by Gwen Cole
But right as I stood, my knee buckled under my weight. I couldn’t help but yell out in pain before I could clamp my mouth shut. I was able to keep myself upright, it just hurt every time I put weight on it. The door must have put too much pressure on it while I was unconscious. But I wasn’t going let that get in my way tonight—nothing was going to.
As I pull my rifle out from under the rubble, my ears started to ring and I hoped it was only a matter of minutes before I was able to hear again. I could only imagine how hard it would be to fight a battle without being able to hear anything, just using your eyes to warn you of incoming danger. My arm was in its high peek of the tingling sensation from trying to wake up again. It felt like thousands of needles prickling into my pores. I shook it until it was finally gone and flexed my fingers, knowing I was in for a long night.
Brushing myself off was a job in its own, and afterwards I checked my weapons to make sure they were loaded and ready. But before I turned to go deeper into the city, I looked over to where Cruz was the last time I had seen him, trying to devour his enemy with his fierce glare. His body was no longer there, but it was easy to make out the drag marks through the rubble. It looked like someone had seen him and dragged him away before we were overrun. I glanced over at the door and pretended to glare at it, like it was its fault for hiding me, letting me go unnoticed. But it was silly to be angry at a door.
I glanced south without thought, wanting to quench that desire to find West. He was out there somewhere, either wounded or unharmed, and I wasn’t going to even think about the other possibility. Not ever.
I started back down the street, heading deeper into the city and towards whatever waited for me there. I wasn’t going to abandon the people I had been fighting with, but I was not going to give up on finding him. Somehow I would try to do both.
The streets seemed eerie without being capable of hearing anything. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, afraid of someone trying to come up behind me unnoticed. My heart was beating as I skirted from shadow to shadow, trying to stay out of the dim light of the moon. I crept along the side of a stone building and stopped at the corner. There were still a few street lamps here and there, splattered discolored light over the wreckage of what happened.
I was finally starting to hear things, but they were vague and undetermined. Finally, after a few minutes of being patient, it came back fully and the world was alive again, but I wasn’t thrilled for long. The sounds of battle were farther away than I thought, and another block of walking I came upon the second layer of the blockades.
More bodies were strewn about, around burning trucks and under piles of rubble. I stood amidst them, being the only living thing in any direction as far as I could see. I moved forward, still limping, making myself continue on. The faces of everyone around me seemed to being staring at me, but I didn’t want to meet them; frightened by finding someone I would recognize.
Another ten minutes passed after crossing more empty streets and unceasing evidence of battle. The sounds of guns and mortars were creeping closer, but not close enough. As I came upon the third layer of our defense, my hope dwindled. Our enemy should never have gotten that far.
But something about the scene was distinctly different from the previous two. There were far less bodies and indication of battle then there normally would be. Almost as if they had skipped over this layer all together, and reinforced all their forces at the last layer of barricades.
I could now barely hear people yelling over the sounds firing guns. As I got closer, I needed to remind myself to by even more carful. It wouldn’t be a pretty sight to be caught at a time as this. I stopped at a large intersection, probably a few blocks away from the real skirmish. All the street lamps were again blown out, but even so, I couldn’t make out any movement.
I jogged across the intersection, and I was midway when something stopped me in my tracks.
The small group of soldiers seemed to appear out of nowhere on the street directly to my right. But the man who was standing before them was the one that made my hands shake. It was like he’d been watching me this whole time. Waiting.
West had told me to run in the other direction if I ever saw him again, and I wasn’t about to forget that piece of advice. Dersa was the most dangerous person in my mind right now.
Not giving them any warning, I spun around and ran down the street, not caring that my knee was exploding with every drop of my foot. I was unable to hear their pursuit over the guns firing a few blocks over but I knew they were right on my heels. I didn’t have to look back to know that.
But when I took a corner too fast, my knee gave away, buckling from the odd angle and weight. I hit the ground hard. I tried to scrabble to my feet but I fell again, my legs shaking too much from my adrenaline. My palms scraped on the cement as I tried to push myself back from the advancing men, but it was already too late. They were in no hurry now—they had won.
As I was straightening into a stand, the man nearest me grabbed my rifle from the ground and I didn’t even bother reaching for my other two. I was outnumbered. I wouldn’t be able to move a finger before they shot me.
“So, we meet again, Reese,” Dersa said as he stepped around his men, coming face to face with me. “Still having problems with that knee, I see.”
“And I see that you’re still having problems accepting that your breath smells bad. Those mints aren’t helping, maybe you should stop eating your own dung.”
He laughed, trying to keep his anger in check in front of his men. “Why is it that I always find you first? Even though it’s him I want more.”
I had no answer since he was right.
“How is West these days? Still under-minding his superiors and cheating his way through to the top?”
His jaw was like a wall when I punched him, but his head still whipped around from the unexpected blow. That was just enough to satisfy me. The man beside me made a grab for my arm, but Dersa was already composed and motioned him away. I stood my ground as he wiped the blood from his mouth, his eyes becoming hard. I braced for the punch that was sure to come.
