Take Me Tomorrow (23 page)

“Seriously?”
Noah laughed through his gasps of breath. “A little blood scares you?”

“No,” I groaned, “but my friend’s blood does.”

Noah’s grip tightened as he walked both of us across the platform. Lily helped lift me over the final gate just as the entrance door banged.

All five of us fell to the floor, pr
eparing for a shower of gunshots to blanket us, but nothing came. The door continued to hold them back, and Miles watched it before pointing in the distance. “That’s a carrier train,” he yelled over the noise. “We’ll have to jump on.”

“
We?” Lily gaped at Miles, unaware of the plan. “What do you mean,
we
?”

“
Get on or feel free to stay here,” her brother retorted.

I leaned against Noah for support. Rinley, unlike t
he rest of us, prepared herself. She stood on the edge of the platform with her blue eyes locked on the train, her knees bending. Noah’s hand tightened around my shoulder.

“Liam,
” he said.

I glanced from his pale expression to
the train to Rinley to him. His eyes were glazed over. He wasn’t here anymore than I had been five minutes ago. He was lost in his mind, in what had happened to his brother.

I squeezed his arm
. “Noah,” I asked for his attention amongst chaos. “You’re getting out,” I promised. “You can do this. All you have to do is jump.”

“I—I don’t know if I can.”

The train’s horn blasted over us.

“If you don’t,
I’m not making it on that train either,” I reminded him of my broken ankle, and the pain singed up my leg to my hip.

When h
e looked down at my foot, his haunted expression dissipated into thin air. “You’re getting on that train, Sophie.”

“Then
, you are, too.”

H
is solemn expression locked on the train’s lights as they sliced through the darkness. The foggy night separated the headlight into rays. It looked like a midnight sun.

“It should slow dow
n enough for us to get on,” Miles shouted as he ran from the podium to the platform.

“Should?”
Rinley repeated in a squeal.

Miles didn’t respond. He didn’t have time to. T
he station shook, and the door blew inwards. Noah pushed me to the ground and bullets ricocheted around the room, splattering the gates that we had passed to get in. Ironically, the security glass protected us from the security.

As they tried to get the door open, Miles screamed, “Jump.”

I spun away from the guns to see Lily leap onto the blue-colored train as slick as a cat. Rinley followed as more glass exploded, and Miles hopped on, too.

“Let’s go, Noah,” I shouted, pulling him toward
the end, and he moved quicker than I expected.

He took two steps and flew, taking off with me.

We collapsed on the floor of the train as it moved past the security gates. “Stop that train,” an officer yelled from the station, “Shoot them.”

Pings scattered over the walls as Noah and I crawled behind the packed crates. In front of us, Rinley curled into a corner
, her blue eyes squeezed shut, and Lily hid by the doors. Miles, on the other hand, held a small handgun out of the opening. He shot back.

This was exactly what Noah had t
alked about. Topeka was in war.

But it ended as soon as it came.

The cart lurched, and everyone tumbled, hitting their heads on the walls of the small room. A box toppled over Lily, and Noah tightened his hold on me. I clutched onto his jacket, his ocean scent surrounding me, and everything fell into complete darkness.

The train took off and
rushed out of the station toward the miles of forest that separated the regions. Moments passed as I dug through the dust, pushing and pulling hay and crates in order to look around.

“Lily?
” Miles spoke up first, “Where are you?”

“Here,
” she shouted back, spitting up something − probably blood. “You okay?”

“Fine,” Miles responded, walking around the cabin. “What about you guys?”

“We’re good,” Noah answered for the both of us, pushing past the fallen crates with me. “Where’s Rinley?”

“Let me go!” T
he thirteen-year-old screamed, and all of us jumped to our feet, including me.

Anthony
− with blood running down the side of his face − tossed Rinley against a wall. “That’s for the rock,” he growled, stepping over her. Lily rushed to her, but another man – an officer I had never seen before – pushed Lily to the side.

“And you
,” Anthony continued, pointing directly at me. “Who would’ve known our blind date would turn into this—”

Noah lunged at Anthony so quickly that their blond hair blurred together. One b
oy threw punches, only for the other to dodge and throw one back. Noah slammed Anthony’s back into the wall, and then, Anthony dragged Noah to the ground, plummeting him into the wood floor.

Instead of helping her brother, Rinley struggled up from the ground and attacked the officer with Lily. When the man punched Lily, Miles did the last thing I thought I would ever see him do.

He raised his gun and cracked it on the officer’s skull. As the man fell to the ground, Miles picked him up, and Lily helped her brother push the guy out of the moving train. He rolled off the edge and disappeared in the trees, leaving only a blood trail behind. The twins − the two people I had known the longest − had killed an officer.

