Walking Ghost Phase (43 page)

“
Follow me.” He led her down the hallway of blank walls. Though it was a different environment without the doors and carpet streak, Emily recognized where he took her. Soon they entered a familiar corridor, but the shower room and her bedroom no longer existed. The emergency exit, however, remained. Matt stopped and slid his hand along the release bar, which was now unlocked.

“
This will take me home?” she asked. “Just like that?”

“
No,” he said. “Outside this door, the program is running normally. You know what's in the courtyard. You know what happens if someone tries to escape.”

Emily hesitated. In her mind
's eye, she saw herself unconscious and lying in the gurney. She seemed at peace as the woman—her mother—cried at the bedside. She imagined the laughter of her friends and the woman's smile when she came out of the coma. She remembered Raven's face, Sarah's sarcastic smirk. She heard their voices as if they were her own.

I don
't belong here.

I
'm ready to go home.

Emily put her hand on the door
's release bar.

Matt grabbed her wrist, pulled her into his chest and pressed his lips to hers.
“I'll see you soon.” And he let her go.

She pushed open the door, and at once
, the alarm blared. Ahead in the courtyard, grass twinkled under the afternoon sun. The driveway was empty of convoys and patrolling MPs. Only guard towers and fences loomed in the distance.

Emily ran.

She crossed the driveway, and the loudspeaker crackled. “Return to base immediately.”

She ignored it, pushing harder as the grass stabbed at her bare feet. The distant figures up high shifted toward her, their guns winking at her with a glare of light. The fence was now less than a hundred yards away. The loudspeaker crackled again.
“Return to base immediately. This is your final warning.”

Then the roar of wind in her ears went silent. The soles of her feet numbed; the ground no longer seemed
below her. The loudspeaker cut off before the final order blared. It was as if time had frozen.

A flash of fire expelled from the rifles.

Everything faded.

Darkness.

Emily was standing in her living room while her mother and father studied a stack of papers at the window table. “I'm not going,” Emily said. Her tone sounded full of spite.

“
Honey, New York has good schools,” her mother said.

“
Did you have to do this right before my senior year?”

“
Emily,” her father said. “You know I didn't plan this. We aren't the only family affected. Sarah's father is in the same predicament.”

“
Yeah, but he's not making her leave. Her mom's staying until graduation.”

“
That's not a bad idea,” her mother said. “I can help the realtor show the house while we try to sell it. Flights are cheap. It's only for a year.”

“
Or he can find a new job here,” Emily said.

“
I've put my life into this company,” her father said. “It's been good to us. They're helping pay for your college.”

Emily turned her back and flicked her wrist.
“Do whatever you want, just don't expect me to like New York City.”

Darkness.

Emily was staring at herself in the mirror. Her hair, slightly curled, draped over her shoulders.

“
Washington D.C.,” Raven said.

Emily dropped her arms to her side.
“You've got to be kidding me. We'll be bored out of our minds. I give this trip a day until you all are begging to come home.”

“
What do you have against Washington?” Sarah asked. “I know you've never been there.” Sarah scratched her head. “You know what? The decision is yours, Em. Washington or New York?”

“
In that case,” Emily said, “Washington.”

Sarah looked at Matt.
“A little help here?”

Darkness.

Emily was sitting in the passenger seat of Matt's car as he drove her home. The prom dress chafed her ankles from her constant squirming. She stared through the window at the passing houses. Matt hadn't said anything since they left Sarah's house.

“
All right, you win,” she said, and dug in her purse.

“
It was never about winning,” Matt said.

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed.
“With you, it's always about winning. Why else do you think we've lasted this long? Someone has to prove me wrong every once in a while.” She winked at him. A moment later the line connected. “Dad—I want to see you.” She smothered the phone and glared at Matt. “But after Washington.”

Darkness.

Emily's feet dangled in the air as the wind ruffled over her Sunday dress. Behind her, three children giggled and pushed her in the swing. “Higher, Matty, higher,” she screamed.

The children pushed harder. At the apex of her flight, she saw her house. Her mother and father were sitting on the porch and watching her sail above the tree line.

Then the walls of her house began to decay. The vinyl siding warped and sloughed off the wooden frame. A distant voice echoed in her mind. “She's waking up.”

As Emily opened her eyes, the overhead lights spun. A white-coat-wearing man stood over her.
“No…” But she shivered. Her arms didn't find the resistance from the gel or its warmth hugging her body. A dull sensation coursed through her.

The white-coat
's head ripped backward as someone shoved him out of the way. Emily's mother cradled her hand. “My baby.”

“
Mom,” Emily said. Her voice came out raspy and hoarse.

“
I'm here. Dad's here.”

Her father kissed her on the forehead, and his tears dripped into her hair.
“How are you feeling, kiddo?”

“
Numb.”

Her mother released her hand. Now a different person held her wrist and another clutched her forearm. She turned her head. Beside her, Matt, Sarah, and Raven lay. Their four hands joined at a single point.

“Are you sure you can't do anything?” her father asked a white-coat.

“
I have money,” Raven's father said. “I'll pay whatever it takes.”

“
I'm sorry, sirs. But we can keep them comfortable, manage the pain.”

Emily
's mother let out a sobbing howl.

“
Then I want to take her home,” Emily's father said. “She's not dying here.”

“
I'm sorry, sir. We can't risk the potential security breach.”

“
I'm not asking.”

“
I have my orders, sir.”

Emily
's father grabbed a wad of the man's lab coat. “You son of a—”

Someone jumped forward and clutched her father
's arm. “That isn't necessary, sir,” the man said. Emily recognized his voice but in the kinder tone from her early days inside the program. “They may leave,” Wade Stallings said to the white-coat.

“
But Colonel?”

“
We may have orders, Lieutenant, but this isn't our decision to make. It's not our place.”

The white-coat nodded slowly.
“Yes, sir.”

“
Prep your team for transfer.”

Emily
's mother knelt beside the gurney. “Do you want go home, baby?”

Emily imagined her feet rising above the trees. Her friends, still children in her memories, giggled and chased
one another. “The park.”

Next to her, Raven nodded, and Sarah smiled.

Then Emily met Matt's eyes.

He mouthed the words.

I love you.