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"Open the hatch" Mark was already on the rabbed Deedee out of Trina’s lap far irl’s cries of protest Holding her in his arms, he moved toward the exit, Trina on his tail She hadn’t said a word or lifted a finger to stop him
At the cockpit’s door, Mark paused "You knohat to do … when I’le now "If it’s there or not, you knohat to do" Without waiting for a response, he marched into the hallway
Deedee calo roohtened around his neck and she buried her face into his shoulder As if understanding had dawned, even for her, that the end was here Spots swahts His heart wouldn’t stop racing, and it felt as if the organ puh his veins Trina, silent, kept up with hio roohtness of day They’d barely stepped off of it when squeals pierced the air and the slab of round, blue thrusters roaring Mark was barely holding onto his mind, but he felt a sudden, unbearable sadness He’d never see the old bear again
The sun sweltered in the sky There was a rising ru Groups of the infected were approaching frohts flashing before his eyes, Mark thought he could see Bruce and his red flag leading his own charge If these people got to the Flat Trans before sorunted to Trina
The wind fro blew across the, its doors still open Deedee clung to hih the entrance into a wide rooht in the center--two ray stretched in between the, yet still and serene at the same time It hurt Mark’s eyes to stare at it
Aback at Mark and his friends with fear in their eyes They were already rayness
"Wait!" Mark yelled
They didn’t respond, didn’t stop The two strangers leaped into the abyss and vanished froray wall, yet there was nothing there
A Flat Trans For the first tih a Flat Trans The noise of the approaching crowds outside seemed to tick up a notch, and Mark kneas out of time In so many ways
He walked back over to the proper side of the Flat Trans and kneeled right before it, gently placing Deedee on her feet It took every last ounce of his effort to reer and
"Listen to irl He stopped, closed his eyes for a second, fought off the darkness that tried to consuer, he told himself "I need … you to be really brave for ic wall that … are going to help you And you’re going to help the really i special about you"
He didn’t knohat he expected For Deedee to protest, to cry, to run away But instead she looked hih to understand how she could be so brave She was special
He’d alotten about the note he’d scribbled earlier He pulled it out of his back pocket, read it one
She’s immune to the Flare
Use her
Do it before the crazy people find you
He gently reached out for Deedee’s hand and scrunched the paper up into her palers around it Squeezed her hand with both of his The shouts and calls fro the door, a mass of people behind him Mark’s entire body washed with sadness He nodded at the Flat Trans Deedee nodded back
Then she and Trina were hugging fiercely Both of them shed tears Mark was on his feet He heard the un Noticed a wind picking up outside The ti the eh hiray wall of the Flat Trans It sed her whole and she was gone The roar of the Berg filled the air The building tre unintelligible
And then Trina was rushing to Mark Throwing her arhts flipped through hisin the front yard of her house before they were old enough to know anything; saying hi in the school hallway; riding the subtrans; feeling her hand in the darkness after the flares struck; the terror of the tunnels, the rushing waters, the Lincoln Building; waiting out the radiation, stealing the boat, the countless treks across ruined, sweltering land She’d been there with hih it all With Alec Lana Darnell and the others
And here, at the end of the fight, Trina was in his ar took over the world, but he still heard what she whispered into his ear before the Berg ca
"Mark"