Breaking Point by Kristen Simmons

crowd. I didn’t look up either, though I was now more concerned about the sniper than everyone else.
    The wind was whipping now, and a plastic sheet that had served as someone’s roof came slicing through the air. I hopped nimbly out of the way, but not before Chase had reached out to steady me.
    “We’ve got to hurry!” I shouted. The sky was growing black. A strong enough storm could level this place, and then there’d be nowhere to hide from the MM. I wished I could unfasten Sarah’s restraints, or at least shelter her beaten face from the weather, but I couldn’t, not while other people were watching. A new thrash of wind knocked us both back a step.
    We pushed on toward the back exit of Tent City, away from the Square. Behind us came the crackling of the bullhorn; the soldiers were sending a team to search the alley. It was too much to hope that the guards at the back gate had been called to the disturbance; as soon as the way cleared we saw the flashing blue lights. The exit, a chain-link fence broken in the middle by two vertical poles, was blocked by an FBR cruiser.
    Two soldiers sat in the front seats.
    “Keep moving!” Cara shouted. I hadn’t realized I’d frozen.
    The rain had thickened into sheets, and people were retreating to their shelters or cramming up beside the solid walls of the neighboring buildings to avoid the worst of it. By the time we reached the fence, it had already begun to hail. The pellets made a tinny crackling sound as they bounced off the cruiser’s roof, like a popcorn machine full of bullets. Just above the back tire was that dreaded insignia. The flag and the cross, and the mocking cursive message: One Whole Country, One Whole Family.
    The tinted window rolled down, and a uniformed soldier with a dark complexion waved us over.
    “Pick this one up in the Square?” he asked, and grimaced as the moisture that had gathered on top of the car doused his shoulder. He jutted a dimpled chin toward Sarah.
    I swallowed, but my heart had lodged in my throat and would not go down. The Sisters were one thing; a secondary threat at best. They couldn’t harm us themselves. But soldiers were an entirely different matter. I raised a hand to shelter my face from the rain, praying they would not recognize us.
    “Sisters found her at the soup kitchen,” said Sean in a voice loud enough to cut through the hail. “The tower still down?”
    The soldier raised the small black radio and made a show of pressing a button on the side with his thumb. “Complete silence. Unbelievable timing, isn’t it?”
    Chase subtly repositioned himself between me and the car, blocking my view.
    Every sane thought in my head told me to bolt, to grab him and run, just like we’d done time and time again, but I couldn’t. The soldiers didn’t recognize me, at least so far. Taking off now would be fatal, not just for us, but for Sean and Cara, too. We had no choice but to play this out.
    “Why are you bringing in the whore?” the soldier pressed. “She the sniper?” His partner laughed.
    Sean floundered. I glanced to Cara, who was flexing her hands against the sides of her skirt. Obviously she wanted to say something but couldn’t. A real Sister wouldn’t undermine a soldier’s authority.
    “Says she might have a lead,” said Chase. He, too, guarded his eyes from the rain with his hand.
    “We’ve got to get her back to base,” said Sean. “Command’s going to want to hear this.”
    The driver said nothing for several long seconds.
    “We’d give you a ride, but someone needs to watch the gate,” he finally answered.
    “We’re fine,” said Sean. “Our car’s just around the corner.”
    We were just about to pass when he called out to Sean one final time.
    “Watch your back,” he said, rolling up the window as he spoke. “One of those maggots in the Square reported he saw a uniform on the roof after the sniper attacked in the Square. Thinks it was FBR.”
    A spy within the MM. I almost liked