Chapter Forty-Eight

Delaney

Caleb had changed.

That much was obvious, even to my blurred, fever-tainted vision. And it wasn't just his newly restructured and flawless face (which, by the way, was decidedly unsettling.) There was something different in his familiar green eyes—something frigid and distant.

And I didn't like it.

I'd noticed it first when he'd burst into the glass room, and it had only become more evident as the moments passed. He seemed meaner now, and colder, like he'd completed some kind of Superior hazing ceremony that had left him just as heartless as the rest of them.

It felt, too, like he was shutting us out. Yeah, his memories had been wiped: I got that. But the old Caleb would have been kind to us, regardless of whether or not he remembered us. He wasn't Carlie, or Miracle, or Dr. Leary; he was a human being. The old Caleb would have run to help me right away. He wouldn't have argued with Trai. He wouldn't have snapped at Abby. It was as if, along with his new Superior appearance, he had also acquired a new superior attitude.

Then again, maybe I was wrong. I mean, for the longest time, I hadn't particularly liked Caleb. I'd thought he was cold, superficial, and manipulative. I had been mistaken then, as I much as I hated to admit it. He'd turned out to be a genuine Popular; a complete oxymoron. But even though he became my friend, I never got to know him all that well. Unlike Trai and Abby, who had grown up with him, I was just a last minute addition to the team. And I surely couldn't read people like Carlie, so what did I know? I could have been seeing things.

But it still seemed like he was pushing us away.

I made a feeble attempt to push away those thoughts as we moved down a series of dark hallways, but my brain would have nothing of it. It—my brain, that is—had to know that thinking about Caleb's transformation only stressed me out more. And I had enough tension to deal with, considering the impaired state I was in. Dr. Leary's immunity injection was starting to feel more like a poison; it had taken a second wind, and was now busy altering the temperature of my bloodstream so that I went from pyretic to hypothermic every few seconds.

I could tell that Caleb felt the fluctuations, because every now and then, he'd shift me in his arms. Every movement made me cringe; each time his grip changed, a glimmer of repulsion washed over me. I knew that I shouldn't be disgusted: that it was just Caleb, my friend, and that—even if I had no desire to be at such close proximity to him—he wouldn't hurt me. But he was still a Superior. He had become the very thing he had been against from the beginning.

He had changed. And I didn't like it.

Caleb shifted his grasp again, and my head lolled back against his forearm. It was a rather uncomfortable position, but I was too weary to do anything. My head felt heavy; a dead weight, and febrile besides. I had closed my eyes; I wasn't sure I'd be able to open them.

I tried not to think about my condition, but how could I not? Dr. Leary had said that his vaccinations had failed in the past, ending in the death of the people who had been experimented on. Who was to say that he hadn't just botched the serum and given me poison instead? I certainly wouldn't but it past him.

But, like I said: I was trying not to think about it.

Caleb's breaths were cool and quiet, blowing down on my face in short streams. Sometimes I thought he was mumbling to himself, but so softly that I couldn't hear the words. That is, until he hissed one sentence: "She said I didn't know anyone named Delaney."

My eyes snapped open on their own, and I murmured, "What?"

Caleb gave a start, then cast a discreet glance over his shoulder.

"Y-you're awake," he breathed. He started down at me, his unnervingly paradisaical face scrunching slightly. In the near-darkness, his eyes flickered.

I nodded. "Yeah. What did you just say?"

He stared at me blankly. "I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did," I insisted hoarsely. "You said something about someone saying that you didn't know me. Who said that, Caleb?"

After a heartbeat of pensive hesitation, he glanced over his shoulder, sped up, and dropped his voice so low that I had to strain to hear it.

"It was Nessa," he said. "It was...it was a while after I woke up, after she had just explained what had happened to me. I had a flash of...remembering, I guess. I don't know. Anyway, I asked her if I had ever known anyone named Delaney."

I raised an eyebrow. "And she said?"

He sighed, licked his lips. "No. She said no."

