by Amanda Thome
“Your job will be to set-up thermal surveillance alarms and cameras targeting this room. Central’s decided to increase security to our most vital areas.”
“I see, absolutely.”
Just then Ty’s boss, a short heavyset man turns towards my corner. I squeeze myself against the wall but it’s not enough. Ty sees his move and reacts.
“Wow! Would you look at this!”
“What?” His boss turns to the machine at the opposite end of the room. I exhale.
“Oh never mind. For a second I thought it was the MT-19. Just something we learned about at MIFF but I was wrong.”
His boss looks slightly confused but not wanting to sound ignorant he agrees that it looks similar to the MT-19. I laugh internally; Ty doesn’t know the first thing about these machines let alone what their names are.
“Anyway, let me show you to your office and then it’s time for orientation.”
Ty leaves the room first. As soon as the door clicks I’m back to work. My boss will be expecting me in ten minutes. I feverishly assemble the last components and secure the bomb to the back of the towering machine. My watch beeps confirming a 2000 detonation. I slide out of the room with my heart drumming.
“Mrs. Barnal?”
“Yes?” I turn caught off guard.
“Hello, I’m Donna Estee, your supervisor. We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“My apologies, I got turned around on my way to the restroom.”
“No problem.” She looks perturbed. I follow behind Donna’s short blonde hair as she leads me through the winding and intricate maze that makes up the testing facility. “Today’s orientation day, real simple. You’ll be in the oval room reviewing protocol training with the other new recruits.”
I make my way into the expansive oval room. Donna ushers me to a seat and turns to leave. I search dozens of faces looking for Ty. I find him sitting three aisles down.
Hours stretch on and on with orientation training dragging in the background of my mind. My head can’t focus on anything but the mission. I keep replaying the operation over and over trying to calculate all the possible dangers. Finally the videos power down and the lights turn on in the expansive oval room.
The curtain framing the screen sways as a middle-aged man makes his way across the stage. His voice becomes amplified with the press of a button. “Ladies and gentleman that concludes your orientation to our facility. You have an hour to explore and further familiarize yourself before the craft arrives to take you back to Central.”
I look down at the watch I concealed in my jacket, it’s 1800. Right now all the leap participants are making their way to the banquet halls. Riding the shuttles in their uncomfortable clothes, getting ready to be tortured as they wait for the revealing of their results and what life they’ll be forced to lead. Two hours until the video plays and our bombs detonate. Just two hours until freedom and I get to see Emma and Papa.
Ty finds his way to me, “How was your first day?”
“It was good. Nearly a disaster but nothing my husband couldn’t take care of.”
“Oh is that what it takes to finally have you call me your husband? I had to save your ass for the tenth time before gainin’ that status.” He smiles as I reach for his hand.
“Let’s get out of here.”
We walk through the winding tunnels that spread beneath the facility and exit from the side door Natalie came from yesterday. We break into the cold and make our way across the field toward shelter.
“Did you have any problems?” I ask.
“Nope, in and out without a problem.” He smirks.
“So now I guess we wait?”
He stops and pulls me toward him as we step through the cover of the tree line. “I can think of somethin’ we could do.”
He sweeps my legs out from under me laying me against the icy ground. His hands lace through my hair and make their way toward my face. He wraps around my hips pulling me on top of him. My legs straddle his. My hair falls around my face and before I can tie it up he’s sweeping it away.
The intensity of his kiss and hands ignites something inside me that’s wild and raw. I feel the pressure of his palm on my low back guiding my hips to his. He keeps his composure like always. His breathing is calm and steady while mine races. I think about his control next to my wild desires and I blush.
We roll together in the snow; my back touches the icy ground as he pulls my shirt up and over my head. I arch my back from the cold. His mouth dances along my stomach and immediately warms me like fire. I take off his shirt and pull his muscled chest against mine. He works his way down making his way to my favorite place. I twist and turn under his touch. The intensity builds as my breath quickens. At last I get my release as I moan in bliss.
