Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5) (13 page)

The door in the room closed and the clanking sound of locks made Joey realize they were in serious trouble if Julie couldn’t get it together. “Get us out of here, Julie,” he said.

A cloud of white gas entered the room.

“Put on your air shields!” Julie screamed.

Joey fumbled with his Pana and pressed the button marked
Air Shield
with a stiff finger. The room got quieter and he watched each of his friends get their shield on as well, Gladius helping Hank with his. They had five minutes of clean air.

The white cloud spread around the room.

“I got it,” Julie said.

A beam of light shone from above and a steel ladder descended from the hole in the ceiling. Joey’s heart sank, knowing Hank wasn’t going to make it up that ladder. Hell, he might not be able to make it out either. “Go, Poly! Edith might still be up there.”

Poly shot up the ladder, followed by Minter and Julie.

“Hank, I can’t get your big ass up this ladder without you doing most of the work,” Lucas said.

Hank let go of Lucas and grasped the first rung of the ladder. He pulled himself up, then fell backward, hard on the ground.

“Hank,” Gladius kneeled next to him. “Get up, sweetie. You can do this.” She sobbed.

“Go, get out of here,” Hank said.

“We’re not leaving you, Hank,” Lucas said.

Joey looked up at the bright hole in the ceiling. His wife was up there, possibly facing the worst person in existence without him, and he was about as confident as Hank in his ability to get his shaky hands around those small rungs to climb the ladder.

“Hank, you’ve got to try,” Gladius said. “We didn’t come all this way to die in a hole.” She cried, grasping his shirt in her fists. “I love you, Hank. Don’t do this. Please, don’t do this to me!”

Hank didn’t respond and Joey’s heart stopped.

Gladius cried into his chest and then sat up. Determined, she rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a small syringe. Stabbing it into his chest, she plunged the liquid into Hank.

He shot right up, knocking Gladius back.

“Get up the ladder, hurry!” she said.

Hank bounced to his feet and felt his chest. He grasped the ladder and climbed.

“We need to get him to a stone. That boost I gave him won’t last long and without a medical team to be there for the crash, he’ll die.”

Gladius and Lucas bolted up the ladder behind him.

Joey sucked in for air, but the little he had left in his shield had run out. He felt lightheaded and knew he only had seconds to get outside and into fresh air. He grasped the first rung with his pointer finger and pulled. He took each rung as a personal mission to complete.

Reaching the top, he felt hands pulling him from the hole and laying him on the dirt. The whole world went black and the last thing he heard was Poly screaming.

“He got her!”

POLY WANTED TO RUN, SHE wanted to kill. They told her about stage five, but she never thought they would allow it to get to that point. “Wake up!” She slapped Joey in the face and had trouble not blaming him for their failure. If he hadn’t gone into his slow-mo crap, maybe they could have stuck to the plan better, placing that bullet in Marcus’s head. “Wake up.” She shook him and his head bounced off the dirt.

Crying, she fell onto his chest. She couldn’t lose Joey. If he ever got up from this, she was going to get those bracelets back and chain them to his wrists.
The fool!

“I need to get Hank back to Vanar,” Gladius said.

“I feel fine. Great, really,” Hank said touching the wound on his chest. “Doesn’t even hurt.”

Gladius sighed. “You’ll be dead in under an hour if I don’t get you to Sanct.”

Poly jerked at this information, looking to Gladius. “Minter’s getting the van.”

As the van drove up to the house, dust settled around Joey, making Poly sob again. It only served to remind her of the dust grave they gave Compry and Nathen on the roof tops of Vanar.

How much could she keep giving before she broke? She shook Joey again. “You better not die on me. If you leave me, I’ll hunt you to the ends of existence. I need you.” She held his hand to her lips and kissed it.

Someone touched her shoulder and she glanced up to find Minter. He glanced at her and then to Joey. “He’s tough,” his voice cracked. “Help me get him to the van.”

Once they were all situated, Minter slid the side door closed and hopped into the driver’s seat.

“Where is she now?” Poly asked Julie.

“Edith and Evelyn are both nearing the stone. I think they must have had a helicopter.”

“We left Emmett back there,” Gladius said. “I told you we should have killed him on the spot.”

“We aren’t like that,” Hank said and shot a look at Minter.