“Miles,
” Rinley caught my attention. “Go to the panel. Do something!”

He listened to her and disappeared through a door
. Immediately. Rinley tried to get to Noah, but Lily grabbed the girl. She was too small to fight them.

Noah was pinned to a crate, and blood trailed down his face. I
t soaked his green jacket at the shoulder. Anthony laughed, spraying blood from his own mouth onto Noah’s face.

“This is for my father,” Anthony
said, punching Noah in the gut. Noah fell forward, and Anthony cracked his knuckles across Noah’s jaw. “And that was for my mother.”

Anthony dropped Noah to the ground
and spit on him, satisfied.

I forgot my broken ankle.

A sharp pain in my leg drove up my spine, but I still leapt forward. I wrapped my torso around Anthony’s body and tightened my grip around his neck. His sweat smeared across my arms, and he bucked, trying to throw me off of him. His fingers uncurled from fists before he clawed at my arms and drew my blood out.

Still, I didn’t let go. My legs
thrashed around as Anthony slammed his back into the wall, trying to crush me.

“
Noah,” I gasped as Anthony’s body weight smothered me. “Get up,” I shouted, but he didn’t move.

I did the only thing I could do. I made a mistake.

I reached for my knife, and Anthony took advantage of it. He swung off of me, and the knife spiraled through the air, landing only a few feet away. I hit the ground, and my ankle cracked against the wood.

I
shrieked.

Noah’s eyes shot open,
but they were misty. He blinked, and his head bobbed like he couldn’t lift it. Anthony was walking over, but Noah looked at me like he had woken up from the couch in his living room – dazed from a dream.

I shouted Noah’s name as Anthony closed in. His feet were inches from my face. His hand was on the nape of my neck, and then
, he picked up my knife and held it to my throat. My favorite knife would be the end of me. Noah simply watched.

“
Your own weapon,” he gloated.

The train creaked as it turned, and the cart rocked. Anthony let me go, and I fell backwards as Noah stood up. He punched Anthony across the face, and Anthony crumbled to the floor. When he dropped the knife, I scurried to the blade.

The metal flipped into my hand, and I shot forward, stabbing Anthony’s thigh. He screamed this time, the sound breaking over the thunder of the train.

When Noah
pulled me up, I took the knife with me. He stabilized me, and I leaned against his chest as blood dripped off of the metal.

“I’m not done yet,” he
managed to speak and stand with his bleeding thigh.

“Yes,” a girl answered, “you are.
”

Rinley stood on the far side of the train, Lily next to her. Both girls glared at Anthony,
and both girls held pistols. Neither girl had a weapon on them moments before.

Anthony
froze. His blond hair spiked up with sweat, and his teeth were covered in his own blood when he smiled. “You’d kill your own cousin?” he asked, focusing on Rinley.

“You’d kill me,” she said it like it was a fact that held no emotional weight.

Lily stepped in front of Rinley and blocked her from Anthony. With a simple gesture to the train door, Lily made the orders, “Just get out.”

Anthony raised his hands, glancing out the train doors with a horrified look crossing his face. “I’ll die if I jump.”

“Go,” Lily barked as she pulled the top back and placed her nimble fingers on the trigger. She may have resembled a cat, but she was an elkhound in the moment.

Anthony
’s eyes waved over the girls before he looked around the train. He knew what I knew. The girls didn’t have weapons before. They got them from the train, and he wanted one. But the nearest crate was next to Lily, and it was open, revealing a pile of small weapons that had fallen out.

“
Jump or I’ll shoot you now,” Lily snarled, not taking a chance at Anthony tricking us again, but he didn’t even seem to care anymore.

He was looking at Noah. “That’s why you needed this train,” he said, “You knew it had weapons on it.”

Noah didn’t move. His face didn’t budge. His eyes never blinked. Only his blood continued to run.

Of course he knew. Noah knew everything. His calm exterior said it all. His plan had never been only about Rinley. It was about the war, and a war needed weapons.

“Get out, Anthony,” Noah said, reaching out to clutch onto my hand. His fingers were hot and sweaty, but they had never felt so comforting before.

Anthony took a step back and neared the edge. His hair flew
in the extreme wind, and he turned as if he were going to jump.

But he didn’t.

He dove for the weapon pile, his long fingers extended, and Lily leapt in front of him. She pushed him, a gunshot went off, and he ducked away. His feet slipped beneath him, and Lily stumbled forward. When she shoved him toward the exit, he grabbed her jacket as he fell out.

His blond mane and her white hair disappeared, but Rinley was holding onto the train’s door. “I got her,” Rinley’s voice strained against her throat as she fell backward, and Lily tumbled in, her jacket sleeve missing.

