Kyle West - Extinction

Michael nodded, gesturing to the open doorway. “Good idea. Dorms are that way.” He turned to the rest of the Angels. “Everyone catch that?”

The men nodded silently.

“We’re heading for the dorms,” Michael said. “Hopefully the Diamonds will surrender without a fight.” Michael held his hand out. “Hand me those rings, Alex.”

I reached into my pocket, handing them over. They glittered in the darkness — diamond, sapphire, ruby, emerald, gold, platinum. All worthless in today’s world. Michael put them in his pocket.

“Take Ruth back upstairs,” Michael said to me.

“Isn’t that more dangerous than staying here?”

“Maybe so,” Michael said, “but I need you to take Makara a message. Let her know what’s going on. Then return to me, and let me know what’s going on upside. Plus, Ruth can help out up there. Find Lauren and she can take care of it.”

“Will do,” I said.

“Hurry,” Michael said. “And be careful.”

We left the control room and headed to a stairwell that led to the upper reaches of the Bunker.

“We need to watch out for Lords,” I said. “If we’re winning up there, they could be retreating.”

Ruth nodded, not saying anything further. I wished there was something I could say to make her forget the last thirty minutes of her life. Of course, I knew that was impossible. All I could think to do was get her to Lauren. She would know what to do.

We made it to the stairs, and took them at a jog. We paused for a quick breather every few flights. When we reached ten, the stairs ended in a long, dark corridor. We had to follow this corridor to reach the next ascending staircase, which would lead to level three.

When we turned a corner, footsteps pounded from the stairwell ahead. Ruth and I entered a dark, open doorway. We were hidden from view as people rushed past.

Outside, I heard a woman’s voice.

“Faster,” she said. “We don’t have much time.”

“Makara!” I yelled.

Instantly, everyone stopped and guns were raised to shoulders.

“Alex?” she called. “Where are you?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Ruth and I are in here.”

Two men stepped into the room, lowering their rifles. Amid the shining flashlight beams, Ruth and I stepped out into the corridor.

“Ruth?” Makara asked, surprised.

“Alex saved me,” she said. “Let’s leave it at that for now.”

Makara looked at me curiously, but said nothing.

“We got cut off by the explosion,” I said. “We saw the stairs, and Michael decided to go down. Jade’s dead. We were coming up to deliver the news.”

“That’s news, alright,” Makara said.

“Michael should have the rest of the Diamonds on lockdown by now. We were coming to get reinforcements.”

Makara nodded. “So we control the bottom level?”

I nodded. “With Jade dead, Michael’s hoping to convince the rest of the Diamonds to surrender.”

“What of Marcus? Char?”

“They’re alive,” Ruth said. “They’re locked up in some holding cells in the security section. By the dorms.”

“We can deal with that later,” Makara said. “Rey is dead, and Cain is in custody. The battle was won upstairs, but it was close.” She looked at me. “If you hadn’t discovered their attack, it would have been a different story,”

It was a little surreal that my own stupid idea of going to see Anna, something that could easily have gotten me killed, had ended up saving everyone.

“Don’t make a habit of disregarding protocol,” Makara said. “But in this case, it worked out. We still lost a lot of men. Samuel and Julian chased a lot of the Lords down into the deeper levels.”

“We haven’t seen anything,” I said.

“We can’t waste any more time chatting,” Makara said. “I need to reinforce Michael. How many Diamonds are left?”

“Twenty, give or take,” I said. “About the same on our side. We lost several men, but there wasn’t much resistance.”

“Alright,” Makara said. “Take Ruth the rest of the way. The stairs should be fine, but be careful. Everyone is still gathered at the Command Center. After that, you can go on to Perseus and let Ashton and Anna know everything. Once I decide it’s safe, I’ll let you guys dock.”

“Perseus?” Ruth asked.

“Alex will explain,” Makara said. “We should get moving. Good luck.”

Makara and her followers headed down the corridor. We watched as they went downstairs. When the last of them were out of sight, we turned the opposite way down the corridor, heading for the other stairs. When we had gone up a couple of flights, Ruth spoke.

“So, what happened out there?” she asked. “All I know is that the ships crashed.”

“The dragons hit us over Wyoming,” I said. “At least fifty of them. I don’t know what we were thinking, and it’s lucky all of us survived. Augustus, believe it or not, got a spaceship out of Bunker Six — Orion. He picked us up when he detected Aeneas and Gilgamesh falling.”

“Really?” Ruth asked.

“Yeah. He’s on our side, now. We think.” I paused. “He even gave us another spaceship, Perseus. But there will be time for all that later. What’s important is getting you to Command, safe and sound.”

She said nothing for a moment.

“Thanks, Alex,” she said. “I should have said that earlier. Guess this is the second time you’ve gotten me out of a rough spot.”

“It was nothing,” I said. “I just came along at the right time.”

“Are Lauren and Callie up there?”

“Yeah,” I said. “They got out before the Lords fully took over. They’re in Command.”

Ruth breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I knew she had gotten out, but I didn’t know what happened after.”

We took the rest of the stairs without a break or further conversation. As we reached level three, the lights flickered on again. I shielded my eyes, squinting, waiting a moment for them to adjust. I clicked my flashlight off.

My eyes were met with ruin. The bodies of both Angels and Lords littered the floor. Blood splattered the walls and coated the floor. A pile of rubble lay where the corridor had collapsed. Maybe they had hoped to use those explosives on the Command Center.

“Horrible,” Ruth said.

“Come on,” I said. “We’re almost there.”

The New Angels had been fractured by the Vegas Lords’ rebellion. With both Gilgamesh and Aeneas crashed, and no word from the leaders, the fracturing was inevitable. Char and Marcus couldn’t keep the lid on, and it only took a few days for it to boil over.

It was an indisputable fact that there were only two weeks of food and no way to evacuate everyone from Bunker 84. The only solution was to preemptively decide to feed fewer mouths, and the Vegas lords wanted to decide which mouths to feed.

Jade, Rey, and Cain and their chosen followers elected themselves to survive the coming bloodbath. They had taken control in the night, and anyone who resisted their rule, or who was aligned with the Raiders or Exiles, was either attacked or driven into the higher reaches of the Bunker.

Char and Marcus woke to the sounds of the fighting and rescued who they could, and were captured in the process. Those that were left behind, including the Raiders and Exiles who didn’t manage to escape, were brutally murdered. It was necessary, in the gang lords’ minds, to kill them in order to save the chosen remnant.

It wasn’t clear why the gang lords had decided to spare Char and Marcus. When we found them, their forms were thin and haggard. They’d been without food for a week. Char had said that the gang lords had wanted to starve them to death, as a warning to any who dared stand against them.