Into The Fire (The Ending Series) (39 page)

I reached for Gabe’s hand with my good arm and gave it a
squeeze. “Thanks. Let’s get out of here.” Tugging on his hand, I pulled him
through the doorway, took a single step into the hallway, and froze again. At
least that time it wasn’t because of the General’s commands.

A pretty, dark-haired woman wearing jeans and a navy-blue
hooded jacket waited with Mase and Camille, her words speeding and her gestures
emphatic as she spoke to them. I caught snippets of what she was saying…
had
a vision…slaughter…warned them…uprising…all Re-gens…so much blood…

She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her. “Gabe, who…?”

“Ah, yes,” Gabe said. “This is the woman I told you
about…RV-one. I mean, Becca.”

“Becca,” I repeated, and her familiarity slipped into place.
I’d recognized her from the photo in her dossier. I was staring at Rebecca
Vaughn, the formerly dead sister of Jake Vaughn. I’d forgotten all about her, about
trying to find her and taking her with me when I fled. “How’d you—”

“Not now. Right now we need to run.”

As if our friends on the outside heard him, the power
flickered several times, then failed completely, leaving us in total darkness.
It was my signal.

“Aw…you’ve got to be kidding me,” Gabe muttered.

“No, it’s good. It’s Carlos,” I told him. “It’s my people.
They’re here.”

“I’ve
seen
this,” Becca said off to the left, her
voice raspy. The way she said “seen” reminded me of her Ability—prophetic
visions. “We must go now. The rebellion will only distract Father and his
guards for so long, and not all are restrained by CL-one’s power. They will be
here soon. I know the way; I’ve seen it. Come. We must hold hands.”

Gabe didn’t give me a chance to protest. One second I was
standing, holding his hand and gaping into the darkness, the next I was pulled
into a fast walk.

Mentally, I found Ray, who I was still connected to by a
thin tether. I pictured Jason and showed her the image. By the time Ray reached
him, drawing me to his exact location, we were outside and running down the
street, the half-moon glowing like a beacon in the night sky. I was surprised
to discover that my concrete prison had been in the basement of the
communications building.

My telepathy was slipperier than usual, making it almost
impossible to lock on to Jason. Finally, after multiple failed attempts, I made
contact.
“We’re on our way,”
I told him, barely managing to complete the
thought before my telepathy sputtered and winked out of commission. I’d burned
it out—again.
Shit!

But I didn’t have time to worry about my damaged Ability. I
needed to focus on my feet, on keeping them moving. Each step jarred my arm,
making invisible shards of glass stab into the swollen flesh.

At least I’m not dead
, I told myself.

31

ZOE

MARCH
22, 1AE

Jason shot up from his squatted position. “She’s coming,” he
said as he started pacing.

With a sporadic, increasingly loud hum, the electricity
flickered back to life, once more illuminating the darkness beyond the golf
course. My head snapped to Carlos, who was still unsteady on his feet from
overexerting his Ability for the first time.

“Fuck, they’re back in business,” Jason spat. A few seconds
later, the humming dissipated and the Colony faded back into blackness.

Carlos dropped to his knees, his breathing labored and his
palms seeming to be the only thing keeping him from falling completely over.

Without hesitation, Chris ran to his side. “Carlos! Why
would you…” she asked, her words trailing off as she wrapped an arm around him,
trying to soothe him.

I began to feel strange…foggy.
Is it his exhaustion?
Anticipation?

“They’re going to be looking for the source of that, now,” Harper
said.

I glanced around at the others. “What do we do?” I was
growing dizzy, and I blinked the sensation away
.
A splitting pain shot
through my mind, and I stumbled forward.

Jake caught me by the arm and pulled me against him. “Are
you alright?”

I nodded, squeezing his hand in reassurance before pointing to
a willow tree a few yards away. “I think Carlos’s emotions are getting to me. I
just need to sit down for a minute.”

Although I felt his apprehension, Jake helped me over to the
tree, easing me down to sit at its base. “I’ll be fine,” I said, leaning my
head back against the trunk, trying to breathe away the dense fog creeping into
my mind.

“Zoe!” Harper called from over near Carlos. “Bring me the
med-kit from my saddle bag.”

When I tried to stand, Jake’s arm eased me back against the
tree. “I’ll get it.” I could feel his concern and conceded.

Jake jogged toward the horses, who were drinking out of the
pond.

“Zoe.”
In my muddled mind, I thought I heard Dani’s
soft, frightened voice. “Zoe.”

