by Kyle Andrews
As they started walking down the stairs, the smell of the food being cooked below them struck Justin. It was a smell that he had come to associate with Freedom over the years. That smell alone triggered feelings of safety and pride in him. But the topic of their conversation reminded Justin that it could all be taken away in a heartbeat.
“Is it safe to have that scanner here?” he asked Aaron.
“It's contained in a safe room. No signals get in or out,” Aaron answered. “Any more questions?”
“How did Libby get out of here without being seen?”
Aaron didn't answer right away. He looked down at the ground and shook his head before saying, “I wish I had an answer for you.”
“You were supposed to keep her safe.”
“She wasn't locked in. She was as free as anyone.”
“She wasn't just anyone.”
“I know.”
“She wasn't just your library.”
“I know,” Aaron said again.
He was taking whatever Justin threw at him without question. No matter how badly Justin wanted to get angry and start yelling at him, he couldn't manage to do it. Libby wanted to leave and she left. There was no good reason for it. It just was.
Seeing that Justin was done with his questions, Aaron tried to get the conversation back on track. He opened the door to the basement and they made their way through it as he said, “The morgue where Simon got the scanner was full of corpses. A pile of them, as high as the ceiling.”
“Why?”
“Good question. But what we do know is that there was a scan from one of the bodies still loaded in the scanner when we got it.”
“And?”
“Gibberish. The information was corrupted somehow.”
“Defective machine?”
“Or the reason those people were killed. If the authorities are planning to implement this system to replace Civvies, maybe there's something to this corrupted data. Unreadable citizens could be like ghosts, going where they want to go without being tracked.”
“Can we recreate it?”
“We aren't even sure what it is yet. Everything is purely theoretical until Simon can get the scanner working and start testing it out,” Aaron explained. He hesitated for a moment, shifting toward a more awkward topic before asking Justin, “I know that Uly's father is dead. And with Uly and Libby both gone... Libby's father was relocated, right? Did she ever tell you where?”
It felt wrong to be talking about Libby's father with Aaron. It was a private matter for their family, but he was the only one left who could answer this question.
He had to force the words out as he replied, “Libby didn't know what happened to her father. Nobody heard from him after he was relocated. Eventually, Uly asked some Freedom contacts for information and they told him that Libby's father was hit by a car, about a year after he left. He died, and Libby never knew, because Uly could never tell her how he found out.”
As he spoke those words, Justin ran through Libby's final month, imagining all of the different moments when he could have told her the truth, but didn't. It was stupid and selfish and wrong. He never planned to keep it from her, but it never felt like the right time to tell her that her father was dead and Uly had known for years.
Then he shrugged and told Aaron, “Libby was the last of them. There's nothing left to scan, except what she gave us.”
Aaron nodded, accepting the information. His eyes were drifting away from Justin, as though he were running new calculations through his head, devising new strategies.
They weren't near the food stands yet. They were alone, in a dark section of the basement where the hum of a generator made it impossible for anyone to hear what they were saying. Justin stopped walking.
“Why are you talking to me like this? About missions and corrupted data? Why am I in the loop?”
Once again meeting Justin's eyes, Aaron replied, “Because I think you're someone that I can trust, and I need you to have the same faith in me. I have some plans that I'd like to discuss with you—about your long-term future with Freedom.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes, as though he were waiting for Justin to react somehow. Maybe he expected Justin to back away, but Justin wasn't going anywhere.
“Whatever I have to do to bring those people down, I'm in,” Justin assured Aaron. “Just point me in a direction.”
“I wouldn't be so fast to accept this job. It would mean giving up everything.”
“I've already lost everything.”
“You'll have some time to think—”
Before Aaron could finish that sentence, the world became a blur of violence around Justin. The ground shook, throwing both men onto the ground. A pipe burst, filling the air with steam and a loud hiss which muffled the sounds of explosions overhead.
Debris was falling all around them, but neither Justin nor Aaron wasted any time before getting to their feet and running back to the stairwell.
More shaking. A loud electronic surge buzzed through the air, just before one of the generators began to shoot sparks across the basement.
They were being attacked. There was no need for Justin or Aaron to question that fact. Either Simon hadn't kept the scanner as isolated as he thought, or someone had given HAND the Garden's location. Either way, the result was the same.
The stairwell was full of debris. Justin and Aaron had to climb over chunks of wall and ceiling as they made their way upward, and avoid new chunks as they fell.
Even before they reached the main floor, Justin could hear screams. Screams of horror. Screams of pain. Both women and men. Children and adults. The Garden was not filled with weak people. They weren't the types of people who Justin had ever even imagined screaming in such a way. They'd seen horrors. Many had lived through starvation, disease and even torture. The sound of their screams brought goosebumps to his flesh and maybe at another point in his life he would have hesitated to rush into that scene, but he didn't stop. He ran as fast as he could, directly toward the chaos and destruction.
