Terran led us around the back of the corral, and we stayed low, under the cover of trees and brush. Floodlights lit up both compounds, making it hard to see.
“I don’t remember these being lit the night I stayed,” I said to Terran.
“They’ve been turning them on every night since you disappeared. They stepped up the number of guards and do routine sweeps around the pen too.” He grinned mischievously. “Just makes it a little more interesting getting in and out, but not impossible. Stay low and follow me.”
He took us right up to the edge of the forest and started moving a pile of deadwood, revealing a hole in the ground.
“Last one in pulls a few logs back over the hole,” he said.
“Wait. We need to split up to warn the men in the other pen,” Jin-Sook said. She pointed to the Protectors. “You two go with Terran, you two hide in the forest and watch for Naoki’s signal, and come and get us when you see it.” The last Protector stayed with us.
Terran shook his head. “My wife is in that corral. I want to make sure she gets out safe.”
“I can’t sneak into the men’s corral. I’ll stand out,” I said. He wavered. “I promise I’ll get Goldie out.”
Finally, he lifted himself back out. “Okay.” He waved for the two Protectors to follow him, and went in the direction of the other corral.
“I’ll go first,” I said.
I looked from the entrance of the tunnel to C Block and tried to judge the distance. It was going to be a fair crawl to get there. I knew that for a couple of miners, digging a trench this long wasn’t difficult. But still, it must’ve taken them months, and they did it without getting caught. They must have been desperate for food and news from their loved ones.
I dropped down into the entrance. The smell of damp earth hit me full in the face and I coughed. Slapping a hand over my mouth, I looked up at Jin-Sook. She stood stock-still over the hole, looking in the direction of the corral. She stayed that way for at least five minutes before she motioned for the next person to join me. I began my crawl to C Block.
It was tight, even for me, and I wondered how two men like Terran and Flint managed it. As I expected, the tunnel seemed to go on forever. Even if I wanted to turn back, I couldn’t—I had two more people crawling behind me. What if the end of the tunnel was barred? Or collapsed? Could we all back up synchronously? I bit the inside of my cheeks and told myself to stop thinking like that. There was an end to this tunnel.
And when I reached it, I banged with both fists.
Above me, I heard rapid footsteps and the scraping of furniture. Patience, I told myself. They needed time to move everything out of the way. Finally, the trap door opened.
Goldie peered down at me, a look of alarm crossing her features. “Where’s Terran?”
I pulled myself through the trap door and into C Block. My sudden appearance had everyone on edge, but when the next person turned out to be a heathen, the spectators turned and ran.
“Where’s Terran!” she demanded again.
“He’s fine,” I said quickly. “He’s helping us tonight.”
Jin-Sook emerged from the hole.
“What the hell is going on?” someone said a little too loudly.
“Keep it down!” I whispered loudly.
“What is going on?” Goldie asked.
“If everything goes according to plan, the tagging system will be shut down soon. You all need to be ready to move,” I said.
There was resistance. It wasn’t every day someone strolled into their prison and said she was unlocking the door. And when that someone was the mistress of the next president, accompanied by people they only knew as “heathens,” there was bound to be mistrust.
Goldie’s expression was skeptical. “I want to know where Terran is.”
“He’s next door getting the men ready to go. Please,” I begged, “we don’t have a lot of time to get organized. Once we get the signal, we need to move fast, before the bourge have a chance to figure out what’s happening.”
By now, everyone had gathered back around us. Jin-Sook remained silent, her eyes alert and one hand on her knife. The tension in the room was palpable, and it was up to me to defuse it. I knew gaining everyone’s trust was going to be impossible. After all, I was asking them to trust me enough to step across an invisible fence that could kill them. I wasn’t sure I’d be so easily persuaded, either. But I didn’t need to convince the entire room—I just needed to convince the one person everyone here already trusted.
“Goldie, you overheard everything I told my mom the night I stayed here. Why would I lie about that? What purpose would it serve?”
The door opened and my mother came in. Someone must have rushed to get her when they saw me.
“Is Jack Kenner in on this?” my mother asked.
I nodded. “We’ve aligned with the—” I almost said the heathens. It wasn’t that I thought of them as heathens; it’s just that I didn’t know what else to call them. “The Nation,” I said, motioning toward Jin-Sook. “They’ve had a run-in with the bourge too.”
My mom silently took in the two people standing with me. “You trust them?” she asked me.
“I do.”
“What’s your plan?” Goldie asked.
“My plan is to get everyone out through that tunnel once the system is shut off, but with so many soldiers around tonight it’s going to be difficult to sneak everyone from the other two buildings in here.”
“The army has been using the cafeteria as a center of operations for their search of you and Kenner,” my mom said. “They make us keep the kitchen open around the clock. Though I think something big must’ve happened recently. There are a lot more soldiers coming and tensions are running high. Do you know why?”
