Page 24 of Ruined Omega

Then we reach the apex of our arc and gravity takes over. We start to descend. My heart leaps into my throat with such force I think I might actually throw it up. I should close my eyes like Tal said, but I can’t. I simply can’t. It’s like they are clamped open.

There’s a heavy thud as our tires smack down on something hard and flat.

Another even longer ramp formed by an iron beam. Without letting up on the throttle, Tal guides the bike down the beam-ramp and back onto the pavement.

In a momentary flash of intuition, I realize that he knew this ramp was here all along. He may have even set it up ahead of time—his last-resort escape plan.

“You asshole,” I breathe.

“You’re welcome.”

I look in the remaining mirror again. For the first time since this chase began, something like cool relief washes over me. The mirror reflects nothing behind us but velvet darkness. No headlights. No pursuers.

Still, Tal doesn’t slow down. He punches the bike down a long tunnel. The walls reverberate with the snarls of the engine.

Up ahead there is a circle of grayish light—the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Where are we going?” I yell.

“Away from the hive,” Tal answers.

The dull circle of light grows and grows until it fills my blurry vision. We erupt from the end of the tunnel into the pale glow of morning and the pelting rain. It takes me a few seconds before I realize exactly where we are.

For the first time in my life, I am beyond the perimeter of the city hive.

CHAPTER 9: HINES

I raise one flap of the leather coat, shielding my eyes from the watery bullets of rain, and I look back over Tal’s broad, bare shoulder.

Behind us, the city rises like a blocky mountain of steel and glass, its uppermost spires disappearing into the gray, roiling rain clouds above. From deep in the city’s heart there comes a multicolored glow—flames from the refineries mingling with neon from the commercial sectors—giving the impression of a man-made volcano on the verge of erupting. Flying machines and unmanned drones circle the summit like iron birds of prey. The highway that we are riding on is disused, but there are dozens, maybe hundreds of other elevated roads and railways radiating outward from the city, all of them packed with freight-liners laden with food from distant agri-stations.

“My God,” I gasp.

“What’s the matter?” Tal asks.

I try to swallow, but my mouth is still dry from the excitement of the chase. And right now, looking up at this towering colossus of a city—at once hideous and awe-inspiring—I’m at a loss for words.

“It’s just that…I’ve never seen it from the outside before.”

Being in the vast, wide open expanse feels like a dream. Totally unreal. Sure I’ve always known intellectually that there is an entire world outside of the city hive. The barren wastelands, the agri-fields, and deep blue oceans so very far away.

But actually being on the outside of it, actually seeing it with my own eyes…I can’t put it into words.

I struggle to get my bearings. Our chase through the dark, winding bowels of the undercity has me completely disoriented.

“Tal, where are you taking me?” I shout over the howling wind and lashing rain.

During the brief beat before he speaks, I already know what the answer will be. Hearing him actually say the words only serves to chill my already cold body even further.

“The Quarantine Zone.”

Almost as a reflex, my body struggles and squirms inside the enclosure of Tal’s muscled limbs. Without taking his hands off the controls, he manages to tighten his arms around me and squeeze my butt in place with his thighs. His insanely hard body, which has been a protective shield up to now, suddenly becomes a cage of muscles and flesh.

“Stop wiggling,” he growls. “Do you want to fall off?”

He’s right of course. It’s absurd to try to get away from him now. We’re on a motorcycle speeding over an ancient, disused highway in the middle of a rainstorm.

Still, what Tal has planned is totally out of the question.