It’s still fairly dark out, but I doubt that will offer us any help now. The reinforcements likely have night vision goggles and are better equipped than the men we took by surprise were.
We’re almost halfway to the rocks when I hear a drone overhead.Please for the love of God, be Thomas’s drone.I can’t spare a moment to look so I don’t.
Mori’s hand clamps down around my waist, urging me to run faster. I can feel him pushing me ahead to keep up with the others.
Shit, I’m slowing down and my body won’t cooperate. I’m at my limit.
Panic races into my veins. Mori doesn’t want to leave me back here alone. Mikah and Erik are twenty feet ahead of us already.
“Go! Don’t worry about me,” I say through heavy breaths.
Mori’s eyes narrow and he laughs. “You really don’t know me, do you? Keep running. Don’t look back. I promise I’ll be just a few steps behind you,” he shouts as he slows, falling behind.
Shock runs its full course through my entire body. My head instinctively turns to look back at him—how could I not? How in any reality could I tear my eyes away from him?
Mori lifts his MK-17 and starts firing at men who round the corners of the building and are charging at him. They return fire. He’s completely vulnerable out here.
I swiftly turn my head to look away and continue running as he ordered me to, but as I watch Erik and Mikah make it to the rocks and start to ascend, it hits me that I can’t let my last memory of my asshole partner who’s only smiled at me a handful of times be this.
There’s something about him that I cherish so much it hurts.
Like a hot coal that simmers deep into my soul, bubbling up to wake me from my deluded slumber, I realize I have to go back. I can’t go on without him.
My thoughts distract me and I trip over a fist-sized boulder. I quickly push myself back up to my feet, stumbling and glaring at my legs that are trying to give out on me again.Please. Not now.
My headset cuts in, static thick and barely comprehensive, but Thomas’s voice rolls through, mumbling something.
“Power, is that you? Repeat!”
He comes in clearer this time. “Get that fucking dumb-a-ass out of there! The d-r-dro-ne is dropping a mi-ssl?—”
That’s all I hear before the signal cuts out. But I was already running back for Mori the second he said to get him out of the drop zone. My lungs feel hot and they rebel with exhaustion. I run for him faster than I even knew I could. To the point where I feel like I could lose control of my body at any second.
Bullets whiz by me as the hostiles shoot at us both now. I liftmy rifle and nail one right between the eyes, sending his body flying back into one of his comrades.
Mori jerks his head back at me. Horror flashing in his eyes.
“What the fuck are you doing, Emery?!” he shouts, ducking as a shower of smoke and loud missiles zip over our heads. Streaks of fire in the sky connect with the ground behind him as he sprints for me, arms reaching desperately.
BOOM.
16
CAMERON
Why isshe always doing the opposite of what I tell her to do?
My eyes feel dry as I reach for her.Fuck.She’s still too far away. Her pink braids whip behind her as she extends her hands out for me.
Why would she come back for someone like me?
The earth shakes and the explosions roar so loud that my ears start ringing. She’s the last thing I see as a wall of smoke consumes us both. The force throws me to the ground, my eyes screwing shut instinctively as dirt and debris pelt us.
Please don’t let this be the end.
Don’t let this be the last time I see her.
I cough vigorously, gasping for each breath as I drag my broken body in her direction. It’s too dusty to see, but I can hear her ragged breaths just under the drawl of my own. Pain evades me, but the lack of response from my lungs tells me that they’re on fire.
