I sprinted away from Alex's window as fast as I could. I didn't want to look back. It was too painful. However, I still wasn't thinking properly enough to do anything just yet. I skidded to a halt in the South-West corner of the base. With my feet planted into the ground, I finally swallowed the lump in my throat. I'd never had anyone look at me like that. There'd been anger, disgust, even exasperation. Never had anyone looked at me with an expression that said they'd lost complete faith in me. I could hear soldiers ransacking buildings, turning the place upside down in pursuit of their runaway prisoners. I thought hard. Prince and Dante would most likely be searching the offices again. Gabriel and Elijah would be getting their hands on supplies. I figured it would be safest to find Gabriel but I really wanted to see Dante. In the midst of my decision making, someone clapped a hand on my shoulder. I spun and brought my leg up to kick the person in the face. They caught it deftly, not looking particularly impressed. It was Gabriel.
"What the hell are you standing around for?" He snapped. His shoulder seemed to have stopped bleeding but it looked horrendous. I swallowed and tried not to stare at it. Elijah had a backpack slung over one shoulder, looking on in confusion. "I'm sorry," I stammered. Gabriel looked as if he was going to yell at me but then changed his mind. "Don't worry about it. Come on, they'll find us if we don't move." He and Elijah made to run but I found myself rooted to the ground. "Wait!" I shrieked, going to grab his shoulder but then having second thoughts. Gabriel flared up again and for a split second I thought he might hit me. "For goodness sake, pull yourself together woman!" He screamed. Seeing my petrified expression, he forced himself to stay calm once more. "At least wait until we're somewhere a bit safer, we'll be caught way too easily here. Now come on," he said firmly, seizing my wrist. "We won't let you get hurt." Gabriel dragged me behind him, heading towards the convent. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see soldiers yelling and running towards us. A few of them stopped and aimed whilst others completely ignored us. They must've been going after Prince. In the midst of my stupidly-timed thinking, the guards opened fire. I froze dumbly but Gabriel was prepared for any signs of paralysis. He jerked me forward, almost tearing my arm out of its socket. I yelled out but no one noticed. There was too much surrounding noise that even if someone did hear my cry, they wouldn't know where it came from. Something pushed me to move faster. I went to look back but Gabriel tugged on my arm again and I knew that I just had to keep running. We dodged the oncoming bullets and barrelled into the convent. Elijah slammed the door shut whist Gabriel started moving the tables to barricade the windows. Hopelessly, I fell to the floor.
"Rose I swear, if you don't snap out of it right now, I will hand you off to the soldiers myself! What is wrong with you, standing around like that? You almost got us killed!" Yelled Gabriel, throwing a chair to Elijah to block the door. I shook my head, my mouth trembling as I spoke. "I'm sorry," I gulped. "I'm just so scared, I mean-". Before I could finish my sentence, Gabriel leapt over to me, picked me up and shoved me against the wall. "This isn't the time to be scared! The minute you stop to hesitate is the minute you get shot! You're lucky you had us with you back there. If I wasn't pulling you along and Drifter wasn't pushing you, you would've died right there." My entire body started to tremor. With a disgusted sigh, Gabriel let go and I dropped to the floor. His shoulder was looking worse than before. Dark red patches stained his singlet and I could see the mutilated flesh where the bullet had pierced his skin. His disgruntled attitude wasn't unfounded.
I heard footsteps trampling the grounds outside and people banging on the door. "They're surrounding the building," I squeaked, curling up into a ball. Gabriel clenched his fists then unfurled them. "We'd better get moving soon then. You done being a sook yet?" I opened my mouth to retort but words failed me. I was far too terrified to even move. Elijah cleared his throat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him jerk his head briefly in my direction. However, I'd pissed off Gabriel far too many times today for him to show me any more sympathy. "Get her up," he snapped. "We can't waste any more time here." I heard a quiet sigh and felt a heavy hand clap on my shoulder. I turned and looked up at Elijah who was smiling encouragingly at me. He looked exhausted with his cracked skin and dark circles under his eyes. There were tears in his clothing from when he fell out of the tower and where bullets had torn through the material. Still somehow he was still smiling. Seeing both of them bearing battle scars halfway through this mess, I looked down at myself. There was barely a scratch on my body. The only red mark on me was where Gabriel had held my arm and dragged me to safety. Finally, I understood. "Gabriel?" I said as quietly as I could but loud enough so he could hear me over the noise. He turned with an exasperated smile. "Oh, are you done panicking now?" He said sarcastically. I decided to be quick. "Thank you for looking after me," I said, feeling like the tiniest kid in the world. "But I want to help this time. Please, tell me what I should do." I was putting what little pride I had left under Gabriel's vindication, hoping he'd take me seriously. I flinched as he opened his mouth, looking to say something to embarrass me but Elijah shook his head. Gabriel glared then sighed. "Fine. You know all that annoying stuff like fear and the worry you'll hurt someone?" I stared. "Well, kind of." I replied uncertainly.
