Redeemer (25 page)

Lilith sits at a table with an instructor, pouring over some type of list. She gasps and her face lights up. “Keegan!” Then her eyes fall to me and she scowls. “What do you want? I warned you not to bother me again.”

The instructor frowns and stands. He marches toward us. “What are you doing here?”

Everyone ignores him, and he huffs before storming from the room.

“I didn't come to bother you.” It's all I can do to keep the snap from my voice. “I came because Keegan asked me to.”

Her eyes turn to Keegan, but the suspicion is still there. “I told you not to come back here unless it was to choose me. I won't help you help her.”

“I want you to come with us.” Keegan moves closer to her, standing way too close in my opinion.

She frowns and rolls her eyes. “I would never live in some rebel camp outside the city. When this war is over, I am going to be Greater. I promise you that. I've already been to the dome four times to entertain.”

I glance at Keegan. Ignoring the fact that they were obviously
good
friends, I focus on the fact that Lilith knows about the war and speaks openly. Does everyone know the truth and ignore it so blatantly?

“The Greater system will be obsolete once this war is over.” Keegan takes her hand. “Come with us.”

She jerks her hand away. “Why would I do that?”

I close my eyes, dreading the words that will come from Keegan's mouth next—
because he wants to be with her. Because he can't stand to lose her.

“Because we're friends, and I care about you. You want to be with the people in charge? Come with us. Ours will be the group in charge when this war ends.”

Confusion fills me once again. He doesn't mention the true reason behind the change in rule—he hasn't tried to turn her heart toward God.

Lilith snorts and backs away. “The war is almost over as it is, and the Greaters are still in charge.”

“What do you mean, it's almost over?” I ask.

“The enemy has left the outer cities. We've defeated them.”

I step forward. “Then why do you say it's
almost
over?”

She hesitates, her frown unsure. “No one knows where they went, exactly. The city is on high alert.”

No wonder the city is filled with so much tension. I turn to Keegan. “We need to go. Now.”

Keegan doesn't take his eyes off Lilith. “Come with us.”

Slowly her gaze moves to me. “I warned you not to bother me again. You better run fast, because my instructor is probably alerting the guards as we speak.”

I turn for the door but Keegan grabs me. “She's not serious.”

“Yes, she is!” I say.

“Yes, I am!”

Keegan growls. “Come on, Lil. Don't be stubborn.”

Her chin lifts in the air. “You had your chance.” She glances at me. “Which he took advantage of, by the way. I'm warning you to go, unless you want to be caught.”

Keegan's nostrils flare and he jerks toward the door. I scowl at Lilith before following him out the door and through the training building. We don't go far before the familiar sound of pounding footsteps rings out behind us.

Keegan glances behind us and shakes his head. “I thought she would come.” He swallows. “We were friends.”

“Lilith is only concerned with herself.”

“Can we please not discuss it right now?” he bites out.

Guilt gnaws at me. He really is disappointed. I could at least pretend to understand he was so fooled by her, but the pain of knowing he considered a relationship with her is too raw.

The guards shout at us, but we don't slow as we make our way to the fences. “What about the others?” I ask.

Keegan shakes his head. “They're on their own.”

We race through alleys, people stepping out of their shops and homes to stare as we pass. Finally, we turn a corner and the fence is in view. Three guards stand in front of it.

Keegan stumbles as he changes directions. He catches himself on the corner of a building and propels himself forward. “Are you OK?”

I gasp out an answer, hurrying to keep up. “What do we do?”

“We have to try the drainage pipes.”

“They're going to be swarming with guards. You know that.”

He shakes his head. “The last group of insurgents claimed they came through the pipes.”

Just what I want to do, trust someone I've never met. But we have no other choice, and I follow him to another alley. This one has a large, metal disk covering a manhole, and I work with Keegan to move it as quickly as I can. It clangs to the ground just as the guards turn the corner and spot us.

“Go!” Keegan shouts.

