by Ryan Casey
Aoife scrambled back, jumping out of her fucking skin. “Fuck.”
“Awake now?”
For a second, Aoife felt fear. Total fear. Because whoever was here couldn’t have good intentions. They’d be a bandit. Or one of Yuri’s people, out to hunt her.
But when she saw who was standing right there and who she had by her side, she felt a weight rise off her shoulders.
“Kayleigh,” she said. “Rex.”
She hugged Kayleigh. Hugged Rex, too. It hurt to hug them both. And Rex sure seemed like he was enjoying it more than Kayleigh was, that was for sure.
“Okay,” Kayleigh said, pushing her away. “Okay. Enough of the affection. You stink. You’ve looked better.”
Aoife noticed the cuts across Kayleigh’s face. The bruises. And the torn clothes. “Could say the same about you.”
Kayleigh nodded. “Yeah, well. Surviving an explosion does that to a person.”
Aoife lowered her head. “I’m so—”
“Don’t you dare apologise for a thing. Yuri played us for mugs. But even if we hadn’t… we weren’t to know.”
Aoife felt tears welling up. She couldn’t look Kayleigh in the eye. “I thought you were dead.”
Kayleigh lifted Aoife’s chin, smiled at her. “Well, I’m not. I’m here. I’m right here. Question is, what the fuck are you doing lying here feeling sorry for yourself?”
Aoife lowered her head again. She felt ashamed. Ashamed of what had happened. Responsible. “I… They made me leave. They think—they think I’m a terrorist. One of the insurgents.”
Kayleigh smirked. “Yuri’s people ain’t so keen on us either. I barely got away with my life. Bastard.”
“How did you find me?”
“Wasn’t hard. Tracked you from miles back. Took a few wrong turns along the way, but hey. Looks like I’m an expert tracker these days. Who’d have thought it, hmm?”
Aoife smiled. “I’m proud of you.”
She started crying again. She couldn’t contain it.
“Hey,” Kayleigh said, sounding firmer now. “I get it. Really, I do.”
“We had everything. And we lost it all. All because we got ourselves involved in… in something we shouldn’t have. I should never have got us caught like I did.”
“Maybe not,” Kayleigh said. “But the game’s not up. Far from it.”
Aoife narrowed her eyes. “What?”
Kayleigh put a hand on her shoulder, which made Aoife wince. “One thing they don’t know about us is the shit we’ve been through. And how we don’t give up. No matter what. But another thing they’re forgetting is we know exactly where to hit them where it hurts the most.”
“I don’t understand,” Aoife said.
Kayleigh smiled. “The power source.”
Aoife could hardly believe what she was hearing. “What? But that’s… that’s everything we built towards.”
“No,” Kayleigh said. “Power’s nice. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll miss my luxury showers. But somewhere along the way, we got so caught up in power again that we forgot the best thing we’ve built wasn’t power at all. It’s a community.”
Aoife heard what Kayleigh was saying. And as cheesy as it was, she heard her.
“But we don’t have a community,” she said. “Not now they think we’re traitors.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Kayleigh said.
What? Aoife didn’t understand. She didn’t see what Kayleigh was getting at.
Not until suddenly, out of nowhere, she saw figures emerging.
Emerging from the shadows.
Closing in on the house.
Ten.
No. Twenty. At least.
All of them people she recognised.
Some of them looking weak. Some of them looking like they’d been through hell.
But all of them, Sanctuary.
“We don’t need power,” Kayleigh said. “Not when we’ve got each other. Now. Are you ready to get yourself kitted up?”
Aoife shook her head. “Are you really suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
“Why the fuck not?” Kayleigh said. “The way it stands, the best chance we have of really hurting Yuri is a blow right to his chest. And the biggest blow we can make? Destroying that power source. Now, you know where it is, don’t you?”
Aoife thought back to her trips down there with Harvey. “Just… just outside the inner walls.”
“Then what the hell are we waiting for?” Kayleigh asked.
Aoife looked around at the people here, those who had joined her side, and she shook her head. “Do we really want to do this?”
“I don’t see us standing a chance taking Yuri on. Not with the kind of numbers he’s got. Way, way more than I thought. But hell. If we can take the power out, at least it’s something, right? What have we got to lose?”
Aoife wanted to shake her head.
She wanted to resist.
But in the end… she could see a kind of logic in what Kayleigh was saying.
A daring kind of logic, but logic all the same.
Kayleigh held out a hand.
All around, Aoife saw the smiling residents of Sanctuary.
Ready to stand by their side.
Not hating her like she’d expected. Not despising her.
But ready to fight.
She took a deep breath.
Then, she grabbed Kayleigh’s hand and stepped up.
“I’m ready,” she said.
“Good,” Kayleigh said. “Then let’s go fuck some shit up. We’re destroying that damned power source. And we’re destroying Yuri. Once and for all.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Yuri looked out at the streets of Sanctuary and couldn’t shake the feeling of concern hanging over him.
