“Fight for your future!”
The crowd erupted in screams. Kira ducked, and Marcus pulled her heavily to the ground. “You’re going to get shot up there!”
“I’m going to get shot everywhere!” she shouted, and turned back toward the hospital doors. The soldier who’d given her the pistol went down, and Kira quickly traced the path backward and shot the man who’d fired the bullet, firing twice. The ground before them began to clear, and Kira jumped up, dragging Marcus with her as she dashed ahead to the doors; Jayden and Xochi followed close behind. Almost as soon as they entered the building, Kira heard a burst of gunfire echoing down the corridor and dove to the floor behind a tall information desk.
“This is plywood,” said Jayden. “It’s not going to stop any bullets.”
“And the crowd outside is not entirely in our favor,” said Xochi. “I don’t like lying on the floor in full view of a revolution. We need a strategy.”
Jayden laughed grimly. “Press the attack and hope for the best.”
“Hope is not a strategy,” said Kira.
“It’s not plan A,” said Jayden, “and it shouldn’t be plan B, but it is every plan C that has ever been made.”
Kira nodded and took her shotgun back from Farad. “Then I’ll cover you — somebody with an effective range take out those shooters.” Before she had time to think better of it, Kira leaped to her feet and started firing down the hall, blast after blast from the shotgun. It was a long-barreled, single-shot weapon, useless in close quarters, but at medium range like this it laid down a devastating hail of buckshot that sent the loyalist soldiers ducking for cover. Jayden popped up beside her with his rifle, sighting carefully and taking quick, precise shots every time an enemy raised his head or stuck out his gun. Marcus and the others used the time to run ahead, staying well out of Kira’s line of fire, and when her trigger clicked on an empty chamber, she called out to Xochi, who took up position in a doorway and continued the barrage on her own. Kira and Jayden ran forward to join the others, and Kira threw herself into the room next to Marcus.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Same old, same old,” he said, clenching his teeth at the thundering booms that shook the walls and ceiling. “How about you?”
Kira nodded. “The cure’s okay?” She felt for it on Marcus’s waist, brushing his fingers briefly as he did the same. The syringe was intact and the padding was dry; nothing had broken or leaked out. She left her hand there for a moment longer, looking into Marcus’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. Xochi screamed defiantly behind them, ducking back to reload while Farad took up the fight.
“What, this?” asked Marcus, gesturing around. “Don’t worry about it — happens all the time.”
“You wanted to live in peace,” said Kira, loading fresh shells into her shotgun. “That’s all you’ve ever wanted, just the two of us together, and I wanted it too, but I—”
“I know,” said Marcus, all joking gone from his voice. “I wanted everything to stay the same, but you wanted things to be better. And you were right, and it’s going to be better, it’s just … going to be a whole lot worse for a while first. And I think I knew that, and I was scared of it.”
Farad grunted behind them, not a scream but a soft, guttural moan, and his body fell to the ground. Xochi cried out, and Kira turned pale at the sight, dragging him back out of the line of fire. Marcus felt his neck for a pulse, bending close to listen for breathing, but there was too much blood — there was no way he was still alive. Marcus shook his head, confirming her fears. “He’s gone.”
“What now?” asked Jayden. The hallways was eerily quiet now that no one was shooting, though faint sounds drifted in from the distance: muted screams and pops of gunfire from the outer grounds; wails of patients trapped and helpless in the hospital; desperate screams of tiny infants, burning alive as the fever ate their bodies. The four friends crouched in the room, trembling and terrified. Kira looked through the door, but all she could see were a few narrow feet of the opposite wall. Not knowing what was out there made her feel blind and deaf. Jayden reloaded his gun quickly and efficiently, though Kira could see his fingers shaking with fatigue and adrenaline. “One more on our list of failed plans,” he said. “We couldn’t sneak in, we’re sure as hell not sneaking back out again, and there’s no point dragging you up to the Senate. Straight to maternity?”
“Straight to maternity,” said Marcus. He grimaced, shaking his head. “Kira was ready to die so that we could give Arwen the shot; I think we should be ready to die for it, too. It’s only two more doors down — if we can get in and inject her, even if we never get back out, we’ve won. The baby will be saved, and thanks to our display outside, everyone will know who did it.”
Xochi took a breath. “You think we’re going to make it?”
“Only one of us has to,” said Jayden.
Marcus stood up, undoing his shirt and removing the belt with the cure. He looked at Kira, then picked up his rifle. “If only one of us lives through this, I’d kind of prefer it to be you. Are we ready for this?”
“No,” said Xochi, “but that’s never stopped us before.” She grabbed a rolling chair and waited just inside the door, looking back. Kira and the others checked their weapons and nodded, and Xochi pushed the chair out into the hallway.
A burst of gunfire filled the hall, and the four friends leaped out after it, firing wildly at the surprised gunmen who were aiming at the wrong moving object. Xochi led the way, stumbling as a round took her in the arm, but she was already to the maternity room and slammed into the door; it didn’t budge, so she stepped back, shot the lock, and fell through as the door swung open. Marcus followed more slowly, either aiming very poorly or missing on purpose, trying not to kill the enemy soldiers but to scare them into cover. It seemed to be working, and Kira and Jayden did their best to keep up a steady barrage as they jogged forward. Suddenly Xochi screamed, and Kira heard a gunshot. Marcus sprinted through the maternity door a moment later and Kira heard more shots, and then suddenly she was down, a sharp pain in her leg like nothing she’d ever experienced.
“Get up,” growled Jayden, firing wild bursts into the end of the hall. “I’m almost out — I can’t keep them down forever.”
Kira struggled to stand, but her leg felt limp and useless; blood soaked her pant leg and pooled around her on the floor. “I’ve been shot.”
“I know you’ve been shot, just get out of the hallway!”
Kira lunged forward, crawling on her hands, dragging her leg behind her. The pain was growing now, and she could feel her own consciousness fading as her blood pumped eagerly onto the floor. Jayden cursed and fired more carefully, saving his shots, trying to keep the soldiers at bay one bullet at a time. Kira pulled the cure from her shoulder and held it up.
“Take it and run,” she said. “Leave me here and save Arwen.”
“You know, Kira,” said Jayden, firing his last bullet and throwing down the rifle, “I don’t think you know me very well at all.” He stooped, grabbed her by the shoulder and waist, and heaved her up to her feet, surging backward toward the maternity door, keeping himself between Kira and the enemy. The soldiers fired, and Kira felt his body shake with one impact, then another; his breathing grew ragged, his pace slowed, but he never stopped. Kira clung to him, calling his name desperately as he groaned and cursed and wheezed. At last he tumbled sideways into the maternity door, and they collapsed to the floor.
“Jayden!” screamed a voice. Kira turned to see Madison crouching protectively over an intensive care incubator, and her heart sank.
Beside her was Haru, wild-eyed and disheveled, clutching a gun. He aimed it at Kira. “Drop your weapons.”
“Jayden!” Madison screamed again and tried to rush forward, but Haru stopped her with an iron grip on her arm.
“Stay here.”
“He’s hurt!”
“I said stay here!” Haru’s voice was like thunder, and Madison pulled back in fear. “We are not letting them near our baby.”
“Jayden,” Kira whispered, “stay with me.” She looked around quickly, seeing Xochi and Marcus both standing straight against the wall, their guns on the floor and their arms in the air. Marcus moved to help her, but Haru roared at him to stop.
“Do not move!”
