The Third Omen

PART THREE: TWO STEPS FROM HELL

"How did that happen?" I managed to hear Dad saying over the sirens.

"The generators—all of them—from Block C gave in!" Maya. "Sargent Mc. Call thinks the Outside People did it."

"What about Block C?" I stepped forward, pushing my father away and feeling Gabriel move closer to us.

"It's completely lost," he said. "The entrance collapsed and there were too many explosions inside to send in a rescue team without risking it." I felt my heart sinking all the way down to my stomach, and by the look on his face, Gabriel was just as shocked as I was.

"Send one," I ordered. "We have them for a reason, and those people need us."

The guy's expression showed apprehension, but that just made me angrier. "I'm telling you, Ms. Grey, the whole Block is probably burned down by now and there's nothing—"

"I don't care! You're assuming there's nothing, but how would you know?"

Dad's hand fell over my shoulder, keeping me from bashing his head against a wall. "Lauren."

"There might be people inside, for Christ's sake!" I looked over at him, begging for some sort of approval, but I got none. "Dad...you can't just ignore this."

"We have to get out of here, Lauren. There's no time." He looked over at the guy then, walking out the door and dragging me with him. "Call one of the jets at D when you're in A for me. Get as much people as you can into the emergency buses and drive to the station we've got in Tucson. I'll head to Ohio and sort out the rest of the things."

I took my arm back and stopped to look at him. "That's it?"

He turned around, visibly mad by now, but with the constant, loud noise from the alarms out in the tunnels, I could only read his lips. "Lauren, I am not gonna risk the lives of the rescue teams for people who I know are dead. I'm saving the ones I can, and you stalling isn't helping. If they found a way in, we don't really have time to waste. The Outside People aren't the only ones we should worry about."

"He's right, Laurie," Gabriel said, coming up behind us, and that just got him a fuming glare from my side. How could they be like that? His mouth opened again, but this time, the sound stopped completely, leaving only an echoing howl that died a few short moments after. Now I could hear the striding noises of everyone screaming and yelling, and the crowded turmoil forming ahead in the main tunnel appeared to grow by the second. "Why did the alarm stop?"

"I don't know," Dad said, and I felt my ears buzzing from the sudden silence—relative silence, at least. "Probably the backup system was affected, too." Turning to the guy, he cocked his head to the crowd. "Do what I told you, Davis."

"Yes, Sir." And with that, he was off to organize everyone, yelling and guiding them toward the second tunnel to the right. Dad didn't wait to drag Gabriel and me to the other exit, avoiding the big mass of confused people. I could hear Piper and Hugo behind us—especially Piper.

"Are they real? What if we see one?" She whispered, scared, and I knew exactly what she was talking about. "I heard you get infected with a single touch...."

"Would you shut your pie hole, Piper?" Hugo muttered, but I paid them no mind since thinking about it only made it worse.

We kept bumping into people wandering the corridors, all of them asking the same questions with the same, horrified expression: "What's happening?" "We heard an explosion—is everything okay?" "Where is everybody going?" Dad simply kept telling them to follow the connection between Block B—where we now were—and Block A until they found the rest of them.