White Noise

As Sawyer pushed the drawers back over the entrance to the tunnel, there was a chorus of screams. One sounded like it came from below, but before I could react, I realized the other screams came from the fight happening in the front of the store. I ran towards the gunfire – a sentence I never thought I’d say – drawing an arrow from my quiver as I went.

A large greasy man had Natalie pinned to the floor, holding her arms over her head with one hand, and reaching for her belt with his other. He pushed his wideset hips towards her body, and she screamed again. She was thrashing and kicking her feet, but he was triple her size so she couldn’t get away.

I let loose of the arrow I’d nocked, and it flew through the air, embedding itself beside the mans collarbone. With a shriek, he tumbled off Natalie. Sawyer ran to Nat, wrapping her in his arms, and ducking them behind a large bed. While he comforted her back into stability, I ran forward, sliding into the spot by Darren. He was firing around an armoire with an assault rifle.

I grabbed another arrow, poked around the piece of furniture, and let it whiz through the air, landing in the space between a thin mans hips. Blood exploded from his body as he fell to the ground silently. A loud scream followed, and a tall woman appeared at his side. She looked from the me to the man and back again, her face contorting into rage. She raised her arm, pistol in hand, and shot at me. I ducked back behind the wood as her shot hit the armoire, splintering off shards of wood that exploded off the side.

“Fuck.” I muttered. “Darren, incoming on my six.” He nodded, spun around me, effectively switching spots, and aimed around the furniture. A few shots rang out and then a loud thud as the woman hit the ground. I swung my bow around and aimed at the first enemy I saw, which happened to be the girl that Logan and I had seen earlier. Tana. I could tell because she was shouting at me.

“I’d quit killing my people when I have one of yours, if I were you!” She shouted, smile on her face. My stomach dropped when I saw that Seven was being held up by his arms by a very tall muscled man who held a gun in his other hand.

Cosmic screamed his name, and I turned to see her running towards me. “Darren.” I spoke. He reached out as she ran past and grabbed her arm, yanking her behind the armoire with us. I aimed my arrow at the head of the man holding Seven.

“Tana, is it?” I didn’t take my eyes off Seven as I spoke.

“Ah, I see you know who I am, but I don’t know you.”

“You never will. He’s a kid, Tana. Let him go.” I pulled a little tighter on my bows string.

I could see her grinning from the corner of my eye. “You’ve never negotiated before, have you?”

“I never have to. I always kill the enemy before negotiations begin.” Seven’s eyes were flooded with fear. He looked at me, and I smiled at him, trying to comfort him even a little. The man holding him shifted and so did my bow, following his movements.

“I have the kid, you have no one I care for.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Sasha spoke up from across the room. I glanced over a bit and saw that she had a man on his knees, hands tied behind his back, and a gun to the back of his skull.

“Seems we’re at a stalemate, Tana. Let the kid go.”

“Lolita would be so disappointed if I didn’t come home with someone for her to play with.”

I knew Darren was assessing the situation, trying to figure out how to take out Tana. I just had to wait a little longer. “She’d probably be much more disappointed if none of you came back.”

Tana thought for a second, a frown on her small features. “True. Very true. But that won’t be happening. See, we have leeway, and you do not.” She waved a hand and the man put his gun at Seven’s temple.

“Then what do you call that.” I nodded towards Sasha, and when my eyes fell upon the woman who had snuck up behind her, my stomach dropped.

“I call that, winning.” Tana grinned. Sasha let out a short shriek as the woman pressed a knife to her throat. “Time to choose.”

“What are you talking about?” I tried to keep my voice from wavering. Any second now Darren would be turning the tables around. Any second now I’d be turning the tables around. But I couldn’t figure a way out of this. I couldn’t figure out a way to win.

“The kid, or the black girl.”

“No.” A lump formed in my throat, and my breath was on the verge of stopping completely.

“Scar, it’s okay. Save Seven.” Sasha smiled at me sadly, face scrunching a bit when the knife at her throat began to draw blood.

“Sasha, no. I’ll figure something out. Hang on.”

Tana began to laugh, a high-pitched screech of a laugh that penetrated my nerves and shredded them to pieces. “As fun as this is,” She began. “We have somewhere to be.”

“No!” I screamed, as Tana waved her hand in the air.

In the second it took for my arrow to land itself in Tana’s throat, Sasha gave me a smile, looked towards heaven, and hit the ground as the woman ran her knife along her throat. The man holding Seven pulled the trigger at the same time as Darren, and they fell to the ground together.

I fell to my knees, screaming for Sasha. Screaming for Seven. Screaming for safety.

I heard Natalie shriek.

I heard Darren yell and watched him hit the ground and quit moving.

I felt the heavy object hit the back of my skull.

I saw one of our fallen move.

And then I heard, felt, and saw nothing as the world went black.