"Look," Lys whispered to them as they stopped suddenly near a heavy-looking metal door. The door was slightly ajar with what looked like a metal surgical table jammed in the door. Lys approached carefully, keeping his gun raised and ready to shoot anything that moved. He slowly slithered around the door and peered into the room. Lys gasped, which made Echo jump and Ro shriek.
"It's okay," Lys assured them quickly. "Something happened in here, though." He motioned for them to come around the door and take a look, so they did.
The whole room was in ruins. The surgical tables and medical equipment had been thrown about the room. The monitors were all smashed and three men in white coats lay sprawled on the floor. One had an IV jammed into his throat, and the other two looked like they had been beaten to death. Further in the room a large man lay crumpled on the floor. He was absolutely huge!
The man had short, blond hair and a flat, boxer's face. He was shirtless and his muscles were slick with sweat and blood. Five bullet holes were visible in his back and his dead eyes stared unblinkingly back towards the door. Echo quickly closed her eyes to shut out the sight. The muscled giant was a Chosen, she was almost certian. He had killed those scientists, but had not survived the fight.
Lys crept in and checked the scientists weapons, but it looked like they were all empty, so he did not take them. "Let's keep moving," he suggested, his face tight with an emotion Echo could not quite put her finger on. He looked angry and sad and determined all at once.
They left the room and followed the voices further in. Echo could begin to make out words.
"Get us out!"
"Hurry up!"
"What's taking so long?"
"Hurry before someone else comes!"
"What the hell is taking you so long, Loch?"
At this last voice everyone froze. Echo could hear Ro quickly gasp and then hold her bretah. Lys went completely rigid. For a few, agonizing seconds, no one moved.
"Lys..." Echo started.
"Can't be," Lys muttered, mostly to himself. "Must have heard wrong." Still he started moving again with renewed vigor. Echo looked back at Ro and saw that she was crying. She grabbed the older girl's hand, trying to comfort her.
"Come on," Echo whispered, "Let's go."
Ro nodded stiffly and followed.
*
Bold was having a hell of time keeping up with Maddox and Irvine. They dashed from corner to corner, peering out from behind walls and doors to quickly take out anyone they saw running about in a white coat. It was all Bold could do to stay low and out of the way.
Maddox was an excellent shot, he noted. And Irvine wasn't bad either. They had taken out several doctors without even blinking and had even granted Bold one of their weapons.
They were quickly approaching their destination. The main security room for the whole lab was the only place where they could turn off the alarms and shut off the lockdown procedure. It was, as they had predicted, heavily guarded and swarming with people, all of whom seemed to be armed.
Bold was cursing violently the whole time he chased after the two older men.
"We need to find the head honcho," Irvine was hissing to Maddox.
"Remember what he looks like?" Maddox returned.
Irvine's respone was a nod. "If Lucien is right, he should be here trying to direct everyone and neutralize the threat."
"You mean us," Bold interjected. Irvine grinned and nodded in affirmation.
They all ducked into an empty room to catch their breath and investigate the situation. The main security room was just ahead and buzzing with activity. Those scientists that were armed were organizing themselves in groups of two and were splitting up to find the Chosen who had broken in.
"We'll grab them and take hostages when they come this way," Maddox told them. "Bold, you stay behind us and cover the rear."
Bold nodded, he was glad Maddox didn't expect him to be doing any hostage-taking. He was fourteen and Asian and not exactly built to be grabbing human shields.
A pair of doctors was heading down the hall towards them. They stopped to check the room they were hiding in. As they opened the door and came in, Maddox and Irvine suddenly errupted from behind the door where they were hiding and grabbed the two from behind, pressing their guns firmly into their temples.
"No funny business now," Maddox growled. "I've about had it up to here with you assholes. I'm so irritated right now, one little twitch might just make my finger slip, understand?" He sounded positively murderous. Even Bold was getting chills. The man in Maddox's hand started to nod, and then stopped as if afriad Maddox would shoot him for that.
