Inside

by Kyra Anderson

  Mark guided me backward, Dana’s last sentences fading as we moved away from the door and through the dark tunnel. I felt numb. Empty.

  Somewhere in my brain, I had always known…

  Mark kept my hand in his as we walked, keeping me grounded to the present. My brain was still trying to sort through every instance with Mykail that had probably been relayed to Dana, remembering how hesitant Mark was to have Mykail involved, my own apprehension when I learned that Mark did not trust him, the way Mykail had been so secretive about things that were bothering him…

  I had always known…

  Mark opened the door to the empty medical room, holstering his gun so he could keep his hand around mine.

  But as soon as we walked into the main bunker, he released my hand and hell broke loose.

  I watched with numb disbelief as Mark darted forward, ignoring the people in the bunker who turned to greet us, and slammed into Mykail with his entire body.

  The two fell to the ground heavily as several people began yelling at Mark to stop, though everyone knew better than to step in, in case Mark turned on them. Mykail was stunned and, for several long moments, could not gain his bearings enough to fight back. Mark flipped the angel onto his stomach and pulled both of his hands behind his back.

  “Mark, what the hell are you doing?!” Griffin snapped.

  Mark opened his mouth but no sound came out. I saw him struggling to find a way to communicate what he knew while he still had Mykail pinned.

  “Mark, let him go,” Tori ordered.

  Before she completed her sentence, one of Mykail’s wings violently connected with Mark’s side and threw him to the ground. Mark rolled and got to his feet as Mykail scrambled to stand.

  Clark was at my side, though I did not turn to him, focused on the confrontation.

  “Lily, what the hell is going on?”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?!” Mykail snapped, raising his fists to defend himself against the leader of the Eight Group. Mark darted forward again and threw a punch at Mykail’s face, ducking under the wing that was thrown in front of Mykail to protect him.

  The humans were backing away from the confrontation as several of the experiments ran forward, trying to find a way to interfere. I was frozen, watching, knowing I needed to speak for Mark, but I could not move my feet to run forward, even as Clark tried to urge me to move.

  “Mark! Enough!” Griffin yelled, finally finding an opening in the fight and grabbing onto Mark’s arms, pulling him back. Mark grit his teeth and threw a kick back at Griffin, who barely managed to avoid a very painful kick to the groin, though it did cause him to release one of Mark’s arms. The smaller experiment turned around and grabbed Griffin’s other arm, kneeing his forearm to release himself before running back at Mykail.

  Tori ran to Griffin, worried, and then turned to watch the two experiments fight.

  “Mark! Stop fighting him and tell us what’s wrong!”

  Mykail’s wing swept angrily at the leader of the Eight Group and Mark fell to his side, using his position to kick Mykail’s feet out from under him. Off balance from the weight of his wings, Mykail fell heavily and Mark leapt to his feet.

  When Mykail turned, the barrel of a gun was pressed between his eyes.

  “Stop!” I finally managed to bellow.

  All movement ceased. I stumbled forward, eyes locked on the gun pressed to Mykail’s forehead.

  “Lily, what happened?” Griffin asked, massaging his arm.

  “Get some chains and chain him up,” I said, my voice shaking.

  “What?”

  “Get some chains and fucking chain Mykail up!”

  “Lily, what are you—”

  “Chain him up! He’s been lying to us! He’s been feeding Dana information the entire time!”

  “Lily…” Mykail started, his eyes wide.

  “Don’t fucking talk to me right now,” I growled. To emphasize my point, Mark pushed the gun further against Mykail’s skin, pushing his head back.

  “Please, listen to me. I can explain.”

  “Shut up!” I bellowed.

  Ichiro, Rin, and Keiko darted to get chains and returned shortly after, all of them moving to pull Mykail’s arms behind his back. Mykail did not fight, his expression conflicted.

  “Be sure you find a way to secure his wings, too,” I warned.

  “How do you know this, Lily?” Tori asked, stepping to my side, realizing from Mykail’s expression that my claim was true.

  “I’ve always suspected it…but Dana just confirmed it for me.” I sighed and rubbed my face before turning to Griffin and Tori. “Dana knows the passage to the medical room, so we need to get some dynamite and permanently seal it. We’ll figure out what to do with him later.”

  “Lily, please, listen to me,” Mykail said. “What Dana told you—”

  “What? It was a lie?” I snarled. “I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Please, let me explain! Dana did send me in to give him information!” Mykail said desperately, cringing as his wings were forced to fold painfully against his back. “But…I swear to you, I started lying to him!”

  “I don’t believe you…”

  “I fell in love with you! I meant it when I said that! I started leading Dana on a false trail. If he really did know everything, don’t you think I would have told him how you were planning to break everyone out of the Commission?”

  “I didn’t tell you the whole plan,” I said darkly. “Now that I think about it…I didn’t really trust you then, either.”

  “You told me enough. Dana is not an idiot. But everything went through as planned. When I saw that Mark had put together a plan that could actually work, I began to really believe in this revolution…I really began to believe in what you could do…”

  “And yet you were about to doom this revolution?”

  “I have not been telling Dana anything!” he gasped, his eyes wide and desperate.

