Assault Chapter Part 6
Kaito opened one of the many doors and brought us into a bedroom. All of the shades were pulled down over the windows. There was a small light on next to the bed where Meiko laid. She stirred feebly.
"What was it, Kaito?" Meiko asked.
"Meiko!" I cried, leaping to her side. Her eyes fluttered open and the joy that lit up her face was beautiful.
"Rin! You're alive! And Len too! That's wonderful," Meiko exclaimed, pulling me down into a hug.
"Meiko, what's wrong? What happened?" I asked, searching her eyes.
"I got shot in the leg trying to fight back against those damn soldiers. Gave one of them a black eye at least," she chuckled which turned into a cough before she continued on, "Somehow... somehow we ended up here and hid from the soldiers. There was a girl, Iroha, staying with us, but... we don't know what happened to her..."
"Don't worry! We saved her and we've got her at our hideout. She's all right," I told her, holding onto Meiko's hand.
"Thank goodness," she sighed.
"Is that how you found us?" asked Kaito.
"Yeah, Iroha told us and we've come to get you guys out," Len answered.
"But there's a bunch of soldiers out there right now! How are we going to get past them?" asked Kaito angrily. He looked exhausted.
"We'll kill them," Miku said, showing Kaito her gun. Kaito and Meiko both looked at us, stunned.
"Where'd you get guns?" Meiko asked.
"Nevermind that now. We've got to get you guys out of here. For all we know, Meiko's got an infection or something. We have some medicine at our place, we'll be able to take care of Meiko there," Miku said. Kaito looked down at Meiko then started grabbing things around the room and threw them into a bag.
"But... but I don't think that-" started Meiko, trying to prop herself up.
"No, we'll go. Now. You're getting worse every day, Meiko. We're leaving," Kaito said sharply. Meiko stayed quiet as Kaito grabbed the rest of their things. Maybe she didn't have any fight left in her. It was hard to look at Meiko when she was this weak. She looked so pale. I had to get her out of here.
"Ready, Meiko?" I asked.
"Ready...? Ready for what?" she said looking at me suspiciously. I just smiled as I picked her up in my arms. She gasped in surprise which brought on another coughing attack. I felt her crumple against me. Meiko looked up at me, tears in her eyes. I couldn't tell if it was from coughing or because of what she said next.
"Rin... you're not this strong... I'm not dreaming am I?" Meiko asked, but I just shook my head slowly, dreading the time when I would have to explain everything to her.
"We'll explain it all later. Right now we've got to move."
Everyone followed my lead and we took off out of the bedroom. I went first and jumped down the stairs despite Meiko's terrified yelp. Slowly, I set Meiko down so I could catch the others, wincing at the sight of the makeshift gauze wrap on her leg. Quickly, Miku and Kaito came down. I reached up for Len when the floor where he stood cracked, loud as a gunshot. There was a moment of stillness before the whole thing started coming a part under Len.
"Len!" I cried. He jumped off and I swept him into my arms. Dust and dirt flew through the air as the floor settled.
"Everyone all right?" I asked. There was a lot of coughing before anyone answered.
"Yes..."
"Everyone's fine!"
I sighed with relief before my sensors showed me men running toward the building.
"The soldiers heard it!" I yelped.
"We'll have to run for it!" shouted Len as they began heading for the door.
"Grab my shoulders, Meiko," I said while crouching down. Quickly she grabbed on and I hoisted her up on my back. I ran outside to see Miku and Len pulling out their guns. Len handed one to Kaito as I joined them.
"Run!" I yelled. We took off just as the first of the soldiers came around the corner.
"Get them!"
We dove out of sight just as they started shooting. Bullets smacking into the wall where I had just been.
"There's more coming!" I yelled and Len spun around, taking aim with the rifle. I turned and saw him shoot down two men chasing after us.
"Told you I could shoot it," Len smiled at me.
