End of the random cliffhanger:
My face was stuffed into a thick dusty carpet, making me gag. I lifted my head to see Derek pinning me down with one hand and Simon with the other, having already knocked Tori and Aliena on their faces.
"Wha…?" Simon blinked dazedly, just as a stream of gunshots erupted above our heads.
"Stay down and follow me!" Derek ordered in as low a voice as possible to still make himself heard above the screams that were filling up the crowded room. I glanced up to see the holes in the wall made by the bullet were high- too high to actually hit someone. That was comforting; at least they weren't trying to kill us. Yet. Or they had really bad aim.
Though I couldn't see the faces of the attackers as I was crawling beneath a bingo-clad table, it wasn't hard to guess. Nursing homes usually aren't the targets for random acts of violence. The question was how the Edison Group had managed to find us.
"This way!" Derek called over his shoulder. I dodged around table leg, ignoring the sting of the prickly carpet chaffing my knees. We followed him in a swift procession, making our way to the nearest doorway. Thankfully it didn't seem like we were being pursued in the midst of the confusion.
The second we broke out of the room we were on our feet, sprinting down another beige hallway lined with bedrooms. It was impossible to tell if anyone had noticed our absence from the bingo room, but at least no one was firing after us.
Breathing heavily, more with fear than physical exertion, we rounded corner after corner, delving further into the maze of rooms. Everywhere was beige, white, and bronze. Beige walls, white doors, bronze numbers. It only took a minute for me to become truly and utterly lost.
"We've got to hide," Derek mumbled under his breath. "Quick, in here!" He tried a door- number 123. Fortunately the knob turned easily (thank god for those 'no locked doors' policies these establishments enforced). He led the way into the mediocre room, all white and sterile with only a few personal photographs of an elderly man and young children- grandkids?- on the dresser. The entire neat and uncluttered room was in stark contrast to Mildred's, though it had a similar layout.
"In here." Derek ushered us fully into the room, turning the bolt behind us. He then turned expectantly to the far wall where, in Mildred's room, there had been a window, but this time there was none. Derek cursed and made to reopen the door but the echo of gunshots floated from down the hallway; distant but not distant enough to risk emergence.
Set in one wall was a walk in closet. He pulled it open and pushed aside some sweaters and trousers to reveal mostly vacant space behind them. "We should stay hidden. For now, at least."
Obediently we flocked into the closet, curling up into four individual balls as we sat against the back wall. Derek swung the door shut behind us, closing off all light and plunging us into blackness.
I heard the subtle rustling of fabric as he settled himself down beside me and felt his arm brush my leg but that was all. It was eerie in the darkness, too…empty. It was the kind of darkness that would have made me believe in ghosts, even if I hadn't known necromancers existed. There are very few times in your life when you find yourself in total and complete night. There's usually something: the moon, a dim light from an alarm clock, anything to keep the oppression of the empty black space from being overpowering. Not this time.
After a silence so thick the tension was practically dangling in the air, Tori whispered "how did they find us?" though she barely breathed the words, the sound was too harsh after such utter silence.
"Do you think they've been tracking us?" I suggested, trying to talk as quietly as possible. I still managed to surprise even myself with its volume, though.
"Like with the bullet?" There was fear in Simon's voice.
I nodded then, realizing they of course wouldn't see that, said "Yeah."
"It's doubtful." Derek piped up logically. "I mean, what could they be using? None of us has gotten shot…"
"Then what's your suggestion Mr. Brainiac?" Tori snapped.
"Someone must have told them we were going here." I could almost feel the accusing green stare glaring at all the occupants of the closet, not sure where exactly to pinpoint the blame.
"That's ridiculous!" It was Aliena's turn to snap after several moments of uneasy silence.
"Defensive?" Tori retorted.
"Derek, you can't really believe it was one of us, right?" Simon sounded like he was trying to convince himself that.
"I don't know," I could read the tension in his voice, as deep as a novel. "But it would make sense. They knew exactly where we were going to be and at what time. No one else finds that suspicious?"
"Well of course we find that suspicious! But that doesn't mean one of us is a traitor!" I felt my voice rising and checked myself, bringing my voice back down to barely a whisper.
"Well how do we know one of us isn't a traitor?"
"I'm not." Simon said immediately.
"Me neither." I scowled.
"God. You don't really think I would do it." I didn't have to see to know Tori was rolling her eyes.
"I didn't." Duh. Of course Derek wouldn't.
"I'm not a traitor."
"Can you prove that, Aliena?" Tori spat the name.
"Can you prove you're not, Tori?" Aliena returned the naming with equal venom.
"Aliena you…you wouldn't have done it, right?" Simon's voice was tentative. "'Cause I mean, you're kind of new to this whole 'on the run thing' and-"
"You think I did it too?" Aliena made no attempt to hide the hurt in her voice. "I mean, I understand Tori but you Simon? I thought you trusted me!"
