“We have to, or we’re all goners.”

  I didn’t let my mind think of what would happen, I just ran towards one of the entrances under the mountain Theo would take, the Guardians had made sure of it, steering Blane and his men into our trap. I had to reach Theo before they blew the entrance. I tripped on the rocks, but my gripping shoes kept me upright.

  We had to get there before they did. It was a part of the plan, to lead Theo towards one of two tunnels and snatch him there before blocking off the entrance, but Blane and his men had arrived quicker than we’d accounted for, and now the long tunnel I ran down was too far away. I had to make it. I knew what was coming and if we weren’t quick enough…

  I shoved the thought out of my mind.

  “Go,” Gunner yelled, as he pushed me towards the tunnel to the right, and he took the one on the left.

  My legs barked and my lungs burned as I pumped my arms faster, propelling my body through the tunnel leading down to the forest level. A thin cord along the ground led the way, its end point somewhere above me with the scouts watching the forest from above. I had to beat the fuse they would soon set and get back before it was too late.

  It was an impossible task.

  Behind me, a quiet hiss grew louder.

  “No,” I cried, trying to push my feet faster.

  The hiss got closer, quicker. Then the small spark, flying down the cord, came into view of the tunnel, and it whipped past me, far faster than my feet would take me.

  I skidded to a stop, turning to run the opposite way, but I was already too late. The explosion rocked the tunnel with a thunderous boom.

  The ground shook beneath me. The mountain groaned, and a whoosh of air flew through the tunnel, blowing out every torch lighting my way.

  My feet were still moving, but my eyes couldn’t see where to go. Rocks tumbled from the roof over my head. The sound of crashing stone and the mountain itself moving all around me was deafening. I wasn’t going to make it.

  A rock hit my head; I felt the blood there before lifting the thick hood, hoping to shield myself from more rocks. The impact made me dizzy and in the darkness. I was disoriented.

  The jacket Tynan had given me dulled the impact of the rocks, but I couldn’t out run a mountain falling on me. Silently, I prayed Gunner had been faster than I was, that he had made it to Theo and to safety in time, but the odds were slim, and I knew I wouldn’t live long enough to find out.

  My shoulder crashed into stone. Whether it was a wall already there or the mountain falling around me, I wasn’t sure. I pushed off it and recklessly moved where I thought the tunnel was, but my head ached and my ears rang.

  A heavy boulder hit the back of my leg, and I fell to my knees. I struggled, crawling before more boulders crushed my legs beneath them. Bone shattered.

  Gripping onto anything I could, I dragged my limp body.

  Just a little farther.

  Just a little more.

  I didn’t make it.

  The roof above me collapsed, crushing me under it, and I only had a moment to curl myself in tight before the weight of the mountain fell on top of me.

  CASPIAN

  Vic spent three days recovering from the effects of the serum. Vic was weak, and her one hand wouldn’t stop trembling, but we managed to get ourselves into a nearby Camp where we’d spent the last three nights.

  I had Vic stay in the camp while I searched for an artifact for her. During the day, she locked the hatch, something we weren’t supposed to do, but with people hunting us down on behalf of Blane, we had no other choice. I’d already taken down more of his men than the Reeks, and the blood coating my hands started to lose meaning.

  It was early morning when I had startled awake, sweat dripping down my brow and my breathing ragged from the dream. It had felt so vivid, so real. Those things had her surrounded, the Reeks. And I could do nothing as they ripped her apart, limb from limb, before my eyes. This time it had been Jayla I watched being torn to pieces. The nights before, Vic or Em. Each time I was paralyzed, unable to move. All I could do was watch as the people I cared for were destroyed.

  Vic must have felt me startle, or maybe I had been thrashing and screaming in my sleep, but her eyes watched me from across the small space.

  I wiped away the sweat, sitting up from where I lay and wrapping my arms around my knees. Vic mimicked my posture as she curled up against the wall.

  “How did you guys meet?”

