“Take her. Leave.” He nods sternly, taking the tiny bundle from me and striding back towards the car. He gets in, and I watch him pass the baby to Lucas before he reverses and floors it out of the compound. The Elite soldiers start unloading the women. I swallow heavily and step back, watching them get walked, one by one, from the truck.
I try not to see their faces, but it’s so hard, and the worst part is the resignation. They don’t look angry, or even sad, simply accepting. And I hate myself for letting this happen. I watch as the last girl steps off the truck, just as the first one reaches the door to the compound. She turns, glancing over her shoulder. Our gazes crash, and there’s a moment, an exhaled breath, a thundering heartbeat. I feel the judgment in her dark eyes, and I take an involuntary step forward as though I can save her from this fate. I blink, and when I open my eyes, hers are wide. She sways and then drops. It takes my mind a second to catch up, to acknowledge the familiar cracking of bullets splitting the air in quick succession. Several women drop to the ground, and then a bullet hits the front of the truck barely inches from me.
“Fuck!” Samuel grabs my arm and drags me into the truck, shoving me in the back before he follows. The wheels spin and the vehicle pitches and lurches to the side as bullets hit the bodywork. We floor it out of the gate, and I look out the open back of the truck at the sea of fallen bodies we leave behind. Elite are scrambling to return fire, but it’s obvious they’re firing blind. Those weren’t short-range shots, they were sniper rifles.
79
Anna
“Get ready,” Una breathes. “Just one more.”
I inhale a deep breath, my finger trembling slightly as it lingers over the trigger. I stare down the sights of the rifle, seeing Rafael in the crosshairs. Samuel lingers beside him, ready to grab him as we discussed.
“Now,” Una barely whispers. Without hesitation, her and Sasha start firing in rapid succession. I watch woman after woman fall to their bullets, and my heart breaks. On a deep breath, I move my rifle half an inch, lining up a girl who has dropped to the floor in terror. I blink, and tears leave the corners of my eyes as I squeeze the trigger. I watch her die at my hand, but instead of lingering, I move onto the next and the next. I sold them to this fate, and I know that death is a salvation from the things that will happen to them behind that door. It’s not fair. It’s not righteous. It’s murder, pure and simple. The lesser of two evils. Both of which I’ve inflicted on them. With every bullet, I feel little bits of my soul withering and dying, screaming in agony as they’re torn from my body. They’re abandoning a sinking vessel, escaping the darkness that has consumed me so entirely. I’m no longer a savior or oppressor. I’m worse. I’m death disguised as a miracle, and I’ve betrayed them.
Finally, the bullets stop and my ears ring. The ragged sounds of my own breaths are all I hear for a moment before a high-pitched keening starts. It’s the sound of agony, of an inhuman form of torture. Una’s arms come around me, and she pulls me to her chest, whispering words in my ear. And all the time, that horrible, broken noise emanates from my body uncontrollably.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” Una chokes, her hand stroking over my hair. “It’s okay. You did the only thing you could.”
“We need to move,” Sasha murmurs quietly.
I check out then, their words nothing but background noise to the deafening static crackling around my brain. I’m picked up off the floor and held against a firm chest. I don’t register the journey back to the airfield. I walk numbly onto the plane, my legs acting on autopilot without conscious thought.
I’m vaguely aware of Una talking to Rafael, and then she’s kneeling in front of me, forcing me to look at her. “This is where I leave you. I have to go back to New York. To Dante.” She smiles softly. “Rafael will look after you, and your baby.” My baby. Standing up, she kisses my forehead and turns away, leaving me to my numb state. I can feel the darkness right there, beckoning to me. I usually try so hard to resist it, but right now I can’t. It’s too alluring, too tempting to turn down because this is a pain I’ve never felt. Guilt. Deep dark, loathsome guilt, laced with a hatred that’s festering away at my very core. And I can’t bear it. I allow that sweet promise of freedom to caress the edges of my mind, lulling me into a sense of peace and acceptance.