Radiation Point

Fifteen

I stared after them, guilt rising inside me. I hadn't meant to hurt their feelings, but I did mean what I said. I couldn't join the renegades if that meant killing innocent people. And everything I'd seen and heard about the renegades screamed mindless violence.

Besides, we wanted different things. Mia and I just wanted to get out of the contaminated zone and get on with our lives. The renegades had something to prove-a stand to make. Not us. No, Mia and I would survive this on our own.

With that in mind, I turned the opposite way down the hallway in search of Mia. With the commissioner gone, this would be the perfect time to leave. Yeah, I'd planned on training her more, but now I realized that the longer we stayed in one place, the more danger we would be in.

"Shadow!" I called as I walked down the abandoned hallway.

It was eerily quiet. Ellen said that the camp was evacuated, but the hallways had a haunted air to them and I couldn't help shivering.

"Shadow!" I called again, looking in every room as I walked. What if Ellen had been wrong? What if something had happened to Mia?

I gripped my gun, ready to shoot anyone who stood in the way of my sister's safety. Including Tyler, I realized with a shock.

"V?"

I sighed in relief at the sound of Mia's small voice. She was okay. I followed the sound of her voice to the mess hall, throwing open the doors with a bang.

She stood in the middle of the room, staring at me with wide, shocked eyes. I rushed to her side, pulling her into a tight hug. "I was so worried about you," I whispered. I pulled away, examining her in confusion. "What is it? Why aren't you saying anything?"

She didn't answer. She simply pulled her hand off the center of her stomach, revealing a gaping wound. Then she fainted, hitting the floor with a sickening thud.

"Mia!"

It felt as if her name was wrenched from the the pit of my stomach, as I knelt beside her crumpled frame. She looked abnormally pale, her blonde hair seeming bright in contrast to the pasty color of her skin. She was breathing, but it was coming out in low, shallow breaths.

"Help!" I screamed. "I need help."

I glanced wildly around the room, hoping someone could hear me. But it was just the two of us. Then I knew, the only way that Mia would survive was if I found her help and fast. No one was going to come to us.

"I'll be back," I said, stroking Mia's hair. "I promise."

With that, I scrambled to my feet and ran down the hallway in the direction that Tyler had gone. My shoes squeaked on the floor, my running the only sound. He hadn't told me where he was going, but I knew where I would find him.

I skidded to a halt in front of the commissioner's office. I opened the door without knocking. Tyler was sitting at the desk, speaking in a low voice to Ellen and another renegade. When I walked in, the talking stopped. They turned to stare at me in confusion.

Except Tyler. He took one look at me and his face paled.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's-Mia-She's-been-shot." The words strung together as one, but Tyler understood my panicked rant, and stood abruptly from his desk. He turned to the man he had been talking to, a older man with dark hair, and said, "Get one of their medics back in here." The man nodded his understanding to Tyler, but as he passed me he shot me a hard look of suspicion and contempt. Confused, I barely kept my own words of contempt inside. No way was this guy giving me attitude, when my little sister was shot and it was probably the renegades fault.