We were in a situation that seemed totally hopeless . . . until I made eye contact with a soldier who was still a few steps away.
He lifted his hand and put it over his heart.
I was so surprised I stopped walking.
The soldier quickly dropped his hand, as if not wanting anyone else to see the gesture.
Kent and Tori bumped into me from behind.
“What?” Kent said, annoyed.
“Keep moving,” The guard commanded from the rear.
I started walking again but kept my eye on the soldier.
Without warning he lunged for me, grabbed me by the front of my coveralls, threw me on the ground, and put his face right in mine.
“Vermin!” he screamed with rage. “You animals don’t deserve our pity.”
I was too surprised to fight back.
Kent and Tori tried to pull the guy off of me but he was too strong.
He leaned down close to my ear and whispered, “Slow down. Help is on the way.”
“What?” I said, stunned.
The soldier pushed off of me and got back to his feet. He spit on the ground with disgust and walked away.
Tori and Kent quickly helped me to my feet.
“You all right?” Tori asked.
I wasn’t. My mind was spinning. What had just happened? Was that soldier a Sounder? I had to get my act together and come up with a way to deal with what he just told me. Was help really on the way? What kind of help? Was there actually hope?
I turned to the leader of the guards who were escorting us and walked boldly up to him.
“Can’t you control your people?” I asked, indignantly. “You call us animals? What was that all about?”
“Keep moving,” the guard growled without a hint of sympathy.
“Not until you guarantee to protect us.”
“Wha . . . ?” the soldier replied, stunned. “Protect you? You can all disappear for all I care.”
“What’s the delay?” Bova called from the truck, still fifty yards ahead.
I didn’t know if I could believe the soldier who attacked me or not, but if help was really on the way and I needed to slow down, I was going to slow down.
“We’re coming!” I shouted. “But you have to promise me you won’t hurt my mother.”
A murmur rippled through the crowd when they heard that the prisoner who stood next to Feit was my mother. There was a growing swell of sound that I could imagine turning into anger, and a thousand angry people would make a pretty powerful force.
“Quiet!” Bova ordered. “Discipline!”
He wasn’t talking to the crowd. The Retro soldiers that formed a ring around the crowd all turned inward, raised their batons, and fired.
Instantly, dozens of prisoners screamed and fell to their knees. They weren’t injured or even knocked unconscious, but a direct and violent message had been delivered. The crowd instantly went silent.
“You’re in no position to make demands, Tucker,” Feit called. “I have no issues with your mother, unless you continue to give me grief.”
“I think we better keep moving, Rook,” Kent said, his voice shaking.
He was right, but I wanted to take as much time as possible for . . . what? I walked right to the lead soldier with the baton, stared him square in the eye, and said, “Why don’t you have a couple of your robots walk in front of us so nothing stupid like that happens again.”
The idea of doing something that a lowly primate suggested probably made him nauseated. It definitely made him mad. I saw his jaw muscles tensing as he attempted to control his rage.
“Just a thought,” I added, snarky. “Your call.”
The guy swallowed hard, grabbed one of his men by the arm, and pushed him forward.
“Walk in front of these . . .”
He didn’t finish the sentence.
“Animals,” I said. “I think the word you’re looking for is animals.”
The soldier moved past us and waited.
“Now,” the lead soldier said. “Move.”
I smiled at him and politely said, “You got it. Thank you.”
I turned away and walked back to Kent and Tori.
“What was all that about?” Tori asked.
“I don’t know yet,” was my reply.
The three of us started walking again, this time with Retro escorts in front and back. I set the pace, deliberately walking slowly. As we drew closer to Feit and my mother, the reality began sinking in that help was not on the way. Whoever that soldier was, he didn’t know what he was talking about. Or maybe he did and it was just another form of torture by offering a faint glimmer of hope before crushing it. . . .
A shrill whistling sound tore through the sky and . . . boom!
An explosion erupted on the surface of the steel dome.
Every last person spun to look as . . . boom!
Another explosion followed, only this one hit the ground beyond the dome.
My first instinct was to look for my mother.
She was already gone. So were Feit and Bova.
Every last Retro soldier took off running, including our escorts. They ran with purpose, as if this was a drill they had practiced many times.
“What the hell?” Kent shouted.
His words were cut off by the shrieking sound of two gray fighter planes screaming by overhead.
“SYLO,” Tori called.
Help had arrived after all.
With the soldiers gone and an aerial attack underway, there was widespread panic among the prisoners. Unlike the soldiers who had run off to whatever post or shelter they were assigned to, the prisoners had no clue of what to do or where to go. The base may have been under attack, but that meant the prisoners were square in the line of fire. Many ran toward the barracks buildings and piled inside for whatever protection the flimsy wooden structures would provide.
Retro fighter planes soon appeared in the sky as they lifted off vertically from around the dome. They hovered around the steel structure, forming a protective perimeter. Others shot off to meet the intruders head on.
