“IT’S NOT BACKUP!”

I turned to Hye. "Whisper is about to join the fight!”

Hye let go of his girls and looked out the cracked windshield. “By the Gods…” He looked at Gesai and pointed at the hopper. "If that thing will take them, keep feeding it.” He reached over her to push some controls on the console above it. “Good… it’s working.” He looked at the redhead. "Now!”

Gesai snapped out of her daze and started feeding crystals into the hopper.

“What do we do?” I watched him crawl back, then get under Trent, ignoring me.

“It’s reinforcement, not a rescue!” Hye cupped his hands. "We have to get those guns down!”

“I’m working on it!” There was a boom of thunder so close that my ears started ringing.

Trent moved from his perch and Hye pulled himself out of the RV. Once he was out, he closed the door, sealing us in the box.

I had to do something, I couldn’t just sit here and wait for others to decide the outcome. But there was no way that I would be able to contribute anything with the skills I had. But I could if I had better resources.

“Rix!” My ears were still ringing and I was aware that I was shouting, but my own voice sounded far away. “Can you get me to one of the Chasers?”

The redhead knew exactly what I wanted to do. "No! And we can’t even get out of here if I could!”

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I pointed at the bathroom. "We can climb out the window.”

Gesai was by my side and threw the bag at our Healer. "Justia take over!” She looked at Rix. "You know he’s going out there if you help him or not.” She started crawling over the bunks. "I’m going to help him!”

I smiled as I looked at Rix, who shook her head. "You’re going to get us all killed.” She stepped close to me and lowered her voice. "You can’t kill anyone out there. Going PK could mess up your brand to where it can't be fixed.”

She stepped back and looked me in the eyes. "Do you still want to do this?”

I swallowed and nodded.

Rix shrugged, turned around, and navigated the sideways bunks much better than Gesai did.

Oz grabbed my arm as I started to follow them. "Please don’t go out there.”

I pulled to her feet and pointed at Jord and the closed bunk. "You and Justia can keep them safe!” I hugged her. "It’ll be okay, I’ll be right back.”

I let her go and she just stood there, like she was in shock. I didn’t blame her, there was a lot going on and I kind of felt like I was in a waking dream. It was probably because of how tired I was.

“You’ve got this!” I leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. I pulled back and looked in her eyes. "I believe in you.”

She nodded and followed me to the bunk. Oz knelt down next to Jord and started talking to him as I climbed into the bathroom.

Rix was staring at me and shook her head.

“What?” I looked at the window. "Will it not open?”

“It opens.” Gesai slid it open and peaked out. "It’s clear!” She slid out the window.

“If it’s not the window, what is it?”

“Really Atlas?” Rix shook her head as got to the window. "On the forehead?”

“I…” But she was outside before I could defend myself. I looked back into the RV at Oz and Justia. It gave me a purpose knowing that what I was about to do would protect them.

I grabbed the windowsill and pulled myself out.