Chapter 32
“You’re late.”
The bell had tolled. I had left the charts without a thought.
I had made my decision. I grabbed the small key from Kumar’s desk.
Strung on a piece of black leather was a small rectangular chip, intricate grooves and raised pieces along its shiny metal surface.
I took one last look toward the man who had been my mentor, protector, who believed in me—committing him to memory.
He deserved a funeral, a celebration. He deserved someone to deliver the news to his loved ones. Owen deserved to hear it from me.
If the world wasn’t what it was, I wanted to believe I’d do that for Kumar, for Owen.
But it wasn’t. So I ran, leaving the mountain of a man behind, my tears one step behind me.
Shoving the destruction away, cramming it into the broken parts of myself that held all the other horrible things.
The beast keening endlessly. The Ward would never be the same.
I would never be the same, but then I had been shedding parts of myself for so long. What was left?
My heart felt heavy in my chest even as it raced keeping up with me, allowing me to carry on when all the others couldn’t. I reached the supply closet out of breath. Unit Seven wasn’t there. Wilma was, of all people, in full gear, pistol in hand.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, but she had tossed her weapon aside, grabbing my gear, encasing me in record speed, each piece trapped in my brokenness beneath.
“We have to get you to the holding box now,” she urged, slamming my chest plate into place.
“What’s happening?”
“We don’t have time. They’re waiting. Let’s go.” She thrust my father’s gun into my hands.
I froze, a million questions racing around my mind, but I couldn’t make sense of them as they got lost in the hole Kumar had left.
“GO,” Wilma yelled, pulling me from my thoughts as she shoved on my helmet. “RUN!”
“What’s going on?” I asked, but she couldn’t hear me. She slammed her finger into my communication button, shoving me.
Voices filled the helmet; it was staticky, becoming clearer as I ran toward Unit Seven.
“We wait,” Tristian yelled into the helmet.
“Do we have time?” Isla asked, her voice uneasy.
“Someone will get to Burdon,” Rumi responded fiercely.
“Burdon will destroy her if we leave her,” Tristian growled back.
“Maybe she—” Patrick started.
“Don’t finish that statement if you value your life,” Tristian barked. I ran harder, Wilma beside me, pumping her arms as we raced toward life.
“She’ll come,” Damien assured someone.
“Tristian, if she doesn’t arrive in the next two minutes, we go on without her,” Levi said, no remorse in his voice. Why was he with them? What about his arm? I sprinted, my lungs burning.
“I’m almost there,” I choked out, my heart too fast.
“Run faster, Phoenix,” Levi demanded.
I pushed my feet into the ground harder, not sure what I was doing. My questions ran over my skin. I didn’t know what was happening. All I knew was Unit Seven, my unit, was in that box in the dead of night, so I belonged there too. I skidded around the corner.
My heart stuttered at the sight. The seven of them stood, waiting in all their gear and bags. Several carried assault rifles. The largest seemed to deflate in relief. I ran straight toward him.
“Now, Abbott. Now,” Levi demanded as I crossed the threshold.
“Do you have oxygen and ammo, Sasha?” Tristian asked me immediately. I fiddled with the buttons.
“Yes,” I told him as I gulped oxygen. “What’s happening? The med bag?”
“I have it,” Tristian said.
“Of all days to be late,” Damien said, bumping into Isla next to him. Restless.
“Close the door,” Levi barked. Wilma stood in the guard shack. Two people in blue lay unconscious on the ground.
“Good luck,” Wilma told us, hitting the button. “For the ones no longer with us.”
Commotion erupted past the stand as several people in blue came sprinting toward us, but the doors were already moving.
“Shit, Wilma, go,” Levi barked toward her. “Go.”
“RUN, WILLOW,” Tristian yelled.
Wilma didn’t. Her face was stone as she withdrew her weapon, turning her back on us, defending her Angels. I have never been into making Angels fall.
Defending us.
There was no mistaking Burdon at the lead, her hair disheveled, Kaleo close on her tail, only half dressed. Tristian walked past me, standing before the door in front of his unit. Even with the suit, his anger swarmed the holding cell.
Kaleo moved so fast, Wilma’s weapon went flying before her face slammed into the ground. He held her down as he watched us through the closing steel doors, his eyes wide, something like disbelief and unspeakable pain there. Someone moved next to me.
The hissing filled the room as the doors leading to above peeled apart, creating a wind tunnel. Tristian ripped off his helmet, his hair whipping wildly. It stole my breath, the sight of him.
