The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour

by Forrest, Bella

  “Henry,” I said breathlessly and weakly.

  “It’s okay, Robin,” he replied. “I’ve got you. Let’s get to those ships.”

  He pulled me up and helped support me as I struggled to stand. There was still the sound of yelling and alarms and fires burning and cannon fire all around us, but the world seemed eerily quiet as the blood rushed back into my head.

  “Henry, I—” I began, finally finding the strength to stand on my own. But then another sound rang out, much closer and more alarming than the others.

  As Henry dropped to the ground, I recognized what it was: gunfire.

  “Henry!” I shouted as I fell to my knees beside him. I turned to see an agent with his gun still smoking in his hand. But then, as I watched, he dropped to the ground too. I turned in the opposite direction to see the combat teams racing up to us with their weapons drawn. They were taking down agents as quickly as they could to allow the crowd to continue to the airships.

  But it didn’t matter for Henry.

  I turned to him and tore open his shirt to reveal a dark, bleeding wound in the middle of his chest.

  “Henry, no,” I whimpered, the tears beginning to fall down my cheeks. I knew well enough that Henry didn’t have a survivable wound, but this was Hope’s father. We had promised each other that we would find our daughter together and raise her as best as we could. I couldn’t give up on him and leave him to die. “Henry, you have to get up. You have to stand. The medics can help you if we can just get to the ships.”

  Henry’s eyes were listless as he struggled to focus on me. When he finally seemed to register my presence, he spoke simply and with great struggle.

  “Find Hope, Robin,” he said. “And tell her that her daddy loved her.”

  His eyes closed again. He exhaled once more, and then his chest stopped moving for good.

  A wail that I didn’t know I had in me suddenly poured out. But before I knew what was happening, someone was over me, pulling me up by my arms and shouting that we had to keep going. I didn’t even realize it was Jace until he pulled my face up to look at his.

  “I’m sorry, Robin,” he said. “I’m so sorry. But we have to keep going, or we will die, too.”

  For some reason I couldn’t understand I tried to fight Jace so that I could stay there beside Henry. Maybe I thought I could still save him. Maybe I didn’t want to leave his body lying out in the open around so much death and fear. But Jace picked me up and forced me to keep going.

  “You have to do this, Robin,” he shouted. “You have to do this for your daughter. You’re all she has now.”

  And with that I suddenly understood. Just like me, Hope would never have the chance to know both of her biological parents. But she could still know her mother. So I cast one last look at the tall, gangly boy whom I had once loved so dearly, and then I turned back toward the tarmac and started to run again.

  32

  The combat teams were holding the agents off well enough for us to get our crowd up to the tarmac, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until the government airships made their way to us to thwart our escape. We were moving quickly, even though we were now on foot, but it felt like time was standing still.

  Henry was gone. Even if everyone else in Brightbirch could be saved, I had lost my first love and the father of my daughter. The loss felt huge and painful to me. And we still weren’t out of the woods.

  We ran up onto the asphalt of the tarmac just as a government airship seemed to have caught wind of our escape plan. In no time, it was raining fire down upon one of the large airships that was hovering just outside the hangar while it waited for people to board.

  “Jace, the airships!” I shouted, pointing at the commotion.

  We would have no chance for escape if the airships went down. There was nowhere to run or even to hide. Escape by air was our only chance of survival.

  “Let us worry about that!” a familiar voice shouted as two people ran past Jace and me into the hangar. It was Rio, and I noticed with surprise that he was running with Pyro, the explosives team lead. But where were they going?

  “Robin, we’ve got to get to another airship!” Jace called out over the noise.

  “Where’s Rhea?” I asked suddenly. I hadn’t seen her since Jace had come back for me after Henry was shot.

  “She went ahead with the camp crowd. Hopefully she’s on one of these ships already,” he replied tensely. “With the rest of the team.”

