by LM. Preston
“Shamira, why don’t you go down the hallway, ahead of us? We’ll handle the guards?” Valens suggested.
She turned to him and smirked. “Valens, I can take both the guards, but I want you boys to have some fun too. Let’s go,” she said and stalked forward. Valens and Mitch walked on either side of Shamira as she led the way.
“Hey, follow me. They’re not paying attention, and the opening is right in front of me,” she said softly, and they crouched down to follow her as they flew at top speed toward the camouflaged door. They came up to the door and hovered before landing. Valens and Mitch followed her, ready to attack. She kicked in the door and attacked the guard nearest her. Her eyesight adjusted easily from the dark to the dimly lit hallway. She punched up with such force she heard his teeth crack, and blood spattered out of the side of his mouth. Yes! she thought. One step closer. She knew that Valens and Mitch were engaged when she heard their scuffle while they worked on the other guard.
She jammed her fingers in the eyes of the guard that fought to grab her. Then, she punched him in his neck and stuck him with a truth tick, using her forearm to hold him to the wall. “Where are the prisoners? Where are they!” she screamed at him.
“I ain’t telling,” he spat out. The tick started to work and his tongue got heavy.
“Don’t fight it, scum. Tell me, or I’ll slice you now,” she said, putting even more pressure on his neck. He coughed, and his eyes started to tear up. The tick was working, but they were running out of time. She could hear heavy footsteps in the distance, not far away.
“They’re on the lower level, in hell,” he forced out. She pulled the tick out and sprayed his face with a drug that knocked him out. She turned to see Valens with his knee in the back of the other guard as Mitch punched him in the face. She pushed Mitch out of the way and sprayed the guard’s face. The guard’s body instantly fell limp as his head hit the floor. Then, she motioned for them to follow her down the hall and the stairs to the lower level the guard had called “hell.”
The halls were dim and dingy, like they were hardly ever cleaned. Sand from the outside went unchecked along the corners of the walls and kicked up as they ran down the hallway. They ran to the stairway on the side of the elevator straight ahead. Shamira concentrated on the sounds around her. She heard steps coming from above and figured they had enough time to run down the stairs undetected.
She ran at top speed down the empty hallway with Valens and Mitch at her heels. She glanced behind her to see Mitch sticking small bombs that stuck on the wall. She kept running, and Valens ran past her to the door. She slid as she got to the steps. Valens kept his balance and grabbed the door to the stairway. He yanked at her jacket to pull her into the stairwell. Valens took the lead when they ran down two levels of stairs with the pounding of feet coming down several flights above them. Mitch was close behind her. Shamira pulled out the mapping device she had on her hip and stuck it to the corner of the wall. It would send images of the building and the inhabitants to her home computer long after she and the others were gone.
Pushing her sight past the walls, she sped up and ran down the narrow hallway that led to the holding cells. Shamira didn’t see anyone walking around in the cells. She saw guards patrolling ahead and heard them making up ground behind them. She saw a hidden vent on the floor just before the doorway leading to the cells and pointed to it as she ran to it in top speed. Valens passed her in a running slide and stopped in front of the vent. He bent down and snatched a knife from his pocket, then pried the vent open. Valens grabbed her leg, and Mitch pushed her down into the vent before he followed. Valens followed while he held the vent in place with his gloved hand.
Shamira closed her eyes to block out the distraction of sight and listened. She heard the many guards moving rapidly in their direction. There were maybe twenty of them pounding down the stairs and through the hallway. Listening deeper, she heard the boys’ labored breathing, and she forced her lungs to breath at a normal pace. She heard heaviness in the footsteps beyond the vent and knew they were carrying guns. They were ready to kill, and she smelled their heightened state of anticipation. I won’t die today, she thought, but I can’t say the same for you.
She heard the deep commanding voice of their leader. “Where’d they go? Find them now, or you’ll all die. If I don’t kill you, Slasher will. Go!”
