Through Glass (34 page)

I wasn’t even aware that the noises from the crowd had stopped until Abran’s voice boomed around me, the thick accent making him sound larger, menacing. The sound cut through me, tensing everything. His voice boomed and echoed and I opened my eyes to the light, waiting for the worst to come.

“The creature before us has registered positive at a rate of eighty-seven percent, it is estimated that she will become one of the Tar within one month’s time. It has been presented before the council to dispose of the thing for testing with an approval of eighty percent. It has also been set before the council to let the thing live for observation with an approval rate of twenty percent.”

My trial was a vote—a vote for the majority—and I had lost. I should have known better. I could already feel the bruises throbbing into my skin, the only marker of the “say” that I would get. I could tell by Abran’s words that they had already decided.

I lifted my head to look at Travis. His eyes were already boring into mine as tears flowed down his own cheeks. For one day—no, for a few hours—we had found each other, we had been given a second chance, and once again, that was going to be taken from us. I would be gone and he would be alone again.

My heart broke for him. I knew what being alone was like.

I tried to smile at him, but my lips refused to move. My fear had frozen them in place.

“It has here-by been decided by the council that the thing will be disposed of for immediate testing.”

The crowd erupted in joy.

My heart fell; frozen, heavy and forgotten within me.

I watched Travis until the crowd had grown and swallowed him up; just like the black had swallowed up Cohen. Just like the world would swallow up me.

The noise of the crowd grew as the happy exclamations turned into revelry. You would think they had just won the lottery with the noise they were making, not that they were about to commit murder. All because my blood gave them a scary number.

I let my head fall back to the light just as I saw two guards approach me, their guns already drawn. I let the light hit my face as I focused on their footsteps, on the shadow of their guns as they pointed them down on me.

The light was warm, like the sun and Travis’s hand against my arm; like Cohen’s touch against my lips. Warm like I was. Warm like life. They had a number that said I was going to die, that I would turn into a Tar. Yet I didn’t feel that way. Not completely. They thought I was already gone, but I didn’t. I would fight to keep that, to remain human.

I lifted my legs as they grew closer, my tiny frame coiling to strike. The kick would be somewhat lifeless against the towering, well fed men before me, yet I didn’t care.

I sent my legs forward with one massive heave, the impact of my feet against their knee caps moving the men backwards in a stagger. I tumbled toward the ground, the chair collapsing as the chain that bound me to the floor snapped easily, pieces of metal flying into the air as the chain broke apart and a loud pop filled my ears. I guess Travis had slipped me something, a second chance.

I jumped to my feet, my body rushing toward the two men before me. I lowered my head and hit one straight on, the pain in my skull swelling at the impact against his chest. The move caught him off guard and he stumbled away from me, my hands barely grasping the gun out of his hands as he stumbled back. I turned quickly, my braid swinging through the air as I pointed the weapon at the guard who stood directly beside him.

I pulled the trigger and a beam of light shot out of the tip, hitting the man right in the chest. The man froze as the light hit him, his face stretched in horror before the light intensified and his body disintegrated into a perfect circle of white ash.

Ash.

Everything froze at what had just happened. My brain was unable to process what I was seeing. The sounds in the room turned from excitement to fear as the light erupted in the room and everyone began to comprehend what they had just seen; what had happened.

I stood still as I stared at the wide circle of ash. Bridget’s words from before repeating themselves over and over. The gun was only a weapon if you were one of the Tar… and this man was one of them.

A man who had lived among them, fought with them, protected them. A man who had stood in the light.

The screams continued to grow around me, my brain slowly moving beyond the shock at what I had just witnessed.

I turned from the pile of ash to aim the green gun toward the crowd as they began to scatter. Their faces were horrified as they ran for the exits, scooping up children and herding elderly out of the way. I didn’t watch them, I didn’t care.

I was more focused on the three people who had begun to charge me, their own guns held out in front of them as they made their way down toward me. The three men had sat at the long table only moments ago, Abran and my brother now missing from their number. I scanned the crowd for either of them, but both were gone. I wanted to be mad at Travis for abandoning me, but something told me that he had a plan.

I needed to be patient. I clenched the gun as I turned toward the men who continued toward me, their eyes hard and cold as they aimed at me.

“Put the gun down, miss,” one said, his voice deep and taunting, “Put it down and we won’t kill you right away.”

I wanted to smile and laugh at him, however I held it in. He was right; they wouldn’t kill me right away, but they would kill me. They would torture me.

I was stupid to drag this out. I needed to find my way out of here. My heart beat heavily as adrenaline pumped through me. The gun rose to pulse one stream of light after another, the beams hitting the bleachers, walls, faces, chairs, arms and legs of those who pursued me.

My aim was bad, but I didn’t stop. I silently hoped that there wasn’t an ammo gauge on this thing. I kept firing as I moved, the three men in front of me shooting their own beams of light toward me.

I dodged their attacks as best I could, firing wildly while my stomach cringed when I hit the first one, his death producing yet another white circle of ash. While another only fell unconscious to the ground. What was going on here?

