Dominic
Breaking out of the Chamber isn't nearly as hard as breaking in.
Celeste, Kyler, and I practically walked out without a single head-turning our way to care. The troopers were all programmed to care about one thing and one thing only--Evelyn. Most of the troopers were out of the chamber anyways. I didn't like to think of where they might have gone too.
Evelyn was our only care too. Our time was limited and we had to reach No Mans land before she did. Of course, Grant Holden was not a person I would naturally trust, but I wouldn't want to risk any chances if he really was telling the truth. His face wasn't one of someone trying to manipulate me--- I've grown familiar with eyes like that. He was painted with genuine worry. Horror almost.
There was a part of me that almost wished Grant wasn't speaking the truth. If they were taking Evelyn to No Man's Land, there was only one thing they wanted her there to do--destroy it. How Grado located our home, I wasn't sure, but that didn't matter. I just needed to get back and make sure everyone was safe.
We treaded through the mass of halls, Celeste and Kyler still in the facade of the trooper uniforms. I was merely another prisoner to them. Another alarm sounded--red blinking lights flickered and splashed color onto the white walls. In seconds, troopers flooded the halls, guns, and tasers in hand. I felt Celeste's grip on my arm tightened as the bodies pushed past us, nearly knocking us over as we stood still. They all were traveling the same direction--left, so we would travel right.
We whirled around a corner, no one taking to notice, and spotting the unoccupied exit. Would it really be this simple? We could possibly just walk out? I know the Chamber better than the back of my own hand. I know its tricks. I know its secrets. It wouldn't be that easy.
Celeste headed towards the door, and I grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Wait!"
"Dom, we have to get out of here!"
"Are you even thinking? They wouldn't just leave an exit like that unoccupied!"
"We dont have many options right now."
"But what if there's--"
"Guys?" Kyler said modestly
"You dont know that!" I argued
"We can fight them off!" debated Celeste
"Hey, guys?" Kyler repeated from a distance
"I'll go. Alone. Just in case"
"You can't go alone, Dominic!"
"Bloody hell!" Kyler called powerfully, and we directed our gazes to him. He was standing outside the door, the light carving a dark silhouette in his features. Not a trooper in view. "There's no one out here." He said with a glance, "But if you two weren't occupied with bickering with each other, we would have known that a lot sooner!"
"Hmph." Celeste narrowed her eyes at me with a sneer, "I was right." She followed Kyler, leaving me wearily behind. There was still something off about it. Something I didn't trust. Nonetheless, Celeste and Kyler were far ahead of me, and I needed to catch up.
I swung my legs around the gate of the Chamber, Cel and Kyler's soles hitting the ground behind me. Our feet trampled on the tattered grass as we hurried through the woods. I held my hand out, swatting away branches and leaves that hung in my way, cutting at the bark like a knife. Sweat lined down my back as the golden sun beat hot on my skin. Other than the sound of our feet crunching on the forest floor, the only thing I could hear was the pace of the breath and the beat of my heart echoing in my ears.
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.
I hated it. I couldn't bear it. This was my worst fear. I wanted to scream, run and plunge my fist into the helmet of every single trooper who held my people. What I hated most, was that I wasn't there to help any of them. My heart sank.
I gazed over the crowd, trying to find any sign of Lani or Cassian, yet I found none. Beckett. Little Beckett was my only thought for a flashing moment. I had to find him. I had to make sure he was okay.
I surged forwards but Celeste gripped my shirt, seizing me back.
"You can't just run in there!" She scolded in a whisper.
"I have to find-"
"Wait!" Cel interrupted, her breath pulling back in shock. "Dominic." Her face was still, her eyes wide with worry, "Dominic...where." She turned her head around, "Where's Kyler?
"Huh?" I shook my gaze from the trapped Rogues
"Where..." She looked around nervously, her voice shaking, "Where is Kyler!"
I glanced around the tree, turning my head at every angle. He was nowhere. How long had he not been with us? When had he disappeared?
