couldn’t take another breath to reply. I gulped air and coughed, shaking away the thoughts. She was just unconscious, taking a headfirst dive off the stairs. She was fine. I’d get free and find her before I bled out. We’d get home.
I pushed my face deeper into the rubble as blocks rained down on me. The new avalanche of stone freed the one trapping me, yanking the metal from my leg. I screamed and a warm rush of blood ran into my boot, starting the timer on how long I had to find her and get us out of here. On the plus side, blood would show up on the other team’s readout, hurrying them closer if they were on the way.
Please be on the way.
The odds of anyone being able to pull us out without becoming a target themselves dwindled with each tumble of stone. I opened my eyes a crack, surprised to see Fransín’s gloved hand less than a few feet away, the leather peeled away from her first two digits, revealing her pale green skin. Debris barely concealed her fingers, but I couldn’t see the rest of her. I stretched closer, hoping there wasn’t too much rubble burying her and that I could free her before the team arrived. Pillars and jagged beams of steel hung at precarious angles and I didn’t dare make a sound, badly as I wanted to cry out for her and tell her everything was going to be okay.
I tugged and moved her hand closer. It was still warm and didn’t curl around mine, confirming that she’d been knocked out. Tears stung my eyes and I fought them away, needing to stay strong for both of us. I tugged again and slid her entire arm and hopefully some of her upper body even though I couldn’t make her out in the clouds of rubble as the building settled. Another coughing fit stole my breath and sent a fresh wave of rubble crashing around us. I stopped moving, praying it wouldn’t bury us further. Somewhere beyond our prison of stone, gunfire erupted and my heart leapt. They were here! Now they just needed to push back the enemy long enough to dig through a mile of rubble with no equipment and little to no confirmation that we were still alive and get us out of here. Before I bled to death.
I tugged once more and rocked backward as Fransín’s arm came free.
Free of her body.
I screamed and clung to the dismembered limb, cradling it to my chest. “No. Nonononoooo.” My wail echoed off the sharp angles of my coffin. Stone crashed and tumbled around me and I didn’t bother covering my head. Small and large stones pelted my face, a few drawing blood. What had I done?
This had been my fault and I should have listened to her when she’d said the building was unsafe. I knew she’d allow my decision to be final—no matter how fatal. We could have covered each other out in the open. Neither of us would be dying now. I’d been a fool for trusting the program. I always trusted the program instead of listening to my gut. And now I would pay the ultimate price. A sob tore my chest open and dust filled my lungs.
“Lility!”
I jerked upright in my chair and swiped the screen left fast as I could, my fingertips raking through the air as the code disappeared. The simulation dissolved around me, fading quickly from the war-torn desolation that had trapped me into the gray and white training room where I’d spent the last decade of my life—essentially a coffin of a different ilk. Fransín smirked and switched her own monitor. My gaze flicked to her arm, dark evergreen with the flush of embarrassment at getting us busted, and now it lay atop her desk perfectly in place. Both my brain and my pounding heart tried to catch up with reality after being so immersed in the sim.
While we’d mostly been approved to recreate a historic war mission, the clearance had been for next week, after we’d finished all our other studies. I cleared my throat and pretended to be absorbed in the upcoming legislative session of the Pai Galaxy and the vote regarding the trade routes.
“I saw you.” The gravelly
I pushed my face deeper into the rubble as blocks rained down on me. The new avalanche of stone freed the one trapping me, yanking the metal from my leg. I screamed and a warm rush of blood ran into my boot, starting the timer on how long I had to find her and get us out of here. On the plus side, blood would show up on the other team’s readout, hurrying them closer if they were on the way.
Please be on the way.
The odds of anyone being able to pull us out without becoming a target themselves dwindled with each tumble of stone. I opened my eyes a crack, surprised to see Fransín’s gloved hand less than a few feet away, the leather peeled away from her first two digits, revealing her pale green skin. Debris barely concealed her fingers, but I couldn’t see the rest of her. I stretched closer, hoping there wasn’t too much rubble burying her and that I could free her before the team arrived. Pillars and jagged beams of steel hung at precarious angles and I didn’t dare make a sound, badly as I wanted to cry out for her and tell her everything was going to be okay.
I tugged and moved her hand closer. It was still warm and didn’t curl around mine, confirming that she’d been knocked out. Tears stung my eyes and I fought them away, needing to stay strong for both of us. I tugged again and slid her entire arm and hopefully some of her upper body even though I couldn’t make her out in the clouds of rubble as the building settled. Another coughing fit stole my breath and sent a fresh wave of rubble crashing around us. I stopped moving, praying it wouldn’t bury us further. Somewhere beyond our prison of stone, gunfire erupted and my heart leapt. They were here! Now they just needed to push back the enemy long enough to dig through a mile of rubble with no equipment and little to no confirmation that we were still alive and get us out of here. Before I bled to death.
I tugged once more and rocked backward as Fransín’s arm came free.
Free of her body.
I screamed and clung to the dismembered limb, cradling it to my chest. “No. Nonononoooo.” My wail echoed off the sharp angles of my coffin. Stone crashed and tumbled around me and I didn’t bother covering my head. Small and large stones pelted my face, a few drawing blood. What had I done?
This had been my fault and I should have listened to her when she’d said the building was unsafe. I knew she’d allow my decision to be final—no matter how fatal. We could have covered each other out in the open. Neither of us would be dying now. I’d been a fool for trusting the program. I always trusted the program instead of listening to my gut. And now I would pay the ultimate price. A sob tore my chest open and dust filled my lungs.
“Lility!”
I jerked upright in my chair and swiped the screen left fast as I could, my fingertips raking through the air as the code disappeared. The simulation dissolved around me, fading quickly from the war-torn desolation that had trapped me into the gray and white training room where I’d spent the last decade of my life—essentially a coffin of a different ilk. Fransín smirked and switched her own monitor. My gaze flicked to her arm, dark evergreen with the flush of embarrassment at getting us busted, and now it lay atop her desk perfectly in place. Both my brain and my pounding heart tried to catch up with reality after being so immersed in the sim.
While we’d mostly been approved to recreate a historic war mission, the clearance had been for next week, after we’d finished all our other studies. I cleared my throat and pretended to be absorbed in the upcoming legislative session of the Pai Galaxy and the vote regarding the trade routes.
“I saw you.” The gravelly
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