World Gone Mad (TMR fic 3)

Chapter 55

(song~)

(seriously, if you're skipping the songs you're missing out on Dramatic Music that helps set the scene :P)

Toby moves faster than my mind. As I'm still realizing the danger that's coming, he throws himself towards the explosive.

Three things happen at the exact same instant. It reaches the ground only a few feet away from our table, Toby lands exactly on top of it, and it finally explodes.

I stop fighting entirely for a few seconds. Gally shoves me down beside the table so I won't be killed, but I'm still reeling.

Toby is gone. Tobias is dead. Who's going to tell Zeke?

My hands are shaking, and I can't look at the bloody corpse left behind. I can't breathe right, horror clouding my mind. Toby...

"Ash! Come on, we need to go!"

At first I don't even know who's shouting at me, but then I blink and realize it's Minho, fighting like a beast through the breaking line of guards, jumping over the table and pulling me to my feet.

"Minho?" I mumble, my mind still foggy from losing yet another person. Why is he here? He was supposed to be going to safety with the Immunes...

"We're going, you need to come on."

"I can't, my baby is outside still."

He gives me a momentary look of complete confusion, but then nods. "Okay. Let's go get it."

Forcing myself to my feet, I lead him out into the sunlight in the direction Zeke had gone.

It's eerily calm at first in the outdoors, trees nearby casting pleasantly dappled shadows. I blink, trying to adjust.

Then I hear a grunt of effort, and notice the scuffle happening a ways away, alongside the building. It's Rat Man, wild with the Flare. He's a Crank. And... he's fighting Zeke. Rat Man is armed with a dagger, and insanity fills his every move. He's screaming gibberish at Zeke as they fight.

Why isn't Zeke trying to get away, though? Several injuries already mark that the fight isn't going well for him. He doesn't seem to want to let Rat Man past him, as if-

As if he's protecting something.

I run forward. I can see Naomi lying lifelessly on the ground, a baby in her arms. No. No. I can't lose Greenbean. I can't. The baby screws his face up at the sun, and I almost cry in relief. He's alive.

We just need to stop Rat Man, and then Zeke and Minho and I can take Greenbean to the safe place. Zeke isn't Immune, but he might survive in an Immune colony. I turn back to the fight, where Zeke seems to be losing.

I lift my knife, but I'm too late, too slow, too far away.

Zeke tries to block a blow and misses. The dagger is buried in his ribs, and he collapses. I'm still staring in shock, so Minho grabs my knife and leaps forward.

"Take this, Rat Man," he hisses.

A few seconds later the scientist is dead, his sightless eyes looking even more rat-like.

"I always wanted to do that," Minho spits out.

I kneel beside Zeke.

"Take care of Beanie?" he asks, coughing on blood that's drowning him from within.

"I will," I say as I watch the light fade from his pleading eyes. He looks so scared, so young. It breaks my heart, and tears stream down my face as I force my emotions back.

Greenbean whines, and I go lift him from Naomi's body, trying to pull myself together.

"Let's go," Minho says, leading me by the elbow. "The Right Arm is already setting off bombs, we don't have much time before the building collapses."

We re-enter the building, Minho shielding me and Greenbean with his body.

"This way," Gally yells as soon as we're back inside, leading us around the worst of the fighting. "The big explosives are mostly going to be from the other direction."

"I thought you weren't coming?" I yell back as he runs with us towards the flat-trans.

"I decided I wanted to help keep you and the kid alive, you stupid shank."

I'm momentarily speechless that he'd leave his new family to protect me. A guard cuts us off, lifting his Launcher like a battering ram. There's pure terror and desperation in his eyes, and I don't blame him. I can hear distant crashes from the collapsing tons of concrete.

Gally throws himself forward, shoving the guard into the wall. "Keep going!"

I obey Gally's order and sprint, even as Greenbean starts to cry from the jostling. I'm doing my best to hold him still, but it can't be comfortable for him.

Minho falls behind for a few seconds but catches up to me by the next hallway.

"Where's Gally?" I pant.

Minho shakes his head. "There were more guards after us. He stayed back to stop them, told me to go with you."

We both know he won't make it. I wish I could help him, but I have to save Greenbean. He's the only innocent person in this place, after all.

Together we race towards the closet, towards our only hope of life.

~~
A/N: ahh, so close to the end!! I'm kinda freaking out. I love this story and it's almost over? I won't know what to do with myself