Ignited

by Dantone, Desni

  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 be 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, shouts to the left reached my ears. 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 waiting 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’d 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 could hear the 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, repeating 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. 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’d said those words to me before, and had made good on them. But, 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 di
e for me?

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

  Perhaps along with Nathan.

  CHAPTER 24

  There was a ladder, a trap door, and then sunlight as Alec pushed me up through the floor of a small shed. He pushed past me to open the door and, after assuring that the coast was clear, shoved me outside. The sun was high in the sky, and bright, but I was numb to its warmth. As long as Nathan remained down there, I could find no joy in escape.

  I turned and gripped Alec’s shirt, my hands shaking and knuckles white. “Alec, I can’t leave Nathan.”

  I don’t know if it was the tears on my face, the crack in my voice, or the desperation in my eyes, but Alec’s hard glare shifted into something resembling sympathy. His jaw twitched and he looked up at the sky with a shake of his head, like he couldn’t believe what he was about to say.

  “I’ll go back,” he said. “I’ll get him. You stay here.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but he pinched my lips together with his thumb and index finger, silencing me.

  “No.” He used the gun in his hand to point behind me. “You get to the car and stay there. If anyone other than me or Nathan comes through this door, you shoot them, and go. If we’re not back in ten minutes, you go.”

  He didn’t give me another chance to protest. Nor did he give me fair warning before he pressed his lips against mine. Hard and soft, forceful and delicate all at once, he lingered for only a second.

  And then he was gone.

  I was left with the bright sun, chilly air, and a shut door.

  A shut locked door. I kicked the side of the shed. “Damn it, Alec!”

  Locking the door behind him was his way of protecting me, but I was too frustrated to appreciate the gesture. I hated being left there with no way of knowing if they were okay or not. I hated feeling helpless.

  I looked around for something I could use to help—or pry the door open with.

  The only thing I spotted worthwhile was the Mustang sticking out from behind a cluster of trees fifty yards away. It wasn’t much, but I thought I could pull it closer to the shed so that when they did emerge—and they would—they wouldn’t have far to run. There was a chance they would bring some unwelcome company through that door with them. Every second would count.

  With a newfound determination, I trotted toward the Mustang, only to slow to a cautious crawl when I spied a head-shaped shadow in the driver’s seat. Eyes flicked to the rear view mirror and the door swung open. I set my finger on the trigger and raised the gun, ready for anything.

  Except anything had not been Callie. I dropped the gun to my side as my best friend hurled herself at me with outstretched arms.

  “You are here,” she squealed. “I was starting to think Alec had lied to me.”

  I held her at arm length. “Don’t tell me you’re one, too.”

  “One what?” Her eyes widened in alarm as she took in the sight of the gun. One look at her irises confirmed that she wasn’t a hybrid.

  “Never mind.”

  “What are you doing with a gun? Where’s Alec?” she asked, looking over my shoulder.

  “He went back for Nathan.” And please, God, let both of them return unharmed. I stared at the door, wishing for the ability to materialize them both running safely through it.

  “Who’s Nathan?”

  I didn’t know where to start with that explanation. “Somebody important,” I summarized.

  Callie studied me with a critical eye. She knew there was a story there; she also must have sensed that now was not the time to grill me for it. She let it go, for now.

  I motioned toward the Mustang. “We need to move that a little closer to the shed. They could be coming out any minute and we need to be there, ready.”

  “Ready for what? What’s going on?”

  I gave Callie a look that let her know there wasn’t enough time to attempt an answer at the moment, and jumped in the passenger seat. I wondered how much Alec had told her, and why he had her here. Not that I wasn’t thrilled to see her, but I didn’t want her in danger either. This wasn’t like one of our usual adventures that could get us grounded. This kind of adventure could get us killed.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked her.

  Callie grinned at me. “Alec said I was the getaway driver. Except I don’t know what from. You guys aren’t like, stealing this guy’s tractor or something, are you?”

  Oh, how I wished it were something as simple as grand theft auto. “You didn’t think to ask him?”

  “He said it was to help you. That was all I needed to hear.” Callie shifted the Mustang into reverse and pulled off a sleek turn. “I love this car,” she said as she gassed it forward.

  The car shook as it bounced over the uneven terrain, rattling my teeth and jarring my bones. The closer we got, the more we shook, despite the more level land. Callie glanced at me as it dawned on both of us that it wasn’t the car that was vibrating. It was the ground itself.

