Cai sits next to me at dinner, as we sit with Ember and Austin and Isaiah. Ember’s leading the conversation, as she usually does. 

Right now they’re talking about the different pastas that come in the various ration meals. I like the noodles that are tubes, with the little ridges on them. I bounce my leg, staring at the bowtie pasta in my metal tray, with white creamy cheese sauce. 

Cai’s talking to me. I tune it out, counting every little speck of herbs in the sauce. He eventually reaches over, and puts a hand gently on my leg, stopping the bouncing. 

“You’re anxious. What’s up?” He asks, in a lower voice, reaching for my hand, and lacing his fingers in between mine. I lean on his shoulder.

“I don’t know. I’m just not in a great mood today,” I answer, and he nods, kissing my forehead as he puts an arm around me. 

“That’s fine,” He tells me, smiling. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t listening to what you were saying earlier,” I peep, and he chuckles quietly.

“I was just rambling on,” Cai says, waving his hand. “What book should we read next?” He asks me, and I shrug. “We’ll look through them tomorrow, since you look like you need rest.” I smile up at him, my arms hugging his waist. “What did you do today?” 

“Just training with Isaiah,” I lie, sighing. “I’m so sore.” 

“Yeah, I bet. Do you need me to carry you to your room?” Cai asks, turning to his food and finishing the last of it. 

“I can walk,” I tell him, tilting my head. 

“Yeah, well, I’m doing it anyway. It makes Flint mad whenever I do it,” He says, gesturing over at the leaders’ table, where Flint just watches me closely, like he usually does. “He doesn’t like when I do this either,” Cai adds, kissing my ear. I chuckle, his hair tickling my cheek as he moves. 

“You’re annoying,” I inform him. 

“Well aware of it.” He says, squeezing my hand. 

“Keep taking deep breaths out here. The fresh air is important,” My voice tells me, as I sneak out the window again, and sit on a sidewalk away from the execution square. The stench is horrible. 

“So, tell me everything,” I tell him, looking up at the stars which are starting to appear through the dispersing clouds. He sighs. 

“I assume you don’t know what Great Britain is,” He begins. 

“It’s here. Cai told me, it’s where Percy from The Scarlet Pimpernel is from,” I explain. The voice groans. 

“Leave your boyfriend out of this,” He groans, then starts again. “I lived in Great Britain before the war. I was working as a sort of apprentice to this scientist, a pioneer in cryopreservation, or freezing someone’s body to keep it able to live way later.” 

“Okay?” I ask. 

“Well, we all knew the world was ending. It was the middle of a war, of course. Everything was awful. So my mentor and I lived in his underground bunker for a few months, working on the technology, and he got a heart attack. It ran in his family,” He sighs.

“Oh,” I mumble. 

 “And I didn’t want to deal with what was outside the bunker, ever, so I used his technology to freeze myself. I woke up and got myself out just a couple weeks before you got chosen to be the Metal champion. So I studied banned history, and-” The voice pauses. “Olive, run.” 

“What?” I ask, then hear the roar of engines above me. 

“Queen Bellerose is sending bombers, loaded with explosives. Her target is the government building, it just came up on my radar. You need to run to the train station,” He tells me. 

“Queen Bellerose?” I ask, then sigh. “I have to go get my friends.” I turn and sprint towards the government building, where two guards at the gate grab me around the waist while I try to run inside. 

“What is going on?” One asks, in a booming voice. 

“Bombers are on their way. We need to get everyone out of the building and to the coast,” I explain, and I’m dropped to the ground while they run inside, pulling an alarm. I watch the planes in the distance get closer. They’re much slower because they’re bombers. People are rushed and rushed out of the building. 

“Olive, I swear, if you don’t start running far away right now-” The audio cuts out, and all I hear is a beeping noise. 

“I need to find Cai, and my family, and-” I see a few bombshells fall as the planes pass, and fire fills my view. The screams get louder as the building starts to collapse. I run towards it, but the voice in my head holds me back again. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but I hate him. 

“Let me go,” I mutter. I scream as the crumbling stone comes down towards me, no longer a flawless white, but a sad gray. 

