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Carmina leaned against a wall. Her right arm was a bloody mess. She was so pale and weak that she looked like a ghost of herself. I rushed over to her.
“Hey, come on. We need to get you across.”
She shook her head. “They’re almost done anyway.”
“We’re almost at the gate. We need to hurry.” I urged her toward the doorway. Bravo was already helping the last person across.
Carmina allowed me to get her closer to the opening. She leaned heavily on my side.
Bravo leaped over the opening and turned for me to hand Carmina over.
I looked to the side in time to see us pass the guard tower just in front of the gates. On the front, another banner with Meridian Six’s smiling face mocked me. Time was up.
I looked up at Bravo. “Uncouple it.”
She shook her head.
I pushed Carmina across the opening. Bravo was so busy catching her, she couldn’t stop me from swooping down to hit the mechanism to unhook the cars.
A hiss sounded.
The car pulled away from the one where Bravo and Carmina watched with growing horror as I fell behind.
I reached out a hand to wave goodbye.
Twenty-Seven
Meridian Six
After Bravo caught me and I turned to see Zed messing with the coupling, a spurt of anger and adrenaline transformed me.
As he raised a hand to wave goodbye. I jumped forward and grabbed his wrist.
For a heart-stopping moment, gravity captured me and pulled me toward the blurry ground.
But then hands clamped around my waist and my body went taut from the opposing forces—Bravo and the others pulling me toward the train and Zed’s arm stretching as he fought to dislodge my grip.
“No!” he shouted. “Let me go!”
His eyes widened as he stumbled forward off the retreating car. I fell to the platform at the back of the train and he fell toward the ground.
Bravo and the others hauled us backward. Zed’s eyes went wild from fear as his legs kicked uselessly against the air.
The arms around my waist made breathing difficult. Zed’s wrist slipped a fraction of an inch in my hand. Moving my injured arm was torture, but I needed to give him something to grip. He took a quick look at the wrist I offered him, clenched his jaw, and grabbed on. White fire shot up my arm and the pain made me gag.
The bodies behind me pulled all their weight backward. I sobbed freely and screamed my rage.
It wasn’t right.
None of this was right.
Even though I’d grown up in the Troika’s bleak world, I couldn’t believe we’d get this close to freedom only to die at the gates. But I also knew that if we didn’t get Zed inside and brace ourselves, the train’s collision would kill us all.
“Bravo!” I shouted. “On three, we all fall back.”
“Three,” was all she said. Behind me, I heard the word echo down the line.
“One.” I planted my feet on the ground.