“I guess they’re a little mad that we killed a few soldiers,” I said. I went on to explain about how the trade went awry. I knew the bourge would be really mad about having their men killed, but it never occurred to us that they would use the corrals as the center for the search. Liberating kitchen staff was going to be more complicated—they’d be missed right away.
We were running out of time. Jack and Naoki would have reached the city long before we arrived here, which gave them a head start on shutting things down.
My mother, Goldie and I went to B Block and started getting everyone into C. There wasn’t as much resistance there since I had the help of two of their own. We broke them up into groups of varying sizes—sometimes in threes, or in pairs, and the odd person on their own—seemingly leaving B Block to go to the shower room or other common places, but then backtracking to C.
“When is curfew?” I asked my mom.
“In about thirty minutes.”
“Obviously, kitchen staff isn’t bound to the curfew?”
“No, but they have to stay inside the building until the shift change at midnight.”
Once B Block was cleared out, we made our way back to C. The place was packed and there was a disagreement in progress. Elbowing my way through the crowd, I went looking for the cause of the commotion. The Protector who had been left to watch for the signal was standing in the entrance of the tunnel.
“Anna says she saw the first arrows fly. It’s time,” Jin-Sook said.
I turned toward the group gathered around the hole. “We need to move! What’s the problem?”
One woman was pushed forward but immediately stepped back, shaking her head.
“They’re afraid,” Jin-Sook said.
“What if it’s not shut off?” someone asked.
My mother stepped up. “I’ll go first.”
My mother sat down on the edge of the hole. A scream bubbled up inside me and I swallowed it. What if it’s not
turned off? Why did my mother have to go first?
“Mom,” I said. But I didn’t know what else to say without losing the trust of everyone in the room. Why had I been so confident about sending someone I didn’t know down the hole first?
She gave me a reassuring look. “You get ready to send the rest.”
I dug my nails into my palms. “Okay.”
She disappeared into the hole. It was going to take a few minutes for her to crawl to the other side…to get past the tagging fence. I bowed down over the hole, waiting to hear a scream. The entire room was silent. They were all waiting, too. None came. I waited. Four minutes passed, and still no screams. Maybe the chip in her neck prevented her from screaming. I banished the thought. If she had died, Anna would come back to tell us…if she could get past the body.
“I’m going to check,” I said, dropping back into the hole. I crawled more than halfway.
“Mom,” I whispered. No reply. Then I remembered I was underground and it was unlikely the bourge would hear me. “Mom,” I said louder. “Mom!”
“I made it,” her voice replied from a distance.
I breathed.
Unable to turn around, I backed up out of the hole.
“It’s off,” I said.
Jin-Sook stayed to organize the evacuation while Goldie and I went to A Block and started to clear it out. From outside, the sound of jeep engines roared into the corral.
A voice boomed from outside. “The armory’s on fire!”
The cafeteria doors banged open and the urgent sound of boots pounding on the ground and soldiers being called into action urged us to move faster. We were running out of time and we still had to get the kitchen staff.
The women in A Block were beginning to show signs of panic. A few of them pushed their way to the front of the line to get out the door first and broke into a run straight for C Block. Wildly, I looked around to see if they were noticed. More women pushed their way out.
“Stop!” I said as loud as I dared.
“I’m not going to be left behind,” someone yelled. “I’m getting out!”
Mad chaos ensued. They tripped over each other trying to get out the door. There was no way either Goldie or I could control them. Opal lived in this Block, and she tried to come to our rescue, but the panic-stricken women were beyond listening to reason.
A gunshot rang out and a soldier barked orders. “Get back in your bunks or the next one’s aimed at your heads!”
I pulled the pistol from my waistband and looked at Goldie and Opal. “You two get to C Block and get out of here.”
“We’re not leaving you alone,” Goldie said.
“Terran’s waiting to meet you and he’ll have my head if you don’t show up,” I said.
“No one’s waiting for me,” Opal said.
“You’re unarmed. Get to the tunnel.”
I fought my way out the door and crept along in the shadow of A Block, heading for a large garbage bin at the end of the unit. As I made my way toward it, the first shots were fired. Screaming erupted from the women still left out in the open. Peeking around the bin, I saw the unmistakable glow of fire lighting up the night sky—the armory.
Three soldiers within shooting range were firing their semi-automatic rifles. I took aim at a floodlight, shot at it and missed. I hugged close to the bin, waiting to see if my failed effort was going to give my position away. It didn’t. There was too much gunfire for mine to stand out. I aimed at the floodlight again, steadying my hands, and shot it out. Then I aimed at one of the soldiers, fired, and ducked back behind the bin. I breathed in and out, in and out. My heart pounded. I looked again. The soldier I shot was on the ground and another soldier was hunched over him. I took aim and pulled the trigger again, and then stepped back behind the bin. I sucked air into my lungs.
More shots were fired—this time, at the bin I was hiding behind.
I pulled myself into a ball as bullets pounded the only protection I had, and just as suddenly, they stopped. I looked around the bin and saw a soldier with an arrow sticking out of his chest lying on the ground.
