Breakout, p.21
Breakout, page 21
I shake my head and go around to help support Seph on his other side. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You mean you didn’t set off that explosion?”
Trip, Vaughn, and Seph shake their heads.
“Well it wasn’t us,” Clara says.
I stare back at the plume of smoke still rising in the distance as everyone climbs into the UNV. I don’t know who or what caused it, but I’m sure as hell grateful they did.
Thirty
Once inside the UNV, Trip takes Seph back to my workroom. Blood drips behind them all the way down the hall. What the hell are we going to do? He’s not a WALTER. I don’t know how to fix people.
“What happened?” I ask as Trip lays him on the table.
“I’m fine. It’s not that bad,” Seph says.
“We were running, then turned around and didn’t see you. So we headed back and found a group of WALTERs instead,” Trip explains.
Clara pushes Trip out of the way. “Let me see.” She takes his sleeve and rips it up to the shoulder to get a better look. “It just grazed you. Do you have any thread or super-thin wire so I can stitch this up?”
For a moment, I can’t move. This is a side of Clara I haven’t seen before.
“Hello,” she says, and I jump into action, getting her the items she needs.
“How do you know what to do?”
She glances at me. “My mom’s a doctor.” Something about her tone tells me there’s more to it, but now’s not the time to ask. She swallows hard, then unspools some of the wire I handed her and looks down at Seph. “This is going to hurt.”
I grab his hand as he turns his head away from what Clara is doing. Trip has to almost sit on his shoulder to keep his arm still.
Luckily, we have Vaughn at the front of the ship getting us as far away from this place as possible. Seph grunts and moans, but he takes it like a pro.
“Lezah.” Vaughn pops her head into the workroom. “I need you to fix the controls up front.”
Shit. The circuit board. I almost forgot.
“Go.” Seph grunts. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’m almost done here,” Clara says.
“There’s some painkillers in the room down the hall in the blue cabinet,” Vaughn says.
I kiss Seph on the head and follow her out to the front of the ship to get to work. As I dig my hands inside the main console, I can’t help but think about Ruthie. I promised Clara I’d fix her. But what if they find her first? What if I can’t do it? But thinking like this won’t do any good. I need to concentrate on one thing at a time, and then I’ll worry about that.
When I’m finished, Seph is done, too, and insists on sitting in the main section of the ship instead of lying down like he should. Stubborn ass. But I’m glad he’ll be okay. Vaughn navigates us back through some of the underground tunnels, and I wish there was a way we could take a break. Just park this thing somewhere, float out into the middle of the ocean, and just sleep for a few days. But the longer we wait the worse things will get, and the possibility of Fredrick figuring out our plan increases. We need to strike now while we still might have a chance.
As the UNV gets close to our next port, my nerves kick into hyperdrive. We’re somehow supposed to leave the safety of this underwater machine to trek all the way over to Trip’s house to get information on his dad without getting caught. Not the smartest plan in the world, but we’re out of options. I’d be lying if I said my chest wasn’t heavy with guilt from leaving Ruthie behind. Fixing Seph up has helped Clara, but she still looks incredibly sad.
Vaughn rounds us all up in the center of the ship. “You’ll each need to use this to change your appearance. It’s a special SOUL that’ll allow you to alter your makeup and hair color without you having to log in.” Disguises, why didn’t I think of that?
“How does it work?” Clara asks.
“Let me show you.” Vaughn clicks the screen on and points the camera at herself. “Because of its close proximity, it can read the nanobits in my features and allow me to alter them.” She clicks the screen again, and her hair goes from a soft brown to a white blonde with pink streaks. She then uses makeup contours to give herself higher cheekbones and a slimmer-looking nose. The nanobits can only do so much with the scar, but it definitely isn’t as noticeable. The only thing she can’t change is the length of her hair (unless she wants to chop it off). When she’s done, she looks completely different. If someone were to stare at her hard enough, they might be able to tell, but from a quick passing glance, it’ll do the job.
