“Both!” he snaps.
I slowly move down and place the items on the ground as he makes his way over to me. As soon as he is at a good enough distance, I grab the baton once again and quickly use it to hit the wrist holding the gun, twice. He lets it go, and before the weapon touches the ground, I strike him in the balls, then the face, making his head turn and…
Something hits the back of my head, and pain explodes inside my skull, bringing me to my knees.
“What the fuck are you doing? You let a kid get the jump on you?” I hear another male voice. He has a strange accent.
“Shut up! What kid goes around an abandoned tunnel with a baton?” says the man who found me.
I hear footsteps, and then a kick to my stomach makes me fall hard on the ground.
“Fucking piece of shit.”
Pain is my trigger. Living it, remembering it, does something to my mind and my body. My breath catches as I blink at the human bones scattered on the ground. Fuck. Tears gather at the corners of my eyes as I feel it rising inside me with a vengeance.
“Who are you?”
I try to respond, but I can’t suck in enough air to say anything. Panic is welling up. I pull at the hoodie zipper, but I’m not able to halt my hands enough to work it.
“What the fuck is wrong with him? He’s shaking like a fucking puppy. Oi. Relax.”
As if relaxing was possible.He crouches down, uninterested eyes darting around my face. Such red hair.
“Can he breathe?”
“Don’t think so. How hard did you kick him, you idiot?”
I squeeze my eyes, tears falling down. My body aches, my head pulses, but I force myself to picture Ezra. His warm forehead against mine, his breath feathering my mouth. One drag in andthen one out. Another. Another. I focus only on my breath, able to open my throat now just enough to pull in a shaky puff. My cheek moves against Ezra’s stubble. I can almost feel it, and I love the rough scraping of it on my skin. His lips against mine. His hands holding me close to him. I’m still not able to breathe in fully, but I get enough air to stop the flare of anxiety and fill my chest halfway.
“Who the fuck cares about this dickhead?”
A bitter laugh. “You telling the boss about this?”
“Why would we? Let’s off him now. Boss will never know if we don’t talk.”
Terror again.I don’t want to die.One breath at a time. One step at a time. In. Out. Until I’m finally able to take a long, full breath that seems to fill most of my lungs.
“Fuck.” The word rasps out of my throat, almost scraping it. That scared the shit out of me, but I did it. I overcame it. Alone.
“The boss knows every fucking thing. Don’t you know that? Grab him!”
Hands move under my armpits, and I’m roughly lifted up on my feet. My head is killing me, but after a moment, I feel steady enough to stand alone.
“Keep your hands up and walk.”
The muzzle of the gun points to a tunnel I didn’t see before. They must have come out of there while I was distracted. Shit!
His gun pokes hard between my shoulders as he shoves me forward. I wince at the pain in my stomach; that asshole got me good. I hope he didn’t break any ribs. Noodle is still hiddenin the front of the hoodie. Thankfully, they didn’t see him since Ezra’s garment is huge on me.
I lost the earbud when I fell to the ground. It wasn’t working, so it doesn’t make much difference anyway. I hear more crunching sounds under my shoes, and it makes me want to gag. Whose bones are these? The air seems suddenly foul with decay. This is taking a dark turn fast.
What should I do? They stepped on my phone, and I heard a crack. But Lori knows I’m down here, he’ll tell the others. Linda and Michael, too. All of the brotherhood will. I just need to stay alive until then. More tears fill my eyes, and I can’t see where I’m going. I wish I had texted Ollie back. Asimpleyou toowould have sufficed. Why didn’t I? That sense of betrayal feels so stupid right now.
I’m scared shitless, tripping on my own feet. I fall twice, my knees hurt. Everything hurts.
“Get a fucking move on!” one of the men snarls at me.
My heart is almost beating out of my chest when we reach a flight of cement stairs. They go up for quite a while until we reach a metal door, which looks new. One of the men shoves me aside as he opens it. It makes an ominous sound like a high-pitched creak. Then I’m blinded by light. My eyes have just gotten used to the brightness when I’m pushed forward.
