Luciana came into the trailer while we were packing the last of the stuff into our bag.
She looked shaken, face ashen as she moved to sit down beside me.
Nick barely looked at her, "Are you coming with us or not?"
"Nick," I scolded, placing my hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?"
"He's getting warm," she whispered, looking up at me, "He didn't get warm before."
Nick threw the shirt he was holding into the bag, turning around to look at us with his hands on his hips, "That's because he wasn't bitten the last time. Not by an infected anyway. He's lied to you all this time. Which is why you should come with us. Get out of here and live."
"I can't," Luciana said loudly, standing up, "This is my home."
"Your home is going to be attacked!" Nick's voice was just as loud as hers and I quickly stood up.
"Okay, that's enough! Nick, you can't force her to come with us. She's made up her mind."
"She's going to die here." he said quietly.
"Then I die," she whispered then she turns to me wrapped her arms around me, "Good luck."
I quickly wrapped my arms around her, "If you change your mind..."
"I'll find you."
The two of them stared at each other before Nick grabbed the bag he had shoved our stuff into, "See you later, then."
"You could stay." she said quietly, "Defend this place. Our faith will help us."
"No," he shook his head, "They'll annihilate us. You've seen how many people they have. The guns. I'm not willing to risk my life, Taylor's life, on faith."
With that, he made for the door, looking over his shoulder, at me, with raised eyebrows.
"Okay, I'm coming." I whispered, grabbing our bottle of water.
As we walked toward the bus, I felt the eyes of those of The Colonia watching us and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nick opening his mouth to speak.
"Don't," I cut him off, "Don't say anything. Let's just do it and get it over with."
His pursed his lips but did as I said and pulled the vehicle's door open.
**
We walked slowly down the road. Beside me, Nick was still brooding; angry that our friend had decided to stay behind and face death than come with us.
"Do you think your mom and Alicia are still alive?" I ask, deciding to break the silence.
Since we had left, he hasn't mentioned them once.
He shrugged, "I do. Now that I'm gone, I know my mom will protect Alicia until the end."
"What does that mean? Now that you're gone?"
He looked down at me, "Come on, Tay. You know as well as I do that Alicia has always somewhat resented me. I was always the focus of my mom's attention."
I took a sip of water, "Do...do you ever think about doing it again? The drugs?"
He licked his lips, "Sometimes. I'm not going to lie to you, Taylor, when I was making that Oxy, I thought about it."
I took his hand, making him look down at me.
"Then I thought about you. About my mom, Alicia. The hell I put you through before." he continued, "And I couldn't."
"I'm proud of you, Nick."
He gave me a smile, the two of us looking up when we heard what sounded like an aircraft of some sort.
"Woah," I whispered, pointing towards the noise, "That's a helicopter."
"That's an army helicopter." Nick confirmed.
"That means there's still military. They could help us."
He nodded, "They could help the people back there too."
We both knew that we had to go back and get those from La Colonia. We'd just have to convince Alejandro to let them leave.
Not to be mean, but he was going to die anyway and couldn't exactly stop them.
To say that Luciana was surprised to see us back so soon was an understatement, but once we had explained, I could tell that there was an air of hopefulness in her expression.
"A helicopter?" Luciana questioned, "You're sure?"
"Taylor saw it too," Nick replied and I nodded. "We need to talk to Alejandro."
"He's resting."
"Luciana, please." I whispered, "It's the only way all of you can survive this."
She looked between us before finally nodding.
She led us to his trailer, where he was sat in the dark, bandage wrapped around his arm and a cold cloth over his forehead.
We quickly explained the situation, what we saw and how we felt that we could lead those of the community to where the evac helicopter had landed.
"You think this is a good idea?" he asked, looking at Luciana and she stayed quiet for a moment before nodding and although he looked reluctant, the older man finally agreed and slowly stood up, holding up his hand when I moved to help him, "Gather everyone."
Luciana disappeared and Nick let out a loud exhale, "Thank you."
**
The sun was now high in the sky as we started making our way back through the streets in the direction of where we saw the helicopter.
Nick had put me in charge of directions while he chatted quietly with the people of the community and Luciana was carrying one of the little girls on her hip.
"Where are we going?" I heard her ask.
"North," Luciana replied quietly.
"Why?"
"So we can be safe."
From up ahead, I could see smoke rising in the distance and I took that to mean that we were almost there.
"It's just a little further." Nick said loudly so those at the back of the group could hear and he looked at me, a smile on his face as he held his hand out to me.
As we wandered into the crossing area, something didn't feel right.
For it being the place that it was, it was deserted. I couldn't see a single person.
"Nick," I murmured when I thought I heard something approaching and he wordlessly tugged me closer to him, nervously scanning the surrounding area.
"Nick!"
We both turned at the sound of Luciana's frantic voice, seeing a man emerge from behind one of the abandoned cars that were scattered about and he was holding a gun, which he used to wordlessly shoot her.
I gripped Nick's shirt in my hand when he pulled me down to the ground when, as if seemingly nowhere, more and more armed men came out from their hiding places.
I moved my hands to cover my ears when they began shooting at the people we had come with, trying desperately to block out the sounds of them screaming and the faint sounds of their bodies hitting the ground.
Nick was laying on top of me, shielding me with his body but I was trying to wriggle free. I had to see if Luciana was okay. I know that she had been hit but where? I didn't know.
I turned onto my back when I felt Nick's weight leaving me, seeing him being shoved to the ground again a couple of feet away.
"No," I whimpered, trying to get up but one of the men kicked me in the stomach.
"Hey!" Nick barked, "Hey man, don't!"
The man snickered, looking over his shoulder and I pushed myself up, scrambling backwards until my back hit one of the tollbooths and the man followed, pointing his gun at me.
I could hear Nick yelling, Luciana groaning from somewhere else in the vicinity and I could see the bodies of those from the Colonia and honestly, I had never been more scared than I was now.
Another soldier brought Nick over to us and I caught him when he was shoved down towards me but he quickly tucked me behind him and stared up at them.
They were going to kill us.
We weren't going to make it out.
There was nothing we could do.
At least I'd be dying with someone I love.
**
okaaaay, i need opinions! should i split this story into another book? or just keep going with this one?
**leave your comments here!**