She wanted to get them all, but her father taught her to fight when the odds were with her. She knew she could handle ten of them, but she didn’t know about Valens’ or Mitch’s skills. Trusting someone else to do the job was not her style, and leaving them behind was not an option.
Valens turned to Mitch and gave him a pair of form-fitting leather gloves. He then looked at Shamira and cautiously took her hand. She jerked her gloved hand out of his, and he leaned toward her and whispered, “Trust me. I have something that will help us get out of here in one piece.” Shamira hesitantly let him take off her gloves. He took some webbed gloves out of the inside of his coat, and she squinted at him with a look of distrust. He whispered to her, “I made these especially for you,” and placed the webbed gloves on each of her hands.
Most of her hands were exposed, but the webbing had some weight to it. The stretchy fiber crossed around her fingers and hands, as tightly as a second skin. At the tip of each finger was a form-fitting elastic plastic that was heavy like it had some sort of moveable metal inside. He took her finger and touched it to her nose very lightly, and she felt an electrical shock. “It has a slight shock that intensifies when your adrenaline rises in a fight,” he whispered. She pondered on the tickling his breath made at her ear and then flexed her hand to get used to the gloves.
“Well, they seem to have moved on. We can get out now and investigate the holding chambers. I suspect there are hidden chambers, but my device will reveal that to me when I return home. The scrambling devices are still working. Their cameras can’t see us, but if we come across a guard, the scrambling devices won’t work.” She crawled closer to the vent, “Mitch, do you know of a way out of here besides the way we came?” Shamira asked.
She didn’t hear the heavy footsteps of the guards near, but she knew from looking through the wall that four patrolled the area they planned to enter. Lifting a lip in thought, she knew she would have to knock them out because she didn’t come here to leave without the information she sought.
“The best way is the way we came. I have it rigged. Valens has the detonator, and we can fire it up when we escape,” Mitch said and flexed his hands in the gloves Valens gave him.
“Okay. Look, there are four guards in that other room. It’s a hallway with cells on each side. The hallway stretches pretty far down and then flows into another hall. Follow me, and hopefully we can get past this first hallway tonight,” she whispered before she turned and removed the vent cover.
She hopped up from her knees to a squat and stood. The boys followed, and Valens walked toward the door with Mitch beside him, guns drawn. Shamira walked backwards in the opposite direction and ran at top speed while Valens opened the door. Valens threw the door open, and the large, heavily armed guards drew their weapons.
Shamira sped through the hall and threw a flat disk that extended with knives and sliced off the fingers of the two guards nearest the door. They fell to their knees, writhing in pain as their weapons dropped. Crying out, they fell and the burning smell of flesh filled the air when the weapon cauterized the wounds it left behind. The guards in front of her fired at them, but their jackets deflected each shot. The boys raised their hands to their faces to protect their weak spots from shots that scattered. Shamira went for the tallest guard of the two remaining ones.
Hearing the thunder of numerous guards in the distance several levels up, she yelled, “Work fast! We’re going to have company!”
The moaning noises from the prisoners held in the cells along the hallway got louder. She felt her power build, which caused the gloves on her hands to let off a magnetic shock. Running at top speed toward the heavyset g
uard, she punched him with all the pent-up anger she had held within. The blow shook his body as one punch knocked him out cold to the floor. She glanced back at Valens, who was doing a good job of beating down the remaining guard with a well formed kick to his head. Mitch used a cutting device to cut through the metal bars of one of the holding cells.
She looked around and saw the prisoners for the first time, now realizing why she didn’t see them walking around their cells when she was hidden in the vent and looking into the hallway. All of the prisoners appeared to have their bodies imprisoned in the floors. Their heads were exposed, but they had a pain emitter on their foreheads, an evil device that poured excruciating pain through the veins of the victims like liquid fire.
“The guards are coming from both sides! We have to go now and fight our way out. Crap! We won’t be able to save them,” Shamira yelled at Valens and Mitch, who were working on the bars.
