Ash and Cinder

21| Siren

When Sky hits the asphalt, the hospital doors open with a whoosh reminiscent of the infirmary and spit out a dark-haired man in threadbare clothes. His eyes sweep over us as he jogs our way. Over the old crusted stains and the newer, brighter blood, and the bruises and the dirt and the torn, ragged clothes. He stops midway and I can practically see him re-considering the decision to come near us. He has a child with him, a little girl with a red snotty face and green eyes that wobble like little squishy marbles. Her white-blonde curls stick to her tear-stained cheeks. For some reason, she looks familiar. Maybe she's related to someone from the Compound, who knows, it doesn't matter.

Something Russian comes from his mouth. Delilah, kneeling beside Sky, answers him.

He retreats back into the hospital, child in tow. The moment his back is turned, Delilah smacks my leg, sending sparks down to my toes. I'm almost too tired to feel it, certainly too tired to complain.

"That's Anushka's kid," she whispers, "she looks just like her."

That's it, that's why the kid looks familiar. Not an Experiment's relative; a soldier's. That was Marsya. That was a toddler, a four-year-old at most, and her mom—images flash in my head. Bullet holes and caves and blood and falling and falling and falling.

"Trick," Delilah says quietly.

"Hm?"

She glances pointedly at my arm, where my fingertips are turning white from how hard I'm gripping it. My bone creaks when I let go. The outline of a bruise is already welling in the new sore spot.

The doors whoosh open and release the man, followed by a small woman in nurse's scrubs the color of pine needles. She pushes an empty wheelchair, her auburn hair swinging to the beat of her quick steps.

"You need to tell him to run," I say. "Remember what Anushka said when we found her?"

What I'm doing is traitorous...they will try to hurt her...

She nods, eyes glued to the man. They're halfway to us. "What if he's here for the kid?"

My heart stalls. If he's here for the kid then he knows what happened at the camp. He knows Anushka was a traitor, he knows the four specters in the parking lot are escapees. And if he knows, then this a trap.

There's no time left, and no way to run. The man and the nurse are on us. So I do the only thing I can think of, and dig the broken dog tags from my pocket and hold them out to the man.

It only takes a second for recognition to dawn on his face. And then, tears. In spite of everything, relief trickles through my system. That is not the face of a man here to punish a child for her mother's crime. He takes the tags delicately in one hand, holding Anushka's daughter close with the other.

"Pochemu u vas est' metki Anushki?" he whispers. I look to Delilah for answers, and at that moment, a siren wail splits the air.

The man's head jerks back to search the dark sky. He hoists the little girl onto his hip, taking a few unsteady steps toward the hospital. Delilah reaches for him, takes him by the arm. At the same time, the nurse taps me. I must flinch something awful because she yanks her hand away with a startled expression.

"This is bomb siren," she says, motioning to the hospital. "Inside now, inside."

She bundles us towards the hospital, somehow managing to both push the chair with Sky, and herd both Delilah and me. Light pools in front of the hospital, a beacon. We're short a body when we reach the doors. Somewhere on the trek across the parking lot, the man and Anushka's daughter vanished.

"I told him," Delilah says, barely audible over the wailing siren.

Inside; chaos. A crush of bodies seethes through the small lobby. I have a spare second to take in the cramped quarters, mouth turning desert dry. I can't do this, I think, and the lights cut off. There's a moment of dark, a shroud hanging over the impenetrable black silhouettes. Then dim red emergency lights flicker to life and someone shoves me inside.