Ch.17: Waves of Grief

Rebel's P.O.V.

A woman stepped out of the CSM van, narrowing her eyes at a bulky man dressed in a white tuxedo. He smoothly exited his vehicle, hands clasped behind his back. The two came face to face and the woman jerked her hand to point up at us. They were shouting at each other for a second longer before he backhanded her. The CSM agent's head whipped our way, blood flying. Then I recognized who it was.

"Grandma!" Ava shrieked as her fists beat against the glass.

Within the next second, Ava had pushed past Aries and me and was well on her way out the door. Following, I yelled at Aries to hide Lani and Bethany.

My injuries slowed me as I raced after Ava, yet I was right behind her when she busted out the lobby's front doors. We found ourselves at gunpoint, immediately stopping dead in our tracks.

Dr. M was on the ground, shaking as blood trickled down the side of her head. The rest of the CSM, which was probably ten people tops, looked petrified as the gunmen outnumbered them two to one.

"The Human Race Survival Corpse is honored to be so greatly supported by The Collation to Stop the Madness," White Tux snarled as he kicked Martinez.

"And the Mutants of Justice are proud to announce that you, sir, have just won a round-trip ticket to Hell!" A voice from above us announced.

All eyes traveled up to see Aries and Lani standing on the fire exit outside our room, holding up bottles and cans; the bottles and cans that you have to pay $3.95 to drink. That's when the pelting started.

One of the men standing to the side in his crisp, white button-up and AK-47 had his skull introduced to a Coca-Cola with a clonk!. Another was knocked off guard by a water bottle. I pulled Ava out of the way of a hurdled ten calorie Seven-Up. The CSM was smart enough to get back in their vans, taking Dr. M with them. However, the H.R.S.C. just simply fired back at the two mischievous mutants overhead.

Aries and Lani didn't back down, and I knew that they were holding out until we could get to an advantage point. When I saw Lani duck back into the room I booked it to the nearest vehicle with H.R.S.C. painted on the side. Ava climbed in after me and I slammed on the gas, making my intention of running the men into the cement fairly obvious. I got at least five before they turned their bullets to the tires and we were left ducking below the dashboard. It was all too calm for a second. The gunshots stopped and the only thing you could hear was the excess shells rolling around us.

"Rebel..." Ava started, but she was soon interrupted by the doors flying open and us being jerked out writhing.

They threw us to the ground and all but shoved the barrel of their guns down our throats.

"Get off them you–you bleached gorillas!" Lani shouted as she finally reached the lobby doors, accompanied by Aries.

"Line them up!" White Tux ordered with a flick of his wrist.

With that we were hefted to our feet and dragged to the hotel's pool, alongside Lani and Aries. The men pushed us to our knees, pointing their guns at us so that we'd stay there.

"What are you doing?!" Aries asked, earning him a hit to the head with the butt of one of the "bleached gorilla's" weapon.

None of them answered as they glanced back at the puppet master of this whole ordeal. They were given a swift nod before they took aim.

"No!" Dr. M's voice rang clear through the tension.

I closed my eyes in defeat and swallowed hard. This was it. We were on the edge of the pool, the water behind us soon to be our graves, and there wasn't a thing I could do. Ava was shrieking something at the men that I knew would do no good. Pathetic is what we were. Miserable and pathetic. But one thing kept my hatred boiling over my sorrow: Lani choking back sobs.

White Tux raised his nose and glared at us. "On the count of three boys–"

"I said NO!"

Dr. M just wasn't giving up. I heard her feet scuff across the cement as she bolted to throw herself in front of Lani and Ava. Her eyes narrowed, the threatening stare piercing through the glass of her reading lenses. The other CSM agents moved to stand in front of us, and when Aries told them it was no use they simply moved closer.

"Very well," the man nodded. "One, two, thr–"

"I didn't sign up to shoot humans!" A rather short guy thundered, throwing his gun to the ground.

Old White Tux seemed agitated by all of the interruptions, yelling, "Then you stand up there with them!"

The ex-H.R.S.C. member cowered to stand in front of us, tears welling in his eyes as his leader pointed his own gun at him.

"This isn't right, boss. Ralph is right, we can't shoot Pures!" Another indignant voice chimed in.

White Tux let out an angered scream as he turned around and shot the man. The small army left seemed shocked, their faces turning into the shade of fresh snow.

Yet his terrorism didn't end there. He moved back to aim at us and release fire.

"Down!" A CSM worker ordered, shoving me into the pool.

Splashes sounded around me, and when my head ducked underwater I began swimming as quickly as I could toward the other side. Glancing over my shoulder, all I saw was red.

Keep going. Keep going!

When I surfaced on the other side, I was left gasping. I pulled myself up on the ledge, horrified by the screams and gunfire around me.

Something latched onto my ankle before I was all the up on the edge, yet I didn't bother to kick at the subject. The trembling hand told me that it was one of my own.

I pulled a badly frightened Lani from the reddened water, pushing her on.

"Run!"

That was one word that had left my lips far more than desired these past few months, but the meaning behind the word still registered in her mind because she was off, heading for the field north of the hotel like a sprinter nearing the finish line.

Aries was suddenly next to me, pointing desperately back at White Tux. The maniac was luckily facing technological difficulties with his weapon, to our luck, and his men had mostly disappeared from the scene.

Good! I thought, smirking.

"God, they got Martinez," Aries whispered hoarsely, fists clenching.

I didn't know how he knew that, or if I believed him at the moment, but I swallowed hard and tried to keep down the waves of grief washing over me anyway. CSM agents came up from the pool, completely oblivious to the fact that someone had died. They just continued running, following Lani's trail. When Ava snapped at us to move, I didn't argue. Aries was another case, though.

"Bethany," he croaked, "I left Bethany in the room!"

My future guess of the men retreating had been wrong. I looked at the doors to the lobby, spotting the H.R.S.C. troop marching in, and another group hurrying up the emergency steps.

The logical side of my mind offered a solution first. We would have to deal with the the odds. The three of us couldn't save her now. It was my turn to tell them to move, but Aries refused. Ava didn't seem too keen on the idea either, yet I managed to get us going—even if it did mean I had to literally drag Aries along behind me.

Once we had made it out of shooting range I let him go. He was trying to blink back tears, sitting down to hang his head in his hands.

"They've killed her! They got her!" He shouted, face red as he called them every cuss word under the sun.

I sighed, emotions on a strict lock down. I wasn't going to allow the waves to sweep my reasoning away with salty tears. Ava and Lani were hugged close to each other, crying hysterically.

"We have to keep going," I said sternly, but my voice betrayed me as it broke and I too was hit with the tsunami of sorrow. It was as if we were so beaten down that we couldn't go on.

And maybe we were, or, possibly, we had lost hope. I wasn't pleased knowing that the enemy would find me on my knees, torn apart by their actions. I set my eyes to the setting sun, promised myself that I wouldn't be ended that easily, and spread my wings.

"Let's make them pay," I growled. "Let's show them exactly why mutants should be feared."