“Now,” Shamira yelled. Pulling Valens and Mitch away from the cells, she started to run in the direction they’d come. The image of the dazed, pained eyes of the men and woman she had to leave behind forced tears down her cheeks as she ran. The boys were close behind her. Her anger built, her rage burned, and she felt it. The beast of power deep within her was now unleashed and climbing up her back. She ran head on toward the guards that stood between her and her escape.
“Brace yourselves! We’re about to fight our way out of here. Guards ahead!” she yelled back at them.
“No prob! I came prepared,” Valens said with a slight laugh in his voice like he looked forward to the confrontation. They ran at top speed past the fallen guards, up the stairway, and to the door in which they came. Just as they opened the door to the hallway, the elevator opened, and guards poured from the elevator and the stairs. Valens threw small bombs in the direction of the mass of guards that charged them. They ran down the hallway toward the door. Mitch detonated the bombs behind them, but a number of guards stood with guns to block their exit at the door.
Shamira attacked the guard in front of her with a side-kick to his neck. Another guard attacked, and without thought or fear - only anger, she allowed him close enough to nearly land a punch. Dodging his blow, she followed through with a punch to his face, consciously commanding the surge of power to flow to her gloved hands. The blow knocked her attacker through the jagged door that separated them from the outside. Several guards came upon her, wanting a piece of bringing her down.
Shamira’s anger only grew stronger with each assailant’s arrival. The ball of fire within her raged, fought, and clawed for release. She let it go and lost control. It was if she were watching herself from above. It overtook her—this sensation to punish. She fought with quickened speed and punched with the precision of a trained killer. Finding the weak points of her opponents without thought, she used her reflexes born from years of training. She punched their necks, groins, stomachs—anything in her way to finish them off—and left them in quivering heaps on the ground. Back, back, back in. She had to regain control of this power that had plagued her all of her life. Focus! The wind of power pulled back within her. She looked behind her to see Valens throwing a smoke bomb, which brought the remaining guards to their knees.
“Hurry, let’s go. Kick on the hover tags!” Valens yelled at her. Then he and Mitch flew past her as she kicked on her tags and was lifted up in the air. She flew to the door and followed behind them. They had a small lead. She looked back to make sure they weren’t being followed and felt a slash of fire from a laser as it cut her neck. The shot didn’t hurt since her adrenaline was still at full blast from the chase. There were guards on them and coming fast.
“Get on the bikes, fast! I’m about to cause a huge sandstorm!” Valens yelled. He threw several discs on the ground behind him as he flew through the air. The discs illuminated as they landed, and sand immediately swirled up as high as twenty feet, causing a moving sand barrier that rose up from the ground to form between them and the guards.
Shamira’s breathing was heavy while she balanced herself on air. Valens slowed alongside her, then pointed to his foot and tapped his foot on air, causing him to pick up speed and pass her by. She had to adjust her balance and shades while she picked up speed and stayed on Valens’ heels.
They got to the motorcycles, and this time, Shamira didn’t spare Valens a glance when he hopped on behind her and she kicked the cycle in gear. They took off, and Valens yelled, “We’re clear! They’re gone! The devices will work for an hour, and then they detonate.”
Shamira shook her head and thought, He has the coolest toys. Smiling at her thought, she and Mitch raced to their original meeting place near her home. Bringing her cycle to a stop, her breath continued to race, and she talked herself into pulling back and breathing normally. Finally at peace, she slid off her bike. She glanced at Mitch and winced a bit from the dull ache of her wound. Valens got off the bike and walked over to Mitch. She noticed that both Mitch and Valens were breathing hard and smiling from the adrenaline rush of their adventure.
Valens turned to her. His eyes lowered, noticing the gash on her neck. He reached out to touch her bleeding wound then rubbed the blood between his fingertips, and said, “You’re bleeding. Let me help you.”
“It doesn’t hurt.” Shamira jerked away from him to put her hand on her neck.
“How the hell did you do what you did back there?” Mitch asked with a look of shocked recognition on his face. His laughing face closed up instantly when his eyes fell on her.
