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Karmine spins, and I admire how perfect her braid is as I follow her down the steps.
My feet are sore from running on these stupid hard floors, my butt hurts from the stupid stairs, my face aches, and my scalp is still throbbing, but being here, in the presence of this badass woman, I feel a little badass myself.
Karmine stops at the open entrance to the second level, standing guard, and waves me to go past her down the stairs.
I hurry down the steps on my bare feet and mentally pat myself on the back for taking my socks off. Boots would obviously be better, but I never would have made it to the stairs, to Karmine, if I was sliding all over the place.
I wait on the middle landing for Karmine to pass me, then follow her again.
The noise is louder down here. So loud I can feel the vibrations.
It feels like I’ve been dropped into the middle of an action movie.
The staircase we’re on isn’t a grand one ending in a foyer, but rather one that spits us out in the center of the house, in the middle of that endless hallway.
We’re almost to the main level, and all I can see from here is a knocked-over decorative table next to a closed door and then the hallway disappearing on either side.
I’m right behind Karmine, and I take the last step without seeing the shattered porcelain all over the floor.
Little shards dig into the soles of my feet, but before I can recoil—or cry—the door opposite us flies open.
Karmine shoves me to the side just as bullets slam into the stairs we just descended.
“Go down!” Karmine shouts at me as she flattens herself against the wall, returning fire.
Down?
I look behind me and see that the stairs continue down into the basement.
Oh hell no.
I hesitate for one second, but then a hailstorm of bullets chips away at the steps above and I decide the basement is a perfectly fine place to go.
The first step sends bolts of pain through my feet.
I want so badly to reach down and brush away the pieces that are embedding themselves into my feet, but when Karmine shouts something about backup, I decide to suck it the fuck up and keep going.
Hans ran after me with a bullet hole in his leg. I can walk with some broken pottery in my feet.
I slip on the final step, my soles now slick with blood, but I keep my balance and peer around the edge of the wall.
A gross, prickling feeling covers my body.
This level isn’t like the other ones. Instead of marble and chandeliers, the floors and walls are smooth cement, and the ceiling has recessed lighting, giving off a dim glow. And instead of one long hallway, this one breaks off in three directions. Left, right, or straight. And after a few yards, the halls turn. Like they were designed to be a jagged maze.
This just went from action movie to horror film.
I have to fight against the urge to curl up in the corner and wait for Hans.
He knows I’m here. Karmine knows where I went. Once again, I just need to keep myself intact until Hans can find me.
“Fuck you!” Karmine’s shout echoes down the stairs, and Irock paper scissorsin my mind and take off to the left.
I try to shift my weight off the balls of my feet, but pretty much my entire body is sore, so I end up hobbling.
Bracing my left hand on the wall, I hold the gun out ahead of me as I go.
My feet are tracking bloody footprints, so it’s not like it would be hard for someone to follow me, but I want to keep moving. It feels safer.
