Battle Scars

Chapter 34: Bullets

Chapter thirty four: Bullets
I ran to my room, and changed quickly from what I was wearing into something much more comfortable. I found leggings, a t-shirt, a hooded jacket, and some boots. I found a chain necklace, and after attaching my sheathed golden dagger to it, I clipped it around my neck. Then I went to find Mitch.
Mitch was in his room, ready to go. He had also changed out of his formal dinner wear, and now wore a red hoodie, black jeans, a white t-shirt, and converse. I grinned at him, feeling familiar adrenaline coursing through my veins. It had been some time since I'd felt like that. Actually, I'd not felt it since we left the arena.
Suddenly, as we were preparing to leave, the door to Mitch's room opened, and Shari looked in. He looked afraid, and I guessed straight away what had happened.
"You overheard us, didn't you," I asked him, worriedly.
"Please take me with you," he begged me, looking at us with imploring eyes. I trusted him. I always had. But it was up to Mitch to decide, not me. I turned to look at him. He frowned a little, and then nodded.
"We'll take you," he responded. "But you'll have to come now."
"I'm ready," replied Shari, in relief. "Thank you." I smiled at him.
"Stay behind me," whispered Mitch, as he opened the door. "I can protect you two." He patted his pocket, which contained a small gun. "And Shari, stay behind Abby. If anything, she has a dagger, and ninja skills." I raised an eyebrow, and he smirked.
"Let's just go," I laughed. Mitch pushed the door open, and we crept out into the corridor.

We were met with no resistance until we were halfway up the stairs to the roof, and thence, the hovercraft. Peace keepers appeared at the bottom of the steps, and began shooting at us. The three of us ran, whilst Mitch shot behind him. We rounded a corner of the stairs, and they were out of sight, and gun shot. However, we could hear their heavy footsteps ascending the stairs, and we continued to run upwards.
"There's gonna be two of them at the top of the stairs," Mitch said to me. "Your dagger won't penetrate their armour, so I'll have to get both of them with this. I can shoot one, then we'll have to wait for the other one to chase us back a bit before I try and shoot him as well. Hopefully we're quick enough so that the others don't catch us." I nodded.
"Ok, please be careful," I whispered, as we ran. He nodded. I was just glad I couldn't see the faces of the people we were killing, because of their crazy helmets.
We rounded the final corner, and as predicted, there was two peace keepers guarding the top of the stairs. Mitch instantly shot the first one, and we ducked back around the corner. The second ran towards the corner. And fired as soon as he rounded the corner. The bullet hit my right hand, and I sucked in my breath sharply, refusing to make any noise. Mitch returned the fire, and the peace keeper fell.
"There shouldn't be any others," said Mitch, turning to look at us. "Let's go... Oh... He got you didn't he?"
"Just go!" I whisper-shouted, "Or we'll be more than got." He nodded, and we turned to run again. My hand was just starting to register the pain, and blood was oozing out of the hole. Running didn't help it, but we had no choice. I tried to contain the pain as best as I could by biting the insides of my cheeks so hard that I drew blood.
We finally reached the top level, and sure enough, there was the hovercraft, with two ladders hung from it. Em and Jerome had no idea we were bringing Shari, of course.
"You get on one, Shari," I told him. "Mitch, we can both get on the other one." Mitch nodded, and together we climbed onto the ladders. Shari's ladder was quickly hauled into the hovercraft, but since there was two of us on the other, it took more time.
"Come on, come on," I groaned, looking up to the hovercraft above us. "How long does it take?"
"Here they come," said Mitch. "Get ready. Whatever you do, don't fall off this ladder."
"I wasn't planning on it," I chuckled. "Don't you fall either." He smiled grimly, and began to shoot. The peace keepers had just as good aim shooting up as they did shooting horizontally, and a few bullets whistled dangerously close. Mitch took out one peace keeper, and began to focus on another.
"Hey, why have we stopped going up?" I asked suddenly.
"What?" Asked Mitch, in shock.
"We have, the ladder's stopped moving."
"That's just fantastic," he said sarcastically, as he hit another peace keeper. They just kept coming, pouring out of the hole in the roof.
"I wish I had a gun," I groaned, watching Mitch struggle. A peace keeper had hit him - sharply grazing the side of his shoulder. I could tell it was giving him pain.
"I wish I'd given you one too," he said.
"Maybe if I rock the ladder a little, they'll have a harder job hitting us," I suggested. Mitch nodded.
"Ok, but don't make me fall." I moved my weight around on the ladder, and it began to swing back and forth. This definitely had the desired affect.
"The ladder's moving again!" Exclaimed Mitch suddenly.
"We need to stop the swinging then," I replied, gripping it tightly with my left hand. My right still had the bullet embedded in it.
"If we don't stop it swinging we'll hit the base of the craft, and fall off," said Mitch. The ladder slowly rose, and the ground got further and further away. The ladder began to slow down, until it was almost hanging vertical again. But just as we were about to climb into the hovercraft, a peace keeper hit Mitch in the leg. His eyes widened in pain, and he reached for my hand. Unthinkingly, I offered him my right hand, the one with the bullet in. The sudden weight was a shock to the system, and almost pulled both of us off the ladder to our deaths.
It was Jerome who saved us. I felt his arm grab my left arm from the ladder, and haul both of us into the hovercraft. The ladders withdrew, and the doors snapped shut.
"We're done! Go!" Yelled Jerome. And the hovercraft shot away.
"Uh, Jerome, we've got a few casualties here," whispered Mitch, trying to hold in the pain.
"I'm right on it, you'll be ok buddy. Abby are you ok?"
"Just my hand is kinda dead," I winced. "And I stupidly gave it to Mitch to hold when he almost fell."
"Hey, it's ok," said Mitch. "We got here in the end."
"Yes, you did," smiled Jerome. "And here's someone you'll be glad to see." A very familiar boy around my age with brown hair and dark eyes entered the room.
"Preston?!"