Numbers Ignite by Rebecca Rode

Author:Rebecca Rode [Rode, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction, Survival Stories, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Dystopian
Amazon: B017HPHSK0
Publisher: Diamond Patch Press
Published: 2016-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

The shelter’s entrance was situated inside the defense lab. The lab looked much as it had last night, the tables cleared away. The only difference was that the boxes full of stored projects had been torn into and lay on their sides, scattered throughout the room. A hatch slightly smaller than the one I’d just come through lay open in the corner.

Lillibeth stood outside it, a look of profound relief on her face when Coltrane walked through. Her smile froze when she saw me.

“She escaped, Mom,” Coltrane said, heading for the hatch. “We’re the last ones.” He lowered himself down. I did the same, giving Lillibeth a long look. The stunned look on her face was almost comical.

“By the way,” I told her, “I saw your other vials of antivenom. I’m going to answer their questions honestly. You may want to do the same.”

Her shock turned to horror as I lowered myself down the ladder.

Coltrane was waiting for me at the bottom, a new baglight in hand. “Is my mom coming?”

I looked up. “I don’t see her. Maybe she needs a minute. Do you want to wait?”

“Nah. She knows where to go.”

The air was much cooler down here, and the tunnel echoed strangely. It sloped downward for what felt like several hundred meters. That definitely explained how the settlers had survived the bombings above—this shelter of theirs was extremely deep.

I tripped on the uneven ground several times before deciding to keep a hand on the tunnel walls at all times. I kept looking behind me, but Lillibeth didn’t appear.

We’d been walking for about twenty minutes when we reached some black plastic bins bolted into the walls like the medicine cabinet had been. “What’s this?”

“Good old-fashioned dynamite,” Coltrane said proudly. “As soon as everyone is accounted for, they’ll seal this tunnel off. Even if the soldiers decide to stop bombing and come down to investigate, they won’t be able to follow us. It should buy us some time.”

The tunnel ended at a thick metal door. When Coltrane swung it open, my jaw dropped in awe. The cavern was massive. Metal beams reinforced the ceiling in a dome shape. It reminded me of the dome at the block in Olympus, but this was twice the width and packed with people. There had to be hundreds of them, all sitting against walls or propped up against each other. Most still wore their nice clothes from the party. Young children struggled to get away from their parents while older siblings clung to each other. The adults were somber. We weren’t out of danger yet.

Many heads turned toward me as I stepped inside. Mandie broke away from her mother and threw herself at me. “You’re here! Maxim said you weren’t coming back.”

I reached around her for a hug, eyeing her brother as he approached. “Guess he was wrong.”

“Absolutely not,” Maxim snapped, making his way through the crowd. He pulled Mandie away from me. “She is not supposed to be here.”

Coltrane faced him. “You have no right to talk, Maxim, after what you did.

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