Chapter 27 WHEN DEAD MEN RISE

Chapter 27 WHEN DEAD MEN RISE
Sera's POV

Damon was dead.

The words didn't feel real. Couldn't be real.

I'd watched him take a bullet for me. Watched Ryker rush him to surgery. Believed he'd survive because we always survived.

But Ryker's message was clear. Damon died on the operating table. Couldn't be revived.

Gone.

I stood in the courthouse surrounded by freed prisoners and captured Tribunal members and felt nothing. Just empty. Hollow.

"Sera," Lila said gently. "We need to move. The bombing runs are still active. This building isn't safe."

I didn't respond. Couldn't.

Two men. I'd lost two men today.

First Kade died and came back. Now Damon died and didn't.

"Sera!" Lila shook my arm. "Listen to me. Kade doesn't know yet. He's still at the Citadel creating a distraction. We need to find him before—"

An explosion cut her off. Close. The courthouse shook.

"Aircraft incoming," one of the Wardens shouted. "We need to evacuate now!"

People started running. Prisoners fleeing. Wardens coordinating. Jace helping the wounded.

I just stood there.

"Move!" Lila screamed. She grabbed my hand and pulled.

We ran through corridors filling with smoke. The building was collapsing around us. Bombs kept falling.

We burst outside into chaos. The city was burning. Everywhere. No safe zones left.

"Where's Kade?" I asked. My voice sounded foreign.

"Last transmission placed him near the Citadel main gate," a Warden replied. "But communication's been cut off for twenty minutes. Could be equipment failure. Could be—"

"Don't say it," I interrupted. "Just get me there."

We commandeered a transport. Drove through streets filled with fire and bodies. The bombing had intensified. Buildings collapsed. People screamed.

The revolution was winning but the city was dying.

We reached the Citadel. The main gate was destroyed. Bodies everywhere. Tribunal guards and civilian fighters mixed together in death.

"Kade!" I shouted. "Where's Commander Voss?"

A wounded Warden pointed toward the entrance. "Inside. He led a team in when Victoria didn't show. Thought the prisoners might actually be there."

My stomach dropped. "How long ago?"

"Thirty minutes."

Thirty minutes. No communication. No confirmation he was alive.

"I'm going in," I said.

"The building's structurally unsound," the Warden warned. "The power overload earlier. The bombing. It could collapse any second."

"Then I better move fast," I replied.

Lila grabbed my arm. "Sera, you can't save everyone. Sometimes you have to let go."

"I'm not letting go," I said. "Not of him. Not now."

I ran into the Citadel before she could stop me.

Inside was darkness. Emergency lights flickered. The air was thick with dust and smoke.

"Kade!" I called. My voice echoed through empty halls.

No response.

I moved deeper. Following the sound of voices. Gunfire. Someone was still fighting.

I found them in what used to be the Genesis Program command center. Kade and three Wardens pinned down by Tribunal forces.

"Kade!" I shouted.

He turned. Saw me. His expression went from relief to horror.

"Sera, get out! The building's about to—"

The floor collapsed.

Not under me. Under them.

I watched Kade and his team drop through broken concrete into darkness below.

"No!" I screamed.

I ran to the edge. Looked down. Maybe twenty feet to the sublevel. Smoke and debris everywhere.

"Kade!" I called. "Can you hear me?"

Silence.

Then a groan. Movement in the dust.

Kade pulled himself up. Blood ran from a cut on his head. His left arm hung at a wrong angle.

"I'm okay," he called up. "Broken arm. Maybe some ribs. But alive."

"The others?" I asked.

Kade looked around. His face went pale. "Dead. All three. The fall broke their necks."

More deaths. More people dying for this revolution.

"There's a ladder," Kade said. He was looking for a way up. "In the corner. I can climb one-handed if—"

The building shook. Another explosion. Outside or inside, I couldn't tell.

"No time," I said. "I'm coming down."

"Don't," Kade ordered. "This sublevel is unstable. Get out while you can. Tell Ryker and Damon—"

"Damon's dead," I said.

The words came out flat. Empty.

Kade went very still. "What?"

"He took a bullet for me. Ryker tried to save him. He died on the operating table."

Kade's face crumpled. The commander mask shattered completely. He looked broken. Lost.

"No," he whispered. "Not Damon. He survived the Fringe for five years. Survived exile. Survived everything. He can't just—"

"He did," I interrupted. "He's gone. So I'm not losing you too."

I jumped.

Twenty feet. Landed hard. Pain shot through my ankle but I didn't care.

Grabbed Kade before he could protest. Started looking for another exit.

"This way," Kade said. He was moving despite the broken arm. Leading us through maintenance corridors. "There's an emergency access tunnel. Leads to the surface three blocks from here."

We ran. Well, limped quickly. Both of us injured and exhausted.

Behind us the building groaned. Walls cracking. Ceiling sagging.

"Faster," I urged.

We reached the tunnel entrance just as the ceiling behind us collapsed.

Crawled through darkness. Emergency lighting long dead. Just feel your way forward and hope.

We emerged in an alley three blocks away. Gasping. Bloody. Alive.

"Damon," Kade said. He was crying now. Actually crying. "I never told him. Never said I understood why he fought so hard. Why he chose you over the system."

"He knew," I said. "He knew you cared."

"Did he?" Kade asked. "Because all I did was fight with him. Compete. Try to prove I was better. And now he's dead and I never got to say I was wrong."

I held him while he broke down. The strongest man I knew falling apart in an alley while the city burned.

