The God Codex

27. Salvation

BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 27: Salvation

"Wake up, sleepyhead!" a guard roars, with an added nudge to my ribs using the butt of his rifle.

I wake to see the same old guards in the same old canteen. I rub sleep off my eyes and yawn. No idea when I fell asleep. I blame it on my lack of sleep over the last two murderous days I've had.

"Are we there? Wherever there is?" I ask.

He smiles a haughty smile at me and walks away. "We disembark in five. Thought you princesses might like to stretch your legs and take in the view."

At the word 'view', my ears perk up. We have had no view for the last, however-many-hours in the windowless canteen. I turn my wrist and eye my watch. Its faint amber glimmers through my skin, telling me it's six am on the first of November 2081. Fudge. The new year is nearly here. A handful of weeks and Nate and I would graduate... or should graduate. Now, I don't know what our future holds.

Are we fugitives? It feels like we are.

I shrug off the feeling and turn to see Nate and Dev already up on their feet, waiting for me. Nate looks a little green.

"You okay?" I ask.

He gives me a tight-lipped nod and grips the bolted-down table next to him for dear life when the vessel rocks.

"He's got no sea legs." Dev smiles and gives Nate a pat on the back as consolation.

"Sea legs?" I grin. Never would have thought Nate couldn't tough out motion sickness.

"Shut up, Mia!" Nate manages as a guide gives me the dirty eye.

"Up we go. Let's move."

The guards flank us like we are some Elite Hiver and they are our security escorts. I fall in line, feeling a chill rush up my legs and crawl over my body as we ascend the stairs, one floor, two floors, till we reach the deck.

The brightness makes me squint. Sunrise — and I look right into the big blob of fire accidentally. I'm not used to seeing the sunrise, and it has nothing to do with being a teen. I've lived in a bunker nearly my whole life.

When my eyes adjust to the morning, I look around us, only to see water everywhere. So where are we disembarking in five minutes? I see nothing.

I can't help myself. I ask, "Where are we disembarking, as you say?"

A few of the guards around us chuckle a little.

One says, "Turn around Goldilocks!"

"I'm more Belle than Goldilocks!" I sneer as I turn. I don't even have blonde hair.

The sight makes my jaw drop. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Is that an intact oil rig?" Dev asks.

Nate eyes me sideways. We are both thinking the same thought. We've both seen the old classic movies like Blue Water Horizon — set on an oil rig out in the ocean — and we know they never end well for people there.

"We are going there?" I ask, alarmed.

"How is it still intact?" Dev mutters beside me, staring at the rig floating out in front of us. At its ominous form.

"What do you mean?" I ask him since I know so little about rigs. I should've paid better attention in my history class. I should've paid attention in a lot of classes...