Phillip typed quickly as his words began excavating the things I had buried on that run. In the silence my broken heart thudded pathetically. How did I tell him a rebel named Hal already had?
“What happened?” I asked, holding the assailment of emotions at bay.
“The Reaper staged an attack on one of the buildings containing the supplements. I don’t know the damage yet.” He looked up from his device as a loud grinding noise filled the hall until it morphed into a hum and the elevator doors opened. “Collin hasn’t contacted me yet. He’s still out there.”
“Out where?” I asked, surprised. I had expected Collin to be safe in the clouds.
“On the ground, managing the attack,” Phillip explained as we stepped into the elevator.
My body trembled as the elevator shot up, my breathing unsteady. Thoughts sprinted around my mind, blurring one into the next. I clawed at all the emotions threatening to undo me, wrangling them into submission as the doors opened. My battle ceased at what waited on the surface.
The usually quiet atrium was a flurry of frantic movement and shouts. Six Elite Force soldiers waited outside the elevator doors, one taller than all the others.
Phillip nodded at them.
“Let’s go,” the tall one yelled, coming up behind me as the rest encircled us. I recognized his voice but couldn’t remember his name. He hit a button on his arm, and we set off.
“Phillip, what’s happening?” I asked, panicked as the soldiers bumped into me. “Phillip,” I called again, unable to see past them and their armor.
“Just follow them, Emeline,” Phillip called out somewhere behind me. I had no choice, my heart in my throat as we made it outside, where smoke filled the air.
What had the Reaper done?
“Jog,” the soldier in the front shouted. I moved my feet at a quicker pace, keeping up.
A Pod sat waiting and the soldier in the front began shouting at someone or something. I couldn’t see past the circle of Elite Force soldiers escorting me, but I could hear people moving about, running as if for their lives. Sweat dripped down my neck as my fear held on tight. Tighter than it had in the tunnels.
One of them grabbed my arm. “Get in, go.”
“Systems up enough for this thing to get into the air?” the one behind me barked.
“Here’s hoping,” Phillip responded.
I felt myself being pushed and pulled until I was shoved into a Pod, Phillip right behind me. His wrist went to the scanner, and the doors shut.
I fell into the seat as the Pod shot straight up, slower than normal, leaving the pandemonium below as his Comm Device began to ding rapidly. Did that mean the grid was fully back?
Phillip stared behind me, shock etched across his face. I turned, only for panic to seize me. The destruction that sat in my chest was nothing compared to the destruction before me.
The surface was in flames.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“WHAT HAPPENED?”I WHISPERED.
“I don’t know,” Phillip admitted, typing again. “The Reaper has been targeting that building for a while.”
I couldn’t look away. Near the Wastelands, at the edge of High Town, a fire raged, shooting giant plumes of thick gray smoke into the sky.
“Collin’s down there?” I asked.
“Yes. The Illum sent him.”
“You haven’t heard from him?”
“He’ll be okay,” Phillip stated.
How could that cube give anyone enough time to escape that? How many people had my interference trapped down there? The Pod ascended into the clouds, blocking out the horror.
