Dale
I beat the door with my fists, my heartbeat racing. We can't be trapped in here. We have to get out.
"Dale, stop," Nadya says, pulling on my arm.
Two of the guys run up with a sturdy wooden chair. They run at the door, holding the chair like a battering ram, but it does nothing. They do it again, grunting with the effort. The chair splinters on contact and falls to the floor in pieces. One of the guys curses. I do too.
"There has to be a way out." My voice shakes.
Nadya's eyes light up. "The bomb." She points toward the solar room. Of course. Weston never set off his bomb. She moves to retrieve it but I pull her back. I can't let her run into the smoke and heat.
"Stay here." I yell to the others. "Get low to the ground. I'll be right back." Then I take off into the haze.
My eyes sting and I close them, stumbling blind toward the solar room. The gravel path crunches beneath my feet. I hold my breath for as long as I can, but finally I have to breathe and I suck in smoke. My lungs burn and I sputter, coughing. I have to make it.
Finally, my groping hands touch stone and I drop to my knees. I peer at the ground, running my hands through the rocks and dirt. They land on a bulky package. The bomb. I scoop it up and take a deep breath of the relatively fresh air near the ground, then stand and sprint for the door.
I make it, stumbling and choking, and pass the package to Nadya. She pulls out a match.
"No," I sputter.
She pauses.
"Someone else."
She rolls her eyes. "Stand back." One of the guys pulls me away from the door and Nadya lights the fuse. It sparks, and she scrambles toward us. I put my arms around her and turn her away as the bomb explodes.
It should have been louder.
I open my eyes and blink through the tears. The door is still standing. The only sign that a bomb even went off is a small scorch mark near the bottom.
"No," Nadya cries. My shoulders droop and my body feels heavy. She leans on me and I lean on her. At least we'll go out fighting.
Wait.
The door...opens. "How—" I begin, letting go of Nadya and stepping forward.
Leah runs inside.
A grin breaks across my face and I pull her into a hug. Others shove past us, running for freedom, but I cling tight to her.
"How did you know?" I whisper in her ear.
She slaps me on the chest. "I wasn't leaving without you. And I knew you wouldn't leave without me. So when you didn't find me I knew something had gone wrong."
I smile. "Thanks."
"Shut up. We need to get out of here."
We leave the solarium and run past the dorms. Even though the air is fresher out here, the fires that Leah and Zola set are getting closer. We race down the hallway and past the cafeteria. The fire from the girls' dorm has already spread here, and whatever the tables in the cafeteria are made of, they're flaring up like dry grass.
To my left, Nadya stops to look through the window of the library. "Come on." I gently grasp her shoulder. "We have to go."
"All those books," she whispers.
My voice is harder now. "Nadya."
Leah runs back to us. "Look," she says, holding open her sweatshirt satchel. Inside are several books. "We all grabbed a few." Leah smiles, pointing at Zola who shows us the books in her satchel too. Leah takes Nadya's hand. "Now it's time to go."
Nadya nods and we set off again. As we make it to the hallway with the offices, a crashing noise comes from the cafeteria. The walls around us shake.
Elysia is caving in.
"Leah," I say, and she snaps her head toward me. "Have you seen Evita?"
She shakes her head no. "She probably made it out before any of us."
My adrenaline spikes and I try to slow my racing heart. "I'm going to check Sheer's office."
"No," she frowns. "There isn't time."
"I have to," I say. Leah sets her jaw, glaring at me. "Get Nadya out?" I ask. She continues to glare, but finally nods. I duck into Sheer's office, amid the sounds of rumbling behind us.
Evita
On the screen test subjects pour into the hallway outside the Solarium. I catch sight of a blond head, Nadya, and Dale next to her. He's talking to Leah. I let out my breath. He made it out. They're going to make it.
In the corner, Sheer's body lays slumped on the ground. I don't look at it. I can't. But I can feel it in the room with me, like she's still alive.
On another screen I see Brandt and Weston above ground outside, climbing into a car. Only three people know I was giving Nadya the pills. Ellis is dead. Sheer is dead.
And Brandt is gone.
Suddenly, panic envelops me. Weston saw my hands this morning. What if he and Brandt talk? What if they put it all together?
Everything crashes over me, and I fall to my knees sobbing. I look at my hands. The green has spread further, and it's brighter, as if it's taking over more and more of my cells. It's so obvious, I don't know how I didn't see it before. I'm living proof that what they were trying to do here is possible. I'll never be able to hide. I'll never be able to return to a normal life in Sanzha. It will never be over. Not while I'm still alive. Not while there's a body for them to find.
Unless.
Unless I don't leave them a body to find. You can't perform tests on a pile of ash.
I grip the gun tighter in my hand. My finger rests on the trigger.
I raise it to my temple.
