The Perfect World (The Perfect World Series Book 1) (46 page)

We have to get out of here! Cyrus thought desperately. But where can we go? Where …?

Cyrus’s green eyes spotted an alleyway just behind him on his left side. It was wide enough for three people at a time to pass through, and it didn’t seem to be guarded. A similar alleyway existed to his right, but it was much wider and would allow for more guards to fire upon them. With all the other exits pinned down, the left alleyway seemed like their best bet. He didn’t know exactly where it would lead them, but he knew he had to regroup and get them out of this fight.

“Retreat!” Cyrus called above the din, hoping that they could hear him. “Get the students to that alley!” He pointed back towards the empty alleyway. “Cover them! Protect them!”

His and Priscilla’s team circled around the students and gave as much cover to them as they could. Xavier’s team stayed where it was and focused on trying to keep the guards occupied. The students themselves were terrified and were moving very slowly. Cyrus, when he was reloading his gun turned to the nearest students and shouted, “Move! You’ve got to move! If you want to survive, keep going!”

That seemed to have an effect on some of the students who started running towards the alleyway. Cyrus’s team covered them as best they could, although Cyrus realized that his team was already facing casualties. Two of the fighters from Xavier’s unit lay unmoving on the ground near where his team was still firing. One more from Priscilla’s unit was laying still from when they had moved in to protect the students. In spite of this, no one was wavering in their continued attempt to help the students escape.

His mind snapped to Scott, and to his relief he saw him standing nearby with Sahane. The relief was short-lived, however, when he saw the raider right next to Scott jerk, a bright red stain bursting from his stomach. The young man, one of Xavier’s recruits, spat blood, fell to the ground and lay still. Turning away, Cyrus began furiously firing, moving backwards towards the alley, hoping to escape.

To his dismay, he saw that the heavy gunfire was separating Priscilla, Victor and her remaining team members from Cyrus and his. He could still see both Victor and Priscilla firing their weapons in the midst of the chaos as they were being driven towards the right side of the street. Cyrus didn’t want his raiding party to be separated and flanked, but he didn’t see what he could do. He tried shouting over the din, but neither one of them could hear him.

Cyrus knew he had to make a decision. He could try taking his remaining men into the fray to try and help either Priscilla and her team out so that they could stay together. If they were successful, then he could attempt to regroup everyone in order to hold the upcoming assault. Unfortunately, this would mean abandoning the fleeing students completely.

Taking one last look at Priscilla and Victor, Cyrus saw Priscilla turn towards him and meet his eyes. She signaled to him  that she was going to hold the line. She wanted him to go after the retreating students and protect them. Cyrus mouthed a word of thanks to her before turning to Scott and Sahane.

“We’re going to follow the students and keep them safe. We’ve got to provide them with cover to protect them from the other guards. Once we’re safe, we’ll start moving back to the dome. Let’s move!”

No one argued though he saw Scott and Sahane take a long look at their friends before moving. There was nothing for it though. Cyrus figured that they had come all the way out here to free these people from the perfect world. If he gave up on them now, it would all be for nothing. He pushed down his feelings of regret and kept going.

Cyrus, Scott and Sahane turned around when the coast was clear and ran to catch up with the other students. Cyrus saw that they had clumped together into a group and were resting in the perceived peace of the moment. Some had fallen to the ground and were shaking with fear. Others were crying, yet others remained strangely calm.

Cyrus glanced through them briefly and realized that Melody was not with them. The thought had barely registered when he heard the pounding of feet. He knew more gunfire would be just around the corner. Desperately, he moved to the students and saw the boy who had questioned him earlier still seemed to have his wits about him. Grabbing his shoulders tightly, Cyrus hastily spoke to him.

“Listen to me! More guards are coming this way. You need to get as far away from here as you can. Quickly!”

“But where will we go?” the student asked him in a small, shaky voice.

“Anywhere that isn’t here!” Cyrus told him. “Anywhere that isn’t full of gunfire and can keep all of you alive. Now go! Run!” Cyrus gave him a shove and reloaded his gun. “We’ll hold them here for you!”

The other student hesitated for only a split second and then nodded. He shouted among the other students that they needed to run. Some seemed to hesitate at the order, but as soon as the gunfire was heard, they quickly got to their feet and took off.

Cyrus held his ground, along with Scott and Sahane. They took as much shelter as they could behind the buildings, large garbage dumps, and the occasional tree. There were only three guards firing upon them at first and those were easy enough to dispense. Once those three were down, they took off after the fleeing students.

Unfortunately, the armored guards just kept coming until Cyrus, Scott and Sahane found themselves pinned down by gunfire once more. They were now facing ten armed guards. Scott and Cyrus had hunkered down behind a nearby dumpster while Sahane was to the left of them taking cover behind a large crate. Try as the three of them might to weed the numbers down, it came to Cyrus that this was hopeless. They would be overwhelmed, sooner rather than later.

As if reading his thoughts, Sahane pulled out one of two small handguns and moved from the cover of her crate to a small nook in between the buildings. Gun in hand, she fired upon the guards with  deadly accuracy, felling one after another with each pull of the trigger.

Sahane turned to them when there was a break in the fighting and shouted, “The two of you need to get out of here! Catch up to the students. I’ll hold them here.”

“No! Sahane you can’t stay here!” Scott’s voice was sharp, his fear clear in his voice.

“Scott, I have to.” Her voice was calm, but firm. “I’ll follow behind you once they’re dead. Trust me.” Without another word, she turned back and reloaded her gun quickly. Soon, she was firing upon the oncoming guards, providing them with cover.

Grimacing, Cyrus managed to get up and grab Scott’s arm, pulling him to his feet. Thankfully, Scott didn’t fight him as he pulled him down the alley, but he saw him turn back to look at Sahane one last time. The pain was clear on his face when he turned his back around, but he kept running.

