“Go back into the Crucible. You know what will happen if you step past the fence.”
Tears and wails grew louder as the prisoners tasted freedom and lost their minds to it.
“Go back!” a guard yelled. “Now.”
No one obeyed. Their eyes locked past the rusty fence, drinking in the trees and stars.
“Don’t push us,” another guard shouted. “Wewillshoot.”
Someone jostled in the middle of the group, making the front row stagger. A little boy broke ranks, sprinting toward the fence.
The guards shot him.
The boy’s father howled and hurled himself forward.
He died alongside his son.
“Stop!” I roared. “All of you.” Pushing through the middle of the filthy, trembling prisoners, I gritted my teeth as people shiedaway from me, hissing as their skin burned thanks to the fire licking all over my body.
Still cradling the dead girl, I made eye contact with those brave enough to look at me. “I’ll get you out. Just trust me.”
Their gazes went to the tiny corpse in my arms and...they didn’t believe me.
Their sanity switched to survival and they pushed and shoved, their fear stinking worse than their rags.
I planted myself at the front of the group and glowered at the guards. “Let them go.” My voice was thick as tar. The flames hissed and spat. They wanted to kill. Burn their bones. Bubble their blood.Slaughter.
“Take them back inside,” a guard commanded. “And we won’t hurt them.”
“Let them go.” I shook my head from pure violence and pretended I was still human. “AndIwon’t hurtyou.”
“Oh yeah? And how do you plan on doing that?” A short, cocky one laughed. “You and what army?”
“I won’t ask again.” I could barely talk anymore. I had nothing left. No fluids, no heartbeat. The fire was the only thing keeping me standing. Burning, alwaysburning.“Let. Them. Go.”
“No one can let them go,” a slim guard with a missing front tooth said. “If they cross the fence, they’ll die.”
“Not if you die first.”
“Doesn’t matter if we die first or not.” He backed up a little. “There’s a frequency net placed around this entire mountain. Their very blood has been programmed to incinerate if they step past it.”
The other guards smirked as if it was an inside joke, and in the second it took me to decide if he was telling the truth, the mob of prisoners decided for me.
They charged forward with tattered screams—a crowd of complete chaos bolting toward the five guards.
They opened fire.
“STOP!” A lash of fire chased after them but...it was too late.
After a lifetime of misery, hope was far louder than warnings. Women and men ran together, dragging sickly children. Animals bolted in blind terror—goats bleating, dogs baying, all running in the same direction.
A few were shot.
The rest stampeded.
“Don’t!”I chased after them. “If they’re telling the truth—”
They didn’t listen.
