“We need the guns,” I say to Trinity. I turn to her, but she’s not there.
I look back into the room, and my eyes dart around … I can’t see her anywhere.
Staring into the darkness, I can see something moving. It's Trinity; she’s heading toward the guns … she really is crazy.
This nightmare is going to become a reality at any moment. I place my gun on the rocks and brace myself. Her body quickly moves out of the shadows, and she grabs hold of a gun.
Suddenly shots ring out, and everyone falls silent. Then I hear the sound of the glass jar containing Reznor’s fingers shattering as it hits the ground.
The Caribe’s leader's feet stumble as his legs give way underneath him. His body drops to the ground with a thud.
“No!” a female voice screams from the group.
Before they can react, we fire our guns into the crowd. I head over toward Trinity and pick up another gun. People run toward us, and one after another we fire off shots, ending their lives, but saving ours.
Hayden and Lowell start to fight the men holding them, and their fists fly in the air. Trinity and I head toward them and I shoot one of the captors in the back of the knee. He falls to the ground, screaming in pain.
We fire more toward them, and they duck out of the way. I throw Hayden his gun. He catches and instantly fires it. A bullet goes flying out of the back of one man’s head, covered in blood.
Trinity passes Lowell a gun and we fire at the remaining people.
“We need to get out of here, more will come,” Hayden states, as blood drips down from his face.
“Is Reznor alive?” I ask.
“Yeah … they cut off his arm when he was awake, and he passed out from the pain,” Hayden says, as he continues shooting.
Trinity heads over to Reznor and begins to cut through the rope with her blade.
“Dax, help me,” Trinity pleads, as she cuts off the lower section of her dress and ties it around what remains of Reznor’s arm.
“Cover us,” I tell the others, as I head toward Trinity. “Arh!” I cry out as my body slams to the uneven ground. A man jumps on top of me with anger burning through his eyes. His mouth is gaping open, revealing yellow, chiseled teeth. He swings his fist into my face.
I spin my body sideways, as Gavyn taught me, knocking the man off balance. Springing up on my feet, I turn my gun to his face. Bang…! The bullet rips through his skull and into his brain. He’s not going to get back up.
“I said cover me!” I snap at them. “Reznor, get up!”
He doesn’t respond, so I slap him hard across his face. His arm reaches up and his fingers wrap around my throat … he’s trying to squeeze the life out of me.
I gasp for air as I try to push him off me. I can feel my eyes bulging.
Hayden appears in front of me in a blur, and I struggle to breathe. Hayden pushes Reznor back onto the table, but Reznor is too strong for him. His grip doesn’t loosen … it’s getting tighter.
Lowell helps Hayden, and they both push down on Reznor as they yell out for help.
“Arh!” I gasp for air, as Reznor’s fingers finally release the grip.
I stagger backwards as I try to fill my lungs with air. The sound of gunfire brings me back from the brink of death.
Lowell and Hayden lift Reznor off the table.
“Get back upstairs,” I yell to them, as Trinity and I fire at the remaining people.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Dax
We sprint through the tunnels and the body jar room, and back up into the room I wish we’d all stayed in.
There is no choice but to leave here.
“Reznor, can you ride?” I ask him. He waves his injured arm up to me; it's double the size of a normal person’s arm. Even with only one arm, he’s still stronger than any of us.
Reznor nods in response.
“Trinity, open the doors,” I say, as I jump on my bike.
We race out from one dangerous situation and into another … but I know that the Purenet soldiers will not try to eat or pickle us. They are the lesser of two evils.
“Get on,” I tell Trinity. She jumps onto the back of the bike and holds on tightly.
“Ready?” I shout.
“Ready!” the others answer, with pure hatred in their voices.
Reznor leads the charge; clearly he wants to get as far away from this building as possible.
His bike flies into the air as he launches it down the stairs. He turns quickly and rides off.
Hayden goes next, followed by Lowell.
Trinity grips me tighter … too tight. “Get off me … help me!” she screams in terror. Then her grip loosens, and her body flies backward. Someone has dragged her off the bike.
I turn around to see a man dragging her toward the stairs we just came from. Other Caribes are in the room, but it’s as though they cannot see what is happening. Their eyes are fixed on their next meal.
They are gathered around the people that Trinity killed, and they are ripping the flesh off them with their chiseled teeth.
Bang … bang. I fire the gun toward the man dragging Trinity across the floor. He doesn’t stop, and the bullets just bounce off him. He’s wearing Purenet body armor; it’s no longer shiny-white like the soldiers. This is covered in dirt, and what looks like dried blood.
The Caribes start to fight over the bodies as they drag them toward the doorway, making it hard to see where Trinity is.
“Dax, help me!” Trinity screams. They are right by the doorway, and her fingers are gripping the floor for dear life.
I take in a deep breath, and as I exhale I fire the gun toward the Caribe who has Trinity. He stops moving … got him! She springs up to her feet, as the Caribe’s body falls backwards.
She scrambles toward me, weaving in and out of the Caribes and bodies on the ground, and straight into my arms.
