The Thrust (21 page)

If
they followed her.

What if they were all too scared to leave?

When they started to flow in from the dining court, Annie stood on a pile of crates to make herself taller, and yelled to be heard.

“Listen now, for your own safety!” she yelled.

The women quieted and looked up at her. It was so dark down there in the Tracks, but Annie could feel their attention on her.

The flames from a nearby garbage fire flickered violently, licking their upturned faces with an orange glow.

Annie took a deep breath. “Those pamphlets we read—from the people in Letliv—”

“Don’t talk about it,” someone shushed her. “You’ll get us killed.”

Fuck.
How could she get them out, when she didn’t even know if they believed the Letliv people were terrorists or saviors?

“No one wants to die today,” Annie said. “And I—I saw them. They’re here.”

A loud cry of shock went through the group assembled before her.

“Will they hurt us?” someone asked.

“No,” Annie said “They want to free us.”

“Free us from what? They’re terrorists!” another said.

“They are no such thing!” Annie cried. “Emily escaped, remember her? And Jenna. And Clarissa. And they all know, as well as you do, that freedom—freedom is out there. Not here, not in Grand Central.”

“They escaped and they died!” a voice cried from the group. “It’s not safe anywhere but here.”

Annie took the radio and held it up, cranking the hand-crank. “Please, listen to this for yourself. They didn’t die. They’re safe.”

A groan rumbled through the crowd. Everyone knew that all electronics had been fried after the Pulse. What would a dead radio do?

It came to life, that’s what it did.

The shock of hearing the radio for the first time in a year made her jump, nearly dropping the damn thing. Static hissed, the recording was not good—but it was clearly Clarissa.

If you’re listening to this you know that Colonel Lanche is a liar. I’m living in Letliv, on the coast. Jenna is here with Barker. Emily is here with her . . . Mason. Annie’s brother Trent lives here. He’s . . . he’s good. A good man.

It was hard to tell on the tinny broadcast, but Annie could have sworn she heard Clarissa’s voice catch when she spoke Trent’s name.

We eat well, catching fish and growing food in gardens. We take care of ourselves and each other. You don’t need FEMA to help you, or the UN. You don’t. You don’t need the tyranny of Colonel Lanche and his army to “help” you.

America is rebuilding, there are communities everywhere that are better off than Grand Central. Emily found a whole town in Potterskill. There’s more.
Clarissa’s voice faltered.
You have to get out of the camp. There’s not much time . . .

The message continued, but the juice from the hand-cranking Annie had hastily done wore out, and it stopped.

The women looked at her as if they’d just heard the voice of God himself.

Annie grasped the radio tightly to her chest. “We—we need to get out of the building in case things go south. We have no guns, no way to protect ourselves. The only thing we can do is be out of the range of fire if shooting starts.”

More gasps and murmurs.

“How do you know this is happening now?” It was Josephine, her friend, who asked.

“I overheard them. I saw them. I saw . . . I saw some soldiers taking off their uniform tops. It’s going to happen, and we need to get out. Now.”

“There’s no way out that’s not guarded by soldiers,” Josephine said. “Or is there?”

“There is. Please, there’s not much time. Please,” Annie begged. “Follow me. You don’t have to decide anything right now. You don’t have to decide whose side you’re on. All you have to do is
not get killed
. Evacuate. You can always come back in later if you want.”

“I’ll come,” Josephine said.

“We’re going to get in trouble,” another said. “Lanche will execute us for treason.”

“No,” Annie said. “That will not happen.” She looked around at the crowd. “You all read the pamphlet. You heard the radio. A
radio
, for God’s sake! A radio that isn’t supposed to exist, but it does.”

Annie took a breath, trying not to scare them all away, not when she was so close to bringing them to safety. “You know it’s true. There is a better life for us, but it’s not here. Not on the Tracks, living in darkness for the rest our lives. I’m going outside.”

With that, Annie gratefully accepted Josephine’s help to get down off the crate and they walked together toward the passageway to freedom.

