The Change (The Alliance #2)

Chapter 33

Archer

I sink to the ground as I hear Evelyn laugh.

Abby keeps her grip firm on Adam, the gun pressed against his temple, her finger locked around the trigger. She sneers as she watches me collapse in utter defeat. Evelyn stands up as she begins to laugh, and she pulls out her own gun and aims the barrel at me. I stare at it blandly, too used to having the gun pressed to me but never go off. Go for it, Evelyn. Just shoot already. But she only taunts me with it.

Mia stands in the middle; shaking, her eyes darting from Adam to me with terror stricken eyes.

"Well, seems like your little friends didn't do much," Evelyn smiles at Mia, and she clenches her fists till her knuckles stretch into a white color.

"May I shoot?" Abby asks, and I see Adam close his eyes.

"Please-" I say, my voice not sounding like my own.

"Ah, now he stops being a little dick," Evelyn's shoe presses against the rib Abby broke, and I wince. "Once your friends are in danger, you listen. Such a weakness you have. Such a shame, really."

"If you shoot him, I won't cooperate."

"If you don't cooperate, I'll shoot Mia. Seems like you're at a loss." Evelyn sneers.

At her words, I shut down. Her words; twisted with such hopelessness, such agony. She's won. She has Mia, she has Adam, and she has me. Casper is shot, Lydia is dead, and I'm out of reach from a bomb.

Hopeless. Useless.

"I give up."

I avoid Mia's helpless stare, god, her helpless stare that has wrecked me so many times. She hates to see me give up, and I hate her looking at me like I'm a sad, broken body.

But Mia's eyes never lie.

I'm broken. Evelyn has pushed me to my limit, and there is no possible way I could move on. She has Mia, she has Adam, and I can't bare that. I can't bare another death that I will have to blame on myself.

"What, Archer?"

Shit, Evelyn, don't make me say it again. "I give, I give up."

Adam's sob rips my heart, and Mia's small cry kills my thoughts. They deserved so much better, them and the others. Lydia, who has just been killed. Casper, who is dying. Dana, who lost her leg trying to find me. My sister, who died because of me. All of this hurt, all of this death, is caused by me.

But hell, I forgot about Tami.

A gunshot fires, and everyone watches as Abby's eyes widen as she grabs her stomach, the blood oozing from her flesh. She falls, the gun escaping from her hand and crashing on the floor along with her body.

The next few minutes are chaotic. More gun shots. Evelyn escaping the room. Mia and Adam helping me to my feet. Tami breaking the closest window with the butt of her gun, ordering us to run. As hectic as this whole series of events is, I can't help but look at Tami.

Tami? Really?

The girl who tried stopping Mia and I from escaping the dome. The girl who truly hated me from the beginning. The girl who turned me in.

That girl saves us?

I want to laugh and throw up and die all at once. We run, avoiding bullets as we dive for the woods. The guards scramble out of the building, guns raised and eyes peeled for us, but Tami has brought us to a good spot, one where we can see them but they can't see us.