by Petosa, Jess
She paused and looked back and forth between Stosh and Sabine. Sabine was looking at the ground, trying to find a way to turn invisible. Stosh, however, looked Ally straight in the eyes. "We don't owe them anything else. The plan was always to leave. You only came back because you wanted them to have the cure, and to have a fair fight, and they do. We are just in the way. It is time to go back to Champaign. Heck, I'd even agree to find the southern City you are always talking about."
"I have to see this through," Ally responded through gritted teeth.
Should she tell them what she learned about Aden? Should she tell him how the Rogue mutations were all planned and a scheme to gain control, but that it had backfired? She wanted to see this to the end, and she needed to see Aden punished for his actions. He had used her to control Luke, even going as far as to erase Luke's memories. He had killed her mother.
"I'm doing this for Mother," she said with finality.
Stosh opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. How could he deny her at least that, after all that had happened? The past six months had been absolute chaos, with new troubles branching out from their lives with each day that passed. Ally needed to see something finished. She needed to have some peace.
"You should go," she reached out for her brother’s hand and he entwined his fingers through hers. "Take Sabine back to Champaign and make sure everyone is safe, just in case the Rogues wander South. Wait for me and if I don't return in a week, you decide what you want to do. Stay, go, whatever ... just, watch out for Willie. And Sabine."
"We can't leave you here!" Sabine said quickly, finally looking up from the ground.
An explosion sounded in the distance, but much closer than it should have ever been. She knew that the Rogues were moving out of the warehouse district and into the neighborhoods now.
"You have to. Just go!" Ally gave her brother a light shove and spun around, running toward the Training Center. If she stuck around they might manage to convince her. She needed to get armed and on top of another building. If she was lucky, Max would eventually make it back to City Center and they could pick off Rogues together. It was the only way she knew to help right now.
The foyer of the Training Center was packed with Guards and Exceptionals alike. Many of them had taken to wearing full protective gear.
Luke was shouting out orders from a long table, which was covered with the guns from Heath. She tried to spot any of the Ordinarys from Champaign, but the crowd was too thick.
"Once you shoot a Rogue with a dart from this gun, they should drop immediately. Do not waste ammo by shooting them twice, just leave them and move on. The tactic has changed, we kill last. I've assigned squads of Exceptionals to follow behind the Guards and pull the injected Rogues to the side. If they start to come to, know that they are not dangerous. They are cured."
Ally wondered if she should have told Luke about her experience with Wyn in Champaign.
"Also, be careful to avoid hitting your fellow Guards with these darts. They will make you Ordinary." He stated it simply and with minor disgust. Ally was suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of longing for the old Luke. She missed the boy who made her feel special in a world where she wasn't. She missed the boy who treated Ordinarys and Exceptionals as equals. He worked so hard to be the opposite of Aden, and in the end he had failed.
Ally pushed through the crowd.
Guards pushed past her, headed to the exit, and she heard mumbles of complaint.
"Don't point that gun at me, Red."
"I knew I should have volunteered to Guard the settlement compound."
"Do you think they'll notice if I leave?"
Ally was annoyed at the cowardice coming from these Exceptionals, who were supposed to be superior. Here she was, offering to fight against the Rogues, and she no longer had any abilities to speak of.
She finally reached Luke, who was bent over, speaking quickly to another Guard.
"You're still here?" he asked when he noticed her.
She gave him a sharp look. "I need more guns. If I can get on top of a nearby building I can pick some off from above."
"We already have Guards to do that, Ally. Get back to my office, or leave the City. You shouldn't be here."
"Stop saying that!" she yelled at him, throwing her hands out to the side. "You don't get a say in what I do or don't do. You don't even know me anymore. Give me a gun or get out of my way."
Ally was breathing heavily now, and she was aware that most of the Guards in the vicinity were staring.
Luke's eyes narrowed. "Fine, do whatever you want. I won't be responsible for you."
"You've never been responsible for me," she spat at him before marching forward and grabbing a gun. There were small boxes of darts for refills, and she was rationed three. That gave her thirty-two shots.
She left the Training Center and headed east on one of the main streets. She needed to find a building with a good vantage point, or a high point to sit atop. The closer buildings already had Guards stations on them, and as an explosion rocked the sky and fire shot into the air, Ally realized the Rogues were just blocks away. What was their main goal? Were they pushing toward City Center to take over Luke's office? Were they after Luke? Or maybe Aden? Maybe they just wanted to pass straight through the City and were creating damage in their wake.
She walked one more block before she found a transport pulled off to the side of the road. The cab was empty and the vehicle turned off, which meant it has been abandoned. She hoisted herself up onto the roof of the cab, and then up onto the covered top. She was a good twelve feet off the ground up here, and could easily pick off Rogues coming by.
As the battle drew closer, she could see that the lines were more easily matched. The Rogues and Exceptionals alike looked exhausted. The Guards at the front were now armed with their new weapons, and were picking off the Rogues one by one. The Rogues attacks were more lethal than ever and the Guards still had to stop and use their own abilities to protect themselves. Ally raised her gun up into her view just as a Guard flew over her head and slammed against the brick building with a sickening crunch. She aimed at a Rogue amping up a fireball in his hands, and shot. She readied her gun and picked off two more Rogues. The battle stopped surging forward, but it was still a violent onslaught.
