I blink my eyes, but I can't see anything. I can't move. Am I alive? Dead? A new thought erupts through the others. Perhaps I've lost my mind, or worse, my mind is lost in the destroyed Reasner's Dreamscape forever.
Panic floods my body and I scream.
That's when I feel something. Hands? The pressure on my wrists loosens, and suddenly I feel my hands drop. The darkness vanishes, replaced by blinding light.
"Aria!" That voice belongs to Sun. As my vision solidifies, I see her face is wet, I think she's crying, and a bandage is wrapped around her head. "I'm so sorry. At the casino, I tried to stop them. Tell me you can hear me. Tell me you're okay."
"I'm okay." My words are thick as sludge.
"She's okay!" Sun announces.
"Jake—" My heart pounds as I remember the two of us surrounded in fiery code. I push myself to sit and the room swims before my eyes. "I have to make sure he's okay."
"Javier is with him," she says. "But he hasn't responded yet."
"No." A sob escapes me. I push myself off the gurney, only to collapse to the ground. "What's wrong with me?"
"It's the Dreamscape." She rushes to my side and holds my arms. "Reasner's coding tricked your mind into thinking what has happened to you in the dream is real. Your mind still thinks you got shot. How does your stomach feel?"
"They didn't shoot me?" Numbly, I touch my stomach and expect to see blood oozing out of a gaping wound. But there's none. I blink a few times, willing my mind to believe my eyes. "It still hurts. What about Jake? Is he okay?"
She nods sympathetically. "Your dad is trying to see if he's still caught in the Dreamscape."
It's then I focus my attention on what's happening in the room. Dream Walkers are still lying on their gurneys, unresponsive. Javier stands over Jake's body while Dad is at the computer, typing away furiously while Tony is tying up Dr. Reasner who's also hooked up to the Dreamscape. Guards are lying on the ground, passed out and tied up.
"What happened?" I ask. "How did you find us?"
"I have a confession," Sun says. "Don't be mad. The outfit I gave you had a tracker sewn inside the hem of your skirt. That's the real reason why it took me so long to shop."
She says shop while making quotes in the air. "Back at the casino when you were in Lau's dream, Reasner arrived and had his men take you and Jake. They hit me over the head and left me to take the fall for everything. Thankfully, Danny got me out before the police arrived."
"I'm so glad you're okay."
"We followed your tracker here and then used the Sound Oasis to put this whole crew to sleep. Then we injected them with Temazepam for good measure, tied them up, and woke you up."
"Jake used his mind to get me to enter a virus into the Dreamscape," I explain." Did it work?"
"You did great, baby girl."
I turn around to face Dad at my side. He looks horrible, but he's alive. I start crying, and he wraps his arms around me and also starts crying.
"Reasner's Dreamscape has been destroyed," he says. "You're lucky your mind wasn't damaged with it. But I'm worried about Jake."
"Take me to him," I say.
With his help, I stagger over to Jake and sag onto the gurney beside him. He's so still and too pale.
"Is he alive?" My voice trembles.
Javier points to the brain and heart monitor Jake's attached to. "Seems as if he is. Either he's in deep shock or his brain just hasn't found its way home yet."
"When you went missing at MaxLife, I was so scared I'd never see you again." I cling to Dad. "Then in Jake's dream, Reasner's men told me they were going to shoot you."
"Aria," Dad says. "I'm so sorry. For all of this. You like this boy, don't you?"
Tears spring back to my eyes as I nod. "We have to find a way to get him back."
"We will," Dad says. "We will."
"Listen," Danny interrupts. "I don't mean to be a spoiler, but we need to get out of here and fast. I don't know who else might know about this location, but it's not worth sticking around and waiting."
"But what about Jake?" I say. "We can't pull him off the system until he wakes up."
Everyone stares at me, silent. I see it in their faces. They believe he's gone. Braindead. I shake my head, saying, "No. No, no, no."
Then I turn back to Jake and hold his hand, praying and begging for him to come back to me. "Don't give up," I tell him. "Come back to me."
"I'm going to keep trying," Dad says. "I will stay and do what I can."
Meanwhile, the others step away and begin making preparations to leave.
"We have to destroy everything," Javier tells the group. "There can be nothing remaining that could help another developer reinvent this."
"Maybe he just needs a few more minutes." Sun lightly touches my arm. "He might wake up before we have to leave."
"I'm not leaving him." I look down the line of gurneys where the bodies of the other Dream Walkers lie. "What about them?"
"The last one just lost brain waves," Sun says. "Jake is the only one hanging in there. Maybe it's a sign he'll survive."
Sweat has slicked Jake's hair to his face. His body feels warm and alive against my skin. Somehow I must find a way to reach him. But how?
"Jake," I whisper into his ear. "Please. You have to come back. For me. We have to finish this together. Remember, it's only a dream. Please wake up."
I lay my face against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. A steady thump. Then I move my face to hover over his and kiss him, holding his hands in mine. It's the first time I've ever kissed him when his body hasn't responded to me.
I press my forehead to his, waiting, hoping. And then it happens. A beep pings on the monitor and a spike shoots up on his brain monitor.
"Was that him?" Dad asks from the mainframe computer. At my nod, he says, "Whatever you are doing, keep doing it. He has a chance."
My heart skips and I curl up beside Jake and continue whispering in his ear.
"We've got company!" Tony says from where he's overlooking the window. "It's Lau and her cronies."
"We have to go now!" Danny says. "They've got guns."
Javier and Tony rush to turn over the portable tables holding all the equipment and barricade the door to the warehouse with them.
"We have to get out of here!" Sun is insistent, pulling me from Jake's side.
I shake my head. "I'm not leaving without him."
"We can't pull him off the mainframe," Dad warns. "That will cut his brain's ties from his body. He has to wake on his own."
"He stays," I say. "Then I stay. You all go without me."
"Guess we're all staying then," Tony says, dismally.
"Fine," Sun says in a way that sounds anything but fine. "I'll load up Dr. Reasner's van, but we might have to take Jake with us before he wakes up. And take these." She hands me a pair of earplugs. "Put them in when I give you the signal."
"Got it." I pocket them.
I hate putting the rest of the team in danger, but there's no way I can leave Jake. If it wasn't for him, Dr. Reasner would have the data for the Dreamscape and the ability to look into any person's brain and study their innermost secrets and use it as a weapon. I can't live with myself knowing I left him.
A pounding at the large wooden slider door pulls our attention to Zhang Lau and her guards. Frantically, Sun and Danny load items into the van while Dad and Javier remain at the computer, frantically trying out different systems. Tony stands in front of the door, holding a machine gun, but between his shaking arms and pacing, I'm not sure how capable he would be using it.
I doubt he could actually bring himself to use it.
I kiss Jake on the forehead and then snatch up one of the discarded guns, rushing to stand at Tony's side.
"This is so wrong," Tony says. "I'm a scientist and musician. I don't even know how to shoot this thing."
"Me either." My actions prove my words as I fumble over how to hold the gun. "But at least it will give them pause."
The pounding continues. The bolts on the door buckle and then pop off, one by one. My pulse pounds in my temples. I glance back at Jake, still sound asleep.
"Still sleeping?" Tony asks me. At my nod, I hear him mutter, "Damn."
With a groan, the door cracks and smashes flat to the ground, kicking up dust in its wake. Tony and I brace ourselves, holding our weapons before us.