Destinata (Valguard)
Page 22
El’ went first, everyone wanted to make sure she was safely inside before they moved and once she was up they sent Matt after her. Charlie waited for Matt to poke his hand out of the helicopter before having an argument with Zane about who would go next. She won. Zane climbed the thick rope with ease and once inside waved his hand to say it was safe for Charlie to climb on up. A wave of relief washed over her then. They were safe. She had finally done something right.
She was about ten meters up when she heard El’ cry out something indistinguishable and quickened her pace wondering what exactly could be going on inside a helicopter that would warrant a scream for her best friend. She reached the top and was pulled to safety by a young man about Zane’s age, only once she was inside the helicopter she realized that she hadn’t been pulled to safety at all. Her friends were all lying face down on the floor their limbs stretched out at weird angles. They weren’t dead; she could see the faint movement of their clothes as they breathed slowly. They were unconscious but why?
She turned furiously to the man who had lifted her inside the plane ready to scream at him for answers but was met with a toothy grin and a metal object to the head. Everything around her seemed to be spinning and in her effort to stay conscious she grabbed hold of the man’s shirt before sliding to the ground. She heard a ripping sound and thought surely it was her head tearing in two but as she looked down at her hand she saw that she held a small piece of cloth, a logo from the mysterious man’s shirt. Embroidered in the center of the deep blue material were the letters L and C inside a perfect circle. Everything started to fade as she crawled to clutch Zane’s hands. The last words Charlie managed to utter before sliding into unconsciousness beside Zane was…
“I love you.”