Casted

Chapter 28

I woke into darkness, startled by the sound of guns being loaded. The sharp clicks were unnerving; I don't think I'd ever heard one thousand guns being loaded simultaneously. It was not a pleasant sound.

Ben jumped awake beside me, breathing heavily, obviously fighting to find the line between his dreams and reality. I put a hand on his arm.

"Hey, you're okay," I told him. "You're awake now."

He blinked a few times, staring at me until his gaze cleared. He ruffled his own hair with one hand and sighed. "Sorry. This stupid plan's been giving me nightmares for a while."

I nodded, glancing behind us to the crowd of people milling in the grass beside the trucks. In the distance, a faint lightness washed the horizon, just barely defining the edge between earth and sky. We'd be leaving soon, no doubt, if the rebels wanted to take Class 1 by surprise. "This is all so terrible," I said aloud. "All those people in Class 1 are going to wake up to their homes being set on fire."

Ben shook his head, looking defeated. "They don't deserve it, that's for sure."

My eyes found Michael among a group of other teenagers leaning against the side of one of the trucks, passing a bottle of some dark liquid between them. Alcohol, probably, just a little for courage. "No one does," I added quietly.

Ben squeezed my hand for a moment, and opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by a tall figure looming over us. I looked up, finding Nova there, an assault rifle in each hand. She looked like she hadn't slept all night, with the shadows under her eyes even darker than before, and with a twinge of satisfaction I thought maybe she was finding that the glories of leadership weren't all they were cracked up to be. She held out the guns to us with a scowl.

"Take these," she said in a low voice. "You two will be with my group, same as your brother. We'll go in after the initial hit and catch people as they try to escape the buildings."

It took all my willpower to suppress an outburst. How could she be so sound in her hatred that she would take the lives of innocent people? And lead an entire army to do the same? I'd never been so disgusted with another human being, except maybe my own father.

Swallowing hard, I took the assault rifle from her and nodded. Ben took his, handling it like a foreign object. I didn't like seeing him like that, his hands clutching a weapon meant to kill and destroy, and suddenly I didn't like the way it made me feel either. I couldn't bring myself to look at Michael, who I was sure would be overjoyed to carry such a weapon, something he could march into battle with. One more thing to convince him that he was in fact the hero vigilante that he dreamed he was.

Calm down, Harper, nothing's changed, I told myself. All you have to do is get Chris and Michael out safely. Don't worry about the rest.

Someone whistled behind me, and as if on cue, the crowd began to stir. People rose from the grass all around us, firearms at the ready. Grenades were strapped to belts, waiting for their purpose to be fulfilled. Extra ammo was slung over shoulders. How much damage could these people possibly hope to do?

Ben helped me up from our place in the grass and we followed the throng of bodies towards the trucks, watching our step carefully. It was still almost completely dark, despite the hints of dawn seeping into the sky, and navigating through a crowd of a thousand people was tricky. We followed Nova into one of the trucks and were immediately pushed to the very back. At least three hundred had to fit into each of these vehicles. It took us a few minutes, but eventually the doors swung closed and the engines purred to life. Enclosed in the pitch blackness, my heart picked up pace. My entire world was about to be destroyed, and I was helping bring it to its knees.