difficult,” Alloy said eying the gun. “If you all surrender and agree to come back to the school peacefully, things will go back to how they used to be.”
There was a mutual mumble of “no” throughout the safe house group. Taryn shook her head and glared at Alloy. Ryker looked right at Laiken, but he kept his head down.
“Alright then, I really didn’t want to have to do this,” Alloy said. In one swift movement, he raised the gun to Laiken’s head. Laiken finally lifted his head and locked eyes with Ryker.
Click.
It was done. Laiken slumped, blood running from the hole in his forehead.
Taryn's world went blurry. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Her heart-wrenching scream echoed through the area. She could hear the sound of muffled sobbing and struggled hard against the guards restraining her as she yelled and screamed at Alloy. Things slowly came back into focus. Sounds got louder. She could see tears streaming down Ryker's face and could almost feel every last bit of soul leaving his body.
“Now, would anyone like to change their minds?” Alloy asked casually.
Among the safe house group, several hands went up.
“No! Put your hands down,” Taryn said from the steps.
“Let the people make up their own minds,” Alloy said.
“They aren’t making up their own minds; they're doing what you want because they don’t want to die.” Taryn responded. “If we go back to how things used to be, then I will do everything in my power to stop you again. And next time, I won’t fail.”
“Well then, I guess I should just get rid of you before you cause any more trouble,” Alloy countered.
“Do it,” Taryn said to Alloy. “But let me tell you, it'll be the last thing you ever do.”
“How sweet. Any last words?” Alloy asked.
Taryn took one last look around the safe house group, then locked eyes with Ryker for a final goodbye. His blue eyes were full of so much sadness and despair, Taryn had to look away before she started to cry. She was determined to go out proud.
Alloy raised the gun to her forehead. She could see Ryker out of the corner of her eye. He was completely broken; she knew he would never recover from this.
“Is this what you really want?” Alloy asked mockingly.
“Just pull the damn trigger!” She yelled louder than she had intentioned.
Alloy pulled back the hammer, Taryn shut her eyes. It would be over soon.
Click.
She heard the click and the sound of gasps; she felt the warm liquid on her face. How is this possible? I'm dead. She slowly opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was Devin pointing a sniper rifle right at her face. He slowly lowered the gun, and Taryn saw his black eye and broken nose. She looked down at her feet and was shocked at the sight of Alloy, crumpled and dead. Just like Laiken, he had a bullet hole in his forehead.
“Nice shot,” she said to Devin. Luckily it had missed her when it went through.
He just shrugged.
When she had recovered enough to look out into the crowd, she was shocked to see every guard putting his weapon down. Everyone was starting to sigh or sob with relief. Tracker started the hooting and hollering. Everyone seemed at ease, except for Ryker. He slowly got up, walked up the steps to Laiken’s body, and knelt down beside it.
“Go find Halo and tell him to get everyone back to the safe house,” Taryn said to Devin. “Have the doctor check everyone.”
Devin nodded and walked down the steps into the crowd. Taryn went over to Ryker and knelt beside him. She took his face in her hands and wiped away some of the tears. She began crying herself. She wrapped Ryker in a big bear hug and they stayed there, mourning.
“I’m sorry,” Taryn said between sobs. “I’m so sorry.” She was actually talking to both of the boys, but only one of them could hear her.
Slowly they composed themselves, and each took one of Laiken’s arms. They silently dragged him back to the safe house.
“HEY DOC, HOW’S EVERYONE DOING?” Taryn asked Dr. Render a few hours after they arrived.
“No one is seriously hurt,” Dr. Render began. “Tracker has a broken arm, and I put her nose back in place, Devin’s nose was pretty smashed up, a few people had minor cuts, and one guy got grazed by a bullet, but I stitched it up.”
“Good. Have you seen Ryker?” Taryn asked.
“I saw him a while ago; he wouldn’t let me check on him. I think he went to the armory.”
“Whoa, wait a minute. This place has an armory?” Taryn asked, bewildered.
“Yeah, it’s downstairs. Just go a couple of turns past Laiken’s room and you’ll find the stairs.” Dr. Render said.
