It’s Johnathan.
I take aim, hitting the man in the chest. He goes down where he stands. Turning around, I see a figure laying on the ground beside me.
“I love you,” the wounded person says, while clutching at the hole in her stomach.
Johnathan must have shot her.
“No, Mom!” I scream as I hit my knees beside her.
“Take care of Lydia,” she chokes as she reaches up and touches the feather pendant hanging down from my neck.
I hoist her head into my lap as I see Eli hit his knees beside me.
“Go,” she barely gets out as her fingers fall from the frills of the feather, resting on her chest.
For the next moment, we block out the gun shots, allow a moment of weakness, and say our goodbyes, as we watch our mother die, another casualty of this war.
Chapter Twenty
I don’t have a minute to cry or even feel sorry for myself, Eli, or Dia. Instead, we run as fast as we can, back through the tunnel of broken cars, back under the huge IOUSC sign carved into the broken, fallen, cement.
Eli and I bring up the rear, shooting anyone who attempts to follow us. A large metal grate begins its decent from the concrete block. I hadn’t noticed suspended overhead when we first came in. Eli and I, being the last ones in the group, escape under it with nothing to spare, but the skin of our teeth.
In the lead, Jake runs our group into a nearby roadway. We all freeze, not sure which way we should go or what we should do.
“That way,” Zac calls out. “It takes us further into the city. If I remember right, we need to go that way to get to The Elected.”
We all begin to run, but Robert, still unarmed, stays put where he stands.
“Come on,” Eli demands, as Robert stares his son in the eyes for a brief moment and then turns to begin to run the other direction.
“We need him,” I shout to Jake.
Jake spins around, grabbing the Colt 45 from Dia. He throws the safety off, aims the gun at Robert, and fires, grazing his hip, immobilizing him temporarily, but not all together.
“Get him,” Jake grunts towards Samantha as he hands my sister her gun back.
She puts the safety back on, before dropping it to her side.
“Out here you’re a sitting duck,” Eli says, walking up to the man who was once our father. “With us, you have a chance to live.”
“For now,” Samantha adds, she and Eli hoist him into a standing position, throwing his arms over their shoulders. Samantha makes sure to not be easy.
I think she likes causing people pain. Bad ones anyway.
He begins walking with us willingly, we have just taken his chances away from him of surviving on his own. For now, there is no need of him being bound, he knows we are his only hope.
Jake and Magi exchange a smile. Jake knows the shot missed all things important and it will be an easy heal, and Magi knows she can fix it at a moment’s notice. For now, he can be left thinking he is worse off than he is.
When we are a good mile away from The Facility, three trucks, matching the one we were taken in with IOUSC on them begin speeding in our direction.
“Run,” Jake yells.
We all begin to run further into the city, looking for a place to hide. The trucks are speeding our direction faster than I have ever seen a vehicle move.
“We won’t be able to outrun them for long,” Eli grunts, half dragging Robert behind he and Samantha.
“Look,” Zac yells, pointing at an opening in the road.
There is a hole in the road bigger than the ravine in the woods. The only way around it is to go back the way we came or traverse a two-foot path on the right side of it. The path is up against a very unstable looking building, making the path itself look unstable.
“If we could get across it,” I yell, “there would be no way to get to us.”
“Unless they know a way around,” Samantha says, pessimistically.
“Oh, shut up,” Mar snaps at her.
She scoffs in her direction.
“Let me go first,” Shawn offers.
He doesn’t wait for anyone to answer, he slings his gun over his shoulder, being ever so careful as to not throw his weight much in one direction or the other. The ground crumbles a bit as he walks, but he makes it to the other side.
“Now you, Leah,” he yells across, motioning her to come over to him.
Leah follows instructions.
Mar, Magi, Zac, Dia, and I go next, allowing as much space between us as possible, but now the trucks are less than two blocks away. They have slowed down, obviously noticing the hole in the road. Two guards jump out of the bed of the first truck, taking aim and shooting in our direction.
Shawn and Leah take out the first two guards as they cover the rest of us going over the walkway.
Jake makes his way over, taking aim at the front tire of the first truck. A loud noise echoes through the air as the rim of the truck hits the ground. The truck spins out of control, causing the one behind it to collide with its rear end.
Samantha, Robert, and Eli are the last to come over the ever-crumbling bridge.
Eli and Robert make it over first, leaving Samantha teetering on the edge. About half way across the path, the impact from the trucks hitting causes the first one to dive right into the very deep hole. The impact causes the remaining walkway to give way,