Maddox seemed convinved of the man's cooperation so he led them back out into the hall. Bold exited last, covering the group from behind in case someone tried to sneak up on them. He sincerely hoped no one did. He wasn't sure if he would be able to shoot anyone.
Maddox and Irvine forced their way into the security office, where those still inside stopped dead and stared. The head security officer swore and put his hands in the air.
"Turn off the damned alarms or I'll shoot every last one of you." Maddox snapped. What choice did they have? The security officer placed a key from around his neck into the control panel and turned it. Instantly the lights were back on and that horrible wailing stopped. Bold breathed a sigh of relief and Irvine relaxed visibly. That alarm was really starting to get annoying.
*
Lys was practically running when they finally found the source of the voices. He forgot about being careful and took off running once they were close.
"Lys! Stop!" Echo called after him, but it was no use. Ro shot off as well shortly after, leaving Echo no choice but to follow them, cursing them for idiots. At this rate they were going to just plow headfirst into a guard who would shoot them without a second thought.
They wheeled around one final corner and came across exactly what they were looking for. The entire long hallway was lined with cells with large metal bars allowing Echo to look into each one and see who was inside. Cell after cell of captured Chosen filled the halls. They all looked weary and malnourished and terrified. It was enough to make Echo want to break down and cry right there. But she couldn't, she had a job to do.
Ahead of her, Lys and Ro were still running. Echo could see who they were running to as well. Near a T-interesction there was a boy standing near one of the cells where a woman was anxiously encouraging him to shoot off the lock on her cell door and set her free.
The boy was tall and thin, and his hair was long and dirty. His nose was a little too large, as were his eyes, but his features weren't displeasing. Echo knew immediately who he was. He looked exactly how Shy had described him: just like Lys only a bit bigger and a bit better looking.
Ro wailed when she saw him and Loch turned around. His eyes went as wide as saucers when he saw her. His gun fell to the floor as he gaped.
"Loch!" Ro screamed, throwing herself towards him. Loch's arms opened up to welcome her, the beginnings of a smile touching his lips. Ro had at some point passed Lys as they raced down the hallway, but Lys wasn't far behind her. "Jesus Christ, Loch!" He was swearing. Echo couldn't see his face but she knew he was smiling. Echo felt herself smile as well. This made it all worth it. To see these three, who loved each other, to be reunited...
BANG
A shot rang out suddenly. Echo whirled around to see where it came from, but couldn't see anyone.
BANG BANG
Two more shots came, and Echo heard Loch screaming. She looked and saw Ro falling to the ground, her expression shocked, as blood leaked in between her fingers.
"No!" Loch's voice nearly cut her heart in two, it was full of so much pain.
"RO!"
Chapter Twenty-Six
~*Fallen Goddess*~
Wrong. It was all so wrong. Lys stopped dead, stunned, as the shots echoed through the halls. Everything seemed to go silent all at once. Ro was running, reaching for Loch, when her advance was cut short. She jerked, stopped,
and looked stunned. She slowly brought her hand up to her stomach and felt the blood, looking horrifed. Two more shots came and she fell to the ground.
Already there was so much blood. Loch's face was frozen in horror. Suddenly, as if someone had hit a button, everything started moving again. Loch's face twistsed before Lys' very eyes into one of rage and pain.
"No!" Loch wailed, as if that would change something. He fell to his knees over Ro's still body. "RO!" He shrieked.
Lys could see the men advancing on them from down the hallway. Any second now they would shoot him and Loch too. But Lys didn't know what to do.
'Shoot them,' A faraway thought entered his mind. 'You should shoot them. That's what you should do.' Lys raised his stolen weapon and pointed it the men who had gunned down Ro. "Bastards," His voice was hoarse, he thought he might be crying.
click
Fuck.
The gun was empty. He stood there frozen. Loch was crouched over Ro and babbling to her. There was nothing else to do. He tried to reach for his other gun that he had tucked into his belt, but he knew he wouldn't make it in time. Time was slowling down. He could see the pair of gunmen slowly squeezing the triggers of their guns. His life would end here.
