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The nurse from Bennet's room limps out, apparently thinking she could make a hasty getaway now that her assailants are unarmed. Adley shoots her in the back of the head as she tries to escape.
His own person. He just shot her. Unhinged isn't a strong enough word for this maniac. No one moves, both Luis and I stare at the dead woman.
If I thought for even a moment that Six might be too high value for Adley to actually kill, I'm officially reconsidering. Which, I suppose, was the point of killing his own nurse.
Adley relaxes slightly when the other two guards arrive. Holding onto Six's shoulder, he guides her to back further into the room.
“Why don't the two of you join us in here.”
He doesn't say it as a question, it's clearly an order. The guards each take up behind one of us, the barrel of a gun digging into my back as I'm pushed forward through the doorway.
It's even darker in the room, the flashing red lights bouncing off equipment creating an almost strobe like effect.
My focus is on Six, and trying to get her attention. She won't look at me, though. Her unfocused stare is lost in the darkness behind me. She looks more traumatized than I've ever seen her, and I imagine being in the hands of Adley is her worst nightmare.
It isn't long before I figure out that I'm wrong.
The guard prods me inside the room, backing me up until the backs of my thighs hit a hospital bed. I assumed the equipment hanging around was medical, but I’ve been too focused on Six to really absorb my surroundings.
“What the fuck?” Luis murmurs under his breath.
My head turns towards the bed behind me. My eyes first land on the face of the patient in the bed and I lose my breath. I gag, seeing the woman I love laying there with tubes coming out of her throat, wires attached to her everywhere. Her body doesn't move, seemingly catatonic and staring into nothingness.
I know, logically, that this isn't Six. I also remember the files where it mentioned that there were eight versions, or clones, of the experiment that created Six. But the notes made it seem like Six was the only living “specimen,” as they referred to her.
Bending down to rest my hands on my knees, I suck breaths of astringent laced air through my nose. My gaze snaps back to Six, who is still staring at the woman on the bed with horror.
“What have you done to her?” Luis' voice is dripping in venom, clearly close to snapping. He pays no mind to the semi-automatic weapon pointed at him and takes two steps forward before coming to his senses.
“Nothing that she wasn't created for,” Adley answers conceitedly. “Gentlemen, meet ProGen8. My Progeny's sister, if you will. She's mostly useless, can't talk or communicate. Not quite brain dead, but might as well be.”
“She's not your anything, and what you're doing here is sick and inhumane.” I put every drop of my disgust into the look I give this man, who is supposed to be our father, but is nothing more than a monster.
“Hmmm. Clearly, none of the children I sired were worth the effort. Each one of you is more disappointing than the last.” He shakes his head in displeasure, as if he had the right to claim us and be upset about the way we turned out. “Pining after a science experiment. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Tony's voice in my ear startles me. “Get ready.”
My eyes cut to Luis, but he hasn't taken his eyes off Adley.
Abruptly, the alarms and flashing lights stop, plunging us into darkness for a brief moment before all the fluorescent lights come on at once. The bright lights are blinding. The only reason I'm able to keep my bearings at all is because I knew something was about to happen, but it still disorients me a bit.
Chaos breaks out.
Multiple things happen simultaneously.
Luis doesn't so much as flinch at the lights, bursting into action. Swatting the barrel of the gun that is pointed at him, he grabs the guard by his collar and head-butts him in the face. Blood spews from the guard's nose, throwing him off balance. Luis uses the momentum to twist his gun away from him, discharging it into the guard's stomach and dropping him to the ground.
Micah reappears behind the second guard, standing in the doorway. He grabs him in a chokehold. The surprise attack makes the guard's grip slip from his gun, but he scrambles to grab it again. Surging forward, I wrestle the gun from his hands, holding it away from his grasp as his face turns blue, and he stops struggling. Micah gently lays him down on the ground.
By the time I turn around, Luis is stalking across the room towards Adley. While we were fighting the guards, Six apparently used the distraction to get out of Adley's hold, just like we practiced back at the cabin. His gun lies on the ground in front of them, which Luis kicks across the room as he closes in on his prey.
That is what Adley is right now, and he knows it. The look in his eyes is pure fear as he slinks away from Luis. When he realizes there's nowhere for him to go, he lashes out in anger, spitting as he yells.
“You won't get away with this. No matter what happens in this room, you'll never leave this building alive. Every guard on campus is undoubtedly surrounding the exits, ready to shoot to kill. And if you kill me, they won’t even spare her.”
Luis is terrifyingly quiet, a deadly look in his eye as he incapacitates Adley, tying his hands in front of him with a zip tie he must have pulled off one of the guards.
Meanwhile, Six is slowly and quietly walking to the bedside. She steps over a dead guard without even glancing down, all of her attention on the bedridden woman as she takes a thin hand in hers.
