Part 27 (1/2)
Peyton couldn't believe it. All this time she'd been thinking she was on a mission to help her dad save the world. But he was the one responsible for ending it in the first place. She felt sick to her stomach. All that death. All that destruction. It was all the fault of her own flesh and blood.
She turned to Chase. ”Let's get out of here,” she said. ”Back to the Hive. There's nothing for us here.” No new society, no hope for the future. And no miraculous cure for Chase. It was almost too much to bear.
Chase nodded, silent, and the two of them started back to the boats. But Peyton's father called after them. ”That's where you're wrong,” he said.
Peyton stopped. Turned around slowly, not wanting to listen but feeling compelled all the same. ”What do you mean?” she asked.
”You still have the data in your head,” he reminded her. ”There is still hope to save the world.”
The data. Right. ”What's in my head, Dad?” she asked through clenched teeth. ”Tell me once and for all what you put in my head.”
”Why, the recipe to the antidote, of course.” He smiled, looking proud of himself. She didn't know whether to strangle him or hug him. The antidote? Like the antidote to the plague itself? The answer was in her head the whole time?
”What are you saying, Dad?” she asked, wanting to be sure before she allowed herself hope.
”I'm saying you have the key to everything. To restoring our world. We don't need any of the others. We never did. We just needed you. All we have to do now is extract the code from your brain and use it to create the antidote. That's why I needed you down here. We can fix this. We can still fix this.”
She bit her lower lip. ”And it can be extracted how?”
”A simple scan with the right equipment should be able to read it. Any working hospital should have what we need...”
Any hospital. Like the one above the Hive. Hope soared through her. ”Fine.” Turning back to Chase, she said, ”Let's go.”
”But...” Chase said, looking at her dad. ”The cure?”
She glared at her father. ”The scientists back at the Hive will be able to extract it just as easily as he can. In fact, it's the information they've been looking for all this time. They have a plan in place and resources to ma.s.s produce and distribute. Together we can rebuild the world.” She glared at her father. ”Not here. Not at Disney World. But in the real world.”
”Peyton, please!” her dad cried, seeming to return to himself. ”I never meant it to be like this. I wanted to make things better. For you. For future generations. I did it for you!”
”I chose you once,” she said. ”And betrayed everything I loved. Because I believed in you and what you were doing. I thought you were out to save the world. But you were the one who destroyed it. You were the cause of everything-you don't deserve to be part of the cure.”
And with that, she grabbed Chase's hand and the two of them walked away, not looking back. Leaving her father behind, as she'd once done to Chris, four years ago.
Chapter Forty-five.
It was nine pm and the rain had not subsided. But still, Chris waited. Trey and the other kids, including an ecstatic Anna Simmons, had left eleven hours earlier, headed up to the mountains. But Chris wasn't going without Peyton. Not without his G.o.ddess. And so he waited, praying that she'd come, refusing to believe she'd left him alone.
Headlights suddenly pierced the darkness and his pulse quickened as he wondered if it could be her, arriving at last. Then he saw it was the van and his heart sank. Trey pulled up beside him and popped his head out of the window.
”She didn't show,” his brother observed. It wasn't a question.
Chris hung his head. ”Something must have happened.”
”Well, hop in. We'll go head over to her house and see.”
Chris complied, climbing into the pa.s.senger seat. Trey revved the engine and they took off down the road. A few minutes later they pulled up to Peyton's front door. The lights were out. It looked deserted. Still, Chris had to know for sure. He hopped out of the van and ran up to the front door, banging his fist on the wood.
”They're gone.”
He whirled around. A neighbor stood at the bottom of the driveway, hand folded across his chest. ”What?” he asked.
”The Andersons. They're gone. Went down in some fancy fallout shelter or something,” the neighbor explained. ”Left all the rest of us up here to die, I guess.”
Chris stared at him, wanting more than anything to call the guy a liar. ”Was...” he started, his voice trembling. ”Was there a girl with them?”
”You mean Peyton?” the neighbor asked. He nodded his head. ”Yup. She was with her mother. They went down together. Down there for the long haul, I guess. Heard her father say something about four years. Long time to be stuck underground is what I say. Might be better to just get the flu and be done with it.”
The neighbor went on speaking, but Chris was no longer listening. So this was it. She was gone. Even after all they'd been through, all that they'd promised each other, when all was said and done it didn't mean anything. She'd left him. Made her decision to stick with her family, follow her crazy dad to the end of the world. Leave him behind, waiting in the rain, without even the courtesy of an explanation, never mind an apology.
He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe it. What had made her change her mind?
What had made her break his heart?
Trey popped out of the driver's seat and headed over to where he stood. He took Chris in his arms and pulled him close, hugging him with brotherly love. ”Come on,” he said, releasing him a moment later and leading him, sh.e.l.l-shocked, back to the van. ”We're going to the mountains.”
Chris got into the van, feeling dead and alone. He stared out the window as they pulled out of the driveway. Watching Peyton's house as they drove down the street. Hoping, praying, begging he'd see some sign that the neighbor was wrong. That Peyton was there. That she hadn't abandoned him.
But the house stayed silent. And as they turned the corner, he forced himself to accept that, once and for all, his G.o.ddess was gone for good.
He grabbed a bottle of pain killers from the first-aid kit Trey had stuffed in the glove compartment and popped a pill.
Chapter Forty-six.
”My G.o.ddess was gone for good...”
Chase set the hand-written ma.n.u.script down on his lap and looked up. The group burst into applause and many of the Hive members seemed more than a little misty-eyed at the tragic ending to his tale.
”G.o.d, that's so sad,” sniffed a blond woman to the far left that Chase knew as Rhoda. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue. ”I remember when my mom died of the plague. I felt so alone. But you must have felt even worse.”
”I can't even imagine how that must have been,” Starr piped up from her seated position on the floor in front. She was arm in arm with Torn, as usual. ”You never talked about it, either.”
”It's terrible!” a soldier known as Nick said, sobbing like a baby. ”You waiting there, all alone, in the rain...”
Chase laughed. ”You guys!” he cried. ”Remember, this is only the beginning!” He rolled his eyes. ”The story obviously has a lot more to go. And it only gets better from here.”
”Obviously!” Peyton declared as she stepped into the conference room. ”Four years later and this lucky guy not only gets the girl, but his very own happy ending.” She grinned at Chase. ”Sorry I'm late for writing club,” she said. ”Council meeting ran long.”
”No problem.” He rose to greet her with a hug, meeting her eyes with his own. Her own real blue eyes, no longer hidden by spheres of silver. She'd had her implants removed, in her fingers, as well, though he knew she could probably still kick his a.s.s if she tried. ”I was just reading my ma.n.u.script. Not a dry eye in the house. I think it could be a best seller.” He laughed. ”If there was any e-book publisher left to upload it.”
”You gotta write the rest,” David said, cuddled up in a corner with Helga. The two of them had been married three weeks ago and were totally in the honeymoon stage still. ”I want to hear what happens when Peyton comes out of the fallout shelter. It's all very Casablanca.”
”I will,” Chase said, grinning. ”I promise.”