The drone didn’t make a sound. It hovered like a mechanical vulture against the backdrop of the rising sun, its red optical lens tracking the heat signatures of our bodies in the tall grass. I woke up not to a noise, but to a feelinga sharp, electric tingle in my marrow that told me the Ministry had found us.
"Move!" I screamed, lunging for Sasha.
The first missile hit the rocky outcrop where Elias had been sleeping. The explosion was a blinding flash of white heat and flying granite. I felt the shockwave throw me forward, my ears ringing with a high pitched whine that drowned out the screams of the children.
"Sasha! Maricha!" I scrambled through the dust, my lungs burning.
I found them huddled in a shallow ditch, covered in gray soot. They were alive, but the terror in their eyes was
