Inner Circle

by Y A Marks

  Moody glanced at Raj, then kneeled beside me. A tingle rolled along my neck.

  “Let me take a look.” Moody pushed me out of the way and rolled the chair back and forth a bit. “Looks fine. C’mon, we need to get out of here.”

  “Oh, okay. Weird, huh?” I said, trying to sound innocent.

  My fingers itched for my gun. It was wedged in the back of my pants because I needed my hands to push Norwood. With Moody behind me, there was no way I could grab it without him seeing.

  My mind continued to work through the puzzle. Raj liked Jonas. He had helped him for who knows how long, however, Raj has—Crix, that was it.

  I placed a smile on my face and said as cheerfully as possible, “When we get out of here, I’m going to go get myself the best coffee ever. I haven’t had a chocolate crème mocha it seems like in ages.”

  Raj glanced back at me. His eyebrows twisted. I glanced over my shoulder to Ares and gave him a happy shrug.

  I pushed Norwood’s chair and followed behind Raj, Shannon, and Jonas who were a few feet in front of me. As I passed the midway point, I glanced at Raj. “Can women drink coffee when they are pregnant?”

  “Some do. But I’ve heard it’s not the best thing,” Raj said.

  “I heard women can get cravings for stuff, though. What happens when you crave coffee? I just couldn’t imagine. I’m still young, but—”

  “You just make do. Make the hard choice for the health of the child.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  The gate behind us closed. I craned my head backward and saw a familiar set of eye-glasses watching me from the corner of the hallway. It was only a brief moment, but I had seen Clarisse. Vogel was set to kill Jonas, but Raj was set to kill me. Clarisse couldn’t find a clean way to do it in the hospital. She needed another way. The first attack on the township wasn’t for Jonas, it was for me. Raj had even set us up when he sent us to the Rattler Township. Trivet had saved our lives. Raj couldn’t control all the aspects of the prison. He couldn’t even kill off a scrawny sixteen-year-old. How could he raise his child in here or take the chance that someone may kill his wife? All the events started to align.

  Vogel had said Jonas was worth a whole life sentence. How much was I worth?

  “It must be hard to be a parent, worried all of the time. Especially in this place,” I said.

  Raj nodded. “You have no idea.”

  I stared at his right hand. He still held his gun, despite pushing the cart with Jonas and Shannon. Moody always had his gun, even from the beginning.

  I should thank Moody the Monster. If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have discovered the danger.

  “Have you made any hard choices recently?” I asked.

  Raj’s head lowered. “You make hard choices all the time.”

  Shannon nodded ever so slightly. Tension mounted behind me with Ares and Moody. We neared the end of the hallway. The glass gate stood open. I guessed that once Raj pushed Jonas out of firing range, then Raj would turn and kill me, Pyra, and Ares. Jonas was too out of it to know or remember anything.

  My heart throbbed. I itched for the defining moment. I was ready, and the corridor ended.

  Raj guided the cart through the opening to the outside. The first two wheels tottered over the gap where the glass slid back and forth. He got the cart half-way there and stopped.

  Shannon was my eyes behind me. I raised my voice a little. “Did you make the hard choice to kill me?”

  Raj paused. His whole body slumped over as he laughed. “It wasn’t my choice. Cause I really don’t give a damn about you.”

  He spun his head around, and his expression changed. He kicked the cart through the opening. The cart angled onto two wheels and flipped over. Shannon tumbled and screamed. Jonas tumbled and landed a few feet away from her.

  My breath stilled as my mind tried to catch up.

  Raj aimed his gun and fired. Three blasts blossomed from the gun’s barrel.

  Something moved in front of me—no, it was someone.

  My hand whipped behind my back and grabbed my gun. In less than a second, it rose to shoulder height. My left hand wrapped around the gun’s grip, to balance over both arms. My right leg took a light step back to keep me centered as my finger tightened around the trigger.

  A burning sensation blasted up my arm like fire. I had to take a step forward to keep from being thrown off balance by the pain.