It was morning now. A bright, beautiful morning. The air was warm. He could hear birdsong above.
And the most beautiful thing of all?
The sight of his people, standing in the streets.
Standing in their new home.
He stood there in the middle of the main road that ran through Sanctuary, and he smiled. Smiled at the sight of children playing. At fires being extinguished. But more than anything, at the happiness that accompanied discovering power.
Because that’s what this was all about, really.
Sanctuary was okay when it came to being a safe place to reside. But it wasn’t impenetrable. Yuri and his people had more than proven that fact.
But where Sanctuary’s value really lay was in its electricity.
Its power.
He knew the value of power. It was impossible to put a figure on it.
But now they were here, and now they had their hands on a community charged by electricity, they could begin to attract outsiders to join their cause.
And he’d heard the rumours, too. The rumours of other places like this. Other “districts”, as they were known.
Maybe Sanctuary was just the beginning of his empire.
Humanity needed order. And who better a man to instil it?
So far, so good.
But he had a bad feeling.
He looked at the blood on the streets as he walked on through. A bitter taste filled his mouth as he looked down at that blood. The blood of the people he’d killed. The blood of the people he’d ordered to kill. The remains of the bodies that had been blown apart in the explosion, ripped open in the attack.
And yet… something still wasn’t right.
“How many did you say there were?”
Trent, one of Yuri’s closest, shrugged. “Hard to know. But we’re guessin’ about fifty bodies. Hard to tell with the state of some of ’em, y’know.”
Yuri’s stomach tensed at that. Because there were way, way more than fifty people here. Twice that, at least.
Which meant there was twice this community’s population unaccounted for.
“And the women?”
Trent looked at the ground, shook his head. “Not a sign.”
Yuri gritted his teeth harder at that. He knew the chances the women—Aoife and Kayleigh—had got away was slim at best. But there was still that niggling fear. That nagging suspicion that if they’d got away, if they’d escaped this place, then they might actually still pose some kind of threat… that feeling wouldn’t go away.
Because he knew what kind of character Aoife was. He’d seen how much of a fighter she was. She wasn’t the kind who was going to give up willingly.
And she’d no doubt have a lot of questions for Yuri.
“I wouldn’t worry about it, boss,” Trent said. “Like, what can they do, really? This place is ours. If any of ’em comes within a mile of it, we’ll blast ’em off the face of the earth.”
Yuri nodded. He knew Trent was right. After all, what could the pair of them do to a community as big as Sanctuary?
Especially when he’d gone a long way to convincing the surviving people of Sanctuary that they were both just terrorists?
And yet, at the same time, Yuri couldn’t shift that sense of concern.
It ate away at him. The one thing stopping him from settling. From enjoying the laughter, and the happiness, and the joy, and the power.
He saw these people all around him with smiles on their faces. People who’d chosen to follow him. People he’d told of power and who had followed him. And now this was their reward for following him. This was the end of the line for them, as far as they were concerned. This was the treasure at the end of the rainbow. This was what was buried beneath that X that marked the spot.
But not for Yuri.
That fear just wouldn’t go away.
He looked around at the community, at the walls, and over at the gates. He could see the trees in the distance, just beyond those gates. The outside world. Big and vast and full of unpredictability, full of surprises, as he knew too well.
And then he sighed. “You’re probably right. But make sure if you see them, you do one thing. No questions asked.”
“And what’s that?” Trent asked.
Yuri took a deep breath and swallowed a lump in his throat. “You shoot on sight.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“Is this it?” Kayleigh asked.
“Apparently so,” Aoife said.
“Phew.”
“What?”
“All this power lighting up Sanctuary. All those lights. All that hot water. And this is all that’s holding it all. All that’s holding all the power.”
Aoife nodded. She looked ahead at the metallic green structure right before her. It was unremarkable, to say the least. Green brick. Rusty metal doors.
And a buzz to it.
A buzz of this invisible energy that was so valuable.
An energy that had sparked a war that she’d ended up caught in the middle of.
“Surprised there’s not more people guarding the place,” Kayleigh said.
“I wouldn’t speak too soon.”
“Well, either way. We’d better get a move on, hadn’t we?”
Aoife looked around at Kayleigh. At Rex, right by her side. And then she looked at the rest of the people who were joining them. Survivors. Survivors from the attack on Sanctuary. About forty of them total. All of them standing with them. Hanging back. Watching.
“I need to do this alone,” Aoife said.
Kayleigh shook her head. “Not a chance.”
“There’s no way we do this with everyone. If something goes wrong, we all fall. We need… we need some way of making sure that doesn’t happen.”
“A distraction?” Kayleigh said.
“I don’t want to call it that. I don’t want to use people as bait.”
“But that’s exactly what you’re suggesting. Isn’t it?”
Aoife lowered her head. She knew the second she stepped inside the power source that there’d be all kinds of alarms rigged. She knew Yuri’s people would be onto them in no time at all.
“I might need… I might need to draw them away from here. Some kind of distraction. To keep the attention off me. If this is really what we’re going to do.”