An armory. I should have known. You wouldn’t have had as much confidence if you hadn't had weapons, Taryn thought, walking toward the hall. “Thanks, Doc.”
It took Taryn a few hallways and dead ends before she finally found the one with the staircase. When she got to the bottom and rounded the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. The room was like a military playground.
“Holy...” she managed.
“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome,” Ryker said coming around a gun rack.
“Hey, how much of this have you tried out?” Taryn asked.
“A few hand guns and throwing knives,” he said with a dry smile. “Wanna try something?”
“Oh yeah.”
“I’ve been on the firing range for the past hour. It’s a pretty good stress reliever.” He led Taryn to the back of the armory.
“The doctor said everyone's fine,” Taryn said.
“That’s good.” Ryker gave her a small hand gun.
“How are you doing?” Taryn asked.
“It’s a little soon to give you a direct answer, but I'm pretty mellow right now.”
Taryn fired off three rounds into the target poster.
“How are you?” Ryker asked.
“Something I have never been in my life,” she said. “A mixed bag of emotions.”
“Eww,” he said sarcastically.
“I know, the sound of it makes me want to barf,” she said with a small laugh.
Ryker took on more serious tone. “Listen. I’ve been thinking about what we should do next.”
“Whatcha got?” she asked.
He walked over to a table and brought back a small black box with multiple wires dangling from it. He handed it to Taryn. “The doctor made this as a last resort if things didn’t go as planned,” Ryker paused while Taryn stared at the item in her hands, then he continued, “I think we should go back to the school, take everything we can use and bring it back here. Once we have everything, we can put Alloy’s body in the school and use this to bring it down.”
“This is a bomb?” Taryn asked, handling the box with more care.
“Yeah. I think it would give everyone peace if that place was gone.” Ryker said.
“Have you told anyone else about this?” Taryn asked.
“No. I wanted to run it by you first,” Ryker said, taking back the bomb.
“I think it’s a great idea,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
“I guess we should tell everyone else about it,” he said.
“Let’s wait a day or so. Maybe things will settle down a little,” she said. “For now...me with the gun against you with your knives.”
“You’re on,” he said with a genuine smile.
The sadness was still there in Ryker's voice, but keeping his mind off of it was the best thing Taryn felt she could do. They needed a break from the tears and the depression. She would much rather see Ryker smiling and happy, even if only for a little while.
“ALRIGHT, THIS IS WHAT’S GOING to happen,” Taryn started from on top of a table. “We're going to go back to the school and collect everything we can use—food, clothes, chairs, tables, weapons, supplies, and anything else we can find. We'll need volunteers, people who can handle carrying a lot back here. I’d say forty or fifty should work. If you want to come, meet outsid
e the front doors in an hour.” And with that she jumped down from the table.
Devin, Halo, Tracker, and Ryker were waiting for her to finish. “You didn’t tell them about the bomb,” Ryker said.
“I know. I’m going to wait until we get everything back here. Then everyone who wants to come to the bombing will be ready.”
“Has anyone found anything with wheels or handles that we could carry more in?” Halo asked.
“All we could find were a couple of large freight containers,” Tracker said, readjusting her arm brace.
“We might have to make more than one trip,” Devin said.
“We'll have to see how many people volunteer.”
AFTER AN HOUR TARYN, RYKER, Halo, and Devin made their way to the front of the building. Once out the doors. Taryn was blown away by the number of people waiting to pillage the school. "I guess we have plenty of hands," she said.
"Some of them probably want to get personal items from their bunks," Ryker said.
"Yeah, and others probably sent people for them so they didn't have to go back," Devin chimed in.
"I guess we better get going," Taryn said. "If everyone's ready, we can get this over with."
Taryn took the lead with Ryker beside her. They made their way back through the trees to the school. Taryn could tell that Ryker was getting tense. Her stomach was turning to knots.
Halo appeared from the crowd and put a hand on Ryker's shoulder. He didn't say anything, but Taryn could tell the gesture had been enough. The group automatically stopped when they reached the tree line. “Alright, grab anything that can be useful. Look for crates or wagons to carry stuff back,” Taryn said.
“Grab any personal items you want, but make sure they get to the right
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