Talen

“That has to be the generator!” Harp runs out the door.

My father holds his hands over his ears, and I use the distraction to shove Ford against the wall, smacking his head hard. I grab Aerin’s hand and follow Harp.

“It’s going to blow!” Aerin screams over the alarm.

“That was the idea!”

“Wait!” She plants her feet and brings us both to a halt. “My mother!”

“What about her?”

“We have to take her with us!”

“She’s on his side, Aerin!”

“I don’t know what happened to her,” Aerin says, “but she’s not like your father. I don’t know why she’s saying those things, but I can’t just let her die in here!”

A handful of guards rush down the hall, ignoring us completely. Ford stumbles out of the office with Jennifer and my father trailing behind. They look around in confusion.

“We don’t have time to go back for her!” I yell. “We’ll never get out of here alive if we do.”

“I have to try, Talen.” She releases my hand and takes a step back. “With or without you.”

“I’m not leaving you in here.”

“You aren’t dragging me out, either.”

I can tell by the look on her face that there will be no changing her mind. I don’t like it, but if we are going to have any chance of escaping before the generator explodes, we have to move fast.

I race past Aerin and toward the office entrance. Ford turns on me, and I duck down, avoiding his baton and stabbing him in the thigh. He yells almost loud enough to drown out the alarm before dropping to his knees. Harp grabs my father’s arm, yelling something I can’t quite make out before pulling him the opposite way down the hall. Jennifer starts to follow, but I grab her and hold the knife up to her throat.

“You’re coming with us!” I yell. “No argument. Just move!”

“Talen!” Aerin grabs at my arm.

I ignore her and shove Jennifer back toward the generator room.

“That’s the wrong way!” Jennifer screams. “The generator!”

“There’s a way out, Mom!” Aerin places herself between me and her mother. “You have to come with us!”

“Aerin, I can’t—”

Aerin doesn’t let her finish her sentence. Instead, she grabs her mother forcefully by the arm and drags her backward out the double doors and onto the catwalk.

The heat coming from the generator is intense. At the base, I can see a bright orange glow. Several people in lab coats work furiously at the control panel, but I can’t hear what they’re shouting at each other.

“We can’t get out this way!” Jennifer shouts.

“Trust me, Mom!”

Aerin keeps a hold of her mother as we run across the catwalk and into the maintenance tunnel, up the ladder, and down the main corridor. The alarm continues to blare, but the noise isn’t as intense as we move father away.

At the end of the corridor, we slow for a moment to grab the packs of supplies, and then we’re off again with Aerin in the lead and me following behind. We run as fast as we can through the hallways as everything around us begins to shake.

“What’s happening?” Jennifer cries.

“The generator is overheating,” Aerin replies. “Just keep moving!”