Agent (Book 1)

Chapter 37-Lynn

"Fifty-three!" Someone shouts from overhead. I glance up. Tori stands in wait at the top of the last flight, pulling survivors off the last steps and into the hallway. Her eyes meet mine. My chest burns from the effort of climbing for such long and hard moments, but I push on, unwilling to slow down. The bullets have ceased for a few moments, but I can feel the heavy footsteps, know that they're only waiting for the perfect time to end us all. All I want is for it to be over. Over...

I keep going as hard as I can. Five steps remain. The bullets start coming again, ricocheting off the walls. I slam my shoulder hard as I avoid one coming past and leap onto the next step. One meets the dead air beneath my shoe. Slivinski fires a random shot behind us, but I don't look to see if it connects. Tori grows closer and closer, until I can see the perfect whiteness of her eyes...

I dive onto the hallway floor, rolling to avoid a spray of ammo. Slivinski's on her feet beside me, and she yanks me up before I have a chance to breathe. My head spins and I gag a bit more, unable to stifle the nausea.

Tori and another girl are gently pushing the remaining civilians down the hallway, and my heart aches when I take in the number. Only ten, maybe fifteen are here, and the majority of them are limping or being supported by a mob of others. Tori tries leaning over to help them up, but she just straightens again, recognizing that it's a lost cause. Her face is unreadable.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the Kings mounting the top of the stairs, and (although I couldn't imagine it possible) my heart quickens a bit more. They start firing again, and I almost don't have the strength to move out of the way this time. But I also, somehow, don't have the strength to stop.

Slivinski's having the same problem, because while she throws her body to the floor, a bullet grazes her left calf and tears into the adjacent wall. Her face remains completely blank, but she fires back at them, wincing as the recoil shoves her down. In the moment her eyes shift over to me, I wordlessly tell her that her wound is not fatal, that the ripped pant leg exposes a bit of irritated skin.

Really, it is Tori who astounds me the most. She's unarmed I think, so she dives for the shotgun I've dropped and holds it up awkwardly in her hands. Slivinski is back to her feet now, and she too is firing into the masses, stumbling back to the end of the hallway. Only a few corners over lay the security exit. Our escape.

I feel the instinct to flee flaring up inside me again, but I know that someone has to be the one to stay behind, to ward off the enemy if we have any shot at survival. Granted, it won't do much, but it could provide some distraction, because there's no way we're getting out of this place on a foot race. And even then, they'll catch up to us outside, and we'll all be goners.

And that person has to be me. Tori seems to have the exact same intentions, because she stops moving back and stands her ground, firing more rapidly. The Kings have advanced, and they refrain from shooting as they close in, like they're all but certain of what is to come. And I am to. And it doesn't involve Tori's murder.

I pause next to her. "Give me the gun," I demand. She doesn't stop firing. Two Kings go down, but they're still not shooting back. That's what scares me the most. That, and the triumphant smirks on their lips as they watch their own people getting mauled. I spot Slivinski a little farther along, and she's shouldering a women, waiting for us to join her. I nod for her to move on.

"Give it," I say.

Tori's endless firing has started awakening them. For, a few rest their fingers against the trigger and lightly press down on it, taunting us. Tori takes out another, and another. To my shock, only a cluster of Kings remain.

"Tori!" I say, and I'm scared.

She finally looks at me. "I've got this," she says, catching me with those indigo eyes.