Ignited

by Desni Dantone

CHAPTER 23

  I didn’t see the boy in white. Really, I didn’t see much of anything. I drifted in and out of a drunken state. For how long, I had no idea. Time stopped. My thought process shut down. The few times I started to come around, the room I was in started to take shape and the memory found its way back to me.

  When that happened, I got more pills shoved in my mouth. It was like when I had started development and Nathan had forced medicine on me—except it was nothing like that. I wanted—no, I needed—Nathan. But I had to do this for him, to save him. I had some recollection of that.

  The dark haired girl knocked me around, demanded answers I didn’t have. I was so doped up I doubted I would have been able to communicate with her even if I had the answer she wanted. She scared me even more than the big ugly guy.

  I preferred it when I woke up and no one was there. Then I could slip back into a semi-unconscious state before anyone had a chance to force more pills on me. That was when some of the fog would lift and I would start to remember where I was.

  This time, I was startled awake by the sound of the door clicking open. I groaned as I came to. They were back to drug me again. Or worse.

  How much longer before they grew tired of this game?

  With my chin dropped to my chest, my eyes came into focus as a familiar pair of Sketchers stepped into view. I tried to raise my head to see their owner, but the ropes holding me to the chair gave way and I fell forward, nearly toppling off it. A strong pair of arms saved me from an inevitable face plant and guided me up in my seat. My head rolled back and I shifted my gaze to focus on the jade green eyes in front of me.

  “What did they do to you?” Alec murmured in my ear as he pulled me to a stand. He held onto me as I swayed and tried to balance on my own two feet. “Can you walk? Preferably run?”

  I nodded and nearly hurled from the motion. The room was spinning. Not good.

  Alec frowned and slipped his arm around my waist to steady me. “Hold onto me. I’ll help you, but we need to hurry.”

  His grip tightened around me, and my arm draped limply around his neck as he guided me into the hall. My steps were clumsy and forced faster than I was capable of on my own. It still wasn’t as fast as Alec wanted to go, I realized, and tried harder, concentrating exclusively on putting one foot in front of the other.

  “You’re doing good, Kris,” Alec whispered. “We’re almost there.”

  I was about to ask where we were going when the cell bars came into view and I saw Nathan—alive, gripping the bars, face pressed against them, eyes searching, and finally resting on me. His expression shifted from relief to elation to alarm as he took in the whole picture: me, beaten up, barely walking, and holding onto none other than Alec for support.

  Alec let go of me and I grabbed the cell bars for support. Nathan was within reach on the other side, but it felt like an insurmountable distance between us. Our eyes locked briefly before Alec demanded his attention.

  “Just so we’re clear,” Alec addressed Nathan coolly, “the only reason I’m breaking you out is because I know she’s going to need you.” I hadn’t realized until then that Alec had the key in his hand, poised over the lock. “I don’t like you, you don’t like me, but we both care about her, and that’s why I’m doing this.”

  Alec slipped the key in the lock and clicked it open. Nathan brushed by Alec with a barely discernible nod and came to my side. He surveyed my face and my wobbly stance with visible concern.

  He glanced at Alec. “What did they do to her?”

  “I don’t know,” Alec answered solemnly. “Whatever they gave her, it’s wearing off fast enough. She’s better than she was.”

  Say what? I glanced at Alec peculiarly. I was awake, at least, and standing, sort of. I supposed I was a little better than unconscious. Had he seen me at my worst, newly intoxicated, to know that this—knees knocking, eyes glazed, clinically dumb—was better? I intended to question him about that, but he had already turned to scope out the tunnel.

  He looked at Nathan. “Stay behind me and help her. Don’t let anybody see either of you.”

  Nathan hooked an arm around me and, together, we followed Alec through the dark corridor. Under any other circumstance, I doubted Nathan would have listened to a word Alec had to say. Stuck as we were now, he must have realized Alec was our best chance at escape. I figured there was probably a good deal of pride swallowing going on beside me.

  “Hi buddy,” I whispered to him.

  He looked down at me, and the corners of his lips slanted into a small smile. I might have misinterpreted it, but I thought he squeezed me tighter, bringing me closer to him. I didn’t recall stumbling, so I allowed myself to think it had been done out of affection rather than necessity.

