Words zip across the screen. Bright red and flashing.
I keep trying to yank away. But the lock clicks on my jaw and my faceplate lands by my feet. “Leave me—” Air fills my lungs and I blink through the burn in my eyes. “Rune? What—?”
“Keep it off, they’re changing the controls, making you think things,” he says, baring his teeth. “They’re already attacking and we need to get her out of here.”
“Her?” I repeat. My thoughts race and a wave of heat prickles over my cheeks. What was I doing? I was just…my memories stutter and jumble. I was just flying, flying, coming here to get my sister… Frantically, my eyes search everywhere.
“Claire?” I say, looking at Rune and grabbing onto his shoulders. My head feels like it’s floating away. Rune lets out a deep sigh and looks down. My eyes follow his and find that girl who had collapsed.
I don’t understand. Nothing registers at first.
Suddenly the ground erupts with brutal tremors, shaking us off balance. On the other side of the walls the sharp pops of gunfire rip through the night. The girls scream, desperately holding on to each other, cringing and cowering in on themselves.
The girl at my feet looks lifeless. Her skin is a frightening shade of pale blue, her lips a brutal purple.
I choke on my scream.
It can’t be Claire. Claire can’t be lying there. “What? What! Why didn’t I—”
Rune scoops her listless body. Her arms dangle sickeningly toward the floor. “Go, Kate.” His face a vicious warning, “Run, now. Go.” His body pushes into mine and my feet go. Right out of the safety of the gym and into the chaos of the fight.
A huge explosion bursts through the stone wall just to the left. It rocks me sideways and I stumble into the snow. Rocks rain down around me, biting cuts into my cheeks when they land. I feel the blood trickle down my temple, a strange underwater silence filling my ears. Up ahead I see Rune through the smoke. It billows around him like he’s some god, standing in the clouds. My eyes blink slowly as I watch him mouth my name. The cords of his neck bulge out as he yells—but I hear nothing—just the thump, thump, thumping of my pulse in my ears.
Sparks of gunfire blast through the smoke. My mouth fills, thick and metallic tasting. Red saliva drips down my chest.
Alloy limbs run pass me, stained with blood and earth.
My eyes blur and I can’t see Rune anymore.
Just a battlefield of dirt and fire.
And red, red snow.
And then,nothing.