"This is NOT the time you two!" Meiko yelled in my ear. We glanced away from each other and started running again. Darkness was falling now and I saw Kaito stumbling as Miku led the way. I took aim at another man and watched him fall unmoving on the ground as the other soldiers hurried on. Abruptly the soldiers dropped back until I couldn't see them anymore. We ran for another two minutes without anyone following us or coming up on my sensors.
"Len! I think something's wrong!" I called over to him. Len looked back and suddenly the soldiers were in front of us, "Miku!" but my call was drowned out by Miku's scream. A soldier had her by the hair, a gun to her head. I skidded to a stop and watched as all of the soldiers pointed their guns at us, ready to shoot if we tried to run away.
"Now what do we have here?" said the man holding onto Miku's hair. We kept silent and watched him warily. Meiko's arms tightened around my neck.
"No answer, huh?" he said slowly. Abruptly he drew back his hand with the gun and smashed it into Miku's face.
"Miku!" I screamed. Len started forward as if he could just run over and stop him. A gun fired and grazed Len's arm, drawing blood. I clenched my fists, trying to keep still.
"Stay where you are!" the boss soldier yelled as he turned back to Miku. Her nose was bleeding, "Did you kill soldiers here earlier?"
"Yes," Miku said, a sob rising in her throat. All of a sudden I was terrified. Terrified that we were all going to die here, ripped apart from each other, never able to save anyone. I could see Iroha waiting at the lab, waiting for days with no one ever coming back. She'd die too, eventually. We'd all die. Unless I did something. I was given this second chance for something. At least I would save my friends.
Rin, promise me you won't die.
I jerked and looked over at Len. He was staring at the boss soldier, anger in his eyes. His voice was all in my head. I wanted to tell him not to worry.
"Drop your weapons!" the boss solider yelled, readying the gun for Miku if we didn't do as he said. This was my chance. Time to move. Time to save them all.
I slowly put Meiko down and reached for my guns just as Len and Kaito had already put their's onto the ground. The boss soldier relaxed, knowing that we were going to comply, but that was my opening. Just as I was about to set the guns on the ground I shot at the boss solider's leg. He went down swearing, his gun no longer pointed at Miku and all of the soldiers gun's now pointed at me. All according to plan. I sprung up, bullet's whizzing by. One clunked into my metal arm, but I ignored it and killed another two men instantly. I saw the boss soldier getting away, but I didn't have any time for him if he wasn't going to fight anymore. There were still five left, but their focus was on me, the demon girl heading straight for them. I kicked one of them down as Len and Kaito started to help. Another bullet hit my arm and stomach, making my left arm fall useless against my side, dropping one of the guns to the ground. Kaito, Len, and Miku shot continuously until the rest of the soldiers fell as well. It was over in a matter of seconds.
There was a moment of silence before I turned back to the others.
"I... I can't believe we're still alive," Meiko said in a stunned whisper.
"We did it... I don't know how, but we did," Miku sighed as she tried to wipe the blood off her face.
"We better get out of here before any more soldiers show up," I said as I walked back over to Meiko and put my gun away. I pulled her up, my arm dangling uselessly at my side.
"Rin...? I don't... understand..." Meiko said, struggling to keep consciousness. She was staring at my arm that wasn't bleeding.
"Don't worry, I promise I'll explain later. Just don't say anything about it now," I whispered quickly back at her. I didn't want Len to see it yet, I knew what he'd say. Meiko nodded weakly against my back. Len picked up my fallen gun and I kept myself turned away from him so that he wouldn't see my arm. Just not yet, anyway.
Kaito looked worriedly back at Meiko, but I shook my head. Now was the time to move. We all gathered ourselves together for the last stretch of the mission. Silently, we all ran back to the lab and no one followed us. Miku sighed with relief once we were all inside and safe.
"Meiko! Kaito!" cried Iroha. She jumped up from sitting on the floor to hug Kaito, sobbing with happiness.
"We're back," I whispered, happiness welling up from inside of me, knowing that she wouldn't have to wait alone.