Smoke filled her lungs and the scent of blood caught in her nose. She could only image what the Exceptionals were dealing with when it came to their senses. She knew what it was like to take in the overwhelming scents and sounds, and the battle was overloaded with them. She wiped at her eyes and coughed, raising her gun to shoot again. A half-block down a fire ravaged a grocery store, and the flames were stretching toward the building next to Ally. She knew she would lose her spot soon, and needed to relocate. She ripped the sleeve off her shirt and tied it messily around her nose and mouth, hoping it would help with the smoke intake. She climbed down off the transport and tried to weave a straight path across the street.
Guards pushed past her and grumbled as she made her way, but she managed to move quickly. Ally spotted a Rogue several feet away and realized she had come to the front line now. She spotted the empty rooftop of a two-story building, just twenty yards away. But from her vantage point on the ground she could really focus on the priority targets. She turned to face the line of Rogues and positioned herself behind a line of Guards. She aimed her gun and leaned around the massive body of a Guard, and took out a Rogue. She repeated the process, until her ammo was out. She stepped back and let more Guards move past her. She pulled an ammo clip from her pouch and loaded the gun, ready to push back toward the front.
"Watch out!" A gruff voice rang out over the street. The ground shook violently and Ally had to crouch down to hold her balance. Guards pushed back toward City Center now, looks of worry on their faces.
Ally couldn't tell what was going on from the ground, so she grabbed the sleeve of the nearest Guard. It was similar to trying to rattle an iron statue but she still got his attention.
; "What is going on?" she asked.
The Guard glared down at her. "One of the Rogues is making fissures in the ground somehow. The whole front line just fell into one."
Ally looked toward what used to be the front line, pretending she could see through the line of Guards blocking her view. She had just been up there, moments ago.
"Earthquakes?" she asked herself.
"It has a group of Rogues protecting it. We can't even touch it, somehow ..." The Guard rambled on. It wasn't like the Guards to ramble.
Ally slipped past him and toward the side of the street, knowing that she now needed to get atop that building. She reached it quickly, since most of the crowd was moving away from that area, and kicked in the door. She was in the middle of a clothing store, with racks of fancy dresses and hats placed around the room sporadically. It all seemed useless, and unnecessary right now. Ally could almost see Luke's mom browsing through these racks, contemplating what color she would paint her eyelids to match each outfit.
She spotted a door in the back and ran toward it, finding a stairwell that went up. She climbed the stairs two at a time and burst out onto the roof. Her legs were burning from the effort, and she was out of breath; either from the exercise or the smoke, she didn't know. Ally could definitely feel the loss of her Exceptional strength, but she pushed on. She hadn't been weak when she lived in the Settlement, and she wasn't weak now.
When Ally peered over the ledge that went around the rooftop, she immediately saw the crack in the earth. It went across almost the entire street, and was several feet in width. She imagined the Guards that had stood there before, crying out in confusion as the earth gave way beneath them. The Rogues were jumping over it with ease now, only a few falling through every now and then. Ally wondered if those were Rogues that were still too far gone to understand what was happening, rather than the intelligent Rogues Luke had told her about.
It didn't take long to find the Rogue in question. It was strolling in the center of the front line of Rogues, a casual expression on its face. Darts flew at it by the dozen but bounced off an invisible shield. Ally raised her gun to take out the Rogues around it, assuming those were its protectors, but that City Guards were already doing the same and the force field remained.
She scanned the crowd, looking for any signs of another Rogue in concentration. She muttered over and over again with hope she would find one, because if she didn't, there was a good chance the Rogue had more than one ability, and both were strong enough to bring them down. Ally braced her hands on the ledge and scanned the crowd again. Her eyes caught a spot of white in an alley, and she squinted through the smoke. It, no he, was definitely a Rogue but was dressed in City clothing. She could tell his gender by his freshly grown and combed over hair, and the lines on his face. His yellow eyes gave him away, glowing immensely despite the smog filled air. He was staring at the front line with intent, concentrating.
Ally raised her gun and aimed, having trouble keeping her line straight from this distance. She couldn't take any chances at this point. She had eight rounds to try and take this Rogue out, and if that didn't work, she would move on. She would take out every Rogue just to end this.
The sound of her gun firing was lost into the air, and the dart slipped through the smoke. An explosion had gone off in the street and the smoke was thick and black now.
"C'mon," she yelled out in frustration. She couldn't see if her shot had hit the Rogue, and she couldn't take aim to fire off another one in case she missed.
The smoke cleared and the Rogue was gone from the alley. She almost threw her gun down in frustration but then she heard someone cry out from below. The Rogue in the front, the earthmover, yelled out in rage. Something had changed and it knew it. Either she had hit the Rogue, or he ran and his concentration broke. The earthmover spun to face her, picking her out immediately. How, she had no idea. But she watched as he raised his arms and brought them down on the ground. At the same time a dart sliced through the air and hit him in the neck.
