Dust

Twenty-Seven: Breakable

A/N: I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!!!

I'm greeted with a blast of cool air as I walk into the shooting range, and almost immediately, Kyros comes running.

"Whatever McGregor is planning is going to happen today," he tells me, voice trembling slightly as he takes my arms in his hands. Not entirely sure how to react, I just sort of stare at him, head cocked sideways as I blink repeatedly. What?

I find myself chewing on my lower lip without even thinking about it, and I'm suddenly consumed by fear.

"How do you know?" I finally ask, and Kyros glances around the room nervously before taking my hand and pulling me towards the locker room.

"There's a mass of Burned people coming this way," he says, rubbing his face nervously as he speaks. I stare back at him with my mouth hanging open.

Holy crap.

That's no good.

"What?!"

"I heard McGregor talking to my dad. I'm not sure if he's gonna help or not. I don't know what to do," he says, and as if on cue, sirens go off around the building.

"Caution. Security breach. All citizens arm themselves and remain indoors. Caution," a mechanical voice screams, and Kyros' head shoots up to attention. Without another word, he takes my hand and yanks me towards the vault near the back of the room where they keep the guns.

My heart feels like it's about to burst in shock. The Burning are coming for us. At McGregor's command. What even is my life.

Kyros's hands shuffle through the locker quickly, handing me a backpack and filling it with five or six handguns. He hands me the sniper rifle I'd been training to use and picks up two huge machine guns, tossing a few knives and a machete into the pack before swinging it over his shoulder and taking my hand in his free one again.

"We have to get to our friends. Come," he tells me, and I nod in agreement. We leave the cool air of the training center and take of sprinting through the streets, pushing past the throngs of people aiming for someplace safe.

My heart pounds frantically, fear and adrenaline coursing like poison through my veins. We're gonna die here. There's no way we can survive the Burning. Not while we're stuck in here.

With the people swarming around us, we're unable to move very far, so without a word, Kyros pulls me towards the edges of the crowd and to a service ladder on the side of a building. I cling to the steel rungs of the ladder, the shingles of the roof rough against my hands as we clamber to the top. Kyros straightens and the air audibly whooshes out of his lungs. His burning honey eyes widen in horror, and he stabs his fingers through his hands roughly before muttering a curse under his breath. As I straighten, I can suddenly understand his panic.

There's a mass of pale, scarred people in tattered clothes surrounding the outside of the dome, teeth bared and weapons in hand as they wait. And waiting is exactly what they are doing.

I wonder if it's possible to die of a heart attack at nearly eighteen.

"We're gonna die," I mutter, and Kyros glances down at me momentarily.

"Maybe," is all he says, before he turns and starts running along the rooftops and climbing back down to the level of the street. Most of the people have holed up inside somewhere already, cars abandoned in the streets and belonging scattered everywhere.

I wonder is this is the kind of chaos Gwen Stevens endured when the world died.

We're not terribly far from the Riddick household, and when we burst through the door, Mr. Riddick nearly puts a bullet through us.