  My gaze flashed to Vic, and I knew she was talking about Jayla. I wondered if I had been screaming her name out loud as I had in my dreams.

  “My dad had moved me to a new school in tenth year after I refused to go back to my old one. The kids and I didn’t… get along at my old school,” I began, remembering the years I’d been pushed around and bullied by nearly everyone there. Though I’d eventually had my own growth spurt, I started off as a scrawny kid, too small for my grade. And the other kids enjoyed tormenting me. “My first day there I sat beside one of the other boys in the lunch room, and I guess I seemed like an easy target because he quickly snatched away my pudding and began opening it. I hadn’t even gotten up the courage to say something before she walked over, snatched it out of the boy’s hand, and shoved it back in mine. She didn’t say a word, to either of us, but the boy knew clear as day that I wasn’t to be messed with again.” I chuckled at the memory.

  Vic smiled back.

  “It took me two weeks to build up the courage to thank her. Even then Jayla just sloughed it off like it was no big deal, but I’d never had anyone stick up for me before. Never even had a friend.” I paused. “From that day on, we had an unspoken friendship. During lunches we sat together in silence, and every day I’d walk her home from school. It was hardly a friendship, but it was the best thing I’d ever had. By the following school year, I’d caught up and then surpassed the other kids my age, growing out of my scrawny limbs into something more resembling a boy. And Jayla matured with me, much to the notice of every male in our school.” I smirked, remembering those beautiful lips touching mine only weeks ago—something I’d dreamed about from the moment we’d met. “She didn’t need a protector, but I took up the role of bodyguard long before either of us ever became Watchers. And she didn’t stop me from being there, just as she was there for me. When my dad passed away, she begged her mom to let me stay with them. She took care of me far more often than I helped her.” I choked on the words. The reality she had been my protector for so long and I hers… but now she was so far away. “When her mom died… I took care of her the only way I knew how. I watched her back and let her decide what she did and when she did it. Jayla isn’t the type to be told what to do. She took some time moving on after that. And watching her wreck herself to hide the pain was more than I could take some days, but I was there for her always. I never left.”

  Vic’s eyes dropped, and she knew the words I had left out. I’d never left… until now.

  “When she was offered a position to train as a Watcher, she would only do it with me at her side. And though she was strong and capable, I was glad to finally have the skills to help her, to feel like I provided as much for her as she had for me,” I said quietly. “She thinks of herself as someone who lets people down, who’s failed. But she’s the one who woke me up, who made me see I wasn’t nothing and nobody. I was somebody to someone, and that meant more than she will ever know. To be her someone.”

  “The ones who work the hardest to protect others don’t often see they’re the shield stopping the bullets. They only see the few that slip by,” Vic whispered.

  I nodded.

  “Thank you,” Vic said.

  My brow creased at her. “For what?”

  “For saving me.”

  “Anyone would have done that, it was nothing—” I knew that was a lie, not many would have done that here, but it would seem I hadn’t entirely lost my humanity.

  “It was everything.” Vic’s small voice rose and her chin lifted. “When I entered this forest, I thought Sienna was the one thing that would ever protect me. I didn’t know how to survive, and I didn’t think I would. But the things I did, what I became… it is a ghost that will haunt me forever, but it was you who made me see that was not something I should be ashamed of. Though Sienna wasn’t here to protect me, her voice was in the back of my mind, whispering advice on how to live, how to survive. Run fast, be swift, stay hidden, don’t look back. And I didn’t. But it was a deep hole, an endless darkness that you brought me out of. I’m not sure who I would have become had you not found me.”

  Shifting closer to Vic, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You’re stronger than you know. This place hasn’t broken you—it’s empowered you. Don’t fear it, don’t hide it… use it.”

  Vic’s head nodded against my shoulder.

  We sat there for a few moments, the sounds of the forest waking up above the hatch. Distant chirps and birds sounded and—

  A blast.

