No Time To Bleed

My stomach did a nose dive and my limbs flailed through the air. Max’s cry pierced below and the inconceivable thought rushed into my head.

Wait for the sound of your bone to crack. Then, you’re dead.

Then, cold chills rushed over my body. My eyes stung and I couldn’t breathe. I was flailing in free gravity, strange gurgling noises swimming in my ears.

My arms thrashed wildly and my eyes snapped open. Blue was all around and I tried to scream. More liquid rushed into my lungs and from that instant, my head snapped above to the open.

My nose dripped and sputtered. Water sprayed out my lips, gagging my throat and coughing.

I cried and screamed, arms slashing wildly and more dive bomb crashes went around.

The stinging fleeted from my eyes and I was finally able to make out what had happened.

The pool was around me, bodies fall from the sky. Alex was swimming over swiftly to Max who was steadily drowning.

“Everybody swim out of the pool!” Cece screamed.

The water still slushed in my ears.

“Jasmine, come on.” Ryant’s voice urged from behind me. He grabbed onto my arm softly and helped swim me to the pool’s edge. I looked up as we swam, seeing the gaping hole that had formed in the crystal ceiling.

It seemed completely logical now that the craziness had ensued. The glass roof was above the hotel’s pool. We were in the hotel now.

My clothes sloshed and clung to my body. I threw my body over the edge as other people fell over.

“What’s the count? Who’s alive?” Ashton called out, slapping his gun onto the tile as he dragged his way out.

“2 dead!” Clarissa informed.

People began to wring out their clothes, heaving on their own breath.

“Do you need help up?” Ryant asked, obviously stronger than I was at the moment.

I grabbed onto his aiding hand readily, pulling my slippery limbs up from the glossy tile. The pool room was a large one. The pool itself now had murky pieces of sewage floating through the water. The color scheme soared through arrays of blue and side locker rooms were at regular intervals.

“God, that fucking scared me half to death.” I gasped.

Alex came trudging over. His hand wiped to his forehead, clothes holding to every strong muscle of his body. He stuck his gun into the back waist of his pants.

“Sorry I had to drop you like that. I didn’t really have time to think to give you a warning.”

I smiled starchily at him. “Well, thanks for letting me think I was going to die!”

He smiled back, opening his mouth to speak before Jesse interrupted.

“One fucked up boyfriend you are. I’m surprised she hasn’t dumped you yet, huh Alex?”

Alex, Ryant, and I both looked over to see Jesse just a few feet away with his arms crossed and one of his eyes still swollen shut in a shade of purple.

“Jesse-“

“Shut up! You’re a bitch for choosing him over me and I just realized it! You’re ugly and pathetic and plain horrible! I don’t even know what I ever saw you in you.”

“Don’t talk to her like that.” Ryant snapped. “People make choices and you have to deal with it.”

“Says the boy who ran off like a fucking idiot.” Jesse snapped back. “What were you doing this entire time anyway? Becoming a secret weapon?”

Ryant just simply looked back at Jesse confused and not at all rattled.

“We’ve gotta move on. No more of this bullshit.” Ashton cut in, glaring to Jesse one good time. “Keep yourself in check. We don’t need people jumping ship.”

“Then, what’s the plan now Almightly?” Jesse responded smartly.

“We’re in the hotel.” Cece called out. “Those things on the roof were obviously sent by Lexicon so we have to figure out a plan quick before they come up with something else to try and slash more of us out.”

Cece stood at the center of us and Cece joined her. Ryant stood next to me, nestling his brother before him. Alex stood at my side, chest moving steadily as he breathed. Ashton stood to his left and Kyle stood to my left. Across from us were Ashton and Ashley. Jesse was standing broodingly by Ashley. I was sure his roommate had been killed on the roof.

“I think it’s simple. We need one hell of a distraction to get people to the basement and to the main power. We have less than 20 minutes until the speech starts.” Ryant said.

I smiled proudly. He was pretty smart with all this plan making stuff.

Clarissa and Cece both nodded.

“That sounds like an excellent plan. Any suggestions?” Jesse cut in. Even with his voice venomously enthusiastic, people still responded.

“How about we make lots of noise?” Alex suggested dumbly. I jabbed him with my elbow in his side and rolled my eyes.

“No. That attracts attention to us.” Clarissa fired back.

“We can do an all-out attack like Ryant said before.” Ashley mentioned.

“No. Not good either.” Cece said.

“How about fire?” I said. Silence went over the group and I was left to explain more. “We plant a fire somewhere that will get some attention. Then, the rest of us haul ass to get to where we need to be.”

Jesse snorted. “That’s a freaking suicide mission.”

“Then, come up with something better.” I came back.

He went dead silent then.

“Okay, looks like we have our distraction.” Cece grinned smugly. “Who’s in?”

Hands rose into the air and the sense of war was gushing through me like fire. We were soldiers on the front lines, all sent for some sort of different mission.

But, in war, someone always dies.

Brett’s P.O.V.

Brett’s hands yanked the tie from his neck and threw the bottle of scotch across the room.

“What the hell do you mean they got away?!”

His rage filled the entire room and red crept all the way up the edges of his face. Fire was exploding in and out his veins. The caramel liquid drained down the wall where the bottle had hit.

“I sent you to have those things go up there and rip them to shreds! Now you’re telling me our essential blood line is with them too! You’re telling me Ryant Brown has escaped!”

The six guards stood motionless and the hatred was gripping him even more. His hands tore into a spare desk chair, shoving the tendons to the skin’s surface. Brett dared to stare at no place, but the floor.

“Where the hell is my son?” he asked.

Rodney could sure as hell be out of it, but he had useful opinions sometimes. Surely higher opinions than these incompetent workers. Brett had taught him well.

“Your son stepped out a while ago, sir.”

He breathed slowly, feeling the strong liquor take effect in him now as he paced back and forth.

“Where’s surveillance showed these mongrels last?”

“It showed them in the hotel’s pool area. When the airport was first detained, we closed off that area due to contamination. The filtration system there has been cut off so we haven’t fully recognized what’s been breeding there.”

Brett jeered. “So, they could be infected. I like that. Show some public panic possibly. Tell the guests that some infected people have escaped, make them fearful. That can turn up to be something for our side.”

They went away to subdue to his directions.

Brett checked his watch as they walked out the door before loosening his tie once more.

20 minutes. What the hell could those criminals manage to do in the measly time of 20 minutes?