With a lurch, the elevator started moving upward just as Renee and dozens of the screaming mob slammed into the cage, clawing at the steel, screaming and spitting. Hundreds of scabby fingers squirmed through the small openings, some of the crazies climbing onto the elevator, others violently pulling and pushing on the door. Sato scrambled to the far corner, staring at the sickening sight.
The elevator had only gone up a few feet when dozens more of his pursuers crawled beneath it and gripped the floor through the checkered holes, hanging on, pulling toward the ground. The cage slowed to a stop, the weight of the people too great. Sato knew if he could make it to the narrow shaft cut into the stone above, then the psychos clinging to the side would have no choice but to let go or be crushed to death. He jumped to his feet, kicking at the fingers below him, stomping repeatedly in a ridiculous dance, watching in triumph as those he smashed let go and fell to the floor.
The elevator stuttered and paused, screams coming from above as the topmost section entered the main elevator shaft and crushed several of the inmates who still clung to the side. The cage slowed again, and Sato closed his eyes before he could see the gruesome results. He heard the thumps of bodies on the stone below, and the elevator lurched upward again, regaining its normal speed.
Please, he thought. Please be over, please let me go home.
A wrenching click of steel made his eyes pop open just as the door to the cage slid open with a screech. Renee had somehow broken the latch, squeezing her body against the elevator until she could get it open. She and Sato were alone, having left everyone else below, their wails and cries already dying out with the distance.
“Almost made it, didn’t you?” Renee said, her chest heaving with her deep breaths.
Sato reached down and pulled the plastic cover off the blood-filled syringe, then held it out like a knife. “Stay back,” he said, bending his knees in a crouch. “There’s no way you can win a fight with me.”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” she replied. They circled, each staying as far apart from the other as possible in the small cage. “He’s in my head. I’ll do whatever he asks.”
“Why are you doing this?” Sato asked.
“I told you, he’s in my—”
“Not you!” Sato screamed. “Reginald Chu! Why are you doing this!”
“If you have to ask, then you’ll never understand why.”
Renee lunged forward, surprising Sato despite his stance. She crashed into him, slamming his back against the side of the cage. On instinct, Sato stuck the needle into her back. She cried out in pain then lashed out at his face, scraping her nails across his right cheek. Sato pulled out the needle and bent his knees, letting his body fall to the floor, Renee landing on top of him.
They rolled and wrestled, Renee punching and clawing like a panicked bear. Sato had the syringe under her, pointed it at her face, trying to threaten her because he didn’t know what else to do. She grabbed his hand, thrusting the needle away, twisting his wrist so the syringe was heading toward his own skin. He couldn’t believe her strength. He groaned with effort, but she kept winning, pushing the needle closer and closer to the soft skin of his lower neck.
He pushed her away with a final burst of exertion; she surprised him by pulling back instead of fighting it. Caught off guard, his grip on the syringe slipped and Renee yanked it free. She twisted backward and pressed the point of the needle against his leg.
“You . . . had . . . your . . . chance,” she spit out, her face red with exertion and anger as she drove the needle into Sato’s skin. He felt the prick, the achy slide of the sharp sliver of metal. Then Renee slammed downward on the plunger of the syringe.
Pain exploded through Sato’s body as the needle dug in deeper, as the blood sample rushed into him. He cried out as the syringe emptied, its infected contents now swimming inside his tissue and veins. It felt like millions of tiny bugs squirmed underneath his skin.
“No!” he screamed, a surge of adrenaline giving him the strength to throw Renee off his body completely. “NO!”
He scrambled to his feet, unable to stop the tears from flowing as pain racked his body. “What . . . what . . . have you done to me?”
“You’ll be one of us now,” Renee said, crouched in the corner with a smile on her face.
“No, I won’t. Never.”
The elevator slammed to a stop.
“What the devil’s goin’ on here?”
Sato looked over to see Klink, his eyes moving back and forth between Sato and Renee, surprise and concern on his face.
Sato didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his backpack, ran from the lift cage, down the tunnel, and toward the steel door that led outside. He ran.
“Go, then!” Renee called out from behind him. “It won’t matter—you’ll be mine anyway. Run and take me to Master George. It’ll be fun to have a spy—”
Sato didn’t hear the rest. He was through the door, squinting his eyes against the blinding snow, scrambling down the stone stairway, slipping and falling and not caring.
Down the mountain he went.
~