Four more Navy jets appeared over the mountains, headed for the dome. Within seconds they each unleashed two missiles that streaked for the towering structure. SYLO hadn’t come to help the prisoners. They were going after the gate to hell . . . and a Retro soldier knew the attack was coming.
A Sounder.
There really was hope.
Several black Retro fighter drones swooped in like angry wasps. The impulses of power they fired from their impossible weapons were invisible, but effective. Most every one of the SYLO missiles exploded in midair before getting close to their target.
The three of us hadn’t moved. We stood on the edge of the clearing, staring up in wide-eyed wonder as the aerial bombardment intensified.
Multiple SYLO fighters appeared, crossing paths with the screaming jets that had just fired their own missiles ineffectively. Unlike Fenway Park, where there was no Retro defense to protect the half-built dome, this monster in the desert was well defended. Not only were there ground-based antiaircraft weapons outside the desert base, but the Air Force drones weren’t solely in defense mode. While the ring of hovering craft stayed near the dome to protect it, dozens of other Retro fighters went on the attack.
“My God, look,” Tori said pointing to the horizon.
The air battle taking place beyond the borders of the camp was monstrous. It sounded like distant thunder as dozens of SYLO fighters streaked along the perimeter, looking for an opening to make an attack run on the dome. For every SYLO jet there were three or four Retro drones battling to keep them at bay. It was a depressing sight, especially since it had only been a few days since we had destroyed a thousand of those black monsters. This proved what Granger had said. The Retros weren’t even c
lose to being finished. We may have set them back at Area 51, but their resources were deep. The Air Force must have been building these high-tech weapons for a very long time in order to have manufactured so many.
But how was that possible? Where had these new fighter drones come from? How could they have gotten to the desert so quickly?
“Move!” Kent shouted and pushed Tori and me away from the field.
“Look out!” Tori screamed, pointing skyward.
I heard it before I saw it. A Navy jet tumbled out of the sky in flames, and it was headed our way.
We ran for the nearest building, scrambling for whatever protection it might offer. We hit the side of the wall and crouched down just as the jet slammed into the open field at full throttle. There was a massive eruption that spewed flames, debris, and burning jet fuel.
There were no survivors.
I pulled Kent and Tori away from the building and made a desperate run to get around to the far side. The heat at our backs was so intense I feared our coveralls would ignite. The moment we rounded the corner of the building, the structure was hit with burning debris. The wooden barracks were peppered by pieces of flaming wreckage, large and small. The terrified screams of the people hiding inside could barely be heard above the roar of the fire that engulfed the downed jet.
Seconds later the building erupted in flames, sending people flooding out, desperate to escape the burning deathtrap.
I should have helped them out. I should have run to the windows, broken them, and pulled as many victims out as possible. But I didn’t. Who knows if I could have made a difference anyway? In that moment, another opportunity had presented itself. One that was more important. I had to take it.
“This is it,” Kent said, breathing hard. “This is our chance. Look.”
Terrified prisoners were not only running for cover, they were sprinting for the camp borders.
“The Retros are hiding in bunkers,” Tori said, breathless. “They don’t care if any prisoners are killed.”
Kent added, “Yeah and as soon as this attack is over they’ll come back and they’ll have us. This is it. This is our chance to get out of here.”
I watched hundreds of people fleeing from the camp, sprinting toward freedom.
“What about Tucker’s mother?” Tori exclaimed.
“She’s with Feit!” Kent yelled with frustration. “I’m sorry Tucker, we can’t help her. But we can help ourselves. This is the chance you were talking about. We can get out of here.”
My brain locked. Could I leave my mother? I couldn’t imagine doing that, but to save her I would have to fight my way through Feit and Bova and whatever Retro guards were protecting them. Not to mention survive this bombing. That seemed impossible. Suicidal.
Boom!
Another missile got through the defense and exploded on the skin of the dome, its thunderous echo rolling through the camp.
“Listed to me Rook,” Kent said. “The only way to help your mother is to get out of here and maybe get picked up by SYLO.”
I looked to Tori, hoping she would help me make the right decision.
“He’s right,” she said, wincing. “Feit wants you. He wants us. As long as we’re free, he’ll keep her around because he knows you’ll come for her. We have a better chance of helping her if we escape.”
My mind raced, calculating the possibilities. The opportunities. I glanced around the corner of the burning building and saw the target of the attack.
The dome.
There were two scorch marks on its skin from the missiles that hit it. Other than that it looked untouched. SYLO’s attack was doomed to fail. Again.
In that split second I made my decision. This really was the chance we were looking for.
“I’m not leaving,” I said.
“Tucker!” Tori exclaimed. “Staying here is suicide.”
