The Freeze (Barren Trilogy, Book 3) Read online

  Jerome took my hand.

  Someone pounded on the closed monitoring room door and then kicked.

  I took Alana's other hand and the three of us burst into the store room, together, jumping over the fallen man.

  And we ran, but not before I caught a glimpse of David standing there, pistol turning to us. His mouth dropped open in shock. He had never expected to see us again.

  And then Dad ran for him, arms spread, ready for a tackle.

  I did the hardest thing I could have done and turned away, not looking back. I didn't know what happened in all the shooting and running that followed. I would never know. All I knew was that we burst into the tunnel, running past Sheri and the two men who were holding more guns than I'd seen three people carry in my life. All that mattered was getting into the tunnel and out again. Sheri fired another round into the store room. She had blood on her shoulder. She was bleeding froma new place now.

  “Tell the people!” she shouted, over and over as she kept shooting. “Tell the people about this!”

  I did what Dad said and didn't look back. We ran past Tawna, who was sitting against the tunnel wall, holding a towel around her bleeding arm. Teddy and her daughter were leaning over her as she muttered something. I wondered if it was for another cigarrette.

  Dad wanted me to run.

  We had to run. There was no other choice.

  More gunfire erupted back in the store room as the commandos burst in and gave the Davids their backup. Sheri fired back and Teddy pulled Tawna up. They ran with us, Teddy holding her daughter. Others were bolting up the tunnel. It sloped downward and the lights cast a glow on the others, people of all ages and backgrounds running for their lives before the army found them.

  Automatic gunfire rang out behind us and I knew Sheri and those two men were done.

  Silence followed and then the shouts of men.

  The three of us kept our hands linked as we ran downhill. Someone had already opened the first gate, probably the leader of the gatherers. It was open, leading into pure darkness. No one had any flashlights but there were no obstacles on the way out. The darkness swallowed us as we continued to run. Loud footfalls followed behind us. We all knew about Stardust. We were dangerous and they would want us eliminated. The army would chase us down until we were all dead.

  “We need light!” someone shouted.

  “No,” the leader man said. “They'll see us.”

  We slowed as we bumped into a couple of bodies ahead of us. Tawna shushed her daughter and then seethed with pain.

  “I let them in,” Tawna said. I could smell her blood and the standing water that must lie ahead. “I opened the gate and let them in. We have two miles to go. Keep moving.”

  The shouts of the men were distant behind us now. They must be scouting to make sure any intruders in the store room were dead. They would secure the store room first, the valuable food.

  Then they would come for us.

  That meant Dad was gone, but I couldn't even process the thought yet. Everything right now was about getting out of here, no matter what came next. The instinct to survive had taken over again. I was in the Survival State. You worried about nothing else when that happened.

  It would hit me later and it almost made me not want to climb out of the tunnel.

  We continued to move quickly, slowing to a very fast walk. The place was completely dark now and we had left the faint glow of the lights behind. I imagined we were in the part of the tunnel under the park, where roots reached down to feed on dead matter.

  “Why aren't they coming after us?” Alana asked. It was the first time I'd heard her speak since we got out of the tunnel.

  “I don't know,” I said. “Maybe they have soldiers waiting at the end of the tunnel for us and they're letting us run.”

  My words made mutters of terror rise up in the crowd. Of course the army or the secret unit would know where we were headed. But there were ladders that led up to the city, right?

  “Turn on a light!” I yelled, knowing I was stepping on the toes of the leader guy.

  Someone clicked on a flashlight. The gatherers still had them from going to the basement. That was a lifesaver.

  We were in the lowest part of the tunnel, all right, the part with the roots. That meant we still had a while to go before we got out or landed in the trap they had set for us. I couldn't see them letting us out when they knew where the entrance to the tunnel was.

  And there were no ladders down here. That was great.

  “Keep going,” Tawna said. “Keep the light on. They know we're down here. Wow, I need a cigarrette.”

  We kept walking as fast as we could. The tunnel was only big enough to let the vans through and I counted about thirty of us. No, thirty-one. There hadn't been as many gatherers as I thought and each one had someone who had been locked up. One hostage per worker. It made sense.

  And mine seemed to be the only one that was missing, but someone's crying from ahead told me that others had lost, too. I wasn't the only one.

  Dad was...

  He had told me to go. I didn't kill him. He chose it. He chose to leave me so I could live.

  I repeated those words to myself over and over, mostly to keep the insanity back. I couldn't deal with all of this again.

  Maybe Mom even chose what happened. She'd known the mole was suspicious. Maybe she'd been in denial. That was another answer I would never have.

  I had never stopped her from going to get it checked out.

  I wasn't sure why these thoughts were swirling through my head when I was down in this tunnel, almost certain to die unless we found some miraculous way out. Alana and Jerome stayed close to me and I didn't let go of their hands. I might see them get shot and fall next to me or they would have to see me suffer that fate before it hit them. The thought was so horrifying it kept me going. I couldn't see the life go from someone else I cared about ever again. I wanted to be back in that farmhouse with Jerome, paging through comics and talking about things. I wanted to be back in school with Alana, enjoying ice cream with her friends and opening up to them. They'd been there the whole time, trying to help me and I had done nothing but shut everyone out. Time was precious and I had wasted so much of it in a cage.