I was silent for a moment as that sunk in. So, Nessa had told Caleb what had happened to him. Who he really was, who he used to be. But she had, quite conveniently, left out the part about the three friends whom he had abandoned to Miracle's wrath. Why? Perhaps because if he had known, he would have felt guilty. And a remorseful ally is not a good one.

"Caleb," I whispered after a while, "you left us."

Confusion immediately crossed his features. "I—I don't..."

"You were given a choice, right? Between becoming a Superior and staying with us. You chose to become a Superior." My voice shook, just slightly. "You left us."

There was silence. Then Caleb leaned back in anger. "Who told you that?" he snarled quietly.

I stuttered, "N-Nessa."

"That lying little—" He ground his teeth together. "Listen to me, Delaney. Whatever Nessa told you, it wasn't—it wasn't true. I didn't desert you, or the other two. Miracle didn't give me a choice. I refused to become a Superior, but she forced me into it. I don't remember, but I know. I saw the footage. Nessa was lying. Again."

I wasn't sure what to make of it. On one hand, Caleb had finally shown some kind of emotion other than iciness. But his rage was even more foreign; this wasn't him either, not really.

"Caleb?" someone called from behind us. "Were you saying something?"

Caleb blinked, his expression shutting down and his body tensing. He became empty and guarded once again. "Nothing," he replied. "Nothing at all."

I felt cold again. But this time, I wasn't sure it was from the serum.

Caleb

"Are we there yet?"

It was Trai's sister speaking again, her voice cutting through the silence from somewhere behind me. She had been asking that same question over and over ever since we'd entered the tunnels, every minute without fail. I could tell that she was just trying to fill the space, but that didn't make her outbursts any less irritating.

"No," I snapped for the umpteenth time.

Silence for a moment. Then, "Where are we going, anyway?" I heaved a sigh, but didn't respond. She'd find out soon enough.

I figured that our best bet at escape was the tunnels where I had met the Pro-Inferiors, that being the only place I could think of with a straight-shot exit from the city. I wasn't sure where they went, exactly, but as long as it was away, I couldn't care less. My only goal was to get everyone out of the Capitol unscathed before the Pro-Inferiors detonated.

Every passing second taunted me, each breath a silent warning that our time was running out. I picked up the pace, calling back to the others to hurry as well. Leading them was quickly becoming frustrating, since none of their bodies could move at the speed that I wanted them to. If I had it my way, they'd be sprinting. But I wanted them to conserve energy; most likely, there would be plenty running to do later on.

"Do you even know where we're going?" Jeanette demanded as I began to descend the staircase to the fifth subbasement.

I rolled my eyes. "Just come on, would you?"

She muttered a rude response, to which I did not react. Let her insult me all she wanted; when she was safe, after all this was over, she'd only have me to thank.

But what would happen after it was over? I couldn't help but wonder. Nessa and Perfecta had lied to all of us; they'd planned to leave Delaney and the others chained up in Leary's laboratory to die. Perhaps Ms. Shea really had been right—perhaps the Pro-Inferiors were no better than the Superiors.

It seemed to me that the opposing organizations were two sides of the same coin. Both were spawned from the same twisted conception of a perfect government, but had developed ideals so different that they harbored nothing but hate for each other. So which was the lesser of two evils? Was there one? Or were they both equally malicious, leaving us only with the choice of choosing the winning side?

I shook my head and adjusted my hold on Delaney's legs. I could think about all of those dilemmas later, when everyone safe. For now, I had to put all my energy into staying focused on the task at hand.

It wasn't long before we reached the room where I'd first met Jeremy Fairleigh, passing the closet where Chris had hidden on the way. I felt a stab of something when I thought of my brother—guilt? Regret?—but it passed quickly when I remembered his efforts to betray me.

"In here," I said gruffly, pointing to the doorway of the room.

Jeanette and Abby, who had been conversing quietly, fell silent. Trai continued staring daggers into my back (as he had been during the entire walk) and sneered, "Oh, so I guess you do have an actual destination. Glad to know we weren't just wandering blind."