“Running into the desert is no better,” I said quickly. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. We have nothing. As soon as the attack ends Bova’s going to send out soldiers to round everyone up. There’s nowhere to hide out there. Every last one of those people who bolted is going to be right back here before nightfall.”
“So what do you want to do?” Kent asked. “Going after your mother is as good as giving ourselves up.”
“There’s a third choice,” I said.
A shrill whistle warned of the arrival of another shot. A second later an explosion erupted on the skin of the dome. Though the ground shook on impact, it was another useless effort that did nothing to damage the structure.
“The Retro guards are gone,” I said. “This is our chance.”
“Yeah, to get out of here,” Kent said.
“No. To go for the dome.”
Kent and Tori exchanged quick, stunned looks.
Kent said, “The target? You want to run straight for ground zero?”
Two more SYLO fighters flew by. They were coming less frequently. The antiaircraft weapons were doing their job. The attack wouldn’t last much longer.
“If I’m going to die here,” I said. “I want to know why. I want the truth.”
“This is crazy,” Kent whined.
“Look, I won’t blame you guys if you don’t come with me. But I don’t think you’re going to have a better chance out in that desert. You told me we were better together, Kent. You’re right. We are. We need each other. I have no idea what we’ll find in that dome or if it will make any difference in this fight, but the best chance of finding that out is if we do it together.”
Tori looked away from the dome, where many more prisoners were flooding out of the barracks and running for the border of the camp.
“Or we could get out of here, find SYLO, and bring them back,” she said.
It was clear what Tori wanted to do. There wasn’t time to argue.
“You’re right,” I said. “Get out of here. Disappear into the desert and try to get to SYLO. But I can’t. I gotta stay here. I love you guys.”
With that I took off running for the dome before I could change my mind.
Once again, I was alone. I hated leaving them but there was no other choice. I forced myself not to look back, instead staying focused on what was ahead. The dome. The truth.
I sprinted along the sandy road, hugging close to the buildings for whatever protection they might offer. I came upon a prisoner who was lying on the ground. He had been hit by shrapnel. His pants were soaked with blood and he was in excruciating pain.
“Help me!” he called, with his hand raised. “I can’t move!”
I didn’t think twice. I blew right by him. I’m not proud to admit that, but I had been given an opportunity, the opportunity I had been waiting for. I wasn’t going to waste it.
A missile tore by overhead and slammed into the dome. The explosion was so powerful it rocked the ground, knocking me off my feet. When the smoke cleared I looked up to see that the missile may have found its mark, but it had still done no damage to the dome. The only sign that it had blasted into the steel surface was another scorched scar.
Two more SYLO jets blasted through the antiaircraft fire and made a run at the dome. Several black drones broke off from their protective ring around the structure and flew to meet them. It was a game of chicken with both sides firing as they streaked toward one another like an aerial joust. One of the Navy jets launched its missile . . . a second before the jet was hit by an impulse from the Air Force fighter that obliterated it in midair. A storm of burning shrapnel rained down on the far side of the camp.
The missile shot past the dome and screamed by overhead. It lost altitude quickly and made a direct hit on the barracks building that was already on fire. Thank God it had been evacuated. The second Navy jet broke off without firing.
That was the moment. While insanity continued to escalate around me, I had severe doubts. What w
as I doing? Was finding the truth worth abandoning my only friends in the world? Would knowing whatever was inside the dome make any difference anyway? Would it help save my mother? I thought about running back to join Kent and Tori but feared it was too late. I had committed. There was no turning back.
I ran to a large building right next to the dome that seemed more permanent than the others. It was made of cement and looked to be more of a command center than a barracks. I hugged the building and made my way along the outside wall, careful to avoid windows where I might be seen from inside. When I reached the end of the long building, I took a cautious look around the corner to see I was only fifty yards away from my destination. It was the exact spot where the Retro guards had stopped us that morning.
But now the guards were gone. They were probably huddled safely in underground bunkers, riding out the attack. It was the exact situation I had been hoping for. The dome was unprotected.
“This is crazy!” Tori exclaimed.
I spun around to see Kent and Tori running up to join me.
“No!” I screamed. “What are you doing?”
“Sticking with the plan,” Tori shouted, struggling to be heard over the constant sounds of the not-so-distant air battle. “We’re not splitting up. Not anymore.”
“Even if that means running toward a target that everybody else is running away from,” Kent added. “Just sayin’.”
“We’re going together,” Tori said adamantly.
I opened my mouth to argue but thought better of it. I’d seen that look in Tori’s eyes before. More times than I could remember. When her mind was made up, there was no changing it.
I looked to Kent.
“This is crazy,” he said, deadly serious. “But we came here together and that’s how we’re going to leave. You’re not flying solo on this, Rook.”
I looked between both of them. My friends. My family.
“You sure?”
“No,” Kent said.
“You know we are,” Tori added.
It was what I wanted to hear. I was tired of being alone.
“All right,” I said and turned back to our objective.
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