  “Someone throw him in one of the store rooms,” Griffin ordered. “We’ll figure this out later.”

  Mark pushed the gun and Mykail’s head finally fell to the side, slicing his forehead on the edge of the barrel before the others of the Eight Group hauled him to his feet and dragged him away.

  “Lily, are you alright?”

  “I’m fine.”

  In that moment, I was fine. Nothing was going through my head other than what I needed to do next.

  “We need to deal with that passageway from the medical room.”

  Griffin and Tori looked at me worriedly. I rolled my eyes.

  “I’m serious, I’m fine.” I told them strongly. “Why don’t we get some dynamite and deal with that entrance? We don’t have a lot of time.”

  Mark joined us, holstering his gun.

  “Also, I hate to say it, but Dana knows about Mark, too.”

  Griffin and Tori looked at the leader of the Eight Group worriedly before turning to everyone surrounding us, agitated by our behavior and the realization that the symbol of our revolution had been feeding information to the man we were trying to defeat.

  “We need someone to get one of the cases of dynamite,” Tori began to give orders. “Just one case. Jodie, you and Kyle go get one.”

  The two scurried off. Tori and Griffin began talking to another group about going up the tunnel of that exit and being sure that the police and Dana were no longer there. I turned to Mark.

  “Will the others of the Eight Group be able to get out in time?”

  Mark sighed and looked at the band on his wrist, which was already blinking red. I could tell from his expression that he did not entirely know if the others could get out fast enough. My thoughts immediately went to Josh.

  Forcing myself to focus, I turned to the problem of the compromised tunnel.

  Several sticks of dynamite were used near the door and everyone waited in the main bunker, where the fuse stopped, going through the medical room and up the tunnel. Griffin lit the fuse and all of us hugge
d the far wall of the main bunker. My experience with dynamite was nonexistent, and seeing how nervous everyone else was, it was clear that no one else entirely knew what they were doing either. That increased anxieties.

  It felt like agonizing hours before we heard the resounding concussion of the dynamite. For how far away the dynamite had been placed, the blast managed to shake the bunker.

  Followed by the initial blast, there was a dull roar that progressively grew louder and caused some panic. The groan of strained metal and the rumbling became almost deafening. There was a loud boom and the sound of screeching metal and tumbling boulders could be heard down the hallway in the medical room. I listened to the racket and looked at the others, knowing what the sound meant.

  I tried to get up from my crouching position, but Cody grabbed me and held me back, hearing some of the remaining groaning of what could only be a cave-in. Cody was sure to keep me still for several long minutes after silence fell over the bunker. Tori was the first to walk to the medical room. I followed, along with nearly everyone else, worried.

  Tori had to push the door open against the fallen rocks. I craned my neck to look and saw the dust settling over the nearly-destroyed room. The tables were mangled from the fallen boulders, and the larger equipment was practically buried under rubble. There was the sound of trickling water that could be heard from the distorted door leading to the former tunnel. I stepped into the room with Tori and Griffin, covering my nose and mouth with my hand as I tried to move over the boulders.

  I looked around the shelves of medicine, seeing most of them blocked by the rubble. Some were completely destroyed while some shelves only had a few toppled bottles, leaving others relatively unharmed.

  “Lily, you should stay back,” Griffin said. “We’re going to see what happened.”

  Mark pulled me out of the room and we watched from the door as Tori and Griffin moved over the rocks, getting closer to the other door and finally managing to climb over the boulders and look into the tunnel.

  Both of them disappeared for only a short time before cautiously picking their way back, Griffin helping Tori over the boulders.

  “What happened?” Clark pressed.

  “Looks like there was a reservoir of water above the tunnel,” Griffin explained. “There’s a lot of water coming through the rocks, we’re going to have to build something to keep the water from flooding into the fort.”

  “A reservoir?” I blinked.

  “From the melting snow,” Griffin nodded. “Freeze-thaw would have eventually caused the tunnel to collapse and the fort to be flooded, but we helped speed the process.” Griffin got to the door and shooed everyone into the main bunker.

  “Alright, Cody, Vic, Ivo, David, and any other experiments, go to storeroom seven and get shovels, bring some for Tori and me, too.” He turned to Peter and some of the others. “Once we have the water diverted and we know that the tunnel isn’t going to collapse further, we’re going to need to sort through everything that survived and make sure to clean up the room as much as possible. I’m putting you in charge of that.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Mark, keep guards around Mykail at all times,” Tori whispered.

  “Lily.” Griffin turned to me. “Can you and Clark go through another one of the exits and make sure that there is no physical change in the mountain that would cause people to notice what happened?”

  “Sure,” I said.

  Mark did not protest.

  * *** *

  Thankfully, there was no visible evidence of the cave-in from outside, though it worried Clark that there was a large empty space above the cave in that would soon collapse on top of us as well. I tried to remind him how far away the actual fort was from the entrance we had now blocked, but I shared his concern.

  I did not tell anyone that Dana would start looking for other entrances to Fort Daniels. Due to the threat, I felt pressure to get the revolution moving faster to eliminate Dana as a threat so that we could move out of the fort and find another base of operations while we took down the rest of the Commission of the People, including the new threat of the Machine of Neutralization.