I scramble down the rungs. A moment later, Keegan follows me. His feet barely touch the ladder.

“Run.” It's not a shout or even a demand. It's a plea.

I don't need to be told twice.

My legs move through the damp tunnel at a painful speed. Every inlet and outlet looks exactly the same, especially in the almost complete blackness surrounding us. “Which way do I go?”

“Just keep running straight. I don't care where we come out, as long as it's away from them.”

Good point.

The guards splash along behind us, but the darkness definitely works in our favor. Keegan finds my hand and tugs me toward the left. “Step up softly,” he whispers.

Following his lead, I find my feet on more solid ground. We're on a ledge of sorts. I hold in my gasp. Now the guards can't hear which direction we run.

We hurry along the cobbled path, and after a moment, we make a left turn into a different tunnel. I don't hear the guards behind us. We made it.

I turn and grin at Keegan but then remember he can't see me. Instead, I follow him, eager to get out of this inky grave.

After a few more minutes of running, we reach what feels like a wall. Keegan uses his hands to feel out the area. “Over here,” he says quietly. “There's a ladder.”

We climb up, and he uses what little strength he has in his arms to remove the top.

We should question why it moves so easily, but we're both too anxious to get out. Keegan scrambles into the open, and I quickly follow him. I recognize the location right away. We're just outside the area of our skyscraper.

And we are not alone.

 

 

 

 

 

34

 

Frost Moon himself grabs me while Les and another guard take Keegan. Keegan doesn't protest, but his lips turn white as they twist his wounded arm behind his back.

“Did you think I had forgotten about you?” Frost Moon sneers. “I may have been temporarily distracted, but I never forget. If your mother were alive, I'm sure she could vouch for that fact. She learned her lesson the hard way.”

I twist and jerk, but there's no breaking his death hold on my arm. “It's too late. We have too many, and there's no way you can kill off all of us.” I toss a scowl at Les. “Traitor.”

He grins a wicked grin. “Surprised to see me?”

“Why would I be surprised?” I bite out. I should have suspected it all along, the rat. I'm sure Guard Rok doesn't know.

Frost Moon shoots Les a look then turns back to me. “You don't think we can kill all of you? I thought you had seen our flying fighters. You don't think they could take out your little party?”

My gaze moves to Keegan. It's something I have worried over, but Keegan gives me a small head shake.

He's not worried, I'm not worried.

It's then I realize what he said a moment ago. Mom learned her lesson the hard way. What did she do that he didn't forget?

“You let my mother die.” I shoot the words with all the venom I can muster.

I get the reaction I hoped for—the prideful, full of himself Great Supreme. The one who is always willing to open up.

He grins wickedly, true joy lighting up his face. “I did, didn't I? Yes, well, she was going back on her end of our bargain. She was to be allowed to step down from her position as my top consultant in deference to you, her protégé. Except she turned you against me. Instead of focusing your training on bettering the nation, she focused your attentions toward actually helping the Lessers. It made things quite difficult on me, but I still got the information I needed from you. Now you can die knowing you helped the Greaters soar to new heights.”

“I can die knowing I caused you much grief.” I kick him as hard as I can manage. He bowls over, gasping and pointing, and his guards glance at each other.

“Are you going to let him continue his hierarchy?” Keegan baits the guards. “You heard what he said. He doesn't care about any of us.”

Frost Moon regains his composure enough to bark out, “Grab the girl, you fools!”

The moment one guard lets go of Keegan, Keegan swings around and knocks Les off his feet. I dart for the skyscraper, but the one uninjured guard catches me by the hair and I fly backwards. Pain shoots through my brain and down my scalp.

Frost Moon stomps toward me, his nostrils flared and hatred in his eyes. He pulls a gun from his belt. “It is time to end this.”

His sentence fades away as a deafening roar erupts in the sky.

I've heard the sound before, and so has Keegan. Everyone freezes as the huge, flying fighter makes its way toward Middle City 1.

