I didn’t know if they even knew how, but it was the fight to the death right now, and Warwick and I couldn’t cover them all.
The eldest girl took to it without hesitation, lifting her arms and firing at HDF, baring her teeth at them in rage and fury.
The soldiers marched for us, getting so close they wouldn’t miss hitting their target. The sound of heavy cars crunched over the pavement, silhouettes of a tank behind them, the cannon pointed at us. My stomach dropped.
We were going to die.
“Found them!” A little blonde girl, no more than five, sang out, running to the gate. All of them seemed so much older than their years.
“Fucking hurry!” Warwick gritted, his gun clicking, the chamber empty. He tossed it to the side, snatching another from a guard he killed, shooting at the parade edging closer.
Pain suddenly exploded across my chest. My arm went limp, and I dropped my weapon, a cry howling from my throat. Red liquid soaked through my top, a bullet wedging just below my collarbone.
Bang!
The older girl shot at the soldier advancing on us, killing the one who shot me without hesitation. I gaped at the mini badass. I could feel her anger and pain, everything she suffered coming to the surface.
“I did it! It’s open!” The little blonde girl shouted, the gate squealing wide, giving me a breath of hope.
“Go!” Warwick yelled, rushing the kids to move while he and the older girl covered us.
Rushing them out, I stopped at the little boy bent and wailing over the boy who got shot.
“Get up, Petr! Please wake up!”
“Come on, we have to go.” I reached for the kid.
“No!” He clung to Petr. “He needs to wake up! Petr! Petr! Please wake up.” The howls tore at my heart, bile heaving up my throat because I knew Petr was never going to wake up.
There was no time to console or try to explain his friend was dead.
I snatched him up with my good arm, adrenaline dulling any pain. The boy kicked and screamed against me, reaching for his friend. “No, I can’t leave him!”
I knew we couldn’t take him.
This was life or death. And the one in my arms was still alive.
Warwick picked up the older girl like a football, following me through the gate, slamming it on the group scurrying for us now. “Run!”
And we did.
Through the volley of bullets, darkness, and death.
We ran for our lives.
Chapter 15
Feet pounding.
Hearts beating.
The tunnel seemed to go on forever, terror strung like cobwebs as we rushed forward, guards screaming and shooting at us from far behind.
The locked gate had only held them for a minute or two before they broke through, coming after us. There was no way they didn’t already have soldiers heading to head us off down the path. Our escape or capture could be down to seconds.
The route under our feet inclined, bringing us up to the surface. A breeze brushed against my face, and I could smell a hint of diesel fuel and coal, the odor I connected to trains. While Unified Nations went solar, electrical, and eco-friendly, the East went backward, losing the power lines they used to run on and falling back on fossil fuels.
My ears filled with the resonance of tracks clinking, the hum of engines, the echo of a whistle, and steam releasing. Hope beat inside my chest, like light really beckoned at the end of the tunnel.
The Ferencvárosi train station. If we got there, we had a chance of escaping.
“Hurry!” I croaked. Blood trailed down my arm, pain throbbing through my shoulder, dizziness spinning my vision. Adrenaline was the only thing pushing me forward.
The kids with thin, boney legs sprinted faster, helping those who couldn’t run as quickly, understanding freedom was not too far away.
Dread soaked into my legs when I spotted another large gate at the end of the passage. Guards shouted from the other side as well as behind us. The silhouettes of figures rushing for the gate in front of us, weapons in their hands.
Fuck. I knew it wouldn’t be so easy, but it felt wrong to get this close and fail now.
“Do or die,” I muttered to Warwick.
“Seems to be our motto.”
Warwick and I barreled forward, lining up with the gate, our arms through the bars, firing at the oncoming guards, while the little blonde girl tried the dozen keys in her hand on the lock.
Bullets pinged off the metal, volleying for us, the older kids next to us returning fire.
A shell knocked Warwick backward, pain growling from him, but he didn’t stop firing. I knew he was hit, but neither of us could stop or help each other now.
We just had to survive.
A cry came from the other side of Warwick; a little boy hit the ground.
Another scream.
The little blonde girl dropped the keyring to the floor, her butt hitting the ground as blood spilled out of her hand where she’d been shot.
“No!” I shrilled, anger and terror driving a wail through me. I no longer felt pain. I pulled the triggers on both guns I held, belting out a cry of death, slaughtering anything in my range.
My magic was gone, but fury can be a powerful force.
Another girl snatched up the keys, picking up where the first girl left off, understanding survival was the only priority... everything else came later.
Compartmentalizing was the only way to live in this world, endure and continue on.
Gunshots discharged from behind us, the other group of soldiers catching up with us.
Time was running out. I could feel the tick of the clock. The anticipation of a bullet hitting my spine.
Clank.
The last gate released. The clatter was a freedom song, squealing with glee as it opened.
“Go!” Warwick belted at the kids, jumping in front of them, getting behind a small barrier, covering them so they could slip out either side. “Run and don’t look back!”
The kids did as he said, scrambling out of the tunnel and heading for the tracks in various directions. Shadows and fog crept in around the trains, gobbling them up in darkness and allowing them to slip away into the freedom of the night.
“Go! Go!” I waved the rest to retreat.
The older girl picked up the little blonde who had been shot in the hand, and without a second glance, sprinted away, the last two kids alive slipping out of HDF’s reach.
I didn’t even let out a sigh of relief when I heard the squeal of car tires in the distance.
My instinct knew who it was. I knew who was coming for me.
Istvan.
“Warwick.” I hid behind another small barrier next to him, the sentries steadily moving in.
“Yeah, we should go,” he replied dryly as his gun clicked empty.
Only a few shots left, I covered him as he leaped behind my barrier with me, emptying my gun.
We had no more weapons. No more protection.
“Remember what you said, Kovacs? Better to die free than live a life in a cage.” His aqua eyes pierced mine. “On three... and as I told the kids, run and don’t look back. Whatever happens.” His meaning—if I get shot, don’t stop for me. Keep running.
Panic clogged my throat, knowing this could be it.
“One...”
I took a deep breath.
“Two...”
I pushed my shoulders back, rolling on my toes.
“Three!”
Warwick and I bounded up. My arms and legs moved as fast as they could as I sprinted for the train tracks.
Shouts and bullets volleyed our way. Pain sliced into the side of my thigh, my leg stumbling at the impact.
“Kovacs!” Warwick grabbed for my hand, yanking me forward, trying to keep me going as soldiers descended on us. Weaving past the train carriages, we broke out onto the tracks.
Headlights assaulted my eyes as several armored trucks drove out onto the rails, spotlights on top of the roof shining on us like a target, guns sticking out of windows pointed at us.
“Fuck!” Warwick whirled us in a different direction as the three cars bounced over the rails, shooting at us.
My legs struggled to keep up. Locking my teeth together, I pushed myself to keep going.
“There!” I pointed, seeing a gap through a fence not far from us.
Warwick pulled me harder, jumping over tracks as volleys pinged off the ground and fence around us. One struck the spot right before we slipped through.
“Brexley!” I heard Istvan’s voice boom out. “Hear this! Every day you stay away, your friends at Věrhăza suffer for it. This is on you! If you come with me now...”
I paused.
“No,” Warwick growled at me, his grip on me tightening.
My gaze lifted to his in doubt.
“No.” Final. No question. “Don’t fall for it. They will not be any better off if you give yourself over to Istvan. He will kill you after he kills them in front of you.” Giving me no time to respond, Warwick threaded his hand in mine and yanked me to follow.
Covered in blood, wounded, and weak, we slipped into the night and ran straight from Istvan’s evil lab to the seedy world of the Savage Lands.