Several things happened in the next thirty seconds. She looked up and spotted Max perched on a transport in the middle of the street. His gun was aimed at the Rogue whose fists splintered the ground. The Rogue fell over. The ground trembled, and suddenly the building shook beneath Ally's feet. The ground split open on the street, sucking Rogues down into the blackness. The line crept toward the building quickly. Ally dropped her gun and ran for the stairs, knowing she had a minute, if even that. She hurried down the stairs and burst onto the main floor, where the clothing racks sat shaking from the tremors. She saw no other exit but the front door and ran for it, hoping the crack in the ground wasn't aimed directly for it. She made it onto the street just as the building gave one final tremor and broke into pieces.
"I made it," she said to herself.
Someone shouted her name. Max?
Ally turned back to the building and looked up. A large chunk of the top corner broke off and fell toward her. Out of instinct she raised her arms toward the falling brick, knowing she could stop it.
But she couldn't. Her abilities were gone.
Ally closed her eyes and fell backward, arms still raised.
She could still hear shouts of Guards and Rogues alike. She could still hear the sound of explosions and gunshots. Smoke still entered her lungs, and she still felt the heat from the nearby fires.
She was alive.
Ally opened her eyes. The large piece of concrete floated inches above her, a sharp edge pointing menacingly at the space between her eyes. Suddenly the sounds from the battle disappeared and she could only hear her own heart beating in her ears. The concrete drifted to the side and was thrown into the alley, as if someone had picked it up and tossed it.
Then she heard another sound.
"Ally?"
The name fell off of lips she wasn't sure would ever form the word again. She turned her head and saw Luke, standing beside her with his arms still raised. And in his gaze she saw something surprising.
Recognition.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Luke remembered everything. He even remembered forgetting, which was an odd feeling. Memories were colliding in his head, fighting to be the first to be recalled.
It had started when he saw Ally come rushing out of the building. She looked triumphant for just a moment, and then someone called out her name and she spun around. Her hair whipped behind her quickly and she looked up, eyes locked on the corner of the building that was falling toward her. In the moment, Luke had forgotten everything else he was supposed to be doing. The shape of her hair became the shadow that had been following him around, and then it morphed back into her. Ally was the shadow.
He had been mid-order, trying to collect the Rogue that had just fallen, and take out the rest. He had taken off at a run toward Ally, using his abilities to take hold of the falling chunks. He had never stopped something quite so large but he managed with ease. It was then that the memories swept back into him; perhaps the mixture of adrenaline and fear he had felt caused it. He almost dropped the debris right there, and barely stopped them just above Ally.
He threw the debris into the alley nearby and rushed up to Ally's side, saying something he knew he hadn't said in a while.
Her name.
"Luke?" she sat up slowly, her gaze not leaving his. She was covered in soot from the smoke, and her hair was sticking out in all directions. She was dressed in Ordinary grays but the clothes had been almost completely smudged with black. She had several cuts on her face and arms, and a bruise by her eyes. Green eyes.
She was still just as beautiful as when he first saw her.
"Ally," he said again, the word sounding choked.
"You remember?" she said in one breath.
He just nodded his head and pulled her into his arms. She didn't melt into him the way she used to, but was instead stiff and unsure. He knew he had been cold toward her recently, and had said things he shouldn't. His memories were telling him that much. He pushed back
and placed a hand on either side of her face.
"Let me get you inside," he tried to pull her toward him.
"I can't," she responded. "Max is out there, and I don't know if I shot that other Rogue ..."
"The Rogue is down," he said quickly.
"No, the one hiding in the alley. I think he was helping protect the earth mover. He was dressed in City Whites, and looked clean... it was odd...." Her words came in and out as she looked behind her and then at Luke again, repeating the action several times.
Luke stiffened and pulled away from her. "Hez."
"Hez?" she asked.
"Nevermind." He looked over her head and motioned to one of the Guards.
"Take her to the Training Center and have the med staff look her over. No questions," he added. He would just have to apologize later.
"Luke!" Ally yelled out as the Guard grabbed her around the waist and picked her up off the ground. "Don't do this Luke! I can help!"
"This is almost over, we have the advantage now. You've done more for us than we deserve." He turned and headed back toward the front line. The Rogues were being pushed back now, closer to the fissure. Their numbers dwindled quickly as more and more dropped from the effects of the vaccine. Before the building had fallen, he had been calling squads out of battle and over to help collect the bodies of the Rogues. They would been taken to the ORC, which was currently evacuated except for the med staff, and holed up there until they recovered.
Right now he needed to find Hez. He had trusted him with all the trust that could be given to an outsider, and thought he had been an ally. Maybe Ally was wrong. Maybe he had been watching the battle from the alley, trying to help from behind. But something told Luke he was wrong, and he wanted nothing more than to find out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Ally stopped screaming when the Guard dragged her through the doors to the Training Center. This felt oddly familiar to the time when the Guards had dragged her to the ORC, except then she had been drugged. When she Guard put her on her feet she thought about bolting, but then Max rushed through the doors. He threw his arms around her and she relaxed.