Oblivion

So I focused on the fact that Kat was wearing one of my old black thermals, and there was nothing more hot in this world than seeing her in my clothes. The amount of possessive pride I felt was probably a bit disturbing.

We took two cars—Dee, Ash, and Andrew were riding in Matthew’s car. Made sense for Blake to be in mine, because I was slightly less likely to kill him on the way. The idiot stayed quiet for the first thirty minutes, but now he wouldn’t shut up. It got so bad that Dawson muttered, “Do you ever stop talking?”

“When I’m sleeping,” Blake replied.

“And when you’re dead,” I threw back. “You’ll stop talking when you’re dead.”

There was a pause. “Point taken.”

“Good.” I focused on the road. “Try shutting up for a while.”

Kat twisted around, facing Dawson. “What are you going to do when you see Beth?”

Remembering what he’d said in the kitchen, I had no idea how he was going to answer this question.

And then he said, “Oh, man, I don’t know. Breathe—I’ll finally be able to breathe.”

Damn.

God. Damn.

Kat’s voice was throaty as she spoke. “I’m sure she’ll feel the same way.”

She glanced at me, and I gri

He didn’t answer immediately. “We’ll leave here and head west. And the first thing we’re going to do is go surfing. He really dug the sea.”

My lips twitched at that, because it sounded so damn normal.

Kat turned back around, focusing on her hands. “That’s…that’s good.”

When we were about a half a mile from the access road, a cell dinged from the backseat. “It’s from Luc,” Blake said. “He wants to make sure we’re on schedule.”

“We are,” I answered.

Dawson leaned forward, in between the front seats. Might as well climb into my lap. “Are we sure?” he asked.

“Yes. I’m sure.”

“Just checking,” Dawson grumbled, sitting back.

Blake took his place, and I groaned. “All right, Luc’s ready to do this. He wanted to remind us we’ve only got fifteen minutes. Anything goes wrong, we get out and try again later.”

“I don’t want to try again later,” Dawson protested. “Once we get in, we’ve got to keep going.”

In the rearview mirror, I saw Blake frown. “I want to get them out just as badly as you, man, but we have a limited gap of time. That’s all.”

“We stick to the plan.” I met my brother’s gaze in the mirror. “That’s it, Dawson. I’m not losing you again.”

“Nothing’s going to go wrong, anyway,” Kat interjected. “Everything’s going to go as pla

My jaw tensed, seeing the access road up ahead. I slowed down, merging into the left lane. There were no markings, but this was the only road that resembled the one on the map. In the rearview mirror, I saw Matthew’s headlights follow me. A couple hundred feet on the dark road, there was an old farmhouse to the right, barely lit under the silvery moon.

Bingo.

“Creepy,” Kat murmured, staring at half the missing roof. “I bet your ghost guys would say this place is haunted.”

I chuckled. “They say every place is haunted. That’s why I love them.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Dawson said as we parked, and Matthew was right behind us.

Matthew and I killed the lights and engines. Glancing at the clock, I saw that we had five minutes till nine. There was no time to waste at this point.

Blake’s cell went off again. “He’s just making sure we’re ready.”

“God, he’s an a

He slipped out, murmuring something to Dee and his sister. Then he turned, throwing up what looked like a gang symbol. What the hell? “I’m ready steady,” he said.

“Geez,” Blake muttered.

“We stick to the plan. At no time do any of us,” I directed mostly to Dawson, “deviate from the plan. All of us are coming back tonight.”

Everyone was in agreement as we piled out of the cars. I met Kat around the front, placing my hand on her arm. “Stick close to me.”

She nodded.

Her nervousness was a tangible entity, and I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t letting myself think too much about what we were doing, because it was freaking insane. “Time?” I asked.

Blake glanced down at his lit cell phone. “One minute.”

In the darkness, I found Kat’s hand and squeezed.

“Thirty seconds,” Blake said.

I stopped making my lungs function.

“Ten seconds.”

Giving her hand one more squeeze, I then held on. There was no way I was letting her go.

Beside us, Blake bent forward. “Three, two, go!”

We were gone, the five of us, rushing through the darkness. Energy rippled through the air, charging it with static. We hit the mountain, sticking close to the road but avoiding the streams of light.

I held on to Kat, but I didn’t have to pick up her slack. She was keeping right beside us, moving just as fast as the rest of us. A little over a minute, bright spotlights lit a twenty-foot tall fence. We slowed down, coming to a complete stop behind the last stand of trees.

Red and white signs marked the fence as being electrical. Beyond them was a football-field-length open space and then a massive structure—Mount Weather.

“Time?” I asked.

“One minute after nine.” Blake ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, I got one guard at the gate. Do you see any others?”

I sca

“Give me a second,” Andrew said, slipping away from the trees, creeping toward the guard dressed in black.

Tensing, I watched as he dipped and placed his hand on the ground. Blue sparks flew and the guard started to twist toward where Andrew was crouched, but the surge of electricity reached the guard.

The man rattled like someone shook him. The gun he carried fell from his hands, and seconds later, he was lying on the ground beside it. The man was alive, but oblivious to the world.

“He doesn’t know what hit him.” Andrew gri

“Nice,” Dawson said. “I’d have fried his brain if I tried that.”

I chose not to respond to that as I approached the gate. All I could rely on was that Luc had taken the cameras down and given us the right codes. If not, we were officially screwed.

And Luc was officially a dead kid.

“Icarus,” Blake said quietly.

I nodded and then quickly typed in the code. A mechanical clicking followed, and a low hum broke the silence. Our breaths puffed, forming misty clouds in the cold air as the gate swung open.

Too soon to be relieved.

Motioning everyone forward, we raced across the field and reached the building. I sca

“Where’s the damn keypad?” Dawson demanded, pacing between the doors.

Kat stepped back. “There.” She pointed toward the right.

Andrew jogged over to where the panel was stuck behind an overlay. “Ready.”

Glancing at Kat and then me, Dawson nodded and focused on the middle door in front of us. “Ready.”

“Labyrinth,” I murmured from where I stood behind Kat and Dawson. “And please, God, spell it correctly.”

Andrew snickered and then entered the code. A second passed and the door quietly slid open, revealing a wide orange tu

What happened next was so fast.

Dawson stepped through the door, Kat right behind him. I reached for her, wanting her to stay at my side, but before I could even touch her there was this small hissing sound, as if we’d neared a pit of vipers.

Without warning, Dawson dropped to the ground in a withering heap. My stomach dropped as horror and anger rose swiftly. I raced to his side, placing my hands on him. He jerked as if my touch scalded him. I sca