The Gender End (The Gender Game #7)

“No!” insisted Matthew, his face going red, and I took another step forward, crowding him.

“Desmond using you. She work for queen. You work for queen. She send down here—no gas mask. Danger. Queen don’t care. You tool. Just like gun. You kill for queen. You die for queen.”

“You’re a liar,” Colin screamed, and I felt his movement and turned, elbowing him in the jaw and knocking him down, the momentum of his charge at me carrying him a few feet away.

“How you get here?” I asked as he slowly picked himself up. “Where you one hour ago? Who you with? What you eat? Can you ‘member?” More than anything, right now I wished I could talk as quickly and easily as the other boys, but the words… still weren’t coming to me. I pushed the frustration deep down. My words would reach them. They had to.

Colin looked at me with anger as he slowly picked himself up, but Matthew was looking around the room in alarm.

“I don’t remember,” he said.

“Because Benuxupane,” I told them. “Tamed you, make you like dog. We not dogs, we people, and we not slaves. I show you, we—”

Just then one of the older boys sat up, so suddenly it was like someone had put a coin in him to play music, like the jukebox I’d seen once—a long, long time ago, before Violet had tried to smuggle me to Patrus. The young man’s head jerked around the room, and his gaze landed on us. He stared for a moment, his expression shifting from blank to very angry, and I took a step away from him as he climbed to his feet, his breath coming in long, slow growls.

“We help you,” I said, but the growl grew louder and he simply swung at me. It was easy to dodge him, and he stumbled past me, clutching his head and moaning… but the four other older boys on the ground were getting up in a similar fashion. Slowly, their eyes clouded with pain and anger.

I knew then that I wouldn’t be able to convince those boys… those men. I could see in their eyes that they just wanted to hurt everyone around them. Just like the wardens at the water treatment plant. I looked around at the younger boys, who were also gazing on their fellows with confusion and panic, and shouted, “That way!”

Then I planted my feet and turned. I could buy them time to run away. I sidestepped an incoming blow and landed a kick to the closest one’s shoulder, knocking him to his knee, his hand coming down to stop him from toppling over.

Jumping up, I stepped on his back and spun off it, extending my leg. A shudder ran up my leg, letting me know I had hit my target, and I landed on my feet. The second boy was down, grabbing his jaw. The third boy grabbed me—too much was happening at the same time for me to react to everything—and I gritted my teeth as I felt his grasp through my suit, trying not to scream in pain as his hand tightened around my arm, making it feel like someone was dragging a knife across my skin.

My free arm snapped out and I poked him in the eye, a sharp jab, and he dropped my arm, screaming and grabbing for his face. I couldn’t even feel relief for a moment as the fourth man stepped around him. I expected him to punch at me, but felt his leg move like a brushing against my skin. I dove and rolled over the leg sweep he performed, my back erupting in agony as I rolled across the floor and back onto my feet, heading after the boys where they had moved down the tunnel.

Keeping up with them was easy. They were shouting to each other loudly and in a panic as they moved, and I followed their voices.

“Don’t go in mist!” I shouted ahead to them. “Dangerous! You hurt!”

Roars erupted from behind me as I ran, and I picked up the pace. The wall and voices ahead continued to curve around, and eventually led to another tunnel, which forked. On one side I could see a gathering of creeping mist as it went down, and the other fork seemed to rise out of it. I hoped the younger boys had taken my advice.

Listening for the roars coming down the tunnel behind me, I steeled myself and went invisible one more time, biting my lip as the pain and the tremors came back, worse than before. I crouched down, my legs already burning, and fumbled on the tunnel floor for a rock. Or a dirt clod. Or a shoe. Anything.

The pounding footsteps of the older boys came closer, then closer still. I tried to feel where they were even through the ache burning over my skin—the timing needed to be perfect…

I wasn’t sure it was perfect, but I was improvising. When the noises reached a critical level, I threw the dirt clod in my hand down the misty fork of the tunnel, aiming for the walls. It made a loud clattering noise just as the berserkers rounded the corner—and I saw them all turn, like animals seeking prey, and take off after the noise.

I didn’t wait to see if they would turn around. I took the other tunnel, relaxing my body out of invisibility and letting out a shaky breath. I followed it through to another airlock, where I was relieved to find the younger boys standing in a confused huddle. Far behind us now, a few roars sounded, faded and muted, and didn’t grow louder. I hoped that whatever was in the toxic mist would knock them out or drive them away soon… rather than killing them. But there was nothing I could do about that now. We had to fix things to keep more people from being hurt. I tried to focus on that.

“I trick them,” I said shakily to the younger boys. “Us—quiet. Don’t know if they come back.”

They all looked cautiously up at me, seeming to take things in.

“You stayed behind,” Matthew said softly, and I shrugged.

“You brothers. Keep safe.”

Matthew and Colin exchanged looks and then turned away, gathering the other four boys into a small circle. I heard them whispering furiously amid their huddled group, and felt a nervous tremor run through me, knowing there was nothing I could do about it. It was up to them whether or not they’d trust me.

The whispering died down after a short time, and they turned to look at me.

“Can you prove it? About the medicine and Desmond?”

“Now?” I asked, and they nodded solemnly. I shook my head. “No data chip. But… you help me. I show you queen using you. If wrong, you kill me. Deal?”

Matthew and Colin exchanged looks, and then looked around at the other boys. After a moment, they nodded.

“Deal.”

My smile grew, and I nodded approvingly. “Good. Now… who open door?”

Colin looked around and then moved over to the door, taking a moment to shake his shoulders before placing his fingers against the door’s lipped overhang. I studied this for a moment, and then shook my head.

“Wait,” I said, walking near to him, remembering how those monkey things had gone after the door. I moved him over to the other side of the door and pointed at the hinge. “Pull out here—weakest part of door.”