Benji helped me to my feet. “We’ve got to get out of here, too, Rory!” Benji said, tugging on my arm.
“The kids,” I said, reaching back.
Brahmberger shook his head. “They can’t be moved. They’re both in a persistent vegetative state, as is the woman.”
I took the 9mm from Benji and pointed it at Brahmberger. “You did that to them?”
“They came to us that way. I don’t know why. I haven’t asked many questions since joining Majestic. I’ve learned it is better not to know.” He looked down at the girls. “I’ll stay with them,” he said, sitting back down on his stool in the corner. “It’s the least I can do.”
Rendlesham grabbed a few things as if he were about to leave, but Benji swiped the gun back from me and fired. I jumped, and Rendlesham was on the floor with a blown-out knee, next to a writhing Tennison.
“They should all stay with their patients,” Benji said, his voice breaking.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the plastic tarp.
A loud clanging behind Benji and me didn’t faze us, but the yells from Dr. Brahmberger did.
I turned, seeing Brahmberger backed against the clear plastic wall, his stool on the ground. He was staring at Tsavi, who was twitching and jerking in an unnatural way.
I took a step, but Benji stopped me.
“She’s alive!” I said with a hopeful smile. “She woke up!”
Benji nodded to Tsavi’s arm. When Cy had rested her back on the table, her arm had fallen onto the table the rock was perched on.
Thick dark red mucus was draining from the pores in the rock. At first, the substance appeared to be snaking up Tsavi’s arm and entering her wounds, but when I looked closer, I could see it was not the mucus moving, but small creatures inside the red trail. They were slug-like in texture and appearance, each one about as big as a human thumb.
Tennison stood and pulled the pen from his eye with a yelp. Holding his wound, he approached Tsavi’s twitching body with wonderment. “It’s happening. It’s the alien carcass! It has drawn them out!”
“We should go,” Benji said quietly.
“What are you waiting for, Dr. Brahmberger? Get us a sample!” Tennison said.
Brahmberger fetched a petri dish and nervously scraped at the red matter.
“This is it,” Tennison said, his hand hovering over Tsavi. “What we’ve been working toward for three years, Brahmberger.”
Tsavi’s back arched, and then her neck turned to the side. Her eyes were no longer slits. They were wide, bloodshot, and weeping the thick red mucus.
Brahmberger screamed, dropped the petri dish, and backed away as Tsavi rose from the table, her head, shoulders, and wrists twitching.
Then, the young boy began to twitch…and scream. Now that the parasites had found a familiar host, they were trying to embed themselves in the others. The humans.
My heart began to pound. Tsavi was now the host of the parasite. Tennison was right. It was happening. We were out of time.
“Babe,” Benji said in a low voice, slowly tugging me back toward him.
I nodded, walking backward, trying not to attract their attention with any sudden movement.
Together, we walked calmly to the stairs despite the horrific shrieking coming from the plastic room.
“Shit,” I said, staring at the huge piece of concrete blocking the stairwell and trying not to yell. “Shit.”
“Is there another way to the roof?”
I swallowed. “On the other side. There’s an elevator.”
“C’mon,” Benji said, pulling me by the arm around and to the other side. He pushed the up button.
I shook my head. “I can’t do this.”
“What?” he said, turning to me.
The shrieking was growing louder.
“I don’t do elevators. I can’t…” I was breathing harder, my anxiety level climbing as the elevator neared.
“I’ll be with you. We can’t stay here.”
The elevator opened. I looked around. “Maybe there’s a window. I could climb up.”
Benji stuck his foot in the doorway and cupped his hands over my shoulders. “It’s just one floor.”
“My parents were murdered, Benji. The men who killed them—they worked for Majestic. They got on the hotel elevator with us. They held a gun to my head and forced my parents to lead them to our room where they raped my best friend and tortured us before leaving us all to die. I haven’t been in an elevator since.” I sucked in air but still couldn’t breathe. Just the thought of walking into that box terrified me.
“Rory, I need you to come with me—right now.” He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking past me.
I turned to see Tsavi standing behind me, twitching. The red mucus was pouring from her nose, eyes, and ears. I screamed and fell backward.
Benji pushed the button and then aimed his gun, shooting at Tsavi, keeping her back until the doors closed.
The elevator creaked upward, and Benji pulled me to his side with one hand, holding on to the rails of the ancient elevator with the other.
“Sorry,” he said. “This probably isn’t the best one to start off with.”
“Just get me the hell out of here,” I said, trying to stay calm.
The doors opened, and immediately, hot wind whipped across my face.
Benji pulled me along with him onto the roof. I fell to my knees, sobbing unlike I had since the moment I realized my parents and Sydney’s deaths weren’t a horrible nightmare.
Benji leaned down and lifted me into his arms, running across the rooftop to where Cy and Apolonia were kneeling over a canister, furiously trying to activate it.
An explosion set ablaze the field just one mile to the east. I could feel the heat against my face. My hair blew into my eyes from the firestorm raging just a mile away.
Cy stood, taking my cheeks in his hands. He looked to Benji with a frown. “Is she hurt?” he yelled over the roaring fire.
Benji set me on my feet. “Tsavi…” he said, breathing hard.
Apolonia stood, desperation in her face. “Is she dead?”
I shook my head. “Yes, but the rock…it…she’s a host.”
Apolonia’s expression crumbled, and she walked away, screaming into the sky. Her body shook as she yelled, and then she leaned toward her father’s ship, shouting something beautiful and full of rage in Ahnktesh.
“Will he see her?” Benji said.
“The canister is an energy source,” Cy said, shaking his head in despair. “They must have harvested it from the Nayara. We could have signaled Hamech with it, but it’s damaged. We can’t get it to open.”