Chapter 42: RescueRefuge Force. I knew it had to be, from the steady sound of their boots, so unlike the soft padding of a worker’s slippers or the bright, tapping ring of Freedom’s impossible footwear. And I could tell it was more than one.
But what sends the blood draining from my head in a cold, dizzy wave are the children in their midst. The bigger ones stumble along barefoot and grubby between ranks of goggle-wearing enforcers. The smaller ones are carried, limp in the arms of their captors. All are dressed in faded, dirty scraps of fabric completely unlike the revealing costumes of Freedom or the bland uniforms of Refuge. Children from Outside.
“Stay back,” Ange says. “Don’t let them see you.”
I don’t listen. The enforcers aren’t wary; they trudge along, impatient at the slow pace
