by Jessica Roe
“Jump,” Zay encouraged, opening his arms. “I got you.” She scrambled over as quickly as she could and fell off the edge, landing in Zay's embrace.
Satisfied that Queenie was safe, Gable pulled her other leg over and dropped. Before she could land on her feet, Hue caught her in his arms. She huffed as his arms tightened around her waist. “I didn't need help.”
He smirked. “I know.”
Nicky shot Hue a glare then turned back to the fence. “Looks like we just made it.” He was right – the fence was humming with electricity again. “Must've been down to the help of an Outcast.”
Queenie dragged herself away from Zay and took Gable's hand. “Thank you. You saved my butt. . .again.”
“It was nothing.”
“You could have been electrocuted!”
Gable cracked her neck from side to side. Queenie was always finding ways to make things emotional and awkward. “Not like I was gonna let you die or anything. Told you I'd take care of you.”
The smug look was back. For a nice girl, Queenie certainly pulled off smug with a special kind of finesse. “You're so fond of me.”
Sighing, Gable shot her a look, but it wasn't like she denied it.
“Everyone ready to go?” Zay interrupted, much to Gable's relief. “We end this shit today.”
The others agreed so enthusiastically that Gable almost expected them to do a team high five. Good guys could be so lame.
The trees were a lot thinner on this side of the fence, and the terrain definitely easier to navigate. They hurried on for almost twenty minutes before Ward stumbled to the ground, groaning. “Not again!”
This time the earthquake came on harder and faster than ever before. It was vicious and angry and roaring like it was alive, so loud they had to throw their hands over their ears, even as they fell to the ground. Trees crashed to the leafy floor and splintered around them. One tree burst in the most horrific way and splashed blood all over Queenie, but her screams were lost in the ear splitting noise of the ground beneath them. Vines and branches shot out of the earth, wrapping around their arms and legs – not tight enough to hold them down, but almost as if they were afraid and searching for comfort.
“Ward!” Gable hollered desperately, but the sound of the earth tearing itself apart was just too loud and he couldn't hear her. She tried to crawl over to him, but the ground began to shift. With a thunderous rumble, it split open, the crack widening with every second. “NO!” she screamed as rocks and grass started to fall away beneath her. She scrambled forward, digging her hands into dirt and mud to pull herself up, but it was no use.
She was falling. Sliding. Slipping away.
Two pale hands suddenly grasped onto her forearms. She quickly glanced up into Cadby's strained face. A vein bulged in his forehead as he clung onto her. He lay flat on the ground, his leg twisted around a thick vine so he wouldn't fall into the fissure with her.
With an almighty heave, he threw himself back, pulling her with him and away from immediate danger, though the ordeal was hardly over. They collapsed, their arms and legs wrapped around one another as their hearts pounded furiously. His was beating so hard and fast that Gable could feel it against her own chest.
“Ward's out of control,” Cadby yelled in her ear. “There's nothing we can do to stop him now!”
And then, as if the terrifying island was trying to prove him wrong, the earthquake stopped. It all just. . .stopped.
Silence fell around them, so thick it was almost tangible. Cadby's breathing sounded heavy in Gable's ears. She pulled herself into a sitting position so she could do a headcount.
Ward, Zay, Queenie, Hue, Nicky. . . They were all alive. Blood was running down Zay's cheek from a gash on his head and Nicky was swearing as he pulled out a sharp piece of wood from his thigh, but they were alive, and that's what counted.
“He stopped himself,” Gable marveled quietly.
Cadby sat up next to her and shook his head. His eyes were wide, afraid in a way she'd never seen on him before. “No,” he whispered. “He didn't. I should've noticed, but I was distracted. . .”
Gable followed his gaze. Beyond the trees ahead of them, a group of at least a dozen guards marched towards them, guns pointed their way. In the center stood one man, his eyes as dull and soulless as if he was a corpse. She wasn't an Outcast, but he gave even her the chills.
He was a leech, and he was sucking all of the Outcast's powers away – including Ward's.