“TRISTIAN,” Burdon yelled, her face furious. “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”
The wind howled, Lyssa’s hair flying about as Tristian stood his ground, his unit at his back, staring at her through the diminishing gap. She wouldn’t be able to stop it. “Following your lead, Lyssa.”
“You are done, do you hear me, you are fucking done,” Lyssa screamed, her face red, beauty distorted. “I will kill you myself, Tristian.”
“NOW,” Rumi yelled.
Patrick, Damien, Ingrid, and Levi rushed forward, jamming pieces of metal into the doors. The doors began crushing them, until they ground to a jarring stop, leaving the door cracked, possibly broken. The wind whipped violently into the tunnel beyond.
Burdon was shouting at one of the Force members. They took off.
“Run fast,” Kaleo said, staring at us.
Rage like nothing I had ever seen before stared back at us as Burdon approached the opening. “You are finished, Tristian.”
Tristian stared at Lyssa through the doors. “No, you are, Lyssa. You always wanted me to take the Force. I am.” He turned away from her, shoving on his helmet.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. The unit was rigid beside me, an energy among them.
“A mutiny, Phoenix,” Levi said.
I turned toward my partner, fear coursing through me. “Levi, what are you doing here? Your arm.”
“I am defending my unit and Haven, Sasha,” Levi told me, his helmet swinging toward them all.
“Your arm, what about your arm?” I demanded, fear turning my whirling concoction of emotions into something dangerous. The beast raised its hackles as I fought for each breath.
“Dr. Kumar can fix it if I fuck it up,” Levi told me.
The name ripped me apart. Silence filled the air as the doors opened fully.
“He can’t,” I admitted, my suit the only thing keeping me from falling apart.
“We go out as one,” Tristian called to the group. Shouts from beyond the cracked door sounded as more people in blue came to see Unit Seven’s rebellion. Rumi looked back.
“We come back as one,” the unit answered. I didn’t join in. Couldn’t as the deluge of emotions knocked me back, pulling me down.
“Levi, he can’t help you if something happens,” I repeated, my body shaking. Helmets swung toward me as Tristian continued.
“As long as there’s life,” Tristian continued. I worked to swallow, unable to respond.
Levi hit the partner communication button, my breaths strangling me. The others took off at a jog, leaving Haven behind.
“What’s happened, Sasha?” Levi asked, remaining by my side.
I shook my head. Whether I said it or not wouldn’t make it untrue. Still, my body fought against the words. “He’s gone. Kumar is gone.”
Heavy breaths filled my helmet as we ran across the gray earth in the dark. I ran hard, trying to leave everything behind, running from more than Burdon. They had jammed the exterior doors as well. I didn’t know what that meant for Haven. At some point maybe I’d remember how to ask.
“I can’t believe we actually just did that,” Isla said into the helmets as we cleared the ruins above and ran toward the Abyss.
“Well, we did,” Damien snapped back.
“Honestly, I’m shocked it took us so long,” Patrick said.
Levi’s gear brushed against mine. He hadn’t said anything after I had told him of Kumar’s death.
He only grabbed my hand, squeezing it tightly with his injured arm, and pulled me out of the holding box to chase after the others.
He now ran right next to me. Close, like maybe he was waiting to catch me if I fell apart.
“How long will jamming the doors last, Rums?” Patrick asked.
“All day, perhaps longer, with the fear of radiation exposure. Altering the numbers to make it higher will cause them to hesitate.”
“You what?” Isla demanded.
“The observatory team is all dead or in the Ward, leaving a weakness and an opening. They’ve been faking things for their gain.
I did the same,” Rumi said brutally. “If they use the other entrance on the far side of Haven right now, they’ll be at least a day behind us.
More if we don’t stop. There should be a holdup in getting out. ”
“What else did you do?” Isla asked.
“I punctured all the oxygen tanks,” Rumi said unapologetically.
“You were okay with this?” Ingrid asked Tristian.
“I helped her with it.”
“What’s going on?” I choked out.
“Excellent question, Beast,” Damien jeered.
“It’s Phoenix now,” Levi countered.
“Why the fuck is that?” Damien shot back.
“I like it,” Ingrid said.
“I wasn’t there when you voted. Beast doesn’t stand. My partner, I have a say. It’s Phoenix,” Levi said sharply.
“We’re all dead anyway so Phoenix it is,” Damien continued. “Unit Seven decided to go against every law and every resource for the greater good. Ensuring if we don’t succeed, we will all most likely face a horribly painful, possibly humiliating death. Leaving our loved ones in certain danger.”
“Buddy,” Isla said, like a warning.