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But it was working.
With each hit, she could see the two fragile metal ends thrashing against each other.
This was her best bet. It had to break.
She pulled the cot back one more time, hurling it forward as she heard another barrage of gunshots firing somewhere far off above.
The cot met the cell door with a hard crack, and it flew forward, breaking apart from the rest of the cage.
Without even a split-second pause, she darted out and sprinted up the stairs.
She ran through the empty house and out the front door into the cold night air, then stopped.
Two women ran past the front of the house screaming, and when she looked to the right, she could see why.
Three people, two of them holding rifles, stood in the street before a house that was covered in flames.
Saff ran down to the sidewalk where she could see past them, and more homes were either being lit on fire or were already burning.
The acute crack of a gunshot to her left instantly grabbed her attention.
A woman stood in the middle of the street, holding a gun up above her head.
Saff watched as she fired it two more times into the air.
She looked around at the people running. The ones holding weapons, and the ones holding nothing. And she couldn’t tell who was from the settlement and who wasn’t. Who needed protecting, and who didn’t.
But it didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Because in all the chaos—in all the faces—there was only one that stayed anchored in her mind.
Saff spun and sprinted down the street toward Maddie’s house.
Chapter thirty
Maddie tapped her finger mindlessly against the glass that Nadia had handed her, as she half listened to her and Josh speaking.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be there, or that she didn’t care to talk to them. She just couldn’t manage to pull her thoughts away from Saff.
Her mind ricocheted back and forth between the night before, laying in bed together, and the sound of Saff’s voice a few hours earlier as she told her she was leaving. As she told her who she was—whatshe was.
She couldn’t get past the difference.
The way she spoke. Her tone. Her warmth—or lack of it.
Everything was different. It was like two entirely separate halves of a person.
Maddie lifted the glass to her mouth and took a big gulp, the liquor burning her throat as it went down. It was one of a small handful she’d already taken since they’d gotten into Sylvia’s house. The first couple had felt nice as she relished the burn that mirrored the pain in her heart. But after the first drink, itno longer took her mind off of things. Instead, it put it all at the forefront, like Saff was the center of every thought that assaulted her mind.
She let out a breath, leaning forward on the cushion of the leather couch.
“Mads, you getting hungry?” Josh asked from beside her. “Wanna go to the dining hall soon for dinner?”
She frowned. Although she was hungry, she wasn’t really in the mood to eat. She wasn’t really in the mood to do anything.
“No, that’s okay—“
A loud bang suddenly rang around them.
Maddie froze. “Josh—“