  My eyes shot back at Raj. Besides the sizzling in my arm, I was okay. We were both only ten feet away from each other. At this range, I was deadly accurate. I glanced down and noticed the hole I had opened up in his stomach. Raj wrapped a hand over the blood spewing onto the floor.

  I let myself breathe again. My mind fumbled wondering what had happened. There was no way Raj could have missed. How could he have not killed me when I was only ten feet away?

  I heard a gurgle and glanced to my right. Norwood slumped over to the side of the corridor. He had three holes in his chest, and his head was limp.

  My heart stopped. Madness wrapped its slimy tentacles around my neck as noise echoed in my ears. The scent of Norwood’s blood draped over me. My hands trembled, and madness began to take me. I wanted Norwood to live, to see his daughter again. I didn’t want him dead. Why did he save me? Why did he jump in front of the bullets?

  “No!” I screamed.

  A thump sounded behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, Ares wiped a knife on his pants. Moody was on the ground, gun in hand.

  “I just don’t get it.” Raj laughed as he held his stomach. “Why did he do that? I could have killed your dumb ass once and for all!”

  I stumbled forward, pushing the chair out of the way. I steadied my gaze. I had wanted him to have a chance to see his child. For some reason, my emotions locked in battle. I didn’t hate him, but I couldn’t feel anything as his life drained from his body. I searched my mind to make the argument to save him but quickly recognized that he wasn’t worth my compassion.

  His face tightened with anger. “What does every idiot in the world see in you?”

  “I wish I knew,” I said and fired three more rounds into him.

  He fell over dead.

  The gun fell from my hands and clattered to the linoleum floor. I crawled to Norwood and guided his head back. His eyes rotated toward mine. He smiled and closed his eyes.

  “Good job,” he said.

  “Good job? Good job? No, no it’s not a good job. You have to live. You have a daughter and a son. You have to live for them.”

  I didn’t want Norwood to die. His daughter would hate me. She would never forgive me. I’d be some faceless—no, she knew my face. She would think of me every day for the rest of her life as the person who stole her father away from her. I would be the murderer I was in the woods. I’d be the person that I hated. I didn’t want that. I wanted—needed those around me to be happy and safe.

  I shook his arm. “You live. You have a family. Don’t you leave them. Don’t leave them!”

  My body tensed. A hand touched my back. I flinched, my whole body bounding forward. With a side glance, I saw Ares. His eyes were sad and his lips taught.

  “We need to go,” he said.

  I shuddered. I didn’t want to leave Norwood here. A bloodbath of a hallway wasn’t the place for him. He deserved better than this. Why couldn’t I provide more for him?

  Norwood’s eyes cracked open just enough to see a millimeter of his irises moving back and forward. He looked beyond me to Ares. “Get her out of here.”

  Ares yanked me to my feet. A thousand tiny jolts shot outward from my wounded arm. I screamed and wobbled, grabbing the place where the bullet cut a crater in my arm.

  A whining noise startled me. My gaze slid around the glass hallway, trying to find the source. Shannon was at the exit. Her arms were pressed against the door. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Despite all my efforts to get everyone free, the outer gate was closing, trying to lock me and Ares in the corridor.

&n
bsp; CHAPTER 26

  “Hurry up!” Shannon yelled. “Get Pyra!”

  I had completely forgotten about her. As the horn blared announcing the gate was closing, I dashed over and grabbed the cart with Pyra on it. Using all my strength, I forced it toward me. It wouldn’t budge. Something was stuck. I glanced down. Moody’s arm was wedged under the wheel. I couldn’t get enough momentum to get the cart to roll over it.

  “It won’t move,” I mumbled.

  Ares dashed to my side. He yanked Pyra off the cart and lifted her into his arms.

  “Got her. Let’s go,” he said.

  We both hobbled toward the door. My shaky legs pressed against the ground. Every step was torture. My body fumbled just to stay upright. I had no energy and no motivation to continue. My mind and heart were lost in a tangled web of confusion as the glass wall continued along its path. Halfway to the door, reality set in. My cheeks burned as the last few inches of the glass wall slid into place.