“Good thing you wear cheap clothes,” Rinley laughed, laying her arm on her forehead.

“I resent that,” Lily responded right before their giggles erupted through the cabin.

Anthony had fallen, and the train rocked back and forth as if to wave him away. He was gone, and we were all alive.

We had escaped.

Over the Edge

“We can get off when the tracks separate. I have to change the course so Phelps won’t know where you’re going,” Miles explained as we all crowded into the electric room. He was working, his brow furrowed so deeply that I doubted he would walk away without a permanent wrinkle. “You two need to get off at the last possible second. Be sure to get close enough to your destination to survive in the wilderness.”

Noah
looked over Miles’ shoulder. “But they won’t be able to track us? Even from the main station?”

“No one
will be able to.” A grin took over Miles’ small face. “I won’t even know where you two are going. It’s the best I can do.”

“I need t
o know where we’re going—”

“Push this button, and then
, the itinerary link.” Miles showed Noah twice before he continued, “Now, you can type in wherever you need to go,” he said. “This is the newest system I’ve seen. Ever,” he added, “I can’t believe our luck. It must be brand new.”

“Well,” Noah began to speak, his expression grim. “I
t wasn’t exactly luck.”

Miles raised a brow. “Why do you say that?”
He hadn’t seen the weapons yet.

“The crates are filled with guns
,” Lily responded from the corner of the room. She was wrapping up the gash in her arm with torn cloth.

Miles
didn’t even look surprised. He just looked at Noah. “Where are you two taking them?”

“We’re not taking them anywhere,” Noah said, but he stared at the wall. “Someone else will pick them up from where we drop the train off.” He was finally telling us more. “From there, Rinley and I are walking to another location—”

“Where you will be picked up by another person,” Miles finished.

Noah nodded. The entire plan had been built before he ever arrived in Topeka. The question was what plan he had in place next, what region
he was going to affect, where would he go after that, whether he would use his real name.

“
But you guys will be fine,” Noah said, and for once, I believed him.

He probably had a plan in place.

The door creaked as Rinley entered the small cabin. When she glanced at her older brother, her blue eyes widened. He had taken off his sage-colored military jacket and revealed his shoulder that had been shot one week ago.

“
What is that from?” Rinley asked, gaping.

Noah glanced at the injury that had been reopened
. “Those officers should work on their aim.”

Broden was arrested. Noah’s shoulder was torn up. Lily’s arm was slit, and my ankle was broken.
But none of us had been shot or killed. We would live to see tomorrow.

“We made it,” Lily commented
as she leaned against the wall for support. She stared at the ceiling in the way some people stared at the stars. “We really made it.”

“Almost,” Miles interrupted, “We still need to get off.”

“When?”

He reached over, pulled a lever, and a small window sprung open. Trees flew past us, but their silhouettes punched black holes into the pink sky. “Soon,” Miles said.

The sun was rising, and my ankle was throbbing with every passing minute. I hadn’t stood in two hours. I didn’t even know what direction we had gone in.

“W
here do we go?” Lily asked. “We can’t go back.”

“You have to,” Noah interrupted. When we stared at him, waiting for an explanation of yet another mysterious plan, h
is lips pulled down. “You’ll be better off there for now.” Each word sounded more deliberate than the one before it.

“We’ll be okay, Lils,”
Miles agreed. “They can’t convict us if they don’t have proof—”

“Which they prob
ably have,” Lily’s voice shook, “Even if they don’t, lack of evidence hasn’t stopped them before.”

Miles flinched at the truth in her words, but he still argued,
“Don’t be worried. I’ve always had a plan to get us back safely.”

“I’m starting to really dislike the word
‘plan,’” she retorted. “We shouldn’t have to go back. We should be able to be safe, too.” She wanted to go wherever Noah and Rinley were going.

“
Trust me,” Noah said, “you do not want to go with us.”

Rinley looked out the window like the rising sun could melt the conversation away. She never blinked, not even when the sunlight beamed against her pupils, and I knew she was taking in every last second on the train. Lily didn’t see what the Tomery kids did. The hours left on the train would be the safest place they would ever be.

No matter where the two got off, Noah and Rinley would have to walk through the wilderness to get to wherever they were going. I had never been in the wilderness, but I liked to imagine it was like the acres behind my house − covered in trees, rivers, and game to hunt. Argos would be by my side, and I would make it to safety without a single scratch. But Noah’s traveling would not be so easy. He had proven that from day one, when he showed up in my backyard, thin, dirty, and sunburnt.

“The slowdown
will come up soon,” Miles spoke up. “We should get picked up soon.”

“By who?”
I finally croaked from my spot on the floor.

Everyone glanced down at me. “You’re awake,” Noah said.

