But we haven’t made it much farther when Atlanta abruptly stops, pointing at a fire extinguisher next to a doorway.
“We saw that when we were shifting inward,” she says, completely confident.
Mia lifts her brows, and I share her skepticism.
“I expect they have more than one fire extinguisher,” I offer.
Atlanta shakes her head firmly. “No, was that one. Got ascratch.” She points to a minute little half-moon chip in the cylinder’s smooth red paint.
My own brows shoot up. How could she possibly have spottedthatwhile being hustled in? But Dex is nodding when I glance across at him.
“She says it, she’s right, I pledge,” he tells us in a low, urgent whisper.
I know we have no choice but to trust her, but I don’t.
Dex, on the other hand …
Slowly, the evidence is beginning to add up. The tattoo. I’m sure his finger traced the spiral of it, pausing as he pulled his shirt off to exercise. The way he looked at us on the shuttle, before we launched. The moment in which he could have said something to his partner about the stowaways on board, and didn’t.
And when he handed over the piece of paper from his tray—300CS—he squeezed my hand a moment longer than he needed to. Caught my gaze with a stare more urgent than the gesture required. I have an inkling this is what he wanted to convey:Trust me.
I know what Mia would say. And her healthy skepticism of literally everyone and everything around her is what kept us alive on Gaia. But Dex is the only hope I have left now, and if I lose that … No. No, there’ssomethingdeeper going on here, I have to believe it.
Ichooseto believe it.
I squeeze Mia’s hand, and together we turn to follow the Undying.
Atlanta seems to have her bearings now, and she leads confidently. It’s slow going—we duck into doorways and back around corners over and over, because in these clothes nobody’s mistaking us for anything but what we are, if we come face-to-face with the soldiers hurrying along the hallways. Once, we pile into an empty meeting room, standing together in the darkened corner of it, so close I can hear the Undying’s breath—while several pairs of boots pound past us, purposeful. Is that purpose to do with us?
But as soon as we’re out and moving again, there’s another checkpoint ahead. And this one Idorecognize. So does Mia. Her hand flies out to grab my forearm and squeeze, at the sight of it. This door is different, thicker and heavier. The way out.
“Let’s hope Mink’s pass is still working,” Mia mutters, gripping it tightly as she jogs toward the door.
It will still be night outside. If they don’t realize we had the means to leave, we could make some distance, even on foot, before they—
The door slides open, a fraction of a second before Mia reaches it. A trio of soldiers stands just on the other side, returning from some patrol. For a moment, everything stops.
Mia is frozen just a few steps from the uniformed soldiers. I’m a few paces behind her, with Dex and Atlanta to one side. The first two soldiers, a man and a woman, stop at the sight of us, and the third only halts when he bumps into his comrade’s back—the phone he was staring at falls from his hand and clatters to the floor.
Before I can do more than register the trouble we’re in, Atlanta’s moving, barely more than a blur in my peripheral vision. In an instant, she closes the distance between her and the soldiers, taking one of them down in one swift sweep of her leg. Dex is with her half a second later, and as the first soldier’s partner reaches for the rifle at her side, Dex grabs it and slams the butt of the rifle into her face. She staggers back and falls, clutching at her nose.
All I can see after that is a flash of surprised terror in the face of the man who dropped his phone, and then both Atlanta and Dex are on top of him. They move so quickly I can’t even see what they do to him—but he’s down within the space of a single breath. Dex retrieves the rifle he’d grabbed from one of the soldiers and slings its strap over his chest, while Atlanta returns to the still-conscious form of its wielder, considers her state speculatively, and then gives her a swift kick to knock her out.
Mia, who flung herself to one side when the Undying teamrushed the soldiers, is still pressed against the wall, her eyes wide, her face white. I’m not doing much better, my vision blurring with the impossibility of what I’ve just witnessed.
They’re not human.
Even though I knew that before—even though I’dseenthem bleed blue, impossibly alien—I’m not sure I entirely believed it, deep down on a subconscious level, until now.
Catching Mia’s gaze as it swings toward me, I find myself wishing I could summon even an ounce of bravery to reassure her. But all I feel is terror sweeping through me. All I want to do is run.
“Stop!” The shout is hoarse, and it comes from behind us. “Stop, I’ll shoot!”
We all freeze. Instinctively I lift my hands, and glance over my shoulder.
There’s a uniformed guard behind us in the corridor, pointing his sidearm straight at us. Summoned by the commotion, no doubt. His hands are shaking a little, the barrel jigging up and down as he swings it in a slow arc, as though to demonstrate he has complete coverage. Nearby, Mia’s got her hands up too, and slowly Dex and Atlanta comply as well. Dex has the rifle, but it’s dangling just out of easy reach, too far away when there’s a gun pointed at his face.
“Please,” I say, but I don’t know how that sentence finishes.Let us go? Shoot them?I’d take either, right now.