Our watches chime just as I hit my peak. “Shit, it’s time already.” He groans as he silences his watch and helps me from the ground, “Thirty minutes till detonation,” he looks at me.
“It’s scary isn’t it? I mean it’s exciting but scary.” I can’t find the right words to describe how it feels.
We pack our shelter and make our way to the hill with binoculars in hand. If everything goes as planned the bombs will detonate in fifteen minutes. Ty’s watch begins beeping, counting down the fifteen minute mark. I pull mine out but nothing happens.
“You set it to 2000 right?”
“Yes of course!”
“Well it’s supposed to beep. Shit.” I ask my next question even though I already know.
“What’s this mean?”
“Something went wrong durin’ the sync. It’s got to be done manually.” He jumps to his feet tearing his bag open.
“What are you doing?” I ask frantically.
“Jon gave me a gun in case we got in a bind.” His breath quickens. “I’ll have to go sync it manually.”
“No, you can’t. It’s too dangerous!” I cling to him.
“Nessa let me go. I gotta leave now.”
He pushes my arms off and turns toward the facility. I crumble to the ground and watch his silhouette disappear into the darkness. Ty’s watch continues to beep counting down the minutes, twelve more until detonation. I watch the seconds fly by as I mentally retrace my steps in OS1-2. I know I synched it, everything should be fine but my watch sits silent next to his beeping reminder that in eleven minutes the mission could have failed and he could be dead.
I feel nauseous thinking I could have jeopardized the operation and worse that Ty could die trying to fix my mistake. Ten minutes ticks on his watch and I hear gunshots ring out from the facility. My heart drops as I hear the popping of weapons firing. No way he’ll make it, he’s either captured or already dead.
Tears roll down my face and my throat heaves. I prop myself on my knees. I imagine him fighting his way through a group of regulators. I can see him gunned down, bleeding and dying alone.
The gunshots stop but his watch continues, a brutal reminder that time’s running out. Six minutes left until I’ve failed the mission. Right now banquet halls across our nation are just about to award the leap winners. The video of Ty and I will be flashing across their screens. This is the moment Central will be revealed for the lying manipulative people they really are. In six minutes Jake will be waiting for our bombs to explode and clear the airfield so he can swoop in to rescue us.
He and the other resistance pilots are sitting at our shelter beside the remains of the charred hill waiting to attack the walls that hold my people captive. So much depends on this mission. We’re so close but I failed. I failed Jon and the others, I failed my people and family but what kills most is that I failed Ty. Five minutes until detonation. I push myself up and start running.
I can’t let the mission fail, I can’t let this all be in vain. I run through the trees and snow. I’m closing in on the facility with three minutes left when I hear another round of popping. More gunshots ring out from inside the building and just like that my watch begins ticking in time with Ty’s. He di
d it. He synched the bomb and somehow he’s still alive.
I wipe my card across my shirt and scan it under the reader. The doors open and I sprint through the tunnel into the facility. I hear screams and boots running as alarms begin sounding. I take the fork and nearly run into the first body, a regulator with blood staining his shirt crimson red. I leap across his lifeless body and keep moving. I hear more shots coming from the tunnel. I reach and grab a gun from the second regulators body.
I keep sprinting forward cradling the gun to my chest. The lights flicker off then back on and I see Ty kneeling. Blood pours from his thigh. His hands are steady as he holds them over his head in surrender.
“Who the hell are you?” The regulator shouts at him.
“Screw you Borg,” he spits.
I hear the clicking of the gun as the regulator wraps his finger around the trigger. Without thinking I react. I raise my gun and pull the hammer back placing my finger around the trigger. It’s Ty or him and I can’t lose Ty. I squeeze down on the trigger and feel the kick as the bullet drives its way from the chamber. The shot lands right between the regulator’s shoulders. He crumbles to the floor. Ty opens his eyes in disbelief as I sprint toward him.
“Nessa, what are you doin’?”
