The armed guards shoved Chase and his fourteen followers down the wide concrete stairwell of the Grand Civic Concourse. The heavy steel doors sealed shut behind them, blocking out the howling wind of the blizzard.The transition from the frozen street to the subterranean transit hub shocked their systems. The air inside the concourse felt thick and stagnant. A suffocating stench of unwashed bodies, raw sewage, and burning diesel fuel assaulted their lungs.Lucy gagged and covered her mouth with her hands."Keep moving," a police officer ordered. He shoved the barrel of his rifle into Richard Vance's back.Chase ignored the smell. He stood tall and looked down at the sprawling exhibition floor below the stairs. He expected to see a thriving military encampment. He expected to see order.He saw a nightmare instead.Twenty thousand desperate citizens were packed into the dark fringes of the massive concrete room. They huddled together like freezing livestock. Sick children coughed contin

The armed guards shoved Chase and his fourteen followers down the wide concrete stairwell of the Grand Civic Concourse. The heavy steel doors sealed shut behind them, blocking out the howling wind of the blizzard.The transition from the frozen street to the subterranean transit hub shocked their systems. The air inside the concourse felt thick and stagnant. A suffocating stench of unwashed bodies, raw sewage, and burning diesel fuel assaulted their lungs.Lucy gagged and covered her mouth with her hands."Keep moving," a police officer ordered. He shoved the barrel of his rifle into Richard Vance's back.Chase ignored the smell. He stood tall and looked down at the sprawling exhibition floor below the stairs. He expected to see a thriving military encampment. He expected to see order.He saw a nightmare instead.Twenty thousand desperate citizens were packed into the dark fringes of the massive concrete room. They huddled together like freezing livestock. Sick children coughed contin

The guards shoved Chase Perry and his followers down a dark corridor and threw them into a makeshift holding pen. The pen consisted of metal wire fencing erected on the very edge of the main transit floor.The police locked the gate and walked away to secure the inner perimeter. They left the billionaires exposed to the public.Chase gripped the metal wire and looked out at the sprawling exhibition floor. The reality of Dexter's sanctuary hit him like a blow. The concourse was a nightmare of human suffering. Twenty thousand citizens huddled on the freezing concrete. They wrapped themselves in filthy rags and plastic tarps. The stench of disease and unwashed bodies overwhelmed the lingering smell of raw sewage clinging to the defectors' canvas uniforms.The massive crowd slowly stopped shifting. The coughing and crying died down. Twenty thousand pairs of sunken, desperate eyes turned toward the holding pen.The broadcast had just announced the arrival of high profile defectors from Oak

Chase Perry pressed his bleeding cheek against the freezing titanium door. The other four surviving defectors collapsed against the massive wall right beside him. They wrapped their arms around the thick steel hinges. They pressed their bodies flat against the barrier. They desperately sought the ambient geothermal heat radiating from the underground plasma engines.The metal offered a faint, deceptive warmth. It was a cruel illusion. The freezing wind stripped the heat from their exposed backs faster than the door could warm their chests. The conductive metal actually accelerated their hypothermia by drawing their remaining core body heat into the frozen steel. Ice formed over their eyelashes. Frost sealed their cracked lips shut.Lucy wept in silence. Her tears froze the moment they touched her skin. Her face was swollen into a pale purple mask of severe frostbite. Richard Vance slumped against the base of the gate and cradled his ruined hand. The crude bandages were soaked in froze