Chapter 1
“Hurry!” Layla yelled over the roaring sound of helicopter blades.
“I’m trying. My legs are so tired.” Ariel sounded defeated. She was slowing down.
Layla reached back to grab her sister by the hand and tugged hard, causing her to slam into Layla’s side. Layla grabbed her chin and forced her to meet her gaze, inches separating their faces. “Try harder. We can’t get caught. It’s not an option.”
Tears formed in the corners of Ariel’s eyes, her lip quivering. “You go on. Leave me. I’ll be fine.” Her thin blond hair whipped around, obscuring her pinkened cheeks over and over, the strong wind caused by the descending helicopter.
“No,” Layla shouted, shaking her head. “I’m not leaving you. Ever. I promised Mom and Dad I would keep you safe, and I will if I die trying.”
“Safe?” Ariel sucking in a breath. “What does safe even look like anymore? I just want to sleep. I’m hungry and tired. Defeated. I don’t even care if they put me in one of those prison camps.” She started to pull her hand away.
Layla gripped her tighter, shaking her head. “A prison camp would be a blessing, Ariel. If anyone catches us out here, they won’t be interested in sending you to a prison. Unless you’re in the mood to be raped, shared, impregnated against your will, forced into an arranged marriage, or more likely a combination of all of the above, we need to run. Now, let’s go.” She turned back around, gripping Ariel with all her might, praying no one in the helicopter had spotted them yet as she dragged her sister toward an overpass.
Stumbling over crumbled concrete and rebar, praying neither of them fell and broke a bone or got stabbed by the jagged pieces of metal, she slid down a section of buckled road toward cover. Thank God for bridges. They had come in handy on more than one occasion in the last few weeks.
Layla finally tugged Ariel the last few yards, dragging her under the cover of the overpass just as the lights from the helicopter swung past their location. The second she released Ariel’s hand, they both leaned forward, palms on their knees, gasping for oxygen.
Ariel started coughing as she inhaled pollution and thick smoke. It took her several minutes to breathe easy.
Layla leaned against the concrete at her back, praying no one from that helicopter jumped down to survey the area. It happened sometimes. If it happened this time, she and her sister would be toast. They didn’t have the energy left to run from militants or corrupt government soldiers.
Just in case. To increase their chances of surviving another night on the run, Layla climbed up the gravel embankment under the bridge, shoved some brush out of the way, and ducked into a drainage pipe. “Ariel. Come.” She reached out a hand and motioned for her sister to follow. It wasn’t much, but one more level of cover. It would have to do until morning.
Ariel took twice as long to reach her sister’s side, but she finally plopped down on her butt and leaned her head against Layla’s shoulder. “I can’t do this anymore.”
Layla wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulders and held her close. “I know. I know.”
They sat in silence for a long time.
Ariel fell asleep against Layla’s side.
Layla continued to stare out into the night, trying to wrap her mind around the sights and sounds of the world. This was her new reality. She’d never been this close to a city. Hell, she’d never been more than a mile from the only place she’d ever lived—off the grid where no one should have been able to find her family.
In the distance, she could hear the constant response of gunshots, engines, and helicopters. Occasionally someone screamed. It unnerved her and made her heart beat faster.
What she could see from her vantage point inside the drainage pipe took her breath away. The city, framed by the overpass at the top and the cement pillars at the sides, sat in ruins.
Fire. Smoke. Destruction. It looked like a war zone. In essence, it was. The end of the world in many ways. Gone.
Destroyed by civil war and fear.
Even though Layla had never seen this city or any other city in person until recently, she’d seen pictures. She knew what it should have looked like, what it did look like until the slow decline began twenty years ago.
She also knew that while this particular city they were hovering on the outskirts of was in ruins, other cities were not. Some places were owned and operated by one of two factions of the government. Some were owned by the very wealthy, places that still had every modern convenience while the world around them collapsed in ruin.
There were places where people went about their daily lives as if nothing was amiss. She wondered what those places looked like. What those people believed. She wondered if there was anyone in high places who still cared about the severe income inequality or democracy or free will.
Fear crept into her system, as it did every night in the quiet moments before she fell asleep somewhere different every day. These were the only times she permitted herself to consider that her sister was possibly right. They couldn’t run forever. Eventually, they would be caught. And then life would really be over.
She shuddered, squeezing her eyes closed, fighting the sob that strained toward the surface. She wouldn’t let herself cry. She didn’t want to wake Ariel. And she didn’t want her sister to see her weak.
Her mother’s last words haunted her for the millionth time. “Hold your sister close, Layla. You only have each other. Don’t give up. Ever.”
If she had known her entire life would be tossed upside down in an instant two weeks ago, she would’ve hugged her parents tighter, stared into their eyes longer, memorized their faces better. Mourned.
Instead, she’d been torn from the only home she’d ever known, and she’d been on the run with Ariel ever since.