“Oh, shit.”
Chapter 28
Fortune
“Do you feel that?” Fortune hissed. The ground beneath his feet and even the walls around him had begun to tremble once more. “Another earthquake. . . Sacha, do you feel that?”
At some point in the hour that Fortune had been gone for testing that morning, Sacha had slumped down on the floor in front of his bed, pulled his knees up to his chest and dropped his head. He hadn't moved since. It had been the latest dream that had taken it out of him, he was sure of it. And now the earth was literally shaking around him and he didn't even seem to notice, let alone care.
It wasn't a bad earthquake, but clearly their prison hadn't been built to withstand so many of them. Dust was crumbling from the ceiling in small clumps and somewhere along the corridor a light bulb burst. An Outcast nearby squealed in surprise as the smashed glass dropped into her cell.
“This is it!” Gelasius exclaimed excitedly, his eyes bright as he clung to the bars separating him and Fortune. “This is the day we free ourselves, don't you see? God is with us! Today is the day we finally fight back!”
It took Fortune a shocked moment to understand what his friend was saying, and when he did, so many feeling rushed through him that his head span – disbelief, anticipation, hope, despair. And fear. So much fear. The tiny, dark, windowless cell was all he'd known for almost two years. Painful tests and excruciating experiments were all he'd known for almost two years. Pain and emptiness and hunger and gut wrenching loss were all he'd known for almost two years. Feeling lonely in a prison full of others just like him was all he'd known for almost two years.
Did this earthquake really mean that freedom was in his grasp?
Did he even know how to be free anymore?
“Are you fucking crazy, you dumb Greek asshole?!” Xahlia yelled at Gelasius through Fortune's cell. “This isn't the day we free ourselves! This is the day the earthquake causes the whole building to collapse on top of us! Look around! This is the day we die!”
Another light burst somewhere, as if the building was agreeing with her.
Before Gelasius could retort, alarms suddenly began to ring. They sounded like they were coming from everywhere – the cells, the building above them, outside. They were loud, ear splitting. Panicked guards rushed down the corridor, shouting orders at each other and trying to figure out what was going on. The Outcasts in the cells moaned and covered their ears as best they could. Fortune saw the woodland nymph in the cell opposite his cover her head with her blanket.
“Stay here!” he heard one of the guards instruct the others as he passed by. “I'll find out what the hell this is.”
Fortune turned back to Sacha. He was shielding his head with his arms, groaning. “Make it stop!” he begged, as the noise rose impossibly louder.
The earthquake slowed before coming to a gentle finish. Less than a minute later, so did the alarms.
“No!” Gelasius hollered in distress when he realized the earthquake hadn't caused as much damage as he'd hoped. He threw himself at his bars with his whole body. “That can't be it! That can't be it!”
There was an ominous click, and Fortune glanced up to see one of the guards right outside their cells, his gun aimed at Gelasius' head. He was sweating, shaking, wildly afraid of everything that was happening. The one thing the guards had always relished the most was the control they had over the Outcasts, the control they had over these beings much more powerful than they could ever be. An earthquake was something they couldn't cont
rol. Was that why the guard was so afraid?
“Stop that right the hell now,” he ordered Gelasius, looking far too trigger happy for Fortune's liking. “or I'll shoot your goddamned brains out!”
Gelasius was no fool, and he knew exactly when not to push someone teetering so close to the edge. He raised defensive hands and stepped back from the bars.
“That goes for all of you!” the guard shouted at the prisoners, though his gun was still aimed at Gelasius. “One foot out of line and you're done. No mercy!”
Nobody said a word, and this seemed to reassure him somewhat. He lowered his weapon but kept it out, and stalked back down the corridor to join his fellow guards, who seemed to be having a heated discussion in low voices. Fortune supposed that some of them probably wanted to get the hell out of there before things got worse.
He could tell Gelasius wanted to yell something after the guard, but he managed to keep his words to himself. “I'm impressed with your restraint.”
