Meanwhile, I walked next to them, apprehension filling me. Something about this didn’t feel right. It was too easy. I hadn’t felt great about the mess we had made in the hallway but I didn’t expect it to be this easy. We should be surrounded. There were cameras everywhere and Tommy hadn’t been able to disable all of them. It felt like a trap. It felt like a trick.
“I wouldn’t call it easy…” Liam said, when I voiced my concern. “Besides, don’t jinx it. We still have to make our way out of here and meet with the others, given that they’ve succeeded.”
“So what are the others doing, if not rescuing me?” Ash asked as we made our way down the hallway. We passed the pile of bodies but Liam and I didn’t say a word and Ash continued without comment.
“Disabling the Awakened program,” I said, hurrying toward the staircase.
“Wait. What?” he asked, incredulously, coming to a halt. I grabbed his arm and started hauling him with me. We had no time for stopping.
Liam flung the door open and motioned us both forward. We all stepped through and started rushing up the stairs.
“You guys are kidding right?” He sounded out of breath as we raced up the stairs. He winced a couple times as his feet landed on the hard concrete stairs. He was hurt, more than just on the surface, but we didn’t have time now to take inventory. We had to get out of here.
We slowed when we reached the hallway where we’d split up with the others. They weren’t here. I halted, shooting a worried glance up at Liam.
“It’s fine,” he spoke up, answering my silent question. “Their task was harder than ours. We had to sneak down to get Ash. They had to sneak into Razi’s office to shut down the program.”
“This plan just keeps getting better all the time,” Ash mumbled under his breath. His fingers brushed over his forehead and he winced. I zeroed in on him sharply and he smiled, dismissing my concern.
“I don’t know, Liam,” I said, looking around. My eyes spotted the familiar black globes that concealed the cameras around Sekhmet.
“They’re going to meet us here. That’s the plan. They’ll be here,” Liam repeated.
“You’re right,” I said, taking a deep breath. “They’re totally going to show up.”
Liam wasn’t paying attention to me. He was staring behind me and Ash, his eyes wide and his face pale. “What are you doing here? Why are you here?”
Ash and I turned around. I knew who was there before I even turned. She had probably been behind us the entire time. I had known from the beginning that there was no way that she would have stayed behind.
“Astrid. Are you kidding me right now?” Liam’s voice was rising and I glanced around nervously. “I left you behind for a reason. All I wanted to do was to keep you safe and you couldn’t even listen to that. God, how did you even get in here?”
Astrid glared at him. “Are you going to pause for breath to let me explain or do you even want to know?”
I took in her appearance and my mouth dropped open when I realized what she was wearing. “Wait, Liam…” I said, reaching my hand out to stop him.
None of us got the chance to say anything else. An explosion shook everything around us. I crashed to the ground, landing on my elbows. The pain ricocheted up my arm and tears sprung up in the corner of my eyes. Debris covered us and I felt a hard body cover mine.
“Stay down, stay down.” I could barely hear Ash’s voice, though I could feel the warmth of his breath on my ear. I felt like the inside of a bell; all I could hear was ringing. I was covered in dust and who knows what else. I coughed and Ash rolled off of me. Liam was rolling himself into a crouched position. He looked around wildly.
“Where’s Astrid?” he asked, frantically. My eyes scanned the chaos around us. The explosion had happened above us, judging by the chunks of wall and ceiling surrounding us.
“Liam? Zoey?” Astrid’s weak voice came from our right and we all turned. I spotted an arm underneath a large slab of ceiling. We moved as quickly as we could over the mess. Astrid was trapped. I could only see a slender arm peeking out. “Ash, help me,” Liam said, bending over. I opened my mouth to protest but immediately closed it at the determined look on Ash’s face. The two of them bent over, grabbing the heavy wall in their hands and lifting. I raced forward, grabbing Astrid’s arms and pulling her out. She was a disaster. Her hair was in knots and covered in so much dust, it looked gray. There was blood streaked across her face and it dripped from a gash on her forearm.