  “Is it an earthquake?” Callie shrieked as she brought the car to a stop in front of the shed.

  “I don’t think so.” Something told me it was worse. I jumped out of the car just as another stronger tremor shook under my feet. The earth split beneath me and I hopped to the side as dirt and grass caved in, falling to the depths below.

  Callie climbed out of the car, looked over the roof at me. “We should get out of here. That barn over there looks about to crumble.”

  The shed was situated atop the hill behind the house and overlooked the farm below. From there, I could see that both the house and the barn were shaking violently. The ground was cracking beneath them and, in some spots, caving in. Deep wide fissures snaked along the length of the property all the way to the main road.

  Something was going on in the complex below us. Something big. Something bad.

  And Nathan and Alec were still in there.

  I ran to the shed door, determined to rip it from the hinges if I had to.

  The ground lurched beneath me, knocking boards off the side of the shed, and sent me sprawling back to avoid being hit by debris. I knelt on the ground, unable to stand as the rumbling intensified.

  “Kris, we need to get out of here!” Callie shouted over the sounds of cracking earth and crumbling manmade structures.

  I paid her no attention. My eyes were fixed in horror on the shed as it collapsed into a pile of splintered wood in front of me. The ground sunk in underneath, threatening to swallow it whole. There was only one thing on my mind—well, two really—as I climbed atop the rubble on my hands and knees, and started tossing debris to the side, frantically searching for the opening.

  I had to find it. It was their way out. I tuned out the world around me. I no longer heard the rumbling or felt the shaking. All I knew was terror. My only fear was of losing Nathan and Alec beneath this pile of rubble. My only thoughts were of getting them out. My world had stopped turning, and would not start again until I found them.

  Callie grabbed my arm. I shook her off.

  “Kris, the ground is caving in!” she shouted.

  “I have to get them out. Help me!”

  “Kris!”

  “I’m not leaving them, Callie!”

  “No, Kris, look!” Callie grabbed my shoulders and twisted me around.

  I followed her pointed finger to what she wanted me to see. A quarter mile away, in the rolling brown field behind us, two shadowed forms were half running, half limping their way in our direction. My knees nearly buckled under me in relief.

  They were out. They were alive.

  “Get the car, Callie!” I jumped from the shed, and helped her down. Holding on to each other for balance, we hurried to the car.

  I had to admit, Callie was a good getaway driver. As she navigated the Mustang over terrain I would have never expected it to manage, I leaned forward in my seat and kept my eyes on the guys as we approached them. They didn’t seem to be making much progress, which con
cerned me. From the looks of it, one or both of them were injured.

  Callie skidded to a stop and I jumped out of the car to help them clamber into the back. They were both covered in blood. I didn’t have time to search for injuries before Alec ordered that we had to go now. And when he said now, he meant now.

  “What did I say about ten minutes, Kris?” he scolded from the back seat.

  I ignored that question by asking one of my own. “What’s happening?” I had to put my hands on the dashboard to steady myself as Callie tore out of there.

  “We blew up the compound,” Alec answered.

  With the way Callie was driving, I couldn’t catch my balance enough to turn around to see his face. I hoped he was joking. Something told me he wasn’t. “While you were still in there?”

  “That wasn’t exactly the plan,” he admitted. “We got held up on the way out.”

  Callie reached the main road and sped away from the collapsing farm. After a few moments on level, non-vibrating ground, she slowed the car to a normal speed.

  That was when I heard the grunting from the back seat.

  Nathan. And he was hurt.

  I looked over my shoulder as Alec held up a knife, dripping with blood, to inspect it.

  “It’s not diamond coated,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Nathan had been stabbed? I twisted in my seat to see him better. He was slumped across the back seat, his head resting against the side behind Callie. Blood soaked the front of his shirt.

  “What about the other one?” Alec asked Nathan like there was no emergency at all.

  “I think it was the same knife,” Nathan groaned.

  Other one? “How many times have you been stabbed?” I exclaimed.

  Three sets of eyes turned to me. I seemed to be the only one hysterical.

  “Twice.” Nathan grimaced as Alec poked around his thigh.

  “Sorry,” Alec said absentmindedly. “I’m trying to dig the bullet out.”

  Bullet? “You were shot!”

  “Do you know if it was coated?” Alec asked. The realization of what that would mean was audible in his voice.