Cole takes my hand. “Run,” he says, releasing my hand again as if to free me.
“I’m right behind you. Go,” I say.
His veins pop out of his forearms, and his sweat stains his shirt. He checks over his shoulder before running.
I take off as instructed, barely noticing the bodies lying in the dirt, following behind him and Zeus. It feels like time is playing games with us, extending the path to the rail yard every time I look up. One minute, it seems right there. The next, it looks like five hundred feet. But we’re vulnerable out here in the open. So we keep going.
I continue willing my legs to move, one step and then another. The gunfire has died down, and I’m afraid to admit that I’m feeling better, maybe even hopeful that we just might make it back into the Hole. Just then, Zeus begins growling, and the hair on his back shoots up. My heart jumps. I see Cole tense briefly, then follow his gaze, left to right, behind us, ahead of us, and into the train we’re now running alongside. Zeus bares his teeth. He barks once. Cole raises his gun, eyes roaming.
A figure appears out of the darkness. I still. Seconds pass, and Cole doesn’t move.
Zeus bolts forward, and Cole runs after him.
“Man, took you long enough,” Bruno says. “Hurry up; I got us a ride.”
“How’d you manage that? Bruno, we don’t have any money,” Cole says.
“Doesn’t matter. She’s an old friend who owes me a favor, let’s just leave it at that.”
“Why am I not surprised,” Cole says with sarcasm.
“And check this shit out—the monitors are already here.”
We follow Bruno into the black of the building. As my eyes adjust to the lighting, they water and burn. That feeling in the pit of my stomach, the one that has been gnawing away at me since I decided to return, churns. I’m nauseous.
Grace jumps out of the shadows and hugs me. She squeezes the air out of me, and it takes me off balance. She’s covered in a fine layer of gray, but the relief in her eyes when she steps back warms my heart.
“Guys, hurry it up,” Bruno hisses. “And keep your heads down.”
Cole glances at me, raises an eyebrow, and strides forward.
We jog past the giant turntable where multiple engines and railcars are parked. Behind each parked engine is a workroom, but none of them have lights on. My heart jumps in my chest as we pass the engines. Their large, silent frames remind me of hearses, empty and silent, waiting for the dead to ride in them. I shake the nightmarish image from my mind and fix my eyes on Cole’s back.
“The monitors are already here?” Cole asks, barely raising his voice above a whisper.
“Yeah, she told me they’re going in as we speak,” Bruno says, turning around.
“Who’s your source?” I ask. “And how can you know for sure you can trust her?”
“Let’s just say she’s an old friend … a guard. She’s agreed to help us,” Bruno says. I raise my eyebrows and glance at Cole then Grace.
“Well, hey, this is good news … for once,” Grace says. She shrugs at the mention of Bruno’s contact, so I let it slide.
“They showed up, unannounced, like Sutton said they might. And they’re taking a convoy in. Wilson has no choice but to allow it,” Bruno says. He waits for it all to sink in. “Just say it—you know I’m a damn genius.”
“More like pure luck,” I say, even though we’ve been back all of five minutes and Bruno has already gotten us a ride and useful intel.
“You just don’t want to admit I’m awesome.” Bruno laughs. “Now, be quiet. She has no idea what kind of cargo I just convinced her to take in.” Cole and I lock eyes. I roll mine. Bruno is anything but modest.
“How long until your secret contact gets here?” The sarcasm in Cole’s voice cannot be ignored. I chuckle.
“Soon. Just relax. And shut that useless mini horse up.”
Zeus has been whining the entire time we’ve been inside, but I hardly noticed until now.
“What about the blown up train? Won’t the monitors notice that?” I ask, thinking back to the wreckage at the entrance.
“I’m sure Wilson will have a lie up his sleeve, as he always does,” Bruno says. “He’s good at playing mind games.”
“Anyone who believes him is insane,” Grace says.
A shuffling noise comes from behind us.
Bruno flinches and then waves us toward an engine workroom. We’re all trying to be quiet, and I hope the gravel under our feet hasn’t given us away. I hear footsteps not far behind us just as Bruno twists the doorknob to the dark workroom. I cringe when the metal knob grinds against the metal door, as if to say, Here they are! Come and shoot them!
No one breathes as we creep inside, and then we don’t dare move an inch. Even Zeus is stone-still. We’re crouched in the corner, in position behind the industrial workstation with guns drawn.