Escaping Elysia

Chapter 36 - Trust

Dale

I beat the door with my fists, my heartbeat racing. We can't be trapped in here. We have to get out.

"Dale, stop," Nadya says, pulling on my arm.

Two of the guys run up with a sturdy wooden chair. They run at the door, holding the chair like a battering ram, but it does nothing. They do it again, grunting with the effort. The chair splinters on contact and falls to the floor in pieces. One of the guys curses. I do too.

"There has to be a way out." My voice shakes.

Nadya's eyes light up. "The bomb." She points toward the solar room. Of course. Weston never set off his bomb. She moves to retrieve it but I pull her back. I can't let her run into the smoke and heat.

"Stay here." I yell to the others. "Get low to the ground. I'll be right back." Then I take off into the haze.

My eyes sting and I close them, stumbling blind toward the solar room. The gravel path crunches beneath my feet. I hold my breath for as long as I can, but finally I have to breathe and I suck in smoke. My lungs burn and I sputter, coughing. I have to make it.

Finally, my groping hands touch stone and I drop to my knees. I peer at the ground, running my hands through the rocks and dirt. They land on a bulky package. The bomb. I scoop it up and take a deep breath of the relatively fresh air near the ground, then stand and sprint for the door.

I make it, stumbling and choking, and pass the package to Nadya. She pulls out a match.

"No," I sputter.

She pauses.

"Someone else."

She rolls her eyes. "Stand back." One of the guys pulls me away from the door and Nadya lights the fuse. It sparks, and she scrambles toward us. I put my arms around her and turn her away as the bomb explodes.

It should have been louder.

I open my eyes and blink through the tears. The door is still standing. The only sign that a bomb even went off is a small scorch mark near the bottom.

"No," Nadya cries. My shoulders droop and my body feels heavy. She leans on me and I lean on her. At least we'll go out fighting.

Wait.

The door...opens. "How—" I begin, letting go of Nadya and stepping forward.

Leah runs inside.

A grin breaks across my face and I pull her into a hug. Others shove past us, running for freedom, but I cling tight to her.

"How did you know?" I whisper in her ear.

She slaps me on the chest. "I wasn't leaving without you. And I knew you wouldn't leave without me. So when you didn't find me I knew something had gone wrong."

I smile. "Thanks."

"Shut up. We need to get out of here." 

We leave the solarium and run past the dorms. Even though the air is fresher out here, the fires that Leah and Zola set are getting closer. We race down the hallway and past the cafeteria. The fire from the girls' dorm has already spread here, and whatever the tables in the cafeteria are made of, they're flaring up like dry grass.

To my left, Nadya stops to look through the window of the library. "Come on." I gently grasp her shoulder. "We have to go."

"All those books," she whispers.

My voice is harder now. "Nadya."

Leah runs back to us. "Look," she says, holding open her sweatshirt satchel. Inside are several books. "We all grabbed a few." Leah smiles, pointing at Zola who shows us the books in her satchel too. Leah takes Nadya's hand. "Now it's time to go."