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Mud filled my mouth as I hit the ground.

Look at you, he murmured softly above me.

That voice.

That. Voice.

Calm.

Amused.

Never breathless. Never angry. Like this was expected. Like I was expected.

Rainwater dripped from the edge of his coat onto my cheek as he crouched beside me. The whistle in his breathing slipped through the storm. Wet. Uneven. Familiar enough to stop my body cold.

You made them hopeful.

My breaths broke apart. Inside the compound Andrea’s scream cut off abruptly.

Mine didn’t.

He sighed softly through his nose.

Disappointed.

Not in them.

In me.

You know what happens now.

I dug my toes into the wet earth, trying to crawl.

Still.

Even then.

My fingers dug desperately into the mud as I dragged myself forward another inch. Then another. Reached out. Grasped. The fence trembled under my fingertips. Metal scraped concrete behind me. I caught the glint of steel.

A wrench.

Heavy.

Industrial.

The sound shattered something inside me. I started screaming.

PLEASE!

The wrench hooked beneath my ankle. The teeth scraping my flesh.

Cold steel.

Rain.

Cloves.

The wrench rose in the air.