  Alec led us through one tunnel after another. I was officially lost after about the third turn. Keeping a sense of direction would have been difficult enough sober. My bad hangover made it impossible.

  I leaned into Nathan and pushed my legs as fast as I could. The more I ran and the harder my heart pumped, the more lucid I became. Either my body was pushing the drug out of my system or I was high on adrenaline.

  Alec slowed at an intersection, looked both ways, and then darted to the left, edging up beside a grey door. Nathan and I hovered behind him as he tried the handle. When it didn’t open, he wasted no time in lifting the shirt over his head, wrapping it around his hand and putting his covered fist through the glass. As he reached inside to disengage the lock, he flashed me a quick grin, complete with a playful wink. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn he was enjoying this.

  He opened the door and ushered Nathan and I in ahead of him, straight into a gallery of weapons. I yelped when a buzzer sounded above my head, followed by a piercing siren that, from the sounds of it, was wailing throughout the entire complex. The lights surged and blinked off. We stood in complete darkness for only a second before red emergency lights flashed on in the tunnel.

  “Real smooth,” Nathan growled at Alec.

  “No, that’s not for us,” Alec shouted over the siren. “There’s an army of Kala attacking the compound. We need to hurry.”

  Alec shook the glass out of his shirt and slipped it on. He strapped on a thick black vest with a ton of pockets and tossed another to Nathan. “Trust me. We’re going to need them.”

  Nathan left me to stand on my own, tilting to one side, in the middle of the room. I watched as the two of them filled their vests—bullet-proof vests I assumed—and pockets with ammunition and stocked up on guns.

  I had to be missing something.

  “Didn’t you say Kala?” I looked at Nathan excitedly. “They can help us.”

  Nathan looked like there was something he didn’t want—or know how—to tell me. He avoided it by shoving a clip of bullets into his back pocket.

  Alec wasn’t as shy. “The Kala want you dead, Kris.”

  “What?” I spun my head around to Alec so fast I nearly toppled over.

  Nathan nodded in agreement with Alec and walked over to me so he didn’t have to shout. “I think he’s right,” he said. “I think the guys that attacked us at the cabin were actually Kala. I don’t know why they’re here now, but we can’t trust them.”

  “They’re here to kill her,” Alec chimed in impatiently. “Now, stock up.”

  “Why would the Kala want to kill me?”

  Nathan looked at Alec and I followed his gaze.

  Alec slung a shot gun over his shoulder. “We’ll talk about that later. First, we have to get out of here alive.” Alec looked me up and down. “You okay to walk?”

  “I think so.” No small thanks to the fear coursing through my veins.

  He placed a small pistol in my hands. “You know how to shoot a gun?”

  Nathan answered for me since my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. “She can manage.”

  “It’s going to be close quarters,” Alec said as he slid a vest over my shoulders, and zipped it up
for me. “Stay between us. We’ll take care of everything.”

  I ran a hand over the thick material. Definitely bullet-proof vests. Not a good sign. “Then why are you giving me a gun?”

  Alec grinned and slid by me without an answer. I looked up at Nathan, who almost looked sorry for me. Almost. With a nod of his head, he motioned for me to follow Alec. I filed out the door on autopilot, feeling ridiculous. Thankfully, Nathan was right behind me.

  I had barely regained dependable use of my legs, my vision was still a tad blurry, my head was spinning...and Alec had handed me a gun. What was he thinking? I held it awkwardly in both hands and kept it pointed at the ground, just in case. Bullet-proof vests or not, I didn’t want to shoot one of them. Or myself.

  We glided a long way through the tunnels without incident. Behind us, I heard echoed shouting and the distant popping of gun shots. Alec couldn’t have timed the break out better. The Skotadi were probably too busy with the Kala to notice that Nathan and I were gone and, if they had, they wouldn’t be able to organize a recovery party while they were under attack. I grew more and more hopeful that we would get out as the sounds of battle faded behind us.