“Astrid, are you okay?” I asked, feeling stupid for even asking the question. She stumbled and I pulled her closer to me.
Her small hand was trembling as she covered her mouth. She coughed and when she pulled her hand back, it was deep red. The three of us looked at her with concern but she waved us off. “I’m fine. I’m fine, Liam,” she insisted sharply at Liam’s disbelieving look.
“We need to move. Now.” I said, slinging my arm across Astrid’s back.
The rubble blocked the hallway that had led us in. it should have been our way out. The four of us exchanged looks before scanning over our shoulders in the direction of the stairwell.
The stairs were blocked and it took both Liam and Ash to push enough of the plastered walls out of the way to make a path for us to climb through. We all paused when we made our way through the door. The air was clearer in the stairwell but it had not been spared from the impact.
“Ours or theirs?” Astrid managed to get out between shallow breaths. She was clutching her side in pain, leaning against the wall.
“What?” Liam asked, leaning over her. Worry was etched all over his handsome features and his hands floated uselessly in the air in front of her.
“Do you think the explosion was ours or theirs?” Ash asked, filling in the blanks.
Liam and I exchanged looks. Every part of me hurt. I was covered in blood and I didn’t even know how much of it was mine. And I was worried, worried about our four companions who were floors above us. They very well could’ve been the cause of that explosion. They very well could have been dead.
“I don’t know but we need to keep moving,” Liam finally said. Astrid nodded, even as another tremor of pain jolted across her face. “I know, honey, I know but we need to keep going.”
“There are…” she swallowed hard and I watched as her face grew even paler. She coughed again and blood splattered down her front. She wiped it away, impatiently, but her movements were slow and jerky. She didn’t look that hurt on the outside but I was no expert. She could have been hurt on the inside. We needed to get her out of here. We needed to get her to Hoover or Sanctuary as soon as possible.
“Shh, Astrid, save your strength.”
“But…” she protested weakly. She swayed for a moment and then pitched to the side. Before she could crash to the ground, Liam was there, his arms scooping her up. Her eyes were closed and relief filled me when I saw the rise and fall of her chest.
“Liam…” I started to say but I stopped immediately at the look on his face. “Up or down?”
He sighed. “We need to get the hell out of here. We can’t wait for the others; we have to hope that they get out. Astrid and Ash need medical attention and they’re not going to get it if we stick around much longer.” He sighed again and shifted Astrid in his arms. “Up. Let’s go.”
Each step felt like agony. I knew we needed to move faster but I couldn’t. None of us could. Ash’s face was hard and white and pain flashed across it with each step. Astrid was small and light but Liam was hurt and I could see the strain on his face. Our pace was slow and impossible. We were going to get caught.
There was blood on my shoes and each step was slippery. I couldn’t get a grip on the stairs and I kept losing my footing. My hand clutched the handrail. One more step, Zoey. You can do this. One more step.
“I need to take a break,” Liam finally gasped. He stumbled into the guardrail and Ash and I both rushed forward, reaching for Astrid. The four of us were hopeless and we had barely made i
t up three flights of stairs.
“We need another plan, Liam,” I said in between heavy breaths. “We’re sitting ducks here.”
Liam closed his eyes briefly, his brow furrowed. There was a streak of blood across his nose but he didn’t seem to notice it.
“You need to get out of here, with Astrid,” Ash spoke up. “This is the last place she should be.” Ash’s eyes met mine and I could see a plan brewing behind his eyes. It didn’t matter what he was going to suggest; I would be there right by his side, no matter what.
Liam started to shake his head but I immediately interrupted him. “Don’t argue. Get out of here.”
“You’ll get caught,” Liam protested.
Fear sat like a lump in the back of my throat. I would rather die than be in the hands of Razi again. “Maybe we will. Maybe we won’t. But if we continue like we are, we’ll all be caught and I won’t be able to live with that.”
