Another buzzing sensation tapped at my chest, but I ignored it.
What if I just let myself drown? The thought came as easy as a whisper. Just open my mouth and set myself free. Could I do that? Zoe would say this was my mind. I was in control.
Then another thought, like a feather drifting from the sky, landed on my brain. What if there wasn’t any water in the box at all? What if I just thought there was? Could I change it to air? Could I inhale air?
A sensation of power rumbled deep in my gut. Then, without letting my self-doubt overcorrect my instinct, I opened my mouth. There was no rush of water, only life-giving air.
I was breathing, fully submerged. In a water tank.
Come on, Lucy, wake up!
Zoe’s voice was back. I shut my eyes and imagined the barn. Every surface and corner. Lying on the table, connected to DOT, Zoe on one side, Dr. Loveless on the other. When I opened my eyes, I would be there, I told myself.
Wake up, wake up!
I took another lungful of air. Air I had changed from water.
And opened my eyes.
ZOE HEARD THE gunshots. Her body froze, her mind registering what that meant and terror filling her bones. Lucy lay beside her, fully submerged in her own subconscious. Gina, pacing nearby, came to a full stop.
Another bullet cracked the air outside the barn. Not on top of them but too close.
Zoe looked down at Lucy and then back at Gina. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” Gina said. “Get her out.”
“Lucy, you have to come back,” Zoe said.
Eyes closed, Lucy replied, “What? Zoe, what’s going on?”
Before Zoe could answer, Seeley parted the sheets around Lucy’s bed. He looked at Gina, gun in hand. “It’s the army.”
“Did you know they were coming?” Gina asked.
Zoe thought the question was odd.
“No! There’s a south path off this property, correct?” Seeley asked.
“What are you suggesting?” Gina asked. “That we run?”
“What else would you have us do?”
Gina looked stunned, and it made the panic in Zoe’s chest rage. The doctor didn’t seem nearly as concerned as she should be.
“What is going on here?” Zoe demanded.
Gina turned to Zoe to say something, but before she could, Seeley yanked back his weapon and brought it down hard against Gina’s skull. The doctor didn’t have time to react as the blow knocked her out cold.
Zoe turned to Seeley, stunned and confused.
“How did they know we’re here?” he asked.
Had Gina given them up? Seeley seemed to think so, and Zoe didn’t have time to think.
“Wake her up! We have to get out of here,” Seeley said, pointing to Lucy.
Zoe turned, heart jumping into her throat, and placed both hands on Lucy’s shoulders. “Lucy, come back! Come back now!”
Gunfire exploded through the barn, and Seeley stepped through the curtain and started firing.
Zoe returned her attention to the girl. She started shaking her. “Lucy, Lucy, please come back! We’re under attack!”
The girl lay motionless. She wasn’t responding. She was too deep, lost in her own thoughts. Zoe dug her nails into her palms. How was she supposed to reach her now? She could zap her like Gina did when things got too dangerous.
The manual defibrillator was stationed a couple of feet away. Zoe rushed for the chunky box and lifted it off the table. She placed it on the edge of the bed with a hard thump and yanked the top open. She stared down at the inside. She had no idea how to work this thing. What if she hurt Lucy?
Three bullets—bang, bang, bang—launched from Seeley’s gun and echoed across the barn’s open space. Zoe hunkered down. She didn’t have time for second-guessing.
God help me.
She followed the visual instructions on the inside of the lid. After placing two soft plastic pads on Lucy’s chest, Zoe flipped the defibrillator to life. Her stomach rolled in a wave of nausea. She waited as the machine charged up to send electric waves into the girl lying lifeless on the table.
There were no paddles like she’d seen in the movies, just flashing warning lights. Then a green “go” signal, a static voice that instructed her to stay clear of the body, and a button to push. One, two, three, went her mental countdown, and she pressed the big red circle.
A surge pulsed through the wires and into the pads as Lucy’s chest gave a small jerk. Zoe waited. Nothing.
“Lucy! Can you hear me?”
Still nothing.
Again.
As quickly as possible Zoe reenergized the defibrillator and waited for the light to go green. Another press, another jolt. Again, nothing.
“Come on!” Zoe cried. Once more the seconds felt endless. Bullets plunked against the outside walls of the barn.
Seeley stepped inside the curtained box and reloaded his handgun. “We have to move,” he yelled.
The light gave Zoe the go, and she pushed the button. Shock rumbled through Lucy for a third time. “Come on, Lucy, wake up!”
Her body lurched; her face remained unresponsive.
Seeley fired, the end of his gun poking out just beyond the white panel. “We have to move her now, Zoe!”
Zoe slammed her fist over and over against the table where Lucy lay. “Wake up, wake up!” she screamed.
Lucy’s eyes sprang open, and Zoe nearly jumped back in surprise, but recovered.
“Lucy,” she cried, placing her hands on the girl’s face. Then she remembered herself and the situation they were in. She yanked the pads from Lucy’s chest. “We have to go.”
“They found us,” Lucy said, already moving off the table, legs pounding like steel cylinders to Seeley’s side. In one fluid move, she unhooked Seeley’s extra sidearm from his belt, cocked it, stepped beyond the curtain, and started to fire.
Five shots in perfect rhythm, like it was as easy as breathing. Zoe launched herself after the girl, but Seeley collided with her and yanked her back.
“We have to go,” he said, his hand tightly around her bicep.
“We can’t leave her,” Zoe said.
“We aren’t,” he said. “Remember what she is, Zoe.”
She looked up at him as he continued to pull her toward the rear of the barn. She watched Lucy move backward through the white sheet out of the curtained box. Gun raised.
“We have four pursuing from the north,” Lucy said. “Do we have an escape route?”
“A southern path through the woods,” Seeley said. “I saw a vehicle on the southwest corner.”
“You head there. I’ll get the doctor.”
“The doctor’s been compromised,” Seeley said. “Leave her.”
“But we need her.”
“We’ll find another way.”
Lucy snapped her head left. “More coming. I’ll take care of them and meet you.”
“Lucy!” Zoe cried.
The girl twisted her head around. “Go!”
The coldness in her expression sent a shiver down Zoe’s spine. But there wasn’t time to contemplate it, because Seeley was yanking her along again. More shots sounded behind them as they moved, Zoe trying not to trip on anything.
They exited the barn, pulled up to a stop. Seeley peered around the corner. “Stay close,” he whispered, firearm raised, and started forward.