The Pledge (The Pledge 1)

I worried for my parents and for my sister. But worse than that, I worried for myself, and I felt selfish for it.

X

Max took the pack filled with food and offered to take Angelina as well, but she clung to me. It was just as well; I needed her as much as she needed me.

“We can go to the mines!” I called above the constant wail. “We can hide there until C thÄ?the fighting ends.” I led the way, wondering which was the right way to go. Above the tops of buildings in the distance, I could see intermittent flashes that could only mean the ruin of homes, businesses, and schools. Flames beat at the sky, smoke darkening the night.

And, still, the sirens screamed.

Almost no one ventured out now; the streets were desolate. The power grids had fallen, and as we ran, the lights flickered and then vanished all around us. I didn’t know how the sirens continued, but I guessed that they were tied to another system—some sort of emergency backup power—that kept them operating even when the rest of the power failed.

The blackness felt like it was reaching down into my lungs, suffocating me.

Angelina must have felt it too, because she dropped her face to my neck and refused to look up.

I envied her. I wished that I could hide my eyes, bury my face, and choose not to see the world crumbling around me.

Thankfully, Max had a battery-operated pocket light. It wasn’t much, but when he turned it on, we could at least see the ground at our feet so we wouldn’t stumble as we ran.

My legs were already burning, and my arms quivered from the weight of my sister, but hugging Angelina to me made me feel safer. And as much as I hated to admit it, having Max at my side made me feel better as well.

Sydney didn’t slow us down, and that, at the moment, felt like a minor miracle in itself.

But that was when everything changed, and my plan of making it to the safety of the mines disintegrated, like so many pieces of a written promise set to flame.

Ahead of us, the white flash of an explosion, followed by an earsplitting crash, rippled through the air. I could practically taste the concussive shock wave as it rattled the night.

Angelina jolted in my arms as I stopped running and curled myself around her, doing my best to protect her. Her fingernails dug into me. Max grabbed my arm and dragged me closer to the cover of a building at the other side of the street, away from the blast.

My ears were ringing, and I could no longer distinguish the sound of the sirens from the humming that came from inside my own head. The two became one, and I knew it wasn’t just me as my sister reached her hands up and stuffed her tiny index fingers into her ears. She was shaking all over, and I squeezed her tighter, trying, without words, to comfort her.

A second explosion detonated somewhere close to the first one.

But Max was already pulling us in the opposite direction. Away from the mines, and away from the latest assaults on the city.

I wondered briefly how long it would be before the blast of bombs would not be our only concern. How long until enemy ground troops marched into the streets, wreaking their own brand of havoc and killing with reckless abandon.

How much longer until none of us was safe?

For some reason the words of the Pledge drifted through my head at that moment, and I tried to find the line that spoke of protecting the people, of keeping one another from harm. But of course, there was no such line. The Pledge wa B th Qedge wa s meant only to safeguard the queen.

Max’s grip on my arm tightened, and I realized he was speaking to me. I tried to focus, concentrating on his lips and the muffled voice that made its way through the buzzing in my head. His eyes were focused and intense, his black eyebrows drawn together as he leaned closer to me, his breath warm.

“Where is the nearest shelter?” he was yelling.

I looked over and saw that the fingers of his other hand were laced together with those of Sydney, who cowered beside him.

I told myself that it didn’t matter. Not now. I just needed to get Angelina to safety. Max, and his hands, were not my concern.

I tried to think, to remember all the places we’d been told to go during the countless drills. Churches and schools. But all of them were above ground, and they all seemed too exposed, too at risk during the bombings.

Another explosion ricocheted through the air, and this time I felt the ground rumble as I dropped to my knees, covering Angelina’s head with my arms. I heard her whimper—or maybe I only felt it—and I made sounds to soothe her, although I doubted she could hear them.

Then I remembered a place we could go, safer maybe than the others. Hopefully.

“The tunnels!” I cried out, lifting my head and meeting Max’s intense gaze. We were just inches apart. “Beneath the city, where the subways used to run! They’re being used as shelters!”

I didn’t wait for his approval, I just stood and ran. I kept my head as low as I could, wrapping one arm over Angelina as if I could somehow shield her.

The passageway wasn’t far ahead, and I prayed that we weren’t too late, that they hadn’t been sealed up already. Please let us gain entrance!

When we reached the stairs that led beneath the street, Angelina and I went first, with Sydney right behind us. Max waited at the top, making certain that we’d all made it safely below. I didn’t wait for him to catch up.

Ahead of me, I could see the set of double doors already sealed shut, a pair of uniformed men in blue standing guard before them.

For the first time, I thought of Max’s uniform and wondered why he was still with us, if there wasn’t someplace else he should be while the city was under attack. I wondered if he had abandoned his duty to be with us.