Page 72 of Rebels Rising

‘Shit, Reece, are you okay?’ Xander asked, suddenly standing over me with concern furrowing his brow.

I sat up so suddenly that my forehead barely missed colliding with his nose, but I was too panicked to care. ‘Did you see it?’

‘See what?’

‘The alert!’

‘Reece, what are you talking about?’

‘On the holo-screen. It’s behind the images of the ships.’

He turned immediately to where Eloria was already minimising the other programs and maximising what I’d seen. There, for the entire world to see, was a selection of wanted posters, each one broadcastingourfaces.

‘This is going to put a wrench in our plans,’ Eloria groaned, receiving a grunt in response from Xander.

‘We’re never going to win this war, are we? We were doomed from the start,’ the weapons guy started to panic.

‘They do have a lot more resources than us. This was to be expected,’ Xander commented. ‘The plan remains the same. Reece…’

I could barely hear him over the sound of the blood rushing through my ears, his voice trailing off into muted background noise. I was on a wanted poster. I had escaped one prison and now the entire Intergalactic Union was going to be hunting for me.

I couldn’t go back. I didn’t think I’d survive it again if they took me. I couldn’t go back to those cells.I couldn’t be their prisoner again.

My breathing was becoming too shallow, the world around me fuzzy around the edges as I stared in horror at my face on the holo-screen surrounded by my friends. It wasn’t just me this time. It was the people I cared about, too.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t think.

The fuzziness blended into black, swarmed me from all angles, then swallowed me whole.

CHAPTER 23

Alexander

My surprise at seeing our faces plastered all over the holo-screen alerting the entirety of the Intergalactic Union that we were dangerous criminals did not stem from the fact that our enemies took that step to limit us in our escape. If anything, I was shocked that it had taken them this long to put our faces out there for everyone to see.

They thought they were punishing us, ruining our chances of finding a safe haven to make things easier to catch us. They were wrong.

Unfortunately, Reece was not aware of this fact. Truthfully, even if he were, I didn’t think it would have done anything to prevent his panic attack but perhaps it could have helped prevent the fainting.

Henrik burst into the room in a flurry of anxious activity, a heavy-looking bag practically dragging behind him from its sheer size.

‘Where is he?’ he demanded and I pointed to where Reece still lay on the floor, though I had done my best to rearrange him into a more comfortable position. He’d landed with his limbs twisted, some of them beneath his body that was contorted at an odd angle. I’d called Henrik in just in case he’d broken something as he’d impacted with the floor, figuring it was better safe than sorry.

Reece needed to be awake and functioning throughout the next stage of our plan, or else he’d become another obstacle to overcome. While I understood his reaction to the trauma he’d faced, now wasn’t the time to lose his head. He needed to pull it together and remember that he was better than that. He was allowing them to win, and someone needed to remind him of his strength, both of body and of mind.

Henrik’s crouched down to run a scanner over the entirety of Reece’s prone body then checked his vitals before lifting his face up to look at me. ‘He’s fine. No broken bones. His heartrate is still a little high, but that’s to be expected from a panic attack of this magnitude. He’ll wake once its calmed down again.’

I nodded, moving my attention back to the holo-screen. The notices were hidden behind the scanners again, the ship now close enough that they would be visible if we had windows.

It was time.

A groan sounded behind me, signalling Reece’s return to consciousness.

‘What happened?’ he asked, rubbing the bump on the back of his head from where he fell on it.

‘You had a panic attack and passed out,’ Henrik informed him gently. ‘How are you feeling, Reece?’

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