Steel Lily ARC

by Megan Curd

  Riggs’s expression was severe. “Xander will get rid of anyone who stands in his way. Knowledge is dangerous, and he’ll take out anyone who finds out more than he wants them to.”

  “What about you?” I spluttered. “You’re the one who runs this place!”

  He laughed harshly. He pointed a finger to himself, his eyebrows raised. “Me? I’m a means to an end. I’m a dead man walking.”

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-NINE

  Riggs’s words rattled around my mind as we ran through the dingy hallway. Every step we took resounded against the narrow walls, and I felt the panic that accompanied claustrophobia edging into my senses.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “What used to be Ramsey County Jail,” Riggs explained as my father slowed to a jog. “Xander modified it to his tastes. It was much more humane prior to him.”

  Jaxon’s shoulder popped audibly. Mom gasped in horror as he screamed in pain, but Riggs held up a hand. “We don’t have time,” he said sternly as he took the lead and ran down the hallway. “I’m afraid we’ve taken too long. We need to find Sari and get to the tunnel to meet Asher and Alice.”

  “Are there tunnels everywhere?” I asked as he ran.

  “Of course,” Riggs said. “Xander wanted this place to look as though no one inhabited it. It’s why the dome doesn’t have a true barrier. Alliance members might accidentally come upon it, but they’d never get out.”

  The thought made me sick to my stomach. If all of this was true, Xander was more maniacal than I’d ever dreamed Riggs of being. And Xander was the one we’d aligned ourselves with. Shared our ideas, our plans.

  There was no way we’d get out of here alive.

  The numbers on the doors began to dwindle as we passed them. Jaxon’s head lolled back and forth with each step that Dad took. It pained me to see him so weak, and I wondered if we’d ever be able to fix his wounds.

  The windows on these cells were larger. I searched for Sari, but only found bloodstained walls and one lone man curled in a corner, his arms wrapped around his knees as if to shield himself from the horrors he’d experienced. Then I saw his arm.

  His mechanical arm.

  “LEGS!”

  My scream stopped our precession, Riggs spun to look at me. “Who? We don’t have time to waste!”

  “We can’t leave Legs behind! He came for Alice and me. To save us.”

  “We don’t know if he’s friend or foe,” Riggs argued.

  “I don’t know if you’re friend or foe!”

  Mom chastised me. “Avery!”

  I spun and looked at her. “All I know about Riggs is that he kidnapped me. The past week and a half, I’ve seen him hurt and intimidate people. Forgive me for not believing he’s a knight in shining armor.” I extended my hand for his key card. “Get me in, and I’ll meet you in a minute. I’m not leaving Legs behind.”

  “You’re so like your mother,” he muttered as he pushed past me and swiped his card.

  I noticed Mom’s smile as she nodded her approval.

  When the door clicked, Riggs turned and started back down the hall. “We can’t wait for you. Get him and come quickly.”

  As they retreated down the hallway, the flickering lights made them look ghostly. I watched for a moment, then entered the room.

  Legs was relatively unharmed, but his tired eyes were rimmed with red and the side of his face held a bruise that outlined a hand. Someone had slapped him, and hard. He looked up at me, a spaced-out smile playing across his face.

  “The cavalry’s arrived.”

  I fought the searing pain in my arms and helped him up. “Something like that.”

  “You look like hell.”

  “You should see Jaxon.”

  “He always looks like hell.”

  I chuckled in spite of the situation. “Well, he’s more hellish than usual. Why weren’t you chained in there?”

  I felt Legs shrug and heard the cogs in his new arm work to execute the maneuver. “I don’t know. Xander put me in there and said it was for my own good.”

  The rest of our group was outlined in the ghostly light down the hall, and I took off toward them with Legs in tow. He labored to stay with me. “Where are we going?”

  “Getting the rest of our group. Don’t try to kill Riggs when you see him. Apparently he’s helping us escape.”

  “You don’t sound too confident.”

  I tried to keep the doubt out of my voice. “I’m not, but he got us out of our cells, so I have to at least trust that.”