  The entire camp shook, and bits of dirt sprinkled from the roof. I was on my feet before the dust settled, Vic tucked behind me.

  “What was that?”

  I shook my head. “Stay here.”

  I climbed the short ladder to the hatch and pulled it open. The forest was eerily quiet around me, only the rumble of something far away sounded.

  I climbed the nearest tree to get a better view of what had happened, and when I reached the top and looked over the tall tree line, my jaw hung open. In the distance, the large mountain at the center of the forest had a dust cloud hanging over it. The rocks had shifted—no, been blasted away—and now a large crater could be seen in the side of it. And coming from that hole in the mountain…

  Reeks.

  Thousands of them.

  JAYLA

  We travelled for five days to Eres, doing our best to stay out of the path of any transport shuttles or vessels travelling the same route we took. Em had hacked into every flight path around us, and more than once we were diverted in the opposite direction just to stay hidden. We’d circled the city twice now, travelling only at night, but with no connections or possible safe place to land, we kept heading back to the Wastelands waiting on word from Gustov that he’d found Reyes or something to help us. The large stretch of desert sand covered the coastal space from Cytos to Eres, only a few small villages lived within this area, so it was a safe place to hide for now. Even Simon didn’t know where to go, and without knowing our allies from our enemies, we’d opted to avoid the unknown.

  It was almost morning; the sun was only just rising, and the cool air was damp across my skin. We had hidden behind a tall sand dune, an oversized tarp Em and Leanna had found draped over the shuttle, concealing us from anyone who passed by too close.

  It would be a long day. Leanna and Simon were already sleeping, but I sat on the sand looking out to the forest in the distance and the tall metal wall surrounding the green foliage. The large mountain to the north of the Void was now in my line of sight, after back-tracking north to avoid four shuttles that came from the south and sped off over the Void. We had followed them for some time to see where they landed, but in the dark and with the distance, we’d lost them. We could now reach the Void, but we couldn’t fly over it long enough to find anyone, and our one trek near the wall resulted in nearly being shot down. Our radar system also didn’t work near the Void either, likely some sort of blocker they’d set up, which made tracking anyone impossible.

  With the sun just rising, it was no longer safe to travel. And truth be told, we didn’t know where we were going. We would run out of fuel and food soon if we weren’t careful.

  I heard a set of footsteps through the sand before Em took a seat beside me.

  “You should sleep,” I said.

  “So should you,” she countered.

  We stared in silence at the forest.

  “Do you think he’s still out there?” I asked her quietly.

  “Yes,” Em said without wavering, and I paused to look at her. She kept her gaze on the forest. “He’s the strongest person I know. Maybe not against me, but he doesn’t give up on anyone or anything.”

  The side of my mouth twisted, and I had to bite my cheek to keep the tears at bay.

  “We’ll find him soon,” Em whispered and I nodded.

  “Have you heard from your parents?”

  “Yes,” Em said. “They’re staying with friends in Kuros. They got out before things went south in Cytos.”

  The city had shut down its borders and wasn’t allowing anyone in or out of it, not knowingly, anyways. Em had sent word to her parents who wisely were already prepared and ready to leave. I knew Em wouldn’t say it out loud, but she worried about them, even in the safety of Kuros. We both knew this war would spread outside of Cytos and the Void soon enough.

  “First chance we get, you should go to them. See for your own eyes that they’re safe,” I suggested and Em didn’t argue.

  In the distance, the sky was slowly waking up with the pale colors of grey and yellow and pink. There weren’t many clouds in sight, and the morning air was crisp where we sat.

  A ripple reverberated from where I gazed. I blinked, thinking my eyes were tired and playing tricks on me, but then I felt it. Faint and subtle, but the ground moved under us.

  The mountain in the distance looked as though it were blowing out a cloud of dust from its peak.

  I was on my feet, Em right beside me, as the mountain shifted and began collapsing in on itself in one spot.

  Behind us, I heard Logan shout, “What was that?”

