Through Glass

by Rebecca Ethington

  I lifted my legs as they grew closer, my tiny frame coiling to strike. The kick would be somewhat lifeless against the towering, well fed men before me, yet I didn’t care.

  I sent my legs forward with one massive heave, the impact of my feet against their knee caps moving the men backwards in a stagger. I tumbled toward the ground, the chair collapsing as the chain that bound me to the floor snapped easily, pieces of metal flying into the air as the chain broke apart and a loud pop filled my ears. I guess Travis had slipped me something, a second chance.

  I jumped to my feet, my body rushing toward the two men before me. I lowered my head and hit one straight on, the pain in my skull swelling at the impact against his chest. The move caught him off guard and he stumbled away from me, my hands barely grasping the gun out of his hands as he stumbled back. I turned quickly, my braid swinging through the air as I pointed the weapon at the guard who stood directly beside him.

  I pulled the trigger and a beam of light shot out of the tip, hitting the man right in the chest. The man froze as the light hit him, his face stretched in horror before the light intensified and his body disintegrated into a perfect circle of white ash.

  Ash.

  Everything froze at what had just happened. My brain was unable to process what I was seeing. The sounds in the room turned from excitement to fear as the light erupted in the room and everyone began to comprehend what they had just seen; what had happened.

  I stood still as I stared at the wide circle of ash. Bridget’s words from before repeating themselves over and over. The gun was only a weapon if you were one of the Tar… and this man was one of them.

  A man who had lived among them, fought with them, protected them. A man who had stood in the light.

  The screams continued to grow around me, my brain slowly moving beyond the shock at what I had just witnessed.

  I turned from the pile of ash to aim the green gun toward the crowd as they began to scatter. Their faces were horrified as they ran for the exits, scooping up children and herding elderly out of the way. I didn’t watch them, I didn’t care.

  I was more focused on the three people who had begun to charge me, their own guns held out in front of them as they made their way down toward me. The three men had sat at the long table only moments ago, Abran and my brother now missing from their number. I scanned the crowd for either of them, but both were gone. I wanted to be mad at Travis for abandoning me, but something told me that he had a plan.

  I needed to be patient. I clenched the gun as I turned toward the men who continued toward me, their eyes hard and cold as they aimed at me.

  “Put the gun down, miss,” one said, his voice deep and taunting, “Put it down and we won’t kill you right away.”

  I wanted to smile and laugh at him, however I held it in. He was right; they wouldn’t kill me right away, but they would kill me. They would torture me.

  I was stupid to drag this out. I needed to find my way out of here. My heart beat heavily as adrenaline pumped through me. The gun rose to pulse one stream of light after another, the beams hitting the bleachers, walls, faces, chairs, arms and legs of those who pursued me.

  My aim was bad, but I didn’t stop. I silently hoped that there wasn’t an ammo gauge on this thing. I kept firing as I moved, the three men in front of me shooting their own beams of light toward me.

  I dodged their attacks as best I could, firing wildly while my stomach cringed when I hit the first one, his death producing yet another white circle of ash. While another only fell unconscious to the ground. What was going on here?

  I fired until I was sure I had gotten them all, the pitiful screams of those who remained echoing through the large space as they stayed hidden from me. They were afraid I would kill them, just like the others. The one who slept, he had killed everyone around him. I gulped at the thought, my mind screaming at the truth behind it. I pushed it away, ready to walk from the room when a voice stopped me.

  “Lex!” I turned at the voice, surprised to see Bridget standing near the door I was sure I had come through only a few minutes before.

  I ran toward her, the gun in my hands pointing between her face and the mostly empty commons room. I followed her into the white hallway while the metal door echoed loudly as it shut us into the large, empty space.

  “Give me one reason not to put you down right now,” I hissed as I pushed her up against the wall, the gun only millimeters from her face.

  “I’m unarmed, Lex. Tee asked me to get you out. He’s waiting at the wall.” She moved her hands up in surrender, a small, golden key grasped between her fingers. I recognized it immediately as the key to the handcuffs. I eyed the key before going back to her face, my jaw clenching menacingly.

  “Tee?” I asked, fighting the desire to fire the gun, to run and be done with it.

  “Travis.”

  “How can I trust you?” She smiled and held out the small, orange lighter, the box bright against the pale skin of her hand. I took one hand off the gun and grabbed it quickly, the lighter fluid in the box sloshing in my hand.

  “‘You have to make your own decisions, no matter how hard they are. And sometimes they really, really suck,’” she said, her voice soft.

  My eyes darted to her at her words, as she repeated what I had told Travis all those years ago; words that were obviously fueling his actions right now. I narrowed my eyes at her, only Travis would know that. I wanted to trust her, I knew I needed to, but I couldn’t. I did need her to lead me out, however; so I would have to compromise.

  I nodded once and Bridget’s face lit up as she moved to unlock the shackles around my wrists. The large metal rings fell to the floor with a clang, the sound ringing through my ears.

  I nodded once at her before we turned, her tall frame leading us through the maze of tunnels that I had been led down only moments before.

  I was beginning to doubt this was a school at all, everything was too empty, too cold. It felt more like an underground test facility than a high school.