My tablet buzzed. Lila calling.

"Sera, where are you?" she asked. "Ryker just sent an update. He says—"

Static cut her off.

"Lila?" I called. "Lila, what did Ryker say?"

More static. Then her voice came through broken and unclear.

"He says Damon's not dead. He says it was a mistake. The monitors failed. But he just detected a heartbeat. Faint but there. Damon's alive. Sera, he's alive!"

I stared at the tablet. At Kade. At the impossible words.

"That's not possible," I whispered. "You can't die and come back twice."

"You can if someone refuses to let you go," Lila replied. "Ryker's been working on him for forty minutes. Wouldn't give up. And it worked. Damon's alive."

Hope. Dangerous terrible beautiful hope.

"Where?" I demanded. "Where is he?"

"Genesis Center medical wing," Lila said. "But Sera, there's a problem. Victoria's remaining forces just launched a final assault on that location. They know that's where we're keeping the wounded. They're going to destroy the whole building."

My heart stopped.

"How long do we have?" Kade asked. He'd heard everything.

"Ryker estimates fifteen minutes before their forces breach the medical wing," Lila replied. "He can't move Damon. Too unstable. They're trapped."

Fifteen minutes.

Damon barely alive. Ryker protecting him. Both of them about to be killed by Tribunal forces.

I looked at Kade. Broken arm. Possibly broken ribs. Bleeding from multiple wounds.

"Can you fight?" I asked.

"Can I breathe?" he replied. "Then I can fight."

We ran toward the Genesis Center. Both of us broken. Both of us exhausted.

Both of us refusing to lose another person we loved.

The Genesis Center was under siege when we arrived. Tribunal forces surrounding it. Gunfire constant. Explosions lighting up the night.

"We can't break through that," I said.

"We don't break through," Kade replied. "We go under. Maintenance tunnels. Same ones Nova used for extraction plans."

We found the entrance. Descended into darkness.

Moved through corridors I'd crawled through before. When this all started. When I was just trying to survive.

Now I was trying to save the people who'd taught me survival wasn't enough.

We emerged in the medical wing basement. Heard fighting above. Ryker's voice shouting orders.

Climbed stairs. Found them.

Ryker behind a makeshift barricade. Damon on a gurney. Unconscious but breathing. Barely.

And ten Tribunal soldiers breaking through the doors.

"Ryker!" I shouted.

He turned. Saw us. Relief and fear mixed together.

"They're everywhere," he said. "I can't hold them much longer."

Kade raised his weapon. One-handed. "You won't have to."

We fought. Three broken people against trained soldiers.

We fought because Damon was alive and we weren't letting him die again.

We fought because we'd come too far to lose now.

We fought because love was worth fighting for.

The battle lasted maybe three minutes. Felt like hours.

When it was over, all ten soldiers were down.

And we were still standing.

"Is he okay?" I asked. Looking at Damon.

Ryker checked monitors. "Stable. Miraculously. But he needs rest. Weeks of it. Maybe months."

I moved to Damon's side. Touched his face. He looked peaceful. Like he was just sleeping.

"Don't ever do that again," I whispered. "Dying twice in one day is excessive even for you."

Damon's eyes fluttered open.

"Did we win?" he asked. His voice was barely there.

"We won," I confirmed.

"Good," Damon breathed. "Tell Kade and Ryker I love them. Tell them thank you for not giving up on me."

"Tell them yourself," I said. "You're not going anywhere."

Damon smiled. Closed his eyes. "Just resting. Wake me when the world needs saving again."

He slipped back into unconsciousness. But his heartbeat was steady.

I looked at Kade and Ryker. Both of them exhausted. Both of them alive.

"We did it," I said. "We actually survived."

Then Lila burst through the door.

Her face was white. Terrified.

"Sera," she gasped. "The bombing. It's not random. I cracked the targeting algorithm. The aircraft aren't trying to destroy the city."

"Then what are they doing?" Kade demanded.

Lila showed us her device. "They're herding people. Driving everyone toward the city center. Forcing them into a kill zone."

"Why?" Ryker asked.

"Because there's one more Tribunal weapon we didn't know about," Lila said. "A final failsafe. A bomb. Nuclear. Hidden under the city center plaza. Set to detonate in ten minutes."

I stared at her. "How big?"

"Big enough to level the entire city," Lila whispered. "Everyone in the kill zone dies instantly. Everyone outside dies from radiation within hours."

"Can we stop it?" I asked.

"Only one way," Lila replied. "Someone has to manually disarm it. Underground. In the bomb chamber. But the radiation levels down there are already lethal. Anyone who goes in dies. Even if they succeed."

The same impossible choice. One more time.

Save the city or save ourselves.

"I'll go," I said immediately.

"No," all three men said.

Even Damon, barely conscious, managed to say it.

"Someone has to," I replied. "And I'm the one whose genetic mutation might give me a chance to survive the radiation long enough."

"Your mutation makes you resistant to sterility," Ryker said. "Not radiation. You'll die just as fast as anyone else."

"Then I die saving 100,000 people," I said. "That's not a bad way to go."

I looked at the three men I loved. Kade. Ryker. Damon fighting to stay conscious.

"You three changed everything for me," I said. "You showed me freedom was worth fighting for. Now let me finish the fight."

I turned toward the door.

"Nine minutes," Lila said quietly.

And I walked toward certain death trying not to think about all the things I'd never get to do.

All the life I'd never get to live.

With the three men who'd taught me what living meant.