The enormous metal plates with symbols of all the Subdivisions start to fall, dented and making horrible clangs as they land. The Iron one lands next to me, the Gold on my right opposite it. 

I’m released from the position the voice was holding me in, and I fall to the ground, the dust cloud blinding me. A twisted piece of metal cuts me in the side, and I scream, coughing on the stone fog. 

My vision goes black, then white after a small painful moment. A blinding light silhouettes some ethereal being who walks over to where I lay, bending down. 

◈◈◈◈

“How many survivors?” I ask, running over to Isaiah. He sighs, dark circles under his eyes. 

“Three. But none of them were Olive, and they hadn’t seen her either,” He explains, heading towards the small shelter we share on the rocks above the beach. People were still searching the rubble. “Sorry, Caden.” I swallow, and sit down, watching the waves crash on the beach. 

Casey walks down there, with the ginger boy that is her friend. She cradles her small kitten in her arms, her eyes just as red as mine. It looks a bit like gully fever, actually. I think, then put my face in my hands. 

Casey sits next to me at our campfire, and I hold the kitten in my lap, petting it. She lost her parents too, her father being in a wheelchair, and her mother wanting to stay behind with him. Isaiah explains it to her. 

“We don’t even know where in the building Olive was, so we’ve got no clue even where to look for her in all that rubble,” Isaiah mutters. 

“You mean I’ve got nobody?” Casey asks, hugging herself tightly, and breathing quickly. I put my arms around her, and she sobs, screaming so painfully I know I’ll hear it tonight when I try to fall asleep. 

Isaiah stands up, and goes over to where Ember and Austin are, Ember with a broken leg wrapped up tight. 

“It- It’s not going to be okay,” I mumble. “But I’m here if you need it.” Casey nods. Audra runs over, Adam tailing her, and they hug Casey’s legs, their little outfits tattered. Audra’s pink dress is dirty. 

“Dad says you need hugs.” Adam says quietly, he and my other little cousin playing with Casey’s hair. She hugs them tightly, then passes them the kitten to hold for a bit. Audra kisses the kitten’s head, and they run over to Jackson. Casey stares at the ground, her hands folded in her lap. 

“Drink water, and- eat food,” I instruct Casey, who nods, biting her lip, and pressing her nails into the palms of her hands. 

The most recent discovered survivors are being tended to. Flint just arrived, and has a broken arm. I sit next to him in the medical tent, while he’s under heavy painkillers, his arm wrapped up. 

“Oh, it’s you,” He groans, seeing me. I nod. “Who’s still alive?” 

“Not a lot of people. Some families, a good portion of the soldiers…’ I trail off. “Your leader didn’t get found yet. Nor Olive.” Flint sits up abruptly, calling out in pain as his arm aches. 

“W-who bombed it?” He asks, groaning, and rubbing his eyes. 

“The new governor. Or queen. Whatever she calls herself now,” I explain. Flint glares at the blanket over him. 

“This is why we needed the revolution. Because those mainland people will only ever try to hurt us.” He looks over at me. “Well, you seem pretty decent, or Olive wouldn’t like you. The others are awful.” 

“I’m half Metal, so there’s that,” I admit, then sigh. “I don’t think the way Baughn went about it is the right way, but we definitely need to get rid of the queen. I knew her even before she got power. She’s dangerous.” Flint nods. 

“Olive probably would know the best way. She seemed really tough, but she was nice underneath that. Selfless,” He looks out of the tent. 

“I thought I was going insane falling for her until she cared for me when I was sick and I realized what you just said,” I mumble, then look up at Flint. “Can we be allies? Just don’t kill any more Platinums. They’re my extended family, and I like them.” Flint nods. 

“Allies,” He agrees, and I stand up. 

“Heal first. We’ll work when we’re all… healed.” I walk out of the tent, my fists clenched. 

The dark tent is silent. Isaiah’s usually silent like this, unless he’s angry. He started getting angry earlier, when people were first finding our refuge after the bombing. It scared people too much, so he’s working on that.

Nobody told me that looking at stars over Metal Island for the first time would be so depressing.