Page 23 of Savagely Yours
The train continued on its usual route.
With each stop, screams and gunfire filtered in, followed by the ominous sound of a door opening and closing before the train started off again. What was normally a fifteen-minute ride felt like hours, and the longer it lasted, the more sure I became that there would be nothing safe about our destination.
“Please remain calm.
Soon arriving at Fort Totten.”
I frowned.
Dez’s expression mirrored mine.
There were two Fort Totten locations that I was aware of: a neighborhood in D.C. and an army installation in New York. However, there were no metro trains that could take us to New York in such a short span of time. Still, with everything else that had happened, I was ready to believe in the implausible. The rules had changed. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that while Dez and I had assumed we were escaping, the Reaper drone had actually funneled us toward our capture.
The train slowed, brakes shrieking.
The soldiers remained motionless until we came to a complete stop. Next, they used a crowbar to jimmy the dooropen, and it was the same crowbar they’d used to break the handrail barrier to enter the compartment. A blast of light burst through the open doors. Then, like a line of carpenter ants, the soldiers filed out onto a concrete platform.
“Single line exit,”the overhead voice commanded.
Dez grabbed my hand.
We were welcomed by giant cement walls topped with barbed wire, the blast of light courtesy of floodlights mounted on towering poles and affixed to tactical vehicles. The wordsFort Trotten, Safe Zone 7were haphazardly scrawled on the cement walls in what appeared to be the same black paint from the train windows, the dark liquid dripping from the edge of every consonant.
It was another sign that something was amiss.
FortTottenwas named after General Joseph Gilbert Totten, who served during the War of 1812. One would assume that people who’d come from the military-industrial complex would have spelled the name of one of their historical brethren correctly.
I squeezed Dez’s hand.
When he looked down, I motioned to the sign. He studied it for a moment, squeezed my hand in return, and then faced forward again.
The soldiers’ procession split into groups. Four uniformed men stopped in front of a covered tent and held out their hands, signaling for us to stop as well. Their expressions remained impassive, their legs shoulder-width apart.
The number of people in line far exceeded those who’d taken refuge in our train compartment, which explained the additional stops. They all looked as fearful and downtrodden as I was sure I did. Dez, on the other hand, looked like he was waiting for a bomb to go off at any moment.
Engines rumbled low and deep from nearby idling trucks, spewing diesel perfume into the air. Wooden crates and barrels being loaded and unloaded added a steady crash and thump. Muffled commands came through radios, and armed personnel walked in repetitive patterns in towers that loomed above the walls.
One of the soldiers pointed. “Men, you go to this tent,” he ordered.“Women, you come with me. Your tent is further down.”
My hand went from secure in Dez’s grip to being choked by it, and a different kind of panic unfurled in my stomach.
Dez was skilled.
He was also outnumbered.
Roughly ninety percent of the group followed the soldier’s command. Even if I’d wanted to move, I wouldn’t have been able to go far with Dez’s hand wrapped around mine like a jammed pair of pliers.
“Two is one, and one is none,” he said, under his breath. “That means we stick together, Tapley. You’re not going anywhere without me.”
“I don’t want to,” I reassured him. “But the odds of us getting what we want are slim right now.”
“Teams don’t split up. This isn’t fucking Scooby-Doo. It’s textbook divide and conquer. If this is supposed to be a safe space, why split us up?”
“Maybe we get to see each other again later?”
I didn’t believe it myself, but I needed him to see logic. Concession wasn’t in my blood, either, but I preferred to concede and strategize later rather than watch him be gunned down in front of me. There was no way he knew just how much I cared about him. If he did, he wouldn’t have considered his death to be an option or possibility.
“If they split us up,” his eyes bore into mine, “we won’t see each other again.”