"Don't think about it. Disregard it for now. Clear your mind and do everything without hesitation. Think only about us three but don't worry about me or Drifter, we can take care of ourselves. Got it?"
Before I could respond, the tables near the windows came crashing down. Elijah ran towards it and just as a soldier stuck her head in to shoot, he kicked her in the back of the head. She flopped forward and sprawled onto the wooden floor. Elijah's heavy footsteps stomped towards the soldier. Just as she tried to stand up, he knocked her onto her back and crushed her throat with his foot. Then he swept up her gun and threw it to Gabriel. Two more peeked in and fired at Elijah, who ducked and ran to the other side of the building to join us. Gabriel fired back but had just as much luck as the soldiers. "Okay! Here's what we're gonna do!" Gabriel shouted. However, I'd stopped listening. My eyes were drawn to Elijah. He sensed my stare and turned to face me. He gave me an apologetic smile, as if I'd only witnessed him smashing a plate in anger rather than killing someone. I gulped. I averted my eyes to the lifeless figure on the ground. Her eyes had rolled up into her head. I shuddered violently, the lump regrowing in my throat. Oh no, I thought. Not again. I could already those three words echoing in my mind.
That woman. Seeing how quickly her life was ended in the midst of our escape acted as a trigger. People dying around me was what caused this state of madness because it made me realise that it could've been me. Gabriel could've just as easily done that to me in a fit of anger. Prince could've as well when we fought in his solitary cell. I could've done it myself when I jumped from the prison watchtower during the tests. Thinking back, I'd been faced with death many times. Yet, for some reason, I never felt that same fear I felt now. Then it clicked.
Either I let my fear control me or I controlled it. It was as simple as that. I cleared my mind of everything going on around me. I pushed my emotions and memories to the back of my head, relying only on my body to know how to move. Anyone who wore that dusty camouflage uniform was meant to fall. It was normal. I felt for the pistol in my waistband. As I curled my hand around its hard surface, my expression turned to stone and I blanked out.
With a burst of speed, I ran forward, leapt one-footed onto a table and launched myself out the window. I could hear Gabriel yelling after me but I ignored him. Two soldiers had hidden just by the window sill. They were shocked by my sudden appearance but brought their weapons up quickly. I continued on my trajectory and hit the barb wire fence. I momentarily fused with the metal, aimed the pistol at one of the soldier's knees and fired. I knew I wouldn't miss at point blank range. Whilst one of them was doubling up in pain, I bounced off the wires and launched a two-footed kick into the other soldier's stomach. He brought his gun up to protect his face and fell backwards from the impact. I pushed his gun against his chest and knocked him round the side of the head with the butt of my pistol. As I turned around, the other soldier had raised a shaky hand, training a pistol on me. He went to pull the trigger but was met with a bullet to the head first. From the window, Gabriel came out and confiscated ammunition from the corpse. "Reckless, I'll admit but this is more like it!" He cheered, reloading his gun. Once he'd closed the chamber, he turned to Elijah. "You go find the other two, Pinks and I are gonna find a vehicle." Elijah nodded and passed off the backpack to me. I took it and slung it over my left shoulder without a word. He eyed me worryingly but turned away. With his powerful legs, he jumped up and grabbed the edge of the convent roof. He pulled himself up with ease. He'd be alone for a bit but I didn't worry. I couldn't worry. At least, not whilst I was in this state.
"Alright Rose, where to from here?" He asked enthusiastically, keen on my new approach to the situation. He didn't even flinch at my stony look. It gave me the impression that he was all about pragmatism. I took a moment to think then pointed to the other side of the compound. I remembered that we had one truck behind the shipping container. I wasn't sure if there was fuel in it but it was our best chance. Gabriel nodded. "Let's go then. We'll need to draw the soldier's attentions while we run so the others don't have too much of a bad time. Lead the way." I nodded then took off behind the buildings. As we passed the gap between the convent and the main block, a soldier made eye contact with me. At first he was stunned but as soon as he saw Gabriel, he yelled out to his team. I ran faster. We were around halfway down the back of the building when Gabriel's footsteps ceased. I skidded to a halt and turned to face him. His eyes were unfocused as he spoke.
"They're going to ambush us from either side. To minimise gunfire, take one of them hostage and use them as a human shield. That way we can fight them on home ground," he said, clenching his fists in anticipation. I nodded and narrowed my eyes at the end of the building. The place had gone eerily quiet. I walked to the end of the building quietly, waiting for someone to peek. I could hear people approaching. Flattening my back against the wall, I prepared myself to react.
