The air sings with gunfire as I run. More bullets whizz past me, hitting cars parked on the side of the road, shattering their windows.
‘Take cover!’ Cole shouts. ‘I’m coming for you, but I need to set off another blast!’
I lurch off the road, pulling myself behind one of the cars. A second explosion rips through the air, making the night flash into day. A building near the school explodes, sending bricks and bodies flying in a mushroom cloud of smoke. My ears ring, whining in the aftermath as rocks and rubble fall like rain, the air thick with grey, chalky dust.
‘Cole,’ I choke out, clambering to my feet, gaping at the devastation around me. Cole is the one blowing up the buildings – he’s doing it to protect me. Smoking debris stretches out as far as I can see. The ruins are strewn with bodies, littered with patches of fire and chunks of twisted metal.
Cole stands in the middle of the road amid clouds of swirling ash, his eyes twin pools of perfect blackness. He has a rocket launcher on one shoulder, his rifle in his other hand. The panel on his forearm is a sweet, brilliant blue.
‘Cole, you have to stop!’ I cry.
‘They’re trying to kill you.’
He swings his rifle in a clean arc, letting off a round of bullets. A group of people fighting near me fall to the ground, screaming. I lurch out from behind the car. ‘Stop, Cole, it’s not their fault – it’s the vaccine! We need to get out of here. We need to stop this!’
‘Stay in cover!’ he shouts.
‘No!’ I cry, running into the street. If I stay in cover, he’ll keep killing anyone who poses a threat to me. But that’s everyone, and it’s all my fault. ‘Stop shooting them! Cole, please, we have to go!’
The gravel in the road bites into my feet as I run for Cole. Everywhere I look, I see carnage. Dust-coated bodies are sprawled on the street, their orange panels slowly blinking out. Countless more lie among the ruins. Cole has blown apart two buildings and sent the crowd scattering, killing anyone around me.
But there are more of them coming.
I hear them before I see them. I turn my head back, my breath catching. A mass of snarling, shouting people is swarming down the road, running straight for us. They must have seen the flashes of light and heard the blasts of the explosions. Now there are hundreds of them, charging for us, stampeding down the street.
There are too many of them to fight, even with a rocket launcher.
‘Cole,’ I cry, coughing in the dust. ‘We need to run, now!’
As if in response, the jeep hurtles round the corner, its horn blaring. The headlights splash over me as it screeches to a stop. It swings round, skidding across the rubble littering the street, its doors flying open as it turns.
‘Get in!’ Cole roars, his gun aimed at the crowd.
I race forward, shots ringing out around me, and lunge headfirst through the open door. Cole launches himself into the driver’s side, reaching over to yank the door shut behind me, then the jeep ploughs back down the street.
‘Are you OK?’ Cole shouts, flooring the accelerator. Gunshots thud against the windows. ‘Did they hurt you, Cat?’
I shake my head, seeing blood and bodies every time I close my eyes. ‘Just a … a flesh wound.’
‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ I say. The jeep’s dashboard is a mess of warning symbols. ‘Do you know what’s going on? Is this happening everywhere?’
‘No,’ Cole growls. ‘This is an attack. Cartaxus wouldn’t believe us until Lee sent them footage from his eyes.’
‘Leoben’s OK?’
‘He’s fine. He’s gone looking for Crick. Novak wasn’t affected either, along with half her scientists. Whoever’s doing this is picking and choosing who they target.’
‘This is the vaccine, Cole. There was extra code added to it … And I gave it to everyone.’
‘Whatever’s happening, this sure as hell isn’t your fault.’
I just shake my head. We speed past the visitors’ centre, bouncing across the bridge. I grit my teeth, blood trickling down my back as the odometer ticks higher. We need to get away from here. I want to be miles from this madness before we even think about stopping.
Two minutes pass, then four. We hit the freeway and screech up the exit, skidding on to the leaf-strewn road. My shoulder is a white-hot kernel of pain. I try to dig my fingernails into the palms of my hands, but nothing happens, and I realize that for the first time in my life, I’ve bitten my nails down to stubs.
Cole eyes the blood on my face, my hands. ‘What happened to you, Cat?’
I lean forward to show him the wound on my shoulder. ‘Sh-shot,’ I stutter.
Cole slams the brakes, cursing. He flies out of the jeep and is at my door in a blur, carrying me round to the back.
‘Shh,’ he whispers, flipping the doors open, lowering me to my side on the crumpled sleeping bags. ‘It’s OK, just breathe, Cat. You’re going to be OK.’
Cold air hits my back as he slices through the bathrobe, lifting the blood-soaked fabric away from the wound. He peels back the air-thin layer of the silver pressure suit, climbing into the jeep, straddling me in the tight confines. ‘Easy now. I’m going to give you some tech, and then I’m going to get you patched up.’
I twist my neck to look up at him. When I had to cut out my panel, his protective protocol kicked in and he could barely look at me. Now there’s a bullet in my shoulder, and his eyes are a clear, soft blue. ‘Are you … are you OK to do this?’ I ask. ‘With the protective protocol?’
He pauses, watching me. ‘Yeah,’ he murmurs. ‘I think I am.’ He uncaps a healing tech vial and presses it to my back. A prickle of heat runs down my spine, and the pain starts to ebb away.
‘That’s good,’ I breathe.
He leans down to kiss my hair. ‘You might not think so in a minute. The bullet’s lodged in your scapula. I need to get it out.’
I nod, clenching my hands tight. ‘It’s OK, I can handle it.’
‘I know you can.’
When he leans back again, he has a palm-size yellow plastic box in his hands with a crank in the back that clicks when he winds it. The plastic is covered with deep scratches. I know what this is. It’s a golden retriever. An electromagnet. It’s going to yank the bullet out of me.
‘Are you ready?’ he asks, holding the box to the wound in my shoulder.
I nod, gritting my teeth, burying my face in my hands.
The box lets out a whine, and the bullet hits it with a crack. Pain races through my back, arcing along my ribs.
‘It’s out, it’s out,’ Cole whispers, spraying something icy on my back. It heats up once it hits my skin, hardening like plastic. ‘This’ll keep the wound clean until it closes on its own. The healing tech is starting to kick in.’
I nod, shaking, my breath whistling through gritted teeth. The pain flares up before subsiding slowly. Cole’s gaze trails down my face to my neck. ‘Your neck is bruised, and your face. Cat, what happened to you?’
A lump forms in my throat. ‘Dax … He was like them, Cole. He tried to fight it, but he couldn’t. He’s the one who shot me.’