“You got an extra D-Cell? Mine’s nearly gone.” It’s Ancil; he’s at the window.
I blink again, tongue-tied.
“You’re supposed to keep your D-Cell charged, Ancil,” Cyphon replies.
With a sullen expression, Ancil replies, “Yeah, I know! I guess I didn’t expect to get ambushed by the Alameeda today.” He looks past Cyphon to me, glowering as if I’m responsible for the attack. When his eyes shift back to Cyphon, he asks, “You gonna help me out or not?”
Cyphon sighs heavily. He rummages around in a soldier’s gear pack at his feet. Locating a rectangular pronged case made of metal, he hands it out the window to the other soldier, who loads it into his gun. The gun makes a sound like its powering up.
Ancil begins to walk away, I reach out and grasp Cyphon’s wrist. “They’re coming!” My heart is in my throat; fear is a violent thing in my chest, tearing from inside me, desperately trying to get out. I have to gulp to hold down the bile that threatens to spew from my mouth. After a few deep breaths, I turn to Cyphon and say, “Get ready to go. It’s not your command; it’s the Alameeda. They intercepted your kesek’s transmission. They’re coming here and they’ll kill them—” I nod out the window at Kesek Alez and the other Cavars he’s with “—and then you. They’ll force me to go with them—we have to change that!”
Cyphon stares at me with a blank expression. “What are you talking about?” he asks.
With my chin I point to his unit. “We’re about to be attacked. They die, but you can live. Things are about to get insane,” I reply with an anxious plea in my voice. “I’m sorry.”
Cyphon lifts his eyes to his commanding officer, half in confusion and half in denial. The E-One lands across from us. Kesek Alez moves forward to greet them. A lone Alameeda soldier steps out onto the stairs of the E-One, attired in black combat armor. He raises a long-barreled weapon. Pressing a button, he shoots Kesek Alez and several other soldiers with darts. The mayhem that follows mirrors my glimpse of the future.
Cyphon makes a move to leave the hovercar. I jump on him, locking arms with him. “You can’t help them!” I scream. “They’re dead! You have to save us!”
“How did you know?”
“We have to go!” I yell instead. “Drive!” I urge as we both lie across the backseat of the vehicle where I’ve pulled us down.
Lifting my head up, I peek through the window just in time to see Kyon alight from the interior of the E-One. Turning to Cyphon, I say in a desperate voice, “If you get out, they’ll kill you and take me! You don’t have any options but to drive.”
Cyphon’s jaw clenches as he scans my face. I nod once, letting him know he has only one choice now. He doesn’t listen to me, though. He yanks his arm from my hands, opening the door to the hovercar. He throws himself out of the vehicle, lifting his riflelike weapon and firing at the Alameeda scattered around the Beezway. In seconds, he’s cut down, falling into the roadway, turning it crimson with his blood.
I sit frozen in the backseat of the vehicle, unable to move. Shouts and the deafening report of automatic weapon fire coming from the Alameeda soldiers echo from outside the hovercar. My head doesn’t duck. I don’t cringe in fear. I know they’re not shooting at me; they’re massacring everyone in the tunnel.
There’s a pause in the noise. I turn my head and glance out the door. Kyon is still by the E-One, his handsome blue eyes are on me, watching my reaction to what’s happening. He looks proud of me—proud of the fact that I’m not screaming, or covering my ears, or crying for them to stop. I’m not doing any of those things because I know that they won’t help. No one here will help. No one here will stop him. He’s probably also proud that I don’t look at all surprised by what’s happening—I knew it would happen—I saw it happen. He knows I saw it.
Kyon takes a step in my direction, but then he stiffens. The door to my right opens and I startle, expecting to see a blond-haired goon looming over me. Instead, the exquisite face that greets my eyes melts my icy heart in an instant. I feel myself go limp against the seat. “Trey!” His name tumbles from my lips. “How did you find me?”
Trey ducks into the backseat; his long arm reaches past me to close the door, blocking Kyon from me. I inhale Trey’s sultry scent and it’s like a drug running through my veins, creating a poignant ache inside me. The door locks as Trey takes me in his arms for a bone-crushing hug. I endure it, unable to breathe. His deep voice is hushed as he says, “I’ve been monitoring communications. They’ve been airing footage of the Alameeda shootout in the commissary. It showed you slipping into the dishery chute. I escaped and have been hiding out—trying to find where you were being held since they took you from my cell. When I saw the footage, I figured you had to be around the dishery somewhere, so I started this way, hoping I’d find you.”