I raise my rifle and fire back, the shots in such close proximity making my ears ring. When a shadow jumps toward us, adrenaline shrieks through my veins and I nearly blow his head off, luckily recognizing Mako’s enormous shoulders at the last second.
“Cover me,” I shout to him. “I need to get Poppy out of here.”
“Got you,” he yells back, then unleashes an entire clip at the soldiers attempting to advance at the far end of the corridor. I’m starting to see them more clearly. The navy-blue uniforms. Gleaming black steel of their weapons.
As Mako provides cover fire, I pull Poppy to her feet and throw her toward the ladder. “Go!”
“I won’t leave Mom!” she says stubbornly.
“I’ll get her. Just go, Poppy.”
Once she’s halfway up the ladder, I race over to help Mako, who’s still taking fire from the figures at the end of the hall. He’s managed to hold them off, but they’re moving again, in formation. I fire and one of the Silver Block soldiers collapses. So does my heart for a moment, as a thought occurs to me.
What if Cross is here?
No.
He can’t be.
Cross is the captain of Silver Block. He wouldn’t be in this hallway, just another boot on the ground. If anything, he’s calling shots somewhere above this bunker.
The other soldiers keep coming. Mako takes one out, then another.
“Fiona,” I shout toward the general vicinity I saw her take cover in, but if she answers, I don’t hear her over the gunfire.
They’re closing in, but our aim is true. Mako and I provide cover for each other, and one by one, the soldiers drop like flies. Determination floods my body as I fire at the enemy. I need to get to Fiona, damn it. It feels like an eternity before Mako takes out the last man standing, and the corridor goes silent.
Deadly, eerily silent.
Smoke and gunpowder clog my nostrils. I’m breathing heavily. I keep my rifle up even as I scramble toward the last place I saw Fiona.
When I turn the corridor, my heart jumps into my throat.
She’s half sitting, half slumped against the wall, clutching her side. It’s hard to tell in the smoky hallway, but her face has lost all color. I see the red stain spread all over the left side of her body and lunge toward her.
“Fiona,” I say urgently. “Where were you hit?”
I press down on her side, trying to stop the bleeding, but I have no idea where it’s coming from, and soon my hands are slick with her blood.
Her breathing is shallow, her voice barely a whisper as she says, “Too…late…”
“Stop. Nothing is too late. Let’s get you out of here.”
As her blood seeps through my fingers, I can see her eyes starting to glaze over.
“Gut…shot,” she wheezes. “And…lung…”
Panic clamps around my throat. Shit.
“Lung’s filling…with blood.”
I swallow my fear. “Can you try to heal yourself?”
She tries to shake her head, but she’s so weak it’s barely perceptible. “Doesn’t work that way.”
Mako stumbles around the corner, halting when he sees Fiona. “Oh shit.”
I look up at him. “You need to go. Get everyone to the airfield.”
