Chapter 152: Pained Feelings
Elias nodded, more to himself than anyone else. The steady pulse of Dot’s hum against his wrist helped tether him to the ground when everything else inside him screamed to move, to fight, to do something.
But Veyra’s question still circled like a blade inside his mind, cutting every thought that got too close to comfort.
Will you break?
He drew in a breath through his nose, sharp and cold, and stepped fully out from the shadow of his pod.
"Well," Elias said, voice low but firm, "what should we do?"
The words hit the narrow corridor harder than he intended, snapping a few of the others out of their frozen states.
His sleepwear clung damply to his back, but he ignored the discomfort, setting his jaw and sweeping a look toward the others. Kikaru’s pod glowed with the jittery flare of her Ikona. Faye’s figure was barely visible behind her screen, standing stiff and silent.
"You think the other blocks are just gonna sit there and wait for the military to sweep in and fix this?" Elias asked, his gaze drifting to the sealed bolt-locks that loomed like monoliths at the corridor’s end.
"Oliver said ’a few’ went rogue. Not all of B Block. But these doors..." He shook his head once, jaw tightening. "They’re built like Lockaway’s. Four, maybe five layers of revolving steel. Maximum security style."
His shard pulsed dully in his chest, the weight of old memories rising with it — memories of how prisoners had pounded their fists bloody against doors like that, screaming to get out while the world on the other side burned.
Before Elias could say more, a sharp voice cut through.