“We’re partners, remember? I’ll die for you.” I pull him to his feet. “Let’s not make me do it today though, okay?”
His left leg’s gushing blood but there’s no time to stop. We’ve only got one minute until detonation. I brace him across my shoulder pulling him down the hall.
“Forty seconds!” I scream over the alarms as we make our way to the fork. The gunshot’s disabling him, he screams whenever his left leg touches down. “Keep going, we’re almost there!” I yell. The watch beeps, “Thirty seconds!”
The lights flicker and dance in and out. I hear the echoing steps of regulators from somewhere in the maze of underground tunnels. Their boots get louder and louder as they close-in on us.
“Shit! Come on Ty we need to get out of here.” He fights for air as he stumbles headfirst.
Twenty seconds left until the facility explodes collapsing in on us. As we reach the final door I hear a regulator behind us. A bullet flies past me and Ty jumps in pain before I hear his screams. I turn aiming my gun at the regulator, this time there’s no hesitation as I fire hitting him square in the chest.
“Ty!” I scream as I reach for his crumpled body. The bullet landed in his back.
Our watches frantically beep counting down the last ten seconds. I drop my gun and stoop over lifting Ty off the ground. My body shakes as I drag him across the threshold of the door. The watch screeches a continuous wail as we cross into the outside.
The explosions sound simultaneously. The ground shakes as fire and smoke barrel down the corridor racing toward the door. I throw the weight of my body against the solid metal sealing it shut just as the cloud of destruction reaches us. My body thrusts forward from the atomic power of the fiery wall but I resist. The ground underneath Ty turns crimson as blood and life pour out of him.
I reach into my jacket pulling out the beacon signal and press down on the buttons for five seconds, just like we’d been shown. I pray Jake can get here fast enough. I stumble to Ty and tear off my sleeve, tying it above his thigh. His breath is ragged and shallow, his skin’s pale and white. I follow the warm blood to his back driving my hand into the pulsing wound.
I need Jake to get here now; he doesn’t have much time. Ty’s eyes flutter open and closed as his breathing begins to slow. With his slowing breath my heart frees itself and becomes his. I know that he is mine and I am his. So unfair and so wrong that my heart is just now ready to be given away. Ready to be taken by a man that might die in my arms. I press my head to his, “Don’t leave me. I need you, I love you.”
The corners of his mouth pull into a weak smile. I feel the pressure of air driving down on us. I look up to the massive belly of the craft. Jake lowers the basket and I drag Ty into it. I lay on top of him and imagine him doing the same for me back in the woods. We lift into the craft as the ramp seals shut.
“Nessa! Are you okay?”
“Kara, help! He’s been shot.” I crawl off Ty as we transfer him onto the gurney.
“I’ll need your help,” Kara demands. “Keep pressure,” she guides my hands placing them over his gushing wounds. Kara begins administering fluids through his collapsing veins. “We need to get him to a hospital now!” She shouts to Jake. “I need to start a transfusion.” She hangs a bag of fresh blood. The craft rockets forward as Jake tests his skills.
“ETA is thirty minutes Kara.” Jake screams from the front. Kara gives no reply.
“Will he make it?” I ask.
“No telling, we’re doing the best we can.”
My hands are warm, more than warm, they’re hot from his blood. Kara moves my hands around alternating from his gushing leg to his bleeding back. I can’t help but feel like I’m in the way. Even if I am, I can’t let go. I won’t stop trying to staunch the bleeding.
Suddenly Ty’s body arches, hanging in midair like he’s being bent in two. I hold my breath, panicked. He crashes back to the table. The sound startles me, shaking me to my core. Kara’s yelling orders and I do the best I can, but he looks so pale and now he’s shaking. His whole body trembles as Kara tries hanging another bag of fresh blood. I hold pressure to his wounds but all I can think about are his eyes. Eyes that are rolling toward the back of his head.
