect her. As long as she’s away from Reynolds.”
My mind races. She’s right. I could never take on New Hope alone. This is the only option.
“But where—”
“Gotta go. Someone’s coming. Be—”
“Kay?” For several minutes I yell her name, but she doesn’t respond. Kay’s gone.
Chapter Four
I try to get some sleep, but after a couple of hours I give up. I need to leave, to get to Fort Black. I pack up everything the Guardians outfitted me with when I left: my Guardian gun with spare clips, my water filter, a map. My sonic emitter. I’ve barely used my gun, so I still have plenty of ammunition. I throw my backpack over my shoulder and pause to look around. The tree house has done me well these past few months, but I won’t miss the solitude.
It takes eight hours to reach Fort Black by foot. I could have made it in less, but I didn’t want to push myself and arrive exhausted. The journey is surprisingly uneventful. Nothing more than a long, tense walk, my backpack biting into my shoulders. If it weren’t for the synth-suit, my skin would be wet with sweat. Even though the suit controls my temperature, I was still pretty hot once the day broke, my face sweating in the early morning sun. I sighted some Florae, but they backed up when I got close, fleeing from the emitter waves. I silently thank Rice for the gift (he gave it to Kay) and Vivian, who invented it.
The bigger danger is other people. I have no idea what things are like at Fort Black, or how often people leave to scavenge. I’m certain there are plenty of people who would kill me without a second thought if they knew what was in my pack.
Once I’m a mile out, I stop to rest on a highway overpass. A few years ago, this road would have been full of speeding cars. People hurrying to work, worried about getting to a meeting on time. Now there are no meetings. No work, other than to stay alive. The only cars now are abandoned, left to rust in the elements. My father used to go on a hippie anti-fossil-fuel rant about how the car-to-person ratio in America was nearly one to one. Now it’s a hundred thousand to one . . . give or take a few thousand. Not that a car would be much use to me. Sure, I could have made it the twenty miles very quickly, but I would have had to find a car with keys and plenty of gas. Besides, they make too much noise, and I never learned to drive anyway.
I walk around one of the many abandoned cars to the edge of the highway and peer over the railing. I can see it now, in the distance: Fort Black. It takes me a moment to process what I’m looking at as I study the surrounding area. Then it hits me that Fort Black isn’t a fort at all.
Fort Black is a prison.
Chapter Five