  When I got back to the main bunker, there were a few members of the Eight Group there, who assured us that everyone had gotten out and that they were on their way. However, they also told us that the cops were swarming the city discreetly, looking for anyone associated with the revolution.

  I made a decision, telling those who were not working on the other projects to grab a gun and station themselves at the passages of the fort to be sure that the groups collecting food were not followed, even if that meant that we would have to kill whoever was following them.

  They obeyed.

  I called Tori and Griffin out of working on the tunnel and brought them into the strategy room, grabbing Mark and Clark as well.

  “We have another problem,” I told them. “Dana said that Eyna’s complete.”

  Everyone’s eyes shot wide and Tori looked at the ground, her eyes conflicted. Griffin leaned against the table behind him and folded his arms over his chest.

  “Shit…”

  “Maybe he was bluffing,” Tori tried to explain lightly. Mark slowly shook his head, his eyes on his feet. I turned to him, having figured that the Eight Group would know about the finished Machine of Neutralization with their close proximity to Dana.

  “Why didn’t you let us know?” Griffin hissed at the leader of the Eight Group. Mark did not respond.

  “We have to find a way to kill him,” Tori said.

  “What do you know about Eyna?” I asked. She sighed heavily and rubbed her face.

  “Not much, really,” she admitted. “The experiments all try to stay clear of him during our times in the Dome.”

  “They let him into the Dome with other experiments?” Clark gasped. Tori nodded.

  “He’s only killed one other experiment when he was in the Dome, but it was out of self-defense,” Griffin explained. “And let me tell you…you think Mark knows how to snap a neck? Eyna had so much force in attacking that experiment that he shattered each vertebrae.”

  “He is considered the ultimate weapon…” I breathed. “How do we kill him?”

  “We don’t know what he’s capable of,” Griffin whispered. “If he kills Dana and gets loose, there’s no telling what he’ll do…”

  “Is he coherent?” Clark asked. “I’ve never seen him when he’s not sedated.”

  “He’s coherent,” Tori answered. “But all the things that Dana has done to him have made him practically insane. He talks to things that aren’t there, carries on actual conversations with himself, keeps talking about dragons…trust me, you don’t want him loose in the world.”

  “That’s not the only problem,” Griffin murmured, seeing Mark lift his hand, motioning that he wanted to say something. Griffin took over the task for the mute experiment. “Dana wants to mass produce Machines of Neutralization. Not only will we have to destroy Eyna, but his sister as well, and any records of how he was created.”

  “But to do that, we have to get past Dana,” I said. “And with Eyna at his disposal…we don’t know what’s coming at us.”

  Having the super-weapon at his disposal gave Dana the element of surprise once again. We were poking at a nuclear missile.

  Deciding to think it over for the next few days, everyone went back to their tasks. Clark and Mark stayed close to me as I moved around the groups who had been collecting food. I asked them how they had done and if they had seen any police or Commission cars when they were out before I explained what they had missed.

  I had to keep busy.

  Josh finally showed up about five hours after the cave-in. I was so happy to see him alive and well that I ran to him and threw my arms around him. He hugged me back.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered automatically. Mark motioned for Josh to follow him and the two disappeared to the storerooms. I looked at Eun, who was agitated know
ing that her brother had been found out by Dana. I wondered if she had been forced to watch the previous torture with the others or not, and found myself giving her a hug around the shoulders regardless, just to reassure her.

  I paced around the bunker, waiting for the final seven groups to return from procuring food. Since it had been so long since I had sent the first set of guards to the entrances, I asked others to relieve them and stand at the posts for a few hours, which would allow the others to get some food.

  Clark and I sorted rations, picking through the fresh food as well, seeing what would spoil quicker and bringing it to the strategy room, which had also become the room where we handed out the food to keep everyone in a straight line and be sure that no one took more than their share. Giving out food at meal times—which was now only twice a day—had become a chore. I did not like that we were unable to trust anyone to keep their share, but we had to be sure to protect our limited resources.

  Everyone stopped for dinner. I was sure to busy myself with handing out the rations and keeping an eye on how much food we had left.

  When Clark offered me my ration, I shook my head, telling him I was not hungry.

  It was the truth. I was nauseous, a feeling that had been hanging over me for the better part of seven hours.

  I walked into the main bunker, taking some empty boxes to their proper spot in the back of the final storeroom, trying to ignore the collection of Eight Group members standing around one of the storeroom doors, who were sure to fall silent when I walked by.

  On my second trip with two more empty boxes, I came out to see Josh standing in the hallway, waiting for me.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  I looked at him and then at the others of the Eight Group before shaking my head and swallowing the painful lump in my throat.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I told him quickly, ducking my head as I walked past. He caught my wrist and my stomach flipped over in fear I did not understand.

  “Please?” he whispered. “It’s important.”

  I hesitated. I knew what he wanted to talk about. I turned to Mark, who was standing with the others of the Eight Group. While it seemed like he knew what Josh wanted to talk about, he did not appear to have any intension of following and being part of the conversation.