  A sonic boom sounded, and I instinctively covered my head, worried that an airship was firing down upon us this time. But instead, the government airship seemed to have been struck by a tremendous force. It had caught fire and looked to be crashing toward the tarmac only a hundred yards from where we stood. I braced myself for the impact and ducked as it landed in a heap of flames on the asphalt, splintering and cracking the black surface all the way to where we were. The force sent me and many others tumbling to our knees.

  “What happened?” I shouted, trying to reorient myself and stand upright again.

  Jace leaned down to pull me up. “Explosives,” he said simply.

  Rio and Pyro.

  Jace pushed me toward another airship that was loading up with citizens, but before we got up the hatch, I looked up to see the mini-airship zipping overhead at a high speed, undoubtedly with Rio and Pyro and a host of explosives on board. My heart leapt into my throat. We might have a chance to escape if they could keep the government airships at bay long enough.

  But the explosion had sent all of the enemy airships zooming toward the tarmac to assist. And two very brave people and the mini-airship looked to be our only line of defense.

  Jace and I ran up into the hull of our airship, knowing that we were still in danger. Rhea raced over to Jace almost immediately.

  “Jace! I’m so glad you’re okay,” she shouted as she leapt into his arms.

  Jace looked similarly relieved to see her, but the tender look only lasted seconds before Jace’s expression went steely again with anxiety. We still had to get away from the government airships.

  “Is that everyone?” Alexy shouted from the airship controls. “We need to take off!”

  Jace looked out onto the tarmac. “No one else coming!”

  The hatch began to close as Jace, Rhea, and I pushed into the crowded cabin.

  “Hold on to whatever you can!” Alexy yelled back.

  The airship began to rise up quickly and unevenly, almost sending many of us toppling down. All of the cabin seats were already occupied, so all we could do was hold on to each other to try to stay upright.

  “Here we go!” Alexy’s voice rose above the sound of the airship engines. And then the airship shot forward and away from Brightbirch.

  I had no idea how long we were in the airship or where we were going. I was despondent at the loss of Henry and the possible loss of everyone else we cared about in Brightbirch. I recognized Alexy, Silver, Luka, and some of the mechanic and Brightbirch teams on our ship, but I didn’t see any of Team Hood or the medics. So I had no idea if our friends or my mother were still alive.

  Once I felt like we were a safe enough distance away, and Alexy was no longer doing evasive maneuvers in the sky, I finally allowed myself to do a more thorough examination of the crowd to see if I recognized anyone else.

  The large group was eerily silent, save for the occasional sob, groan, or whimper. Many were injured, and I thought all of us were probably afraid and unsure whether all of our friends and family had made it out alive.

  As I walked around, I saw a young mother cradle her crying toddler on one side of the cabin, his little knees bloodied with scrapes from a hard fall. I saw an older man weeping alone on the other side. How many people had been lost?

  How many friends had I lost? I didn’t see any Team Hood members anywhere, and I was getting panicked.

  “Henry?” a voice suddenly rang out close behind me.

  I turned in confusion to see Silver standing there, her eyes wide. There was a
dried trail of blood on the side of her face, all the way from her blue hair down to her angular jaw. I realized that she was asking me a question, one that I didn’t want to answer.

  I shook my head, tears welling in my eyes.

  Silver gasped quietly, but she did not cry. She looked too dazed to fully process the news. Instead she just nodded in acknowledgement and then turned and walked away.

  I made my way back to Jace slowly and dejectedly.

  “Did you find anyone?” Jace asked. Rhea was sitting beside him, her face grimy from soot and dirt. Her tears had cut clean, pale paths down both of her cheeks.

  She looked up hopefully at Jace’s question. I looked down and didn’t answer.

  “Well,” Jace said slowly, obviously trying to muster up strength for me and his sister, “they’re a capable bunch. I’m sure they got onto one of the other escape ships.”

  I nodded. But inside I was still deeply concerned for their wellbeing. And I was worried about Juno.

  We spent the rest of the flight almost entirely silent, exhausted and overwhelmed by the experience. When the airship finally did touch down hours later, I had no idea where we were. Honestly, I didn’t care, as long as my friends and my mom were there.

