“What about now?”
“Now…now I don’t know what to do.”
“You helped me escape. You took me out of the facility and helped me steal a helicopter. What position does that put you in now?”
“I have no idea,” she says. “I don’t care about that anymore.”
“Why not?”
“I only care about you.”
I’m her specimen, her life’s work. Her very best lab rat.
I bite my tongue. For the moment, it doesn’t make any difference. Before long, someone is going to be looking for me, and I can’t allow myself to be captured.
“It’s not safe here,” I say.
“At some point,” Riley says, “they’re going to realize the helicopter never made it to Highland Hospital. We can’t stay here much longer.”
I begin to gather information from my mind. I need to make sure I am not returned to the Mills Medical Center, and that means going on the run. The helicopter is too close to the cabin, and I am bound to be discovered if I remain here.
“You stay here,” I tell her. “I’ll go.”
“I’m just as guilty as you are,” she says with a shake of her head. “More so because you still follow my lead.”
“You can tell them I took you hostage,” I say. “No one has to know you had a hand in it. You can tell them the failure in my implants caused you to lose control, and I forced you to take me here. I’ll leave.”
“And go where?”
“I don’t know. I can figure that out later.”
“You aren’t going to get far without air transport,” she says. “And if you try to fly over the wall, they’re going to shoot you down.”
Fly the helicopter at maximum altitude. Use the codes provided during the last mission when approaching the wall. Claim systems malfunction to stall, and plan on parachuting out just before they attack. I can be over the wall and in a Carson-controlled area when I drop.
“I’ll be fine,” I tell her.
“You aren’t leaving without me.”
“You can’t go.” I’m not about to risk her life as well. My plan is solid, but there are always unknown variables. I’m confident I can escape with little harm, but Riley is a whole other matter.
“Think about it, Galen.” Riley grabs both of my hands. “If you leave, how long will you be able to continue without the drugs and without me? You don’t even have to guess. You were away from me for seventeen days, and you were near death.”
She’s correct, of course. What can I accomplish in seventeen days? How long had I been a prisoner before I could no longer function properly, and how much of that was exacerbated by the torture they put me through?
I don’t know what to do.
“I don’t want you to…to throw your life away, your career.”
“Do you really think I could go on working there after all this?” she asks. “I told you it didn’t matter anymore, and I meant that. I can’t stay, not with what I know now. The callous attitude some of them have toward all of you bothered me from the beginning. Yes, you’re all test subjects, but you’re also human beings.”
“I understand,” I say quietly. “I’m your creation. You were right about changing the treatments, and I’m the living proof of that.”
“No!” Riley places her hand on my cheek and stares into my eyes. “That’s not it at all! Don’t you see?”
“See what?” I don’t understand her strong reaction.
Riley closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before looking at me again. As she speaks, her voice trembles.