No Time To Bleed

“It’s not going to work unless we move quick okay.” He coached. “Remember what I told you to do, okay? We’ve only got one hour until he comes.”

“You mean one hour until he does the speech?”

“How do you know he’s doing a speech?” he hissed back.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not hard to guess. Why else would he come here?”

Alex nodded recklessly. “Whatever. Let’s just do this. Once it’s done, we find Cece and Kyle and Jesse and Ashton and whoever the hell else we can get to on this floor.”

I had a feeling they’d put us in Level C, the level lowest underground.

“Here he comes.” I whispered.

The door’s latch popped open again and we both froze. The same man walked in, his belt slightly hanging over the waistline of his pants as he went to Alex first just as he had done before.

“Alright, my two best customers.” He got the blood from Alex before turning to me. “You ready, hot stuff?”

I cringed just at the nickname then sent a flirtatious smile. “I’m ready whenever you are…”

The man’s eyebrows rose and he leaned even closer than usual, his slimy little eyes never leaving me. “Well, I’m glad you enjoy this as much as I do.”

First thing was first, cut off all portals of vocal noise. Take down the opponent without any attracting forces.

I slammed my first forward, sending the knuckles and bone into his trachea with a satisfying crack. The man’s eyes widened as he choked and heaved back, hand reaching for something at a waist.

“Get his gun!” Alex scrambled for it, but the man’s hand slapped him away.

My hands snapped for the thing at his waist and I pulled it out with ease. I aimed the barrel at his head.

“Make one move and I’ll blow your brains out.”

Alex took the keys and device from his hand. I sent a shot in the man’s knee cap and all he managed to try to choke out his withering screams.

“That’s for the hand you put on my knee you thought I didn’t notice.” I hissed.

Alex was busy busting his fingers to type in this first name. “Cece Valencia. She’s in Room 235.”

We shot through the door and Alex closed it behind us, staring up and down the halls. My heart was pounding in my chest.

Then, a siren so loud shot through the air that I almost felt my brains split into pieces.

Alex was busy screaming over the chaos that was about to ensue. “OPEN ALL THE DOORS YOU CAN FIND! WE NEED AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”

Shots could be heard as echoes, but all I did was follow orders.

Alex was right. We had to get the hell out of here.

So, that’s what we did. We went to all the doors and unlocked people out of there like hell. The keys corresponded to the doors and first thing we found Cece.

She came out looking just as battered and bruised as the rest of us with eyes widened. “Holy shit! That was you guys making all that noise!”

We both nodded.

“But, we’ve gotta get the hell out of here if we want to stand a chance of cutting off the power to the main level of the airport and getting whatever we need to get out of here.” Alex fired.

And with people running all around us, she reached forward and pulled him into a tight hug. “Glad you’re finally with us.”

Then, we went back to our routine, unlocking all the people in our all hallway which ended up being pretty much everyone we needed for the moment: Cece, Kyle, Ashley, Ashton, and Jesse.

“Alright!” I shouted while the siren still called out and I knew we didn’t have much time yet with the gun shots going off a good distance away. “All 7 of us might not make it past today, but we’ve gotta do this. We have at least two hours to take down Lexicon and Brett. For now, we’ve got to break out as many people from Level A to help us get the hell out of here. Understand?”

“What about these other people?” Ashley asked.

There were about 6 or 7 others who we’d just unlocked from their rooms, most looked scared and defenseless.

“For the rest of you?” I looked to them. “Learn how to fight.”

“We’ve gotta head through these back doors. I studied the map and they show alternate passages to the kitchen on this level. I think we can make it out through there. All the kitchens are connected by stairwells.” Cece said.

The gun shots seemed to be getting closer.

“But, what about Ryant and Max and Clarissa? They’re in Level A!” I exclaimed.

Speculative glances crossed everyone.

“Then, who wants to stay and who wants to come with us?” Cece asked.

I stepped back.

“I’ll stay. I need to find them. Cece can lead the way for everyone else.”

“Then, I’m with you.” Alex said firmly, standing by my side.

“I’m with Jasmine too.” Ashton and Kyle both said.

Ashley and Jesse nodded, standing next to Cece.

The gun felt warm in my hand and I agreed. “Okay. We’ll see you on the other side. Where should we meet?”