Dale
As I enter Sheer's office the lights go out. I guess the fires finally took out the solar room. The emergency lights blink on, and the door to what must be the control room is open before me.
I step into the doorway and suck in a breath.
One wall is splattered in red. Sheer lies on the ground in a puddle of blood, a bullet hole in her chest.
A wall full of screens show nothing but static, and two are broken. Shattered glass litters the ground beneath them. On the other wall a cabinet full of guns and ammunition stands open.
And in the middle of it all Evita is holding a gun to her head.
Evita
Pull the trigger.
I can't make my finger move.
Do it, Evita.
"No!" Dale races into the room and kneels before me. His eyes bulge and he presses his fist to his mouth.
I don't lower the gun, my eyes wide. "You need to get out of here."
"What are you doing?" His face is ashen.
I sob. "I didn't give the pills to Nadya."
"I know-" he begins, but I cut him off.
"I took them instead." I nod to my hand in the sling. "And they worked." Dale looks at my hand, and his muscles go rigid. I was right, he thinks I'm a freak. He reaches for my hand but I jerk back. He doesn't speak.
"They worked, Dale. As long as I'm alive, someone could find out and start the studies again. It would never end. They'd never let us go." I choke back another sob.
"No," he meets my eyes, imploring. "That doesn't have to happen. We'll figure something out." His lip trembles. "Nadya and the others are outside, they're safe. Don't do this. We can go with them."
Everything is happening so fast, I can't think. "Look at my hand. Look at it!" He looks again and his lip curls. He can't even hide the revulsion on his face. "I'll never be normal again."
Dale meets my eyes. "Who cares? You'll still be you."
I shake my head, tears streaming down my cheeks. His smile vanishes. "I'm not leaving you here. I'll stay until the fire takes both of us. Is that what you want?" He swallows, his chin shaking. "You can't shoot yourself in front of me. Please Evita, don't. Don't make me watch."
A sob escapes me and I shake my head again.
He presses his lips together and leans in. "They will never do experiments on you again. I promise I won't let them. But I need you to come with me. I need you to trust me."
We lock eyes. That's a promise he can't keep. He doesn't know what will happen.
But I know he'll do everything he can to keep me safe. And maybe that's more important anyway.
I nod. "I trust you."
He slowly takes the gun from my hand and sets it on the floor beside us. Then he holds my face and kisses me on the forehead, his touch gentle. He kisses the tears on my cheeks. I draw in a ragged breath.
His lips brush mine. I lean forward, and he presses against me, harder, urgent now. I wrap my arm around his neck, the safety of his embrace enveloping me, telling me I made the right choice.
From within Elysia we hear a rumble. We break apart and scramble to our feet. Dale pulls a bag made out of a sweatshirt and hands it to me. I take it and sling it across my chest, my hand shaking. We fill them with as many guns and as much ammunition as we can carry. Mostly the small guns. I don't even try to take a larger one.
We leave Sheer's office, and smoke pours out from under the door that leads back into Elysia. The walls around the heavy metal doors are on fire, and as I watch the supports break and the door slams to the ground. The flames spread along the walls and down the hallway toward us. Dale grips Sheer's gun in his right hand, and uses his left to link hands with me.
We run to the stairs, the fire licking at our heels as we take them two at a time. Finally, we push open the last door, the last obstacle, and we're outside.
The sun blinds me and I squint, gasping in breaths of fresh air.
"Dale!" Leah runs over and envelops Dale in a hug. He lets go of my hand.
I force my eyes to open, despite the pain. We're surrounded by trees. To my right there's a huge dirt spot, covered in tire tracks. A flat path of grass leads into the trees and disappears. That must be where Brandt and Weston went. The other guards, too.
Dale passes out the guns and ammunition, enough so that everyone has at least one. I take the gun Dale hands me and place it gingerly in my bag. I hope I'll never have to pull a trigger again. Leah tucks hers in her bag, and as she does I notice everyone's bag is full of books. I smile. I guess Nadya got her wish after all.
"Look," Nadya points behind me and I turn. Tube-like structures stick out of the ground about where the Solarium should be. As we watch, the ground crumbles and the tubes fall. "It's caving in," Nadya says.
"Good." Leah pinches her eyebrows together. "Fuck that place."
I can't help it, I laugh. We made it out.
Zola must be thinking the same thing, because she says, "It's all over now."
Dale and I share a look and I cover my left hand with my sleeve, then stuff the other into my pocket.
Dale shakes his head and walks over. He reaches in my pocket and takes my hand. Trust me, he mouths. I nod. I do. Then he slings his arm around Nadya and we follow the others into the forest with nothing but guns, books, and the clothes on our backs.
Wherever we're going, we'll get there together.
***
Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! Please don't forget to vote if you liked this chapter :).
And thank you to the readers who have enjoyed Escaping Elysia so far and left me comments and votes!