  I rotated in circles, glancing at my new prison. There was heavy glass on all sides, trapping me inside. My gaze focused through the transparent walls into the beautiful gardens around the front of the building. The bright pink, white, and green leaves of spring mocked me. I was so close, yet so far away.

  My eyes focused back toward the checkpoint. I took a step forward and scooped my gun off the ground. “Open the door!”

  The officer raised his hands but backed away from the panel. With fear across his face, he opened a side door and ran away.

  Furious, I let several bullets fly toward the checkpoint. The bullets hit and chipped the glass, but didn’t penetrate.

  After all of that effort, I was trapped.

  Every drop of energy I had drained away like water in a sink. My back hit the glass behind me. I slid down and fell to the floor in a lump. My fingers reached into my hair and tugged on the strands, forcing me to feel something other than disappointment.

  Ares tended to Pyra, doing something out of the corner of my eye.

  “You did a good job,” he said. “Jonas is out. Shannon might be able to get him to safety.”

  I stared down the hallway. Shannon had left the glass and checked on Jonas. Ares was right, at least both of them still had a chance. I wasn’t sure how far they would get, but maybe Shannon had some secrets I didn’t know about.

  “What about your son?” I said.

  “He’ll be okay. I’m sure Trivet got him out.”

  “Don’t you want to see him?” I asked, my voice cracking. I tried to focus on something else—tried to believe some good would come from this. Nothing of importance entered my mind, only emptiness, and despair.

  Ares patted my shoulder. “My son’s safe. That’s all that matters.”

  My head nodded, and my throat tightened. There was nothing either of us could do. Without Norwood alive, there wasn’t a reason for the officer to let us out. Our bargaining chip was dead. Pretty soon, other prison guards would arrive and would re-arrest us. It didn’t matter if most of the prisoners were at the north wall, sooner or later they’d recognize there were a few at the main entryway.

  I hurt all over. My arm was just the beginning of my pain. I wanted to see Rylan again. I wanted to go on a second date. I didn’t know what happened to Mari and Miko. Were they still alive? Did they survive the attack? With all that had happened, Clarisse would find a way to kill me off. My Death Days weren’t over.

  Tears fell from my eyes, and I gripped my knees. In twenty-four hours, I was sure to be dead. There was no one to protect me and all of my efforts to save everyone were in vain.

  Bursts of air shot from my lungs despite trying to hold them in. I cried into my knees as Ares rubbed my shoulder. Raising my head, I wiped my face.

  “How are your injuries? Can you still walk?” I asked.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know what our fight is going to be like in a little while. I’m just trying to figure something out.”

  A shadow covered the hallway, blocking out the sun. My stomach dropped the last few inches to the floor. The police had found us already. I had hoped that Shannon and Jonas would get away. I didn’t want all this effort to be for nothing. Jonas could still die. The Death Days weren’t over. Shannon had said that she almost didn’t make it last year. How would Jonas live when his escort was either dead or barely breathing?

  I gazed into the sky. Specks of light glowed at the edges of a huge vehicle. My eyes winced between the varying contrast of shadow and sunlight as the flying vehicle hovered above us. Three huge rectangular blocks connected to one another, floating in the air. Two of the blocks were tall. I guessed that they were the engines. Fast moving blue streaks shot out of them over the ground as the monstrosity of a ship descended. In the main, more horizontal part of the ship, four people stood in a triangular cockpit type area. Three of them were seated. The only one who was not seated pointed at me and placed his hands over his head in repetitious movements. The more I stared, the more bewildered I got.

  I stood. My palm cleared my tears. I took a few steps toward the glass wall in front of me. That wasn’t just a man standing—that was…

  “Trivet?”

  Immediately, I recognized what he was saying. Two, large guns slid out of the bottom of the ship. They slid slightly from side to side as they took aim.

  “He wants us to duck!” I yelled.

  My stomach dropped. A surge of fear blasted through me.

  Ares kneeled. I ran over and shielded Pyra. The guns of the ship came to life and bright streaks shot through the glass. Sharp shards ping-ponged around the corridor for several seconds before going dormant. The light whir of the guns entered into my ears along with the soft sounds of birds singing with the sunrise. The smell of grass and daffodils danced in the breeze.