  Bridget turned one corner after another until we entered what looked like a small control room. Computers lined one of the walls with an endless beeping filling the space. At the end, like a giant window, was the cell they had kept me in. She walked in just as a man turned around in his chair, his face dropping in panic at seeing me there.

  I didn’t hesitate, I lifted the gun in my hands and pulled, the beam of light hitting him right in the face.

  “Good shot,” Bridget said as she grabbed my backpack off a large table. Her hand shoved the contents that had been spread across the table back inside. “But next time, try not to aim for the face. It takes them twice as long to wake up.”

  “I’ll try to remember that,” I grumbled through clenched teeth, not really caring either way. “At least he didn’t turn to ash.”

  “I told you, that doesn’t happen unless you are one of the Tar,” she said, her focus still on packing the bag.

  “Tell that to the two men I just disintegrated in that sham of a trial.”

  Bridget froze at my words, her whole body going rigid as she turned to me.

  “Two men turned to ash?” she almost whispered.

  “Yeah, some of the men in that so called trial you people forced me through. I shot them and they were only ash, big white rings of it…” I started to explain, my voice fading by the look on her face. I wasn’t sure if she was angry or scared, but either way, the dark cast in her eyes sent a shiver up my spine.

  “What is it?” I asked, unable to help myself.

  “Travis was right,” she said simply, staring ahead.

  “Excuse me?” I asked, but she didn’t seem to notice.

  Bridget handed me the backpack and grabbed her own gun, along with five boxes that seemed to be glowing orange. She shoved them in my backpack as I placed it on my back, the movement almost sending me off balance.

  “Abran. He’s been trying to find a way to defeat the Tar since this all began. He’d capture them, run exper
iments, observe them. A few years ago, he tried to gain approval for a new form of testing. Travis and a few others shot him down. Since then, he’s been getting more secretive, hiding himself and his team away for days. Classifying what came out of his experiments. Slowly everyone approved his testing, everyone except Travis. We’ve had our theories, but I never thought he would actually do it—”

  Her words cut off as the walls around us shook, the sound of hundreds of feet thundering in the halls around us.

  “There’s Travis’s signal. We have to get out of here. If Tee hasn’t been stopped, he should have all the supplies. Now the trick is to get to the wall without being seen.”

  “Easy right?” I asked, knowing it wouldn’t be.

  “Yeah… easy.” She smiled once before dodging back out of the room and into the white hall.

  She took one corner before leading us up a large, tile staircase. Her hand held me back right before we turned the corner onto an upper level.

  We held completely still as she waited for something. My ears perked at every sound and my heart beat sounded like a reverberating drum in the stairwell and not just in my chest.

  I let out a shaky breath right as we began to move, our steps more slow and calculated than they were a moment before. Bridget took one step after another before stopping at the top, her back plastered against the wall.

  At the top of the stairs were shattered glass doors, the metal frames crumpled and broken. I guess I knew where the explosion from earlier had come from. I followed Bridget’s movements closely, plastering myself against the wall as we looked through the doorframe that led into a large, grassy field. A football field.

  “I will go first, you follow me. No matter what happens, Lex, just run straight ahead. Travis should be waiting for you in between the green and red bleachers.” She didn’t look at me as she spoke, instead her eyes scanned the sky around us, the bright lights offsetting the black into an odd green color.

  “And if he’s not?” I asked, my chest tightening as I looked at her.

  “Then it was nice knowing you,” she answered as she looked away. My teeth ground together at what we were about to do.

  She said nothing, simply ran onto the field with her gun out in front of her as I followed and burst out on the green grass. We had barely taken two steps in before the gun fire started, but I could tell automatically that it wasn’t the same beams of light that both Bridget and I held in our hands, these were bullets.

  “Run!” she screamed as she turned to fire at them, bright beams of light shooting from the barrel of her green gun. Her face was tangled in fear as she yelled. Shot after shot fired from her gun.

  I didn’t argue, I merely turned and bolted to the faded red and green paint of the bleachers seeming like an angel’s gate. I had almost made it when I heard Bridget scream behind me. The scream turned into a deranged yell of anger.

  I turned at the noise, my eyes widening at the bright red blood that seeped over her arm and down her back. She continued to fire at the dozens of attackers that lined the stands around us, but her arms were lowering, her strength leaving.

  I didn’t hesitate, I turned and raised the green weapon still in my hand, pulse after pulse of light flying away from me as I fired at everyone I could, doubting I was hitting much of anything. I backed myself into the shadow of the bleachers, shielding myself from any possible attack.

  “Come on!” I yelled at her, my voice barely audible amongst the bangs from the guns that still surrounded us.

  Bridget picked herself up and ran toward me, her shoulder still seeping blood.

  “Are you all right?” I asked the second she was close enough to hear me, but she said nothing, only walked right past me and into the arms of Travis who came barreling around the corner with his own gun in his hands.

  “Bridge!” he yelled. “What happened?”

  Again, she said nothing. She just slumped into him, her body sagging at the blood loss.

  “I’m sorry, Tee. I didn’t think they would use real bullets.” Her voice was soft as she wrapped her arms around him.

