Page 71 of Captured Immune

“Trey?”

The little hairs on the back of my neck stand up as Arella’s frail voice calls my name. I hurry to her as she tips backward, and I catch her just before her head hits the floor.

“Arella?” I can’t breathe. “What’s wrong?”

Through half-closed eyes, she says, “I—I feel weak, and sleepy, and...”

Ruby steps up behind me in her clacky black boots. “What happened to her arm?”

“She was hurt by that knife.” Because my hands are busy holding Arella up, I nod my head toward the two guys lying limply on the floor. I swallow hard. That could have been Arella.

Pixie marches toward the guy with the knife sticking out of his back. She pulls it out and holds it up as blood drips from it. “I can’t tell for sure, but I think it’s laced with perrizo. There’s a bunch of these in the Weapons Tech lab on level three.” After wiping the knife off on the guy’s shirt, she sticks it into her back pocket.

“Got anything to tie her arm with?” Ruby asks me.

I shrug my jacket off, then drag my shirt over my head. Ruby helps me tie it around Arella’s limp arm, then I slip my jacket back on and zip it up.

“Okay,” Ruby says, “let’s get her outta here.”

16

TREY

Armedwith my two new bodyguards, I cradle Arella and carry her down the hall. She’s struggling to keep her eyes open.

The smell of ripe vomit attacks my nostrils as we approach the cafeteria. When we turn the corner, countless bodies are draped over the floors. There’s puke everywhere.

“They’re not dead,” Ruby says. “At least notallof them.”

“Don’t feel too bad,” Pixie says. “Most of the dead ones are Royals. We think.”

“You think?” I say.

“Well, there ain’t no way to be sure, is there? We took guesses. Educated guesses. Sometimes you can tell just by lookin’ at ’em. Like that scrawny dude back there—totally not a Royal.

“Victor knew the other ZIRDA bases have been investigating him, so lately, he’s been bringing inrealZIRDA agents as a lame attempt to get people off his case. But he only keeps the weak and pathetic ones on base—like that Katie girl. The powerful ones, like us, he sends out on useless missions as field agents to keep us away from here.”

I adjust Arella in my arms as I continue following the women. “How did you guys know Victor’s a Royal?”

“We were transferred here from ZIRDA New York,” Ruby says. “We work closely with ZIRDA Toronto. They were the first to smell something fishy here.”

“Speaking of which,” Pixie says, “Victor disappeared tonight. When we heard the siren and your name over the intercom, we figured you was tryna save the Immune and got caught. The first thing we did was rush to find Victor. One of his guards told us he was off base.”

“Where is he?” I ask.

“We dunno,” Ruby says. “We didn’t get a chance to find out before his guards attacked us. They must have figured we were using the alert as our chance to kill Victor—which, I suppose they weren’t wrong.”

Pixie rubs the side of her head. “That one guard punched me so hard, I swear I saw stars like they do in the cartoons.”

“What happened after you guys got away from Victor’s guards?” I ask.

“We rushed down to help you, duh! On the way, we ran into a bunch of agents rushing down from all the other levels. Since we didn’t know which side people were on and we had already blown our cover, we screamed out, ‘Victor’s a Royal!’ Anyone who didn’t look surprised and tried to shut us up, we aimed to kill.”

My arms are getting achy from carrying Arella like this. She’s still slumped against me as we pass more bodies lying on the floor.

“This guy is dead. I made sure of it.” Pixie gestures toward a buff guy lying facedown in a pool of his own blood. I think his name was Derek. “I knew he was a Royal from the moment I met him. When I looked him up later, I found out he’s the guy who arranged that school shooting at a Zordi elementary school in Texas last year. Many agents’ kids went to that school. Not a single child came out alive.”

God, I fucking hate the Royals.

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