  I stood and brushed off myself. A few pieces of glass stuck in my legs. Drops of blood seeped into my pants.

  I didn’t care. I hobbled to the new opening of my glass prison. With the last bit of energy I had, I limped over bullet shells and polycarbonate.

  Metal buckets shot down from the ship. Several men and women dressed in white and red ran out to us. They picked up Jonas, Shannon, and Pyra and rushed them back to the buckets. Soon, two of them came up to me. Before I could argue, they lifted me up on a small mobile cot and took me to one of the buckets. A second later, the bucket began its ascent into the ship.

  I was rushed into a wide, metal compartment with the other evacuees. Besides the overwhelming confusion, I relaxed. I was safe and those I cared about were with me, even whiny Pyra.

  Once Pyra, Shannon, Ares, and Jonas were secured, the ship banked to the left. An intense G-force slammed into me as the ship shot toward who knows where.

  Curtains wrapped around the bed I laid on. The nurses stripped me, cleaned me, and shot me with a hundred needles. I faded away into darkness. I wanted to fight. Wanted to stay awake, but the more I struggled the faster the sleep came until I was gone into the abyss.

  ***

  A dozen mumbles lulled me out of my drug induced sleep. Between long blinks, the tiny gaps in the curtains took shape. People who appeared to be nurses traveled back and forth, glancing at patients and writing down notes on their hand-held monitors or PCDs.

  My gaze fell on the tube coming from my arm. I didn’t like people sticking me with needles and drugging me. I pinched the end and slowly pulled out the needle. I held my hand over the tiny hole hoping that my blood would clot. With my left hand, I tapped the bandaged areas of my body. My right, upper arm burned. I remembered that was where I had been shot by Moody the Monster when he was behind me. I ran my fingers over what seemed like scores of tiny bandages and knew those covered either the injuries inflicted by the Death Days or by the gunship shattering the outside wall of the glass corridor.

  One hand rested on my chest, the other hand covered the needle in my elbow. My heart steadied. Norwood had saved my life.

  I still didn’t understand why he had done it. I liked him well
enough, but why would he get himself killed for me? It didn’t make sense and only made me feel worse. He was just another person added to my ever-increasing list of failures.

  I rolled over on my hip. Stinging sensations stabbed my left side. Each tiny torment helped my mind to focus and remove the drowsiness of the drugs. After what could have been one minute or ten—I was still struggling to gain consciousness—I sat up.

  I was in a white gown and there was a slight draft on my back. This place was much more like a hospital than the Escerica compound. The prison guard’s clothes, which I had changed into, lay discarded on the floor. I reached for them and my undergarments. Over the next fifteen minutes, I struggled to put on all of them. I liked the idea of being clean, but walking around with my pale bottom displayed for the world to see was not my idea of a good time.

  It took a while to stand on my own. I don’t know if it was because the floor seemed to be swaying or if it was the drugs. Either way, another few minutes passed before I left the curtain.

  I emerged into a room that appeared to be a large square, but unlike with the Escerica bunker, this place looked straight out of some kind of sci-fi movie. There were sixteen stations. At each one there was a monitor and a few other screens displaying numbers and graphs. Tiny beeps played in the room like an off-beat, new age band. The smell was pleasant. There was a mild disinfectant, but it was masked by… fresh salt air? The fragrance was out of place but welcomed. Curtains surrounded six of the stations. I hobbled over to the one closest to me. The sign outside read “Shannon Nelson.”

  I pushed the curtain aside and peeked in. Shannon’s face was relaxed, and her eyes closed. Both legs were bandaged and lay atop the sheets while the rest of her was covered. The beeping tone next to her sounded her heartbeat. She was alive.

  A thousand-pound weight lifted off my chest. My humanity was saved. Shannon could go home to her mom and see her brother again.

  I closed the curtains just as a nurse sped by.

  “What are you doing out of bed?” she asked. Her tone was excited, and her eyebrows tight. “We need to get you back. Come with me.”