“Almost like this shit works,” I said.
“Better your stubborn-ass head learned this now,” Axle shouted as he laid down more fire.
Working in tandem, we managed to get about fifteen feet from there to a side entrance we could bust our way in. Unfortunately, covering fifteen feet in a war zone was like running five miles. Doable, but it would take a hell of a lot of tenacity and some luck not to get hit.
But Rachel was waiting for me. She was waiting for all of us. And so long as everyone else was pinned down in a battle that had shifted into attrition, the only way to turn it into annihilation was to kill Eduardo.
“We’re gonna have to do this one quick,” Axle said.
I nodded.
Axle held up three fingers, counting down.
Rachel. I’m coming. You stay tight. We’ll rescue you.
I lifted up and fired. I swept my machine gun in an arc covering several feet, mowing down some Bandits that had emerged from the building. I seriously had no idea where the fuck they got so many of these assholes. Axle got to the door, cleared out some more, and waved me over.
We’d fucking done it. We’d gotten to the side. Now…
Now we just had to explore the entirety of this building, find Eduardo and Rachel, kill the evil fucker, and then get the hell out of here and relax.
“You know how to breach an entrance?”
“Storm in and destroy.”
Axle sighed.
“We did not train long enough for this.”
“We don’t have time.”
Axle nodded. He had me stand to the side of the door. He took a breath, pushed the door open with his gun, and yelled louder than I’d ever heard the fucker yell. He laid down fire upon enemies frozen into shock by Axle’s words. Hell, I probably would have frozen if I’d heard Axle scream at me like that, and I wasn’t a man easily intimidated or shoved around.
I followed right behind, sweeping my gun around. I looked down the hall, and—
My leg gave out first.
It felt like someone had just chopped it off right at the knee. I collapsed under the weight. Axle laid down some fire at whoever had landed a shot in my leg. I felt my world go dizzy and my body wanting to go into shock. I’d been shot before, but somehow, this was pain unlike any-fucking-thing I’d ever felt in my entire fucking life.
“Mason!”
I heard Axle yelling my name. Or I thought I heard him yelling it, at least. My hearing was starting to fade.
“Mason!”
Now it…wasn’t Axle yelling my name? It was…just a vague voice?
My vision was starting to blur. I was fighting like hell to stay conscious. The pain was unfucking real, unlike anything I’d ever dealt with. It was right around my thigh, perhaps too close to my artery. If that was the case, I was dying.
No. I couldn’t fucking die. I couldn’t fucking die with Rachel still in danger! With…with…
Without avenging my parents’…
“Mason.”
That wasn’t Axle yelling at me.
It was my father.