  We continued to descend and the earthy smell got stronger. I wanted nothing more than to see the sun again, even if it could burn you to death. How could seeing the blank looks on peoples' faces have woken me up like this?

  “Stop,” the leader man said.

  Everyone did. My heart leapt.

  “Do you hear that?” he asked. I could barely make out his tall form up ahead.

  We all went silent and listened. Tawna shushed her daughter again.

  Water sloshed.

  It was in the distance, echoing off the concrete walls and the packed dirt around us, but somewhere up ahead, water was sloshing like it was lapping at the shores of a river. It reminded me of the river that went past Colton, only underground and echoing off the walls.

  Panic exploded as I realized.

  “The storm surge,” I said.

  The Hudson had risen and flowed into the tunnel. Ahead, water was rising and probably headed towards us.

  And behind us, men shouted again. They were coming to make their kills.

  “Stay quiet,” the leader man said. “There are other ways out. There are tunnels that lead off from this one that the homeless use. We need to find one. There's one about a quarter mile ahead. Move, quickly.”

  Jerome gripped my hand harder. We all moved forward and the rushing water sound got louder and louder. I felt like it was going to pour down on us at any second. This tunnel went up and down, up and down, and all it would take for that water to reach us would be for it to rise enough to crest the next hill. It was no wonder the soldiers hadn't bothered to chase us so soon. They didn't need to. Getting out the main entrance was impossible.

  But still, we moved forward, leaving Dad far behind.

  And David...

 
; He had...

  He must have...

  We had reached the bottom of a hill now in the tunnel and the leader stood next to a very dark hole in the concrete that led deeper into the underworld. Water was already pooling here around my feet and it was freezing. People muttered in fear and the girl started crying. Tawna tried shushing her again but I could hear the terror in her own voice. The ten year old boy cursed and no one stopped him. Someone shined their flashlight up the hill and I spotted the horrific sight of water trickling down towards us as if the hill had the worst cold. The surge had reached the top of it. There was no going forward now.

  “Inside,” the leader ordered. “Order. Do not scream and push and trample.”

  “Laney! Jerome!” David shouted from far back.

  Jerome sighed. “When are we going to get rid of him?”

  I felt no urge to use any humor. David was coming and he had probably killed my father. He wanted revenge and that wouldn't be enough.

  “Laney!” he yelled again. “I have your dad. I'm going to splatter his brains if you don't turn around and get back here.”

  “Don't listen to him,” Jerome said, pulling me through the little opening. “He's lying.”

  “Keep running!” Dad shouted. “Laney, keep--”

  He went silent. There was no gunshot but I imagined he'd taken a blow to the head.

  I stopped. Every instinct told me to go back and save him. “My dad is back there.” I couldn't leave him.

  “He wants you to run,” Jerome said. He stood between me and the main tunnel now. The inside of this new one smelled even more like dirt than the other. I felt like we were venturing into some rabbit hole. “Your dad doesn't want you to endanger yourself!”

  I knew he wouldn't. Dad had always said he would give his life to save me but I didn't know how hard it would be to turn away. I had suggested we run through the storage room. It was my fault if he died. My fault...my fault...

  The ice inside crept back up, turning into a cage and constricting.

  I was dying inside this time, for good.

  “Where are they?” a soldier yelled.

  “We can't let them reach the surface,” Chalmers said. “They might have taken an old tunnel. They collapse and open up in here all the time.”

  “The water!” David yelled. “I hate this.”

  They were sort of close. I held onto Jerome and we pushed forward. This tunnel was small, only wide enough to let two people through at a time so we had to walk double-file. I strained my ears to listen for my father again, but he had gone silent. He might be listening, too, to see if I was going to respond or come back. He must be praying that I wouldn't. If I went back, I would force him to watch me die. He would relive a nightmare all over again.

  But if I didn't, he would die and I would spend the rest of my days imagining it. If I had any days left.

  “The water!” David repeated. “None of you have ever been in a sewer. We need to go!”

  The rushing sound got louder and I knew what had happened. The surge had breached the hill in the tunnel and it was coming in.

  “Go!” I yelled, not caring that David was standing out there.

  “Continue pursuit!” Chalmers yelled. “Perhaps you're not as useful as they said, David. Go in there or join the others.”

  David's protests all got muffled as water surrounded, then filled my shoes.

  And rose.

  People screamed. It was coming in fast. The flashlight zigzagged ahead, illuminating an old tunnel that was brick and mortar, something from New York's history that was lost forever. Water sparkled on the floor, filled with mud and who knew what else.

  “We're going to die,” Alana said.

  “No, we're not,” Jerome told her. “There must be a way out.”

  We might be in an old train tunnel or something below the subways. We passed a trash can heaped high with plastic bags, soda cans and other garbage. The homeless had been down here. I spotted a new can of Coke. That meant there must be a way out.

  “Keep going!” the leader man yelled.