Aaron was through the door first. As soon as he opened it, smoke poured into the stairwell, illuminated by the glow of fire. The screams were louder than ever, but at the same time felt more distant to Justin. His mind wouldn't allow those screams to work their way inside of him. This wasn't the time.
As he ran through the door, Justin dropped low. This was the only way that he could see through the smoke which filled the now-unrecognizable main lobby of the Garden, where he and Aaron had been standing only moments earlier.
Aaron was gone—having undoubtedly rushed into the mayhem, trying to do whatever he could to help.
A high-pitched scream drew Justin's attention. It sounded like a pig squealing, but there were no pigs in the Garden. As he moved closer and closer to that sound, Justin realized that the screams were coming from a little girl, trapped beneath a segment of fallen wall, still clutching a ragged stuffed parrot in her arms. Her face was partially burned and bleeding. Tears had cleaned paths of dust across her cheeks.
Justin fell to his knees and slid in next to the little girl. He'd seen her before. He knew her face, though not her name. He was not going to allow her to die like this.
“Okay,” he told her, putting a hand on the side of her face and forcing her eyes to make contact with his. “It's okay. I'm going to get you out of this. Do you understand?”
Her eyes were locked onto his, but the girl was still crying and screaming, and each of those screams cut through Justin like a knife.
He didn't want to look away from her, but he had to. He had to see if anyone else was close enough to help him save this little girl, but the smoke was too thick and there was too much damage to the area around him. He and that little girl might as well have been the only two people in the Garden. Even if he screamed for help, his voice would be drowned out by the countless others who were making the same plea.
He turned his attention to the chunks of cement and drywall which were piled on top of the lit
tle girl. He could see blood on her where the cement had fallen. But it wasn't pooling. She was injured, but as far as he could tell, she wasn't bleeding out.
How it had become instinct for him to check for this, he had no idea. Maybe he'd spent enough time listening to Marti go on about her first aid training over the years that some of what she said managed to sink in. Or maybe he'd seen it on TV. Either way, he knew to be careful when lifting the debris off of the little girl. He had to make sure that he didn't cause more damage to her by trying to help. He went slowly as he began to peel away the layers of fallen building that were on top of her.
“What's you're name?” he asked her, trying to sound as calm as possible as he worked, though his heart was pounding in his chest and he felt lightheaded from breathing in too much smoke.
The girl didn't answer him right away, so he turned and made eye contact once again. He put his hand under her chin and forced her to listen to him as he asked, “What is your name?”
“Nina,” the girl replied, in between sobs.
“Pretty name,” he replied with a nod, turning back to his work. “I'm Justin.”
He picked up a chunk of cement and tossed it aside, causing the girl to suck air through her teeth and start crying harder than before. She undoubtedly had broken bones, but he didn't see a lot of blood. It didn't mean that she was safe or that she wasn't bleeding internally, but he kept going.
“Do you believe in God, Nina?” Justin asked. The girl didn't answer, so Justin kept talking, “I do. I'm a theist. A Christian. I believe that God is watching over us right now. I believe that He is going to help us through this. Do you believe?”
Justin looked back to Nina's face, which was starting to swell. He forced himself to smile at her, and though she was still crying, she nodded to him and said, “Daddy prays with me.”
“He does?”
Nina nodded and said, “Before bed.”
“Do you want to pray right now?”
Nina nodded.
“Okay,” Justin said. “Close your eyes and pray as hard as you can. Just like your daddy told you. Tell God that we could really use some help right now.”
Nina squeezed her eyes shut and Justin turned back to the debris, looking at the largest piece of cement that had fallen on top of her, pinning her to the ground. He wasn't sure that he would be able to lift it by himself, but he had to try. Otherwise, Nina would die. He wouldn't allow that to happen. She was just a kid. She had her whole life ahead of her. He couldn't keep failing.
“Dear God,” Nina started, still crying, “please help us. Please stop the fires.”
Justin got to his feet and grabbed onto the chunk of cement. He felt more dizzy than ever, and weak. Now standing, the smoke was stinging Justin's eyes. He could barely see at all. His muscles were aching and he wanted to go to sleep, but he had to lift that chunk of cement somehow. He had to get Nina out of there.
The chunk of cement was too heavy. Even when he put every ounce of strength that he had into lifting it, the chunk barely moved.
He could still hear Nina praying, though he wasn't listening to the specific words. All he could think in that moment was that he couldn't help this girl. He wasn't strong enough. He wasn't capable enough. She was going to die.
She coughed. The smoke was getting to her. Justin tried once again to lift that chunk of cement, putting so much of his own strength into the effort that his head felt like it was going to explode. He let out wail as he began to realize that he would have to stop lifting. Once again, death was creeping ever closer to him and as always, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The world started to fade around him. He had failed, and he didn't have the strength to try again. Looking back to Nina, he saw her lips still moving as she prayed, but he couldn't hear what she was saying.
Justin closed his eyes for one second and when he opened them, he was on his knees. He blinked once more and when he opened his eyes, he was on the ground. Lungs burning. Head spinning. And everything was so dark.
