Chapter 71 #2
“I’m fine,” he says. “We can’t stop here.”
He isn’t fine, but he’s already taking my hand and pulling me up. I grab one of the packs and sling it over my shoulders while he picks up the second one.
“Let’s go,” he says, taking my hand as we continue winding deeper. Everything is silent except for the sound of our steps and heavy, sawing breaths.
Now that he’s no longer carrying me and two bags, Rook seems to have caught a second wind as he urges me to pick up my pace.
“Almost there,” he says after we’ve both been quiet for a while. “Don’t stop.”
I’m exhausted, my legs and feet aching, my throat parched. But I don’t complain. At least I’m not fucking bleeding.
A bang sounds in the distance, and we both stop, our eyes meeting in the low light.
“Did they find us?” I ask.
“Faster,” he says. “The exit is here.”
He points to what looks like a dead end.
I can tell he’s struggling, desperately trying to keep up.
But he’s growing paler by the moment.
I wonder how much longer he can hold on.
If he dies . . . I can’t even think it.
“This is it,” he says, turning toward me. He stretches his fingers out, waiting for me to accept. I meet his eyes before I look back at the darkened tunnel.
“Poet, I won’t force you to come with me,” he says, reading my mind. “But you aren’t safe here anymore.”
After a year of uncertainty, I stand at yet another crossroads, forced to make another impossible choice.
Another decision that will alter my life forever.
“Who are you?” I ask, and he shakes his head.
“I’m exactly who I told you, Poet.”
“Are you?”
“The essence of me, yes. But there were things I couldn’t share. I came here to accomplish something, and I didn’t think I could trust anyone at Amery.”
“Did you accomplish it? This thing?”
He presses his lips together and shakes his head. “I didn’t even come close, but my instructions were to leave the city if anyone found out what I was looking for.”
“Instructions from who?”
With every word out of his mouth, I have more and more questions.
“My superiors,” he says, and I’m about to ask what that means when another bang in the distance draws our attention.
We peer into the darkness and then look at each other.
“We have to leave,” he says, still offering me his hand. There’s no order in his voice, only a plea. I watch his face, his hazel eyes, understanding that the lines of Rook’s truth have blurred. He claims he’s exactly who he told me he was, but it’s obvious I don’t know him at all.
I have only two choices.
I can leave with him and take my chances, or I can stay here and die for good.
“Do you trust me now?” I ask.
I don’t know why it matters, but I need to know.
Rook doesn’t hesitate. “Yes.” He inhales sharply, groaning as a wave of pain consumes him. “And I’m asking you to trust me. At least to get you somewhere safe.”
He promised he’d protect me. And maybe I’m the world’s greatest fool, but I believed it.
Apparently, I still do, because I find myself nodding.
His hand closes around mine, and he pulls me close.
“You’ll come?” he asks, relief written into every line of his expression.
“Yes,” I say. It comes out as a breath.
“Thank you,” he whispers before he turns away.
I’m not sure exactly what he’s grateful for, but I follow Rook to the dead end as more noises sound in the distance, closer now.
He runs his hands over the surface until he flips a latch.
The rock trembles and then begins to slide, revealing a narrow opening and a tunnel leading up.
I’m too shocked to move. A secret entrance into New Manhattan. How did he do this? It probably wasn’t Rook but these superiors he just referenced.
“Let’s go,” he says, returning to take my hand.
But they’ve found us. The voices echo around the corner, calling for us.
“Come on,” he urges, and I walk-stumble with his arm anchoring my still-hesitant steps.
The footsteps and voices grow louder.
They aren’t even trying to be stealthy.
They’re in the tunnel, and they’re coming.
Rook pushes me through the opening, and then he’s following. He searches the wall, looking for whatever mechanism closes the door from this side.
“There!” someone shouts. “Stop them!”
Rook is cursing, poking, and pressing stones, his fingers trembling.
“Where is it?” he mutters to himself.
The Guards are coming quickly now, running full tilt. A blast fires, striking the rocks above my head. I cry out as stones tumble over us, but Rook is still searching.
“Poet, get up the path,” he orders, but I can’t seem to make myself move.
Finally, a click sounds, and the door shudders, slowly dragging closed. The Guards are just steps away, and the one out front lunges, just as the rock slams in his face.
Rook sags against the wall, breathing heavily. “Fuck, that was close.”
That’s when the rock starts rattling, and debris falls around us. They’re doing something on the other side, trying to get to us.
“We need to keep moving,” he says, taking my hand. His is cold and clammy. I don’t know how he’s still walking.
He pushes past me and tugs me up a sloping path.
In the distance, I hear the Guards. They haven’t found the switch to open the barrier, but it’s only a matter of time. “Nearly there,” Rook promises as we pick down the tunnel.
I hear the telltale scrape of rock against stone. They’ve opened the door. Rook squeezes my hand, walking faster until we’re running. Our footsteps echo around us, mixing with the Guards’ pursuit in the distance.
We reach another dead end, and Rook fishes out his compass from his pocket. It’s covered in blood, but I watch in puzzlement as he notches it into a slot and twists.
A key.
It’s a fucking key.
I hear a metallic clink and then a loud snap.
Another slab of rock shudders and grinds open, slowly sliding away.
It takes a few seconds before I feel a cool breeze, and starlight filters around the cracks.
With Rook’s hand clasped in mine, I watch in amazement as my world shifts again.
It takes another second for the door to finish opening before I’m standing on the threshold of . . . the Wastes.