Tough girl in the fast lane
RILEY
I’m flat on my back, barely awake.
Every muscle in me aches from yesterday’s food run with Jonah, River and a couple of the camp kids, sneaking through what used to be South L.A., past the burned-out Costco and the McDonald’s that still smells of smoke, hoping demons didn’t catch our scent.
By the time we made it back to camp, tucked away from the city trails, I could barely lift my arms. Sleep dragged me under before I even pulled the blanket over.
That’s why I don’t move when the first flash of light hits our barricaded windows.
It comes again, brighter this time, hot against my eyelids.
Sweat breaks across my forehead in seconds. For a moment, I think I’m dreaming, because no fire has ever burned this close to our haven.
Until, the bed dips on my left, and a scream fills the room.
“SHROUDS!”
I jolt awake.
The word alone turns my blood to ice.
I don’t need to see them before I know what the growls outside the window mean.
The dragons found us.
Instinct takes over.
I do what every rebel has been drilled to do for two years. My hand shoots out, fingers closing around the dagger at my bedside, the only thing that’s ever cut through their flesh-hungry demons, the Shrouds.
Beside me, River’s already moving, voice shrill. “Grab the twins!”
She scoops up Liora, still half-asleep and crying.
I roll to my side, my dagger gripped tight, and hook my arm around Luca. His little body clings to me just as the far wall groans and collapses.
Fire pours in, swallowing his mattress in seconds.
My heart leaps at the close call.
“Go!” River barks.
She’s first through the smoke, Liora held against her chest, coughing.
I’m right behind, dagger raised, Luca heavy in my arms.
The opening behind us splits wider before we’re even across the room. Clawed hands tear through stone and shrouds crawl inside, growling and slurping, salivating over our scents.
Luca’s arms tighten around my neck, squeezing until I can barely breathe. I shove his face into my shoulder, not letting him see the monsters.
If he does, he’ll never sleep again.
And soon as the door slams shut behind us, I realise my older brother, Jonah, wasn't in the room.
“Where’s Jonah?” I scream.
Riv doesn’t answer.
And the hallway is worse.
Screams rip the air. Rebels, shoving past, faces we know pale with terror. The alarm bells are drowned under the guttural growls and the tearing of flesh.
Shadows move faster than people.
Limbs hit the floor.
Bloody tiles.
The stench of burning skin chokes me.
“Stay with me!” River yells, forcing her way forward, her dagger flashing as she cuts down a Shroud lunging from the dark.
Even with Liora in her arms, she’s so fast the four-foot creature hits the floor screeching, its body melting into rot.
It’s putrid as I pass it.
The smell of rot and demon, of smoke from the fire of dragon shifters as they torch our camp from the outside, waiting for the Shrouds to drive us out to their mercy.
River slashes at three more shrouds, struggling, before we round the corner into a safer hall, nearly choking from smoke.
We drop the twins at the same time.
The only source of light is fire burning a part of the building from a distance.
Liora’s clutching to River as soon as there’s solid ground beneath her feet, “River! Don’t leave me!” Choking on the smoke, coughing till her face reddens, and tears drop from her eyes. “I’m so scared!”
“Breathe, baby.” River pants, dropping to the floor beside her. She wraps one arm around her little frame, holding her tight. “You’re okay. Just breathe. Look at me.”
On my right, Luca’s sobbing in panic, “I want my mommy!”
River pulls him in with her free hand, the dagger held just behind his back. “Quiet, Luca! Look at me. Listen. Repeat after me: ‘One day… there shall be a savior of light over the darkness.’”
Green goo drips from her dagger, and I bite back the urge to throw up from the putrid scent that clings to it.
“One day… there shall be a savior of light over the darkness,” Liora whispers hoarsely between coughs, her lungs struggling to keep up with the smoke.
Luca repeats it too, but I don’t.
I can’t make myself say it anymore.
Not because of the smoke filling my lungs, but because I’m starting to lose hope in the mantra that’s supposed to give us faith.
River’s smile wavers, her green eyes brimming with tears. If we weren’t running for our lives, I’d tease her for crying, and she’d swear it’s just smoke in her eyes.
“Good,” she says softly. “You’re breathing. You’re okay. You hear me?”
“Yes…” Liora whispers, shaking, another cough rattling her chest.
“I’m going to find Jonah and Mom,” River says, already getting to her feet. “Stay close to Riley. Do as she tells you.”
My heart lurches.
No, River.
My bottom lip trembles as I grip the dagger tighter in my sweaty hand, chest heaving, afraid I’ll have to use it if she leaves everything to me.
I want to beg her. I want to tell her not to go, but she’s already pressing quick kisses to the twins’ foreheads.
She stands, gives me one last glance, then steps back.
Before I can speak, she lunges at the iron gate built as a barricade for this hallway, grunting as she drags it shut.
The twins cry out, calling her name.
“GO!” River yells. “Get out through the back exit! Run to Uriel’s camp and warn him! Tell him to prepare!”
The last I see of her are green eyes shining through the smoke, framed by the brown bangs plastered to damp forehead, before she vanishes back into the screams of the hallway.