But instead he didn’t something worse.
Dersa moved as fast as the snake he’d always been, and before I could blink I was thrown up against a building door with his hand pressing against my throat. But he stepped away, smiling, loving that fact he could play with me. Dersa stepped away and another soldier came to pin me against the door.
“I love our little talks, Reese. They’re so . . . refreshing.” He threw back his shoulders and grinned. But not a good grin; the kind that sent my heart pounding painfully.
I couldn’t help but realize that my hand was hanging next to my pistol. Just one quick move and he would be gone forever. But my finger twitched in anticipation and it gave me away. Dersa’s eyes followed the movement, and I didn’t think it was possible, but his smile got even wider. The glint of steel was followed by a knife coming from somewhere I couldn’t see behind his back.
“I’ll just pick up where I left off,” he said. “Starting with that quick hand of yours.”
When he stepped forward, I felt as if I couldn’t breathe. He was just a quick as before when he curled his fingers around my wrist, bringing my hand up against the door. I closed my eyes just as a flash of pain rolled through my hand, like white hot metal. Sweat broke across my forehead and my lungs were no longer getting air. I cried out before I could stop myself.
I cracked my eyes open, only to see my hand pinned to the door by his knife. Blood rolled down my wrist and then to my elbow, dripping to the ground. Dersa watched, for what seemed forever, as I clenched my teeth together, staring straight back. I couldn’t let him see me weak.
After he was satisfied, he reached up and pulled his knife out. It was almost just as bad as when it had gone in. The man holding me let go, but I stayed leaning against the door, holding my wrist with my other hand, now slick with blood.
Dersa just sighed and threw a rag at my feet. “Wrap it
up and follow me,” he said. “I have something to show you.”
Did I have a choice? I wrapped the cloth tightly around the middle of my hand and gritted against the discomfort it brought. Searing pain still rolled through my body, impossible to ignore.
Dersa turned his back, and the guy behind me shoved me forward, just as impatient as this leader.
So I followed behind, having a weird feeling of deja vu.
CHAPTER THIRTY
We headed farther away from the main battle where the sounds were only muffled now. Quite a few blocks separated us from the heart of it . . . a perfect place for him to finally kill me, even though I had a notion he wasn’t planning on it. Yet.
Every once and while we would have to press up against a building and wait while soldiers—from both sides—passed by us. The battle seemed to be in chaos now, taking no form or shape, just shooting whenever you got the chance and whenever you crossed someone who wanted you dead.
I limped behind Dersa, followed by his little convoy of men, down a side street. He stopped before a mouth of an alleyway and turned to face me again. The cold air seemed to sting my skin as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of my face. I was running low on energy. I had a strange desire to put my head down on the dirty sidewalk and take a nap. My hand stung and my knee throbbed, both wanting medical attention.
Dersa stared at me, not moving or saying anything, and frankly, I was getting tired of his rare streak of patience—where he had none to begin with.
“So, you wanted to show me a sidewalk, huh?” I rolled my eyes. “How interesting.”
He seemed to ignore my sarcastic statement, but stayed silent no longer. “Reese, you know what I want, more than anything. That’s not hard for you to figure out.”
“Well, what you want isn’t here,” I said, “and it’s going to stay that way.”
Dersa chuckled, afterwards taking a deep breath. “I was lucky to come across you so quickly. I was ready to go searching for you if need be, but it was fortunate we found each other.”
I snorted. “Maybe for you.”
“Yes, for me.” Dersa dropped his gaze and fished around in his pocket before producing a cigarette between his fingers. He slipped it in between his lips and bent his head, flicking the lighter to come alive. The flame wavered for a moment in the breeze, but it finally found its mark and he clicked it off. Dersa took a long, silent drag before blowing it out through his nose. He cracked his neck. I repeatedly wished I could crack his neck for him.
“Would you just get on with it already?” I said. “I just aged a year. What do you want to show me?”
He blew out more smoke and finally looked up at me. “Fine, you wanna know what I want? I want you to bring West, to me.”
I burst out laughing before he barely had the last word out. He was actually crazy! I really wondered what was going through his mind. Why he would even say such an idiotic thing? Though, seeing his serious face caused my laughter to be cut short. He looked like he wanted to punch me again so I stopped and composed myself.
“What makes you think I would do such a thing? Seriously?”
He concentrated on his cigarette a bit longer before conjuring up a small smile upon his lips. There was something he wasn’t telling me and it made my heart beater faster. Then he said it.
“Well let me ask you this, Reese. Do you take your brother’s life seriously?” He was mocking my tone that I had given him, but that thought had already been erased.
The blood drained from my face—I could feel it, leaving my skin cold and clammy. I took a step forward and reached for my gun but large hands were already on my arms, holding me back and keeping me for reaching for my weapons. I tried lunging for him but they held me in place.
“What did you do to him!” I screamed, my voice cracking. He didn’t even flinch as I made another go at him, almost coming right up to his face. I couldn’t even think about Ethan being around this—lunatic, without wanting to vomit. Rage controlled me, and I couldn’t seem to shake it off. How could I?