His sister hissed at him, but I grunted without comment. I strode inside, still holding a semi-conscious Delaney, and used my foot to kick open the trap door. It clanged against the wall with a metallic shiver.

As the sharp sound echoed into silence, I stared expectantly at the three people lingering behind me. They gazed back at me, but no one moved.

"Well?" I snapped. "Are you going in, or what?"

Jeanette looked dubious. "Where does it go?"

I shrugged impatiently. "I don't know," I said. "Away from here."

Red—as I called her, since I still hadn't learned her name—smirked and said, "Good enough for me." Then, with quiet grace that contrasted her rebellious appearance, she leaped into the darkened hole. With a quiet snort and a shake of her head, Jeanette followed. Trai was the last to go, but not before casting a steely glare in my direction. Once he was down there as well, he looked up at me.

"Give me Delaney," he said, "so you'll have your hands free."

I obliged, passing the girl down into Trai's waiting arms. He cradled her into his chest, and her eyes fluttered. I leaped down a moment later, wincing as my landing ignited pain in my abdomen. Trai didn't pass Delaney back to me, and I didn't ask. I knew he'd become tired more quickly if he continued to carry her, but he seemed content.

Flexing my freed fingers, I glanced at our surroundings. We were in yet another hallway, just as dim as the others, but this one had floors of crunchy gravel. I looked both ways, remembering that Fairleigh had run off to the left. That suggested that the Pro-Inferiors had come in from the right. And so, that's where we went.

At two thirty-five, after a short minute of walking, we stumbled upon a door. It was old-fashioned, made of wood with a doorknob, and seemed to have suffered some wear since it had been installed. Still, I pushed it open, because there was nowhere else to go.

We were instantly bathed in light.

My eyes adjusted quickly to the harsh illumination, but behind me, everyone flinched and rubbed at their faces. I left them behind as I stepped forward, awed by our surroundings. The room was massive, with high ceilings, and the ground was paved with clean concrete. Even the walls, though bare, were an immaculate white. And to the far right, casting a dark shadow onto the floor, was a giant gray subway train.

We were in a station. A secret, hidden, underground station.

Nessa certainly hadn't said anything about that.

"Wow," Red murmured.

Jeanette gaped as she took it all in. "I read about this," she said excitedly. "Somewhere online, there was this article about how the old government had been building all these secret subways beneath the Capitol that they never got to finish before the Superiors took over. There were plans to make the line go all the way to Pennsylvania, and maybe further."

"Do you think it works?" I asked warily. "Did the Superiors continue it?"

Jeanette narrowed her eyes at the train for a moment before shaking her head. "As far as I know, the new government never expanded the lines. So no, I doubt it works."

Trai mused, "So, I guess the Pro-Inferiors didn't come in by train?"

"I don't think so," I responded. I scanned the room with a frown. The Pro-Inferiors had definitely come from this direction; of that much I was certain. We hadn't passed any doors or intersecting corridors on our way into the station, so they had to have come through here. But from where?

More valuable seconds passed I studied the space for any kind of exit. There didn't appear to be any in sight. But just as I was about to tell everyone to turn back, I caught a silvery glimmer out of the corner of my eye. A doorknob, perhaps?

"Hey, guys," I called, moving toward the winking light. "Over there, is that a—"

I was cut off abruptly by a sinister chuckle. I didn't turn around, but heard someone gasp. Please, no, I begged silently, not him, not now.

My pleas were ignored.

"Well, well, well," said a terrifyingly familiar voice that made my stomach freeze over, "it appears that we have company."

A/N: CHOPPY CHOPPY CHOPPY CHOPPY.
This shiz is choppy like the ocean in the middle of a thunder storm.

Plus it's boring. And lame. And is really just detailing their emotions, which I don't do very often. But I promise, the next chapter will be much more... exciting.

And who do you think the mystery voice is...? :O (It's probably obvious.)