Page 67 of Dissent (The Dissenter Saga #1)

I had no idea what I expected to find in the tunnel.

A car was definitely not it, but god was it a sight for sore eyes.

Matias drove madly, the white of his knuckles straining as he strangled the wheel.

I told them everything Jacob had shared with me in the basement.

After some colorful language from Wes, he used his tab to send a message to Giza about the incoming attack.

We never received a response.

At some point, we had driven out of the tunnel and popped out into the woods some place.

I didn’t know where we were going or how Matias could even tell, but he had the gas pedal flush to the ground, and I thought I was going to be carsick.

I couldn’t even focus on what we were passing as it went whirling by, colors blurring into one another, appearing like smudged paint lines on canvas.

As the scenery rushed by in a blur, I felt my heart tightening, beating against my chest as fear gripped me.

Not only was Matias navigating through the forest, barely missing trees, and god only knows what else, as we went by, but I was worried.

What if we were too late? What if we didn’t make it in time to warn them?

I wasn’t ready.

Raúl had stripped everything from me, and I wasn’t prepared to lose the few friends I had left.

I turned to look at Matias, the intensity of his eyes telling me he was thinking the same thing I was.

I looked back to Wes, whose right hand was pressed firmly against the ceiling of the car, bracing himself against the frequent jostling and up-and-down motion of the vehicle.

His expression was blank, but his eyes were cold, staring off into the distance.

I may not have known him well, but I knew him well enough to understand that he thought we were going to fail.

“What if we don’t make it?” I couldn’t help but ask the question that was burning in my soul.

“We will.” It was forced, but Matias said it anyway.

“Yeah, but what if we don’t? What if we get there and the whole goddamn place is already under fire?”

“Then we deal with it,” Wes spoke up, his words laced with anger and spite.

“I get that, but how?” I lied. I didn’t get it—not even a bit. I didn’t have the faintest clue of how we were going to deal with it .

“We find Sasha. Nothing else matters,” Wes said. “We find Sasha and get the fuck out.” His tone was like ice, freezing me as his words buffeted my ears.

“What about everyone else?”

“Leave them.”

“What? Are you nuts?” I shot back in disbelief. “We can’t just leave everyone to die. You guys don’t know my dad. He’ll make sure there’s nothing left!”

“It’s because I know your dad that we need to focus on one thing and one thing only. We get Sasha and we get out.”

“That’s insane.”

“He’s right, Mara.” I turned on Matias now, but his stony expression was back in place as he focused on the road ahead. “Without Sasha, there is no rebellion and everything we’ve sacrificed is for nothing. We got to find Sasha and get out.”

I threw my hands up in disbelief. They were going to abandon everyone else. I couldn’t believe it. “This is ridiculous.”

“This is war,” Wes retorted. “And you better get used to the idea, because I have a funny feeling that shit’s about to get real ugly.”

Matias made another sharp swerve to the right, sending me flying against the window of the car, smashing my shoulder into it. That’s going to leave a mark.

“No matter what we find when we get there, we make it straight for Sasha’s tent and get her out,” he said.

“Right,” Wes confirmed. “We head North after.” Matias risked a quick glance into the rearview mirror, giving a quick nod.

“What about everyone else?” I repeated. My voice caught as I thought about the person I was really worried about. “What about Edith?”

I got nothing. It was crickets.

A bitter taste ravaged my tongue. “Fine. What about Chelsea then?”

That one struck a nerve because the silence didn’t last long before Matias responded, “We’ll try to save as many as we can.”

I took in a deep breath through my nose, grinding my teeth as I shoved down the familiar green of jealousy. We’d try to save as many as we could. He could focus on Chelsea, but I was going to save Edith. It was what it was. I could live with that…I hoped.

Matias took one hand off the steering wheel, grabbing mine. He dared to shoot me a quick glance. “It’s going to be okay, Mara. I promise.”

I tried to take comfort in the firm grip of his hand before he took it back, placing it on the wheel as he made another swift maneuver, sending me sliding back over to the right.

I wanted to believe him, but there was a growing sense of doom brewing inside me.

And as much as I wanted to trust him, I just couldn’t.

I clasped my hands together in my lap, desperately trying to settle my angst.

It’s going to be okay , I lied to myself. We’re all going to be okay.

We barreled through the woods with Matias swerving from one side to the other.

I knew we had been driving for hours, but time felt warped.

And before I knew it, we were coming up to the camp.

And based on the red glow coming through the trees, I knew what we were about to find wasn’t the best-case scenario I was deeply hoping for.

If I really thought about it, though, it wasn’t the red, ominous glow in front of us that tipped me off.

Nor was it the smokey smell that drifted in through the vents of the car.

In all truth, it wasn’t even the faint sounds my ears were struggling to register, the screams and sounds of gunfire. No, it wasn’t any of that.

What finally tipped me off that what lay ahead of me was nothing good was the return of that swirling sensation of doom in the pit of my stomach.

It was the quickening of my heart and the squeezing of my lungs as the smoky scent infected them with charred air.

And it was the dread that swept over me, filling every nook and cranny of my being, that made me finally accept what I knew to be true all along.

What lay ahead wasn’t the best-case scenario at all.

It was the worst. And it was in that instant that I knew Wes was right.

Shit was about to get real ugly.