It’s Trevor. He’s saved her again. Has done what I could not do.
I run toward them, but she’s already pushing up, bucking Trevor off of her as if he weighs nothing. She doesn’t thank him, doesn’t even look at him, keeps moving up the steps.
Just before she ducks into the tunnel beneath the seats, I see her pull a gun from under her tunic. Where did she get a gun? I wonder.
When I reach the steps I take a moment to scan my surroundings, ensuring none of the sun dwellers are making a move to follow Adele. Trevor gets back to his feet and hurriedly follows Adele into the tunnel, and I’m about to follow when I see Ram, standing out in the crowd, dark and bulging with strength. But all the strength in the Tri-Realms won’t save him from hot metal bullets. He’s pinned down behind a row of seats, with three sun dwellers peppering shots at him. He’s trying to hold them off by taking blind shots with his pistol, but he’s not even aiming in the right direction. He’ll die if I don’t do something.
I take five long strides and then roll, grabbing a gun left by a dead Resistance soldier, and feeling the whiz of bullets as one of the enemy combatants tries to take me down. But I know they can’t hit me. I’m too fast, too determined. Coming out of the roll, every bit of my training kicks in. I lock on the first target in less than a second, shoot him somewhere he won’t get up from. But I don’t watch him fall; instead, I swing to the next enemy, who falls when I pull the trigger. The third one has realized I’m targeting the ones shooting at Ram and he ducks before I can get him.
I curse and rush to Ram, who’s watching me with a funny expression on his big face.
“You saved me,” he says.
“Yeah, yeah,” I say. “Get back to the main body of men. Take this,” I say, handing him the rifle. I don’t hear if he responds because I’m off, sprinting to the steps, taking them two at a time, hoping I don’t get shot. As I approach the top I see two forms moving swiftly toward me across one of the rows.
I swing to the side, tensing myself for a fight, but drop my hands when I see that it’s Roc and Tawni, eyes wide but fierce and determined. I don’t question their presence—I just say, “Hurry!” and sprint into the gloomy hallway. Adele and Trevor are already halfway down the curve of the tunnel, running hard, Adele holding the gun out in front of her like she actually knows what to do with it. Maybe she does. She seems to know how to do everything. Gritting my teeth, I give chase, hoping to catch her before she runs into half the sun dweller army.
I can feel Roc and Tawni just behind me, moving on silent feet.
I know something isn’t right when we make it a quarter of the way around the Dome without resistance. The place should be teeming with sun dwellers, but instead, all the action seems to be out on the platform. It’s almost as if my father wanted us to go this way, to make it this far. The thought sits in the pit of my stomach like a rotten egg. The crack and pop of guns provides a symphony for the slap of our feet on the stone. I catch up to her five steps later, grab her shoulder. “Adele, wait,” I say.
She whirls around, levels the gun at my head. Her eyes are wild and her hands shaking. She lowers the gun. “Tristan, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“Welcome to the party,” Trevor says from the side.
“Where are they?” Roc says, coming up behind us.
“They have to be in one of these rooms. C’mon,” I say, grabbing Adele’s arm and ushering her forward. We’ve already passed dozens of open doors, all clearly empty, so we slow as we approach the first closed door we’ve come across.
“Shh,” I say, tiptoeing in. One, two, three, I mouth, slamming my shoulder into the door and entering side by side with Adele, the others looking over our shoulders. It’s dark and we can’t see or hear a thing. “Wrong room,” I say.
We leave quickly and continue our search. Another quarter of the way around, we hear voices and as we come around the bend we see five star dweller soldiers come into view.
They raise their rifles.
* * *
Adele
The adrenaline is dictating my every move. When they point their guns at us I don’t hesitate, shoving Tristan hard against the wall, my body flush with his, just as we hear the crack and resulting zing of energy as the bullets fly past. Across from us, Trevor, Roc, and Tawni have managed to do the same. We rebound off the wall in one motion, Tristan and I, charging down the tunnel as the soldiers release their expended shells, readying themselves to shoot again.
But they’re too late. I’m too close and my arm is already up, my aim zeroing in on one of the soldier’s chests. Of all people’s, it’s Brody’s voice that pops into my head: Hold it slightly lower than the target you’re aiming at. Keep it steady, because when you pull the trigger, it’s going to squirm. I lower my arm slightly, tighten my grip, and fire. The guy jerks back as the bullet slams into the same shoulder he was using to lift his gun. He’s thrown back into his partner, whose gun is knocked aside by his flailing arms.
Beside us, Trevor shoots two of the soldiers in quick succession, while Roc comes flying in with an elbow, crashing into the last one.
Neither of the ones I hit is dead and all I want to do is kill them. I stand over their sprawled-out forms, my knuckles white on the gun, my finger tense on the trigger. Their hands are over their heads, pleading, but that just makes me want to pull the trigger more. “No, Adele,” Tristan says.
“It’s what they deserve,” I growl.
“I know, but not like this. You can’t go back from this.”
I know he’s right, but maybe I don’t want to go back. My teeth are grinding against each other, my breaths sharp and animal-like through them, whistling slightly. The only thing steady are my hands, holding death over these fools like an executioner holding a guillotine. “We need to keep moving, find your dad and sister,” Tristan says.
My head snaps toward him and I forget about these guys. All that matters is my family. I lower the gun. Tristan kicks each of the guys in the head and they slump over, unconscious. Roc is grappling for the last guy’s gun, but Trevor puts an end to it with a boot of his own to the guy’s noggin.
We move forward.
Soon we hear voices, muffled at first, but then louder as we approach an open doorway. Light spills from the room and we hear a woman say, “Should I kill them now?”
Which means they’re still alive. Every cell in my body is suddenly alive with energy, urging me forward.
We hear the crackle of the reply over the walkie talkie. “Yes, kill them now,” President Nailin says.
I charge into the room, not waiting for my friends, and this time I’m not taking prisoners. The first thing I see is my dad, struggling against his bindings, his eyes fierce and steely. All he wants is to save Elsey, who is beside him, her face as white as a sheet, all childish dreams about to be torn away from her. A woman in a red uniform has a radio to her lips, but when she sees me she lowers it.
I shoot her point blank in the chest and she topples to the floor.
Two big soldiers close from either side, grabbing at my arm that’s holding the gun. But then Tristan is there, his fist slamming into the left guy’s skull and sending him flying. As he grapples with the other guy, I break free and charge toward my dad. His executioner stares at me as I approach, but I’m not looking at him. All I see are my dad’s eyes, my eyes reflected back at me, green and full of life and loving and kind and—
Boom!
The sound is deafening but I barely hear it. I’m choking on my own sobs, but still moving forward as my father slumps to the ground, the light in his eyes extinguished. I’m crying and growling and screaming and shooting—one round, two rounds, three, four, and then I lose count when the gun starts clicking as I use every last bullet.