More gunshots came at the end of the wall noticeably closer, yelling could heard as Alex typed away more names on his device.

“Just meet us on the roof. We’ll figure out more from there!” She was already leading her group to the back door as she yelled. “Don’t die!”

As soon as their door closer, the first gun shot went out. A girl in our group screamed as it hit her in the shoulder. I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her up, running.

I sent a shot from the gun in my hand that connected with the man’s neck. He went down hard and I grabbed the gun at his waist and tossed it back.

“Open all the doors you can find! We’ve gotta get out of here!” The gun had been tossed to Alex. “We need to move left! They’re in those rooms!”

A door opened on the left hallway from us. Lights flickered and guards were running for us.

“Don’t let them get past us!” Ashton shouted, running ahead.

He heaved himself into the air and sent a swimming kick into one guard’s head. Another one pulled out a gun and shoved my fist into his head.

“Ah!” he screamed.

My foot slammed into his knee cap then, Alex sent a shot into his arm. He brought back his fist and punched another guard in the stomach.

“Keep moving!” Alex blared.

The girl who’d been shot got punched in the face screamed. I slammed the butt of my gun into the man’s head. His eyes rolled over and the girl went down. Her pulse was gone.

“Where’s my sister?!” Kyle screamed. He was up ahead, gun at the ready and shooting off unsteady rounds to the guards swarming ahead. “What room is she in?”

“The records show Room 230! It’s behind us!” Alex ordered.

Kyle took a beeline and went running from where we’d come.

“KYLE!”

He kept running.

A baton came out and sliced me in the head. I slammed against the wall, stars all over my gaze.

“Alex!” I screamed.

My vision watered as I saw him running forward, opening doors. Looks like I’d have to take this man down on my own.

My hand shoved forward, taking a hold of his face. “Get off me!” My other hand slated into his ear and he screamed.

I sent another fist into his teeth and felt blood trickle down my knuckles. I staggered to my feet, hands clawing for the gun that had dropped a few feet away.

The baton swiped into my head again, sending hot coals to my irises. Blood tasted in my mouth, my hand clambered for the fun and just barely held the trigger.

I reeled my arm back and felt my elbow connected with raw bone. The man went down hard and didn’t get up.

“Jasmine, we need to move! They’ve got tear gas!” Alex was heard over the chaos.

The back of my head was throbbing as he pulled open another door.

“What about Kyle?!” God, my head was hurting so much.

“We’ve move back to where he is anyway!”

Clouds of gray were moving in ahead of us. Alex speed in my direction, grabbing my hand and pulling.

“What about Ryant and his brother and Clarissa?!” Alex sent a shot into the choking gray chasing us.

“They’re following us! Come on!”

“Antoinette! Antoinette!”

Our group rushed forward, Kyle’s screaming moving through the rooms. I shoved my way into the room with Kyle’s voice. The room was completely empty.

Kyle was sobbing. “Where is she?”

I grabbed his hand. “Kyle, we’ve got to keep moving. There’s tear gas on us. We’ve gotta go. We’ll find her.” The last sentence seemed to be put some strength into his legs and we all shoved our way through the doors that Cece had gone through.

The doors closed us and Alex jammed a large cabinet in the door. We were in a slim hallway with cabinets of all sorts of things and strobe lights above.

“Is everyone here?” Ashton asked.

“Jasmine!” Arms threw themselves out around my neck and breathed into my shoulder. “Oh my God, it worked.”

The boy’s voice left my ear and another little voice came nearby.

“Ryant, is this the girl you told me about? The pretty one?”

And in the strangest of ways, I laughed and wanted to cry my eyes out.

Here was Ryant before me, lankly limbs, tall stature, buzz cut, and dark brown eyes and at his side was a little boy. The boy had warm brown skin and long eyelashes.

My mission for now was complete. They weren’t dead.

“Yeah.” Ryant smiled. “This is the girl.”

“I am so gonna kill you later for running off.” I gasped.

Ryant shrugged. “I had to do what I had to do.”

Clarissa was up ahead, hugging Alex closely with tears in her eyes.

“How are Jessica and Jesse?” he asked me.

Then, the frown reached my face right away as Ashton urged us to move on forward. “Jessica’s dead. They killed her.”

Ryant’s face fell then and we were forced to keep moving forward.

And you better believe I never let him leave my side.