Thank you, guys! As few as there are, the reviews have been great. Thanks, LilaJune, TheDerpst3r, and Guest. I am glad I can give a voice to Anden and Madge - it's nice to know people are interested in the idea!

A.R. Darcangelo

Chapter 7:

In the back of my mind, I heard a distant boom, like fireworks. But all I could see was the ocean, gray and infinite. I had always dreamed it would be blue. And the sand warm and white – not cold and brown like it was under my feet.

A part of me knew I was dreaming. The booming got louder, and I wished I could change the dream, just for a second, so that I could see the ocean blue and the sand white. Gradually, it did change. The gray water turned a light green, and then started to grow darker, until finally, it was a turquoise blue. The sand was still cold, but it turned from dark brown to white. Why was it so cold?

Another boom.

"Wake up! Wake up!" a faraway voice screamed.

But I wanted to keep dreaming. I wanted to dream until the sand turned so hot I could hardly stand it.

Suddenly, there was heat. But the heat grew in my face, on my left cheek. Why was my cheek hot? It started to sting.

My eyes flew open. "Finally!" the guard with the sallow face screamed above me. "The Elector will have my head if I don't get you out of here! Come on!"

As she yanked on my arm to get me out of bed, I realized she had slapped my cheek in the effort to wake me up. I rubbed it carefully as she tore through my door and raced down the hall with my wrist tightly shackled to her hand.

Instead of taking the elevator, the guard opened the door to the stairwell and practically carried me downstairs. Another boom rattled the building. Dust drifted from the ceiling.

"What's happening?" I cried out as she pulled me along.

"Terrorist attack," the guard answered, pulling me too fast around a corner. The tip of my slipper caught on the edge of the railing and I tripped, falling down five stairs before the guard caught me.

"Jeeze, you want to die?" She picked me up unceremoniously. I would have bruises all over my legs by tomorrow, and my lip felt fat.

We finally got to the end of the stairwell. We flew out the door and into a muddy colored vehicle. As soon as the door shut, the driver slammed on the accelerator. My head hit the back of the seat hard.

"Here, change your clothes," the guard ordered, throwing a pile of clothes my way. I clumsily pulled on a pair of jeans that fit perfectly, and a long sleeved navy sweater that hung a little on my thin frame. I pulled on a pair of sneakers that were peeking out of the backpack she was carrying.

"Tell the Elector she's here," I heard the driver say into an earpiece.

My eyes were still a little fuzzy, but my mind was awake. The car we were in had small windows, bulletproof from the look of it, and we were whizzing past the city at an alarming rate.

"Where are we going?" I asked, expecting an answer from no one in particular.

Both the driver and the guard ignored me. It was probably only five minutes later though that we came to a halt in front of a strip of sidewalk with a hole in the middle of it. There was a fence around the hole and only one opening. People on the street were running into the hole. The way their heads bobbed up and down a few times before disappearing revealed to me that there was another stairwell.

The guard pulled me out of the car by my upper arm. I did a better job of keeping up with her this time, only stumbling once or twice, but managing to stay upright while flying down the stairs.

When we got to the bottom, there was a large crowd of people awaiting the arrival of a train. I saw the end of the last one disappearing into a thin tunnel just as we entered. The guard led me through the crowd, still tightly holding onto my arm, muttering to herself.

It had been almost two weeks since my lie detector test. I had seen Anden every few days – after all, he was the leader of the country – and I found myself looking forward to his visits. He had set me up in an apartment in Los Angeles close to his, and even though I was no longer in handcuffs, I was still assigned a guard. I wished that the sickly woman currently pulling me through the crowd wasn't the Republic's first choice as my babysitter, but she was doing her job. Anden had hinted that even though the lie detector test had proved that I was an innocent in a difficult situation, the advisors did not want me sent back to District 13. He hadn't told me why, but I guessed it had something to do with the fact that I had grown close with him and had seen some of the technology the Republic used. If I was sent back, who knows who I would tell, and what kind of difficulties that would cause? Every excuse in the book had kept me from leaving my apartment since then.

I was grateful that Anden did everything he could to keep me comfortable. He had truly become a good friend, and I was surprised at how easy-going and kind he was. When you think of a leader, those aren't the first qualities you think of.

As we got to a thinner part of the crowd, I looked up and saw him. He was in Elector-mode, and even though I knew a kind-hearted person was behind the façade, he was all business and direction at the moment.

His profound green eyes locked with mine, and he visibly relaxed.

"Madge," he greeted, holding a hand out towards a room made completely of the brick of the tunnel except for the door, which was bulletproof glass. One of the discussions we had had in my apartment was the difference between regular glass and bulletproof glass. He showed me that if you look at the glass at just the right angle, you can see the transparent red plastic layers in between the thick pleated glass. I studied the glass now, counting the layers of plastic and glass in my head.

I caught Anden's eye and he smiled, knowing what I was doing. Suddenly, he frowned. In the better lighting of the room, he could probably clearly see my fat, bloody lip. He lifted his hand and tilted my chin up with two fingers. "What happened?"

"I fell," I said honestly.

"Hmmm." He glanced at my guard, who had her hand on the gun resting on her hip.

"It was an accident," I clarified, not really knowing why I was defending her.

Abruptly, another loud and earth-shaking boom rattled the tunnel. Anden placed his palm against the wall to keep steady. I gripped onto his arm.

"Howe, is the next train here yet?!" Anden yelled.

The soldier named Howe turned and cupped his hand over his mouth so Anden could hear. "Five minutes!"

"I want her on that train!" he hollered back, gesturing to me.

"Yes, sir – "another large boom sounded. This time, dust fell from the ceiling, and shortly after about a dozen bricks fell directly into the crowd.

Anden moved away from me. "GET EVERYONE AGAINST THE WALL. DON'T STAND RIGHT NEXT TO THE TRACK. YOU, THERE – YES, YOU! GET SOME MEDICS OVER THERE. I WANT-" Anden's bellowing stopped as another explosion caused the underground tunnel to shake. More bricks began to fall.

A soldier ran over to us. "Sir, we have to get you out of here," the soldier declared, waving a few other soldiers in his direction.

"Not until everyone is on that train," Anden replied conclusively.

"But sir – " The blast caused all of us to fall over. I landed on my hip. I didn't realize I bruised it so badly until I fell on it, and I cried out at the impact.

I felt Anden's arm wrap around my waist. I put my arm around his shoulders.

Dust filled the air; I couldn't see anything if my life depended on it – which at the moment, it did. Anden and I shuffled through the cloud of dust. Another explosion sounded above us. More dust settled in the air.

I felt something rumble underneath my feet. Was it the train? I whipped my head back and forth desperately, trying to see something, anything.

A long, crackling noise startled me. I felt Anden wrap his other arm behind my knees. He held me close as he ran forward. The sound of brick hitting cement roared in my ears. I felt my back hit the brick wall, and Anden leaned forward, covering my body with his.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the rumbling and screeching of cement clashing ceased. Anden looked up from his crouched position, completely unscathed except for a small cut by his eye and a layer of white covering his dark clothes.

"Anden? You can put me down now," I said shakily.

He put me down gently, keeping his arm around my waist for a moment to make sure I could stand by myself, and then let go. I looked up into his face, caught in his fixated gaze.

He broke away from my gaze for a moment. His face transformed to horror. I turned to see what he was looking at.

In front of us was a wall of bricks, only about five feet from where we had been standing. On our left was the brick wall of the tunnel and on our right was another wall, where the train came in. Either there were no sounds to hear from the other side, or the wall of brick was so thick that there was no way we could pick up any noise.

We were trapped.