  “Start the shuttle,” I yelled back and began sprinting through the sand, my feet sliding and tripping on the soft surface, but I kept my balance. Logan didn’t wait for a second order as he caught sight of the look on Em’s face.

  “Move,” she yelled to a groggy Leanna, who was pulling at the tarp covering the shuttle. Em ripped the other side off, and they shoved it in the back.

  The shuttle roared to life, and sand kicked up all around us before we were skyward, my stomach churning with the fast movement. I stood behind Logan’s chair on unsteady legs as he directed the shuttle towards the Void. Logan stayed as high as he could manage to avoid getting shot down before we had a chance to investigate, but it wouldn’t be long before shuttles were dispatched to check out what happened.

  “There,” I said, pointing to the mountain. A cloud of dust still hung over it, but the shaking had seemed to stop.

  “An explosion,” Em said and I nodded. The crater in the side of it was indication enough, but the fact that it was the only spot that collapsed told us it was likely a manmade detonation.

  Simon sat in the co-pilot’s seat. “What happened?”

  I shook my head.

  Leanna was the only one quietly sitting at the back of the shuttle. Her hands gripped to the seat as she glanced through the small side window, a look of horror in her eyes.

  We buzzed over the Void, sending the trees below us swaying in the wake of our powerful engine. We neared the mountain, kicking up more dust hanging in the air.

  “What is that?” Logan murmured, as he lowered the shuttle a bit more.

  Below us, from the crater in the mountain, was a large black mass. It seemed to be moving, flooding out of the hole at the base of the crater that looked to go farther under the mountain.

  As the shuttle lowered, the dust dissipated under the wind we created, and I leaned in closer. The air was suddenly gone from my lungs.

  “Holy shi—” Logan sucked in a breath, and his hands tightened around the controls. “Are those…?”

  “Reeks,” Simon breathed.

  Thousands of them. Crawling over each other to get out of the cage they’d been trapped in under the mountain. The black mass was a giant moving pile of them, like a wave of ink and tar. The smell hit us next. Rotting like burnt flesh. I covered my nose with the sleeve of my arm.

  “Where did they come from?” I asked.

  “Venzier,” Simon said, and I noted how white his face had gone. “The city under the mountain. They’ve… escaped.”

  “Why would anyone let them out?” Logan asked.

  Simon shook his head.

  I moved to the side window, watching the wave of black move into the forest. Through the black, I caught sight of something else.

  “There are people down there,” I said.

  Logan turned the shuttle, so everyone could see where I pointed, but before we had a chance to even think about saving anyone, the black wave consumed the humans below us and they were gone.

  My breath became ragged and hard.

  “We have to… they’ll…” I didn’t know what to do, how to help anyone.

  “More!” Em pointed a little ways away, where a small group of kids ran from where the Reeks came.

  Logan took off, and Em slid open the side door of the shuttle. The harsh, cold wind hit us, and the smell… I swallowed back the vomit in my mouth. Simon leaned back, away from the smell and the virus that hopefully wouldn’t reach us here.

  Em threw a rope over the edge; it dangled just above the tree line.

  “Lower,” Em ordered, and I knelt down beside her, peering over the edge in a daze. Like everything before me was some nightmare playing out in my dreams.

  Logan lowered the shuttle, and the rope slid between the trees. A few yards away, the kids running towards us caught sight of it. They ran faster in our direction.

  One of them was not quick enough, and I gasped at how easily the Reeks were on him, how fast they took him over, and his body disappeared under a swarm of black.

  Two still ran towards us. A blonde girl was in the lead, and a curly, black-haired boy close behind. The girl reached the rope first and didn’t hesitate to start climbing.

  Em slid onto her stomach, reaching towards the girl, who was still so far away, but climbing fast.

  “Hurry,” Em yelled against the roar of the shuttle.

  Behind the blonde girl, the dark-haired boy had reached the rope and begun to climb as well, but the Reeks had caught up to him, and one gripped onto his foot, pulling him.