“No wrong moves,” Gelasius replied quietly. “Not now, not when we're so close to freedom. It wouldn't do us to lose our heads at this point.”
One thing Fortune truly admired about him was his never ending optimism.
A quiet buzz of lively chatter sprang up amongst the cells as the prisoners discussed the latest earthquake and the alarms.
Merche, always ready to douse their spirits, strolled down the corridor with clenched fists. “Shut up!” she screeched. “That tiny tremor was nothing to get excited over. We have everything under control, so if a single one of you even thinks about trying something foolish, know this – it will lead right to your execution.” She didn't even spare Fortune a glance as she retreated, and Merche never missed an opportunity to bait him.
“She was lying,” he murmured. “They don't have this under control. You were right, Gelasius. This is it.”
“How can you tell she was lying?”
“I've been down here nearly two years, and that bitch has paid me more attention than anyone else. I know her now, and she is lying.”
“I knew it. Something else is happening besides the earthquake. We need a plan for when the next one strikes.”
“You think there'll be another?” Jaana asked doubtfully.
He shrugged. “How should I know? But we should still plan from every angle.” That was the quick, calculated hunter in him talking, the one who thought of every possible outcome.
Dropping to his knees, Fortune knelt before Sacha. He still hadn't moved, despite the chaos and utter destruction, and that worried the shit out of Fortune more than anything. “You hear that, mate? There's a chance for us no hopers after all. A small, highly unlikely and definitely improbable chance, sure. But a chance nonetheless.”
Sacha finally looked up, but his eyes were empty – devoid of everything that brought life to them. “I don't care,” he said, his voice hollow, but full of truth.
Fortune shook his head back and forth. “I don't believe you.”
Lowering his head again, Sacha replied, “I'm done with it all. I can't do this anymore.”
“Do what, Sacha?”
“Dream,” he said pointedly, and Fortune knew he'd been right. The dreams Sacha had been having of Gable had been the last straw – they'd snapped the last string of his sanity. “Hope. Pray. Live. I can't do it, not any of it. I don't want to do it anymore.”
All Fortune wanted to do was shake him. He wanted to slap him, punch him, set his bloody toes on fire. Anything to wake him up from this awful place he'd fallen into.
A new sense of determination filled him. He wasn't about to lose Sacha, not now they were so close to something, whether it be freedom, or even death by bullets as they made a valiant escape attempt. Because Gelasius was right, it was finally time to fight back. One way or another, they were ending things.
Standing, he span back to face the shadow guide with a hard face. “Let's do this.”
Out of nowhere, the earth began to move again. But this time it was ferocious, deadly, terrifying. Like the very ground they walked on had lost control.
Fortune fell to the floor hard. He felt his wrist crack upon impact as he landed ungracefully on the cement, and he yelled out as white hot pain shot up his arm. He'd never broken a bone before, but he was guessing this was exactly how it felt.
Bangs and crashes sounded all around him. This time it wasn't just smashed light bulbs that fell from above them, but chunks of ceiling too, both big and small. Dust clouded the air, and Fortune choked as he accidentally inhaled a mouthful of it.
They should have listened to Xahlia – the building really was going to collapse on top of them. They were underground and there were two levels above them – the ground floor of the building and another floor above. It would all fall down and there would be no escape!
Outcasts around him began to scream in terror as they realized the same thing he had. They pounded against their bars, yanking and kicking them to no avail. Most of the guards fled in self preservation, though a few remained behind, ridiculously loyal to their boss to the end, or simply that afraid of the consequences of disobedience. Fortune prayed desperately for his powers to return, but he felt nothing – a leech was still with them.
Somewhere down the corridor, a gunshot sounded. There was a blood curdling wail and Fortune knew, he just knew that one of the remaining guards had murdered a prisoner. Shot them in cold blood while they were trapped in their cell with no defense and no way of escape, probably out of nothing more than cowardly fear.
There was suddenly an almighty crash down at the end of the long room, the opposite end to the steps that led out where the remaining guards had huddled, and a part of the ceiling caved over the top of two cells.