  We skidded to a halt as Riggs emerged from the last cell and pulled the black pillowcase off Sari’s head. She fought Riggs’s grasp, but Mom assuaged her fears.

  “Sari, Sari, it’s okay.”

  She recoiled from my mother, back into Riggs’s chest. When she realized who he was, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God. I thought it was Xander and his minions.” She embraced Riggs like he was a lifelong friend. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m so sorry for everything.”

  Her response sent a wave of shock through me. Had Jaxon been in any shape to respond, he probably would have had a comment or twenty to throw their way. I looked from Riggs to Sari and back again before resting on Sari.

  “Do you mind telling me what’s going on?”

  “Those encrypted files? They were Riggs’s. I found out everything—and I do mean everything—and that’s why I was coming to Xander’s office. I wanted to get you out but make it look like it was Riggs who was the bad guy. He’s on our side, Avery. We’ve been wrong all along.”

  Sari turned to face Riggs, who stood there, stoic. “What I don’t understand though, is why you’ve done this. Why you’d side with Xander to begin with.”

  “Avery has a flash drive. It explains everything. It’s encrypted as well, so your expertise will be needed. You understand the need for the security,” Riggs said. “I couldn’t let Xander know my true intentions, but I needed to document everything. It speaks volumes about your talents that you were able to get past my firewalls and encryptions. I was right to bring you here.”

  Sari flushed with pride. Riggs motioned all of us to follow him and I noticed the door at the end of the hallway. There was no card reader and no lock. Instead, the door looked welded shut. Riggs looked back at my mother, Legs and I. “I believe this is where your talents will be needed, ladies.”

  Mom took Legs’s hand and stepped forward as though she knew what Riggs wanted. Dad and Riggs moved out of her way. Legs followed behind confused, but I stood rooted to my spot. Mom turned and looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

  Fear consumed me. I was scared to stay here, but I was terrified of what could come. “We don’t know what’s on the other side of that door or why it’s welded shut, do we?”

  Mom smiled at me and extended her hand palm up, beckoning me forward. “Darling, fear keeps us from moving forward. Being courageous is the only option you have, otherwise you’ll never know what could have been.”

  Dad pressed a hand into the small of my back. “Don’t fret, my dear. It’ll all be over soon. Be brave.”

  Just then an alarm sounded, reverberating through the halls. We ducked in unison from the offensive sound. Riggs called out over the din. “Xander’s realized what’s going on! There’s no time!”

  Dad pushed me forward. “Go, Avery! Follow your mother’s instructions!”

  I ran forward and watched my mother extend her hands. She looked at me, her expression calm. “I know you don’t have much experience, but you’ve got to focus on breaking through the wall. Burn a straight line, and Legs will punch through with his metal arm.”

  I shot Riggs an I told you so look. “Good thing I got him, huh?”

  Riggs simply nodded, his lips in a tight line.

  I put my hands outward, palms pressed against the cool metal door alongside Mom’s. I watched as a faint glowing line emerged at the foot of the door where my mother focused her attention.

  “Aver
y, please!” Mom said through gritted teeth. “I can’t do this alone!”

  I focused my attention on the embers that began to emerge in the metal, concentrating on making the heat even stronger. The glow brightened, and I heard Riggs cheer behind us. All around us the alarm sounded, and the lights began to flicker even more. I heard lights shutting off one by one behind us.

  “He’s killing the power!” Riggs yelled from behind us. “Hurry!”

  We pushed harder, and the line crept upward. One by one the lights flicked off until we were left with the one directly above us. The line we’d burned through through the door was an upside down “L.” As we went to create the last corner, the lights went completely out.

  “Damn!” yelled Riggs. “Legs! Can you break through? This place is airtight! He’ll cut the oxygen next!”

  I willed my tired body to produce a flame in my hand. It burst to life and I saw my mom leaning against the wall, sweat covering her face, her eyes were closed. It was obvious the Elemental force had sapped her energy. I, on the other hand, felt stronger from using it. I forced myself to push on and felt the exertion sap my strength.

