As we end up in front of the gate, I don’t see Cody anywhere. Actually, when you think about it…no one was here. All the trucks and soldiers weren’t anywhere to be seen. Did they abandon the gate? Frowning, I take a step closer to the solid thing.

Everything seemed so far away as I stand in front of something that separated those inside from everything horrible and blood-thirsty outside. Had they ever thought about the outside world? Did they consider themselves the glorious chosen to be saved by some God just because they happened to be on the right side of the wall when it went up? Did they feel safe while the rest of us were left outside to be slaughtered? The thoughts made me grit my teeth as I let myself touch the wretched thing. It was…cold. Even with the fire and explosions it was still cold. Not like ice but…similar. And somehow warm as well. I almost close my eyes to feel a pulse under my palm.

“Get down,” Anne calls to me.

I flinch to the side just in time for something to come crashing solidly into the gate. It let out a loud rumble akin to thunder in a steel drum. It was Cody. His fist had sunk deeply into the Gate, leaving a twisted imprint into the metal. But it still stood.

“Fuck!” He mutters as he takes a step back, his fist leaving the dent that he had created. This was probably the first time that something didn’t break under his sheer force.

“Cody!’ I hiss at him.

“What? Kae!?” He was genuinely surprised to see me.

“We leave now.”

“Not until I bring this down.”

“Cody,” I exacerbate his name with a breath.

“You go ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Like fuck he will. I glare at him and then looked up at the gate then at the dent he had made. I sigh and look over at Anne. What should I do? We need to find cover since bozo here isn’t going to move.

“How’d it go?” A boy comes running up with a few others that I had never seen before. There was maybe about eight of them and all ranging in age between Cody and me.

“No good. I’m gonna have to try again.” Cody doesn’t look away from the wall. “How’s your end?”

The boy in front wore a grimy white hoodie that he kept over his head far enough so that I couldn’t see his facial features clearly and I presume he was the leader of this ragtag team that Jack must have organised as Cody’s ‘back-up’. “All clear.”

“Good. You lot stay here and look after Kae and Anne while I try again.”

“So that’s your brother and sister?”

The question’s tone sort of irritated me, like he was dissatisfied with something. Well sorry I don’t look like a hulk that can tear down buildings like the jerkward beside me. Cody was going to have to go some distance to let himself get a charging start. I growl as he basically ignores me when he turns around to start again, “Have you thought about what’ll happen when you tear this down?”

“Nope,” his tone uncaring.

The air hisses between my teeth. “What happens if there’s an army on the other side?”

Shrugging, he steps away, “That’s an issue for when it comes down.” This bastard-

“More are coming,” Anne looks dead ahead as army trucks and soldiers began pouring into the streets surrounding us. Terrific.

I pull the blade down to my side. Slash and stab. That’s about as much as I know about using this thing. And I guess that, in the end, is all you need to know. They come at us with guns, pushing us against the gate without much room to move. We’re seriously outnumbered and all routes have been cut off but it wasn’t like there was anywhere we could go to at this point. Cody did his best to keep them away from Anne and myself but there’s only one of him and he couldn’t be everywhere at once. A solider even came at me, his gun turned club came swinging at me now that it was out of bullets. I pull to the side, the blade steady in both hands as I cut him down by swiping through his gut and forcing him to collapse to his knees and finished him off by decapitating him. The held rolls off, still with the gasmask attached and his body flops to the ground in a cascade of blood. I wasn’t able to think about being sick as another solider came up just as quickly to replace him, all the while I’m fully aware that were are all being pushed back into the Fence.

We were losing and fast. I cover Anne as best I can but how are we to get out of this?

As a solider comes rushing at me, I hear something whistling in the distance and getting louder with every second. Just before the solider made contact with me, I look up and saw a rocket heading straight for the gates. I twist awkwardly, trying to cover Anne but never make in time as the world around me was engulfed by fire and sound as I was thrown tumbling across the ground.

As I come to a rolling stop on my stomach, I could see that the missile hadn’t even left a scratch on the door, causing the explosive impact to be rebounded and land on all of us that were fighting in front of it. My vision flickers as my body was numb, beyond any realm of pain. My hearing echoes like I’m trying to focus on something far away, shattering in an echo inside a tunnel. My body wasn’t listening as I try to move, my eyes couldn’t focus on everything, as if none of this had substance, everything was surreal. Time was moving much slower than I was used to.

“Anne…?” I groan weakly as my eyes land on Anne but I couldn’t distinguish what’s happening. She looks frightened. Panic and desperate as she stares right at me. Her hands, all bloody, reach out towards me. Her voice didn’t seem to surface as the buzzing in my ears was louder than sound but her mouth was open, like she was screaming. I wanted to tell her that it was ok. But even twitching my fingers is hard. Tears had left tracks down her face that was covered in grime. She was getting further and further away from me. She was moving backwards on top of some weird greyish mass that was pulling her towards some blurry thing that had landed on the ground. I think it’s a helicopter but I don’t remember them making such an awful chopping noise as the rotating blades on top of the black body disturbed the air at a slow pace. It even left a ghost trail on my sight. Why could I hear that? It was like a heartbeat. Maybe my heartbeat?

And she was gone. Where did she go?

“-ae!”

Somewhere above me a large irritating mass was screaming down at me.

“Kae! Get it together.”

Something wet landed on my cheek. A raindrop? And time sped up again with a force that almost knocks me out. Crackle of fire, jets overhead, bestial roars, and screams of the dying and the cry of thunder all reverberate through my ears with that awful buzzing noise. I think I’d rather go back to being deaf. I also realise that the shadow in my face is Cody leaning over me. I’m still not all with it as I stare blankly up at him. There was a huge gash in his head, covered in dirt and burnt at the edges. It made me want to reach up, to see if it was too deep. If it is, I’m going to have to clean it before it heals over.

“Don’t move too much. Fuck, there’s so much blood.” So now I have his full attention? Lucky me. Next time I want him to shut up and listen, I’ll just drop a bomb on myself.

Just as he struggles to get me up onto my knees, my body leaning heavily on him, I feel his body flinch as if something had just stung him. I see something sticking out of his back which I never seen before. It was shaped like a dart but the middle had some sort of clear flask like look. I blink, realising whatever was in it was emptied into his system was making Cody lag in breath and his body strains to hold me up. But the stubborn fool still manages to hold onto me.

“…Cody,” my voice was a hoarse whisper and died before I could tell him to let go. Whatever was in that dart was affecting him. But obviously not his stupidity.

“I’ve got you,” he hisses at me.

But just as suddenly, his warmth is snatched from my front and without it, my torso crashes back to earth. I look up in time to see two greyish blobs had a hold on Cody’s shoulders and dragging him into the back of a truck. He pulls against them, a hand breaking free and throws it out to me. I weakly reach for his hand, seeing my own arm was covered in blood, dirt and lacerations. Our fingers almost touch but then his hand moves away, the truck taking off.

“Kae!”

I was unable to support my arm and it drops.

“Kae!”

His face gets smaller the further he goes into the distance.

I see one of the soldiers that had taken him push something into his neck and Cody weakly drops. Even at this distance, I see his eyes, the same cool colour of Anne’s looking at me in such a desolate panic. His lips form my name but I couldn’t hear him properly anymore.

Then he was gone.

The rain also had the insensitivity to pick that moment to start dripping down.