He closed his eyes and waited for death. He waiting for the sudden blow of the bullet and the coldness of dying. Instead all he felt was the blow that come from behind.
Lys was knocked off his feet just as he heard gunshots from frighteningly close to his ear. His hit the ground hard, but he didn't feel the expected pain or coldness.
Confused, he reached his arms up and felt his body, but there was no blood. Carefully he opened his eyes.
Echo. Beautiful Echo. She stood over him, legs planted firmly, gun held at arms length with the barrel pointed towards the two men who had come down the T-intersection and caught them all by surprise. There was still smoke snaking from the barrel of her gun.
The two gunmen lay crumpled on the floor, one bullet in each of them.
"Echo..." He managed to croak out. Suddenly Loch's voice was in his ears.
"Ro? Ro, please speak to me!" He gasped. He had the blonde's face in his lap and he was shaking all over. This was not the way Lys imagined their reunion would go. Lys didn't know what to do. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Meeting his brother again had made him feel so happy, so elated, that he hadn't even thought that things could go wrong. Not once he saw his brother's face before him. They were supposed to reunite and everything would be good again.
"Fuck!" Echo hissed. She tucked her gun away and fell to her knees next to Ro. She ignored Loch completely as he babbled and tried to get Ro to answer him.
Ro wasn't moving.
Lys was freaking out. Lock was freaking out. The multitude of Chosen still in cages were just staring, wide-eyed. It looked like everything was up to Echo now. She pulled Ro's limp hands away from the wounds in her stomach and chest. Three shots had ran out, but only two connected. One hit her in the abdomen a bit to the side. It was bleeding an awful lot, but that wasn't the one that worried her. A gaping red wound opened up in Ro's chest. Blood bubbled forth hideously as air escaped. The bullet had pierced Ro's chest almost dead center, just barely missing her heart, but it had created a sucking chest wound.
Echo had taken some first aid training before. Her instructors had told her what to do with a sucking chest wound, reluctantly. Mostly they had told her to get the person to a hospital right away.
At the moment that wasn't possible. She was only to try and treat such a wound as an absolute last resort.
Echo felt Ro's neck for a pulse. It was there, but just barely. She didn't have much time. "She's alive," she told the boys, her words coming out clipped and toneless. Loch and Lys looked at her as if they didn't understand what she was saying. "Not for long, though," Echo continued, "I need something..." She looked around desperately and spotted soemthing she could use in the cell they were all sitting outside.
The older woman in the cell looked pale and a little sick, but Echo caught her eye and said in a commanding voice, "Give me that." She pointed behind the woman to the meal tray sitting behind her, untouched. It looked like a TV dinner tray with plastic wrap still stretched over top.
The woman blinked at her, confused.
"Now!" Echo snapped.
The woman jumped and grabbed her food tray and slid it out to Echo.
"Lys, I need something like tape, see if you can find anything." Echo didn't wait around for a response. She heard Lys get up and stumble away as she ripped the plastic wrap off the food tray and started to tear it with her teeth into a smaller square.
Loch was staring at Ro in horror. For so long he'd been trapped in that horrible place, not even daring to think about seeing her again. Every time he thought about her it just brought back so much pain. He'd wanted to see her again so badly. And then... and then she was there. Like someone had answered his prayers. He thought he could have died happy in that moment. But now Ro was the one who was dying. Her face was already losing its colour. Blood was pooling underneath her. It was seeping underneath him even as he stared at her in disbelief. It was too cruel. Too cruel to finally see her again, only to have her torn away like this...
"You're Loch, right?"
The girl who had come with Ro and Lys was staring at him. Jesus, Lys was here too! In the excitement of seeing Ro he'd just barely had time to realize that Lys had come as well. And then the gunshots...
"Hey!" The girl snapped at him.