I fired until I was sure I had gotten them all, the pitiful screams of those who remained echoing through the large space as they stayed hidden from me. They were afraid I would kill them, just like the others. The one who slept, he had killed everyone around him. I gulped at the thought, my mind screaming at the truth behind it. I pushed it away, ready to walk from the room when a voice stopped me.

“Lex!” I turned at the voice, surprised to see Bridget standing near the door I was sure I had come through only a few minutes before.

I ran toward her, the gun in my hands pointing between her face and the mostly empty commons room. I followed her into the white hallway while the metal door echoed loudly as it shut us into the large, empty space.

“Give me one reason not to put you down right now,” I hissed as I pushed her up against the wall, the gun only millimeters from her face.

“I’m unarmed, Lex. Tee asked me to get you out. He’s waiting at the wall.” She moved her hands up in surrender, a small, golden key grasped between her fingers. I recognized it immediately as the key to the handcuffs. I eyed the key before going back to her face, my jaw clenching menacingly.

“Tee?” I asked, fighting the desire to fire the gun, to run and be done with it.

“Travis.”

“How can I trust you?” She smiled and held out the small, orange lighter, the box bright against the pale skin of her hand. I took one hand off the gun and grabbed it quickly, the lighter fluid in the box sloshing in my hand.

“‘You have to make your own decisions, no matter how hard they are. And sometimes they really, really suck,’” she said, her voice soft.

My eyes darted to her at her words, as she repeated what I had told Travis all those years ago; words that were obviously fueling his actions right now. I narrowed my eyes at her, only Travis would know that. I wanted to trust her, I knew I needed to, but I couldn’t. I did need her to lead me out, however; so I would have to compromise.

I nodded once and Bridget’s face lit up as she moved to unlock the shackles around my wrists. The large metal rings fell to the floor with a clang, the sound ringing through my ears.

I nodded once at her before we turned, her tall frame leading us through the maze of tunnels that I had been led down only moments before.

I was beginning to doubt this was a school at all, everything was too empty, too cold. It felt more like an underground test facility than a high school.

Bridget turned one corner after another until we entered what looked like a small control room. Computers lined one of the walls with an endless beeping filling the space. At the end, like a giant window, was the cell they had kept me in. She walked in just as a man turned around in his chair, his face dropping in panic at seeing me there.

I didn’t hesitate, I lifted the gun in my hands and pulled, the beam of light hitting him right in the face.

“Good shot,” Bridget said as she grabbed my backpack off a large table. Her hand shoved the contents that had been spread across the table back inside. “But next time, try not to aim for the face. It takes them twice as long to wake up.”

“I’ll try to remember that,” I grumbled through clenched teeth, not really caring either way. “At least he didn’t turn to ash.”

“I told you, that doesn’t happen unless you are one of the Tar,” she said, her focus still on packing the bag.

“Tell that to the two men I just disintegrated in that sham of a trial.”

Bridget froze at my words, her whole body going rigid as she turned to me.

“Two men turned to ash?” she almost whispered.

“Yeah, some of the men in that so called trial you people forced me through. I shot them and they were only ash, big white rings of it…” I started to explain, my voice fading by the look on her face. I wasn’t sure if she was angry or scared, but either way, the dark cast in her eyes sent a shiver up my spine.

“What is it?” I asked, unable to help myself.

“Travis was right,” she said simply, staring ahead.

“Excuse me?” I asked, but she didn’t seem to notice.

Bridget handed me the backpack and grabbed her own gun, along with five boxes that seemed to be glowing orange. She shoved them in my backpack as I placed it on my back, the movement almost sending me off balance.

“Abran. He’s been trying to find a way to defeat the Tar since this all began. He’d capture them, run experiments, observe them. A few years ago, he tried to gain approval for a new form of testing. Travis and a few others shot him down. Since then, he’s been getting more secretive, hiding himself and his team away for days. Classifying what came out of his experiments. Slowly everyone approved his testing, everyone except Travis. We’ve had our theories, but I never thought he would actually do it—”

Her words cut off as the walls around us shook, the sound of hundreds of feet thundering in the halls around us.

“There’s Travis’s signal. We have to get out of here. If Tee hasn’t been stopped, he should have all the supplies. Now the trick is to get to the wall without being seen.”

“Easy right?” I asked, knowing it wouldn’t be.

“Yeah… easy.” She smiled once before dodging back out of the room and into the white hall.

She took one corner before leading us up a large, tile staircase. Her hand held me back right before we turned the corner onto an upper level.

We held completely still as she waited for something. My ears perked at every sound and my heart beat sounded like a reverberating drum in the stairwell and not just in my chest.

I let out a shaky breath right as we began to move, our steps more slow and calculated than they were a moment before. Bridget took one step after another before stopping at the top, her back plastered against the wall.

At the top of the stairs were shattered glass doors, the metal frames crumpled and broken. I guess I knew where the explosion from earlier had come from. I followed Bridget’s movements closely, plastering myself against the wall as we looked through the doorframe that led into a large, grassy field. A football field.