Suddenly, a head poked out with a rifle. I swiftly seized the barrel of the gun and yanked the soldier forward. He stumbled and I kicked the rifle out of his reach. He got up and faced me head on. I could see behind him that other soldiers were storming through the narrow gap but they could only approach one at a time. I backed up slightly and bumped into Gabriel. We glanced at each other briefly and he smirked. "Face forward Pinks. I've got your back," He muttered. We charged at the same time, taking out the soldiers before us. In this state, it was so much easier to attack them. I barely felt the blows they landed. I wasn't pulling my punches in fear of hurting them. I was smaller and faster than them that being in such a narrow space was an advantage for me. A lot of the guards were largely built so they couldn't see me long enough to put a bullet through my head. Plus, I didn't have to think about the soldiers approaching me from behind. Gabriel had that covered.
I knocked down the last guard, my muscles sore from the fighting. My chest heaved as I caught my breath. Gabriel punched me in the shoulder. "We have to keep going. They won't stay down for long." He said, also breathing heavily. I nodded and we ran to the end of the building. Gabriel quickly checked around the corner before leading the way across the exercise yard. I could feel his relief when he saw the truck behind the shipping container. We skidded to a halt next to it. Gabriel quickly broke the window and opened the door. He clambered in and moved onto the driver's side whilst I sat down on the passenger seat. He handed me a gun. "I need to start her up so you take care of anyone coming this way," he said. I took it and aimed out my broken window. Some of the soldiers I'd taken on behind the main building had gotten up and began looking around. Luckily, they hadn't realised we'd made it to the vehicle. However, I wasn't taking any chances. I kept my gun at the ready. Suddenly, I heard a sparking sound next to me. I peered over my shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm almost done. Might want to put your seatbelt on," Gabriel said, a tangle of wires in his lap. I rested the firearm on my knees and pulled on my seatbelt. There was one more spark and the vehicle roared to life. Heads turned and saw us but Gabriel had already stamped on the accelerator. We lurched forward, causing the soldiers to leap out of the way of the speeding vehicle. Some of them fired and we ducked our heads to avoid the onslaught of bullets.
We drove off the exercise yard and onto the clearway. I kept looking out and firing randomly at the people behind us. I reckoned no one was stupid enough to get in front of a moving vehicle. It was difficult to aim whilst Gabriel drove so violently. It was so bad that I realised I'd snapped out of my blank. "Where are we going?" I yelled. He suddenly braked and threw the gear in reverse. He backed up swiftly then braked again, going back into drive. "We can't leave the area until the others come out. I'm just killing time at the moment," he laughed, obviously exhilarated to be in control of a vehicle. My stomach lurched. Feeling the acid rising in my throat, I prayed the others would turn up quickly.
Without warning, a blond-haired figure dashed out of my house. Alex ran out onto the clearway with a pistol and fired at the truck. "Stop!" I cried, grabbing Gabriel's wounded shoulder. He roared in pain, swerving and crashing into the main building. Concrete blasted off the building. Rubble flew out in all directions. The glass from the windscreen shattered. My body rocketed forward but was kept in place by the seatbelt. My back smashed into the seat on impact and several shards of glass pierced my left eye. I screamed, clawing at my face. Blood trickled down my cheek as I tried to pull out the pieces. I turned to Gabriel, hoping he could help me. However, he was in no better state than me. He was out cold in his seat. Blood ran down the side of his head and by the looks of it, I'd pushed the bullet further into his shoulder. I could see people running towards the vehicle. They all had the same dusty camouflage uniform. I rolled my head upwards and sighed in defeat.
Suddenly, Elijah appeared through the hole we'd made in the wall of the main block. He stepped out onto the bonnet of the truck and crawled through where the windscreen once was. He quickly undid Gabriel's seatbelt and dragged him into the back seat. Prince came out of the main building as well, throwing himself into the driver's seat. My door opened and Dante pushed me over slightly, sharing the passenger seat with me. Prince backed out the truck with some difficulty whilst Dante fired at the soldiers outside. My head rolled forward onto the dashboard. I was barely conscious but the imminent danger kept me awake. Dante wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me back onto the seat. "Rose! Rose! Stay with me!" He yelled. I looked at him hazily through my right eye. He ripped off his bandanna, using it to cover his hand and pulled out the remaining shards of glass. Then he pressed the material against my eye socket to soak up the rest of the blood. I reached up to hold it there. "Thanks," I croaked. He smiled and hugged me. "I'm just glad you're okay," he mumbled. Prince drove quickly along the clearway towards the East side. I was relieved. Finally, it was all over. We drove out of the East gate and for the first time in my 17 years of suffocating, I had left Delta base 2.