Transcending the Legacy by Venessa Kimball Page A

their heads with no avail.
    Nick and Elisha are making small talk considering what above ground will look like in the daylight, when I feel the well-known vibrations channeling from the tip of my toes to the core of my stomach. A wave of heat accompanies strong nausea and my vision goes awry. I pinch my eyes closed to keep the room from spinning.
    Hold it together , Jes. Breathe.
    I breathe in the deepest breath I can take, then blow it out completely, imagining all of the nausea inside of me being discharged from my body. I feel better, but not completely normal. I open my eyes and I mumble, “Something isn’t right,” but not loud enough for Nick, Elisha, Jake, or Siobhan to entirely hear.
    Siobhan looks at me, “What did you say?”
    I say it louder now, “Something isn’t...”
    The clap of a thunderous blast ignites just above us. Instinctively I cover my ears and scurry to any shelter I can find as ceiling and walls quake and begin to crumble from the spreading blast above.
    Monica yells at us , “Get in the truck, hurry!”
    I see her already opening one up and the guardians are running toward it.
    Instead of running in the direction of the truck, I run toward the doorway that holds Nate and Xander when two arms take hold of me and keep me from getting to them!
    “No , Jes, get in the truck!” bellows Ezra.
    Another blast jolts and rocks us and I slip from Ezra’s strained grasp. I run for the doorway to save Nate and Xander when they appear at the entrance. Relief fills me when I reach them.
    Ezra comes up behind me instantly and yells, “You three get in the trucks now!”
    Moving together, Ezra, Nate, Xander, and I move to the truck.
    Siobhan and Elisha are standing at the open doors of the cargo trucks waving and yelling at us to hurry. Their voices are lost to me when a rain of gunfire is unleashed above us. It’s Briggs and a cluster of soldiers firing back into the hallway entrance of the compound and shuffling down the ramp toward the trucks. I jump into the truck after Ezra and see everyone sitting on either side of the truck. Xander and Nate come up behind me and we all file in to sit. The truck looks bigger inside than it did on the outside. All of the guardians actually fit in here.
    “ This everyone?” Briggs asks at the door.
    Monica yells from the front of the truck. “Yes!”
    Briggs looks over his shoulder and I follow his gaze through the window panel on the side of the truck, catching sight of the soldier’s firing on Dweller occupied humans bearing down on them as they make their way to the other cargo truck.
    Ezra yells, “ The Dwellers got in?”
    Breathing hard, Briggs nods quickly. “ Yes, we just lost the Kyoto facility and another compound just south of Kyoto. My guess is we are the first in the U.S. We can’t hold them long. I’m sending two of our soldiers to drive you. They know the route. We will follow you in the second truck!”
    Before anyone can respond to him, he slams the double doors and hits the back of the truck three times. Daniel rises and lunges at the back door, setting the latch in place, locking us in. The truck leaps forward then starts to move. I watch Briggs from the side window running toward the other truck and his men break off from the entrance to the upper compound. Our truck makes a slight turn to the right, but I follow the fighting soldiers at the entrance through the window panels on the other side of the truck. Then, a wall of stone and dirt surrounds us on all sides; we are in a tunnel.
    I keep my eyes on the rear windows, watching the clouds of dirt billow up from the tires. No sign of headlights following us has me worried.
    Xander’s voice breaks the breathy, adrenaline driven inhales and exhales in the truck. “Where are they?”
    As soon as he asks, I see the dull glow of headlights through the dust behind us. I yell, “There! They are behind us!”
    Their truck comes up on us quickly, then keeps pace about a car’s length behind us.