Screams. Gun shots. Chaos.
"Who's here?" Trish asks, even though she sounds like she already knows the answer.
"The Indian mafia," Savanna breathes out, and the tinted glass in front of us goes all black. "Shaurya is here. We need to—"
The black glass panel starts opening, and Riva steps into the room with a bunch of guards. If it were not for the heavily armed men, Savanna looks like she'd have skinned Riva with bare hands.
"Both of you take Ruhi. To the underground facilities," Riva orders Sav and Trish. She then nods at a guard, who walks to Trish and hands her a small object. A switchblade.
"You've drugged Kaylee," Trish says and I notice how she still doesn't use my real name. "She can't walk."
"Then fucking drag her."
Sav looks at me and sighs. She helps me up, her hands around my waist and mine around her shoulders.
"Can you walk—"
"Doesn't matter," Riva spits. "Get her to the facilities, alive. Go."
Sav and Trish look at each other and share a look. Trish comes to my side and grabs my arm. For a moment, her eyes stay on the cuffs bounding my hands behind.
"Try to keep up, Salerno."
● ● ●
After minutes of them running and me stumbling through a barely lit corridor, all of us slump down a wall all breathless.
We pant and pant until our breathes get caught in our body. Apart from gun shots, my heart thuds inside my ears.
"We can't stop here. They'll find us."
"I can't run anymore," I whisper, feeling drowsy and drained.
Trish scoffs. "Yeah, sure. As if we'd let you die here."
I retort with a humorless laugh. "Of course you won't. You'll let die when I get stuffed into some glass container and go through whatever the fuck Aman—"
I stop and look up at both of them. Trish face is streaked with swet and tears while Savanna blankly stares at nowhere.
"Look," I start ones again. "If you know a way out, get out of here."
"But you–"
"I don't think I can make it," I breathe out. "I've already lost too much blood to keep up a pace."
This time, Savanna looks at me. "Lost blood?"
"Extraction."
A pause.
"Riva wanted to make sure our DNAs matched. She said she didn't want to take a risk and waste her resources as she did with Kaylee. The real Kaylee."
Another pause. This time, Trish breaks the silence.
"Riva is also a test sub, you know. From the Delian mafia."
I nod. "She told me. Gray used me to get to her, isn't it?"
Nobody says anything as we listen for close ranged shots.
"Maybe," Sav says. "Maybe not. Billions have been used on the test subs. To build armies," she softly shrugs. "But Grace cares for you."
"Enough of this," Rrish announces, and then looks at my cuffed hands. "We need to find something to break that. And those," she points at the trackers around our ankles.
"That'll raise an alarm."
"It's already chaotic around there. No one will give a shit."
I groan. "You need get away–"
"No we're not," Trish cuts me off. "You're not gonna go through whatever Aman went through. I'm not letting his death be for nothing."
We both look at Savanna, and she looks back at us.
"The facility will be empty," she informs.
Trish smiles. "Let's run."
● ● ●
The facility was, as Savanna had said, empty.
A large room with stacks and stacks of files and surgery equipments, the facility looks like a modern torture room.
"We can find something to cut off the cuffs and trackers."
And so, we start searching in glass panels and wooded drawers. Finally having enough sharp objects to try on the cuffs and trackers, we sit on the floor and start working.
After roughly ten minutes, my cuffs are off. But even after fifteen, the trackers stay.
"They probably costed some thousands," Trish sighs.
"Maybe we can try with something else—"
Savanna stops mid sentence when we start hearing footsteps. Lots and lots of footsteps. And then, someone pounds on the closed door.
"Fuck."
We grab whatever surgical instrument looked sharp enough to be a weapon and ran to another door led that no one of us any idea of where it led to.
"What if it was the Indian mafia?" I ask. "I don't think, well hope, they'll not hurt me."
"They aren't," Sav closes the run as we start navigating the dark way. "Our trackers — Trish's and mine — are designed to tell us where the Greek mafia people would be."
"What for?"
"Work."
