“Mom can’t be dead,” Elle stated. “She was supposed to wait for us.”
“I know. But she wasn’t there.”
“So she could still be alive, then.”
“My girl, your mother is gone, and so is your father and your brother.” Uncle took a step closer, and Elle was suddenly on her feet, drawing back. “Please, Elle. Listen to what I’m saying: they’re gone. You need to accept this. Life won’t get any easier until you do.”
“Life sucks,” Elle said, blinking back tears. “We’re living in hiding — people are dying all around us. There’s nothing left! It’s not going to get easier. Ever.”
Uncle’s eyes were red, as if he had been crying.
Elle remembered when the power had gone out, when everything had gone dark forever. She remembered the panic, the riots. The massacres and the whispers of a shadow army on the coastline. Her father and her brother, slipping out one night to find food. Her mother waiting at the window of their apartment in Beverly Hills, sitting there for three days. Sending Elle away with Uncle, into the hills, away from the city.
“She has to be there, somewhere,” Elle said.
“Hope is a good thing,” Uncle replied, “but in this case, accept the truth. Your family is dead, but you have us. You have your Aunt and I. You’re not alone.”
Elle threw her book into the fireplace. The flames consumed the pages, slowly eating away the words. She stared at it until it was a pile of charred, black debris. Uncle placed a hand on Elle’s shoulder. She shook it off.
Uncle was wrong. Mom had to be alive.
Johnny and Daddy were dead, but Mom…
She had to go back. She had to find her.
And Uncle couldn’t stop her.
Elle’s palms were sweaty. She waited with Georgia on the far side of the park, staring at the long rows of cages. The prisoners were filthy, caked in mud and dried blood. They sat and stared into space with vacant expressions.
“What the hell is wrong with people?” Georgia whispered. “This is barbaric.”
This is life, Elle thought bitterly.
“Remember, leave the big guy to me,” Elle replied. “You get those cages open and look for Pix. Then we’re out of here.”
“Okay, okay,” Georgia replied. Then, “Why are you helping us, Elle? You’ve really got no reason to.”
Elle frowned.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Liar,” Georgia observed, lifting an eyebrow. “There’s something here that you want.”
Elle blinked, startled at Georgia’s perceptiveness.
But she didn’t answer. She didn’t like to talk about the past with people that she didn’t trust completely. Not that she thought Georgia was out to kill her, but still…information was valuable. She didn’t want to give it away so easily.
“Okay, they’ve got to be ready by now,” Elle muttered.
Jay and Flash needed to hurry up. The chief guard was walking closer, pacing up and down between the cages. This was their opportunity.
Come on, hurry up!
The explosion caught Elle off guard. It was huge. The diesel tanks roared into towering flames and detonated like bombs, flattening the foliage around them instantly. Heat burned Elle’s face and singed the hair on her arms. She shielded her eyes. The roar from the inferno was constant, like a waterfall. A wave of sound. Flames licked around the tops of the trees and seared the grass. Klan members lay twisted at unnatural angles on the ground, their skin charred and black.
Several guards were caught in the explosion. They struggled to regain their balance. Elle heard screaming and cursing. The chief guard slowly got to his feet, bewildered by shock and the blistering flames.
Even Elle’s ears were ringing.
“Here we go,” she told Georgia.
And then she was gone. She sprinted out of the cover of the foliage and ran between the cages, making a beeline for the head guard. The prisoners in the cages were watching the explosion, eyes wide.
One of the guards had dropped a stake after the explosion. It lay on the ground, untouched. Elle grabbed it as she flashed past. She came up behind the chief guard and slammed the blunt tip into the soft spot in the back of his skull with the full force of her running momentum. His huge, brawny body dropped like a sack of rocks.
She reached down and grabbed the sword on his back, drawing the gleaming blade in an arc around her head. Elle fastened the leather strap around her chest, sheathed the word and looked up, searching for Georgia. The tall girl was feverishly cutting through the wires on the second cage. The prisoners were pushing against the cyclone fencing, frenzied. Escape!
“RUN!” Elle shouted. “You’re free — get out and don’t come back!”
The prisoners pushed out of the first two cages, almost knocking Georgia and Elle underfoot in the process.
“Okay, I’ll cut,”Elle said, grabbing the wire cutters. “You look for Pix!”
“PIX?” Georgia yelled. “Pix? Where are you?!?”
There were just under a dozen cages here. Elle worked fast to cut the wires before the full force of Klan guards returned. If they were caught — especially Elle — there would be hell to pay.
“Elle!”
Pix’s small, pale face peeked through the bars of the last cage in the row. It was stuffed with younger children. Elle unlocked the door and the children flooded outside. Screams of joy and gratitude filled the air.
“Run!” Elle kept yelling. “You have to GET OUT!”
Stupid people! Didn’t they realize the clock was ticking?
Bam!
Something slammed into Elle’s shoulder. She saw stars. The world exploded in a burst of color as she tumbled to the ground, her shoulder throbbing with pain. She rolled to her feet, lost her balance, and grabbed the side of a cage to stand. The man who she had taken the sword from was standing there, and he was enraged.
“Elle,” the man snarled. “Well, well. What have we here? You’ve come back.”
A stone dropped to the pit of Elle’s stomach. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Georgia grab Pix’s arm and take off into the night.
“I’m leaving, Tomas,” Elle spat. “Get out of my way.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Tomas’s expression became feral. “You’ll pay for this.”
“Don’t think so,” Elle heaved, still wracked with pain.
She pulled her handgun out of her belt and pointed it at his face. She took a step backward.
“You won’t shoot me,” Tomas laughed, taking a step forward. “You never had it in you to kill. That’s why you failed in the Pits, girl. It takes a killer to be a prize fighter.”
“I’ve killed Klan members before,” Elle replied, standing her ground. “And I’ll kill you, too.”
Her hands shook as she held the gun. She willed herself to remain steady, to make sure the safety was off. She had to do this; she had to kill Tomas. He deserved nothing less than death for everything that he had done.
Crack!
Tomas’s head jerked violently forward. Blood sprayed across Elle’s face. She stood there, shocked, her finger still on the trigger. She hadn’t fired a shot. What had happened?
“Elle!” Jay bounded out of the shadows, Flash in tow. He ran to her, shook her shoulders. He shoved a handgun into his belt. “Are you okay?”