The Deathless Trilogy

1.31. Daniel

"Isla! Isla, are you okay?" I hear General Sato yelling. I open my eyes, hoping that I'm just waking from the virtual reality program and I will be back in mechanics sector; but I'm still on the floor, still in a pool of blood, and Nate and Gabriela still lie motionless beside me.

In front of me is the snowy heap of the President's lifeless bones and flesh, stained red with blood.

General Sato runs toward me, and pats me down for gunshot wounds.

"Did he shoot me?" I ask, still in shock.

He searches my body. "No. No, you're clean."

"What happened here?" Winston asks, walking through the gaping doorway, smoke still hanging in the air.

Daniel. I push the General out of the way, and see Daniel still by the corner tapestry. He is crouching down and struggling to untie himself.

I immediately run toward him. I reach to help him up, but my hands fall through his image. I try again and again, but my hands just sweep through him.

"Isla, stop," General Sato says, "he's a hologram."

"What?" I cry, my voice hardly even audible anymore.

"He's not here."

"But he's somewhere. We have to find him," I say, trying to stand, but I just fall down again.

"What the hell is going on? Where is Phoebe?" Winston orders.

"She was... she was shot in the stairwell. She told me to run, so I left her. I'm sorry," I say, as the blood drains from Winston's face. I hadn't considered until now that maybe he loved her, and the thought makes me feel even weaker. I take a breath and continue. "McCleary and Gabriela were together, and Nate was one of Gunther's cyborgs. The kind Declan warned us about. He and Gabriela were the moles."

Winston crouches in pain over the news I've just told him. His lover is gone, and his old friend was a traitor.

"Alexander told us you were in trouble," Sato says, "so Winston and I set up an attack from outside. I shot the President." His words sound like the closing of a chapter.

"Wait—where is Alexander?" Winston asks. He looks back into the hallway. "He isn't here anymore." Winston flaps his hands as he begins to panic. "We need to find him and Phoebe, and move out."

"No, we need to finish our jobs. We need to release all those people from cryogenics," Sato orders.

"I need to find Daniel, he's here," I add, but I'm ignored.

"Alexander will be wherever Gunther is," Winston says.

"You will not abandon the mission to find Alexander and Phoebe, do you understand me Win?" Sato orders. "You will release the people in cryogenics."

Then an automated voice sounds over the loudspeaker: "10 minutes to self-destruction. Please evacuate the facility. 10 minutes to self-destruction. Please evacuate the facility."

"Gunther," Winston says under his breath, and then runs out of the room.

"My dad... Daniel...," I start.

"Winston and I will find them. You need to get out. Are you okay to walk?" Sato asks.

I'm not okay, but I can walk, so I nod, and stabilize myself. We walk toward the main room at the center of the bunker, and I notice one of the doors on the way. On the front, it reads, "Room 321."

358. Nate wanted me to know the number 358. Maybe it's a room number.

"Where is room 358? Nate told me to remember the number 358. It's on this floor somewhere. We need to find it."