Page 66 of Dissent (The Dissenter Saga #1)

R unning through the streets of Telvia was easy.

It was past curfew, and the roads remained clear of anyone, but we kept to the shadows as much as possible to avoid being seen by the slew of cameras everywhere.

There were soldiers patrolling from time to time, but no one seemed to have noticed that I was missing yet.

A smile came to my face as I remembered Jacob’s words to me.

You can walk out, and no one will stop you.

I didn’t know what he did or how he managed it, but he was true to his words. He made it possible for me to escape. And I was eternally grateful for it.

After a time, we found ourselves in one of the Noble Class neighborhoods. Patrols were less frequent in this area, so we didn’t have to be as cautious. Eventually, we came up to a property on the outskirts, but the home that once stood there had been completely burned to the ground.

“Oh my god.” My fingers came to my mouth, resting over my lips. “What happened here?”

Both boys stopped short and glanced at one another. Wes’s eyes grew cold, and he turned to face away from me. Matias was the one that finally answered.

“This was Chase’s place.”

My eyes widened. I had never gone to Chase’s home.

It was always thought improper for a Noble Class girl to go to the home of a boy prior to matching.

I knew it was in the district, but we never talked much about it.

Now, seeing it as burned rubble, I was instantly filled with the lingering grief that ailed my heart from time to time.

“This…this was Chase’s house?” Dropping my hand, I stepped toward it. “But…what happened to it?”

“What do you think?” Wes hissed, his own hurt and grief clearly blooming. “The REG torched it.”

It made sense. I should have figured as much, but why leave it like this? I couldn’t even imagine what the other Noble Class citizens thought. “But that was weeks ago, wasn’t it?”

“It’s a warning—this is what happens when you dissent against the government.”

I took a long, deep breath and forced myself to soak in as much of it as I could. This… this was why Raúl had to be stopped. This couldn’t go on any longer.

“Come on,” Matias urged us. “We’ve got to find the gateway before those patrols come back this way.”

My brows slapped together. “What gateway?”

Wes started climbing around the wreckage. “It’s a gate into the tunnels.”

“The what? ”

“The tunnels…” he grunted in frustration. “The fucking tunnels. It’s how we sneak in and out of the city.”

That’s right! I remembered Jacob had mentioned that the REG suspected the Dissenters were using a tunnel system to get into Telvia. He’d been right.

“Hurry,” Matias whispered.

Climbing into the mess with Wes, I started rummaging around. “What does it look like?”

“It’s like a trapdoor in the ground, but they’re really well concealed. Like an optical illusion. You’d only see it if you knew it was there and knew what to look for.”

Well, that wasn’t much help. I started rummaging, shuffling through debris as quickly as I could without making too much noise.

It felt like it was taking hours, though I knew we had only been there for a few minutes.

“Don’t you know where this thing is? I mean, how did you get in here to begin with? ”

Wes ran his fingers through his hair, pulling on the ends. “ Fuck . It was right around here someplace.”

I searched the ground next to him. “Is there another gate we can use?”

Matias looked up and down the street before glancing back at us. “We can’t use a gate if it hasn’t been activated. I could only get a code for this one, so this is it. We don’t have another option.”

“Well, can’t you, like, message them to activate a different one or something?”

Wes piped up this time. “No.”

“There’s got to be another one we can use,” I protested again. There was no freaking way we were going to find this gate. I didn’t even know what I was looking for.

Matias hesitated, stumbling over his words. “Uh…no, not really. We…we kind of went rogue on this one.”

“What?”

Wes faced me again. “You heard the man. We wanted to come after you, Sasha said no, so we went anyway. We’re on our own this time.” He returned his attention to the floor, shuffling debris again. “Where the hell is it?”

“Rogue?” I looked at Matias. He must have sensed my gaze on him, because he turned to look at me and shrugged.

“I told you I would always come back for you. Just keeping my promise.” A weak smile curled the corners of his mouth before he continued serving as a lookout.

My heart fluttered. I didn’t know how to take that.

Matias came back for me, and that thought was rich with powerful feelings of sweet love and friendship.

But then, another memory crossed my mind, and I remembered what he said to Chelsea not that long ago.

And just as quickly as the good vibes came, they disappeared, replaced by the sadness that made me run away from it all to begin with.

Not knowing what to do with myself, I blew out a breath and returned my attention to looking for the damn gate when Wes jumped next to me.

“Yes! Here it is.” He brushed the ground.

I rubbed my lips together, staring at a patch of ground and seeing…nothing. “Uh, are you sure you found it?” There was nothing but wood panels crisscrossing in an elegant parquet design.

“Right here.” Using his fingers, he started tracing a symbol on the ground, his finger brushing away the soot. And no sooner that he lifted his finger, the boards shifted.

“Oh my god!” I jumped backwards as the boards pulled back, shifting, turning, moving, revealing a dark hole with metal rungs serving as a ladder that went down into an abyss.

Wes rubbed his hands together, trying to get the soot off while Matias ran over to join us. “Nice.”

I was still shocked. If Raúl knew how to find these things, we’d be in deep trouble. But he didn’t, and it wasn’t surprising—the way this thing was hidden, there was no way you’d ever see it.

Wes rubbed his hand against his chest, staring into the dark. “Time to get out of this hellhole.” And with that, he positioned himself over the ladder and started climbing down.

“You’re next, Mara.”

I looked into the hole as the tips of Wes’s golden locks were consumed by darkness as he descended.

It was dark—too dark—just like the basement.

And I could feel my heart quicken at the thought of purposefully submerging myself into it.

But I didn’t have a choice. The camp was going to be destroyed, and every second I stood here was a second we had less to warn them.

And then it hit me. I spun around and grabbed Matias by the collar of his jumpsuit.

“Matias! Raúl’s going to burn down the camp tonight ! I don’t know how he knows, but Jacob told me there’s a raid planned. We have to warn them!”

I watched as my words washed over him, and I could tell the moment it all clicked into place. His pupils dilated as fear overcame him. “ Shit .” The next thing I knew, we were both down the hole, into the tunnel below.