“Very cool,” Seph says, and Vaughn hands the SOUL to him. “It overrides the last command.”
“Exactly,” she says.
He changes his hair color from a deep black to a bright purple, makes his face look rounder like he’s put on about twenty pounds, with a short, stubby-looking nose. He also makes his lips appear thinner and not as kissable. Which is a shame.
Trip takes bronzing to an extreme, making it look like he’s spent the last few months sunbathing, not rotting away in a prison. His white hair becomes dark brown with golden highlights, and he completes the look with some eyeliner and shading his lips to a burnt-orange. He looks like a mega fan of the band AI Rebellion, meaning he’ll blend right in.
Clara turns herself into a taller version of me, with thick eyeliner, paler skin, and dark hair, except hers has streaks of turquoise running through.
Finally, it is my turn. Holding the SOUL in my hands, I’m not entirely sure what I want to do. The face I’ve seen for the past few months hasn’t ever felt right or like me. But maybe it is what I looked like before. Or maybe it was just another trick so I wouldn’t be able to remember the real me. Well, it worked.
“Need some help?” Vaughn asks. She knew me before, and she’s probably the best person to create a disguise for me.
I hand her the SOUL. “Sure.”
She clicks away at the screen for a few minutes, then turns it around with the camera on so I can see myself. My dark-purple lips are now a bright red. The thick eyeliner is exchanged for fine black lines that extend from the corners of my eyes and twirl around. My face looks fuller, too, like I’ve actually been eating well, and the dark circles under my eyes are completely gone. My hair is the perfect shade of blue. Not too dark, not too bright. She even changed the nanobits in my tattoos, and now instead of creepy dark symbols, one of my arms is blank, and the other looks like the inside of a WALTER’s arm with all its wires and circuits. In a weird kind of way, I still look like me, but not like me at all. Maybe that’s why they did that, why they made me look so different from the memories I had of myself. So I wouldn’t remember who I was before. And while this isn’t exactly perfect, I feel as though I’m getting closer.
“Next,” Vaughn says. “Wardrobe.” She clicks a button, and a closet opens. “There’s not much, but we’ll have to make it work. Especially you two.” She points to Seph and Trip.
Everyone finds something that fits—except poor Trip is left with a midi-shirt that shows his hairy stomach. Vaughn opens another panel in the wall where I dump all my clothes with everyone else’s to be incinerated. There’s something so liberating, knowing I’ll never see those disgusting things again. None of us look perfect, but we also don’t look like the same group that stepped onto this ship hours ago, so it’ll do.
Vaughn goes back up to the cockpit to finish the journey. She pulls into a port on the far side of San Francisco Island, and the farthest away from where we started this journey. We’re even a good distance from the warehouse. Thank God for those tunnels. We might actually have some kind of a chance. Like we might not immediately get caught.
Once everyone disembarks, Vaughn pulls the controls from her pocket and sends the ship away. I haven’t been to this end of San Francisco in a long time. That I’m sure of. This used to be home. Before our lives went to shit, and we were forced out. It makes me angry standing here now, knowing that no one from this side of town came to our defense when things went down with my dad. They were cowards, afraid the same would happen to them probably. Well I would go down in flames before I allowed anyone I knew to be treated the way we were. That’s something else I remember. Being forced from our home. I don’t think I could scrub that memory from my mind even if I tried. Now the memory has Dad, not just Mom and Noah. Having someone mess with your memories is seriously fucked up. It makes me want to question everything, but for now I have to go with what I’ve got. I have to hope that the true pieces of my past will slowly come together and force out all the fake crap that’s inside my brain.
The sun is hidden behind the thick layer of fog that seems to always cover this city. This close to the water, there are a few restaurants and shopping galore, neon signs not yet lit up because the day hasn’t officially started.
We decide to break up into two groups to keep any attention to a minimum. A group of five teens out this early might raise some suspicion. Trip, Clara, and Seph go first, while Vaughn and I wait a few minutes before following the directions Trip gave us.
