Page 21 of Sawyer’s Mistake

Saoirse’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank God you’re here! Please help Sawyer!”

“Are you okay, Saoirse?” Eva said.

Storme, Zander, and Prado flanked Sawyer. None of them were as big as the Remur, but the four of them together, advancing in a concerted attack, made a formidable enemy line. The Remur seemed to notice the same thing, for he suddenly took a step back. He looked at the door and grunted loudly.

“Oh no you don’t,” Storme said. He feinted left, then right, and jumped high up into the air. The large, curved blade in his hand went straight into the Remur’s chest, right between the bone formations. The Remur howled in pain. His claw came up, attempting to slice Storme open, but the soldier jumped back just in time. The outraged Remur tried to follow him and came straight against Prado’s laser gun. The laser burned through the Remur’s eye, turning everything it encountered to mush. The giant toppled like a felled tree, dead before he hit the ground.

Saoirse realized Jake was still protecting her. He’d moved back so he was standing in front of her again. Should Storme, Zander, and Prado have fallen, the Remur would still have had to go through him before getting to her. She wanted to cry. She rushed up to him, saw the way his shoulders were shaking. He sagged and started falling, and she readied herself to take his weight. She wouldn’t let him fall.

#

Jake

Sawyer swayed. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. He felt his eyesight go blurry and looked around to see Saoirse standing next to him. Zander appeared out of nowhere.

Between the two of them, they lowered him onto the floor. The movement led the bindings on his left wrist to tighten further. This time, he felt the bone shatter. He howled in agony.

“Shit, we need to get these chains off of him,” Zander growled. “J, bring the cutter.”

Sawyer wanted to tell him the chains were pretty much the least of his worries at the moment but couldn’t find the breath.

He lost control of his stomach and threw up all over Saoirse’s trainers. He half expected her to recoil in disgust, but she just came closer and lifted his head onto her lap.

“Turn him on his side,” Zander instructed, reaching for his shoulders. “Make sure he doesn’t choke.”

Sawyer knew the moment Zander saw the alien bindings, because his friend’s body went very still.

“Fuck, it’s a live binding.” Zander’s dark eyes went wide. “Storme!”

His friend’s gray eyes connected with his. “Shit, Jake, you’ve really gone and done it this time.”

Sawyer tried to smile, but it turned into a grimace.

Prado came up with a pair of cutters and used them on the chains, which clanged to the floor. Being able to move his arms from their wrenched position should have brought some relief, but the agony of his left wrist pretty much canceled out any other signals his brain might be receiving.

Behind him, Zander moved in for a closer look. “We’ve got minutes if we want to save his arm, Storme.”

Sawyer wanted to tell them he could hear them, that they didn’t need to speak as if he wasn’t there, but didn’t think he could stop howling if he unclenched his teeth long enough to do that.

Behind him, he felt Saoirse stiffen. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you removing that damned thing? Storme? Eva?” Her voice sounded close to panic.

Eva sighed. “We’ll explain when we’re outside, Saoirse. We need to get out of here before the Remur find the bodies we’ve left lying around on our way here.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you explain it. Why aren’t you helping him?” she sobbed.

Eva tugged purposefully on Saoirse’s arm. “Saoirse, if you want Sawyer to keep his arm, we need to get out of here now.”

The smaller woman nodded tearfully. She looked like she might be going into shock. He wanted so badly to go to her.

“Ready, man?” Storme asked, standing between him and Saoirse.

Sawyer let his friend pull him up to a standing position. Storme looped his arm around his right side, taking up most of his weight. They walked through what seemed to him endless corridors. Sawyer realized Storme was taking more and more of his weight. His friend’s muscles strained with the effort of holding him up. Finally, at the top of a set of stairs, they stopped for a second.

“It’s all clear,” Zander said. “From here on, we need to run.”

Run? I can’t even walk.

“This is going to hurt, Jake, I’m sorry,” Storme said softly as he bent in front of him. Sawyer felt himself lifted over his friend’s shoulder in a fireman carry. He caught a brief glimpse of the side of the building before his world was reduced to the dust raised by Storme’s combat boots as they sprinted towards the forest.