I tensed.
It
is
her
.

The voice wasn’t in my head, though,
like her normal telepathic communications, but echoing all around me. I
couldn’t hear the others, my mind too fuzzy to concentrate on anything other
than Dani’s voice.

“Dani?” I whispered.

“Zoe!” I heard the acute
panic in her tone.
“Where are you, Zoe? I need your help…please!”

Oh my God, Dani!
I rose unsteadily to my feet as I looked for her in
the darkness—running toward me, sending me a signal, something…anything. I
squinted, trying to see her, as my heart raced.

“Come find me, Zoe!”
With her words, an image of Dani
hiding in a copse of trees at the border of the Colony came to mind, and I
knew
where to find her.

I turned to call for the others, who were all huddled around
Carlos.
Can’t they hear her?
But before I could call to them, I was
distracted by Dani’s urgency and fear. It felt like I was the one hiding,
scared and alone. I needed to get to the trees. I needed to help her.

Without a second thought, I ran straight for the
Colony…toward Dani.

32

DANI

MARCH
22, 1AE

Our crazed dash from the communications building to the golf
course was the longest mile I’d ever run. It was as though the laws of physics
chose that moment to rearrange, expanding distance and slowing time; the
distance was endless, the time it took to cross it, eternal.

Exhaustion clawed at my hamstrings and quadriceps while pain-induced
adrenaline raged through my body, keeping me from collapsing into a trembling,
twitching pile of limbs. My heart pounded, warring with my lungs for space, and
my vision narrowed to a dark tunnel seeming to accent my route with silver and
red starlight.

Swollen and bruised, my face slowly stopped aching. The
shards of pain shooting up my arm dulled, and my feet turned leaden. They
belonged to someone else, someone who had the will to keep
moving…fleeing…surviving.

We were getting closer to the south end of the Colony, closer
to the golf course and my friends and safety…so close.

Two men dressed in brown long underwear and wearing yellow
armbands sprinted directly across our path only a few yards ahead. Three more
people—Re-gens, based on the scrubs they were wearing—followed them, close on
their heels.

“What—” I gasped and stumbled.

Gabe’s arm latched around my waist, gripping so tightly that
it was almost painful. Or, it would’ve been painful if I’d been able to feel a
single thing in my body. I could use my limbs, clumsily, but they didn’t follow
my brain’s commands well enough to keep me moving ahead. If it hadn’t been for
Gabe, I would’ve been on the ground.

“Doesn’t matter,” Gabe grated hoarsely as he dragged me
along beside him. “If they’re not after us, we just ignore them and keep
going.”

“But…who—why—what’s
going on?” I managed to ask
between several short breaths.

“The Re-gens rebelled. Becca had a vision of Herodson
ordering and carrying out their mass-execution…and told them about it. There
are enough of them to give Herodson’s forces a good fight.”

I was shocked, or as surprised as I could’ve been on the verge
of passing out from exhaustion. A Re-gen rebellion on the night of our escape
was an eerie coincidence. “Good…for them,” I breathed. And then for minutes, or
maybe hours, all I did was run.

With the power down, passing through the usually electrified
chain-link fence surrounding the Colony and into the overgrown golf course was
easy enough. Camille was able to multitask with her Ability enough to tear a
man-sized hole in the fence, allowing the five of us passage, and surprisingly,
the border patrol guards were absent.
They must have been called away from
the fences to help squash the rebellion.
It was weirdly convenient, but I
wasn’t about to complain.

Suddenly, shouting surrounded me, a chaotic miasma of sound
that sent my head spinning. I couldn’t make sense of it.

“Hurry!”

“Get to the horses! They’re here…”

“Dani? Holy fuck, what—?”

“Help her! Please!”

“What’s wrong with her? Let me see…”

I scanned the darkness ahead of me, but all I could see were
shadows. There were too many voices, too much confusion. I couldn’t tell who
was saying what.

“We need to go—now!”

“No! We find Zoe first!”

“What’s
she
doing here?”

“Becca? How did you—”

Hands jerked me away from Gabe’s supportive hold, jarring my
broken arm. The new hands shook as they traveled over my face and clothes,
searching.

“Can you ride?” Belatedly, I realized the question had come
from Jason. It was his hands that examined me, tender and trembling.

“Her arm’s broken, and she almost dropped on the way here.
I’d guess she’s on the verge of passing out.”

