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blood. It runs past my lips and down my chin but I no longer bother to wipe it away. Images of Zachary and Carlos keep looping through my thoughts, each playback pulling me from my safe place of numbness, awakening a wide cavern of anger. The world fades away and when it comes back I find I’m at the Sacred Square standing a few feet from the dome, staring into it.
    The golden statues of their gods are beautiful, the altars of worship magnificent, and it makes me hate the aliens more.
    We’re slaves to the Orions even if no one else sees it. We’re forced to do their bidding, to do anything they ask of us, even die on command. Zachary could have just as easily been my Uncle Charlie, or Bryant, or Ty. And now I’m dying. Despite all the work I did for the rebellion, my loved ones aren’t safe either. An anger I didn’t know I possessed grips me.
    We don’t stand a chance against the Orions. There might only be thirty of them, but they seem indestructible. Nothing we’ve learned has given us an edge. They’re unbeatable. My whole body trembles with fury.
    I glare at the golden statues the Orions worship. The ones that give them power over us, that protect them but destroy human life. The only things the Orions care about are these precious statues.
    Just then the front door slides open a few yards away, and a Val rushes out, talking into his signacom. He turns and runs the other way around the dome, never even looking at me.
    In a rage, I storm inside the dome before the door can close, not caring that I shouldn’t be here, or that the very air inside will kill me. Uncle Charlie wondered what would happen if someone were to touch an idol. Well I’m dying anyway; why not find out? Picturing Carlos’s broken body and Zachary’s knife at his throat, I run to the statues. I shove at one with every ounce of my strength, trying to topple it over. It doesn’t even budge, but where my skin touches it, a white-hot agony scorches through me. I can’t pull away and the pain intensifies. I try to scream, but I can’t take a breath. Do I still have hands or have they burnt off?
    “What are you doing?” a Val demands, coming up behind me. He grabs my shoulders, trying to pry me free.
    An ear splitting explosion rocks the dome. We’re thrown back, my hands wrenching from the statue. I land on the ground, the Val on top of me. His head cracks against a stone altar and his blood splashes onto my face, pooling around my eyes and seeping into my mouth. I’m writhing in pain, wishing for death as glass showers down on me.
    I’m grateful when darkness pulls me under.

Chapter 4
    When my eyes struggle open, I’m pinned to the ground, staring up at the jagged tops of a cracked glass wall, the sharp, uneven triangles stabbing up into the purple night sky.
    What happened? I remember the explosion. Did I cause it by touching the statue?
    I feel a weight on top of me. How much marble and glass pin me to the ground? My shoulder is throbbing, my clothes torn. I’m covered in blood. If it’s my own, I have only seconds left to live.
    I turn my head. Through my tears I can make out the debris holding me captive. The ruins of the building are strewn around me, fragments of marble and shards of glass, but directly on top of me is a Val. The one who tried to pry me from the statue. His body is limp, his chest isn’t moving. His cold cheek rests against my own. He’s dead.
    I cry out, but choke on the smoke in the air.
    “Someone’s alive!” A hand brushes debris from my face. I blink away the dust to see unfamiliar hazel eyes staring down at me. The face pulls away. “It’s just a Deb,” he says with a grunt.
    The crunching footsteps move away.
    They’re going to leave me here, alone? Maybe it’s better if the blood is mine. I won’t have to wait long.
    “ Just a Deb?” a voice asks. It’s a voice I know instantly. One I’ve known since childhood, one I’ve listened to in the feeds for unending hours and in the clips from