  I was so focused on moving forward, toward freedom, that I plowed into Alec when he came to an abrupt stop in front of me. He turned and shoved me. I stumbled backwards, trying to regain my footing, and losing the fight, until I crashed into Nathan. He supported me as I got my feet under me and I shot him a grateful smile. I was about to holler a few choice words at Alec when I was cut off by another voice, ahead of us, and approaching.

  “Alec, where you going?” a boy called. “The fight’s down at the other end.”

  “I had to grab my gun,” Alec answered, shifting his body to block me and Nathan from view. “I’m on my way.”

  Nathan’s arm hooked around my waist. He whipped me into the mouth of the closest side tunnel and pressed me against the wall, sandwiching me between him and the cold hard cement. We were bathed in shadows, with the nearest pulsing red light twenty yards away, but there was a chance we would be seen if the boy got close enough.

  With my head rested in the nook at the base of Nathan’s neck, I felt his chest moving against me as he breathed and his heart thundering against my cheek. I tried to focus on anything but how our bodies were pressed enticingly together, but it was impossible.

  The approaching footsteps stopped a few yards away. “It looks like you’ve got plenty,” the boy talking to Alec said. “Let’s go.”

  “I’ll be right there.” I could hear the smile on Alec’s face. “I can’t wait to nab some Kala, but I have to do one more thing first.”

  “Alright, man. Don’t cry when you show up too late and they’re all dead.”

  I didn’t breathe again until the footsteps moved away and Nathan stepped back, freeing me from the wall. A moment later, Alec appeared at the opening and motioned that the coast was clear. I locked eyes with him. He watched me curiously as I drew near.

  “You are a Skotadi.” The accusation in my tone was loud and clear. The addition of my hands on my hips only made him grin.

  He glanced at Nathan then back at me. “Yeah.” He said it like I should have already known that.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Nathan like it was his fault.

  “What?” he said defensively. “I tried to tell you.”

  I stared at Alec, at a loss for words. How could I begin to describe how this revelation made me feel? Let down? Heartbroken? Deceived? Surprised, for one, considering all that he was doing for me and Nathan. Alec being a Skotadi just didn’t make any sense.

  Besides, his rings were black. He still had a choice. He may have been raised among the Skotadi, but he could still choose Kala if he wanted to. I wouldn’t give up on him choosing right. Well, except for some reason, the right side wanted me dead. That was still a problem.

  “I understand your concern for me, Kris. I’m touched, really, but right now we’ve got to move.” Alec grabbed my hand and pulled me after him. “We’re going to hit resistance up ahead. Keep your eyes open.”

  Oh, great. And I had thought we were practically out of there. A panicky glance over my shoulder confirmed that Nathan was right behind me. He gave me a nod of encouragement, his equivalent of, you can do this. I hoped my limited training was enough to prepare me. I sure didn’t want to let him down now, when it mattered most.

  Voices up ahead alerted us too late, only seconds before the gun shots followed. Nathan shoved me to the ground as Alec returned fire. I peeked up and saw bright flashes against a narrow black backdrop as a line of bullets were blasted our way.

  Nathan dropped to one knee beside me and got off a few shots, and then together, the three of us scampered toward an intersecting tunnel a few feet away.

  Alec shoved me into the mouth on the right and dove in behind me. Somehow, Nathan ended up in the tunnel across from us, submerged in shadows. I could barely see him, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like being separated from him, period.

  “Stay back,” Alec told me before he stuck his head out for a look. He retreated quickly as a bullet whizzed past, hitting the wall behind him.

  Nathan took the opportunity to fire. We all heard him hit his target. “How many more?” he yelled across the intersection to Alec.

  “One for sure. Maybe two.” Alec peered anxiously in the direction we had come. “More will be coming. We need to hurry.” He turned to me, nodded his head down the length of the hall behind me. “Make sure no one sneaks up on us, okay?”

  I did as he said, though I doubted he was expecting any action from that direction. He was keeping me preoccupied while he and Nathan did whatever they were planning. I wasn’t an idiot.

  I glanced over my shoulder in time to see them exchange some goofy hand signals. Next thing I knew, Nathan darted out into the open. He dropped to his knees, drawing fire, as both he and Alec returned a continuous string of shots. Then, in one fluid motion, he dropped and rolled into the tunnel with Alec and me. As he did, Alec continued to fire.