  “All right, Nathan says to disembark here,” Alexy yelled as the airship hatch lowered.

  Nathan. So that was at least one person we knew had made it onto one of the other airships. But who else had made it with us to this location?

  Jace, Rhea, and I stepped out of the airship first, since we were closest to the hatch. The bright sunshine of a new day was shining outside. We were on a large, flat surface carved into the rock of what looked to be a sizable mountain. I could look out over the ledge to see miles and miles of forest. We were on one of many tan-colored, rocky mountains. But what were we doing here?

  Jace and I watched as two other airships landed on the same rocky ledge. I squinted at the sky but couldn’t see any other ships. Was this all of us? Brightbirch didn’t have nearly as many airships on base as Edgewood had, but I couldn’t believe that only three ships would’ve made it out. Unless the rest had been shot down.

  The rest of our airship’s passengers were unloading onto the flat surface and milling around as we waited for our next orders. There was nowhere to go, except off the edge of the steep cliff. I couldn’t fathom what Nathan had planned for all of us.

  After the other airships landed, we were a humongous crowd of displaced survivors all looking for our friends and family. I found Juno first.

  She ran off of the second airship shouting my name.

  I raced toward her, and her face lit up as soon as she saw me. Soon we were entwined in a tight hug.

  “Oh, my girl,” Juno said through tears into my hair. “I was so worried that I’d lose you after just having found you.”

  Tears wet my cheeks as I considered that possibility. I had been afraid of the same thing.

  “I think we’re safe now,” I said as I pulled back. “But wait here. I have to see if my friends made it out.”

  I passed Zion as I walked to the third ship. He must’ve come off of Juno’s ship before her.

  “Cloyd?” I asked breathlessly.

  “He’s fine,” Zion answered. “Made it out with the combat teams.”

  “Did you see any of the other Team Hood members?” I asked.

  Zion shook his head, and I continued on to the third ship, beginning to feel frantic as I searched for them. But then a familiar voice rang out.

  “Robin!” Jackie shouted in relief as she spotted me in the crowd. Then, looking around me, she added, “Where’s Jace?”

  “Safe,” I responded, snatching her up in a big hug. “So is Rhea. I’m so happy to see you!”

  Ant, Abe, Denver, and Alf came off the airship behind Jackie, and Nelson, Gabby, and the tech team followed them. Jace ran up beside me, and Team Hood embraced in a joyous dogpile, Gabby’s family waiting beside us for their daughter.

  “I can’t believe we all made it!” Nelson said in relief. But the words hit me like a dagger in the heart.

  Not all of us.

  Nathan, Corona, and Aurora disembarked last. I wanted to rush up to Nathan and question him, but I knew that we were all thinking the same thing, so surely Nathan was about to make an announcement of his own accord.

  And sure enough, a silence fell over the huge and bustling crowd as he walked through us to stand at the far edge of the ledge. Without even noticing, I had begun to follow the crowd as they trailed behind him. We were all desperate to hear what he had to say. What was the plan now? What were we going to do? Were we safe?

  Could we ever be safe?

  When he reached the other side, he turned to face all of us. I tried to study the expression on his face. Would this attack sink him back into his despair and distrust? Would he finally force Little John to disband so that some of us may survive?

  “Edgewood and Brightbirch citizens,” he said, but then, rather unexpectedly, he stopped. He seemed to reconsider what he had just said, and then continued. “No, you are not citizens of those bases anymore. And truthfully, you aren’t citizens of the United Nation of America, either.”

  The crowd was silent in confusion. My stomach dropped. Was he finally disbanding us for good?

  “We aren’t citizens of any place that hasn’t been co-opted and destroyed. We aren’t beholden to any base or city or state or even country that seems to be worth fighting for anymore.”

  I felt hot tears stinging the rims of my eyes and looked down at my feet. The government had finally done it. They had finally removed all of Nathan’s faith in his own organization. I could feel that his abandonment of us was nigh.

