***

“Grenade!” Alex yelled, jumping behind the wheel well of one of the armored trucks as the explosive detonated, sending a blast of energy that crumpled the metal armor on the other side of the truck. The adrenaline coursing through Alex’s veins was still going strong, but he wasn’t sure how much longer it would last.

Alex poked his head over the hood of the truck and could see the farm camp where Todd was housed. It was right between both sides, who had seemed to come to a stalemate within the city limits. The soldiers Alex was with had backed the sentries up against the wall, which gave the sentries only two options: kill the soldiers or die.

“Is that where Todd is?” Ray asked, shouting above the gunfire.

Alex nodded and then reexamined how the hell he was going to get inside, but before he had a chance to come up with a solution that didn’t involve running through the firefight with nothing but blind luck, Ray took off at a sprint toward the farm camp.

“Ray!”

But it was too late. The man was already halfway across the field. Alex cursed under his breath then looked up inside the cab of the truck next to him, which shielded him from the grenade. The keys were still inside, so he crouched around to check the damage on the side of the blast. The doors were bent, but the tires and axles checked out all right.

Alex jumped behind the driver’s seat, and when he looked out onto the field, he could see Ray’s lifeless body lying in the dirt. He floored the accelerator and kept himself crouched low behind the dashboard so only his eyes peeked over the top.

The farther Alex drove, the more intensely the rain of bullets peppered both sides of the truck and started splintering the windows until the passenger-side glass finally gave way and burst into broken shards. Alex pulled the truck to the right, protecting Ray’s body from any more enemy fire, and jumped to the ground beside him.

Blood gushed from Ray’s right arm and the right side of his stomach, and he had placed both his shaking hands over the wounds. His entire body convulsed from shock.

“You have to get him,” Ray said, coughing up blood. “You have to get him out.”

Alex scooped his arms under Ray with a coordinated, strained effort from the rest of his muscles, lifted him off the ground and laid him across the backseat. “Hang on, Ray.” Luckily, the soldiers on their side had ceased fire, allowing Alex to get Ray out, but the bullets from the sentries continued their vicious assault as Alex hightailed it back to the front lines.

Both Alex and Ray bobbled and shook as the truck rumbled forward, flying over bumps and hills, and dodging the bullets that were now flying in through the shattered back windshield. Alex skidded to a stop with the hood smoking. The medic pulled Ray, now unconscious, out of the back.

Alex jumped back behind the wheel of the truck, and one of the soldiers rushed over to him. “Sir, what are you doing?” Alex cranked the engine to life, and a puff of black smoke ejected from the tailpipe.

“I’m getting those people out of the farm camp. Cover me.”

The engine whined as it came to life, and the tires spun out in the loose dirt, gaining traction the farther he drove. Using the left side of the building as cover from the sentries, Alex got the truck as close to the front of the building as he possibly could and slammed on the brakes before smashing into the structure.

Alex looked behind him and could see the soldiers concentrating fire into the sentries. The only entrance was at the front, which was a good one hundred feet from the safety of the corner that protected Alex from the exchange of lead. Finally, he sprinted toward the entrance, kicking dirt up behind him, and he slid into the entrance feet first, with the barrel of his rifle pointed forward, ready to shoot any sentries who may have been stationed inside, but was greeted only by darkness.

The metal structure caused the gunfire outside to echo ominously within the walls of the farm camp. Alex took a few light steps forward, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness as he made his way through the front-entrance hallway.

Each step forward was full with anxiety-filled anticipation. Aside from the thunder of gunshots outside, the farm camp was quiet. With his eyes finally adjusting to the darkness, Alex could see the faint glow of the hydroponic tanks at the end of the hallway.

The structure was large, and the dim lighting only allowed Alex to see twenty feet in front of him. But the quiet felt odd. He couldn’t hear anything. No breathing or the shuffle of feet. Nothing.

Alex began to panic. Maybe this was the wrong farm camp. Maybe they had moved everyone, or worse. No. Todd was in there somewhere. He knew it. Alex took the first step inside and pivoted to the back wall, using the sights on his rifle to help him segment and scan the area in blocks.

The aerators from the tanks, bubbling the water inside, gave off a constant hum. The deeper he went into the camp without any sign of the workers or sentries inside, the faster his heart beat. He could feel a black hole ripping through him. If he couldn’t get Todd back, then everything he had tried to do would have been in vain.

All the betrayal, all the pain he caused Todd and his friends and family, the hundreds of hours he spent trying to solve the soil crisis would be for nothing. Alex couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let a man who’d made his mission in life to bring the rest of humanity out of the pits of hell die in a place like this.

Alex had his rifle raised, and something dripped from above and splashed his arm. It looked dark in the fading glow of the hydroponics lab, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Then another drip landed on his arm, then his shoulder, his forehead. It felt warm against his skin, and when Alex brought the tip of his finger to wipe the drip rolling down the bridge of his nose, he felt his body run cold. It was blood.

Alex lifted his head slowly as the drops continued to fall over his face, and the very first thing he saw were the soles of the farm camp workers hanging from above. Dozens of bodies hung in the air with hooks dug into their backs and their flesh extended from the body.

Alex bent over with his hands on his knees, forcing the contents of his stomach back down his throat. He spit on the ground, trying to rid his mouth of the taste of rotten bile. He wiped his lips and forced himself to look up at the lifeless bodies, hanging from the rafters. He pulled out his flashlight and started scanning the faces.

Each face Alex lit up, he felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. The pained, hollow expressions the light exposed were the final moments of a life that was consumed with agony. If Gordon was sending everyone a final message, then Alex heard it loud and clear.

Then, when Alex shone the light on one of the faces, the eyes squinted, shielding themselves from the brightness. Not all of them were dead. Alex clicked on his radio. “We need men in the farm camp now!”

Gunfire and a panicked voice from the lieutenant echoed in his ear, “We’re moving as fast as we can!”

Alex used the beam of his light to follow the length of the chains that kept the bone-thin workers suspended in midair. The chains were attached to a catwalk. Just before Alex rushed to the stairs, the light ran across the bearded face of a man he recognized. His body was slowly rotating, spinning in midair as the blood from the puncture wounds on his back trickled a small waterfall of blood to the floor.

Alex leapt the stairs to the second story two at a time. The thump of his boots against the metal catwalk where the bodies were hung thumped in rhythm with the bullets firing beyond the walls, outside. He found the chains with Todd’s body and pulled, the muscles along his legs, back, and arms burning with every inch he brought Todd closer to the ledge.

Alex watched Todd’s skin tug and tear the closer he moved his body to the top. Tired moans of pain escaped Todd’s mouth with each jerky motion of the chains in Alex’s hands. With Todd’s body now dangling just on the edge of the catwalk, Alex grabbed hold of his arms and pulled him onto the sliver of metal. Afraid of further damaging Todd’s back, Alex didn’t touch the hooks. 

“Todd? Can you hear me?” Alex asked.

Downstairs, the soldiers from outside flooded the first floor of the building, their flashlights jerking in the darkness, searching for any sign of life.

“Up here!” Alex shouted, waving his arm. The soldiers below hurried up the steps while Alex kept hold of Todd. “Hang in there. You’re going to be all right. You’re going to be all right.” Alex repeated the words, almost saying them more to himself than to Todd. The war was coming to an end, and Alex hoped that by getting Todd out of the hellhole he put him in, a weight would be lifted off his shoulders. So he waited, waited for that feeling to come. But as the soldiers around him pulled up the rest of the workers dangling from the chains and hooks, he wondered if it would ever happen.