Just when I start asking for what wall, we hear the sound of a door crashing into a wall. Light floods into the hallway from behind us, followed by echoing voices.
"Run."
And we run.
The people behind us don't shoot, thinking Sav and Trish to be of no harm. But if they see me cuff-less, shit might get real.
Out of breathe, we reach a large hall. The men behind us follow, all armed and blood spattered on their clothes.
Gray, please.
Another door opens and I see Laura and Riva rush in.
"Strap her in!" Riva commands. "We need enough of her blood samples for culturing."
"The Indian mafia will find us here, ma'am–"
"They'll find us as long as she's with us," Riva seethes. "We take her if we have time. Or throw her dead. We can't let them take away the test subject."
Savanna starts moving and but I give her a look. No, they're armed.
She gives me another look. They'll kill you.
Trish clears her throat. We need time.
Sav and Trish nod and grab me by my arms. They walk me to a chair with straps and equipments already attached to it. As slowly as they can, they start strapping me.
Gray, please.
"Do it quick you morons–"
Gun shots ring all around us. Before the men in the room can react, the doors are bombed from the other side.
"DOWN!" Trish tugs me to crouch with them, covering our heads with metal plates.
"We aren't surviving this," I hear Sav mumble beside me.
From somewhere in the room, I hear Riva tell her men to find me. When some men come to grab me, we attack them.
Trish's knife plunges into a man's arm, which she pulls back to slash his neck. Savanna uses the scissors she has to ward off some men while I use the scapel.
It's okay. It's okay. Don't let all that blood affect you.
"We need to get out of here!"
We start crawling towards the door but stop. First, I see Yashika shooting some men in their head. Next I see Gray, standing there with a gun inside someone's mouth.
Her eyes meet mine and she pulls the trigger.
I whimper.
Finally. Finally.
Just as I start getting up, my body gets dragged back. My chin hits the floor and I scream.
"Put down your guns!" I hear Laura warn from behind me. She grabs my hair and tugs, putting a knife to my throat as I yelp in pain.
Everything around us go silent. Then I realize none of the men from Riva's side are alive.
"Leave her," Gray growls, "and we let you out. Alive."
I hear Laura scoff. "Yea, sure. Let the Delians play football with our fucking heads."
"We'll offer you protection," Yashika offers.
Another silence follows. Darting my eyes, I see Riva standing to one side with Sav and Trish behind her, a smirk on her face.
According to calculations, if Savanna and Trish have betrayed me again, then Gray and Yashika are out numbered. For all I know, assasins from Indian side must be fighting off advances from the Greek side, all out of this perimeter.
"Let her go," Gray warns again, and I feel Laura push the knife a little into my flesh. I inhale sharply.
"Who removed her cuffs?" Riva notices.
After a pause, I hear Trish reply. "Me."
And then I hear a yelp, of someone crashing onto the floor. "The fuck—" Savanna yells. "You whore!" Riva yells louder.
I hear Trish whimper on the floor.
No. No. No.
And then, the knife on my skin goes away. My hand flies to the wound to stop the bleeding and I see Savanna tackling Laura to the ground.
I hear footsteps coming towards us.
I see Savanna take the switchblade from Trish and driving it into her mother's throat.
I see Gray raise her gun to shoot Riva, and Riva raise hers to shoot me.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
My body jerks violently with the first shot and lesser with a second. I lay on the ground, my body overcoming with pain and more pain.
I feel someone's body near mine. "Stay awake, Ruhi!"
I see Gray when she turns my body to look up. I see her calling my name, telling me to stay awake.
I won't make it, I try to tell her. Eu te amo muito.
And then—
I see her body jerk and slump a little over me. I see blood slowly rush out of where she had been shot in the side of her neck and her temple.
No.
Stop taking bullets for me!
Gray's body jerks again as another bullet hits the back of her neck.
"The Regina's down," someone calls. "I repeat, the Regina is down."
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
A/N
Thoughts on epilogue? Cause it will be the next update.