That’s Gabe
, I realized. No matter how hard I
focused, coherent thought slipped further away.

“Uh, guys? This one’s not looking so good.”

“What are you talk—” Jason started to snap, but his words
cut off as my knees gave out. He eased me to the ground, cradling me against
his body. “Dani.” If he said anything more, I didn’t hear it.

There was only silence…and darkness.

In the past four months, I’d lost consciousness more than I
had in the previous twenty-six years of my life—knocked out, drugged, or fainted.
It was getting old.

“Dani?” Jason whispered softly, his warm breath brushing my
face. I wasn’t surprised to find his eyes inches from mine, sapphire turned
midnight-blue in the dark of night. They held so much emotion, so much fear and
elation. Too much. They swallowed me, becoming my whole world.

Heart soaring, I raised my left hand to his face. Before I
reached him, before I moved my arm a scant inch, pain enveloped me, and I
whimpered. But I didn’t look away from his beautiful eyes.

“It’s okay,” he murmured as he brushed a sweaty curl out of
my face. “We’ll get you fixed up as soon as we get somewhere safe. No one else
is going to hurt you. I’ve got you now.” Feather-light, he pressed his lips
against mine.

Someone else licked my cheek.
Not someone…Jack!

“Help me up?” I asked, pushing off the overgrown grass with
my good hand. Beside me, my dog wagged his tail excitedly.

Jason’s arms were gentle as he raised me to a sitting
position and ran a hand up and down my spine. I maneuvered my feet under me,
and carefully rose first to my knees, then my feet. I wasn’t standing for long.

“Oh my God! Camille!” I wailed.

Chris, Gabe, Harper, and Mase were kneeling around Camille,
her body stretched out on the grass. I stumbled the several yards separating us
and fell to the ground beside Mase, who was holding her head on his lap.
Silvery moonlight made her paler than usual. She looked almost dead.

“Is she okay?” I asked.

Shocking the hell out of me, Camille’s eyes snapped open and
focused on mine. “Dani,” she breathed. Dark, thick blood streamed from her
nose, staining her lips and teeth a ghastly crimson. “Come closer.” Her voice
was thin, strained.

I did as she asked, leaning in so all she had to do was
whisper. Dread solidified in my stomach when I noticed that her nose wasn’t the
only thing bleeding. Less intensely, but no less frightening, blood leaked from
her ears as well.
Does that mean her brain is bleeding…like Frank’s?

“I had to let go. I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath and
squeezed her eyes shut.

“Let go? It’s fine, Camille.” I hadn’t noticed the tears
leaking from my eyes until a sob bubbled up from my chest. “We did it…we made
it out. We’re gonna be okay…
you’re
gonna be okay.”

She smiled, and her gaze shifted to the man stroking her
dark hair with intimate delicacy. “Giant?”

“Yeah?” Mase’s voice was hoarse.

“I have to tell you something…come here.”

Mase leaned over her, turning his ear to her lips. I could
see her jaw moving, but her words were too faint to hear. Mase’s eyebrows drew
down, and he frowned as she spoke, but when she was done, his face hardened
with resolve. He nodded and pulled away.

Camille’s eyes didn’t leave him as she mouthed, “I love—”
Abruptly they rolled back into her skull, and her mouth formed a small “O.” Her
body starting jerking violently.

“Hold her down!” Harper exclaimed, securing her legs. “She’s
seizing!”

Someone nudged me out of the way with careful forcefulness.
Jason, I realized as I scooted off to the side, only to have Carlos crouch down
and wrap a sturdy arm around me. Huddling together, we watched as Jason helped Gabe
restrain Camille’s shoulders while Chris sat astride her, holding down her
midsection, and Mase cradled her head. I’d never felt so useless.

Almost as suddenly as they started, the tremors ceased.
Camille was absolutely motionless. The others froze in place, seeming to hold
their breath.

“Is she…breathing?” I choked out. Shock had interrupted my
tears, but the sorrow swelled anew in my chest.
I did this…this is my
fault…I asked her to…it’s my fault…

“No pulse,” Harper said. He’d reached up to her wrist,
though I hadn’t noticed him move.

“Camille?” Mase sobbed, bending over her head. “Camille!”

Chris shoved Jason’s shoulder and shouted, “Move him! We have
to open her airway!”

Jason met Gabe’s eyes and nodded once in Mase’s direction.
They moved behind the Re-gen, crouching to drag him back several feet. He
dragged Camille with him.