“NO!” Fortune yelled hoarsely, and he wasn't the only one. Outcasts reached their arms through the bars at the destruction, straining, as if they could save the unfortunate prisoners trapped underneath the wreckage.
It was chaos and carnage everywhere.
The earthquake they'd been so sure would be their saviour was killing them instead.
It stopped again then. It just stopped, and for seconds, silence fell. It was a cold, horrific kind of silence. Fortune's ears rang.
Then came the screams, and the guard's shouts, and the sobs and the pleading and the prayers. Fortune blinked heavily, scraping a layer of dust off his face with his equally dusty hands. His throat burned, his blurry eyes burned, his wrist burned, his heart burned. Everything burned. With difficulty, he pulled himself up off his bruised knees as he surveyed the damage around him, holding his injured wrist to his chest.
The earthquake may have come to an end, but it was too late. Too damned late. The building above them was unsteady and beginning to crumble – it wouldn't last much longer.
More dust drifted down, this time into Gelasius and Moisey's cell.
The ceiling creaked ominously.
“Look out!” Fortune warned as a large chunk of concrete dropped down on top of them.
Gelasius' reflexes were quick and he managed to leap back out of the way, but Moisey was less fortunate. He screamed out in agony as it caved on him.
Gelasius rushed forward to pull the rubble away. “Aw man,” he mumbled as he took stock of the damage. Fortune was no doctor, but even he could tell that Moisey's leg was definitely broken. But he was alive. That counted for something.
Without even seeming to think about it, Gelasius ripped the thin mattress from his bunk, and with a strength fueled by adrenaline, yanked out two of the bed frame planks to create a splint. Wasting no time, Fortune ignored the pain in his wrist and tore his own blanket to strips with his teeth and his uninjured hand. He shoved it through the bars so that Gelasius could tie the makeshift splint to Moisey's leg. Years of hunting had definitely taught Gelasius what to do in a crisis.
But Moisey was no longer paying attention to himself or to his cellmate. “Look!” He pointed a shaky finger at where the fallen debris had slightly damaged one of the bars of their c
ell. It wasn't snapped, but definitely significantly bent.
Before Fortune could explore this more, a shriek from behind him caught his attention. He leaped to the other side of his cell, tripping over Sacha and falling on his bed.
“A crack!” Jaana cried, bouncing up and down. Sure enough, a long, thick crack, an inch or two wide, began on her cell floor and led out into the space between the two rows of cells. She began to chatter in Finnish – Fortune didn't understand most of what she was saying, but from her tone he could tell she was excited.
Both she and Xahlia dropped to the ground and began to pound at the crack with their fists, scrabbling away at it even when their fingers became torn and bloody.
“What are you doing?” Fortune demanded, his voice thick and hoarse from the lingering dust still floating in the air.
“We can make the crack bigger,” Xahlia cried, the desperation to be finally free causing her words to come out quick and jumbled. “If we can make it bigger we could slip under the bars!”
“Be careful,” he warned. “If the guards see you then-”
“They're too busy with everything else,” she said, waving his words away. “They won't even notice us. Now is probably the only time we'll have to-”
Another gunshot rang out. Xahlia froze, her eyes widening in horror, but it wasn't her who'd been shot. Next to her, Jaana slumped to the ground. A screaming Xahlia threw herself back.
So consumed by shock as he was, it took Fortune a moment to realize what had just happened. He gaped in dismay as blood seeped out of a bullet hole in Jaana's head. She lay still, her eyes wide and unseeing, unblinking even as the blood trickled down into them. More blood pooled around her, mixing in with the long red hair fanned out around her head.
She was gone. Just gone, snuffed out in the blink of an eye. How could she just be gone? Jaana was the one bright spot in Fortune's existence.
And now she was. . .gone.
His head whipped around as quick as lightening. Merche stood just outside their cells, watching on with sick amusement.
“You killed her!” he accused. “You killed her, you evil bitch!”
