“This doesn’t look like the plans,” Jamie said.
“It doesn’t look like anything.”
We tried to follow what Stella remembered of the blueprints, guided only by harsh auxiliary lights, which made the curving, winding, subterranean structure of the place even more disorienting. None of us could pinpoint exactly when the power had been cut off. The air felt dead and stale as we moved through it.
“I feel like any second there could be a thousand guns pointed at our heads,” Stella said.
“There could be.” I felt my way through the darkness. Our footsteps echoed on the metal walkway. “Well, probably not a thousand.”
Eventually, the walkway parted in a fork. We could go left, right, or down a small set of stairs. I decided down. When we reached the landing, we stood opposite a metal wall; a door had been cut into it, with rounded corners and a biohazard symbol in the center. CONTAINMENT, the plans had read. Nowhere to go but in.
“Nope,” Jamie said, shaking his head. “Nope.”
I pressed my ear to the door.
“Is she here yet?”
I sprang back when I heard those words. Noah spoke them. He was behind this door. I reached for the handle, but Jamie stopped me.
“Mara,” he said slowly. “Do you know what that symbol means?”
“Yes.”
“Then would you kindly share why you’re ignoring it?”
“Noah’s in there. I just heard him.”
Jamie looked skeptical.
“Listen,” I told him. He pressed his ear to the door too.
“Roth’s here as well, sounds like.”
Jamie looked like he’d been shocked. “Jesus,” he whispered. “Who’s he talking to?”
“Probably Dr. Kells,” Stella said it aloud as I thought it.
I looked at the both of them. Stella looked pale and frightened. Jamie looked determined. Decided.
It was time. Time to split up. I took a deep breath.
“I don’t know what that video meant, or why Kells wanted us to see it. I don’t know why Jude helped us get out or if he was even really helping us at all. I don’t know anything, but I know that I have to open this door. I have to. And if you don’t want to be here for it, you should go.”
“Mara, wait—”
“There was a hatch, somewhere on the blueprints, right?” Stella nodded. “By the Maintenance Area. You should go. Together. Get to No Name Key however you can. I’ll catch up with you there or I won’t.”
“I think you’re making a mistake,” Jamie said slowly.
Stella raised her hand. “Me too, for what it’s worth.”
I smiled without amusement. “Noted.”
Jamie ran his hand over his scalp, scratching at it. “I don’t want to leave you here by yourself.”
“Then don’t.”
Stella looked back and forth between the two of us, clearly unsure what to do. I reached for the handle again.
“Stop!” Jamie shouted.
“Jamie—”
“Mara, I love you—don’t look at me like that, not in that way—but if you are so far gone that you are about to ignore a BIG RED BIOHAZARD symbol, me going in with you isn’t going to help you. I want my innards to stay inner.”
“It’s okay,” I said quietly. “It really is.” I wasn’t offended, or even hurt. I was relieved. I didn’t want to feel responsible for Jamie and Stella. It was enough just being responsible for myself.
“Shit,” Jamie muttered. “Shit.”
“Go, Jamie.”
He grabbed my face in his hands, hard, and smushed my cheeks. “If it’s Ebola, you’re fucked. But if not, just—try not to breathe for as long as you can, okay?”
I nodded. “Go. I’ll give you a head start.”
Jamie kissed me on the cheek. “Good luck,” he whispered, and he and Stella began to climb the stairs. I waited until the sounds of their muted footsteps disappeared, and then I pressed my ear to the door.
“Why won’t she come in?”
Noah again. I closed my eyes. Something wasn’t right. He was alive, obviously, but if he was okay, why wasn’t he opening the door to come to me?
Every instinct told me to run, but I turned the handle anyway. The door opened slowly.
The room was white and tiled, like the examination room I’d woken up in. No furniture in this one either, except for a small card table and two chairs. Dr. Kells sat on one of them. The second chair was empty.
“Where’s Noah?” I asked with steel in my voice. My eyes searched the room, but there was nothing to find. “Why did you tell me he was dead?”
Dr. Kells was reaching into a cardboard box by her feet as I spoke. “Because he is.”
She lifted something up, over her head. A gas mask. “I’m sorry,” I heard her say before she lowered it over her face. There was a hissing sound, and by the time I noticed the vents near the ceiling, I had already fallen to the ground.