Chapter 30
THIRTY
The pods landed silently like bugs in the snow, about thirty feet from the target building. Without warning, the sides of our glass capsules opened, letting in a wave of freezing air. I hurriedly zipped up my suit, my grip clammy around my gun.
I caught a glimpse of others in the nearby pods and saw a young woman I didn't recognize who looked as terrified and pale as I felt. And then I had no time to look anywhere except right in front of me.
“Fire,” Anna commanded.
Jessie and I leaned out on either side of our pod.
My arms and hands shook from far more than just the freezing wind.
My forefinger found the simple metal button on the gun’s grip.
I tried to steady my aim at the wooden shutters closest to me.
I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger, trying not to think yet praying I would not somehow regret it.
The force of whatever barreled out of my gun almost threw me backward.
A deafening sound reverberated in my ears and I dropped the gun after the ammunition left it.
The next thing I knew, a massive explosion erupted at the spot I had targeted.
Bellows of a dozen other explosions ran out concurrently or split seconds later.
Then the building was ablaze. Fire licked the openings we had shot, spreading up the walls.
The bullets—or missiles?!—we had just fired were so powerful that part of the building was almost crumbling.
I had thought they would be bullets. I hadn’t the slightest clue they would be so strong. Anna hadn’t warned us.
Screams pierced the air. But they weren’t only the screams of men. I heard the screams of women.
I heard the screams of children.
It felt like my world suddenly fell apart around me as I stared at what I had just done. At the flaming devastation I had just caused—that we had all, willingly, just caused.
“Why are there children in there?” I rasped, my left hand already fumbling for the cockpit’s exit. “Th-There are children. We have to help them!” I screamed.
Before I could even consider my actions, I leapt out of the cockpit, my boots sinking into the snow. It immediately engulfed me up to my knees but I thrust myself forward, desperate to reach whoever those cries came from, desperately needing to help.
I heard Anna swear behind me, and yell, “Guys, they may have got their intel wrong. This wasn’t supposed to be a family base!”
My blood froze at her words. What did that mean? Gotten their intel wrong? How could they have made a mistake such as this? Didn't they have a whole team dedicated to this—to finding suitable targets? How could they have been so stupid?
“Tani!” I heard Jessie scream behind me, and then what sounded like more boots sinking into the snow and I was sure she was following me, but I couldn’t think of her now. I couldn’t think of anything except trying to undo what we had just done... even if that was impossible.
Movement caught my eye from the right, and I saw figures spilling out from somewhere behind the building.
They ran toward the edge of the valley for cover.
They were a group of at least a hundred men, women and children.
None of them appeared to be armed with anything more than knives.
They weren’t equipped with the slightest piece of technology.
All of them looked helpless. No one resembled anything like the nomads we had seen.
They looked like wild people, with matted hair and animal skins for clothes.
As I neared the building, I saw a fire pit behind it, over which a large, iron pot hung suspended. That was what had caused the smoke.
Anna's voice boomed through a loudspeaker. “We mean you no harm! This has, unfortunately, all been a terrible mistake. We thought you were part of an aggressive nomad group, but it appears somehow our information was misguided. It happens to the best of us, I’m afraid.”
I had to stop to turn on my heels and gape at her. The way she spoke, it was almost as if we hadn’t just decimated their home, and she was responding to some sort of clerical error.
I looked again at the building and wondered if anyone had been killed.
Even if not, their home was wrecked. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the building fell to pieces after the fire was done with it.
It was already crumbling terribly from the missile force, plus whatever possessions they depended on for survival would be scorched.
In reality there would be no going back after this.
Just like there hadn’t been for our home.
“We are terribly sorry,” Anna repeated, gazing down at the crowd of pale, terrified faces.
“I know it’s not much consolation, but we have somewhere to take you, where you can have food, shelter and warmth, and recover.
We have friends here who were recently in the same position as you.
” She gestured toward Jessie and me, and several other mentees who had also jumped out of the pods in alarm.
“We can take you in and provide shelter for as long as you require it.”
My heart hammered in my chest as the crowd of pale, uncertain faces gazed at me—looking at me with a mix of fear and uncertainty. Anna looked at me, too, as if expecting me to chime in.
But I stood frozen. My throat felt clogged. I didn’t know what I could say to these people. What I wanted to say to these people.
“We’re calling for backup,” Anna assured the crowd. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe.”
I could only stare as Anna began talking into something in the cockpit and presumably called headquarters… making arrangements to bring us all back to Fairwell.