Reid runs right into chaos. Soldiers are everywhere, some screaming, others more orderly, while the coughing echo of rifle fire and gunshots fill the air. From what he can tell by sound and the low, thin cloud of smoke in the still night the battle is happening somewhere off to his left.
Reid goes right, following three fleeing soldiers down a narrow way between two tents, slowing as he reaches the end to look out.
The center of the compound is empty except for a large cage full of panicked kids. His kids. Reid’s heart leaps at the sight of them, clutching the bars of the enclosure, packed tight and terrified.
He focuses, calling up his hyper senses, finding it harder this time. He needs more of the dust if he wants to have access to all of it. His fingers stray to his empty pocket, wishing he had dove for the pile of dust he left on the floor of the tent. But Reid can’t think about that now. Instead he feels around him, using his exquisite sight to scan for movement while he listens beyond the gunfire and screaming behind him. Confident they are alone, he runs to the cage, covering the ground so fast he’s almost there before the first voice says his name.
“Reid.” It spreads like a message, until they are all whispering it, reaching for him through the steel slats. “Reid.”
He ignores them, refusing to let them distract him until he can get them free. He eases around the side of the cage, finding the mesh doorway. It’s padlocked and chained.
“Reid.” She’s the only one who can draw his attention and he lets her. Looks up into Leila’s clear blue eyes. She looks so much more lovely in the light of his hyper vision, clear eyes like jewels, pale skin almost glowing. Tears slide down her cheeks, liquid light, as she smiles at him. “You made it.”
He can’t help it. He smiles back. “Long story.” The padlock isn’t heavy but it’s still beyond his ability to break. Reid spots a junk pile on the other side of the compound and runs for it. After a brief search he liberates a short length of metal pipe he hopes will fit and runs back to them.
Reid jams the pipe into the loop of the padlock and twists against it, throwing his shoulders and back into the effort. He’s shocked when the lock pops almost immediately though the kids in the cage are so grateful when he jerks it free along with the chain, they don’t seem to notice, instead surging eagerly against the gated door, shoving it open. Reid dodges back, keeping a careful eye open as they pour out onto the thin grass, huddling close around him.
He spots Marcus in the back and chooses to let all that has happened between them go for now. “Follow me.” Reid leads them through the clearing and toward a small concrete bunker at the edge of the compound, the farthest he can get them from the fighting but also the farthest from the exit road. Not that it matters. They have enough experience running through the woods he knows he can get them out as long as there isn’t another fence.
The bunker is half-full of supplies, set low in the ground, so the pack has to hunker down to get inside. It’s just big enough for all of them to hide in and still be able to swing the sheet metal door shut. Reid peeks out the small glass window, wiping at the dirt that fogs it, keeping an eye out for the fighting he knows could spill out onto this area at any time.
Something large detonates on the other side of the compound. Everyone jumps, a few kids squeal, but for the most part they stay quiet, trained to survive in their silence. The ground shakes, the shock wave rattling the metal door of their hiding place.
Reid looks out the window again. An orange glow fades near the gate to the woods, a column of black smoke climbing away into the night.
“Listen up,” he spins back on them. “I have a lot to tell you.”
He pours it all out, from his discovery of the dust’s affects over time to the goals of Dr. Lund and her betrayal of the colonel. He catches Marcus staring when he talks about Brackett. “Your dad killed her,” Reid says. “At least, I think he did. I heard the gun shot.”
Leila’s hands grip his, squeeze gently, concern in her eyes just visible from the shaft of thin light coming in the small window.
“Are you all right?”
He shrugs, feeling the crawl of fire still inside him. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“Can we trust you any more?” Nishka looks horribly sad. “If that’s true, aren’t you turning into one of them?”
They stare at him like they hoped someone would ask but didn’t want to be the one who did. Reid understands the question. It’s fair. But they don’t have time for doubt.
“I’m fine,” he lies to them for the first time since he met them.
“So let’s go kill one.” Milo glances around at the others. “And do what Reid did.”
He shakes his head immediately, scowling at the boy so deeply Milo shrinks away.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Reid says. “You want to risk it? For all I know it would only take you one dose.” No one says anything. “Besides, I’m pretty sure the hunters let us kill them.”
“But why?” Leila’s hands slid from his.
“I don’t know for sure,” Reid says, “but from what the colonel said, the hunters were never supposed to be able to reproduce.”
“And this allows them to.” Kieran hunches near the back, head low to keep from hitting it on the ceiling, eyes wide but full of horrified fascination.
“That’s nasty.” Reid is happy to see Sarah hasn’t lost her attitude.
“So you think they figured this out on their own? By eating their own dead?” Cole shudders. “That’s sick, Reid.”
“The dust,” he says. “She made it that way. Dr. Lund. So they could create more of themselves. For all I know she told them about it while keeping Brackett in the dark. And knowing the hunters, they would use that information to their advantage.”
“You think they let us kill them?” Leila breathes out softly. “So they could harvest the dust.”
“Maybe. Yes. I bet they’ve been stockpiling it for a while. And planning this escape for just as long.” He knows it’s true because it’s what he would do if he were them. His mind is changing, he’s gone too far into the dark to leave it now. But he has to get the pack to safety before he can think about that.
“What can we do?” Reid spins on Marcus when the challenge comes, ready to tear him apart. Of all of them, Marcus has the least right to be here let alone make trouble. But the look on his face is level and steady, not an ounce of confrontation in it. “I’m serious,” Marcus says. “What can we do?”
“Everyone stay here.” Reid glances out the window again, still blessedly empty. “I’m going to try to find us some weapons. Maybe even a truck. But be ready to run.” It’s his turn to grab Leila’s hand and hold it. “I want you and Kieran to make sure everyone gets out of here.”
She shakes her head. “I’m coming with you.”
“No,” Marcus says, moving his way through the pack until he is beside Reid. “You’re going to do what Reid told you to do. I’m going with him.”
Several voices protest, including Kieran and Milo.
Reid shuts them down with a gesture. “No.”
Marcus meets his eyes, doesn’t back down. There is no sullen anger there anymore, no antagonism. Just emptiness and a hint of sorrow so old Reid has an idea where it comes from.
“You don’t trust me to have your back,” Marcus says. “I get that. But I’m coming with you anyway. If only to prove you wrong.”
“Why should I believe you?” Reid releases Leila who tries to get between them.
“You don’t have a good reason,” Marcus shrugs. “But that doesn’t change the fact I’m coming with you.”
Reid holds Marcus’s gaze for another two breaths then nods. “Fine,” Reid says. “But stay the hell out of my way. And if I suspect, even for a second, that you’re going to betray me—“
“I know,” Marcus grins at him. “You’ll kill me. Get in line.”
Reid can’t help the snort of laughter that comes out of him. He turns from Marcus and looks at Kieran.
“Protect them,” he says before shoving open the door and going back out into the night.
***