Ruins

“There are still injured people in the city,” said Sandy. “Someone has to stay behind to take care of them. Nurse Hardy is here, too.”

“And Skousen?” asked Marcus.

Sandy shook her head. “The Partials took him weeks ago, when the bioweapon first surfaced.” She noticed the confusion on their faces and frowned. “You haven’t heard? There’s a plague that kills Partials—their own version of RM. I guess someone’s finally giving them a taste of their own . . . nonmedicine. That’s the other reason their army left town; nobody wanted to stay here after Partials started falling ill.”

Kira wondered how Skousen or anyone else could have engineered a Partial plague so quickly, but that was the least of her worries. Wherever the plague came from, it was one more obstacle that would convince the Partials and humans they could never dare to trust one another. She clenched her fist, as if she was trying to hold on to her hope like a tangible object. “You need to get out now,” said Kira. “It was very brave of you to stay behind, but it’s time to leave; the Partials will be leaving too, so there won’t be any new patients to deal with. Get everyone dressed, gather all the food and medicine you can, and get out.”

Sandy shook her head. “Two of our patients can’t even walk.”

“Then we’ll pull them in rickshaws,” said Kira. “I’ll pull one myself. The threat is real, and we don’t have long—just go.”

Sandy hesitated a moment, then nodded and ran down the hall. She only got a few steps before a deep rumbling sound rippled through the air; Kira felt it first in her gut, shaking her ribs, then throbbing in her ears like a low, steady beat. She looked at Sandy, who looked back and shook her head; she didn’t know what it was either.

“It’s a rotor,” said Marcus. “A flying vehicle, like an airplane with vertical takeoff. We saw them in White Plains.” He looked at Sandy. “You didn’t recognize the noise?”

“We’ve never seen anything fly before,” said Sandy. “This is new.”

The door to the stairwell flew open and Nurse Hardy burst out in a frenzy, wheezing for breath and gripping the door frame for support. “They’re on the roof,” she gasped. “They’ve come for the patients. Is that . . . Kira Walker?”

Kira took a step toward her, raising her rifle in preparation. “Partials?” Hardy snapped out of her shock and nodded, still out of breath, and Kira stepped forward again. “Where are they taking them?”

“They’re not taking them anywhere,” said Hardy. She staggered out into the lobby, and Kira could see now that she was bleeding from her arm. “They’re going room to room, killing them.” She clutched her arm and tried to breathe. “They’re taking their blood.”

Kira looked at Green and snarled. “The Blood Man.”

“It’s about damn time,” said Green, raising his rifle and stalking toward the staircase. “I’ve been anxious for a little chat with him.”

Kira followed him up the stairs, with Marcus close behind, not stopping on each floor like they had in the mall, but climbing relentlessly. They heard a scream high above them, silenced almost instantly by a gunshot and a slamming door. “Sounded like the eighth floor,” said Kira.

“Morgan’s army confiscated most of the solar panels when they first arrived,” said Marcus. “They moved the patients up here because it made the few panels left just a little more efficient; all the power in the lower levels is cut off completely.”

“Can you link them yet?” Kira asked Green.

“No. As soon as I do, though, they’ll know we’re here.”

“They won’t know who, though,” said Kira. “You could be any Partial; they won’t know you’re an enemy.”

“They’ll know I’m not an Ivie,” said Green, “which seems to be the only distinction that matters to them.” He clenched his teeth and snarled, then stopped suddenly on the landing between floors five and six. “You go first.”

“Whoa,” said Marcus. “Who sends the lady into combat first?”

“A smart combatant,” said Kira, not even slowing as she brushed past Green. “I can read the Ivies on the link a bit, and they can’t read me. It’ll give us maybe an extra ten seconds before they know we’re there, but that’s better than nothing.”

As they neared the seventh floor she started to sense them—just a few, maybe three or four at the most. She remembered the victims she’d found so far, the Partial on the dock and the ice-cold Tovar, and she felt her blood rising. She remembered the dying girl Kerri, crying as her life slipped away. We’re trying to save you, she’d said, and Kira still couldn’t get it out of her mind. Save us from what? From who? She shook her head, clearing her doubts like cobwebs. The Ivies, and the Blood Man they served, were evil. She would put them down.