They Are Monsters (Deathless Trilogy, #2)

Chapter Twenty Eight: Pixelated

"Isla?"

I don't know how I hear my name, maybe it's from outside of me, but I focus my attention to the presence, invisible but palpable.

"Who's there?" I can't be sure if I said that or just thought it. I'm communicating in a way I've never been able to. It's not talking, it's not thinking, it's just... I don't know.

"It's Joe. Are we going to be saved?"

"No," I respond. "It's just us." No response. "I did my best, but you gave me the implant."

"I apologize. I have no idea what's happened since before my surgery. It's like being trapped in a pitch black room. You can't see anything, but you know things must still exist, even if you can't see them. So, what happened to our plan?"

"Jane and the Caregivers got everyone out, thanks to you. Putting the mutated DNA in the pills. Very smart, Joe." Pause. "So this is it?"

"Move through the system until you get to Mitchell's program. Meet you there."

I think about the program, about the woods around the virtual bunker where we would wait. Pixels appear before me, like when I was immersed in Nate's files, so it seems like I'm somehow in the computer. Am I hooked up to the system already? Whatever is happening, I find myself just outside the yard of the bunker, around the same area of the forest that Gabriela and Mitchell used to detonate during the immersions.

I am suddenly aware of my hands, my feet. I touch my face and it feels like my own. In the immersion program, our consciousnesses have forms to fill. In the program, we're not stuck. Thank God I didn't destroy this.

I spin around. Where is everyone?

Phoebe appears from the woods behind me, and says, "Great. Now you're in here, too?"

"She tried," Joe says, who appears, not as himself, but as a random Deathless soldier. The only way I recognize him is by his voice, the same as earlier.

"I did," I say, putting my hands on my hips. At least I have hips. "You try freeing a bunch of people from a government estate. It's not easy. Especially when Gunther loses his mind."

"What happened?" Phoebe asks, her tone softening.

"You all really have no idea what's been going on?"

She raises her eyebrows. "Do you right now?"

"No...."

"Yeah, exactly. Who knows what you're body might be doing right now."

"If only you could see some of the things your body is doing."

"Like what?" she asks.

Joe laughs.

"Oh God, what?" Phoebe asks again, dropping her arms at her sides.

"You're out there examining sparkles and laughing at painted butterflies and staring at walls."

Joe laughs again.

"Alright, alright, enough. I get it, Gunther has a cruel sense of humor. Where is Winston?"

"I think he got out."

"You think?"

"Yeah, Phoebe, I'm sorry I was too busy trying to make up an escape plan and distract Gunther to keep tabs on Winston. I did the best I could, and, as you can see, I was never the mole, nor have I ever done anything to go against the Deathless, so really I deserve an apology, not any more attitude."

She opens her mouth like she's going to protest, but instead says, "You're right. I'm sorry. I should have trusted you from the start."

"Thank you," I say. "So what do we do now? Is there any way we can get back into our minds?"