Narrator (3rd Person POV):
Right. Aiden thought before swinging around to his right, whipping the gun from his hip and taking aim.
There was a petrified scream that came from Mona, though Aiden wasn't sure who had screamed. He was only focused on opening fire on the second shooter.
It was a man he didn't recognize, smiling devilishly at Aiden, his own gun aimed right back at the cop.
"Drop your weapon!" Aiden found himself yelling.
"Drop your weapon!" the stranger screamed back in a mocking tone.
"Damien!" Mona screamed as she bent over the body of her fallen friend.
Kaila lay on the ground, three holes in her stomach. They were excruciatingly painful and she could feel blood and vomit coming up her esophagus.
Aiden's stance never faltered. He had a clean head shot, but that would risk the stranger shooting him.
Before anyone could react, Zoey was on her feet and running at the gunman.
His eyes widened in panic, evidently torn between shooting the armed cop or the girl running his way, ready to disarm him.
He made a split second decision, swinging the gun at Zoey.
"No!" Aiden's voice boomed, his finger pulling the trigger instinctively.
Only one gun went off, causing Zoey to stop dead in her tracks.
The gun man fell to the ground, a bullet in his temple, his surrounding skin destroyed.
Zoey looked to Aiden, tears filling her eyes. "He shot Kaila!" her voice broke and the tears spilled over her cheeks.
Aiden's heart stopped. He wasn't quite sure what to do.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mona: December 25, 2014 9:42 a.m.
I pressed my hands into Kaila's stomach, tears blurring my vision which only frustrated me.
Her stomach heaved and more blood and vomit spilled from her paling lips.
"Kaila!" I screamed, her blood pooling over my hands as I desperately tried to slow the bleeding. It obviously wasn't doing anything. I looked into her pale green eyes, the life slowly leaving them.
I never really understood what that had meant until now. You can see them dying. And Kaila was dying. The kind, soft spoken girl with freckles that spotted her nose and cheeks like sprinkles was dying. The girl that always tried to make the bad things seem not so bad was dying. The girl who was kind in a bad situation was dying. Kaila was kind. Kaila was dying.
I looked over her face, watching the color drain and the blood fill her mouth. "Please don't die. Kaila, please don't die." I begged her, my voice breaking.
Her ragged breaths shook her body, causing her to inhale the blood in her throat. She choked on the blood, coughing it into my face.
Her hand found my wrist, pulling at it desperately. I let up on applying pressure and gave her my hand. She intertwined her weak fingers with mine, silently apologizing for coughing blood on my face.
"Mona." her mouth formed my name, whispering it quietly.
"I'm here. I'm right here." I sobbed over her, holding tight to her hand.
Our eyes met and a memory from two months ago popped into my mind.
"If we get out of here, do you think I could live with you?" Kaila asked me. We were the only ones awake.
"Why?" I asked. "Don't you want to see your family?"
Kaila was quiet, staring at the grey concrete. "No." she breathed.
I looked over her slumped body, watching her carefully. "Why not?"
Her head lifted and her eyes met mine. "I lived in an abusive home. If I go back, nothing will change. It'll be like coming right back here."
My face tugged into a frown. "Why do you want to live with me? Why not Beth? Or Zoey?"
Kaila shrugged. "You're the livliest of us all. The world wouldn't seem so bad if I had you by my side. Beth is already deep in her depression. Zoey is kinda mean. You're not. I like you."
I smiled, shifting a little so I could sit closer to her. "Alright. When we get out of here, you can live with me. You can meet Brenton and everything. My parents would like you."
We both giggled a little. Something I hadn't done in a very long time.
I focused back on the present, shaking the memory from my mind. "Kaila? I need you to hold on. You're going to live with me, remember? You kinda have to be alive to do that." I laughed through my tears, squeezing her hand tightly.
Damien dropped down beside Kaila then, pushing me away a little before I could get any reaction from her.
He quickly stripped himself of his black dress shirt, ripping a large piece off with ease. He worse a bullet proof vest. He lifted her shirt to her breast bone, lifting her body up and slipping the material beneath her.
"Hold on, sweetheart." he whispered as he wrapped the material over the three shots and knotted it tightly over her gaping wounds.
Kaila gasped at the pressure, her eyes wide.
Damie-er Aiden, scooped Kaila into his arms, getting to his feet and turning back to the factory. "We have to get to the squad car. He'll be here any minute." he shouted over his shoulder as began to run past the large building.
I got to my feet, blood dripping from my hands and splattered across my shirt and skin.
Jenna and Zoey ran after him. Beth stayed by me, pulling at my arm. She was saying something, but my brain wasn't listening. It wasn't understanding. My world spun as I stared down at the blood on my hands. I felt nauseous and just wanted to get the blood off of me.
"...to go... " someone said.
I looked up, my eyes meeting Beth's. "We have to go!" she repeated, urgency in her voice and worry on her face.
I nodded, still dazed and stumbled along side her as she led me to Aiden. We managed to reach Aiden just as a squad car came into view, maneuvering its way through the trees.
My head hurt and my body ached. We were safe. All I wanted to do was run into the back of the car and fall asleep.
The car pulled in front of Aiden, the driver opening the door.
Aiden took a step back, a look of horror on his face that made my world shatter.
"Run!" he screamed as the driver pulled a gun of some sort from the passenger seat.
Someone next to me grabbed me by the wrist, jerking me back towards the factory we had passed at some point, pulling me around the corner as yet another gun shot rang out.
I was stunned and still dazed. I wasn't sure who had grabbed me, but their hand kept slipping on my wrist from the blood that went halfway up my forearm.
Where were the others?
I finally looked over who had grabbed me. It was Jenna.
"Where's Beth? Where's Zoey?" I asked as we ran. My voice sounded distant even to myself.
Jenna didn't answer. She only kept running, her hand holding me tightly.
I looked behind us. There was no sign of any other life. It was just Jenna and I as we ran from the factory, the back of the building the only thing I could see as we ran farther and farther away.
We were on our own.