She was almost scared to look back, scared the women would be frozen with indecision behind her, not following her into the sunlight.

But instead, they moved as one. They wanted to be free too.

EVAN

Evan couldn’t quite
stretch out fully on the floor in the tiny closet they kept him in, awaiting his fate. The stench of urine and fear-sweat clung to his nostrils, invading the cell. His whole body hurt from the beating Lanche’s soldiers had given him.

He pressed his bruised face to the cold concrete, letting the coolness seep into his flesh and soothe him.

The dinner bell had rung a long time ago, at least it seemed to him. Any minute Colonel Lanche’s men might come in and drag him off to his own execution.

It wasn’t fair. He was barely even eighteen! There was a whole life ahead of him, waiting. A life with Annie.

He loved her. God, he loved her. And now he’d never have a chance to tell her so.

The chains around his ankles gnawed at his skin. It hadn’t been very difficult to send Trent away earlier, knowing that Trent didn’t have any backup. But now that the time of his execution drew nearer, regret filled him.

Trent had been right there, ready to pick the locks on the chains. Sending him away had felt noble at the time—now it felt stupid. Trent had promised to save him, but how? Would the soldiers he’d bunked with really help Trent, or would they shoot him the second he told them he was from Letliv?

It was hard to know a man’s true nature until he had to make a life or death choice. Trent would be asking those men to choose: Letliv or Grand Central. Freedom or tyranny. Liberty, or security. He prayed they chose wisely.

If not, if those soldiers fell back on their year’s worth of brainwashing courtesy of Lanche, Trent would be lucky to escape with his life and sister.
Very
lucky.

As for Evan, he would be shot, he would die. But Annie would live—and that was the most important thing. The
only
thing that mattered.

At least he’d gotten to be with her once, before all this. God, he should have stayed with her last night. Maybe if he had . . . No.

If he’d stayed with her last night, Scar would have found them on the Tracks, and Evan knew he wouldn’t be able to sit idly by while Scar raped her. Evan would have killed Scar, and then both Annie and Evan would be locked up now, awaiting execution.

So it was better this way.

Better to die alone, knowing she was okay. That her brother was here to get her out.

Before the Pulse, Evan’s only concerns were graduating high school and getting a date for the prom. That was it. Well, that and trying to get his folks off his back about his curfew.

Mom . . .

He’d never see her again. She’d never even know what had happened to him. Maybe, maybe someday in the future, his parents and his kid brother would hear a story about how he was a domestic terrorist.
Ha
.

Were his parents okay, in that FEMA camp in Greenwich? Had the UN gotten to them, too? Shit. He should have asked Trent to try and free them too. He would have stayed there in Greenwich with them forever, probably, if they hadn’t drafted him to join forces with the United Nations “peacekeepers.” The idea of the UN coming in and taking over America didn’t sit well.

Didn’t seem like the UN was actually threatening them, though. If it weren’t for the supplies and vitamins they’d brought, Annie’s leg might never have healed. But Colonel Lanche killed those foreign men like they were dogs.

Disposable.

Just like he was.

God, if you’re with me now
 . . . Evan paused. He was still rusty at praying, and he wanted to do it right.
Please forgive me for anything bad I did. And please let me see Rocky in heaven.

He sighed. Did God care that those bandits had killed Rocky—did all dogs really go to heaven? It seemed so long ago. Time alternately sped up or slowed down since the Pulse. Nothing was the same.

Evan pictured Rocky running through a field, chasing after a rabbit. He looked happy. Maybe Jenna’s friend Taryn would be there, too. She must have been nice, really nice, from the way Jenna always spoke of her. And she’d used her last words to try and save everyone.

God, if I die tonight, I really hope you’ll let me into Heaven
.

Amen.

CLARISSA

With Annie behind
her, Clarissa had flown down to the Tracks as fast as her legs would carry her. She had to signal for backup, and fast.

They didn’t have much time—not if Evan was going to be executed after evening rations. All the bad guys in one room. She had to be there, to see the look on Colonel Lanche’s face when his whole world came crumbling the fuck down.