"I do, but-"
"He's right." Derek's voice was firm. "We haven't known you long enough to know we can trust you."
"You can. I swear."
"Well if you're wrong and we find out you're at fault for them finding us…" he trailed off, not needing to finish the threat. The message was clear. If I could have elbowed him without risking hitting someone else instead, I would have.
"Well, nothing we can do to prove it now." Simon's voice was painfully (and deceptively) cheery.
"We can't stay here." There was a distant gunshot, so faint I may have imagined it. Derek continued, "we have to get out."
"How?" Tori challenged.
"We find an exit. Or a room with a window."
"Let's go-" There was rustling where I assumed Simon was standing up.
"Wait!" A plop as he was tugged back down by Derek. "Let me listen for a minute."
"Oh. Ok." We held our breath as he supposedly listened out into the hallway.
After a moment he said "It's clear. Let's go." Derek opened the door and let the light poor into the closet, bringing with it a vast relief. Have I mentioned I hate the dark?
"Follow me and be quiet!" he cautioned. We tip-toed out of the room and into the hallway, the beige seeming threatening rather than comforting now.
He creaked open a door on the opposite side of the hall and glanced in. No window.
As we ghosted down the hallway, our footsteps making no sound on the thick carpet, we would continually pause to check rooms for windows. I don't know if Mildred's window was a fluke or we were just extremely unlucky, but none of the rooms we peeked into had windows.
Plaster splattered out of the wall, grit digging into my eyes and making them tear up. I coughed, letting Derek yank me into the nearest room. A spray of bullets followed us.
"Get in!" he yelled, holding it open as he practically dragged Simon, Tori, and Aliena inside. I glanced up and realized with dismay we were trapped. No window.
I'm not sure exactly what happened next but I was being pushed back out of the room by a different, more slender pair of hands. "Go!" Aliena bellowed, giving me a shove in the direction of the now-frozen Edison Group member, poised in the middle of the hallway with his gun held up. It was uncanny the way his squinted brown eyes gazed off into the distance without moving.
I stumbled around him, assuming it was Tori or Simon who had put the spell on him. If it had been one of them, maybe what happened next wouldn't have happened.
Aliena ushered us all past him and we were halfway down the hall when the next bullet was shot, going in the wrong direction. Still, he was unfrozen.
I turned around in horror as he whirled on our retreating figures, gun raised. Simon and Tori lifted their hands but Aliena was faster. She used a spell to knock him back a step.
He quickly regained his balance but she did it again. And again. One step forward, two steps back. She was slowly advancing on him, hands raised as she meticulously and precisely stepped forward. "Go!" she urged again, not taking her eyes off the guard she was gradually forcing back.
In hindsight, we should have just had Simon or Tori go after her. Then, it seemed she had it under control. The four of us turned and ran down the hallway.
They hadn't been expecting us to be able to reach the lobby. Derek was able to creep up behind one of the two guards stationed there and knock him unconscious while Simon froze the other one.
From there it was a clear path to the outside. The only problem: no Aliena.
Derek made sure the rest of us where out and hidden in the nearby forest before agreeing to go back to rescue her. I wanted to protest but stayed behind the bushes, knowing I would only be a hindrance in the rescue mission. "Be careful!" I called to his retreating figure. He nodded without looking back.
Simon, Tori, and I didn't say much, instead just sitting there in the dirt in utter silence. We could still see the mottled white walls of the nursing home through the draping of branches obscuring our vision, and though before it had seemed a cheery place, it now seemed menacing. There were no more bullet shots.
Two minutes passed, then five. Ten. I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up, brushing the dirt off the back of my pants.
"I don't think Derek wants you to go in there to help," Tori looked up doubtfully.
"I'm not going in to help. I need to think."
"Don't go far," Simon warned, making no move to follow me as he once would have. Instead of being bothered by this, I was relieved. Our awkward romantic relationship had obviously come to an end.
I wandered into the forest, staying within earshot of Simon and Tori just in case…
It took every nerve in my body to force myself to meander placidly around the thick forest underbrush as opposed to dashing in to save my boyfriend and friend. Would they be ok? Naturally I was more concerned about Derek's safety, but in the past few days Aliena had also proven to be a valuable friend.
"Chloe?" I whirled at the voice to see Aliena standing there, breathing heavily. "Are you ok? Did everyone else get out?"
I lunged forward, needing to hug her or something, just to reassure myself she was really there. My hand passed right through her.
Before I could scream, Derek arrived panting. His eyes said it all. "Chloe, Aliena's dead!"
Thoughts?
I am sooooo sorry for the confusion. I assure you- Chloe is not dead. Aliena is. I didn't notice how that would sound before but after I got all the reviews asking how I could kill Chloe… SORRY!