Chapter 10 — Open the Gate

The countdown showed forty-three seconds.

I crossed the control room and pulled open the electrical cabinet.

Behind me, the armored vehicle stopped beneath the window.

Bell had seen me.

I heard him shouting before I could make out the words.

“Get her away from that panel.”

The wiring diagram trembled in my hand.

I flattened it against the cabinet door.

Remote command. Local control. Emergency hold.

Three circuits.

One gate.

I turned the selector to local.

The countdown stopped at twenty-nine.

Outside, the gate began closing anyway.

A red light flashed above the panel.

REMOTE PRIORITY ACTIVE.

“Of course,” I whispered.

The building door slammed open.

I turned with the wrench raised.

Bell stood in the doorway, one hand lifted, as if we were having an awkward conversation in his office.

His driver waited behind him with a pistol.

“Step away, Rowan.”

I looked back at the diagram.

Bell took another step.

“I know you’ve been bitten.”

“Then don’t come closer.”

“I have medication in the vehicle.”

My fingers tightened around the wrench.

Outside, the gate scraped across its track.

Bell watched my face.

“Enough to get you somewhere with proper care.”

“You have proper care here.”

“The facility is compromised.”

“By you.”

His driver shifted his weight.

Bell ignored him.

“You want to save those people. I understand that. But blocking an evacuation route isn’t helping.”

“Your evacuation route.”

“Someone has to preserve the research.”

I reached for my radio.

The driver raised his gun.

“Slowly.”

I held it where he could see.

“My brother needs to know what’s happening.”

Bell nodded.

“Tell him you’re coming with us.”

I pressed the red strip.

“Eli. Bell’s here.”

“Ro, the gate’s moving.”

“I know.”

Bell stepped closer.

“Tell him we can take you.”

I kept the button pressed.

“Can Tess leave?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed.

“She’s essential to continuing treatment.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

“She’ll have accommodation. Food. Medical supervision.”

“If she says no?”

“We don’t have time for this.”

“If she says no, can she leave?”

Behind Bell, the driver lowered his pistol a fraction.

Bell noticed.

“Her blood can keep people alive,” he said. “You’ve benefited from it yourself.”

“And that means she belongs to you?”

“It means she has a responsibility.”

Through the radio came a low murmur.

People listening.

Eli had opened our channel to the convoy.

Bell looked at the radio.

“Turn that off.”

I didn’t.

He reached for me.

I swung the wrench into the cabinet door between us.

The crash made his driver step back.

I pulled the emergency-control cover loose.

Underneath was a green button large enough for my palm.

HOLD TO OPEN.

I pressed it.

The gate stopped.

Then it reversed.

“Move,” I told Eli.

Engines rose from the lower yard.

Bell lunged toward the panel.

I drove my shoulder into him.

He hit the desk, and his driver grabbed my arm.

The bitten one.

Pain shot up to my elbow.

I cried out.

Then the driver saw the blood beneath the bandage.

He let go.

Bell straightened.

“Shoot her.”

The driver stared at him.

“She’s infected.”

“She’s holding the gate for the buses.”

“She’s dangerous.”

“So are you.”

Shaw appeared in the doorway with two guards behind him.

“Put the weapon down,” he told the driver.

For a moment, nobody moved.

Then the pistol struck the floor.

Bell looked from one man to another.

“You’re abandoning the only functioning treatment program in this region.”

Lena stepped into view behind Shaw.

“We’re taking the records. And the medicine.”

“You won’t know what to do with them.”

“I know what not to do.”

Shaw secured Bell’s hands.

Lena took the vehicle keys from the driver and went back outside.

The first bus reached the gate.

Through its windows, I saw faces pressed toward the glass.

Some frightened.

Some looking back for people they had lost.

Tess drove the next vehicle.

She slowed beneath the control-room window.

I shook my head.

“Keep going.”

Her radio answered.

“I’m counting.”

“Count outside.”

She went.

Shaw crouched beside the cabinet.

“Can we lock the button down?”

I pointed toward the warning label.

After a remote-priority override, the emergency circuit required continuous pressure. Releasing it would restore the close command.

He tried to wedge the button with the wrench.

The panel registered the fixed position.

A warning sounded.

The gate jerked inward.

“No,” I said.

He pulled the wrench away.

I pressed the button again.

The gate reopened.

“Take the guards,” I told him. “Put one at the culvert. Keep the vehicles moving.”

“I can stay.”

“And leave Bell with one man?”

Shaw looked toward the doorway.

Bell was already speaking quietly to the older guard.

“You get him away from people,” I said.

Shaw pulled the guard aside.

Then he brought his own pistol to the desk and set it beyond my elbow.

“If the power fails, the hand crank’s outside. I’ll come back.”

I nodded.

We both knew he might not reach it in time.

The third recovery truck stalled halfway through the gate.

I heard the starter grinding.

Nothing.

Behind it, our old van waited with Eli inside.

“Don’t keep turning it,” Tess said over the radio. “You’ll drain the battery.”

People climbed out of the truck.

Others shouted at them to hurry.

The noise hurt.

Not my ears.

Something deeper.

Each voice seemed to arrive separately, sharp and close, as if the speakers were inside my head.

I shut my eyes.

“Rowan?” Eli asked.

“Here.”

“Talk to me.”

“Truck’s stalled.”

“We know. Tell me something else.”

I opened my eyes.

The room tilted.

“The cabinet is gray.”

“Good.”

“The window’s cracked.”

“Good.”

“My hand—”

I stopped.

My fingers had begun curling beneath my palm.

I shifted my weight to my forearm and kept the button down.

Outside, Tess and three mechanics pushed the stalled truck forward. Its tires rolled over the threshold.

The driver caught it in gear.

The engine started.

A cheer went up.

I wanted to cheer with them.

Instead, I tasted blood.

I had bitten the inside of my cheek without noticing.

“Keep moving,” I said.

The last bus passed.

Then the delivery truck carrying the clinic patients.

Lena’s voice came through the radio.

“Owen’s secured in the medical vehicle. We have his doses. Bell’s in the rear truck.”

Alive.

Contained.

People still trying.

Our van reached the gate.

Eli sat beside the driver, his hand pressed against the window.

I lifted my free hand.

It took longer than it should have.

He lifted his.

Then the van passed beneath me.

The final vehicle was Bell’s armored transport, now driven by the motor-pool mechanic. Shaw stood on its rear step.

He looked up.

I nodded.

He jumped down outside the gate and waved the vehicle toward the culvert.

“Clear,” he called.

I let go.

The gate began closing.

For several seconds, I watched the widening distance between the vehicles and Mercy Ridge.

Then I sat on the floor.

My radio slipped from my hand.

I caught it against my knee.

“Rowan,” Eli said. “Come down the stairs. We’re turning around.”

“No.”

“We’re right here.”

“You need to go.”

Tess cut in.

“We can keep you separate.”

I looked at my fingers.

They moved when I wanted them to.

Then one twitched without permission.

“I can’t travel with you safely.”

“We’ll find a way,” Eli said.

The gate settled into its lock.

I leaned against the cabinet and listened to my brother breathing.

“I’m still here,” I told him.

“But I’m running out of time.”