The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 36: Metal

Without hesitating, I snatched up Diamond's hand and half-dragged her out the door. We all ran down the hallway, not knowing where we were going.

This had to be the worst dance ever. It was nine o'clock, I was tired, hungry and now clones were after us.

The door flew open again, and I glanced behind me to see el pueblo negro de ojos start after us.

"Split up!" Skylar shouted. I saw her hands grip Evie and David's wrists in a death grip and yank them down a hallway.

With Diamond in tow, I jerked her down the opposite hallway. "Where are we gonna go?" I panted.

"No idea!" We raced down the hallway, doors and windows flying by.

"Stacy!" I blurted out. "Let's go to his dorm!"

Even when running at full speed, I saw her give me a look of irritation. "Stacy is a clone, you moron!" She growled.

My heart sank. Right. Crap.

Suddenly, a door opened and a hand darted out. It grabbed me by my shirt, and yanked me into the room. I yelped, and held into Diamond's arm even tighter.

"Shh!" A hand clapped over my mouth, and I instinctively let go of Diamond's hand and drove my elbow into the stomach of whoever was holding me.

"Dammit, Tony!" The voice snarled in my ear. "Calm down, it's me!"

I immediately stopped struggling. "Thomas?" I mumbled around the hand holding my mouth shut.

Thomas released me and wiped his hand on his shirt. "Yeah, thanks for the elbow in the stomach."

I chuckled nervously. "Yeah, well ya know, when you have a building full of cloned interns after you, you get slightly paranoid."

"Did they try to kill you?" Thomas placed a protective arm around Diamond's shoulders.

"I don't know." Diamond shuddered. "We ran before they got the chance, but they did start chasing us."

"Well where's everybody else at?" Thomas glanced over at the door.

"We don't know." I confessed. "Derek, Harry and Evalynn are at the infirmary, but David, Evie and Skylar went the opposite way. We don't know where they went."

"Damn. Okay." Thomas crossed the room in a few strides, and opened up a drawer. He started fiddling with something inside it, and continued talking. "Tony, you and Diamond are gonna go to the infirmary and get those three back here."

"But Derek has yellow fever!" Diamond interrupted.

Thomas hesitated. "I'll take care of him. Just get them back here. I'm gonna go look for the other three."

"Okay, but what do we use for protection?" Diamond asked. "I dropped my spear in the hallway, I don't know where it is."

There was the sound of a magazine clip being loaded into a gun, and then suddenly a pistol was being thrown towards me. I snatched it out of the air, and stared at it. I hadn't shot a gun in forever.

"Tony," Thomas broke into my thoughts. "You a good shot?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess so."

Thomas gave me a tight nod, and stuffed a pistol into his jean pocket while still holding one. "You've got fifteen shots in there, kid. Make every shot count." He crossed back over to the door. "Wait five minutes after I leave, then go to the infirmary and get the others. And Tony?"

I stopped staring at the gun to look up at him. "Yeah?"

"Shoot to kill."

***