Atomic Rebooted

41. Secret

MIRA

We met again on the rooftop, but there was a heart-pounding gravity to it that refused to be denied.

"We have to be careful about this," I warned as I stuffed my hair into the knitted cap. "We can get in a lot of trouble if we're found—no one's allowed in Old Kingsbury."

After all, the city had been abandoned for a reason. Things were bad enough, with the Mutated and the high cancer rates and birth defects among the surviving population. Too many had died and become sick just from that first exposure, and from living as closely as we did.

It was in our best interests to stay away. And yet, this was where the search had guided us.

"That's true." Henry helped adjust my hair. "Hopefully, with that speed of yours, we'll be able to get there before anyone notices. Based on the fact that Dr. Electra was able to set up a lab there, I'd say security is pretty lax. Hopefully they haven't increased it in the meantime."

Henry then winced. "I never thought I'd be hoping for that."

"Come on, daylight's fading quickly." I zipped up my jacket. "And it gets cold at night."

"Right as always." Henry sighed. "After you."

We took the tram to the closest station, then walked down the cracked and unkempt road leading to the hastily-erected chainlink fences with signs in red and yellow on it. We ignored the warnings and climbed over. It was far easier than it had any right to be.

"Makes you wonder how many stupid kids like us ended up here, doesn't it?" Henry asked once we touched down in the center of the abandoned city.

"Yeah." I made a mental note—whenever I could report back to the Sentinels, I'd tell them to upgrade security around Old Kingsbury for that reason.

But now we needed to focus on getting in and out.

"Do you know where we're going?" I asked Henry.

"Yeah." His eyes were dull, someplace far away. "I remember—when I came out of there. I don't think I could ever forget."

With that, we slowly began walking through the past of our city, forever frozen and abandoned.

Wildlife had begun to reclaim the buildings, and it was so quiet. There wasn't very much animal life that I could see. The plants that had grown were strange in color, were bigger than the usual strains were supposed to be. Yet there was enough of the original species for them to be recognizable as such.

It was an ordinary city, or would have been. With houses and buildings and a history. And all of it had been lost forever. In a single week, people were forced to take only what they had to and run. They'd had to rebuild everything.

It was a good thing that Atomic Energy had overseen the rebuilding, had ensured a better and more beautiful city in the place of what had been sacrificed. They had surely atoned enough through the decades since?

The sun went down on the horizon as we explored the ghost town. We were in the center of what used to be the Atomic Energy complex when Henry stopped.

"Here." His voice was so flat, so quiet, I strained to hear him, even in the complete silence. "We should be close to Dr. Electra's lab."

He then opened the door in front of us. He didn't act chivalrously, instead he trod forward like he was going to his own execution.

As soon as our feet hit the corroded metal floor, lights flickered on, all down the hallway. Bits of corroded metal and plant life all sprinkled down, but ended at an invisible line, where it was all still shiny, as if new.

I glanced around me—I'd never heard of anything like this in Atomic Energy's history.

"Why is this here?" I wondered aloud. "Why would they make something like this?"

"I don't know." He did not dare turn his head to look at me. "But we'll find out."

I don't know how long we walked before the area opened up to the room that was in the police records. Blood still stained the walls and the floors, and various medical and surgical machines and operating tables were all over the place, with tools and weapons scattered on the floor.

Dr. Electra was the narcissistic sort of supervillain who had a logo, a color scheme, and a brand, basically. But there was no evidence of that here. Instead, the logos of Atomic Energy were everywhere, like eyes watching me.

I heard Henry's breath grow more shallow. I could see the very cells of his skin moving faster to intake for more air as my own vision shifted to the version that could keep up with my speed.

"Are you alright?" I turned to him.

"I'm fine." He did not look at me, his hands curled into fists that somehow still made him look helpless. "I just— I never wanted to be here again."

That's when I remembered, when it finally hit me. We'd found the pictures of the location in the reports of the raid that happened after Henry's rescue. This had been the place where he was taken, when he was kidnapped. When he was experimented on as a child. All the others taken had died.

He'd been the only one to survive and the only success. A success that Dr. Electra had not managed to reproduce since.

I felt like a fool.

"I never should have taken you here," I said. "If you need to leave—"

"It's alright." He forced a smile, but I could see right through it. I could see how afraid he was, how paralyzing that fear was. "I can handle this."

He sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than me.

We approached the metal table. There were stirrups and other restraints, and several dents in the table. Henry reached for the metal, and then he went so still, so silent, I feared he had died standing up.

"Henry?"

"It was here," he whispered.

"I'm so sorry." I didn't know what else to say.

But what caught my attention was that all of this had clearly belonged to Atomic Energy first.

What were they doing with this kind of thing?

And it was more recent, the place was more upkept than the rest of the city. Which meant they had intended to keep coming here after the evacuation.

I wasn't the quickest in mind, only in body, but even I could piece together one conclusion.

Atomic Energy was bad news.

I wanted to deny it, to explain it away. But seeing the evidence in person meant that I couldn't do that.

I was about to open my mouth, tell Henry that we'd seen enough, that it wasn't worth it. After all, it wasn't like there was a book lying around promising to explain what Verity had meant.

I was interrupted by a creaking sound.

"Did you hear that?" I whispered.

I didn't get a chance to hear Henry respond, because out of nowhere everything went completely black.