This part of the city looks almost the same. Except now, stores that aren’t yet open have signs on their doors. A large W inside a red circle with a slash through it. A picture of a red drop in the bottom left corner. The same droplet that’s on Clara’s wrist. What the hell has happened here? How could so many be against equal rights for WALTERs? Why do they think it’s okay? I can’t believe a place so close to where I grew up could be like this. So completely closed-minded. What else has happened since I’ve been in that prison to make the world this way?
Stores turn to homes, first small, and the farther I walk the bigger they get. Soon the street is lined with thick, lush bushes, pruned to perfection, blocking the view to the even more perfect houses behind them. Privacy like this has its price. This area is saved for the elite of the elite.
The road curves, and around a corner where the street comes to an end is Trip’s home. Not that I can see it from the street. Clara, Seph and Trip are waiting for us next a dense line of oleander bushes. My pounding heart has gotten faster and faster along the way and right now it feels as though it might explode from my chest completely. This is where things are really going to get difficult. Although it doesn’t sound like there are any strange virtual realities to deal with. But here there are dogs. So maybe the VR thing isn’t so bad.
As a group, I follow Trip around the long line of hedges toward the back of the property. Walking in through the front door isn’t an option, but Trip assures us there’s an easy way to get in from back here. Easy meaning through a bunch of thorny plants, through a grassy area full of motion detectors, and then into a house where all the doors are locked. So yeah. As easy as refitting a WALTER with a new left hand.
Using a tool I took from my workroom on the ship, Trip hacks away at the rare pearl-white roses and their traitorous thorny branches. He takes the brunt of the damage in the form of scratches all over his hands and arms, and a few on his face. His shirt is torn, and beads of blood dot long lines anywhere fabric wasn’t there to protect him.
The rest of us aren’t completely unscathed, either. The ragged edges of the bushes yank and pull at every inch of me. Clara’s sweater starts to unravel at the hem, and Trip has to cut the string before the entire thing is obliterated.
I stop before the edge of the bushes where the terrain turns into lush lawn. From here, the transmitter box that helps supply power to the outdoor cameras is visible. Unfortunately, it’ll require someone to step out of our hiding place to complete the job, and since Seph is the hacking genius, he’s the one who gets the honor of doing it.
Trip peers through the thick hedge. “Okay now.”
Seph steps out and crouches next to the box. He has less than thirty seconds before the cameras will catch him. I can’t see what he’s doing, but the plan was to use the SOUL Vaughn had on the ship to hack into the system, loop the video footage of the yard, and deactivate the sensors in a way that makes it appear they’re still functioning. Seph seemed confident. I, however, brace myself for alarms to start sounding.
When Seph stands and gives the thumbs-up, I can finally take a deep breath. Now all that’s left is figuring out how to get across the expansive green lawn.
“We have a problem,” Seph says as he steps back through the bushes. “I couldn’t deactivate the motion sensors. Whoever set this system up is good.”
Great. So they might not be able to see us coming, but the sensors will give us away. That won’t look suspicious at all.
Clara’s head snaps up. “You have dogs, you said, right?”
“Yeah. Why?” Trip says.
“Maybe if you call them, or something, they’ll come out here, so whoever will think it’s the dogs making all the commotion.”
Trip rubs his chin. “Not a bad plan. Except they hate me.”
That seems like a common problem with Trip.
“I remembered you said something about dogs,” Vaughn says, as she slips the pack off her back, opens it, and pulls out a can of meat. “I’ve got this covered.” She pops the lid, and the smell invades my nose. It’s not that I don’t like meat, but meat from a can should never have become a thing.
As stinky as it is, it’s a good idea. I just wish she would toss the open can already.
“Here goes.” Trip sticks two fingers in his mouth and blows, releasing the loudest, most obnoxious sound ever. Then I wait. It isn’t long until there’s barking in the distance, and slowly it gets louder and louder, and then two massive dogs are barreling across the yard straight toward us.
