Page 64 of Blue Arrow Island
“That’s fine,” Marcus says.
I stand and turn, relieved to be leaving this room.
“Briar?” Marcus says.
It’s the first time I’ve heard him say my name, and it sends a warm wave of awareness prickling over my skin. The tug in my gut, drawing me toward him, tells me the aromium isn’t all the way out of my system. That’s the only explanation for feeling a pull toward such a moody prick.
I glance at him over my shoulder.
“We can’t risk you taking information back to Virginia. If you try to leave, we’ll shoot to kill. I want to make sure you know that.”
He says it nonchalantly, like he’s talking about what he’s having for dinner. Just another power-hungry man reminding a woman she’s under his thumb.
“Aw. So you’re an honorable asshole.”
I don’t wait for him to respond. It must kill him inside because I know men like him. They always want to have the last word.
Marcus is just a more polished version of Virginia. He wields control and leads by intimidating. The lesser of two evils is still evil.
20
We lost four of our thirty test subjects to the initial injection. We must move forward, though. All progress comes with a price.
- Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Randall McClain
We’re underground.
The concrete floor of the long, wide hallway we’re in has a gradual incline. The air is slowly getting thicker and warmer. That’s why it was cooler and there weren’t any windows.
“Feeling okay?” Ellison asks, glancing at me over her shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“If you need to rest at any point in the next few days, speak up.”
I wonder if Virginia made it back to Rising Tide. Probably, she’s a cockroach. More than once since I got here, I’ve had nightmares about her killing me. Slowly. Quickly. With a knife. With her hands.
I was moments from death that day in the jungle, and vines saved my life. Plants. They shot out of the jungle in a spectacle that looked like killer computer-generated special effects in a pre-virus movie. But it was real. It was like when that massive snake came flying out of the jungle like a missile by the waterfall that day. It might have even been airborne—it was moving so fast it was just a blur.
Impossible. But I saw it with my own eyes both times. Of all the weird shit I’ve experienced on this island, the vines were the weirdest.
Plants attacking a person? Everything I know about science says it’s not possible. And yet, those vines wrapped around Virginia and kept her from reaching me.
After a long walk, we reach a metal door that requires a code to be opened. There’s a slanted covering on the keypad that keeps me from seeing what Ellison keys in.
The door slides into the thick rock wall, sunlight illuminating a triangular opening about thirty feet ahead. I use a hand to shield my eyes from the brightness as we move forward.
Amira is waiting for us when we reach the end of the walkway, her smile taking the edge off my worry.
“You look so much better than you did the last time I saw you,” she says, taking one of my hands and squeezing it.
“Thanks to Ellison.” I give her a grateful look.
“I’m here for anything you need, Briar,” Ellison says. “I have other patients, so this is where I leave you.”
She goes back the way we came, Vance staying about fifteen feet from me and Amira. She’s wearing the same thick canvas pants and white T-shirt the Tiders wear, and so is Vance. Amira also has a quiver of arrows strapped to her back, though she doesn’t have a bow. Her shirt is soaked through with sweat, and her hair, pulled back in a ponytail, is sweaty at her temples.
“I’ll show you everything I know, but I’m still learning myself,” she says.