Jin-Sook.
I wildly scanned the area for her, and finally found her when she stepped out from behind B Block to loose another arrow.
“We’re under attack!” a soldier yelled.
Right after he announced it, a boom in the distance shook the ground.
The cafeteria doors slammed open and dozens of soldiers came pouring out, drawing their weapons.
I pressed against the bin I was hiding behind, wishing I could mold myself into it and disappear. They were going to find me.
Jin-Sook pointed toward C Block. She wanted me to run.
The rest of the women, including Goldie and Opal, left A Block and took off at a run toward C. Soldiers opened fire. As if in slow motion, several women stopped running, their bodies jerking one way and then the other. They fell to the ground. It took a moment for it to register that the women had been shot. Repeatedly.
Opal was on the ground.
My feet were moving before my brain could tell them. A stinging pain slammed into my arm. I ducked lower, hoping to make myself a smaller target.
Jin-Sook walked out from behind B Block and fired arrows in rapid succession. I got to Opal, but she was dead. I found Goldie still alive.
“Can you make it to C?” I asked. She nodded.
As she got up and ran, I fired at the soldiers creeping toward us. Between Jin-Sook’s deadly accuracy and my bullets, they backed off a little. I didn’t know how many shots were left in the magazine. The other one Jack gave me was still in my waistband.
I looked for more survivors as Jin-Sook ran toward me. That’s when the first rain of arrows hit the compound.
“Dena’s here,” Jin yelled. “Take cover!”
We headed straight for C Block amid the sound of men screaming as arrows tore into them. I tried to remind myself they were reaping what they sowed. They deserved it.
“Where the hell are they coming from?” a soldier shrieked over the sound of rapid gunfire.
There were still at least twenty women still in C Block. Goldie was among them, bleeding from a wound in her leg. Jin-Sook and I stood guard at the door, watching the pandemonium outside. The soldiers were scattered, seeking cover from the relentless torrent of arrows. A jeep started up and tore out of the compound. Three more followed, all of them packed with armed soldiers.
That’s when it happened: an explosion so powerful it knocked us off our feet. The entire building shook, toppling a few bunks. A cloud of dust rose up from the tunnel entrance.
“Oh my God!” I screamed and ran toward the entrance. “How long has it been since the last person got in?”
Goldie’s eyes were open wide. “I don’t know. Three, maybe four minutes.”
“Was it three or four?” I demanded. “Think!”
“We have the chance to go now,” Jin-Sook hissed from the doorway. “We head toward the back fence, away from the battle area.”
I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to find a shovel and dig my way to anyone trapped in the tunnel. But the other women were already heading for the door and Jin was urging me to hurry up. We had to go.
I ran through the door, out into the open and headed for the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” Jin-Sook said. “This way!”
“I’m not leaving them.”
Between the blast from the armory and arrows still spitting down, the compound was almost empty. That meant the soldiers had taken cover in the buildings. I made my way to the backdoor of the cafeteria building—the direct entrance to the kitchen. Jin and the other ladies followed close behind.
I slammed open the
door and aimed my gun inside. There were six kitchen staff, crouched behind the counter, looking terrified. The door separating the kitchen and cafeteria was closed. I didn’t know if there were any soldiers still in the building, but I was willing to guess there were. I motioned for the small group to come with us.
When everyone was out, we headed toward the back fence. No one gave chase. The bourge were too preoccupied defending themselves against the people they thought of as heathens. I prayed Dena kept the upper hand.
Jin-Sook used her knife to loosen enough of the wire fence to bend back out of the way. As we slipped under the fence and went toward the forest, the sounds of fighting faded. The night sky glowed orange from the burning armory. And yet even in the midst of all the death and destruction, one undeniably happy thought crept into my mind: we were free.
For my own mental stability, I tried to refrain from tallying the cost.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
As we headed toward the designated meeting spot, we met some of the men going toward the corrals.
“Terran!” Goldie called.
I was helping her walk, but when Terran heard her calling him, he came running toward his wife. “I’ve been worried sick,” he said, wrapping his arms around her. He eased her down to the ground. “Where are you hurt?”
“My leg,” she said.
Terran pulled his shirt over his head and tied it around the wound on her leg.
I surveyed the group of men, some armed with rifles. “Where are you going?”
“We were coming for you, but now that you’re safe, we’ll go join the battle,” Terran said.
“The fighting is just about over and we’re supposed to get everyone into the caverns,” I said. This was not part of the plan. But then again, the bourge showing up and opening fire wasn’t part of the plan either.
Terran finished tying off the tourniquet. “You do that. We’re joining the fight. Take care of her for me.” He kissed his wife and led his troop away.
Everything was going wrong. It was supposed to be a simple plan of sneaking everyone out of the corrals, disabling the bourge by taking away their weapons, and going back to Dena’s barangay to remuster. Instead, the dead lay scattered all over the compounds, bourge and urchin alike. Why did it have to come to this?
Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two Page 27