Dersa calmly dropped his cigarette onto the sidewalk and didn’t bothered to smother it. He backed up a few steps and motioned his men to bring me forward. I almost wanted to resist, afraid of what I was going to see, but as I came to the mouth of the alley, I saw that there were more of his men down it, near the end, under a pale street lamp.
There were four of them, but two were holding a fifth person.
Smaller and lean, his blonde hair was matted to his head with sweat and blood, seeping from a cut somewhere under his mop of hair. His hands were tied behind him and the man standing directly over his shoulder held a gag in his mouth, rendering him silent, and the second man standing at his side was holding a steady knife to his pale throat.
I struggled against the men holding onto me again with every ounce of strength I could muster up. The anger boiling inside me was overwhelming. I could feel it controlling me. Making my blood feel like fire. My muscles strained so hard they seemed to want to burst from my skin.
I closed my eyes suddenly, not wanting to turn into that person who acted on rage. I couldn’t lose control now, not when Ethan needed me most.
So I pushed away those feelings that would cause me to do something I would regret. I just had to keep them away until Ethan was safe, then anything was optional.
“So, Reese.” I opened my eyes and Dersa was standing before me with a smug face. “You have a choice. You can either bring West to me, or I kill your brother.” He stated it so plainly, like either choice would make him happy. “Mia was so kind to give me a description of him before you killed her. Even after she’s gone, she still haunts you.”
My heart was in pain more than anything. More than my old knee wound, and more than my bleeding hand that was now hanging limply at my side. It was like a knife tearing down the middle of my heart, and I didn’t have a choice of what side to choose. To me there was no choice. It was like choosing between the sun and the air. Both were needed for me to survive.
The hands disappeared from my arms, but I stayed where I was, no longer fighting. If I did attack them, Ethan would be dead.
“Here’s your chance, Reese. Shoot me.” He spread his arms wide and smiled. My fingers itched to reach for my pistol, to make one smooth motion, not hesitating to take him away from my life forever. I looked over his shoulder again, and my heart broke into a million pieces. Ethan’s cheeks were smeared with his own tears and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I wanted to run to him, to hold him in my arms again and tell him it was all going to be okay.
Dersa dropped his arms. “I didn’t think so,” he said.
“How long do I have?” I asked, not looking at him.
“Let’s just say, every hour past sunset, your brother will become more and more uncomfortable.”
I clenched my teeth but said nothing, not wanting to give away that I wasn’t planning on going along with his perfect plan. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I had to do something. Dersa had no right to treat people his way; like they were pawns in this gruesome game of his. But Dersa had made a big mistake.
His mistake was messing with me.
I turned away from him, giving Ethan a small, reassuring smile, then turned my back on them. As soon as I disappeared around the corner I went into a flat out run. My knee was no longer bothering me, probably taking the hint that I wasn’t putting up with anything tonight—or maybe I was so angry I couldn’t feel it anymore. I ran like I was running from all my problems, but the truth was I was running towards the only person I needed right now. Who I needed more than anything.
The streets were still silent. I was too far back from downtown to see anyone yet. But the thing was—I wanted to see someone. I’d been boiling for the last hour and I was ready to explode. I wanted to take it out on someone on the same side as that horrible creature. My adrenaline pumped along with my frustration and anger. It fueled me and I was no longer tired. It felt like the breeze was pushing me forward, down the unk
nown roads towards whatever waited for me at the end. I wondered where Seth was right now, and what they did to him when they had taken Ethan. I needed to find him, too.
The cold air blew past me as I sped down a narrow road with a few street lamps hanging from above. My hair was streaming behind me and my shotgun rested against my back, ready to be used when I called for it.
An intersection was coming up ahead of me, and I could make out the shapes of men in the dull light. They were United. They were firing upon people on the other side of the street, the shots ringing off the bare walls like inside of a tin can. They all had their backs turned away from me, not worrying about someone coming up behind them.
When I was two hundred yards away, and I didn’t slow. And not at one hundred yards either. Or fifty. Forty. There were seven of them—and just one of me. I pulled my shotgun over my shoulder as I ran on.
The first three were the easiest to take down. I came like a shadow. There was no time for them to register that there was someone behind them until they were already shot. After the first three were down—and just as I turned to face the next—the soldier grabbed my shotgun with his hand. I quickly brought my elbow to his face, hearing a sickening crack—wincing when I did—and watched him crumple to the ground.
The remaining soldiers finally understood they were under attack, and stopped firing across the street. Instead, they turned their attention on me, slight shock in their eyes for someone sneaking up behind him.
I swung my shotgun around onto my back and grabbed my pistol from its holster. My hand was extremely stiff but my fingers were still able to move. I pulled the trigger twice and two bodies dropped like broken sacks. The last man was already almost on top of me with his gun being raised, so I skirted to the side, quickly dodging his firing gun— almost feeling the rippling air breezing through my hair as the bullet sped past. I spun around and fired before he knew what happened.
