Steel Horizon

Chapter Twenty-Four

Hours passed. Or so I thought. There was no way to tell and nobody came to see me for a long time. It felt like I hadn't seen Jude in days. As far as I knew, it could have been.

The time without Jude was a blur. My thoughts were irrational and erratic, half of them not making any sense. At times, it was hard to tell dreams from reality, because both were just as bad. I thought constantly of my last moments with him—how his face looked when they took him, how their hands grasped his arms, the look in his eyes . . . .

Nothing could have been worse.

I started to lose myself. I was to the point where I stared at the wall and accepted everything was out of my control. And it had been for a long time. I just didn't want to believe it. Or accept it.

I thought hard about how much time had passed since they had taken him. Clearing my head, I took everything into account and tried to come up with a reasonable answer. It was less than a day. It might have felt longer, but I knew it wasn't. My stomach growled with emptiness but I wasn't starving yet. It just felt longer without him here.

That night I woke to something. Without moving, I tried to hear it again hoping it wasn't part of my imagination. When I heard the first rumble it sounded far off, like a deep whisper brushing the edges of the room.

The second time it happened it was closer.

And the third shook the building.

Something was happening out there, and I had know way of knowing what. I had no idea how long I had been in captivity. I had no idea how many humans were still alive. Were they fighting or running away to hide? My body pulsed to get out and fight. I never wanted to so badly in my life. I hated sitting here, able to do nothing.

So I waited. And hoped someone would come for me.

The building shook every few minutes for the next hour or so, and when the hour was up, everything fell back into silence. I felt like a rabbit stuck in a hole with no way out. Trapped. My heart beat against my chest, fighting to stay calm and rational.

I hadn't noticed when the silver centipede had left, but the corner stood empty with no blue eye staring back at me. A horrible feeling whispered to me the Scrappers had fled during whatever happened out there, and left me here to die. A cold sweat broke out across my forehead at the prospect of being here alone. The reality became clearer when nobody came.

Then I heard something. Instead of the deep rumbling sounds of earlier, I heard footsteps coming down the hall. I tensed and pushed myself against the wall, not at all knowing what to expect.

The doors slowly opened and two men stepped into the room with their guns raised and ready, their eyes taking in everything. It felt strange seeing humans and not Scrappers. Almost unreal. They wore cargo pants with black T-shirts, both with an extra rifle slung across their backs. Their eyes first wandered farther down the hall, but when they caught sight of me, they stopped in their tracks.

There was a split second of shock from seeing me in the supposedly empty room, and after really seeing me—seeing my arm—their eyes widened. Before I knew it their guns were pointed at me, like I was the enemy. My pounding heart made it hard to keep my breathing calm.

I wished Jude was here. He would've known what to say and what to do. I stared back at the men and hoped they wouldn't shoot before thinking about who I was. Or better yet, what I was.

I felt judged under their gazes and already less human. Maybe because I was less human. I couldn't deny it anymore. They stared at me with a mixture of fear, hatred, and utter confusion. They didn't know what to think of me and their expressions nearly made me wish I hadn't survived the operation. Like I was something that shouldn't exist.