Louisa yelped behind me and scrambled off the bed. With a grunt, she knelt onto the floor next to him. “Oh, God! Are you all right?”
I held my gun at the now opened door, only glancing down at Lockwood. “What’s going on out there?”
“It’s a bloodbath. There are chosen ones everywhere,” Lockwood coughed, more blood spilling from his mouth.
“Can you get up?” I asked.
“Get up? He’s barely breathing!” Louisa exclaimed.
“I can get up,” Lockwood said, slowing pulling himself to his feet.
“I need you two to try and move that wardrobe in front of the door. It might give us some time. I’d help, but I’ve got to keep this gun right where it is.” While I was happy to see Lockwood alive, I wasn’t thankful that he broke down the door that provided what little resistance we had.
“No, Tess! We need to leave,” Lockwood said. “He’s gonna blow it all up. The whole town. He wanted to lure enough of them in first, so at least some of us could make it out. Turns out he’s planted damn bombs all over.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Your father.”
A gun is a weapon; it’s not any sort of safety guarantee.
That weapon up there is just as important as any gun.
My father had a plan, all right.
I tore my eyes from the door and looked at Louisa, who managed to get up. “But we can’t leave,” I said quietly. She wrapped her arms around her torso and looked to the ground. Louisa couldn’t run. She knew she would slow us down.
Lockwood, nearly broken, stalked over to Louisa and lifted her in his arms. “Yes. We. Can,” he gritted.
My eyes welled with tears once again. I would never stop owing Lockwood. “So, what’s the plan?” I asked, pulling myself together and focusing on what was ahead.
“Can’t quite say we got one. Just run like hell for the woods.”
I started to speak when an explosion cut me off. My hands flew to my ears instantly. Louisa buried her face in Lockwood’s chest.
“We have to go now!” he screamed.
“Wait! There’s one thing I need to do first,” I pleaded.
“There’s no time!”
I ignored him, snatching the sheets from the bed. I threw open the trunk that lay at the foot of Louisa’s bed and laid the blanket on the floor. I grabbed anything that looked useful from the trunk, a variety of medical instruments and aids that I had no idea the purpose of. I wrapped the sheet around them, creating a makeshift satchel.
I forced the bag into Louisa’s arms. “I need you to help us. You need to hold onto this bag with all your might. Don’t let it go. Can you do that?” Louisa nodded furiously. “Good. Let’s go.”
I took a deep breath and spun toward the exit.
“Robert!” Louisa yelled. Her voice was the brightest I had heard in hours.
A wave of relief rushed through my body. Despite being covered in dirt and sweat, he appeared to be unharmed. “Let me carry her. I’m quicker,” he said, looking toward Louisa.
I watched as Lockwood hesitated for the slightest of moments. He didn’t want to let her go. “He’s her best chance,” I said.
Lockwood lifted Louisa into my brother-in-law’s waiting arms. He then walked over to me and grabbed onto my hand, clutching it in his. “On the count of three,” he ordered. “One. Two. Three.”
We ran. We ran faster and harder than I have ever run before. We sped through the crumbling community. Buildings built long before my arrival sizzled and burned as the sun faded into darkness. I tried to ignore the bodies that lay sprawled all around us. Grotesque shapes of human suffering and death that littered the ground. I didn’t want to see someone I knew. There was a time to mourn, and I had to live long enough to do so.
There was no rhyme or reason to the bombs that went off. Of course, that was probably my father’s plan all along. He knew he couldn’t beat the chosen ones in combat, so he created chaos in hopes that the strongest and fastest of the Isolationists would have a chance of surviving.
Always survival of the fittest.
As the bombs detonated, we zigged and zagged, praying that our random patterns would give us an edge. But we all knew deep down that nothing but luck would get us to the woods.
The entire time, Lockwood never let go of my hand. Almost seconds after reaching the outside, Robert sprinted past us. I knew that Lockwood shared my thankfulness. Neither one of us minded being left alone, not when it meant Louisa would be safe.
Besides, we weren’t alone. We had each other.
As each bomb went off, there was a distorted, horrific symphony of screams and groans. I couldn’t tell the cries of the chosen ones from the naturals. The explosions caused a dust storm that made anything further than three feet ahead of us nearly impossible to see.