Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
I fight through it, with Addie on my mind. I have to protect her. I will not go down. I will not.
I’m going to kill you, Lawrence, I think, aware he’s infected me with Red Dart. I’m also aware that West is on the ground shaking from head to toe, and I am not.
Suddenly, that extra fucking chromosome is the best damn thing that ever happened to me. Red Dart isn’t working on me, at least not to the degree Lawrence had hoped.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Addie
Red Dart.
Creed has been infected with Red Dart, but he merely stumbles and rights himself, reclaiming a protective position in front of me.
Brock is another story.
His body is being tormented. An eternal moment later, he stills, lying flat on his back on the floor of the cage.
My father’s voice blasts over the intercom again. “Lieutenant Colonel West. You will attack and defeat your enemy. Creed is your enemy.”
Obediently, Brock rolls to his knees and jumps to his feet, newly energized. “Resist, West,” Creed tells him. “Do not allow him to make you his puppet.”
Brock lunges at Creed, throwing punches, kicking, and growling like some sort of animal. Creed dodges and maneuvers. “I don’t want to fight you, West!” He shoves West against the bars and yells out, “I will not fight him.” Then to Brock again, “Don’t let him turn you into this.”
Jocelyn steps into view, fretfully hovering beside the cage. “Help them, Jocelyn,” I plead, but the look she casts me is helpless, hopeless, but she steps to the bars beside me.
“Don’t force Creed to hurt him,” I beg. “Please. Before my father shocks them again.”
“I can’t believe Creed isn’t fighting him. I can’t believe any of this. It’s not what I thought…”
“You will fight!” Lawrence demands, daring to show himself now, stomping closer to the cage.
I remain focused on Jocelyn, who has power right now that I do not, tied up to a chair in a cage. “Creed is a good man, Jocelyn. He’s a good man. My father is not. It pains me that it’s true, but it is. Don’t help him.”
“Fight!” my father shouts again, and Brock falls to his knees in front of Creed in a blood curdling scream. Brock was shaking, lying face down. Creed is not.
“What is going on, Jocelyn?” Lawrence demands, messing with the remote in his hand. At that point, Brock is convulsing.
“You’re killing him!” I shout. “Stop what you’re doing. You’re killing him!”
My father charges at Jocelyn and grabs her. “I said…what the hell is happening?”
“I don’t know,” Jocelyn whispers. “Creed must be different than West.”
He shoves her toward her computer. “Go to your computer and find a way to fix this.”
Jocelyn stumbles but does as he commands while my father shouts, “Chin! Chin! Where the fuck are you?”
Creed is kneeling next to West, who has now gone still, checking his pulse.
“Oh my God,” Jocelyn murmurs, and there is something about the way she says it that has everyone turning to look at her.
“What?” I call out. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Chin left his email up,” she says. “The Zodius soldiers are coming. We have to get out of here now.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Addie
The Zodius soldiers are coming.
My father darts for her computer screen, scans it, and then takes off toward the door, leaving me to gape after him. He’s leaving us. He’s leaving me. Jocelyn’s hand is pressed to her forehead. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I don’t know what to do.”
“Release Creed!” I shout, eyeing West, who lies face down and unmoving. “He’s our only chance to survive. Let him go.”
Creed rips away the ties around my hands and pulls me to my feet. “Let me go, Mother. I’ll get us out to safety.” Jocelyn just stands there, frozen and panicked. “Damn it, Mother!” Creed yells. “Let me out!”
I plead again. “He’s the only chance we have to survive this.”
Wide-eyed, Jocelyn stares at me and nods choppily. She punches a key. “It’s unlocked!”
My heart explodes in my chest as a Zodius soldier appears in the doorway, his weapon drawn. Creed moves so fast, I barely know what’s happening. He’s out of the cage, charging the soldier, colliding with the enemy.
I rush to Jocelyn’s side, and she sits down at the computer. “I have to destroy Red Dart. I have to kill the program.” She punches a button.
“There,” she says, and I eye Creed right as he places a bullet between the eyes of the Zodius.
So far, the only Zodius soldier, but more are coming. Of that, there is no question.
I refocus on Jocelyn. “There? What does ‘there’ mean?”
“I have an auto-destruct set-up on the lab and everything inside. Part one is done. Part two will take another two minutes.”
Creed shuts the steel lab door, locks it, and arms himself with the soldiers’ weapons. He’s already rushing toward us. “Let’s go.” And then to his mother, “Where’s the door to the upstairs?”