“You have to let go, Mase, or they can’t help her!” I cried.
His eyes met mine, pleading, and I crawled closer. “Let go, Mase, please.
Let
go
.”

After a breath—a lifetime—he did. Jason and Gabe tugged him
backward, and Chris rose up on her knees, lifted Camille’s neck so her head
tilted back, and swept a finger into her mouth, making sure her airway was
clear. Locking her hands together, Chris placed them on Camille’s chest and
glanced back at Harper. “I’ll do the chest compressions, you do the breaths?”

Harper nodded and crawled around Camille’s body until he was
kneeling by her head.

“Now,” she said, then waited for him to act as Camille’s
lungs before resuming compressions.

Three times they went through the cycle with no change.
Three times Chris barked, “Now,” and three times we all watched as Harper touched
his mouth to Camille’s, offering her his breath. On the beginning of the fourth
cycle, a strange, cackling sound rang out above us, breaking through the
repetitive sounds of CPR.

“Kak-kak-kak. Kak-kak-kak.”

I stared up into the starlit sky, searching for the source
of the sound. A shape, white against the darkness, swooped down. It glided
past, barely a few yards from my head, and repeated, “Kak-kak-kak. Kak-kak-kak.”

“One of yours?” Jason asked, catching my eye. “It’s been
following us since early this morning.”

Understanding almost brought a smile to my face. “Ray!”
Before I could reach out to the gleaming falcon with my mind, before I could
even find out if my Ability worked, gunshots cracked in the not-too-far-off
distance in the same direction Ray had come from.
Is she warning us?

An instant later, two people coalesced in the moon shadows
between the trees separating our current stretch of grass from that of another
hole.

“Chris! Harper!” Jason hissed in warning as he rose to his
feet. “Jake and Sanchez are returning. Sanchez says there’s no sign of her.
You’ve got until they reach us to bring the girl back or call it.” He paused to
study the two people sprinting toward us. “I’d say you’ve got thirty seconds,
max.”

I glanced around at my companions and then back out at the
approaching runners, realizing Zoe was nowhere in sight. “Where’s Zoe?” I
asked, gut clenching.

Jason’s jaw tensed, but he
did
answer. “We don’t
know.” It wasn’t much of an answer. “Can you ride?” Jason asked Mase, tossing
him a pistol.

Mase caught the gun and shrugged.

“What do you mean? You don’t know where she is?” I shrieked.
I shot a look at Chris, who was pumping Camille’s chest with renewed fervor.
C’mon,
Camille, breathe!
“Zo came with you guys, right?”

“She wandered off. Now we can’t find her.” Suddenly, Jason’s
night-darkened eyes pinned me in place. “Can you feel her?”

I opened myself up to my telepathy—or tried to—but I
couldn’t reach it. “I can’t…I can’t feel anyone. Oh God, Zo!” I started to
wring my hands but winced at the sharp stab of pain the motion caused. “Burnout.
My telepathy’s not working at all,” I whispered, terrified. “We have to keep
looking for her! We can’t just leave her!”
Zoe…gone. Camille…dead. And why?
So I can be with my friends again? My life’s not worth theirs! How could I be
so selfish? How could I let them risk themselves for me? How could I—

A gasp, soft and stuttering, broke my mental flogging. Wide-eyed,
I spun to stare at the trio of people still sitting in a cluster on the
overgrown grass around Camille…who was alive.

Camille isn’t dead!

Chris was hanging her head, and Harper was running his
fingers through his hair.

An encore of gunshots from multiple directions shattered the
anxious tableau. Jake and Sanchez reached us seconds later, Sanchez calling
out, “We’ve got to move, now!”

Pain, exhaustion, shock, and fear immobilized me while the
others moved around me. I should have been doing something, I knew, but I
just…couldn’t. “But, Zo…”

Again, gunshots cracked through the night, dangerously
close. Hands were on my hips, lifting me, and instead of standing in the
untrimmed grass, I was sitting in a saddle. Wings’s saddle. She nickered softly
and looked back at me, nodding her head in greeting.

“Are you fine to ride?” Jason asked from the ground. I
nodded dumbly, watching as he mounted his chestnut gelding and turned him in a
prancing circle. “Follow me,” he called softly and kicked his horse into
motion.

Glancing around at my companions, I noted that everyone had
a mount, with Camille riding in front of Carlos. She was seated across his lap,
unconscious but alive. I spurred Wings into motion and rode away from the
Colony…from hell.

Without Zoe.