Loch looked up and tried to focus. Ro needed him now. The girl was small, lithe, auburn-haired and green-eyed. Her clothes were ratty and bloodstained. Her legs were folded under her and her jeans were nearly soaked through with Ro's blood. And still she looked in control. He found it incredibly comforting.
"I'm Echo," she said, once he seemed to be paying attention. Anything was better than having him freaking out and gibbering like an idiot.
Loch nodded at her, "Did Lys pick that out for you?"
Echo nodded back at him, knowing that he was asking about her name. "Don't give up, Loch. Ro is tough."
Loch bit his lip and looked back down at the girl he loved more than anything. He didn't know if tough would save her.
Lys returned suddenly with what looked like a first aid kit in his hands. "This whole place is set up for medical experiments. They've got all kinds of crap that could help us," Lys said as he dumped what he had found in front of Echo. "There's a room back there, we could take her-"
"No time," Echo cut him off, hurriedly grabbing a roll of medical tape and taping the piece of plastic wrap over Ro's chest wound. She taped it off on three sides and bent down to examine her handiwork. The wound sucked in the plastic and then blew it back out again, like a respirator. Echo seemed satisfied with it, though, and turned her attention to the other shot. "We need to stick to the plan. Start getting these people out. Loch," she looked him dead in the eye, "There probably a gurney or something-"
"I'll find one," he offered quickly, determined to be of some help.
"I'll start opening the cells. The lockdown should be off by now." Lys added, seeing where she was going with her instructions. Loch handed him his stolen passcard. He didn't know if it would work or not. It all depended on whether the others had managed to override the lockdown procedure yet. The brothers didn't even exchange any words, they just got on with it. Echo was relieved. For a moment she thought they were both going to break down and be completely useless.
Setting her mouth in a determined line, Echo focused her attention on Ro. "Hang in there, Ro," she growled, "Hang in there just a little longer."
*
Maddox had expected more resistence, but in the end the group of nerdy scientists were easy to cow. With Bold covering the door, he and Irvine were able to convince the head security officer to turn off the lockdown fairly quickly. Angry red lights began to turn green again, and he swore he could just about hear the exits hissing open again.
As a reward for being so co
operative, they let the doctors live. Maddox and Irvine tied them all up with a roll of duct tape they found lying around and left them there as they hurried to rendezvous with the rest of the group. There was very little resistence on the way out.
They were to all meet near the back entrance that the night-shift scientists used to avoid suspicion. After all, it would look strange if people were entering the building late at night when it was supposed to be closed. The underground labs were much bigger than their front up top, and the secret exit was nearly a full block away from the main entrance. Hopefully Shy had been able to move the bus there without too much trouble.
Even though they had supposedly rid themselves of all the major threats, Maddox still treaded carefully towards the back exits. Ant stragglers were quickly taken care of. They found the long hallway that would take them to the exit without much trouble. It was quiet. Lys and the others probably would be a bit longer. They would wait for them at the back door.
"Do you think Echo and the others are okay?" Bold wondered to the other men.
"They'll do fine," Irinve assured him, although his voice did not sound as confident as Bold would have liked. Bold couldn't help but have an uneasy feeling, though. Looking at Maddox and Irvine, he thought thye might have felt it too.
"You think something's gone wrong?" Irvine whispered.
Maddox's face was grim. He was about to suggest they go back and make sure the other group was okay when he say Lys come running around the corner. He let out a sigh of relief, and then immeidately took it back. Echo followed next, pushing a gurney ahead of her.
Ro lay on the gurney, her skin as pale as death. Her lips were turning blue but her clothes were stained with red. Echo and Lys too, he realized, were bloodsoaked.
"Ro!" Bold managed to squeak out, running to meet them halfway down the hall.
If it weren't for Ro's condition, Maddox would have been pleased as a pig in shit to see the haggard looking group follow Echo and Lys, led by none other than Lochinvar himself. As it were, all eyes were on the beautiful blonde girl who looked nearer to death than Maddox had ever seen anyone look while still hanging on.
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