  “Got him,” Alec announced.

  The crazy stunt had taken mere seconds and had resulted in us all being together again. For that, I was grateful, though I feared my face may be forever frozen in its horror-stricken expression.

  My hand shook as I instinctively reached for Nathan. He got to his feet and I lowered it, fisted at my side, without touching him. His face was blank when he finally looked at me—like he didn’t even realize he could have been shot.

  I tried to pull it together. I had to, because we were on the move again.

  With me wedged between the two of them, our backs splayed against the wall, we inched forward, eyes and guns trained on the black canvas from where the shots had originated

  My breaths were ragged. My heart thundered. My hands trembled. I couldn’t get past the vision of Nathan running out into the open with bullets whizzing by him.

  He could have been shot.

  I felt a hand touch mine and looked up as Nathan gave it a reassuring squeeze, as if he knew how traumatized I was by the whole thing. It helped, even if it made my heart race faster.

  Fortunately, we reached the next intersection without being shot at again. There was no one left to shoot. Bodies were sprawled on the floor, dead or dying. Alec disarmed an injured one, who was moaning in agony, and chucked his gun out of reach.

  “Kala,” Nathan observed.

  “That’s why they didn’t hesitate to shoot,” Alec said, adding to the proof that the Kala wanted me dead. Nathan would be considered enemy now. Alec, as a future Skotadi, was always fair game.

  It was the three of us against...literally, two armies.

  We stepped over the bodies and, even if they had tried to kills us, I felt a surge of emotion for the men that lay there. They were the first dead bodies I had seen that didn’t vanish right away. Nathan and Alec must not have been using coated bullets. The man left injured and moaning on the ground would probably live, but
we’d be long gone before he healed enough to present a threat to us. As his cries faded behind us, drowned out by the head-pounding sirens, I pushed him and the others out of my mind.

  We slowed to a crawl as we approached another four way intersection. Alec eased onto his stomach and inched forward to peek around the corner to the left, then the right, before retreating to where Nathan and I waited.

  “Can’t see much either way with that damn light,” Alec said, gesturing to the pulsing red light directly over us, bathing us in its eerie glow. “We should probably cross all at once. If there’s anyone there, maybe we can get by them before they see us.”

  We gathered together, side by side with me in the middle, as Alec used his fingers to count out. When they numbered three, we ran. Half way across, I heard shouts from the left. Bullets pinged off the walls around us as we crossed into safety.

  “Run!” Nathan shoved me forward. At the same time, Alec grabbed my hand and pulled me after him as he broke into a sprint.

  I saw his target. Another intersection. Fifty long yards away. We had to reach it. If we didn’t turn into a side tunnel before our pursuers fell in behind us, we were goners. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

  With each step I took, I expected to hear a gunshot ring out behind me. Or feel a bullet tear through a non-vest-covered body part. Or see Alec or Nathan go down. I wasn’t willing to lose either of them any more than I was ready to die.

  We had to make it.

  And then we were there. I started to edge around the corner before Alec yanked me back, pulled me upright, and kept running. I didn’t understand why until I heard a bullet ricochet off the wall inches from my head.

  There were more of them down that tunnel too, which meant we had to continue straight, and now had two groups after us, both of which would be coming up behind us any moment. I scanned ahead, looking for cover, and saw nothing but black, endless darkness. A faint red light flashed in the distance. The far distance. Too far.

  We’ll never make it.

  Shouts behind us, audible even over the sirens, told me what I feared. One—or both—parties had rounded the corner and were now coming up behind us.

  “There she is!” someone yelled as a bright white spotlight blanketed us.

  Something big and heavy crashed into me. My knees slammed into the ground. I heard a crack that could have been a bone breaking or a gun firing. The weight shifted, allowing me to inch forward. Looking behind me, I saw Nathan sprawled on the ground, shooting at the advancing mob.

  He glanced at me. “Go, now!”

