Elina Cross's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Virginia called the camp to the yard before full dark. Seventeen people stood between the two lookout towers of the scrap and sheet-metal wall. Elina told them what she and Harlen had seen. Six guards at the ramp. Four at the cages. A commander below. Mendez and Riley and Emmy alive, or alive enough to be worth holding. Thomas spoke first. He kept his hands in his pockets. His beard was still dusty from the maw fight Virginia had pulled him out of days ago. Emmy was his daughter. Everyone in the yard knew it. "We all go," he said. "Every hand." "You don't fight," someone said from the back. "I can carry," Thomas said. "I can pull a body out. I'm going." He did not say Emmy's name. He did not have to. Virginia set the wrench down on a crate. She looked at Thomas, then at Elina. "A mine full of Vael," she said. "With a commander. That's not a rescue. That's a line of us in cages by morning." "They're our people," Harlen said. The red rig over his mouth glowed low. "Mendez took a shot for this camp before any of you knew his name." "I know his name," Virginia said. "I know all of them. That's why I'm saying it. We lose four more, we don't hold the wall. Then we lose the rest." The yard went quiet. Elina felt them waiting on her. She had counted the guards herself. She knew the math Virginia was doing. "I'm going," Elina said. "I saw the cages. I know the ramp. If I don't go, they die in there." "With me," Harlen said. "Two isn't enough," Virginia said. "You told us that yourself." "Then come." Virginia shook her head once. "I hold the gate. Someone has to." Thomas stepped forward. "I said I'm going." "No," Elina said. She kept her voice flat. "If we don't come back, Emmy has no one here. You stay." He opened his mouth. He closed it. He looked at the ground. Elina scanned the rest. Fourteen faces. Most looked away. Two did not. A man near the well with a rebar spear. A woman beside him, thin, with a rifle strap worn shiny. She had seen them both eat with Mendez. "I'll go," the man said. "Me too," the woman said. Virginia looked at them for a long moment. Then she picked the wrench back up. "Load them heavy," she said. "Water first." They worked fast. Canteens. Rope. Two spare knives. A can of the pitch Harlen used for his rig. Elina strapped her wings tight to her shoulders and checked the left edge with her thumb. Still sharp enough. At the archway Virginia caught her sleeve. "Bring back who you can," Virginia said. "Don't die proving me wrong." Elina nodded. The four of them walked out through the open gate. Thomas watched from the wall until the dark took them.