Darling Wildfire (Red Rabbit #2)

57

NYX

The next day, we were all hurting. My chest was killing me and when it was time to go outside, we all stiffly went out and sat on the lawn. The two new guys kept to themselves, I’d finally learned their names—Vance and Ridley. Kane said they’d held their own and weren’t a bunch of careless bitches—his exact words. They were currently walking the track in the distance. I turned to see Atlas watching me.

“I’m fine—” I sighed.

“You died,”

Atlas hissed, and I saw some emotion flicker in his eyes before it disappeared into the anger that took over.

“North brought me back to life with his kiss, I’m fine, seriously,” I joked.

Atlas shook his head and with a growl stood up and abruptly stormed off.

“What’s with him?” I asked.

I watched Atlas walk away and turned and saw North giving me a level look like he knew exactly what was going on. I didn’t even know what was going on.

“He was really upset yesterday,”

North said.

“Yeah? Well, I don’t really enjoy his close calls either,”

I grumbled.

Preacher chuckled, seeming to catch on to something I still wasn’t sure I was understanding. Was Atlas concerned as a friend or something else? What did that even mean?

“Fuck both of you,”

I grumbled. Shame from my time with Vetticus rose, and I stood up, needing to move. I walked off in the opposite direction of Atlas and threw myself down under the only tree that was inside the fenced area. I pulled up grass and shredded it between my fingers as I let myself carefully think about Atlas.

He was handsome, no denying that even objectively. Did I feel more? I couldn’t forget the energy we’d shared a few times, most recently with Red between us, but there were also times during the games where the blood lust danced with something else just as feral and wild.

Whatever this was—if it even was anything—needed to be pushed down for now.

I trusted Atlas with my life and that’s where it would stay. I couldn’t afford to be weak here and that included catching feelings for my best friend.

Some time later, I saw North approach, and he gingerly lowered himself down next to me, leaning against the trunk of the tree. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, not saying anything for a long moment.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

I sighed. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

North was quiet for a beat. “I think we should try to escape soon.”

“You have a plan?”

“We take out the cameras during the game, cut out the trackers—run far away.”

“That’s it? You make it sound easy.”

I heard him smile. “Simple, not easy. I don’t even know where in the world we are, do you?”

I shook my head. “Not a clue.”

Despite what he’d said last night, I still felt guilty for having him take the fall for the loss. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know how to word it without him getting pissed off.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I asked, turning the question on him.

He fixed me with a look. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Touche,”

I chuckled. “It looks like for once we have a full team going into the next game.”

“That will be a welcome change,”

North agreed. “Tomorrow we’ll start preparing. We’ll be able to fully strategize now.”

“Here’s a question: do you want to try and escape with a full crew? Or does it matter?” I asked.

“Might be easier with a full crew,”

he said thoughtfully. “But it also depends on the map. Let’s get the group together. It’s time to make a plan.”

A few minutes later we were all sitting on the lawn together, and North addressed the group.

“I want to talk about an escape plan so that when the correct map comes along, we can execute and go. The objectives are to take out the cameras, remove the trackers and run with as much weaponry as possible.”

“All we need is a decent head start,”

Atlas said.

I looked over at him but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. I wondered at how he was taking things so personally, like it was my fault I almost died. But I knew that wasn’t the reason he was upset. He’d realized he’d gotten attached and was probably angry with himself for allowing it to go that far. I didn’t blame him for that—I felt the same way.

I hated how much I didn’t want to lose him.

“We’re definitely going to need the right map for this,”

Preacher said.

North nodded. “If it’s an open concept like the rail yard, it won’t work because the drones will see us from a greater distance. The ideal map would be a cityscape or the forest would have worked too.”

We talked for the next hour about different strategies and the pros and cons of different scenarios. There was no getting around the fact that Vetticus was going to know where on the map’s perimeter we escaped because of the cameras—if we took them out, he’d know. If we left them live, he’d see. But as long as we could get a head start, we could probably make it out.

“We really only need the cameras down to hide us removing our trackers,”

Kane said. “If we time it, we can knock out the cameras and take out the trackers before the first drones get to us.”

“We’ll keep the trackers live, showing us still in the building and then run,”

North nodded.

“That could work,”

I shrugged. “It would give us a bit of a head start.”

“We have no idea if he has any perimeter measures in place,”

Vance chimed in.

North nodded. “It’s a risk, sure, but we’ll bring as much firepower as we can and take it as it comes.”

“Sounds like a plan,”

Kane said. “What are we calling this op?”

“It should be something kind of mundane so when we call it out, Vetticus won’t have any idea we’re initiating,”

Ridley offered.

“Operation Give ‘Em Hell,”

Kane said.

“That works,”

North nodded. “We’ll wait for the right map to come along and then it’s go time at my signal.”

After that, the discussion turned to strategy and planning the next few weeks on how we wanted to prepare for the next game. At five o’clock, we headed inside for dinner.

I pulled Atlas aside while everyone else headed through the glass doors.

“I’m sorry for making a joke earlier,”

I said. “Honestly, if I don’t joke about it, sometimes it gets a little heavy.”

Atlas nodded. “I’m sorry too—I’m just tired, Nyx,”

he sighed. “We’ve been here for over a year now. Did you know that? By the time the next game comes around, it’ll just about be two.”

“I know, I feel better now,”

I said, alluding to the plan. Now that we were closer to the cameras, I didn’t want to openly talk about it. “Don’t you?”

Atlas shrugged, and I frowned, not liking the slump to his shoulders and the sad, faraway look in his eyes.

“I don’t know,”

he said. “I don’t know how much more of this I can do.”

He flashed me a quick, sad smile and walked inside. I followed, but I wasn’t hungry anymore. I was only getting through all of this because of the men at my side—North and Atlas kept me sane in here. They kept me focused and lifted my spirits. I didn’t like seeing Atlas look so defeated. I knew what that feeling was like in here and it was deadly. I just hoped we’d be able to make a move soon, or I didn’t know if we’d last long enough to escape unscathed.