  Alec came out of nowhere, grabbed me by the elbow, and ushered me toward what I had not previously seen. Now illuminated by the spotlight was the mouth of a narrow tunnel just ahead, twenty yards away. Twenty terrifying, impossible yards. We crawled toward it, staying close to the ground. Still, I heard bullets as they whistled by, dangerously close, and expected to feel the searing heat of one that found its mark any second.

  Alec and I made it without being hit and I immediately spun around to look for Nathan. He was a few yards away, sprawled on the ground, inching his way toward us, unable to stop shooting without being overrun. He was close to being overrun as it was.

  “Got you covered!” Alec shouted.

  I watched as Alec opened fire and took down one Kala after another, after another. They dropped en mass to the ground, a heap of bodies in a sea of red. Nathan got to his feet and scurried toward us, ducking as Alec shot over him. I stood, nailed to the floor, as it unfolded at half speed around me.

  It was then that I saw the man in all blue slip through untouched. Alec didn’t see him. Only I saw him lift his gun and set his sights on Nathan’s retreating back. I lifted the pistol in my hands as I repeated Nathan’s instructions in my head. Point. Aim. Shoot.

  Just like a friendly game of Call of Duty on the PlayStation.

  I pulled the trigger. Nathan slid to safety beside me as the man in all blue fell dead. I barely had time to absorb what I had done before Nathan was in front of me, cupping my face in his hands and pulling my focus to the present. He forced me to hold his gaze and I was pretty sure it was so he could check for signs of shock.

  Once he seemed assured enough that I was not psychologically damaged beyond repair, he grabbed me by the shoulders and ushered me farther into the tunnel, out of the way. Then he joined Alec at the opening and, together, they fired into the advancing pack.

  The sounds of gun shots vibrated through the complex. The entire Kala army was coming down on us and, for the first time since Alec broke us out, I knew we weren’t all going to get out of there alive.

  Nathan shouted to Alec, “How much farther?”

  “A hundred yards straight ahead,” Alec answered. I heard the irony in his voice.

  We were so close. At the moment, with both Nathan and Alec holding them off, we were okay. Once we made for the exit, they’d swarm behind us, we’d be caught out in the open, and we’d be the ones getting picked off. Of course, if we didn’t make a run for it, more would arrive and we’d eventually be overtaken.

  “Get her out of here,” Nathan yelled to Alec.

  It wasn’t only the words—but the sound of his voice—that turned my blood cold. It was so...final.

  He avoided my eyes as he settled against the wall, removed the remaining cartridges from his vest, and set them beside him on the floor. I knew what he was planning, and I wasn’t about to let him do it. The words were on my lips when Alec grabbed me around the waist and tried to pull me deeper into the tunnel, toward safety. Away from Nathan.

  “Let me go!” I wrestled out of Alec’s grasp and dropped to my knees at Nathan’s side. “I’m not going without you,” I told him.

  He fired past me. There were twenty—no, thirty—of them. A sea of silver ringed eyes. He didn’t look at me. “Go, Kris, now! I can’t hold them off forever.”

  Exactly my point... “I’m not leaving you!” I yelled.

  “Go.” He finally met my eyes. “I’ll be right behind you. Go.”

  He had said those words to me before, and had made good on them then. This time, it was a meaningless promise. I saw the truth in his eyes. He had no intention of following. Not if it meant they could catch me.

  I wasn’t going to let him sacrifice himself for me. All my life, he had protected me. This time, I wouldn’t let him.

  Nathan looked past me, to Alec, the silent plea visible on his face. A moment later, Alec hoisted me up in his arms, holding me tighter than before. So tight I couldn’t free myself.

  My legs kicked wildly as Alec wrestled me farther into the tunnel, farther from Nathan, until he faded from my sight. All I saw was endless black, broken only by the flash of gun shots. All I heard—aside from my own desperate screams—were those shots. I flinched with each one, fearing the one that would take Nathan away from me forever.

  Tears filled my eyes and everything went blurry. I cried out. For Nathan, for a miracle, for all of us to get out of there alive, for Alec to listen to me.

  Didn’t he understand I didn’t want to get out if Nathan didn’t? Didn’t he realize I would rather die than let Nathan die for me?

  I tried to plead, to beg, but choked on my tears and the words were lost forever.

  Perhaps along with Nathan.