“Guard this with your life, you understand?”

Blake presses the tiny black booklet into my fingers. His hands are bloody, his fingers trembling.

“Why are you giving me this?”

“I... I can’t risk it,” he shouts, glancing around the smoke-filled room. The alarms are blaring, beeping, screaming. “Head deeper into the bunker. Stay close to Avita. Stay alive. And remember what I told you.”

“You’re lying to me! You’re giving this to me because you know you’ll die out there!” I shriek hysterically.

He plants a kiss on my forehead. “I love you, Danny.”

“BLAKE, NO—“

He sprints down the hallway before I can stop him. “Blake,” I whisper, my voice broken. “Blake...”

“She’s over here!” Avita calls. She is coming for me despite the smoke. Coughing, she yanks on my arm. We run farther down the hallway together.

“C’mon, faster, faster, faster,” she mutters, dragging me as we go.

But my entire body has gone numb.

Blake is going to die out there.

Smoke blurs my vision and fills up my lungs. I barely register it.

“He’s going to be okay, Danny,” Avita shouts over the alarms. Her grip on my arm is so tight my skin is discoloring.

“He’s going to die,” I say over and over. “He’s going to die, he’s going to die...”

We duck around a piece of debris that has caught on fire. A part of the roof caves in and barely misses us. She drags me through another hit, cramped, hallway, and at the end of it sits the heavy bunker door.

Avita coughs heartily enough that for a second I think she might throw up her stomach. But she manages to fumble for her keys, and jams them into the lock. The door swings open, and together we stumble inside.

“You guys are back! It’s about time!” Our supervisor yells from the other side of the bunker. Almost immediately, he and his assistants run towards us, with blankets and stretchers and other emergency supplies.

Warm arms wrap around me, and suddenly I feel very lightheaded. I didn’t realize how much air I had lost. Avita has passed out on the other end of the bunker, where more assistants are trying to get her conscious again. She looks pale and sweaty, and her face is streaked with ash.

The world swims. I lean against whoever is holding me, but it’s not enough. Avita is dying. Blake is dying. I’m dying. I collapse farther into the person’s arms, and vaguely register my grip going slack on the black book.

“Linda!” Our supervisor barks to one of his assistants. “Grab the book. Danny,” he looks directly at me, but my vision is so cloudy it seems like there’s three of him. Or maybe it’s not him at all; I can’t really tell anymore.

“Danny, listen to me. Don’t fall asleep yet. We’re going to let you rest, but before that, you have to stay conscious long enough to tell me what this is,” he raps on the book.

He says something else, but it feels like I’m underwater and I can’t understand him at all. I struggle to stay on my feet. Everything goes dark for a moment.

Someone throws water in my face. I’m fighting to stay awake, but it would be so nice to sleep, so peaceful...

“Stay with us, Danny!” One of the assistants screams. I force my eyes open. My throat feels all scratchy and dry.

“It was Blake’s,” I croak, my head bobbing up and down as I try to stay awake. “He told me to... guard it with my life.”

Our supervisor runs over again. “I’m sorry, what did he say to do?”

“Guard it... with my life,” my eyes flutter closed again. I can’t help it; they just feel so heavy...

Sounds muffle. The world swims again.

Then someone slaps my face, and my eyes pop open.

“Blake? Blake gave this to you?” The supervisor demands. I nod in affirmation.He suddenly turns white as a sheet.

“No, no this can’t be... that was our code phrase,” he says quietly to his assistant. “It means... they’ve found the bunker. They’re coming for us.”

He squeezes my hand, his face filled with sympathy. Defeat. “You can let go now, Danny.”

I’m too exhausted to protest. One of the assistants presses a needle into my arm, and I immediately sink into unconsciousness.