Waters of Lethe, Book 2

38. Shot

The first thing I felt was Piper clinging to my leg.

As I stumbled past Alex, he reached a free hand out and snagged Piper to free her from me, allowing me go.

We'd long abandoned our stun guns, bringing out the glocks we'd either brought with us or stole off dead men. I raised my gun and ran to the back of our group, where Deebo stood peering down the stairs, gun raised.

Deebo noticed me standing beside him. "Go. Get them upstairs! I've got it here."

"What about Nat—"

"We'll get her later."

I shook my head, panicked. "But what if she's—"

"GO!"

His loud tone made me jump, as I'd never heard him sound so rushed before. I did as I was told, reluctantly, and went back to the front to lead everyone up another flight of stairs.

A loud sound blared overhead as I heard more gunfire behind us. We moved quickly, entering a hallway we had to go through a short ways to reach the roof access stairs.

The large hallway was empty, thankfully. I wasn't so thankful that I heard the terrified shrieks and screams coming from the hundreds, maybe thousands of guests downstairs. I willed myself not to think about the parents and family of these three kids we had, what they were thinking, what they were currently doing. Searching the crowd of people as they all surged to the exits, hoping to find their children, hoping the gunfire they'd all heard didn't have something to do with them.

I pushed through a set of doors that led to a room with high ceilings. We were at the front of the event center, I realized, when I saw that the farthest wall was made entirely of glass. We were in trouble, I realized, when I saw that we'd stumbled in on a meeting of sorts.

I didn't hesitate to shoot the three people in front of us who stood in a loose circle, discussing something before we intruded. I probably wouldn't have shot them if they weren't each holding assault rifles in their hands. I figured they were about to try to end this shindig as well, having the same idea as us—they knew the event was about to be over, and they didn't want to walk out empty handed. Couldn't walk out empty handed. They were about to end it, one way or another. By the looks of it, they were going with their last plan. Assuming shooting up the entire place was their last plan and not their first plan.

I didn't waste time after killing them, and quickly led everyone through the door that led up to the roof.

No one was in this stairwell, thankfully, and we made it up the stairs swiftly. Piper brushed against my leg again, all but hugging me, as I held the door open for everyone to file out onto the roof. Jai was the last to come out, glancing at me with a clenched jaw and a sad face as he passed me. The look made me shrink back, because I couldn't read it. I had to hold onto something, so I grabbed Piper's shoulder as she held onto me. Maybe the bond we'd created hadn't been severed completely, after all.

"Okay!" Alex yelled over the loudness of the blades of the black chopper that whipped our hair around our faces. "Load them on!" Ming went to put the blonde in the helicopter while Alex turned to me. "Go find Deebo!" he yelled, though he didn't have to yell. Had he forgotten that we were super-freaks? He could have whispered and we could have all heard him over the helicopter.

I nodded, prying Piper from my leg. "Stay with them. Get in the helicopter," I calmly told her, then ran back to the roof access door.

I barreled down the stairs. I got halfway down before I heard another pair of feet behind me.

Without thinking, I stopped and turned quickly, drawing my gun.

Jai never stopped, just continued to descend the stairs until he met me. He grabbed my arm at my elbow and turned me around, pushing me.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, like he didn't have the right to come with me.

"Coming with you," he answered quietly.

I didn't have time to tell him that I didn't want him coming, that it was too dangerous. I had time to think about how ridiculous I would have sounded if I told him that, however, so I didn't object.

As soon as we passed the three dead men on the floor and busted back into the large hallway, we ran into Deebo. Really ran into him.

Jai rounded the corner first, slamming slap in to Deebo, who was knocked back. He quickly recovered, but the look of absolute horror stayed on his face.

"We need to go," he said quietly, on the verge of breaking down. His voice trembled. "We need to get out of here. They're coming."

"Natali?" I breathed.

"I—I don't know. I couldn't..."

I ran past him, heading to the stairs he just came up, going for Natali.

"El!" Jai called from behind me. As he ran after me, he yelled back at Deebo, "Get up there with them!" And then back at me, "El!"

Before I made it to the stairs, two large African American men decked out in camouflage military uniforms barged into the hallway.

I raised my gun, intending to take them both out. I got the shot off on one, hitting the man on the right in chest, dropping him. Jai, knowing who I'd take out first, decided to help me out by taking the man on our left.

I wanted to turn around and thank him, turn around and kiss him, turn around and cry to him and let him hold me and tell me everything would be fine and that we'd just go home and forget any of this mess ever happened. But I couldn't, and I didn't. I just kept running.

Because at the back of my mind, I knew there was a reason that these two men in camouflage had been able to get upstairs.

Natali was hurt.