“It’s what happens when I lose control. It was them or me, and I knew it wouldn’t be me today,” Shamira said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“So, I guess we won’t be able to return there without considerable backup, huh?” Valens said.
“There won’t be a backup, but I’m returning. I did leave something behind that will give a better advantage the next time,” Shamira said.
“Shamira, Mitch told me about another possible location. There is a place where the kids are more likely to be held. The story of what they do to them there ain’t pretty. Anyway, we need to go to Shadow Hell to meet up with Mitch’s contacts,” Valens said. He stepped forward and reached out to put pressure on her slightly bleeding wound. Not bothering brushing him away this time, she gave in to the guilty pleasure his soft but firm touch gave her through the sting of the wound.
“Look, I don’t want to involve all of these people. They work for the organization we are trying to bring down. Why should they be loyal to us? Why should he be?” she forced out, nodding in Mitch’s direction with a suspicious glare. Anger filled her at the thought of involving other kids in the mission to save her brother. She couldn’t trust them; she wouldn’t trust them.
“Trust me, they are safe. Mitch is safe! None of these kids choose to work for Monev—they are forced to. They’re blackmailed, beaten, threatened, or much worse than your nightmares. You can’t imagine the abuse they suffer. I will not leave them to suffer. I know they all share the same desire that you and I do—to bring down Monev,” Valens said, placing his hands on her shoulders.
That’s it. He’s gone too far, she screamed in her mind before she yelled at him and said, “Get off of me!” then jerked away.
“Chill, damn it! Shamira, he’s right! I hated being held hostage by them. You have no idea how evil those men are. No idea! These kids I know work on the inside and have valuable information about the way these dudes work. They will have the answers we need, and they will want a way to help and escape like I did. We promised each other if one of us got out, we would save the others. It seems to me you only care about your damn self, but right now, you need us, and we need you. You need Valens and me to get you one step closer to saving your beloved brother,” Mitch growled out. “And, by the way, you’re not the only one who has lost someone to these monsters, just so you know.”
Slightly humbled but not convinced, she cast Mitch a distrustful glance. “I gotta go. We’ll meet here tomorrow night to go to Shadow Hell.
Valens, bring your own cycle, or you will be walking,” Shamira said with contempt at Mitch’s statement.
She walked away from them and climbed on Pearl. Anger and frustration built within her from this escalating situation. She had no choice. Like Mitch said, she needed them, even if she hated needing anyone. If she wanted to save her brother and the others, she needed them. All the years she had been blind, she never tried to create friendships. She buried her happiness, fears, and desires so deeply that she didn’t know if she would ever be able to reach them again. Valens seemed to have befriended kids everywhere. Everywhere she looked, he was there, and for now, she had no choice but to accept it.
Crud. Why does he have to be so beautiful? She wouldn’t allow him to trick her again. He would ride his own cycle tomorrow. She would get the answers she needed to save David and bring down Monev.
She drove without focus. Her mind knew the way home like a reflex, and Pearl would get her there safely anyhow. As she pulled up to the house, her stomach sank. Her father had beaten her home. Can tonight get any worse?
Chapter 13
Shamira pulled up her collar and tried to conceal her weeping wound. Climbing off of Pearl, she adjusted her jacket and stood to prepare herself for whatever her father may say. “Pearl, go park yourself,” she told her cycle and walked to the front door.
Opening the door, she saw her father sitting on the couch. He leaned forward with his elbows causally balanced on his knees. She didn’t bother to speak, knowing it would be a waste of breath and energy. Her beast now slept within her and she was exhausted. Neither of them said a word as she walked to stand in front of him. Looking at him, she took a deep breath and waited for him to yell at her.
His expression angry, he said sternly, “Shamira, you will be going with me to the Security Force Headquarters tomorrow. I don’t know what you have been up to, but it stops tonight. Go to your room.”
It was worse than she thought. He was beyond angry, but she figured he was lax on the punishment because of his grief. Swallowing back her words of explanation, her eyelids closed and she controlled the impulse to argue back. She quietly walked past him and went to her room like she was told.