  Legs stood in front of the door and flexed his fingers, grunting as he flung his fist forward. The door groaned under the assault, bending but not breaking. He pulled his hand away, the knuckles of his hand bent from the collision of metal on metal. He cocked back once more and launched another attack as a hissing noise came through the grate in the ceiling.

  “He’s shutting off the oxygen!” Riggs said as red lights began to flash overhead, casting everyone in a bloody glow.

  The alarm seemed to kick Legs into overdrive. His hand screeched against the metal, denting it but not breaking through.

  “I need more help!” He yelled.

  I gritted my teeth and threw the flame in my hands toward the door, willing it to engulf the metal and melt it. The flames licked the door. It began to glow, and Legs wheezed beside me as he tried to pull back.

  But the lack of oxygen was having its way. The fire died almost instantly. Instead of using only his fist, Legs lunged forward and threw his entire shoulder into the door. The metal ground and screeched as his arm bit through the weakened steel, ripping a hole into the tunnel behind it.

  Oxygen hissed through the door and we all barreled through, following Legs who led the charge. I looked back to see Dad still carrying Jaxon and Riggs helping my mom stay afoot. My body cried out for rest, but there was nowhere to go but into the unknown tunnel and pray that allies were on the other end.

  ***

  The only sounds in the tunnel were our ragged breathing. My muscles rebelled against the forward motion, pain shooting through my shins and calves each time my feet pounded against the wet ground. The stitch in my side gnawed and made it hard to inhale.

  Up ahead, light began to illuminate the path. Two figures blocked the opening, their bodies silhouettes. I prayed they weren’t enemies. There was no way we could fight anyone off in the state that our group was in.

  “Riggs! You made it!” Asher called out as he ran forward. “Good God, what’d you do? Get run through a blender in the process?”

  “Something like that,” Riggs grunted as he hefted Mom a little higher on his shoulder. “Tell me you’ve got Alice?”

  Alice’s small voice rang out. “I’m here!”

  “Good,” Riggs said as we neared the mouth of the tunnel and ascended the few steps to the atrium.

  I panicked. “Why are we back in the Academy?”

  “Because we’ve got to get to Jaxon’s buggy,” Riggs answered.

  Despair set in as the logistics of getting everyone to Jaxon’s lab set in. “It’s across the dome! There’s no way we’ll get there!”

  “The buggy’s closer than that!” exclaimed Asher, who ran to the main stairs excitedly. “It’s right outside!”

  The floor beneath us began to rumble, and growls filled the atrium as we followed Asher.

  “What is that?” Dad wondered aloud, “The Plagues can’t be used again for twenty four hours!”

  Our motley crew piled into the elevator and the doors began to close, but not before I caught sight of what was coming toward us.

  A sea of burned men—men that looked like Riggs’s older son—were surging toward us, arms extended and teeth bared like rabid animals. They trampled over one another, and more than one went down under the feet of his comrades, screaming in agony as he was crushed by the weight of the innumerable masses.

  “WE NEED TO GO NOW!” I screamed.

  The doors shut as the first man jumped unnaturally high and hurdled the banister of the stairway, his face connecting with the metal grating. Blood splattered between the closing doors and sprayed us.

  Riggs was the only one who didn’t seem to be fazed by the attack. “Xander has more of them than I imagined.”

  Dad’s voice was astonished and disgusted as he wiped the blood from his cheek. “What are they?”

  “The Alliance army that escaped the nuclear bomb in New York,” Riggs said as light began to stream through the grate in the elevator’s ceiling. “They were mutated by the radiation. Xander convinced them that he could save our world. They follow Xander’s orders without question.” He looked at me sadly. “My son in the medical wing…”

  I held a hand up. “I understand. You don’t have to say anything else.”

  The elevator slowed and the door opened, and we spilled out into the last stairwell that separated us from potential freedom. Everyone surged toward the final door. Legs barreled through it, metal shoulder first, without any regard for his body. Instinct drove our every move; the desire to escape flooded our veins with adrenaline.