Suddenly I get what I asked for as the bleeding stops. What if the bleeding stopped because he’s gone? Maybe it meant he was still with me before and now he’s not. His eyes roll one last time before they fall shut. He’s still, this can’t be right.
Jake veers the hovercraft to the side as he dodges our resistance fighters that are taking down the walls. The gurney slides across the craft as one of the bombs explodes close to us. Jake throttles forward. Without warning he careens the craft to the left, throwing it on its side. We aren’t in a safe zone yet. The life line connecting to Ty’s hand gets torn as the gurney slides across the floor of the craft.
“Jake you have to get control!” Kara shouts.
“Sorry but this isn’t easy!” Jake yells from the cockpit.
Another explosion goes off, sending chills around my body.
“Brace yourselves!” Jake screams.
Debris from the exploding wall fly through the air, slamming into the side of the craft. Everything shakes and I watch in sickening horror as Kara tries to thread the IV back into Ty’s hand. I keep my hands pressed to Ty’s wounds, even though they aren’t bleeding anymore.
“We’ve got to get there fast Jake, we’re losing him!” Kara shouts as she threads the IV back into his vein.
Jake levels the craft and pushes forward, leaving the exploding walls of my former nation behind us. Finally we cross into safety but I know it might be too late. The craft slows and maintains its hover. Kara and I are at the ramp with Ty before Jake has the chance to release the latch.
“They’re waiting for you!” Jake yells.
I can’t tell if Ty’s breathing. I want to collapse, my legs are trembling. Could I have lost him already? Was there a moment when he went from breathing and alive to suddenly gone, right under my touch? How didn’t I feel the life leave him? I should have felt his spirit go. Right?
We’re met by a team of doctors. They grab the gurney wheeling him through the doors. I collapse to my knees staring at my blood-covered hands in disbelief. The man I love could die tonight and it’s all my fault. I shake as I wipe the blood from my fingers.
Jake’s hands feel foreign on my shoulders and do nothing to comfort me, “Nessa, I’m sorry. He’s in the right place now. They’ll take care of him.”
In the distance the sound of exploding bombs ring out over the wall. We completed our mission. My people can finally be free but was it worth it? Was Ty’s life worth it? I can’t answer that question, I don’t even want to think about it.
“I
need to be with him,” I say looking at Jake.
Kara lifts me to my feet. “I’ll go with you.” She wraps me in her arms, leading me to the empty waiting room. I stare across the room at the yellow walls and wait as the hours pass. My mind’s numbed to everything around me.
A doctor, probably in his early thirties startles me, “Miss. Hollins?” I shoot to my feet with Kara by my side. “He’s out of surgery.” He pauses and I want to kill him for making me wait. “He’s going to make it.”
I fall back into my chair on the verge of crying, “Can I see him?”
“Not yet, he’s still in recovery but you’ll see him soon enough.” The doctor turns to leave.
Kara rubs my shoulders, “You saved his life, you know that right?”
I nod, “I’m staying here tonight, alright?”
“I’ll stay with you then.”
Chapter 48
I wake startled by the blood covering my ripped uniform. Kara and I slept in the waiting room chairs. My neck aches in protest. “Kara wake up,” I nudge her.
“Morning,” she yawns shaking her head. “Let me go talk to the doctors, see if you can visit him yet.”
She gets up and leaves. I watch her make her way to the nurse’s station. My heart drums wildly as the anticipation builds. She turns with a smile, good news I’m hoping.
“We can see him now,” she says.
I jump to my feet following her to his room. I hesitate outside his door, I’m nervous about what I’ll see. Kara pulls the door open. There are alarms and machines hooked up everywhere but there he is, alive and awake.
“Nessa.” His voice is weak.
“Ty! I thought I’d lost you.” I reach for his hand squeezing it between mine.
“I didn’t come this far makin’ you fall for me just to die.” He smiles, his eyes fighting to stay awake.
The nurse steps into the room, “He needs his rest. You can see him tomorrow.”
Ty smiles, “She can stay.”