  “We are refugees and, to Burchard, refuse. He has been trying to cleanse his country of us once and for all. And perhaps he has finally succeeded. Or, perhaps, we still have a little fight left.”

  I suddenly looked back up.

  “Of course, I can’t make that decision for all of you,” Nathan went on. “It’s your choice to make. But if you choose to follow me for this final phase of our organization’s mission, then I promise that I will offer all of the assistance that I can.”

  And then he turned and walked toward the mountain. We all watched him in silent anticipation. What on earth was he planning on doing here with all of us? Where could we go even if he wanted to fight?

  And then he pressed the side of the mountain with his fist. A small, tablet-sized piece of mountain suddenly flipped over to reveal a pad for Nathan to lay his hand on. When he did, a great rumbling threatened to send us all crashing down off of the mountainside. But instead, the sheer wall of the mountain itself opened up, splitting and pulling to the side like elevator doors, and revealed a humongous cavern beyond. Nathan stepped in, and the crowd anxiously followed.

  When I made it in, my eyes took time to adjust to the light before finally I saw it: a base. A fully stocked base lined with row upon row of cots. The cavern was a magnificent cave stocked with supplies and, more importantly, the most massive arsenal I had ever seen.

  Along every wall, from the floor to the ceiling, high in the air, were shelves of guns, ammunition, explosives, and mechanical parts that looked like airship and armored car attachments. It was like stepping into an armory for an entire nation state. The room blinked with red and green lights against the natural backdrop of the cave. There were tall computers and rows of printing machines, probably for seismic activity as well as general surveillance, and a massive spiraling metal staircase went from the ground floor upward, seeming to reach the top of the mountain itself.

  I had never seen anything like it.

  “Find your friends, find a bed if you need to, and eat something. Anyone who is coming with me on our final journey should know that we won’t be here long. I’ll be in touch shortly with more information,” Nathan finished. “Tech team and medic team leads, please meet me upstairs now.”

  The rest of us walked slowly and anxiously into the cave. Once w
e were all in, the mountain doors shut behind us with a sound of steam hissing.

  “Finally, a base that doesn’t look like it can be blown up so easily,” Ant mused.

  He was joking, but he was also right. I could see why Nathan wouldn’t want an entire base—or now, two bases—crammed into a single space unless it was a worst-case scenario, but it was somewhat comforting not to be in an open space. I had had enough of running and airship fire for at least the next few hours.

  Team Hood walked together to a table of military-style rations.

  “Guess we’re no longer getting the fresh produce of Brightbirch,” Gabby said sadly as she held up a tin container of ready-to-eat spaghetti.

  We grabbed food and walked back to the row of cots. We tried to carry on some casual conversation as we ate, but it was obvious that none of us were feeling particularly chatty. I was still thinking about Henry and, at the back of my mind, seeing my adopted father back in Preston Industries before I fired the explosives.

  After a few minutes, Juno walked up to us.

  “Mind if I join you?” she asked. “I guess I’ve officially been discharged from the hospital.”

  I forced a smile at her joke. “Of course.”

  She sat down beside us and pulled something out of her pocket.

  “The strangest thing happened a minute ago,” she began. “I found this in my jacket pocket. I guess someone slipped it in there when we were outside in the crowd.”

  I looked down to see what she was holding. It was a tiny gift, about the size of a ring box, wrapped up with a bow. It had a tag hanging off of it that clearly read, To Robin.

  I wrinkled my nose in confusion.

  “I didn’t think it was right to open it, so I’m giving it to you to open,” she went on.

  She held the gift out, and I took it from her. It was light, almost like an empty box.

  “That is strange,” I said. “But thank you for bringing it to me.”

  She nodded.

  I stood up and walked away with the tiny gift in my hands. It was very peculiar that someone would have tried to pass a gift along to me by slipping it into Juno’s pocket, but if they had been trying to make sure it got to me indiscreetly, it seemed like a safe enough bet. Still, they would’ve had to know that Juno was my mother, and I had only told Team Hood. Unless someone had seen me going back and forth from the hospital to visit her.