“Been awake for a while,” I responded, trying not to move anything. The numbing pain was surely going to make a comeback.

“We have five minutes before our jump,” Miles said,
touching Lily on the shoulder. “Come on.”

As the twins left, Lily grabbed the collar of Rinley’s shirt and dragged her out with them. They shut the door, and I was alone with Noah. No one would hear us talk. No one could see us speak.

Noah knelt down in order to be eye-to-eye with me. “Are you going to be okay jumping like that?”

I
refused to look down at the exposed bone. “I don’t really have a choice,” I muttered. The train rocked and screeched as the wheels against the track began to slow.

He looked at his watch.
“Three minutes,” he said, unwrapping the jewelry from his wrist.

“What are you doing?”

“Sophie,” Noah whispered my name as he shook it off of himself. He grabbed my left hand and looped the strap around my wrist. It hung loosely, too big for my hand, but Noah took my right hand and wrapped my fingers around the watch tightly. “Keep this.”

“But—”

“You need it more than I do.”

His words stopped me. It was part of his plan. I could hear him saying it without him speaking out loud. His singing voice rattled in my head. Still, the shadows beneath Noah’s eyes grew. When he looked at me, I questioned myself. Maybe it wasn’t part of the plan. Maybe it was something else entirely.

I wanted to ask, but he let go, and a cold rush moved over my skin. My fingers clasped on the chilled metal, holding onto it as if it were holding me steady inside all of the chaos we were truly in. “Would you leave if you didn’t have to?” I blurted out.

Noah’s lips twisted,
“That’s not a real question, Sophie—”

“Would you?” I choked
.

N
oah didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked up at the cracked window. The pink sun reflected his irises, but this time, it wasn’t from tomo.

“I might.”

He would leave, even if he could stay.

“I have to, Sophie. T
his is my life—”

I leaned forward to wrap
my arms around his torso. His hand hovered over my back before he returned the embrace, careful not to touch my leg.

“Take care of yourself,” he
spoke into my curls, ignoring the amount of dirt we were covered in. “Don’t get killed. Lay low. Keep Argos with you.”

“Argos?”

“That dog protects you.” When he chuckled, I felt his sternum bounce, and I could imagine the smirk he had on his face, tilted up to the right side, slanted down to the left.

“We have to leave, Sophia,” Miles shouted as he burst in through the door. He leapt back a little as if he interrupted more than an embrace. “Oh, uh. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Noah said, standing.

I couldn’t stand on my own.

The train continued to slow, the cabin leaning to the left, and Noah held out his hand. I took it – not because I had to – but because I wanted to.

“We have to go
now,” Lily said, running up behind Miles. She didn’t react at all. “Come on.”

When she ran away, Miles ran after her. Noah helped me hobble after them. Every time my foot hit the ground, air hissed out of my lungs, and tears sprung to my eyes. I glared just so I could see in front of me, and I thought of Noah’s song to distract me. I could hear it, and the pain wavered.

Then, I saw Lily. She was standing at the edge of the door, her face tilted to the side as she watched us. “What song is that?”

Noah was actually humming. I wasn’t imagining it. He was humming it for me, and he didn’t stop to answer Lily’s question.

Miles stood next to his sister, but Rinley stayed in her corner, away from the exit. “Who’s going first?” she asked, only watching the world pass us by.

The train was moving slow enough that I could count the individual trees as we rolled by.
One. Two. Then, ten. The pink sun was shifting into an orange glow, and the silhouettes were no longer silhouettes. They were just trees. Green ones, too. Ones that stretched on for miles of untouched land. And we were going to fall right next to their leafy arms.

“We’ll go,” Miles said, glancing down at my foot once.

“Someone needs to go with Sophia,” Noah said, looking directly at Miles.

The curly-haired boy smiled. “Good point,” he agreed.

Before Lily could ask who was coming with me, Miles spoke up, “Land on your feet,” he said to his sister, and then, he pushed her out. He leaned his head out and fought back laughter. “She’s mad, but she landed.”

“Use the watch,” Noah spoke into my ear when Miles was distracted. When Miles turned back, Noah did the last thing I expected. He kissed me. As soon as his lips pressed against mine, they were gone. “Now, get back safe.”

“Okay,” was all I could manage.

Noah nodded as his gaze moved over my shoulder. “You going to help or just stand there?”

Miles was just standing there, and he was staring. “Oh, I—uh—” He cleared his throat as he walked forward. When Miles’ arm wrapped around my torso, Noah let go. My left side was cold. I used my free hand to hold Noah’s watch against my wrist.

Miles walked us over to the opening. “Think of something other than pain,” he said, and then
, we leapt over the edge, crashing to the ground.