She ran, her breath coming hard and fast.

Back to the hidden door.

Back down the passageway.

Back under the construction tape.

No time to light a candle—she felt her way through the dark, walking the labyrinth of Grand Central’s underbelly.

Then out the broken glass door, out into the low light of the setting sun.

She had to get the signal fire going before the sun set and blocked the smoke.

From her pack she pulled the dry kindling and set it down on the dirty sidewalk. The flint Mason had lent her worked well, sparks flew as she fumbled with it until flames licked upward, as if seeking the low-lying sun.

Now for the damp wood. Clarissa set it on top, pleased when the fire smoked copiously around it, noxious black and grey smoke that made her choke.

Do you see this, Letliv? Help me!

Somewhere on a rooftop would be her spotter—the man whose sole job it was to keep his binoculars focused on that exit, to watch for her, to see if she signaled for backup.

She couldn’t see him, but if he was there

Please God let him be there

then he would be climbing down a rickety fire escape right now, getting to the truck, and telling the men and women to drive over to her.

It was time.

Two torturously long minutes later, the supply truck pulled up. The driver jumped out.

“Are we doing this?” he asked, running around to the back of the truck. Men and women armed with rifles flowed out from the back.

The tension in the air was palpable.

“Yes, it’s happening.” Clarissa addressed the group. “The targets will all be in the same room when they execute Evan, which will be soon. Very soon. Annie is inside but any minute now she should be coming out here with women from the Tracks.”

Clarissa took a deep breath. “I spoke with Trent. We need people to stay here and guard the women, to protect them in case the soldiers try to take them back, or shoot them. We also need people to go into the main terminal, and—”
Fight
. That’s what almost came out of her mouth. Instead she pushed down her feelings of hatred for this place, those soldiers. “Convince the soldiers to remain peaceful.”

“What about the targets?” Emily asked, coming forward.

“You, Mason, me, Jenna and Barker,” Clarissa said, as they stepped forward. “We’re going to meet Trent at the OCC and give Colonel Lanche what he deserves.”

Mason hugged Emily to him and whispered in her ear. Emily glared at him. “That man tried to murder me, or have you forgotten? I need to be there.”

“I’ll come too, for backup,” Samuel said. Their friend from upstate, the one whose radio she’d given to Annie. Had Annie played the women her message? Had it worked?

Clarissa glanced nervously at the exit. Where was everyone?

Suddenly, Annie climbed through the small hole in the door. “We need to make this bigger!”

Three men got to work on the plywood boarding up the door until it came crashing down. A sea of scared women stood behind the glass, staring at the armed men and women on the other side.

“Step back,” a man said, and when they did, he cracked the glass with his crowbar until it shattered down, leaving a gaping, ragged hole where only a small one had been before. “Watch the glass.”

As the women poured out the exit, Clarissa turned to Annie. “Stay with them. Trent won’t be able to concentrate unless he knows you’re safe.”

Annie nodded with fear in her eyes. “Don’t let anything happen to him.”

Clarissa hugged her fiercely. “I don’t want anything to happen to him either.”

“Trent will be okay,” Annie said. “I’m talking about Evan.”

Clarissa smiled, both at Annie’s unfailing faith in her big brother, and her affection for Evan. “I’m on it.”

Jenna called to her, and Clarissa climbed into the hole with her and Barker, Emily, and Mason. It wasn’t easy sidling past the women streaming out, but it was the safest entry point. The rest of the people from Letliv would have to wait until they could get in.

How long would that take? Minutes? A half hour? How long to evacuate?

She wanted to get inside, get to Trent. See for herself that he was safe.

Clarissa never should have let him come back to Grand Central without backup. Thank God she’d realized her mistake before it was too late.

Or was it?

Everything depended on not just taking out the main targets, but convincing the rest of the soldiers to back down. And if they were only seconds late, that’s all it would take for their mission to end with Evan dead, instead of alive.

Focus. Get to the OCC.

It was time to save Evan—and kill Colonel Lanche.