“Go,” Ash insisted. “Get the hell out of here. Get her out of here.” He held his hand out for Liam’s rifle. Liam stared at the both of us for a long moment before handing it over.
“Guys, I can’t…” He looked helpless as Ash took the rifle and slung it across his own back.
“Don’t say it,” I said. I hugged him, the best I could with Astrid in his arms. He kissed the top of my head and I squeezed him tighter. People who loved and cared like Liam existed so rarely and they were even more rare in this world. “Go.”
Liam stepped away and looked down at Astrid, still passed out in his arms. His eyes were red but his face was set and determined. He readjusted her and turned back to us. “I love you guys,” he said, his voice hoarse.
I pressed my lips together and grabbed Ash’s arm. “We’ll see you in Hoover. I promise.” The two of us faced the door with a large number 3 printed on it. I took a deep breath and pushed my way through it, Ash at my heels.
It was time to make some noise.
THE HALLWAYS WERE quiet except for the squeak of our shoes on the slick floor. We took each step carefully, listening for anyone approaching. There was no way to hide our trail. Both of us were a mess, covered in blood. Each bloody footprint left behind a calling card right to our location.
Nothing looked familiar. I had no sense of direction in here. I had only spent time in a few rooms when I was here and I never went anywhere without an escort. We took turns at random. They knew we were here. They had run into the others and they had to know that Ash was missing out of his room by now. So why weren’t they attacking?
We had to make a scene. Liam and Astrid were making their way out of Sekhmet and we had to make it easier on them. What I wouldn’t have done for a pack of Awakened or Sekhmet guards at that moment.
“Did you see what Astrid was wearing?” Ash finally spoke up, his voice barely above a whisper.
I nodded. “She was in a Sanctuary uniform. When she left, she was in normal clothes. She was in normal clothes the entire time we were in Hoover. Where did she get those?”
Ash hesitated as he checked around the next corner. He nodded and we both continued down the hallway. “You don’t think…you don’t think they’re here? Sanctuary?”
I nearly laughed. “When they told me that you had been taken and Liam asked them what they were going to go, they just looked at him. They looked at him like he was crazy.” I made a face, mimicking Octavia’s voice. “We will not risk the lives of Sanctuary citizens for one boy.”
Ash snorted, shaking his head. “That sounds about right. So where exactly are we going if we get out of this situation?”
My face lit up for the first time since I had walked into that room and seen him alive. “Hoover. We are going to Hoover.”
He looked confused for a moment. “As in, Liam’s Hoover?”
We came up to a fork and we stopped for a moment. “Yeah. We ran into them on the way here and we stayed with them for a couple days. And Ash, it’s amazing. It’s this incredible community. They’re like a family. It’s not a prison like Sanctuary. Everyone there is actually living, not just surviving.”
Ash’s arm reached for me, sliding around my waist and he tugged me toward him. His eyes searched mine for a moment and the crooked smile I loved so much stretched across his face. “We’ll go. We’ll make it there. You and me, always.”
“Always,” I repeated, my fingers gripping him tightly before he let me go.
“Are you ready to go home?” he stepped back.
I smiled up at him. “Yeah, let’s get the hell out of here.”
It was at that moment that there was a loud bang to our left. We whirled around, just in time to see a door swing open. Several Awakened came bursting into the crowded hallway. Our weapons were in our hands immediately. Ash looked down at me, a grin on his face, and I couldn’t help it. I grinned back.
“I love you,” he told me.
“I love you too,” I said, as the Awakened spotted us and came sprinting down the hallway. Nothing else needed to be said. We didn’t hesitate. We didn’t wait for them to come to us. We threw ourselves into the fight.
The fight was pure chaos. They outnumbered us four to one. I ducked and dove and shot round after round of bullets. The hallway was narrow, an advantage as they couldn’t bombard us but we were getting tired. This was nothing like either of us had seen before. They just kept coming.
