Page 82 of Mayflower

Butcher’s body is shaken like a rag doll by many bullets.

“Sonny, Sonny,” I murmur, everything suddenly so dark that I’m afraid I’m finally losing it.

Hard collective footsteps go past me. Men yell all around. Gunshots fire in quick succession.

I try to get up but collapse. I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and hope to see Sonny.

But it’s her, Maddy. She stands like a dark angel, just a little away from me, a gun in her hand pointing at Butcher. And she fires it again. And again. My Electra. With a gun.

Aristotle said, “Evil destroys even itself.” But Aristotle might be wrong, because occasionally, angels destroy evil. I have one.

Guards rush toward us from all directions, others pointing guns into the jungle where Butcher’s backup was.

I want to get up, but my body doesn’t listen. The pain shoots through my entire body like a grenade. My neck feels like it’s slashed with a knife.

“Sonny,” I whisper.

Maddy’s face appears right above me, but her voice is distant, muffled, "Sonny is right here. Sonny, baby, hold here. You need to apply pressure to this wound. One hand. The other one here. It’s just blood, baby.”

My little dude’s face appears right next to her, his long, messy hair shining in the guards’ spotlight like a halo.

"Was I too late, Maddy?" he asks.

"You were great. It was a bad guy. Now we need to save Raven."

She turns away. “We need help!” she shouts. “Help!” She turns to me again. “Hold up, baby. It will be all right. We got you.”

I want to touch her, but I’m afraid. My palms are like prickly gloves, covered in broken glass, swollen, bleeding. I hope I make it.

In Jainism, plants are believed to have souls. When I’m reborn, I want to be a flower in Maddy’s garden so I can feel her hands on me every day when she gardens, soak in her caring gaze, see her sunshine smile, and hear her hum songs under her breath.

I try to keep my eyes open, but the energy is draining from me. Maddy hovers over me, says something, but I can’t make out the words. She shouts at someone, I think for help, her silhouette against the blazing fire in the background like that of a guardian angel. Or maybe I’m hallucinating. She is it. She is my present and future, and I wish I had the strength to get up and stand next to her.

My throat feels too dry. “Maddy, save me,” I whisper.

Her face is closer now. I think she strokes mine, her kind eyes on me. “I got you, baby. Just stay with me.”

“Please, save me,” I whisper. “I want so much more time with you.”

Both their hands are on me, Maddy’s and Sonny’s. It hurts. But at least my two favorite people are by my side when I close my eyes and fall into darkness.

27

MADDY

“We have to move!” the guards shout.

Two of them run toward us, grab Raven by the arms and legs, and start running into the jungle toward Ayana.

Raven is unconscious, bleeding, with at least two bullet wounds, his hands shredded by glass. I want to tell the guards to be more careful, but an explosion sends me and Little to the ground. I haul him up, and we resume running, the other guards shooting in the opposite direction, covering us.

Explosions start raining on the jungle and Ayana in the distance. The sound of the blasts is defining, but I don’t look back. Tripping, darting through the jungle with branches whipping in my face, I hold Little by the hand, pulling him after me as I keep my eyes ahead on the guards who carry Raven until we reach the all-terrain vehicles.

We always knew that Zion would come to this, a standoff. But we could’ve never thought that it would be so violent. That it would involve children. That it would jeopardize the lives of our loved ones. We envisioned the war outside our walls. We never thought that it would reach our homes. That’s what happened during the Change. We thought that war would always be on TV. Until it blasted through our doors.

As soon as our side-by-side pulls up at the medical center, I fetch the gurney for Raven.

He’s bled a lot, unconscious. Little is covered in Raven’s blood, holding the cloth against Raven’s neck wound.

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