Kayleigh shook her head. “You’ve been down here yourself before. You know exactly where you have to go. The last place we want you is out here using yourself as bait.”
“Then what other choice do we have?”
Kayleigh quite visibly swallowed a lump in her throat. “I can cause the distraction.”
Aoife shook her head. “Not a chance.”
“Someone has to,” Kayleigh said. “And if… if you really think this is gonna work. If you really want to strike Yuri in the heart of what he holds dearest, just like I do, then yeah. I happen to think it’s worth it. And I’ll bet there’s plenty of others who think the exact same thing.”
Aoife looked at the ground. Shook her head. She couldn’t believe what Kayleigh was suggesting. She was suggesting causing some kind of distraction that would allow Aoife to enter the power source. Give her the time she needed to destroy it, once and for all.
“I need you to know something,” Aoife said. “About… about both of us. About what this means for us.”
“You don’t have to say it,” Kayleigh said, putting a finger to her lips. “I already know exactly what you’re going to say.”
Aoife nodded. She knew Kayleigh understood. Where they were going—where both of them were going—there was a good chance they weren’t going to come back.
Aoife wasn’t sure she was going to make it out of the power source alive.
And she wasn’t sure Kayleigh was going to survive acting as a distraction, either.
“We get the rest of the people somewhere safe. Somewhere far away. For now, at least. And then we start.”
Someone stepped up. A man. Ben, he was called. Always very vocal. Stubborn old git. Aoife never really gelled with him. But he was here, and he was standing with her and Kayleigh, and that had to count for something.
“You can try your damnedest to make us get somewhere safe,” Ben said. “But the truth is… this is our home. People died. Friends died to this Yuri guy. I’m not gonna hide in the shadows while you two try and destroy him. None of us are.”
Aoife shook her head. She wanted to stand up to him, wanted to argue.
But then she saw them all standing beside him.
All of them. Every single person from Sanctuary, regardless of age, gender… all of them were standing there. Like they were a united force.
“We’re going to get our home back,” Ben said. “Power or no power. And we’re gonna help you take down the man who took it from us.”
Aoife looked at them all. Looked at all these people, led by Kayleigh.
She felt a lump in her throat at their loyalty. Felt like crying for ever doubting Harvey, for ever questioning his legacy.
She took a deep breath, and she nodded at Kayleigh.
“Then you go,” she said. “You go, and you do what you need to do.”
Kayleigh nodded back. Looked pretty tearful herself.
She took a few steps back. Went to walk away.
And then she walked right up to Aoife and kissed her, right on the lips.
She pulled back. Aoife felt a spark inside her. A fire ignited inside.
“What…”
“I love you, Aoife. I love you, you blind, stubborn idiot. Now go and destroy that power source. Words I never fucking thought I’d say.”
Aoife smiled. The warmth inside her growing warmer and warmer.
“I love you too,” she said.
She looked at those people. That crowd of people, all here to work with her, all ready to run to her aid.
And then she took a deep breath, and she turned around.
It was time to go into the power source.
It was time to destroy the electricity.
It was time to end this, once and for—
Gunshot.
Shouts.
“They’re here!”
Aoife’s skin went cold.
It was already to
o late.
Yuri’s people were here.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Aoife heard the gunfire and the shouts, and she knew she was already too late.
Yuri’s people were already here.
They were already here, and the people of Sanctuary were under attack.
Time was running out.
She stood there in the front of this crowd. Saw them turning around. Half-expected them to start running. Start fleeing. Start bolting for their lives and dispersing.
But they didn’t.
They stood their ground.
Stood shoulder to shoulder and fought back.
Like they were trying to stop Yuri’s people getting through to Aoife.
Like suddenly, her goal, her urgency to destroy the power they once held central to their entire lives, was now the most important thing in the world.
More important even than their lives as individuals.
She looked around, and she lifted her pistol. She wanted to stand up and fight with them. She didn’t want to leave them. Not again. Not after everything that had happened. And not after the amount of time she’d walked away from situations like this in the past, from people like this in the past.
Not after being so responsible for so many deaths in the past.
But as she stepped forward, Kayleigh pushed her back.
“Kayleigh?”
Kayleigh had a look of concern on her wide-eyed face. “You need to go.”
“But I—”
“You’re only gonna get one shot at this. One fucking shot. If you don’t go now, we’ll be dying for nothing. You’ve got to go. You’ve got to try. You have to.”
Aoife couldn’t move. She shook her head. Tears welling up. “I can’t leave you.”
“You’re not leaving us,” Kayleigh said, putting a soft hand to her face. “We’re choosing to be here. We’re choosing to fight for this. Because it’s what we believe in.”
Aoife heard the shouting. She heard the cries. She heard the sound of conflict, of war, of people she knew dying, and of people she knew fighting for what they believed in, and she didn’t want to abandon them. She didn’t want to leave them.
But then Kayleigh spoke again, and she cut right through Aoife’s thoughts.