My feet slipped in the dark blood of an Awakened at my feet and I fell into the wall, sending a shock of pain through my spine. I winced as a hard body collided with mine. My elbow jabbed into my assailant’s stomach and I heard a groan. Placing my palms against the wall, I pushed myself off kicking out with my leg. I felt it land and he went sprawling to the ground. I ducked a blow from another and my knife went six inches deep into the neck of my fallen assailant. I yanked it out, ignoring the sick noise it made as it was pulled from the flesh, and stabbed the one I had just avoided right in the face.
I was getting tired and I was losing count of how many I’d taken down. There was a pile of bodies and we had to back up to keep ourselves on solid fighting ground. We were going to run out of space soon and I didn’t know where else to go. I was exhausted and they kept coming. My wish for attacking Awakened had come true and I cursed myself for even thinking it. This wasn’t like an Awakened attack in the woods. This was right in the heart of Sekhmet. I had no idea what kind of numbers Razi had under her command. She could have thousands, millions even.
With each Awakened that came bursting into the hallway, my heart sank. Something had gone wrong. The Awakened program should have been down by now.
Ash went flying to the ground. An Awakened landed on top of him, large and strong. Ash’s face was pale and he was covered in blood. I’d lost track of how much was his own. He was struggling against the Awakened and he’d lost the rifle at some point.
I moved toward him but another, smaller Awakened blocked my path and I stopped short. Her arms reached for me and I ducked, sending a kick into her stomach. She growled, angry, and punched in my direction. My hand wrapped around her arm and I flipped her. She landed hard, blinking several times, and I shot her straight in the forehead before she could recover.
I spun around and aimed at the large Awakened wrestling with Ash. He had gotten the upper hand and I shot at him, missing him completely, the bullet lodging itself into the plaster wall behind him. I cursed loudly and shot again, landing it this time, straight in the back of his neck. He collapsed on top of Ash and I helped him push the heavy body off.
The two of turned toward the hallway, where more Awakened were heading our way. We were both breathing heavily. “Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded, looking like he could vomit at any moment. His shirt was sticky with blood and his hand was pressed tightly to his ribs. He couldn’t do this much longer. He was already injured before the fight and this was just making it worse.
I spotted the door to the stairs. We would have to get to it fast. We couldn’t keep fighting. There were too many of them and we weren’t
as strong and resilient as them. “Ash, you have to be ready to run, okay?” His head bobbed up and down. He looked like he was going to pass out. “When I say so….go!”
I shouted the last part and the two of us took off sprinting. Even injured, Ash kept a good pace. The Awakened were coming straight at us. We just had to beat them by a few seconds but they were faster and they weren’t tired like us. I didn’t even know if they got tired. We slipped and slid on the blood-coated floor and collided with the door.
“Go, go, go!” I screamed. I yanked at the handle, pulling the door open, and we slipped our way through. We took a moment to take a breath and then, without a word, went running up the stairs.
Ash stumbled a few times as we made our way and I reached for him each time, pulling him to his feet. His eyes fluttered open and closed. He was getting slower. I cursed myself for letting him come up with this plan. We should have just gone with Liam and Astrid. Everything about this was stupid.
We made our way up to the first floor and practically fell through the door into the hallway, colliding right into someone. I reached for my gun but halted when I saw who was in front of me. It was Tommy, Nathan, Erik and Kris, looking fairly beat up but thankfully alive.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Erik said, cheerfully wiping a smear of blood out of his eyes. “I see you were successful.” He looked over at Ash and his brows furrowed when he saw the state he was in.
“Yeah, and apparently you weren’t,” I retorted. “We met some of our scary friends downstairs.”
Tommy sighed. “Yeah, they’re everywhere. We’ve been running circles trying to get onto the 7th floor, to Razi’s office, but Awakened keeps stopping us. She’s always had a lot of them stationed here but this is ridiculous. They’re everywhere. Not to mention she tried to blow us up.”
“Yeah, we were right below that,” Ash spoke up. His voice was weak. I hoped he could hang on just a little big longer.
Tommy winced. “Sorry about that.” He looked around and frowned. “Where’s Liam?”
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