Minter shook his head. “He’s with Marcus. I think he’s the one who took her while we were messing around inside. I think this whole thing was a distraction and set up from the beginning.”

“Was my bullet in his back a distraction?” Gladius said.

“We should have poisoned the bullets,” Poly added. “Can you drive faster?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Minter said and pushed on the pedal.

The van bounced hard and Poly kept her hands on Joey, keeping him from falling to the floor.

In thirty-two minutes, they arrived at the gates of Zach’s burnt down home. Maybe in years past—before the Cough—the house would have been immediately demolished. But the world no longer cared if a house sat in a pile of blackened sticks. It cared about getting food out to the masses and making sure they were prepared for the next epidemic. And who was the person to supply the world with the technology to facilitate these needs? Marcus Malliden, of course.

“How long has it been since they jumped?” Poly asked.

“Eighteen minutes,” Julie said, giving the time since Marcus left earth with her daughter.

Poly hated hearing the number. Her daughter was on another planet with Marcus, and she could only hope Edith was handling her. The idea of Marcus touching her was more than she could bear. But deep down she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. In fact, he claimed
they
were the ones hurting her, by confining her to an infant body. What had he meant by that?

Joey slumped forward in his seat as the van came to a stop. He still hadn’t woken and Poly combed back his hair. “We’re almost there. Wake up.” He didn’t and she held back the tears. Losing Joey at this moment . . . no, she didn’t want to think of it. They’d get him the help he needed.

Julie left the van quickly, leaving the side door open and giving Poly a view of Zach’s burnt down house. It summoned all kinds of terrible memories and she hated being there. Gladius was right, out of all the horrid things Marcus did, what he did to Samantha was beyond cruel. It showed her everything she needed to know about Marcus.

“We got the video feed,” Julie said, kneeling next to a jumble of weeds near the front door.

Lucas bent over and watched the playback on her Panavice. They discussed angles and kept replaying the video. “You’re right, Minter. Emmett’s with him. Evelyn and Edith look fine though.”

Poly sighed with a little relief and Minter didn’t say anything as he grabbed Joey from the shoulders, pulling him out of the van. “Get his feet?” he asked Poly.

“House is clear. They left a while ago,” Rick called from the front door. “Took everything I had to not try and send an arrow through them. You guys sure this phase five is the best of ideas?”

Poly wanted to slap him but settled for a sharp look. It was never supposed to go this far. Poly and Minter carried Joey to the stone circle and laid him on the floor. Already, weeds found their way through the soot and dirt accumulating in the exposed house. Poly knelt next to Joey and stared at his face.

“I got the code Marcus used, we can follow him,” Lucas said pacing near the stone.

“What’s wrong? Let’s go,” Poly said.

“Hank and Joey,” Lucas pointed to each of them. “They’re in a bad way and I don’t know this code he used. He went somewhere different.”

“Joey would rather die than let that man have her for one second longer than necessary. She could be right on the other side.”

Lucas took a deep breath and she saw the struggle in his eyes. Anger built in her as she watched the argument build in his expression. “This is the
plan
, Poly. You knew at some point, Marcus had a very good chance at besting us. Now we have the upper hand. He thinks we’re dead. Julie’s program worked and Alice sent the false information to Marcus. His guard will be down. If we jump right now with Hank and Joey like this . . .” his words dropped off and he shook his head.

Gazing at Joey, he looked back to Poly. “We can’t lose our only advantage and reveal ourselves. Not yet, anyway. We need to be a strong five here to stand any chance.”

The number five stung. Another reminder of the friend she lost not fifty feet away from the spot she stood.

“I’m fine,” Hank said and then collapsed to the ground.

“He’s crashing!” Gladius yelled and glared at Poly. “We need to get them help, now.”

“Fine,” Poly said and Lucas typed in the code.

The burnt house turned into a magnificent mansion, overlooking the ocean with spectacular views. Jack ran up to them.

“Get medical teams going,” Gladius ordered.

Jack jumped and typed into his screen.

Men and women in white shirts with oak trees on the chests flooded the room with their floating gurneys. They lifted Hank and Joey onto them and carried them off. Poly followed Joey down the elevator and to the medical wing under the house.

“Harris here?” she asked Jack.

“No, but I told him you were all here and he’s on his way.”