“Over here!” he heard a man yell, before the world went dark around him.
26
There was a stream of smoke rising into the air across town. Rose was numb. She couldn't think or feel. All she could do was react.
Though she hadn't intended to go back for the same car that she'd borrowed to get out to the meeting, she didn't have time to look for another. At that moment there could have been an army of HAND officers storming the Garden. Her friends—her only remaining family—could have been standing before the Mayor, waiting to be executed right then and there.
As she sped down the streets of the city, Rose had to swerve around other cars and pedestrians who were looking off into the distance at that stream of smoke, which was creating an ever-growing cloud in the sky. It was impossible to miss. Everyone knew that HAND had struck Freedom. Everyone knew exactly where. The Garden, even if it hadn't been completely destroyed, was over.
Rose was afraid to return home, even as she drove as fast as that car would carry her. It wasn't the fear of being arrested, or even the fear of of finding people trapped in the rubble that was troubling her the most. It was the fear of what came next. Where would she go when home no longer existed? What would she do now that the war between Freedom and the authorities had become a literal battle in the streets rather than fist-waving and strong words?
Tracy was in the passenger seat, but Rose barely registered that fact. She hadn't slowed down or given Tracy time to catch up and get into the car before leaving. If Tracy hadn't been able to keep up, Rose would have left her behind without a second thought.
Though she wasn't alone, silence filled the car. Neither one of them had anything to say to the other. All they could do was stare straight ahead at that smoke and imagine what the scene would look like when they arrived.
The closer they got, the less Rose wanted to reach the Garden. She dreaded it, but she pushed down on the gas pedal as hard as she could and slammed her hand down on the horn. If anyone wanted to get in her way, it was at their own risk.
Finally, they had driven as far as they could drive. The streets around the Garden were a mess. Several buildings were burning and crumbling. The bank entrance to the Garden was gone.
Rose got out of the car and stood, staring at the devastation for several moments with her hands on her head. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know where to go.
“Rose?” Tracy said, trying to get Rose's attention, but her voice sounded as though she were calling from a mile away. “Rose!”
Rose turned and looked at Tracy, pulling herself out of the shock of seeing the place in shambles.
“Where is it?!” Tracy demanded, still having no idea which of the buildings was the Garden.
Rose faced forward again and realized that she and Tracy were not alone. There were citizens pouring into the area. Dozens of them. So many that Rose found it hard to believe that they were all members of Freedom.
She turned her eyes toward the hospital up the street, which had been fenced off by the authorities years earlier. It was damaged and burning. Several of the upper floors had collapsed, but there was still hope. Freedom had been smart enough to leave most of the building empty. Nobody should have been in the top levels.
“It's the hospital,” she said to Tracy.
“We have to get inside,” Tracy nodded, starting to walk forward.
“We can't get past the fence fast enough. We have to use the tunnels,” Rose told Tracy, looking around and trying to regain her bearings so that she could lead the way into the Garden.
The bank was gone, so they would obviously need to use one of the other entrances. There were a couple on the other side of the hospital, but it would take too long to get there. That meant that they would need to use the sewer entrance. It was one of the least used entrances to the Garden, for obvious reasons, but it was the easiest to access from their current location.
“This way,” Rose said, turning around and rushing up the
street. Along the way, she stopped to grab a piece of rebar that had fallen off of one of the nearby buildings that had collapsed during the attack.
The manhole that led to the sewer entrance was buried beneath rubble from another building, which was still on fire. When they reached it, Rose and Tracy started to dig. They were quickly joined by other people. Strangers. Random citizens, putting their lives on the line to help people that they had never even met. Rose didn't slow down to think about what was happening, but she knew that it was important. This was a turning point.
When the debris had been cleared, Rose used the rebar to help pry the cover from the manhole and she was the first one to climb down the ladder, into the sewer. As she moved, she started to wonder why the hospital itself hadn't been bombed. The only conclusion that she could reach was that HAND didn't know exactly which building the Garden was located in. They bombed the entire area, hoping to get the job done. But they didn't follow with truckloads of officers, finishing off the stragglers. Why? Were they planning to bomb the place again? Were they just waiting until people began to scurry, so they could get a better shot at a specific target? If so, they didn't have much time to get everyone out of there.
She jogged through the sewer, hearing the splash of other footsteps behind her. Everyone was following her, waiting for her to tell them what to do next. She had to wonder if any of them realized that they might be signing their own death warrants.
The sewer was an early entrance for the Garden, back before the bank tunnel had been put into use. Some of the first members of Freedom had chipped away at the wall, creating a doorway that led into the same tunnel as the bank entrance. The door itself had been locked up decades earlier. When Rose found it, she had to stop and stare at all of those locks which were keeping her from getting to those inside the Garden. How could she possibly get through them in time?
She could smell smoke drifting through the tunnels. She could hear faint echoes of people yelling in the distance. They needed to be let out, but she had no idea how to get through the locks.