Revolution- Runaways 3 [EDITING]

Chapter 23: Luke

The images on the screen were almost too much to bear. Smoke and flames rose from the dome of one of the country's—my country's—most symbolic landmarks.

Eli and Peyton rushed through the door at that moment. She must have finally read my texts. I hadn't really been expecting her to.

"What's going on?" she asked, meeting my eyes.

I shrugged. I didn't really want to explain it, so I just motioned to the television. They could figure it out themselves. The bomb was set off from inside the building, so the damage was almost total. The roof looked like it was about to cave.

She drew a hand to her mouth. Eli was just as shocked, although he wasn't displaying it as openly. "That's the Capitol," she said. I nodded.

"When did that happen?" Eli questioned.

"About thirty minutes ago," Alex answered. He and Anderson were seated across the room. "They're estimating multiple dozens of casualties. Seven have already been confirmed dead."

Sirens squealed as a firetruck flew by a few feet from the camera. No doubt it was headed to join the plethora of flashing lights already circled around the building.

The view switched back to the news anchor. He was in complete shock, and it was displayed all over his face. His words rang out clear as a bell though.

"If you're just now joining us, we're covering the bombing of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. The bomb was set off inside the facility at 1:06 pm. Due to Covid restrictions, the only people allowed inside the facility are staff and authorized personnel, so an investigation has already commenced to find the culprit. So far, there have been eight deaths and an unknown number of injuries."

"Things are getting really bad really quickly," Daniel said beside me.

"They weren't supposed to escalate to this level," Eli pointed out.

"It's not our fault," Peyton countered. "We aren't the ones that released Luke and Daniel's photos to the public."

I sighed. "No, we didn't do that. But we started all this no matter how you look at it. Maybe we should have done something differently. Rebelled from the inside somehow." My thoughts drifted to Marcus. What would he think of all this?

Daniel protested immediately. "All of you did the right thing. Those camps were torture, and every single kid who made it out probably considers you guys their saviors. The consequences would have come either way. The American public is still human, and they can recognize when their government is abusing them."

I let his words sink in for a minute. I thought about Marcus, his family, my family, my friends. Did I really want them to live in a world where their country is preparing them for an injection straight out of a science fiction book? Did I want them to have to survive a multi-year war? Did I want to? I shuddered at the thought. Maybe he was right. This was going to happen one way or another, and we were just the ones to pull the trigger.

The news anchor rambled on about how terrible this was and how they hadn't seen this kind of terrorism since September 11th, 2001. He was correct, in a sense. But he brought back the memories I had pushed down of freeing Littlerock. That was a pretty brutal act in itself.

My thoughts were interrupted by the roar of the dome as it crumbled inward. It was like watching a building collapse in slow motion. I winced. I could imagine the screams that were echoing throughout the corridor. I had heard plenty of them when the camps were burning to the ground. There was no doubt the bombing's death toll had just tripled, at least.