Recompense by Michelle Isenhoff

Author:Michelle Isenhoff
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2018-01-18T07:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

I slam against the ground, not three feet from where Ethan and Markay have landed, in the shelter of the cement silos that have both withstood the blast. As we catch our breath, a second boom follows the first. Ethan scrambles to his feet and drags me and Markay toward the base of the wall. We cover our heads and press into the ground as the entire facility goes up in a massive detonation.

The ground shakes as if a meteor has struck, and then debris begins to rain down around us. Ethan hoists Markay to his shoulders again and sprints for the woods. I stumble after him as fast as my body will take me. Behind us, flames shoot hundreds of feet into the sky.

It is brighter than day within the woods and hot as the sun. A few people are still picking themselves up off the ground. I recognize Jewel lurching to her feet. Blood leaks from her nose, and half her shirt is torn away. “The girls!” I scream. “Where are they?”

I don’t know if she can hear any better than I can, but she points deeper into the wood. We crash through the scrubby growth to escape the intense heat, and I’m conscious of other figures fleeing the inferno.

Jewel leads us to the shelter of a nearby office building where we find the girls. All of them, as far as I can tell. They’re so ragged and unwashed that it’s impossible to tell caste. Some appear bone thin, probably the ones who have been missing the longest. Some look fairly well. They all seem dazed by everything they’ve endured.

About ten of the Lowers have also turned up. Berg bleeds from a gash across his forehead. In his arms, he cradles one of the young women, who clings to him, sobbing.

“Is she okay?” I pant. My words sound muffled, as if I stuffed cotton in my ears.

Jewel nods. “She’s his wife. My sister-in-law.”

I glance at her. In the light of the fire that reaches us even here, I can see she’s slightly older than the others, perhaps early twenties, and very pretty, her jet black hair tangled into knots. It’s Tricia.

“Is this everyone who escaped?” I ask. There are so few. All the girls, but only fourteen of Berg’s Lowers and a single kidnapper being guarded at knifepoint.

“There may be others who made it to the warehouse on the east side of the factory,” Jewel says. “It’s the only other shelter nearby.”

“What happened in there?” I demand of Ethan, who has laid Markay on the floor.

He rests with hands on hips, bare-chested, his lungs still heaving. “I ran into a nest of them upstairs. A dozen or so. I knocked out four guards before I was discovered. When they started shooting and Berg’s people came in, things got pretty exciting.”

“Any casualties?”

He shrugs. “We couldn’t see anything.”

“Was anyone still inside when it blew?”

“We don’t know.” I can tell from the look on his and Berg’s faces, however, that it’s doubtful everyone made it out.

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