Omega(105)
“You okay?” Harding spoke from above me, still holding Kurt on his shoulders, hands anchored to Hannegan’s back and pants leg.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, forcing myself to sit up and clutching my shoulder to me. “You take Hannegan and the others and get to the woods. Get off campus. Do what I told Hannegan to do and find a way out of here.”
He stared back at me through the glasses, and he looked unbowed, cool. More than I felt, that was for sure. “Come with me.”
“Can’t do that,” I said, and I stood, feeling like a zombie coming back to life. I saw the others that were with us, the kids, saw them all recovering from the force of the explosion; it looked like almost every one of them had been knocked off their feet as well. “There’s only a few of you; get to safety. Get a headcount, move together, and I’ll be along in a little bit, once I finish searching for survivors.”
He watched me carefully. “Looking for your boyfriend?”
I sighed. “Among others.” I couldn’t see much motion through the smoke and shadows that now filled the once-peaceful, tree=lined campus. “Get ‘em out of here, Joshua. Keep them safe.”
He shrugged, no mean feat with Hannegan on his shoulders. “I’ll get ‘em out of here. But I’m going my own way once they’re clear. I’ve got things to do.”
I shook my head, in no mood to argue. “Fine. Whatever. Thanks for your help.”
“So long, Sienna,” he said, carrying Kurt on his shoulders and waving to the others as I watched them fall in behind him in a sort of procession, the flickering flames of our campus lighting their passage through the smoke and destruction—their passage through hell. “I’ll see you again.”
“Why do I not doubt that?” I asked as the last of them disappeared into the smoke being blown from the dormitory fire. I heard a moan from Bjorn and I stomped on his face out of pure pique. The moaning stopped, and I stood there for a long moment, staring at the dormitory—and the wreckage of my life.
26.
I heard footsteps behind me and turned, my hands raised defensively, then I relaxed. “Geez. Give a girl a heart attack.”
“Are you all right?” Bastian was at the lead, Clary and Parks a few steps behind him. I caught the glint of light off Eve Kappler’s wings as she descended to land nearby. At the rear of the procession, Zack was walking in front of Old Man Winter and Ariadne, who was holding her side, her gray suit darkened by blood coming from her nose and beneath her ribs.
“I’m fine,” I said, holding my shoulder. “I sent the kids out of here so I could go look for you all.”
“You left them undefended?” Parks said, pushing past Bastian to stand only a foot from me.
“They’ll be fine,” I said, “Omega wasn’t here for them. Nor for any of us, really. Not to kill, anyway.”
Bastian looked me over while Parks spoke. “Oh, yeah. And you look like hell because they weren’t here to kill anyone.”
“They weren’t,” I said, letting my eyes fall off Zack and back to the fire. The relief coursed through me that he was safe, and I watched the dormitory burn.
“You let them escape,” Old Man Winter said in the low rumble, speaking over the crackle of the flames.