The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

“Hell yeah,” I replied, crossing over to the sole terminal in the room, and then paused. “They’ll be all right,” I stated, more for myself than for him.

“Of course they will,” he replied, tapping out a series of commands on the terminal. “Besides, they can’t open the doors safely without drawing attention to themselves, so it’s better this way.” He hit enter, and immediately code began to run across the screen, ones and zeros scrolling by faster than I could process. Then the screen froze. For a second nothing happened. And then it went dark as both of the airlock doors in this room began to swing open at the same time. Immediately I could hear the sounds of The Green pouring in through the door on the right, opposite the door leading to the palace, and it was noisy. We maybe had minutes before something got in here to get to us. Maybe less.

I went back over to the hatch and hauled it open, leaving it standing upright on its side, and then grabbed my bag as Owen swept the chips back into his. I exited and stepped out into the cavern beyond. Once we were both a good distance away from the airlock door, I ripped off my mask and took in a slow breath, checking the air. As I suspected, the atmosphere from the simulated version of The Green wasn’t persistent.

“We’re good,” I told him, stuffing my mask into my bag. We followed the cave as it led up, slowly tapering in and curving around at a meandering pace. Eventually, we came to a door built into a wooden frame, and I slowed to a stop. It didn’t look automatic—maybe that was why it hadn’t been opened like the lab doors—but Owen stepped forward and twisted the doorknob, and it opened with no noise, no alarm, no problem.

I pulled up my gun as we got our first glimpse of the darkened room within. Pulling my flashlight out of my pocket, I clicked it on and stepped inside, shining it around the room and revealing a small library, with elegant sitting furniture positioned in the center of the room. Owen stepped in behind me.

Hello? came Amber’s voice through the earbud, and I jolted in surprise at the unexpected sound. Is anyone receiving me? she asked.

I turned my subvocalizer on. Amber? Is that you?

Oh, Viggo. Thank God. She paused to breathe out noisily, and then continued. Who’s with you?

Owen, I said. Thomas… Thomas didn’t make it.

No, she breathed, and her mic cut off suddenly.

A second later Vox’s voice filled the silence.

Viggo. It’s just us here, so we were going to follow Amber’s mission of working to save the boys.

That’s what we’re doing too. Is Amber okay?

She will be, but she’s… She needs a minute. There was deep concern in Vox’s voice, but also confidence, like he knew whatever she was going through would last only moments, yet ached that she suffered. I wasn’t sure how I had realized that. Maybe because Violet was the same way… But I was just glad he was there for Amber.

Have you heard from Violet? Ms. Dale? Morgan? I left Tim out, but I worried about him. Without a subvocalizer, he couldn’t respond to us, so it would be useless speculating. I just had to hope he would be listening to us to figure out where we were, and try to meet us en route.

No. We exited the lab on the south side of the palace. Amber mentioned that when you guys escaped here last time, Owen and Ms. Dale got into the security room to shut their transmissions down while you and Violet escaped?

Owen met my gaze.

We did, he said into the subvocalizer. And I know where it is. Meet us at the east stairwell.

There was a long pause, and then Amber returned, her voice low and urgent.

Go without us, she said hurriedly. Guards just found us.

Her mic cut off suddenly, and my ears were left in silence once again. I involuntarily tightened my hand against my gun. There was nothing we could do to help our teammates other than fulfill our part of the mission.

Change channel to F frequency, I transmitted to Owen. My heart was heavy, but keeping our communication safe was of utmost importance. Owen gave me a thumbs-up and clicked over a second before I did. Then I took one last look at the doorway leading back to the caves before nodding at Owen, signaling for him to open the door that would lead us deeper into the palace.

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36

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Violet

I followed Ms. Dale as Morgan led us through the rectangular ducts, the thin metal rattling loudly as we crawled. We paused for a moment, and then moved forward, and I realized the duct had stopped and turned sharply upward. I panicked at first, before realizing there was a ladder. I guessed I wasn’t the only one who went climbing around in ducts—maintenance had to get up here sometimes.

Ms. Dale climbed rapidly, Morgan somewhere ahead of her, her feet making almost no noise. I followed, trying not to think about how far down the bottom was steadily becoming. We climbed for what felt like forever, but was probably less than a minute, before stopping again. Morgan whispered something, but Ms. Dale’s body blocked most of the noise, making it indiscernible.

There was a rustling sound, and another long pause.

“What’s going on?” I whispered, slightly on edge.

A sharp beep sounded, muted but recognizable, and then something shifted, light spilling through a hole at the top of the shaft. Morgan pulled herself up and then leaned over to help Ms. Dale out. She was panting, but she heaved herself through.

I climbed quickly, my nerves starting to get to me, and pulled myself through as fast as I could. I dragged my legs out, and Morgan put the metal floor plate down. My eyes soon adjusted to the new light as I stood up