The air in the Archive room didn't feel like air anymore. It felt thick, like we
were underwater. The blue mist was up to our knees now, swirling around our
boots. Every time I stepped through a cloud of it, I saw a flash of someone's
life—a birthday cake, a red bicycle, a rainy afternoon.
It was distracting. It was meant to be.
"Don't look down,
" Julian hissed, his hand gripping mine so hard it hurt. "If
you look at the mist, you'll get lost in someone else's head. Look at me. Only
at me."
In front of us, the "Assigned" students stood in a perfect, terrifying line.
There were about thirty of them blocking the glass wall to the Core. They
didn't have weapons. They didn't need them. They were just standing there,
their blue eyes glowing in the dark, waiting.
61.
"I don't want to hit them,
" Jax whispered. He was holding a heavy metal pipe
he'd ripped off a shelf, but his arms were shaking. "They're just... they're just
kids. That's Leo from the cricket team. I think. I don't know why I know that
name, but I do."
"They aren't Leo anymore, Jax,
" Sloane said. She sounded like she was trying
to convince herself more than him. She had a heavy flashlight gripped in her
hand like a club. "They're just shells. If we don't get through them, we
become shells too."
Archer stood behind the glass wall, tapping a pen against his chin. He looked
bored. "You're late for the final exam,
" his voice echoed from the speakers.
"Unit 402, please clear the obstacles."
At his command, the line of students moved. They didn't run. They marched.
62.
The first student reached Jax. It was Leo. He didn't punch; he grabbed. He
reached for Jax's head with both hands, his fingers aiming for the temples—
where the Archive ports were located.
"Get off me!" Jax roared. He shoved Leo back, but three more students
swarmed him.
They weren't trying to hurt us. They were trying to sync us.
"Callie, the book!" Julian yelled as he kicked a girl away who was trying to
grab his arm. "Read to them! They're empty—give them something to hold
onto!"
I scrambled to open my journal. My hands were shaking so much I almost
dropped it into the blue mist. I found a page I'd written about the school
festival last year.
63.
"LEO!" I screamed, my voice cracking. "Leo, remember the finals! You hit a six
on the last ball! The whole school was shouting your name! Remember the
smell of the grass!"
The student grabbing Jax's throat froze. His blue eyes flickered. For a split
second, the glow dimmed, and I saw a boy behind the mask—a boy who
looked tired and confused.
"It worked!" Sloane yelled, swinging her flashlight to keep a group of girls
back. "Keep reading, Callie! Give them back their names!"
I didn't stop. I read about the cafeteria's burnt pizza. I read about the time the
sprinklers went off during the dance. I read every stupid, small detail I had
ever recorded.
64.
But for every student I slowed down, two more took their place.
"It's not enough!" Sia cried out from the back. She was trying to plug her
handheld drive into a wall port, but the wires were sparking. "Archer is
pumping more deletion code into the room! He's emptying them faster than
you can fill them!"
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my hair from behind.
I screamed, dropping to my knees. My journal skidded across the floor, sliding
into the deep blue mist near the glass wall.
"NO!" I lunged for it, but a student—a girl I used to share a locker with—
pinned me down. Her eyes were bright, blinding blue. She didn't look angry.
She looked like nothing at all.
65.
"Callie!" Julian turned to run to me, but Archer pushed a button on his
console.
A high-pitched screech tore through the room. It wasn't sound; it was a
frequency that hit our brains directly. Julian fell to his knees, clutching his
head. Jax dropped his pipe, his nose starting to bleed.
"You think a diary can stop a supercomputer?" Archer's voice was mocking
now. "You're trying to fight a flood with a paper cup."
The girl on top of me reached for my forehead. Her skin felt like ice. I closed
my eyes, waiting for the "First Silence" to take me, waiting for my mom's
face and Julian's name to vanish.
66.
CRACK.
The weight on me vanished. I opened my eyes to see Jax standing over me. He
hadn't used his pipe. He had used his own body to tackle the girl off me.
"Run,
" Jax wheezed. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like he was in
agony. "Sloane... take her... and go."
"I'm not leaving you, Jax!" Sloane shouted, trying to pull him up.
"GO!" Jax shoved her toward the glass wall. "I can't... I can't hold it much
longer. The voice... it's so loud. It's telling me to sleep. Just go!"
Jax turned back to the army of Assigned. He stood there, legs wide, arms out,
a human shield against a wave of blue light.
67.
Sloane grabbed my hand. She was sobbing, but her grip was like iron. She
pulled me toward the glass wall where Julian was already trying to stand up.
We reached the glass. On the other side, Archer was staring at us, his eyes
wide with surprise. He hadn't expected us to get this close.
"Julian, the vent!" Sia pointed to a small maintenance hatch at the base of the
glass wall. "It's the only way into the Core room. But it's too small for Jax."
"I know,
" Julian whispered. He looked back at Jax, who was being buried under
a mountain of blue-eyed students.
Julian looked at me. His eyes were clear, but the "Genius" coldness was gone.
He looked terrified. He looked like a 14-year-old boy who just wanted to go
home.
68.
We scrambled into the vent. It was a tight, metal tunnel that smelled like
scorched dust. Sloane went first, then me, then Julian.
As I crawled, I could hear the sounds from the Archive room—the thuds, the
shouts, and then... silence.
The kind of silence that happens when the music stops.
"Jax?" Sloane whispered into the vent behind her.
There was no answer. Only the sound of the Master Delete counter ticking up.
85%... 86%... 87%...
We pushed through the final grate and tumbled onto the floor of the Core
room. It was white. Blindingly, painfully white. And in the center stood Archer,
holding my journal.
69.
Archer looked down at the book in his hand. He flipped through the pages with
a bored expression.
"So many words,
" he said. "So much wasted effort."
He looked at Julian, who was trembling with rage. "You really love her, don't
you? Even now, when you can barely remember your own middle name, you're
looking at her like she's the sun."
Archer held the journal over a small, glowing pedestal in the center of the
room. A blue laser beam was shooting out of it—the heart of the Master
Delete.
"Let's see what happens to the sun,
" Archer said, a cruel smile spreading
across his face,
"when I burn the map."
He dropped my journal into the light.
70.