Cyrus activated his map grid, hoping that Julian had some kind of lock on where the students had gone. He saw that there was a large cluster of dots a ways down the street that was moving very quickly away from the gunfight. Cyrus was amazed that they had gotten that far. The display also showed several other blinking dots on the left and right side of where his team had been. They were moving away in the same direction that the other students were taking.

Hoping he and Scott could catch up to them, the pair continued to run down the alley. The path twisted and turned, ending at abrupt places until Cyrus lost all sense of direction. Finally, the two of them came to a halt at a rectangular white building, stained with black smoke. Billows of ugly black smoke rose into the sky and a horrid stench seemed to fill the air around them. He realized they must have reached a Worker Zone.

Cyrus covered his mouth with his sleeve, never having breathed air so foul before. He turned to Scott and saw that he was doing the exact same thing. Cyrus was about to say something to Scott about the students when they heard the telltale footsteps of pursuit coming somewhere in front of them. Glancing at Scott, he tilted his head towards the building, and they both dashed off at a run. Both of them had to quickly come to a stop, however as they saw more guards monitoring the perimeter. The pair managed to dive into some nearby bushes before they were spotted.

Cyrus and Scott remained still and watched as the guards stopped and scanned their surroundings. Then, they started moving again, going towards the front of the building. Cyrus continued to watch the guards, wondering what they should do, when Scott nudged him. He pointed his finger towards a door that was propped open on the side of the building. He met Scott’s eyes, and the other young man mouthed, “Let’s go.”

Not having a better plan at that moment, Cyrus nodded his head in agreement, and the pair took off towards the door. Quickly and quietly, they went inside, hoping not to run into anyone once they traversed the unfamiliar passageway.

Once inside, Cyrus and Scott found themselves in a long hallway with black soot covering the inside. To their dismay, the air was even worse inside the building than it was outside of it. To make matters worse, the place was boiling hot, and it made the air difficult to breathe. Both of them pulled their shirts over their mouths in an effort to cut down the amount of bad air they had to take in.

Cyrus took the lead, and they carefully made their way down the long hallway. The pair didn’t spot anybody, but there was an odd banging sound coming from their left. It was rhythmic, and there seemed to be more than one instrument making the sound. Curious, Cyrus turned left down the hallway and went towards the noise. What he saw at the end of the hall left him astonished.

There were lines of men standing in long rows, hammering and cutting away at some hot metal on their tables. Several large drums of hot steel were placed nearby them. Large, tall and stout men of all shapes and sizes slaved away in this factory. Their bodies were fit, but their eyes glowed with no light. Their expressions were blank, and their mouths were all set in firm lines. There was not an ounce of joy to be found between them.

This is their destiny, Cyrus realized, and pity filled his heart. To work in this place for the rest of their lives until their bodies can no longer take it. Then, they’ll be taken away to be disposed of.

Cyrus examined the poor men a moment longer before he turned back to Scott, only to find him missing. Panicking, Cyrus got back up and searched for Scott. His green eyes searched desperately until he spotted his best friend by a nearby control panel.

Cyrus moved forward and tried to get his friend’s attention. “Scott,” he hissed, “what are you doing?”

The sound of frantic footsteps alerted his ears to people running down the hallway, and Cyrus only had time to say, “Scott, hide!” before taking off himself. Finding no real shelter, Cyrus ducked behind a row of steel drums filled with hot liquid. He crouched beside them, sweating from both their heat and the fear of being caught.

Three men appeared from the hallway he had just been standing in, all of them wearing identical black suits. These men looked nothing like the tired, overworked men of the factory. These men were slender, in good shape and showed no signs of toil. Cyrus was certain that these men worked for the perfect world and were the ones running the factory. They seemed to be frantically trading words among themselves.

Do they know we’re in here? Cyrus thought nervously. Or are they just worried about what’s going on outside?

There was no way Cyrus could know. He only hoped that these men would go away and quickly. His hopes were dashed as the three men spread out around the factory floor, stopping different workers in order to ask them questions.

Cyrus started abruptly when he heard a small bang near his vicinity. He gazed up and realized that a new steel drum had just been placed with the others. To his dismay, he saw that the man carrying the drum had spotted him. The man was incredibly large, had ebony skin and had an expressionless face. He stared at Cyrus with his deep, dark eyes, not saying a word. If he hadn’t met the man’s eyes, he might have thought that the man hadn’t even seen him, his reaction was so masked.

His heart in his throat, Cyrus managed a small shake of his head. The large man didn’t react and left to pick up another drum. Instead of placing it in the row with the others, he placed it closer to Cyrus. Soon, he picked up another barrel and did the same forming a line of barrels around him.

Is he trying to trap me here? Cyrus wondered in fear, then he realized what the man was doing. No, he’s obstructing any view of me. He’s helping me …

Cyrus felt truly touched for the help of this stranger who had no reason in the world to help him. The dark man was just setting down another barrel, when one of the managers came over to him to ask him questions. The large man shifted his position as the man came closer, blocking any view of Cyrus that he could have had.

“You!” the slender man barked out in a wheezy, demanding voice. “Have you seen anything out of the ordinary around here? Anyone who shouldn’t be here?”

To every question, the large man said nothing. All he did was shake his head. The slender man snorted at the action, throwing his hands in the air.

“It figures. Worthless meat sacks, can’t do anything but menial labor.” The man strode off muttering something about how hopeless things were in this place.

The dark man turned around and gazed at Cyrus with his dark eyes. He tilted his head slightly, indicating a direction. Cyrus followed the hint and saw a white stairwell nearby that led up to a walkway on the second floor. In the middle of the stairway was a large control panel with several buttons and one lever.