  Just as Asher promised, the buggy sat humming expectantly outside the door. Its legs were lowered and the door open, ready for us to board. Riggs leapt in and donned the controls as Dad laid Jaxon on the back seat. The rest of us piled in behind. I looked up and realized we were under the concrete and steel overpass.

  “How are we getting out of here in this thing?”

  Riggs pressed a green button and the buggy shuddered to life, pushing off the ground and lifting the carriage into the air. Before it hit the overpass, Riggs punched a flashing red button and the glass that protected us when we escaped Dome Four suddenly covered the carriage. It connected with the underbody of the overpass and cracked, but didn’t break. The overpass crumbled and sunlight spilled through the new opening.

  Riggs yelled back to me with pride. “Never underestimate my son’s ingenuity!”

  The legs of the buggy groaned as they gripped the disintegrating roadway, pulling us out of the pit. The gears weren’t meant to deal with such extreme conditions, and steam rose from the front leg. A screw popped off at one of the joints, causing the buggy to lurch forward. I gripped the seat tighter and prayed the remaining legs would support our escape.

  Dad yelled from the back seat, his tone panic-ridden. “We’ve got company!”

  I looked back to see one of the burned men pounding the glass with a mangled fist, his eyes opaque and unseeing. He was relentless in his attack, and the glass cracked and spider-webbed under his third blow. The man howled with triumph.

  Riggs cursed and jerked the controls back and forth, causing the carriage to sway from side to side. The man lost his grip and fell away from the glass. I followed his descent to the ground, horrified.

  Hundreds of the burned men ran below in varying states of undress, their military uniforms still clinging to their bodies where they were unburned. They climbed up the moving legs of the buggy with inhuman speed, catapulting themselves higher and higher along the legs as they gained purchase on the steel bolts that extended from the sides.

  “This is bad!” I said over the din. “VERY bad!”

  “Keep calm!” Riggs yelled from the front.

  “Calm? Have you seen what’s coming for us?” screamed Alice.

  “Avery, can you send a rain to make the legs wet?” called Riggs, his body tense with each
jerk of the controls as he tried to keep the buggy from going down under the added weight of the soldiers. “We need to keep them off the buggy!”

  I remembered the last time I tried to create an element, but I refused to let the memory hinder my ability. I was strong enough for this; I had to be. I closed my eyes and extended my hands, begging for the rain to come.

  It didn’t.

  “I don’t know what to do!” I shook my hands and jumped up and down, hoping that my crude rain dance would bring down a torrent. “It’s not working!”

  Mom stood and swayed against the movements of the carriage as she came toward me in the center. She clutched my hand with hers, and supported herself with her free hand against the center seat.

  “Together!” she yelled over the bedlam that surged around us. She lifted our joined hands in the air and together we yelled, “RAIN!”

  The result was immediate. A hurricane wind came from the west and nearly tipped the buggy over. I opened my eyes to hail and rain and wind that converged on us with unrelenting force. Everyone cheered in unison, as we watched the men lose their grip and fall back to earth.

  I turned to congratulate Mom when I felt her weight sag, pulling my arm down. She collapsed to the floor, her face white and slack.

  “Mom!” I shook her. “MOM!”

  Dad fell to the ground beside me, the space too close to hold all of us crouching around Mom. Dad pushed me out of the way and scooped her up in his arms as he sat beside her.

  “No, no, no, not now. You’re strong,” he said to her, speaking as though it were only the two of them. “Be courageous like you told Avery. You can’t leave me now. We’ve weathered the storm. We’re getting out of here, don’t do this.”

  He rattled her shoulders, her body limp. I fell on top of her, crying uncontrollably. “Mom! No! I just got you back!”

  Legs pulled me off and wrapped me in his embrace as we both watched my father plead with his wife to live. To live and be brave and survive another day.

  Her eyes closed for a moment, but then she focused on me. “Avery, my baby,” she said as she coughed, a small line of blood trickling from her nose. “I’m so glad I got to see the woman you’ve become.”