My body buckles backward as pain explodes in my stomach. The figures before me blur as my knees collapse from under me. I fall into the soft sand as I reach for the wound, trying to hold back the pain.
"Aria!" Jake screams, falling to my side. His arms wrap around me. "We need to get you out of here. Can you fade? You need to fade."
My hands are covered in blood. It gushes out of my stomach, oozing down to soak my cut-off jeans. This is just a dream, I tell myself over and over. And yet the blood continues, and the pain is unbearable.
"What's going on?" I choke out the words, horrified. "This isn't supposed to happen."
"Dr. Reasner wanted me to pass on the message that you've been shot in reality and now you are dreaming of it." The guy lowers his gun and focuses on Jake. "She will bleed to death unless you give us the codes."
"You'll get your damn codes." Jake grits his teeth and helps me to my feet.
My breathing comes out in gasps. I blink, pushing the thoughts of the blood and pain away. A black Audi R-8 car appears beside us on the beach. Jake throws open a door and practically shoves me inside. The moment the door slams shut, the men reach out for Jake, but he slips through their hands like liquid and appears in the driver's seat.
"This is still my dream," he reminds them.
The engine revs and the tires kick up plumes of sand. The men's clothing switch to sleek black jumpsuits just as we take off down the beach at a hair-raising speed. I glance out the back window. Our pursuers are riding motorcycles, chasing us down.
"Holy crap," I say.
"Does this happen often in dreams?" Jake grips the steering wheel like he's about to rip it out. "Dream Walkers coming into a person's dreams and killing people."
"Never," I say. "Reasner's Dreamscape has somehow morphed Dad's system into something completely different."
I lean my head against the headrest, trying to figure out how Reasner's Dreamscape must work. A glance at my stomach tells me the bleeding has slowed. What does that mean? I don't even know.
"Do you think they really shot me in real life?" I ask. "Actually, don't answer that. It's too much to deal with. Right now, we need to focus on surviving and finding a way to destroy Dr. Reasner."
"We'll find a way." Jake's lips press together, and he grips the steering wheel so tightly, his knuckles whiten.
"Go there." I point to a gaping black hole ahead of us. "Either it will take us to a different dream segment, or we'll fade. Regardless, it will be harder for the suits to chase us."
Jake guns the accelerator and we careen into its abyss.
The car flies airborne. The feeling of weightlessness flips my stomach. The sensations in this Dreamscape mimic reality perfectly and that terrifies me. If I hadn't been a trained Dream Walker, I'd believe this place was real.
The car bounces onto a winding mountain road. My neck whips sideways and then my body slams forward from the impact. I scream in pain as the seat belt presses against my gunshot wound. The car shudders but Jake grips the clutch tight and slams on the gas.
In this part of the dream, the sky holds a husky blue, clouds scudding above as if racing from a storm. Jake speeds around sharp bends and corners while I clutch the door handle with one hand and my stomach with the other.
"We're almost there," Jake says.
I'm too weak and overwhelmed to bother asking where there is. Except the road dead-ends at the rock cliff of a mountain.
"It's a dead-end," I say.
Grimly, Jake eyes his rear-view mirror.
"What is it?" I follow Jake's gaze.
As if emerging through nothingness, the motorcycle gang slices out of thin air and lands on the road behind us, trailing us in full-speed pursuit. "They didn't transition with us so they must have been kicked out and sent back in. That's a fast reentry. Those riders can't be feeling great right now."
When I turn back around, I realize Jake hasn't slowed down. He's racing toward the rock wall at an alarming speed.
"You're going to crash," I yell. "You've got to slow down. We can't leave this dream without the codes."
He grins over at me. "I've got this one covered."
"Jake! Slow down!"
I grip the sides of my seat, screaming. Seconds before we slam into the rockface, it splits down the center like elevator doors, and we race through the opening. Then the rock doors slide closed behind us with a boom, the sound ricocheting through the massive rock tunnel we're now zooming through.
Jake cheers like he just hit the next level in a video game. "Take that suckers!" he yells.
"That was not funny." I glare at him. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. Wait a sec. What is this? The Bat Cave?" I grin through my pain. "Admit it. You dream about being Batman."
His lips curve up into a smile. "Don't tell anyone."
The car zooms to the end of the tunnel where Jake parks. Once the engine is off, the doors pop open, and I ease out. Blackness washes over my vision forcing me to lean against the side of the car. I look down. Still bleeding.
Jake rushes to me with a first aid kit. He wraps a bandage around my body and offers me a pill.
"That's going to help?" I chuckle, but I swallow the pill anyway. "I'm going to imagine that you've given me a special healing drug that gives me unlimited powers."
"Let me carry you," Jake offers and lifts me into his arms.
I don't resist, allowing myself to sink against his chest as he steps inside an elevator. Surprisingly, the elevator hurtles down into what feels like the deep recesses of the earth.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"You've been here before," he says as the doors swoosh open. "It will take a while for the Dream Walkers to find us and then get in. My security traps should keep them busy for now."
I wonder if he's forgotten that this is a dream again, but I decide it might be better to not say anything.
The world before us lies in darkness and above spans an emerald-riddled sky. Or at least I think they are stars until Jake sets me down.
"Computer codes," I realize when I spot the boxes with green numbers floating in them. "The last time I was here was when you dreamed about the SWIFT codes."
I slip my hand into his and look into his face, glowing emerald in the code light.