  “It’s okay, baby,” he sighed, his voice soft as he pressed his lips against hers.

  I felt the intake of my breath, hoping no one had heard it. The two held each other for a moment and I watched, unabashedly at their intimate moment. They were lovers, a couple. They meant something to each other and they had risked it all for me. That knowledge was sharp like barbed wire in my heart. Travis wasn’t alone, not really. Yet, he still risked everything for me. They both did.

  “Let’s go,” Travis sighed, his arms tightening around Bridget as he led her toward what was unmistakably a door in front of us.

  “No, Travis, no,” Bridget sighed, her voice pained. “I can’t go.”

  “You can go,” Travis said, his arm still around her as he led us closer to the door, as the yells of the army behind us approached.

  I lifted my gun and turned toward the light that filtered through the opening behind us, expecting them to burst through at any moment.

  “I’m bleeding, Travis. If I go, if I bleed out…” Bridget whispered, her voice soft as she pleaded with him.

  “It’ll be fine…” Travis said, his voice hard as he continued to move us forward. My eyes darted back and forth, dark shapes were coming into view as they prepared to follow us into the dark.

  “No, Tee, it won’t be. You don’t have any way to stop it, to heal me. They will infect me…”

  “They’re coming,” I whispered, more to myself than to them, knowing they wouldn’t hear me even if I spoke up.

  “They turned to ash, Tee. You were right. Abran is using them and if we both leave, we will never know what’s going on,” Bridget said, her hands clinging to Travis’s bloodstained shirt.

  “I can’t let you do that, baby,” Travis pleaded, his tears distorting his voice. I looked away, feeling uncomfortable for watching his heart break. My own heart beat heavily as I watched them, as my own traumatizing good-bye replayed for me.

  “Please,” Bridget said and I could hear the pain in her voice, the loss at what she was doing already engulfing her. “I left a phone in her backpack. I can watch him from the inside. Just stick to the normals.”

  “I can’t leave you.” I turned toward them at Travis’s voice. His forehead was pressed against hers as tears streamed down their faces.

  As they said good-bye.

  I couldn’t watch this. I couldn’t bear the clenching pain my heart experienced at seeing such love and tenderness.

  “They will kill you here,” Travis whispered against her skin, his last plea pointless and unheard.

  I turned away from them, back to the opening, my eyes straining through the dark as I tried to see.

  “No, they won’t,” Bridget mocked, the deep lie painful on her soft voice. “You left me behind and I hate you because of it. They won’t kill me, they will use me. And I will let them, for your sake.”

  I kept my eyes trained on the dark as she spoke, my gun pointed through the shadows of the bleachers just as a dark shape darted out from the light. My finger pulled the trigger out of habit as someone emerged from the shadows. The dark shape fell to the ground immediately.

  “Guys,” I moaned as I backed away from the opening, my feet sliding past where Travis held Bridget in his arms, where he slowly lowered her to the ground.

  “I love you, Bridget.”

  “I love you, too,” she whispered, her words almost lost through the blast as my gun fired again. “Now, go.” Bridget smiled and pressed the green gun into my brother’s hands, her eyes pained and tight.

  Travis backed away from her as he pressed his thumb to the pad near the knob, the door swinging open with a soft beep.

  I bolted through the door, my heart breaking as he looked back, as he closed the door on his heart. I wanted to beg him to stay with her, to just let me go, yet I could tell by the look in his eyes that any pleading would be hopeless.

  I followed him as he p
lunged himself into the darkness, his feet pumping as we ran across the dimly lit parking lot of the school they had held me prisoner in. I could hear the shouts filter through the massive wall they had built and a tornado alarm going off as they warned everyone of what had just happened. I wasn’t sure what they were warning them of, however; the hotter who had escaped or the Tar who walk in the light among them.

  We ran until the darkness took us, a beam from the flashlight Travis held in his hands the only thing keeping us safe. I was careful to stay close to him, close to the light. Even with that I couldn’t ignore the way parts of me tensed and others relaxed merely by being in the dark. Like it was familiar.

  I cringed at the thought and followed Travis as he led us into a dark alley. He handed me the flashlight quickly and then his hands plunged into his pocket for a small disc. It looked like a breath mint box that I used to carry around; white on the top and bottom with metallic edging around the edges. He tapped it once and the thing erupted in light, the bright circle illuminating the disgusting brick walls we were now surrounded by.

  We stood still as we watched the light, my breath slowing and my exertion leaving me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked softly, not knowing what else to say or even if it was the right thing.

  “Bridget is loyal, she will be okay.” His voice was deep, so much of his pain rippling out of him.

  It hurt me deep down to see him hurting, to see the stress and sadness in his face. Before I knew it, I had stepped closer to him and wrapped my arms around him.

  I clung to him until he moved away, his face sad and unreadable.

  “What are we going to do now?” I whispered to the bright alley around us. The small piece of sanctuary was all we could expect from now on, until the light gave out.

  “We have to stop Abran. I have worried for some time now that his experiments on the Tar were more than just to find new ways to kill them,” he answered, his voice growling in anger, stopping me.