Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Chapter 24: Running through Snow and Smoke and Blood

ANDA

Ben took a step out of the kiln, his golden glowing eyes locked on Seth. It was not a tentative step, but a sure and precise and strong step, as if he were coiled to spring at any moment. The old prophet lifted a hand towards Ben, and Ben froze.

"Go!" Seth screamed over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off of Ben.

Eli pulled her towards the door. But she fought him.

"No—not without Seth, not without Seth!"

Mica's shaved and gleaming head snapped upright, and she stepped out of her kiln with quick and light steps. She walked swiftly towards Seth.

"No!" Aaron ran for Mica with a splintered piece of wood raised in his fist. Mica extended a hand towards him, her eyes glowing deep magenta, purple like a sunset, pink like the last light over water, and Aaron suddenly rose out of the air. The splintered wood clattered to the ground as his arms and legs circled and spun. He rose higher and higher towards the ceiling, and his glasses fell from his eyes. They shattered against the broken and sharp tiles.

Anda screamed. Eli wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her out the door into the white and bone-hollow hallway. Anda shrieked and struggled and cried to go back, to let him help them, to save Seth, but Eli dragged her away down the hall.

"No hope, no hope now. There is no hope, little one. All is lost. We were too late. With those things running around, we're all done for," he said in her ear. His voice was hot and sour and thick.

"No!" Anda screamed and elbowed him in the gut. He let out a huff and dropped her. "No, I won't leave him!" She turned back towards the medical bay and ran.

But the doors burst open, and Mica and Ben walked out. Behind them, through the slowly closing doors, she could see a body on the floor. A lump formed in her throat. She did not know if it was Seth or Aaron laying on the shattered tiles with red hands. Anda skidded to a stop and stared at her brother and sister. She could hear Eli breathing and mumbling behind her. Ben and Mica stood still, watching. Their sunshine glowing eyes and locked onto her and Eli.

"Hmmm. Hello, Mara, dear," they said in unison. "And Eli. It's been too long."

"Ha! Three hundred years? That's not nearly long enough," Eli shouted.

"Hmmm. Well, don't worry. It will all be over soon." Ben and Mica started forward. At first, they walked, then they jogged, then they ran. Gray ghosts with golden eyes, solid and real and alive, sprinted towards Anda and Eli.

"Run!" Eli screamed.

This time she obeyed. She and Eli sprinted down the hallway, dodging bits of tile and shards of glass that flew past their heads and stuck in the thin walls. Behind them, she heard shooting and screaming. She risked a glance behind and wished she hadn't. Ben stared the guards down and turned their own weapons against them. Mica tilted her head, and spikes of metal and glass shot through the air. Brother and sister turned their gaze on Anda.

Eli pulled her forward, and Anda focused on the compass in her hand. The smooth metal turned hot in her fist. They found the stairwell and spiraled down and down and down. And cowardice followed, light and nimble for such a large and heavy man. Her heart pounded and pounded and pounded. Her slapping feet, her thundering heart, and her wheezing lungs filled her ears.

She just had to get out of there. If she could just get outside, then—

A fountain covered in snow. Sky. Mountains.

Veins of a leaf. Spreading. Branching. Growing...

Out of the stairwell, down another white hall turned red with wailing, shrieking lights. They burst out of the medical building and into the bright and the white outside. Smoke and screaming and echoes of great shuddering explosions met her. She and Eli crouched behind the low stone railing and peeked over the wall into the war zone around them.