"Did you develop all of these codes?" At his nod, I say, "It's amazing."
"There's one I want to show you." His face twists in pain. "It's a risk though."
My throat tightens because I think I know what he means to do. I don't speak, afraid of my words, so I simply nod. We wind our way around the maze of boxes until we reach one code that rises up like a spiral. Unlike the others that are green, this one burns fiery red. Its numbers stream up like flames eager to consume and destroy.
A virus. "Is that the one you started working on in Bangladesh?"
"I figured it's always best to be prepared. When I realized the Dreamscape wasn't totally secure, and my computer was stolen, I knew MaxLife needed to have it is own security measures set in place. So I created a dormant virus that could be activated by imputing the numbers."
"Will it work?"
"Remember when I told you that the virus would have to be inserted into the program?" he asks. I nod. "Except, for this virus to work, it would have to be the alpha that made it happen."
"What are you saying?"
"You would have to be in the program," he says. "Your mind acts like a key. Since you're connected to the server, you could release it."
"Would we survive?"
"Probably." He grimaces. "Maybe. I don't know what kind of brain damage it could incur or how it may affect your memories."
"It could affect you as well, couldn't it?"
He swallows and nods. "Reasner isn't going to let me walk free. I'm a dead man, regardless. Might as well go out fighting. But you don't have to do this unless you want to."
My skin has grown cold, so cold as if I've lost too much blood. It's becoming hard to think properly.
"This code was developed because of me. Because Dad and I wanted to help others," I say. "But if Dr. Reasner uses it for what he intends, it could hurt many people. I can't live with that. These past few days have shown me what can be done in people's dreams and it's terrifying. Knowing something I helped create could in fact destroy or be wielded as a weapon is not what I signed up for."
A buzzing sound fills the air.
"What's that?" Jake asks.
"They're trying to wake us up." I grip Jake's hands. "Focus on me. We're going to stay in this dream and unleash the virus. We're going to stop this madness. Together."
A cracking sound above pulls our attention upward. The ceiling splinters, and then it's as if the sky shatters. Glass showers over us, and ropes drop to the ground, followed by people slithering down them to the floor. Suddenly, we're surrounded, their guns pointed at Jake and me.
"Jake!" I say. "Imagine some kind of barriers for us."
But my words are futile.
Bullets fly. One hits my leg and another slams into my arm. I cry out, spinning around, trying to figure out what to do. Back in Florida we never had people shooting at us. No one trained me for this. Beside me, Jake drops to his knees. I grab his hand, trying to pull him back to his feet.
"We have to do this!" Terror races through me. "Now."
Groaning, he shakes his head, blood pooling all around him. My whole body trembles in shock. This isn't happening. This can't be happening.
"It's a dream!" I scream at him, gripping his hands as tightly as possible. "You have to tell your mind that it's only a dream."
"Take the code in your hands," he whispers. "And read it out as the numbers pass by you."
The men advance on us, one step at a time. There's fear and wariness in their eyes as if they guess my intentions.
I study the spiral. "Five-four-two-eight," I read out.
"Stop!" one of the men says. I turn to face him and recognize that wild hair and scruffy beard anywhere. Dr. Reasner. If he entered the dream, he must be scared or desperate. Or both. "Don't say another word or read another number. Otherwise, we will kill your father."
The ground Jake and I are standing on begins to rise. It's like we're riding a platform now. I look down at Jake lying on the ground. His jaw is slack, and his eyes are vacant from concentration. He's causing the platform to rise, taking us out of harm's way, but it's too much for him. He's holding his hand over his chest, any second now he'll collapse.
"You need to focus on staying alive," I tell him.
"This is my dream, and I can do what I want to." He growls but clamps his eyes shut.
The men start shooting again. One of them manages to leap on top of the platform. He tackles me, throwing me onto the floor. The number sequence slips out of my hand.
"No!" I cry. "What was that number sequence?"
"Five-nine-one," Jake says, grunting.
"Five-nine—." I roll onto my butt and slam both feet against the man's back, sending him overboard. His screams fill my ears and I dare a peek below. "One."
Below all the codes in the cavern spiral up out of their boxes and switch to a bright, blinding crimson. The men below cover their faces and cry out.
"Keep reading off the code!" Jake says. "We need to execute the virus immediately."
My hands tremble and my knees weaken. I've suffered too many bullets to even be standing, but the one in my stomach is worse than ever. I've lost so much blood. The floor is slick with it.
It takes every ounce of my willpower to stand back up and pick the code back up. The numbers stream out of my palms as I read them like crimson ribbons. They flood the room, touching everything in its fiery glow.
"It's working," Jake encourages.
The codes liquefy and drip to the floor, forming a sea of lava. It bubbles up and then rises, easing up the walls and melting them. Fissures break apart the rock walls and the world crumbles around us. Red numbers rain over us like fiery snow. And even through it all, our platform continues to rise until we break free of the shattered ceiling into the air.
As I read off the last of the numbers, the floor of the pedestal falls away so it's just Jake holding me and we're floating in the center of the madness. As I say the final number, I wrap my arms around him, staring into his eyes.
"It's done," he says. "The virus has infected the system."
"This may be just a dream," I say. "But whatever happens next, I want you to know everything that we've done together and every feeling I've felt has been real."
His arms wrap around me tighter as flaming codes swirl around us.
But all I feel, and all I know, are his lips on mine. The realness of him and his love consumes my core.