Page 66 of The Godhead Complex
Isaac turned to watch Morgan in the larger pod next to him. She held a black box in her hand, surrounded by workers, what seemed like every single person who was a part of the Villa.What was happening?He looked at Ximena, questioning with his eyes, but she just dropped her chin. Morgan nodded to those in the pod and then walked out, into the center of the room.
Morgan, square box in hand—with what appeared to be a little antenna jutting from the top—walked over to Cowan’s pod and unlocked it. “With Kletter gone, and your infection spreading,” the blonde-haired scientist spoke to Cowan as she entered her glass pod, “we have very few options for your treatment.” She gently unhooked Cowan from her IV, helped her stand up, then led her outside the pod.
What nonsense was this?
“You see, Kletter’s work was quite advanced and may have seemed unorthodox, but she was ahead of her time, like many of the scientists of old.” Morgan tapped Cowan’s shoulder three times, gently, as if to sayyou’ll be okaybefore walking back to the large safety pod with the others, then sealing the door. She’d just left the sickly woman standing, weakly, all by herself. “Please stand by and await the test.”
“What test?” Isaac yelled, but no one responded. Half of the scientists and lab workers watched Ms. Cowan and the other half watched the main entrance as if expecting a special visitor.
What test?
“Release the dispenser!” Morgan shouted into the walkie-talkie, and every muscle in Ximena’s body tensed. The lab techs whispered to each other in anticipation.
“Whatisthis?” Ximena asked Carlos.
“Just watch.” His eyes didn’t leave the doorway, as if he might miss something if he looked away for a single second. Ximena turned her gaze back to the middle of the room to see Cowan sway on her feet. Barely standing. Metallic, staccato noises from the stairway clanked loudly but it didn’t sound like footsteps. Ximena had been up and down those stairs a thousand times, but she didn’t have a reference for what that clanking sounded like.
A hush came over the techs.
Silence.
Clanks had turned to clicks and whirring. Loud, mechanical clicking. But there was no preparing Ximena for what she saw next. As soon as the long, spikey, silvery legs came into view, she felt a fear that Cowan must’ve felt a thousand times stronger, pumping through her weakened veins.
There was a collective gasp in the pod from all the scientists, except Carlos, who just smiled. A Griever made its way on to the main floor. Different from the ones of old—those fleshy, sluglike monsters in stories of the Maze Trials. This new version was almost completely machine. Mostly gone were the biological elements that had once slowed them down, though enough remained to give the impression of a live, breathing nightmare.
“It’s working . . . ,” Carlos whispered in awe.
Ximena had never seen anything so terrifying in all her life. So ugly. So big and frightening. The Griever paused at their pod and hissed at everyone inside with its wet, slimy beast-like face, then sniffed the air in front of Isaac’s pod. Ximena instinctively grabbed the knife from her back pocket, knowing it would accomplish nothing if things went awry.
Isaac banged both fists on the glass.
I wouldn’t do that,Ximena thought.
“How can you do this to her?” Isaac screamed at Morgan and Ximena could see how betrayed he felt. Ximena understood, feeling the exact same amount of distrust toward Carlos, who continued watching the Griever with a fanatic, childlike glee.
She slapped him on the arm. “Thisis what you were working on? How could you!?” She screamed the words, everything she’d thought she’d known about him vanished, like vapor in wind. The Griever rolled forward, using all of its appendages, whirring and clicking with each movement, a sound that sent Ximena’s mind to a dark place.
Cowan was at first frozen in terror, but she now stumbled backwards, crab-walking past Frypan’s pod toward the one in the back that held Jackie. The burst of adrenaline that made her move was a sight to behold. All the while, the Griever sniffed and snarled and clicked its legs forward. “Stay calm!” Morgan instructed, as if the horror story in front of them wasn’t happening. Of the islanders, only the old man named Frypan came even close to following her order—he lookedunusuallycalm.
Ximena couldn’t hear Jackie over the terrifying noise of the Griever and people yelling and shouting, but she was trying desperately to open the pod from the inside for Cowan. But they didn’t have the keys, Ximena did.
Isaac gave her a pleading look.
The keys.
She could do something.
Ximena reached in her pocket and fingered the pod keys as she walked forward. This felt like the first time in her life she could really and truly help someone in need. If she could just get past—
“Stop.” Carlos grabbed her arm like he’d done a hundred times before. Always in charge, always telling her what to do or what not to do. She shook off his grip, done listening to him.
“No! Not this time!” Her hands shook as she reached for the door handle, as she pulled the keys from her pocket. But then Morgan stopped Ximena with nothing but her voice.
With just a gentle whisper she held Ximena in place. “It’s going to work. I know it will.” Ximena could not move. “Fearis an important tool in the healing process.”
Cowan had reached the wall, her back against it, trembling in terror. The Griever slowly moved closer, as if it had been programmed to stretch out the agony. As if it had been programmed . . .
Ximena turned to Carlos, who was still smiling. She didn’t know if she could ever trust him again. His naive hope for the future had turned into darkness, had spilled over into blind trust in the Villa. Blind trust could get you killed.