“The mother country has found us!” Frost Moon gasps. “Radio control!”

The guards yell into the comps on their wrists as Frost Moon gapes at the enormous flyer.

Keegan and I need no further opportunity to get away. We've seen what the flyers can do up close, and I fight panic as I run to stay out of the line of fire.

The flyer moves closer, its metal siding painted with some sort of emblem. The wind force coming from the bottom blows air in every direction. It hovers closer to our broken down hideout, and I push harder.

“What are they doing?” I have to shout over the noise of the huge machine.

“They think this is part of the city. How would they know differently?”

Keegan runs after me, but I can tell he's lagging behind. His wound isn't fully healed, and the pain must be wearing him down.

I grab his hand and hold on tight just as we reach the outskirts of the ruins.

“What are we going to do?” I shout.

“Guard Rok has a plan for this. We just didn't know we would be using it on the mother country.” His words come in short bursts.

A plan? How do you defend against an enormous flying death machine?

We round the corner and I gasp. The old cannons! Dozens of men in our camp pull the three cannons out and aim them at the sky. “What are they going to shoot?”

“They've been making ammunition for days. Where have you been?” He gives me a lopsided grin.

My mind has been preoccupied with the raging emotions over fighting the mother country, not to mention the battle in my heart between Keegan and Fischer. Stupid emotions, the fight has come right to my front door.

We slow and watch as the men load round, metal balls into the ends of the barrels. “They designed the ammunition to explode on contact,” Keegan says. He points at the flyer. “With three of them? I think it's going to go down.”

“But it's over top of the city! Keegan, it will kill everyone.”

He frowns and glances around. “I hope they've thought of that.”

There isn't time to find out. Any moment now the flyer could fire on our camp, just like Frost Moon's flyer fired on Keegan and me. “We have to warn the people.”

Keegan shakes his head. “There's no way they haven't heard that thing. Look.” He nods toward the back of the skyscraper where a steady line of people runs from the back stairwell. At least they finally listened to me and used those stairs. The only problem is they're running straight for Frost Moon.

“Should we go with them?”

Keegan watches them with concern all over his face. Finally, he shakes his head. “I don't know.”

“I can't just sit here.” I leave him behind as I make my way to the back of the skyscraper. I spend the next several minutes pulling people from the building and helping them rush along a little faster. After a few minutes I spot Keegan limping toward the growing crowd in the fields behind the skyscraper. I glance back toward the front of the skyscraper, where the flyer hovers, but it's not directly over the city anymore. It's almost as if it's backing up. Like the pilots saw the cannons, and are unsure about an attack.

A commotion comes from Middle City 1, and everyone turns to look. Gates open, and guards and trucks pour out. They don't wait to fire, and everyone in our camp screams and runs for cover.

The flyer responds in kind, opening fire on the guards and anyone in their path.

Gunfire echoes through the air as bullets ricochet from buildings, fences, and trees.

The war has officially found us.

I spot Guard Nev and Guard Rok moving through the crowd toward the front of the skyscraper. The look on their faces is determination.

They are making a beeline for the cannons.

“Run!” I shout, trying to be heard over the gunfire. Everyone in my area hears me and rushes deeper into the field. The masses panic, and the people in the field stampede like a herd of elephants. Frost Moon and his two guards are nowhere to be seen. For all I know they have been lost in the crowd, or maybe they crawled back into the manhole Keegan and I came from.

I've just found Keegan and latched onto him when an enormous boom rocks the ground. Another follows it, and then a third.

“The cannons!” Keegan shouts.

The flyer erupts in flames and wobbles in midair. It begins to turn, but it doesn't go far before it crashes to the ground. The explosion knocks us all off our feet.

At first, I can't see anything. Smoke and debris linger in the air.

I can't hear anything. People's faces are full of anguish and fear, and I can tell they're crying and screaming. It's only after a few moments their sounds of sorrow filter inside my ears. The entire field weeps.