Beyond the Walls

Chapter 20

My teeth clench as I skip the last four steps and jump, landing sharply on the ground. I glance around only briefly to check that Ruben and Aston are behind me before I take off again. My boots drive into the pavement, propelling me forward. The cacophony of the Red Movement soldiers descending the palace steps spurs us onward. I push harder, faster. We run down the perfectly paved path away from the palace, our surroundings nothing but a blur. At one point, Ruben spins around and fires one of his arrows at the men, gaining us a few more precious moments. We quickly lose the palace grounds and enter the busy streets of the Equestrian Sector. People shriek at the sight of us; three dirty, wild people careening through their town. Although, they grant us an easy path through the crowd despite the commands from the pursuing Movement soldiers. We reach the outskirts of the Sector and stealthily cross the bridge, entering the outer parts of the Plebeian Sector.

"Come on!" one of the Movement men yells above the chaos.

The tightly knit buildings and streets provide a brief respite from the Movement. The streets, so like those in the Convex Sector, are a maze. We steadily weave through the streets and alleyways in the direction of the city walls. Finally, the buildings thin out and the trees of the woods replace them. We run. All three of us are no longer strangers to navigating a forest at speed and we smoothly arrive at the city gates. The sounds of our pursuers have long vanished but I will not rest until we are well out of Aurelia.

"How do we open up the gates?" Aston asks in between pants.

"We aren't going to go through the gates," Ruben answers, pulling the latch of a trapdoor hidden amongst the shrubbery at our feet.

"Of course," I grin.

I hurry over and step off. Cold air rushes up as the ground below rises to meet me, the thud echoing down the tunnel. I glance around, gathering my bearings. Several feet down the tunnel, the faint white glow of a sign lazily stretches towards me. Once Ruben and Aston have landed safely below ground with me, we secure the trapdoor closed above us, sealing in the darkness. As we approach the glowing sign down the tunnel, I squint at the words.

Bunker 10.

"Holy shit, I mutter, pushing open the door beneath the sign. This city is so akin to the Floodgates, it is unnerving. We follow our noses through the door, down the next tunnel and into the bunker. I scan the room, glancing down either side of the train tracks. I spot a ladder protruding from the left wall, leading up to a latch in the ceiling. "This way." I grasp the rusty rungs of the ladder, grunting as I bodily hoist myself up, ignoring the groan of the hinges as they take my weight. At the top, I unclip the latch and, with gritted teeth, push the trapdoor away. A cloud of dust bursts from the edges. I hold my breath and squeeze my eyes shut. Stifling a cough, I stick my head through the trapdoor and glance around. The first thing I see is a stained red patch of the earth, dried out in the sun. Monet's blood. Drawing in a breath, I look up. The enormous gates of the city tower above me and I grin, glancing back down.

"Ruben, Aston, come on!" I climb up the last few rungs and stand to my feet. The two of them follow me at once, both emerging at the surface one at a time.

Ruben arrives at the surface last and brushes the dust from his palms. "Let's go."

With the forest as our target, we run. Our energy is draining but we've got stamina. We are driven by our fear, hunger for justice, and the need to save our friend. We keep running until we have long lost the light of open earth in the depths of the forest.

"Bait," I gasp when we stop, resting my hands on my thighs, drawing in lungsful of air. "Mallory took her back to the Red Movement as bait. To get me to go there, again."