Chapter 195
- Evan -
Static cracked violently through the radio.
"They are one...But I am three."
Three? What the hell does that mean?
Everyone froze, staring at the radio.
An unfamiliar voice came faintly over the line, as though they were not speaking directly to us.
A rough, older man's voice. "You won't need this where you're going, love."
The transmission cut.
"Kaysi? "Kaysi, I reached for the radio, but Frank pulled it back.
Think about things first, Evan."
My stomach dropped hard.
I started walking up the incline.
"They took her somewhere else," I snapped. She's alone now.
Duke caught my shoulder before I got more than two steps.
"If you listened to the radio, there was a large-sounding engine; they took her somewhere else fast."
I jerked away. "And I am faster; I can search this whole city for her."
"I have not fully recovered. What good will it do if you're burnt out by the time you arrive? How will you save her then, Evan? Keep your head!"
Josh walked in front of me.
"When we meet Becky and Micah, they can point us in the right direction. Stay calm, stay focused."
"I am focused."
That shut everyone up for a second.
Baby walked in between us before any of us pushed further.
"The quicker we get to city 5, the better." Her eyes locked on mine.
I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt, nodded respectfully, and began walking to the street to the sewer entrance.
Every second that passed felt more and more painful and wrong.
"Elisa," Frank continued, turning. "Lead us."
She nodded once and moved toward the narrow maintenance gate near the incline wall.
"Quickly. Before more people notice."
The sewer tunnel entrance looked older than the rest of the city. Rust covered the outer edges of pipes and other metal surfaces.
Water dripped steadily from the cracked concrete overhead.
Several civilians with red bands and other people who didn't even try were told they were old, too young, or injured.
One older man looked pale. "You seriously expect us to go in there?"
Elisa turned back sharply.
"You can stay here if you don't trust me and take your chances with the governor if you want?"
Nobody argued with that and kept moving.
The deeper we went through the channels, the colder the tunnels became.
Water rushed through the lower canals beside the walkways.
Children whined quietly. People whispered.
Nobody seemed hopeful anymore. Confusion and fear fully took hold in their hearts.
Josh kicked a loose pipe off the walkway into the water with a small slash.
By the time we emerged from the lower tunnel access, you could obviously see how far different city 5 was from the other 4. It barely looked like Bushel Shell anymore.
The streets were super clean, almost polished.
Buildings taller.
The glass tower with reflective emergency lights across the road was still silent as though they were unaware of anything happening below.
People were panicking just the same.
Rich civilians screaming at officers outside guarding housing districts.
Some demanded private escorts and to be let out.
A man screaming at workers trying to move medical supplies as if they were a trespassing wild animal on his front lawn.
It felt rotten. Like the city finally peeled back its skin and revealed its true face.
Elisa walked beside me as if reading my thoughts.
"Almost all the city is like this. Privileged children are left in the dark, spoiled in the games they play. Not all of them are like this; others keep quiet, like my family."
Jake rushed forward the moment he saw Mary.
She nearly collapsed into his arms with the newborn still wrapped tightly against her in the Moby wrap. Their toddler started crying and pulling on the dad's pants until he picked him up.
Jakeh whispered shakily. "Thank you again. You have helped my family many times."
Behind them ran Bekcy and Micah.
Becky, exhausted, slammed her head into Josh's chest.
"Where is Kaysi, and how did you get out so quickly?"
They're moving women into a separate housing sector. We got lucky."
"Lucky how?" Josh asked. "That still sounds horrible."
"They were not expecting the surge of people, and we were able to get lost in the crowds."
"Give me your hand." Josh reached down and grabbed her bracelet, burning it off. They could have been carefree because they are tracking you. Micah, Mary, and the kids let me take yours off as well."
"What about Kaysi?" I asked again, slowly, as she hesitated.
Before she could answer, there came a shouting that erupted further down the street.
Everyone turned.
An overweight man wearing an expensive white coat looked at another man, soaked in rain, with a red band.
"He is one of the civilians we lead up here." Baby stated.
He coughed violently.
"Please," he begged. "My daughter is inside—"
"You're one of the infected now; you come to spread your disease to our people."
The rich man looked terrified as the man crept closer, coughing.
"I am not infected; I have pneumonia. Let me see..."
BANG
The sick man instantly dropped dead on the street in a horrifying second—
People standing nearby shouted.
"You should have kept your sickness in the lower sectors!"
The rich civilian looked around frantically, still holding the gun with shaking hands.
"He was infected!" He yelled desperately. "They can spread it to you too if you don't be careful. Any one of them with the red bands is diseased. I took care of this one.
"Another man shouted, Not all of them have red bands, they snuck in somehow, but they're soaked from water."
People started looking around at the other civilians and us, who had already started to scatter once we got up here.
Duke's voice thundered over all of it.
"HIDE!"
Silent police moved in immediately toward the chaos. This was a search, a cover-up to conceal the truth of the other cities."
Another gunshot echoed somewhere nearby.
"Damn it, they are dropping innocent bodies for political control."
Frank pulled several civilians behind transporters.
The entire street collapsed into panic.
Through all of it, my mind kept circling back to Kaysi. Where was she in all this? What were their plans with her?
I broke away down a narrow alley before anyone could stop me.
Darkness swallowed the sound of the crowd almost instantly.
Rainwater dripped from the fire escapes overhead.
Then—
A voice came deeper in the shadows of the alley.
"I understand you may be one of the Waymaker kids I have heard rumors about—a boy with blue looped earrings. Evan Hoshi, I presume."
He had a long, waterproof, tube-like canister, weighted down with something inside, on his back.
His face looked oddly close to the governor's but not quite.
But close enough, it made my head spin.
Somehow, that was more terrifying than the gunshots outside the alleyway.