OUT OF MIND² ━━ Bellamy Blake

𝐗𝐗𝐕𝐈: Stars of Blood and Ash

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STARS OF
BLOOD AND ASH

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          WHEN THE NEWS breaks that the Second Dawn's bunker had been found, Lyra does not know how to feel.

     It is a blessing, of course. Twelve-hundred people can survive for five years in that bunker. There is a hydro farm and a water recycler, both reported to be able to keep Level C completely self-sustainable should the rest of the bunker fail. The bunker is also equipped with an underground aquifer that has a filtration system, oxygen and air scrubbers, medical area, and air locks. Supplies left behind include hazmat suits that Lyra assumes will make it possible for people to travel to the surface even during the nuclear apocalypse.

     There is easily enough room for Skaikru, Trikru (who Lyra assumes Octavia will not leave behind), and Azgedakru (who Lyra assumes Clarke will not leave behind.)

     But things on the ground are never that easy, as Lyra has learned. And that leads her to the question What happened to the people?

     Because the bunker was too secret and crafted only for the highest members of the Second Dawn, those at Level Twelve ━━ this means the old world's elite, the geniuses snd the billionaires, and of course the fanatic Cadogan and his family. Monty has assured Lyra a number of times that there is absolutely no sign of people ever having lived, which is simply baffling to her. Surely someone must have gotten into that bunker. At least one person.

But it is as empty as a crypt.

And then there is the absolute hell they have gone through in the labs. The last irony before the second nuclear apocalypse is perhaps this: Becca's Island, a safe-haven for science meant to save the world, has again become a carcass of murdered peace, bloodlust's abode, and a shadow-devoured shrine of desperation and survival at all costs. A mutilated exoskeleton of despair. Because again they have wreaked havoc and left nothing but pain in their wake. They slaughtered Baylis ━━ an innocent man with a family ━━ in cold blood. They stripped Luna of her basic human rights and turned her into a blood bag, as if they were all sick, masochistic vampires. They stuck a syringe into Emori's veins and then laid her down like a discarded toy to burn her alive even as the boy who loved her protested as if it was him who was being forced to lay down his life in the name of good.

A cyclone of inhuman thirst has torn apart these labs.

It had all been for nothing.

They are going to survive anyways.

And Lyra is still dying.

     "What are you putting in your bag?"

     Lyra jerks her head up guiltily from the drawers. She zips her backpack up quickly. "What?"

     "Those vials," Raven says. "They're not on our supply list. What's in them? Why are you taking them with us?"

     OK. Don't fuck this up, Jupiter.