Within These Walls

Chapter 39

The teenagers scream as the Blanks descend upon them. The blond kid reaches us first and throws himself on a girl. My weapon is out of my pocket in a flash, but he's faster than me. He's crushed her throat with his hands by the time I swing the blade down.

It sinks into his back. The Blank wheels around and struggles to reach the blade buried into his flesh. He stumbles around like a rabid animal, slamming into everyone near him. I've lost my weapon, but I've bought some kids enough time to scramble to a safer distance.

"Weasel, stop her!" Eli roars, and I know he means me.

Carson steps into my path. Against the backdrop of screaming teens, we square off. I barely recognize him like this. It's not just the blank eyes, the weirdly mechanical movements of his limbs. The biggest change is right there in his expression. Carson would never look at me like this. Like he's capable of killing me and not feel a shred of remorse.

He barrels into me with inhuman force and straddles my body. This isn't my friend anymore. This person is a killer, and I fight him with everything I've got. I punch and scratch him, trying to buck him off before he manages to strike me with his deadly hands.

It takes me a while to notice he's blocking my blows but he's not hitting back. When I take the risk of not fighting back, he stops restraining me altogether.

He knows me.

That's all the recognition I get from him. His blank gaze has already locked onto another target. My hand slips into my pocket when his weight lifts off me. I fumble for the silver case and jerk the cover off. Willow said the serum works to halt the progress of the illness, but Carson has shown signs of cognizance. He's in there somewhere behind these blank eyes.

He dashes to a girl crawling into a corner and grabs her hair. She screams, her legs kicking out when he lifts her in the air. He snaps her neck. Horror threatens to turn my legs into stone. Carson will never be able to live with this if he remembers it. I reach him before he can do any more harm and jab the needle into the side of his neck, shoving down the plunger.

He shrieks as if I've doused him in gasoline and lit him on fire. He dashes around blindly, scratching at his neck and alternating between cries and whimpers. Then he collapses on the floor and curls up in the fetal position.

"Forget the others!" Eli shouts. "Stop her!"

At Weasel's manipulation, the remaining male Blank turns from his bleeding victim and stalks toward me. The girl approaches from behind. They box me in between them, but just like Carson, they don't hurt me. They don't even touch me.

"Weasel, don't kill her," Eli says, calmer now. "Director Blaine wants her alive."

"Uh, about that. Remember when I tried to get one of these mutts to attack the rest of them and I couldn't? Like something was overriding my ability? It's happening again. They're choosing not to hurt her, man. I got no say in this."

I study the Blanks in bewilderment. Why would they not be attacking me? I get why Carson wouldn't hurt me. He recognized me. He knew I was his friend, not his enemy.

Didn't he?

"Well," Eli drawls, strutting over to me. "Someone's been keeping a dirty little secret."

"What secret?" Weasel asks.

Eli gives Weasel an annoyed look before he turns back to me. He studies me and chuckles. "You don't know? You really don't know?"

"Know what?"

"That she's blanking!" he roars. "Jesus, Weasel, stop with the interruptions or I'm going to decide you're not worth keeping around anymore."