Dawnrunner

Chapter 20

I watch helplessly as my friend falls into the wet soil, clutching her side. The light from the trucks is enough to make out the red stain spreading across her shirt and the drips of blood as they escape to mix with the mud. The field erupts in the sounds of shouts and gunfire from all sides, but I’m oblivious. All I can hear is Rachel in front of me, screaming my name, screaming for help.
“Rachel!” I scream. “Hold on! It’ll be ok!” I’m not sure if I believe my own words. Some part of my consciousness is aware that bullets are flying past me, but mostly I don’t care. We’ve come this far – from abductions and strange cities to dark prisons. We’re not going to die now!
I pull back the fabric to get a clear look at the wound, calling on any references I can to help me. My mind races through memories of medical documentaries and any fiction with even a hint of truth. There’s a huge gash across her side, from her back to her front. If there’s one thing I do know, it’s that it’s better if there’s no bullet inside. From what I can tell, there isn’t one, but she’s bleeding like crazy. The smell alone is making me sick.
The bottom of my shirt is already torn in three places. With a yank I manage to tear off a thin piece along the edge and press it as hard as I can to her side. Rachel screams louder, pushing my panic into overdrive.
“Michael!” I start to scream, forgetting pretences, forgetting anything except the need to save my friend. “Tanya! Anyone! Help!”
The both of them are at my side in seconds. They must have been running towards us this whole time. There are at least a dozen men only a few feet behind, running and shooting simultaneously.
“She’s been shot!” I cry. I pull back the make-shift bandage so Tanya can see.
“Chyort!” The lieutenant turns to Lazarus. “Sofia is too far – we need to get her to the train.”
I look up at Michael in alarm. “The Dawnrunner? It’s here? Can we get Rachel there?”
He looks at me seriously: no promise, no false hope. It’s all Lazarus. “It’s nearby, East across the border into Germany. There’s a doctor onboard, and medical facilities. You can drive her there – take the jeep!”
The square-faced man is shouting something in a language I don’t understand. Tanya shouts back and waves her arm twice, then turns to Lazarus.
“We have to go!” she yells. “Their reinforcements will be here any minute.”
“Go! As soon as you reach the train tell them to move out. We’ll catch up to you.” He calls to two of the men nearest to us, who immediately stop shooting. “Get this woman to the jeeps!” Without hesitating the two men grab Rachel carefully and start moving as fast as they can in the direction of the headlights.
“Go,” he says again, looking straight at me. For a moment I’m paralysed, stuck in the twisted, messed up moment that I’m in, unable to think straight. Then all I can feel is the need the help my friend – my sister – and my legs start running after her.

“Christy! Come with me!” Christy is running with the other passengers towards the jeeps, her chest bent low and her arms above her head. I can barely hear my own voice over the sound of her screams. “I’m getting us out of here! Follow me!” Her eyes are wide with panic but she nods quickly and starts running beside me. Together we pull up beside the two men as they lie Rachel in the back of the nearest jeep.
“We have to stay and help the Captain and the Lieutenant,” the first one says. “You can drive this thing?” He looks at me with well-deserved suspicion. Little does he know how rarely I drive, or how much I hate the idea of what I’m about to say next.
“We’ll be fine!” I shout back. Without another thought to invite a change of mind, I awkwardly climb into the seat behind the wheel. The two men exchange nervous glances.
“Just follow the navigation screen,” he yells. “It’ll take you straight to the train!” Without another word the pair turn and run back the way they came.
“You can drive this?!” Christy screams as she jumps in beside Rachel.
“I don’t know!” I yell back. “But I don’t have a choice!” The engine is already running and the gear is set to neutral, so I put my foot on the pedal and feel powerful machine roar beneath me. It shakes all the way through the chairs and makes me jump. “Look after Rachel!” I cry, praying as much as I can as quickly as I can. “And hold on!”
I pull sharply on the transmission and feel the vehicle pull into gear. The jeep takes off with a lurch as I spin us around until the navigation turns to green. I steal one final glance over my shoulder at the battlefield in the distance, then turn forward and press my foot down.

Far away from the sound of yells and gunfire, the three of us are charging across the open fields as fast as I dare drive, with one eye on the navigation for fear of getting lost and the other on the dark landscape ahead. I’m painfully aware that the jeep is capable of greater speeds than I’m achieving, but I’m terrified of the effect even a small bump could have on Rachel if taken too fast. Instead I resolve to get her to help as quickly as I can without hurting her any more in the process.
Christy is in the back keeping pressure on her wound while trying to keep the both of them from falling out of the roof-less vehicle. The further we get from Amsterdam, the lighter the rain seems to be, but the darkest clouds continue to spread for miles in every direction. Suddenly the bright screen begins to flash excitedly.
“What’s that?” Christy calls from behind me.
“I’m not sure.” The flashes stop encompassing the entire screen and shrink until they focus on a small section up ahead. “I think it’s the train!”
Over the sound of the wind howling in my ears I somehow hear Rachel coughing from the back seats.
“Carliah, hurry!” The panic in Christy’s voice is magnified inside me tenfold and I push down harder on the accelerator.

The sleek, metallic hull of the Dawnrunner shines in the headlights as we break through the darkness. Sitting on a remote strip a track between two long-destroyed cities, the only indication that it, too, hasn’t been abandoned are the twin rows of guards, one on either side, ready to defend it to the last.
The ones facing us raise their weapons as we approach.
“Identify yourself!” a man’s voice yells out to us. Unabridged panic rises through my throat as I call back my answer.
“We’re allies! Lazarus set us! We need help!”
The jeep pulls up in front of the line of soldiers, who don’t lower their guns even as the highest-ranking among them moves in to inspect us.
“Please,” I pant, “she’s be shot. She’s been bleeding for half an hour. You have to get her inside.”
The man glances from me to Christy and finally to Rachel, then waves an arm. As before, two men appear immediately and pick her up from the seat. Within seconds she is gone through a door into one of the compartments.
“We’ll take care of her,” the lead-guard says. “Now please, tell us the situation.”
I kill the engine and wait for the spluttering mechanics to stop while I catch my breath.
“It was a trap. Stein said he was trading us for the resistance leaders, for… Lazarus.” I choke on the word, remembering at the final moment which name to say. “As soon as they were close enough, they started shooting.”
“Your friend, she was hit during the battle?”
I shake my head. “She was hit first. They didn’t just want the resistance, they wanted to kill us too, because of what we saw…” My vision blurs and instinctively I grab the edge of the door to steady myself. “A machine, there’s a machine in Amsterdam. It makes the clouds…” I feel the strength leave my arm and if not for the hand of one of the soldiers on my shoulder I’m sure I would have fallen out. “I’m sorry, I’m ok.” A darkness that has nothing to do with the clouds overhead begins to fill my vision.
“No, you’re not,” comes the curt reply from the guard leader. He turns to the men standing next to him. “Get these two inside and see they’re looked after. Let me know when they’re recovered enough to talk again.”
In a state of barely-sustained awareness I climb down from the jeep and allow myself to be lead inside.