Celeste began to panic immediately. "No, no, no, he can't be gone!"
"He's not gone Cel, we'll find him. He probably just--"
"--Dominic I don't know...I...what are we going to do?.... I cant...I can't breathe Dominic!"
She started taking in sharp breaths, her chest rapidly rising and falling as she paced around picking at the skin on her nails in a cold sweat. She was having a panic attack. I knew it, because she used to get them a lot when we were little. It had been a long time since she's had one though. She told me learned to control it.
"Cel!" I grabbed her hands and she tried to pull away. Her fingers were shaking so bad, I had a hard time grasping onto them. But as soon as I gripped her palm, I cupped both my hands around it and held it tightly. I did it to try and stop her from trembling, just as I used to when we were in the Chamber.
Her breath was still so quick, the sound of her inhales was a ghastly cry that had to have burned her throat.
"Cel, it's okay! Breathe."
I was never good at this kind of stuff. Kyler was always better at comfort--but that was not much help to me now. There was anxiety sounding in me too, but I tried to hide so I could help her.
'Cel, look at me." I tried to say in the softest voice I could.
Her frightful eyes met mine, tears rimming the edges of her golden skin. "Look at me Cel. Follow the pace of my breath. Remember how we used to do it when we were little? Just like that."
Her breath shook for a moment, but I watched her eyes study the rhythm of my chest as it fell up and down slowly. I took a deep breath, and she followed. I inhaled, she inhaled, I exhaled, she exhaled. Her hands stopped to shake and she closed her eyes with one more deep breath.
"Are you okay now Cel?" I held to her hand.
She nodded and opened her eyes so they met mine, "I'm...I'm okay."
She let go of my hands, and I immediately put them behind my back, to try and hide the shake in my fingers.
"I'm sorry... it's just.."
"Don't say sorry Cel."
"I know it's just.. it's just..." She spoke, but her thoughts were obviously carried elsewhere, "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" I tried to listen through the yelling of troopers and cries of Rogues, yet I heard nothing.
"Shh." She narrowed her eyes and leaned to her right, focusing deeply on a sound that I was deafened to hear.
"I don't--" Then, I detected it. Then I felt it. The ground shook, a wave of force brushed through the trees and pulled my body back a few feet in an instant. I straightened my back, confused, and heard the sound that followed.
A cry.
A cry so loud, so full of emotion and fright, that it tore through me like a blade, trickling a chill down my back like blood.
It seemed to come from behind Cel and me, off to the right a bit. Cel and I traded a worried glance, then we were on our feet again. We followed the source, and another sound of weeping echoed through the trees.
I heard a low voice somewhere in the forest, "Look what you've done!"
"No. No, I didn't do that! I-"
Oh my god. The voice was trembling so bad, I could barely make out words.
And another, from a familiar woman who hadn't a single shiver in her clear tone, "Very good my dear."
I wheeled around the corner of the tree, and the next scream I heard sounded right beside me. Celeste gaped at what was before us, and I too could hardly move, being paralyzed in shock.
How could this happen? I didn't understand.
Celeste fell to her knees, tears in her eyes.
" I didn't mean to. Oh, god no. Oh no." The mournful voice trembled, "I didn't mean to. How could you make me do that!" she cried harder, words being pulled back in brittle breathes, "I didn't want to. I didn't...oh no. Get out of my head! Get out of my head!"
Verena and Grado stood there. Verena with a satisfied wicked grin and Grado with his hands clasped pleasantly behind his back as his vermillion cape fluttered with the breath of the wind. But it was what was below them, that I could not seem to wrap my head around.
Evelyn was on her knees, holding her hands over her eyes as cried reckless tears through her fingers. She was crying so much, the sound of her sobs overpowered all else. In her lap, lay Kyler. Blood seeped down his shirt and trickled from his mouth down his chin. His eyes were open as if he looked the devil straight in the eye and froze. He didn't move. His chest didn't rise.
He was dead.