by Jon Gerrard
Paige and James were nearing the end of the aisle when they saw a guard squirming through the window. He dropped awkwardly to the floor and another guard poked his head into the opening and began wiggling his way through as well. For a moment Paige had a memory flash of a nature show she had seen recently where maggots were squirming one by one out of a dead animal’s carcass.
Paige wasted no time. Sprinting past the end of the aisle she took a few last running steps and launched herself at the guard who was just picking himself up from the floor.
The guard heard her approaching and quickly tried to raise his weapon but Paige grabbed his rifle with both hands and twisted, wrenching it lose from his grip. At the same time she twisted her body around in midair and wrapped her legs around the head of the next man trying to squeeze through the window. She tightened her legs around the guard’s head and arched her back, using her momentum to pull him through the window and slam him to the floor.
As he struggled to get his breath back, she spun on the first guard, reversed her grip on the rifle she had taken from him and swung like she was going for a home run. The stock of the gun connected with the side of his head with a solid smack, spinning him around.
Even as the first guard was toppling to the floor, Paige threw herself down at the guard she had pulled through the window. She drove down at him with her elbow, striking him below the bottom edge of his vest. The man emitted a satisfying grunt as she kicked out with her feet, flipping herself backward over his prone form to end up kneeling on his chest. Drawing back her arm she delivered a straight punch to his mouth.
His head bounced once on the floor and he lay still.
From her position beneath the window she took a second the scan the room. She saw the bullet-riddled bodies of Zeus and the guard he had cornered. The guard lay half concealed in shadow, sparing her a clear view of what was left of his face, while the dog’s body lay several feet away where it had been blasted by the machine gun fire. Crouched on the floor beside Zeus’ body she saw Apollo whining mournfully as he repeatedly nudged his partner in an attempt to wake him up. She didn’t need Shay’s power to feel the dog’s anguish.
Suddenly Paige became aware of something moving in the window above her. She dove forward reflexively, springing from her hands to her feet, landing in a defensive crouch several yards away facing the window. Another guard was leaning through the window holding his rifle before him as he readied to shoot her. Paige was coiled to leap aside when the guard suddenly dropped his weapon and began fanning his hands in the air as he yelped in pain. Smoke curled up from the gun.
With her senses in a heightened state she heard a faint sound behind her. She spun, sensing the movement of air and the smell of gun oil, and whipped her arm up to deflect the barrel of a machine gun that was being swung in her direction.
Two more guards had already pulled themselves through the opening and had started down one of the side aisles before she and James arrived on the scene. As she held the gun barrel pointed away from her she kicked up, driving her heel under the first guard’s chin. His head snapped back and he fell, bowling over the man behind him, taking both of them down in a tangle of limbs. Paige dropped the gun and leaped at them.