Deus Ex Machina

And then, suddenly, every light on the block cut out.

For a second, the only sound was air conditioners winding down. The three of us stood in blackness, our eyes adjusting. Then I moved, or something moved, or Dave sensed what was going to come next, because he pulled the trigger, and a shotgun blast shredded the air where a young government agent was standing, a woman who just wanted to serve her country and protect it from its enemies, a woman who would have died doing just that if she wasn't suddenly, impossibly standing on the roof overhead.

I watched Jason scream at Dave in the dark below, his pistol out as the older man kicked his shotgun away and lay down on his face. Then I looked over the city. REBEL hadn't just killed the block. The city's whole power grid was down: Stone Age as far as I could see.

REBEL had saved my life. But I had a feeling that when I found out the price tag, I was going to wish I was dead...

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