Title: Claim Day
Chapter 48: Bangs in the Night
Warda
I heard the gunshot echo through the trees and felt nothing. Well, not nothing exactly. Just… different than I should’ve. “That makes two,” I said, keeping my voice steady as we pushed through the pines. “Edward and Duncan, probably.”
Half an hour ago, I’d been ready to put a bullet in Edward’s head without blinking. Wouldn’t have felt a damn thing about it either. Then Charlotte zapped me with that little box thing, and suddenly I was me again. And now? Now I belonged to Appleton... Cedric. Weird as fuck how my brain worked now. Part of me knew Edward might be dead back there, and yeah, that hurt somewhere deep down. But compared to making sure Cedric was safe? Edward barely registered.
Elaine was losing her shit, pacing between trees, her hands shaking. “Is he dead? Is Edward dead?” Her voice kept cracking. Poor bitch. Had to be torture, not knowing if your owner was alive or not. If he was dead, her programming should’ve reset, right? But she was stuck in this fucked-up limbo, not knowing if she should still be devoted to a Schrödinger’s Edward.
“Elaine, we can’t know for sure,” Gabriel said, trying to sound calm but looking like he might puke any second. He kept watching her like she might suddenly change, like her claiming might just switch off if Edward was really dead.
Charlotte kept her cool better than the rest, but I caught her eyeing Elaine like she was a bomb about to go off. Nothing happened though. Elaine just kept following us, muttering to herself, as we pushed deeper into the forest.
Cedric and Gabriel were clearly avoiding looking at each other, the tension between them palpable. I suddenly felt some disgust for my owner’s ex best friend. How could he have treated Cedric like that? I shook my head, trying to focus on our situation instead.
Gabriel’s women were keeping up, despite Nia’s injuries. We’d have to stop soon to patch her up, but thankfully it didn’t look too serious.
“There’s a trail up ahead,” I said, pointing through the darkness. “It’ll get us away from Echelon, but I don’t know where we should head after that.”
Gabriel wiped sweat from his forehead. “Duncan mentioned his friend has a safe place. Rowan, I think. Said he’s got power and internet. We need to get there, contact Dr. Vokter, send him the deprogramming code so he can broadcast it.” He looked at Charlotte. “I hope the early version works. It hasn’t been tested, but we don’t have a choice. We can’t wait for Smith to make his move. He might force Ramona and Phoebe to create something that scrambles the handshake or destroys the virus matrix so no one can free women again.”
“Where’s this place?” Charlotte asked, adjusting the transmitter she kept in her pocket.
“Old hunting lodge past Miller Creek,” Gabriel said. “That’s what Duncan told us.”
I couldn’t help but groan. “That’s fucking far. By foot it’ll take hours, and we’ll have to circle around the outskirts of Chantwell.”
“We should’ve gone to the parking lot,” Elaine whined, still looking half-crazed. “Could’ve grabbed a car. Would’ve been faster.”
“Too risky,” I said, shaking my head. “Too exposed. Here in the forest we can hide until we’re far enough not to worry about getting caught.” I pushed a branch out of Cedric’s way, feeling a little surge of pleasure when he nodded thanks. “No car can follow us here, and the trails are a maze I know better than anyone.” I thought of Edward then, how he knew these trails too. We’d hiked them together when I first started at Echelon. The memory brought a dull ache, but it was distant.