The Rogues

40- The Gates

As we got closer and closer to the camp, it was clear that the gates that Kyler had put up just hours before--were torn down. But they weren't just torn down, it was ripped away--shattered into a million particles like glass. Pieces of the metal scattered on the earth, crumbled into fragments. But how? Kyler made sure to secure the gates with ywrid metal--indestructible tiles that not even a bullet could slip through. It was possible for the Ywrid to be shattered the way it was. It didn't make sense.

We paused at the sight, a nervous feeling chilling my bones at the broken gate.

"What the hell?" Celeste panted, catching her breath in a perplexed look.

"No..goddammit, no!" I shook my head. It wasn't real. There was no way they got there that quick. How could they?

"What?" Kyler looked at me concerned, just catching up to us. When he reached the ruins of his gate, his eyes widened in worry, "The gate! But I...how?"

My foot crunched on a piece of the broken gate, and I bent my knees to examine it. It shinned against the sunlight, a glittering grey tint. But something wasn't right. I picked it up and held it against the rays of the sun. Yellow peeked through, along with the outline of the forest. Ywrid metal isn't transparent. This was...synthetic?

"Were too late." I said, "They already are here." The words felt wrong escaping my muffled breath, but the truth wasn't always a light one to bear.

"Come on!" Cel waved her arm and we rushed inside the camp as quickly as we could. My heart was beating so agile I could barely think. I've had mishaps and close calls with the troopers before, but not ever did I think they would actually find us. Every time they came close, we misled them somewhere else. Their programmed brains never picked up our smarts, and I never thought the time would come where they would.  I knew Evelyn wouldn't have given our spot away, because she herself didn't even know the exact location of it. So how did they find us?

Nonetheless, that was the least of my concern when the troopers could be attacking my people that very moment. As we trailed along the ends of the camp, we came across another site that sent a rigor down my vertebrae. The ground was split as if a bomb went through the center of it. Dirt flushed through the sides of the earth, trailing down the middle towards the homeland.

"The ground!" Celeste squealed as she kept my pace. "That's exactly how it looked outside the Chamber when Evelyn passed through!"

The trees danced in a movement, the world passing by as I glanced a nervous look at Celeste. The fear in her eyes was just as great as mine. Evelyn had been there. The troopers had been there.

I picked up my feet, going any quicker would be impossible, but I pushed through. I ignored the aching in my head, the pounding in my ears, and the twinge in my knees--I kept pushing, kept going, kept running.

I ran, and ran and ran--until---I saw it. I couldn't believe my eyes. Panic soared into my blood, and I sucked in a sharp breath of air. I tucked behind a tree, covering from the view of the troopers. I peeked my head slightly from the bark and gaped at my surroundings.

Every single Rouge in the camp was huddled in a circle--forced from their homes and torn away from their spots. Some, who looked like they resisted, were in heavy cuffs and chains. Others had the hands of troopers pressed firmly against their backs. The troopers encircled the Rogues like a parasite, trapping them so they had no other place to go. Many escaped the circle, but the ones outside were battling the troopers.

A Rogue's fighting is excellent, they can take down a single trooper, maybe even two or three. But we were not trained to fight against tasers, and that was the weapons the troopers used unfairly against them. One by one, Rogues were being seized to the ground by shocking bolts of electricity. Declan was on his knees, the butt of a gun to his temple. Valerie threw an angry punch but was met with a taser to her rib. She cried in pain, tears rolling down her cheek as she dropped to the ground. Samuel, Evette, Ileana, Jacob, Benedict...everyone...all my Rogues were defenseless.