Their teeth make an appearance every time they open their mouths to bark, and sweat streams down my back. I don’t like dogs. Correction, I don’t like big, scary dogs that look like they want to eat me. When they’re close enough, Vaughn steps through the last part of the hedge and chucks the can across the yard, chunks of meat flying out along the way. Then she slinks back into the bushes. Please let this work.
The dogs don’t even notice the can soaring through the air; their sights are set on our group. Shit. What do we do now? The can lands with a quiet clunk, and the rest of the meat spills out the side. A strong breeze blows across the yard, and the dogs’ heads whip in the direction of the disgustingness. Their barks turn from I’m-about-to-rip-your-legs-off to a playful yip. There isn’t time to celebrate the small victory as I push out of the bushes and book it across the yard with everyone else.
I don’t even turn back to see what the dogs are doing. It’s better this way. If I’m about to lose another digit, or a limb, I’d rather not know about it. My feet spring up with every step, making the heavy boots on my feet seem not so heavy. I make it to the side door the dogs came out of and press myself up against a cold, white stucco wall next to Clara. But it looks like we’ve run out of time. The dogs have finished their little snack and are charging our way.
“Please tell me you have another can of food in there,” Trip says.
“I have something better.” Vaughn pulls out some sort of dried meat from her bag and crouches low to the ground.
“What the hell are you doing?” Clara asks.
“I’m getting us in. Now back up and give me some room,” Vaughn orders.
The dogs head straight for her and the delicious treat she has dangling from her fingertips. Part of me doesn’t want to watch her get her hand ripped off and mauled by these ferocious beasts, and the other part can’t look away.
I stay pressed up against the wall while the dogs charge and close my eyes for a brief moment. When they open again, Vaughn has the two dogs completely under her spell. She’s scratching their ears, and in return they’re licking her face. She carefully slips the collar off the larger one as he nudges her so hard she falls to the ground. Trip steps forward to help her, but the dogs immediately start growling. He jumps back.
“You weren’t joking. They do hate you.” Vaughn pushes herself up, grabbing a few more pieces of the dried meat from her bag. She slips the other collar off the other dog before tossing it and the treats away, and the dogs run after them.
“Come on, let’s go.” She shakes the first collar at us, showing us she got what she needs, and heads toward the door. As soon as it’s close enough there’s an audible click. A cutout in the door slides open that the dogs use to get in and out of the house. I guess it’s a good thing they’re big, since the opening is large enough for all of us to get through, one at a time.
Once I’m inside, Vaughn tucks the collar in her bag and steps away from the door so the opening slides shut, locking the dogs outside. We seem to be in some kind of closet-like room, except it’s bigger than most of the closets I’ve ever seen. Trip presses a button and a rack of coats expands from the wall. He grabs a lightweight silver one, zips it on over the too-small shirt, then presses the same button, sending it away.
“Where to now?” Seph asks.
“My dad’s office is on the third floor, but we should probably go this way.” Trip pulls open a different rack of coats and slides all the jackets to the side, exposing a hidden set of stairs.
“Why the hell do you have hidden passageways in your house?” Seph asks, inspecting the area Trip exposed.
Trip shrugs. “I don’t know. In case we have to get out fast or something. I told you my dad’s weird. We have a panic room, too.”
“Not surprising,” Vaughn whispers to me so that no one else can hear.
I climb inside the closet, Trip comes through last to close the door and fix the jackets so no one can tell we’d been there. Then he leads the way to the third floor. Up. Up. Up I go. It’s not as bad as climbing all the stairs in that abandoned building, so I’m not about to complain. It’s much nicer, too, and definitely doesn’t smell as bad. It’s also surprisingly bright in this passageway, even though there aren’t any windows. Lights shine up the walls on each side in a soft blue as I climb the spiral stairs to the top.
I keep my jaw clenched tight, not uttering a word and staying light on my feet. Everyone else seems to be doing the same. Not that Trip said we needed to be quiet, but it feels like the right thing to do when breaking into a house, even if one of the people with us used to live here.
