Virus

Eighteen

"Come on!" Andersen yelled. "The Topeka rebels will be coming through the main entrance any minute, they'll need our help!"

Someone with a weird-looking gun (probably the lightening guns we saw the rebels use in Montana).

"Let's go," she said.

We packed in as many soldiers as we could fit. I went on but Sara and Travis hung back. They'd have to wait until the next load.

Amberley, Dharma, and Andersen were on this load.

Each passing second on the elevator added to my anticipation. The girl with the electric gun was right at the door, poised to fire.

Then the elevator stopped. Someone next to her quickly threw the door open.

Gunfire began again but was quickly halted by the massive bolt.

Dust and screams filled the air. We all slipped on our gas masks.

Turns out, the reason I couldn't see very well back at the airport, was because my visual lenses were foggy.

I was the last off the elevator. I closed the door and pressed the up button.

The gunfire started up agin. I walked through the smoke and into the cavern. I joined the firefight.

As I fired at the Butterflies, I watched as the girl fired another bolt. The Butterflies in her sights disintegrated to nothing.

Boy was I glad I wasn't them.

Suddenly I was on the ground. A Butterfly was on top of my, ready to stab the life out of me.

The blade was moments from being jabbed into my heart, when the tip of a sword came bursting through his chest. The sword was only inches from stabbing my chest as well.

Blood poured onto my black suit. The blade was ripped away and the body fell on top of me. I gasped in disgust and pushed it off.

Standing over me, holding a bloody sword, was Kelso.

"Your alive," I breathed as he helped me up.

"Yeah, I just hid in the nursery. They killed all the children and the nannies. You should have seen what they did to Yerlin because she was Nita's mother," he said. The mental image I got made me cringe.

The battle had moved into the tunnel. Kelso and I were left in the cavern with a bunch of cadavers.

Then the elevator door swung open. Travis, Sara, and four others stepped through. They all looked unharmed.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The garage was bombed," Travis said. "We barely made it out of their alive."

I exhaled sharply. We'd lost half our army so easily.

The sound of crackling brought me back to reality. The eight us us turned towards the tunnel and charged into battle.

The battle raged in the polis. Most of the markets along the wall burned. The two huge wooden doors were open and rebels from Topeka were joining the battle. I spotted Captain Jameson.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a single person lingering in the tunnel.

He didn't wear the same thing as the soldiers around us. He wore a pristine grey suit. He white hair was combed back neatly away from his forehead. He wore the Butterfly symbol as a pin on the jacket of his suit.

I recognized him from the elections. His deathly pale skin and cold and calculative eyes.

It was Mick Holler.