They pushed Joey into a small room with the makings machine. One nurse put a hand on Poly’s chest to stop her from entering. Poly grabbed the woman’s thumb, twisting it and sending her to the floor. The nurse grabbed her hand and yelped, but Poly didn’t care. She wanted to make sure Joey was going to live.

They slid his body off the gurney and into the machine. The doctor pulled the door down over him and stepped back. “We shouldn’t be in here while the machine’s running.”

Poly nodded and reluctantly stepped out of the room. “Sorry,” she mumbled to the nurse who was still rubbing her hand. Without waiting for a reply, Poly looked through the small window on the door.
You’ve got to make it, Joey. I can’t do this without you.

The nurses left and the doctor studied the screen, rubbing his chin.

“What is it?” Poly asked.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. His injury . . . it’s as if he’s damaged every cell. But that’s impossible. He couldn’t be alive—” He stopped. “I’m sorry but I don’t know if this machine can fix this.”

“He’s different. Run the machine.”

“He may not handle what it does to him.”

“Run it!”

The doctor nodded and pressed a button on the screen. From behind the door, she heard the humming. She watched the window, staring at the small space between the two doors where she could see Joey’s arm.

“Hank’s going to be okay,” Julie announced, entering the room. “How’s Joey?”

“They don’t know,” Poly said, starting to sob.

Julie wrapped her up in a hug and she embraced her best friend. Feeling her baby bump pressing against her, she cried even harder. Julie brushed her hair back and kissed the side of her head. She wanted her mom there as well. She wanted to collect everyone she loved and stuff them away to some far off place to keep them safe. The worlds seemed determined to take from her with open abandon; and the more she fought, the more she lost.

Poly didn’t speak. She didn’t have words, and the grief over the possibility of Joey not being there… Not being able to see his face, feel his touch, their daughter wouldn’t know him. She leaned on Julie and Julie held her, not speaking but just being there.

“Thank you,” Poly said.

“For what?” Julie asked.

“Just being a friend. If something happens to Joey and Evelyn . . .”

“Don’t say it. We’re going to make it through this,” Julie said. “We’re going to win. We have to.”

Poly nodded her head and leaned back to see Julie’s face. Tears streamed down her cheeks as well. “No matter what, we will get her back. We will get her back.”

Joey screamed and Poly jerked away from Julie and Poly rushed to the window. His arms shook and he continued to shriek in pain. She pulled on the door handle, but it was locked.

“You can’t go in there,” the doctor warned.

“Julie, open the door.”

“You’ll be exposed,” the doctor said.

“Julie, help me. He’s dying in there.”

“The machine is attempting to repair him,” the doctor explained. “We’ve never had a—no one’s ever had an injury like this before. It’s going to be painful to repair the damage,
if
it can be repaired at all.”

Poly punched at the door and watched Joey convulse and scream. She heard him like this once before, back when those detectives tortured him. Even then, she was pinned to a chair and forced to listen from afar. “How long is this going to take?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

Poly glared at him and pulled a knife out.

“Maybe a couple of hours, possibly a lot longer.”

Her heart sank and she dropped the knife.
Hours?
Not only did her husband have to be under torture for hours, but every minute that passed meant she was just that much further away from Evelyn.

She slumped down, leaning her head against the door, listening to each of his tormented noises. She felt numb and the whole world seemed distant to her.

The hours moved by, people she loved came and went and she might have responded or might not have, nothing mattered until Joey was better and they could get their girl back.

Some of the time she spent standing and staring at the arm. It gyrated with his screams and went limp in his silence. After more time passed, he stopped screaming and his limp arm became stationary. She pressed her face against the glass, wanting a scream from him. Something to acknowledge his life.

The beep from the monitor gave her the only reprieve from not tearing down the door and checking him herself.

She didn’t notice the doctor touching her arm at first and when she did finally acknowledge him, she shook her head and he seemed concerned.

“Is it done?” Her face felt saggy and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for the answer. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to enter that room and see what kind of husband she had left.

The doctor took back his hand and closed his eyes for a second before looking at her. “After sixteen hours, it’s done all it can do.”

“Open the door,” she demanded.

“We don’t know what the machine did to him. Maybe I should go in first,” the doctor suggested.

Poly glared him down and he opened the door. She rushed in, not sure of what to expect as she lifted the door on the machine. “Joey.” She touched the sides of his face. Sweat covered his body and soaked his clothes. She wiped her hand on her shirt and touched the side of his face again. “Joey?”