“Get on,” I tell her. She jumps on with her arms still wrapped around me, refusing to let go.
This time I don’t hesitate. I would rather the Purenet soldiers get me than the Caribes.
We fly out of the building and onto the main street. I can see the others in the swirling sand from the wind as it shapes the landscape coming toward us.
They must have realized we weren’t following. I ride toward them; there are no planes or drones in sight. Hopefully they’ve left this twisted city.
I can make out Hayden waving his hand in the air. I wave back, so he knows I’ve seen him.
They speed closer toward us, and now Lowell is waving fanatically toward us. They are warning me….
The swirling sand stops for a moment, and the tiny fragments drop to the ground. I finally realize what they are running from….
The plane has landed, and the doors open, and I turn my bike away. I know soon this city will be overrun with Purenet soldiers.
Within moments, the others are by my side. “What took you so long?” Hayden looks back with raised eyebrows toward Trinity, as if we've been up to no good.
“Will you always be a jerk?” I ask him, as I shake my head.
“I’m sorry about everything,” Hayden says. I almost believe him.
“Now is not the time,” I reply, as we ride past the building we were just in.
Quickly we swerve our bikes out of the way of oncoming Caribes … they are not giving up that easily. They start to chase the bikes.
If we were on flat ground, there would be no way they could catch us. But on the sand we are barely moving.
“We need to find a street with less sand,” I yell out over our engines.
I can feel Trinity’s hands roaming down to my waist, toward my gun, and I move to stop her. Then I reconsider. “Get them!” I yell to her. I just hope we don’t run out of ammo.
Shot after shot rings out in the night, followed by screams of pain.
Glancing over my shoulder, I see she got a few of the Caribes. More are coming, and to make matters worse, the Mutes also run towards us —it looks as th
ough the whole city has come out and is running toward us. Judging by the screams and the groans, it seems like the Mutes have got some of the Caribes. Good, let them finish off one another.
We riding until we find one empty street. “This one,” Lowell yells from the front.
I follow him, and the others do the same. Finally, we get some space between us and the group of Caribes and Mutes.
“We need to hide,” Trinity whispers into my ear.
I look back at her. “That wasn’t a good idea last time.”
“Trust me … if we hide, we’ll be safe,” she says wisely.
I think for a moment. She is from the Enlighten tribe; maybe there is some truth in what she says.
“We need to hide. They parked the plane at the city boundaries; there is no chance of us getting out ... not yet anyway. The Caribes, the Mutes, and the Purenet soldiers will start to kill each other off. Once they are weak, then we can escape,” she explains.
Everyone looks toward Reznor. His face is pale from losing so much blood. Trinity’s bandage is no longer white—blood covers it.
Reznor nods in agreement. He knows he needs help.
“Where shall we hide?” Hayden asks. We look up and down the streets. There is an old building like the church we were in earlier. I wonder if that’s where the tunnel leads. Is there a whole underground world under our feet? I shudder at the thought.
“We’re not going back in one of those crazy buildings,” Hayden says, as we ride past the white-washed church.
“I second that,” Lowell states.
“There,” Trinity says, as she points toward a tiny house. It’s the smallest on the street, and has light pink paint peeling off the sides.
“We need to go in there,” she says. She leans her body toward the building as though it is drawing her in.
“Will our bikes even fit inside?” Hayden asks.
“We’ll see,” I say, as I turn off the engine and roll toward the house.
I hope Trinity isn’t wrong … and we aren’t walking into another trap.
The sand isn’t blocking the doorway, and Trinity opens it as if she’s coming home. “There is no one in here; we will be safe,” she informs us. She walks into the house without even checking to see if anyone is there. She’s starting to freak me out … I don’t like the idea of Death following her, but I feel it is my duty to keep her safe and take her back to her tribe. After all, it is my father’s fault she’s here.
I follow Trinity, and the others take my lead.
The headlight from my bike leads the way into the house, and I almost feel bad that I’ll be dragging the sand into it. The place looks like it has hasn’t been touched or lived in for hundreds of years, and just a musty smell lingers as if it's been abandoned since the World War started.
It feels homey … and eerie at the same time.
I wheel the bike through a small room, but judging by the size of the house, this must have been the main room. It's so tiny; I’ve never seen what homes were like before the wars. By the others’ silence, I think they haven’t either.
“Back here,” Trinity calls from the back. “We can park the bikes here. This door leads to an alley out back if we need to escape.”
The room looks like a kitchen. The once-silver sink is rusty, and the cupboards above it are open and empty.
We all leave our bikes in the kitchen, squeezing next to one another. I don’t know how people used to live like this, on top of each other all the time.
The whole ground floor is smaller than my father’s quarters in the palace.
Lowell is the last person to enter the empty main room. Wooden panels have been ripped up from the floor … I guess for firewood. Now all that remains is uneven cement.
“Let’s check out the upstairs and downstairs,” Hayden says to me.
I look around, and Trinity is sitting up against the bare wall. She’s rubbing her finger across the back of her hand, as she tries to remove the bar code. Reznor is staring out the window, looking for any potential danger. Lowell seems the most awake of all of us. He’s the best person to watch over Trinity and Reznor now.