  “Laney!” David sounded like he'd entered this new tunnel. Splashing echoed behind me. “Laney! Come back here. We have your father. The soldiers are going to shoot him if you don't come back in about ten seconds!” He was terrified. I could hear the high pitched panic in his voice. “Get back here!”

  Dad yelled something again, over and over and over.

  I stood there as Jerome and Alana begged me to continue, trying to make it out.

  “It's not...”

  The water rose to my shins.

  “...not...”

  It gurgled like a final breath.

  “...your fault.”

  “Laney!” David shouted.

  A shot fired. Sparks flew and something whizzed past my ear. David was opening fire.

  I turned and I ran. I wanted to live and there was no life that way.

  The water rose to my knees. I could barely feel my legs in the cold. The flashlight waved far ahead in the tunnel. Was it headed upward?

  “Come on!” Alana yelled. I ran right behind her and Jerome came up behind me, like he was trying to sheild me from another bullet. Another shot fired, but then water splashed as David retreated. We were headed uphill now. The water had risen to my hips, and now it was sinking, retracting to my knees as my jeans stuck to my skin. I shivered, but the ice inside was breaking all over again.

  We were escaping. The water was rising so fast behind us that David couldn't follow.

  “There's another tunnel!” Someone shouted up ahead. The leader had stopped. The flashlight pointed at an archway with old stone stairs. I felt like we were at the entrance to another world, the real one. This one down here was just some nightmare and we'd all climb out.

  But the water was rising again. David screamed, splashed and went silent. It had caught him. He was drowning. The army had sent him to his death.

  Right now, Dad might be getting shot.

  At least it would be fast, but there was nothing I could do about it, just like there was nothing I could do about Mom.

  “Hurry!” Alana yelled.

  “Go,” I told her. There were over thirty of us and the archway was only big enough to let people up single file. The water was surging now like it had found a new way in. With these old tunnels, I wasn't shocked. Something had broken and now we were going to drown down here like rats.

  “Come on!” Jerome yelled. The water swirled around our waists and the leader man stood there with the flashlight, guiding people up the stairs to what might be safety. There was no other way out.

  I couldn't breathe.

  There were still ten people in front of us, waiting to get up. Tawna ducked with her daughter and climbed up, bloody shoulder and all. She vanished into the dark and people shouted.

  “Next!” the leader man yelled. Teddy went up after Tawna. He had to duck his head.

  The three of us were at the end of the line.

  The water rose around my chest and my feet threatened to come off the ground. The water was flowing in from behind us, pushing me forward into Jerome.

  He faced me. There was just enough light to let me see that the water was rising around his chest, too. I shivered. I was going numb. There were still five people in front of us and it didn't feel like they were hurrying fast enough.

  I had wasted so much time. I wished I had opened up to Jerome instead of letting that cage push us apart. To Alana, too. Help had been there all along. All I had to do was forgive myself. Dad forgave me. I knew he had.

  “Next!” the leader shouted. The water was pooling around him, rising towards his chin. I floated, reaching up to the ceiling. There wasn't much room left. Alana splashed for the stairs. We were the only ones left. Light danced. The world swooshed and splashed as the man got her arm and helped her onto the stairs.

  “Laney—go!” Jerome shouted.

  Water rose into my vision before I could take a breath.

  And then it was
everywhere.

  The stairs were close. I should be able to feel them. A hand scraped mine but vanished again. My lungs began to burn as I floated in the liquid ice, all my nerves screaming. There was no air left. The shadows were finally reaching out and grabbing me from all sides. This was it this time.

  I surfaced. I had precious air between my head and the ceiling. It scraped the top of my head. Jerome did, too, so we were facing each other.

  We had wasted our precious time.

  No. I had. Now I would be here with Jerome when he died.

  It went completely dark. The man's flashlight seemed to vanish.

  “Laney,” Jerome managed. “Hold onto me.”

  I hesitated...and then I reached out and we embraced. If this was my last moment I would treasure it, the way I should have treasured the others.

  Water filled the world, filled my nose, invaded my eyes but the only thing there was right now was Jerome, hugging me back and holding me close and chasing away the cold. My lungs burned and the whole world was darkness, the shadows turned liquid and come up to consume us. Jerome and I would go to them together to whatever waited.

  My lungs became unbearable. The world turned gray and even Jerome started to fade away. My brain was screaming for oxygen. My ears rang even though they had filled with water, but I didn't dare let go of Jerome. For over a year I had faced this darkness alone when I could have taken someone's hand.

  I flailed and found Jerome's hand. We kept our other arms wrapped around each other. He tried to say something but the shadows had muffled him.

  We linked our fingers.

  I counted.

  Five...

  Ten...

  Fifteen...

  A loud sucking sound filled my being and Jerome faded away--

  Chapter Fifteen

  An expansive field. Sunlight. A barn in the distance and a worn trail leading to it. It spread out in front of me, a perfect summer's day in the country. The sun shines overhead, warm and harmless and bathing my skin. It 's more real than anything I've ever seen.

  Mom waits down the trail a ways, but I cannot reach out and touch her. She's wearing her favorite sundress, the one she liked to work in the yard in, the one that exposed her skin. Only now her skin is clear of moles, the way it should be.