“I will go with you,” I say to Hayden. No one replies; the others are grateful that they will not be joining us.
“Trinity, see if there is anything in my bag that you can use as a bandage for Reznor,” I tell her. She stops rubbing her hand and instantly gets up, as though she’s used to having to respond quickly.
“If we are not back in a few moments, you'd better come looking for us,” I add.
“I’ve got your back,” Lowell says. The others remain silent, lost in their own worlds.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Skylier
“Madison,” I scream, but nothing comes out. My chest tightens. I’m drowning. I cough frantically into my hands, trying to release what’s in my lungs. Dry clumps of dust pour from my mouth, ripping my throat raw.
“Madison,” I try again to scream, the words bellowing out of my body. Black crows croak back at me in response as they fly off the naked tree into the sky, turning it black.
I can see the white of Madison’s eyes as she turns to face me. The whiteness is drowned by red as her eyes fill with bloody tears, and then she turns away from me.
“Stop, wait,” I yell as I run towards her, but I’m not getting any closer. The wasteland beneath my feet is holding me hostage, not allowing me to move from the spot.
Shades on the horizon move closer to Madison. Sweat pours from my body as I fight the wasteland. “Get away from her,” I scream at the shades approaching Madison.
The wasteland releases me from its grip, and the sudden release knocks me down to the ground with a thud.
“Calista?” She stands in front of me as I scramble to get off the ground. Her skin is gray, and her eyes look lost.
“You left me,” Calista accuses me.
“Why are you here? Where is mother?” I frantically look around the dark wasteland.
“You left me,” she repeats.
“I’m sorry, Calista, I’m sorry,” I say as I place my arms around my little sister. She’s so cold. As my arms touch her body, it goes limp, lifeless. It dissolves into dry fragments that float up in front of me. She’s turning into dust. “No… no,” I beg as I try to capture the fragments of my little sister. A gust of wind sweeps across my pleading arms, and Calista is gone.
“Skylier,” a blood-curdling scream comes from Madison on the horizon as the black matter swirls around her greedily, like a black tornado eating up everything in its path.
Then, as if time itself has frozen, the blackness turns hard and drops to the floor of the wasteland, and I’m alone. The wasteland has absorbed all that I love.
“You left us… you left us…” the wind whistles as my body tumbles to the ground.
“Take me too,” I sob.
As you wish, Xander’s mind laughs.
Black matter surges towards me, wrapping itself around me before I can move off the ground. It drives itself into my nose, then pushes my mouth open from the inside. Dry darkness rushes into my mouth, taking a hold of my body, controlling it.
I finally have you, Xander’s mind greedily says. My brain throbs as he consumes it, stealing my memories.
“Get out of my head and my body. You can’t have me!” I yell, waking myself up.
I wheeze and cough as I try to get the black matter from my body. My mind thinks the dream is real. It felt real. A bitter, musty taste from the black matter lines my dry mouth. I reach out and down the contents of the mug of water beside my bed. The water only relieves the dryness, not the taste. I lay with my eyes open, the dream still vivid in my memory.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Dax
“We need to talk,” I whisper to Hayden, as we start to walk up the creaky wooden stairs.
“Yeah?” he replies.
“Damn!”
“What?”
“I forgot I had this!” I say. All these years without it … I
turn my bracelet on, and the light shines up the stairway. “Could have done with this before, when I had to save your ass. I should’ve bloody left you there with the crazy butcher!”
Hayden nudges me in the back. “That’s not funny!”
“You’re damn right it's not funny … watch out for the step.”
“What … arh!” Hayden yells out. Clearly he didn’t listen to me.
We get to the top of the steps, and I move my wrist around, shining the light from the bracelet into every corner of the room. It's the same size and layout as downstairs.
“It's empty,” I say, relieved.
I head over to the window. The evening breeze blows in and brushes across my face.
Caribes are running around like they are crazy. People say it's from years of eating human flesh, that it does something to the mind. It clearly has messed up theirs. The Mutes follow them.
“I bet the Mutes will get the Caribes, or vice versa,” I state.
“Then we wouldn’t have anything to worry about,” Hayden adds, chuckling.
Bang … bang! Shots ring out and several Caribes and Mutes go down. The Purenet soldiers run at them like they are hunting for fun, like these people are nothing more than mindless animals possessed by the hypnotic words of their leader.
I hate that leaders have the power to rule over the weak, transforming them into something they are not. But is that really true? Or just an excuse we use to be weak and not stand up for what is right?
Xander and my father are evil to the core … always have been, and always will be. When you can read someone’s thoughts on a daily basis, you know them better than they know themselves.
But my other brother is not evil … he is just weak. Will he help us?
“Do you think we’ll get out of this situation and rescue the others?” I ask.
“Of course,” Hayden answers with such a confidence that I almost believe him. “We always do, don’t we?” He adds with a smile. “I still remember that scavenger hunt for food that we had in the desert.”
Wasteland: Age of Sanctions (A Invasion Survivor Series) Page 22
