I rolled my eyes and stood, handing him the hunting blade I kept tucked into my thigh holster. “Screw your calculations. Get behindme.”
He grabbed the blade and stood, flipping around so we were back toback.
“If we survive this, you should totally go out on a date with me,” he yelled over the sound of the ghouls stretching their heinous mouthsopen.
“Yeah, definitely,” I said sarcastically. There was no way in hell we were going to live. How could he even think of dating at a time like this? I was wondering when the last time I’d talked to my mother was. How much it would devastate her that I was killed soyoung.
The ghouls must’ve realized that the bracelet had broken because in that moment, they all converged. At the same time, I heard Maxine cry out beside me, “Die, you flesh-eating dirtbags!” followed by the sound of her semiautomatic rifle ripping through the hordes of ghouls. She was on the ground, alone and plowing through the crowd of flesh eaters. Crazy woman, but I’d never loved hermore.
Damien and I fought back to back, slashing out with our blades, but there were too many of them, even with Maxine going apeshit and making a path through the horde of aliens. My legs weren’t working properly. That damn sentry saliva had been in me for too long. Weakness took over my thigh muscles, and my legs started to trembleuncontrollably.
No.
I fell to the ground, no longer able to hold myself up, and that’s when I made peace with death. I’d had a good life. I did the best I could for the people I protected. I got Tatum into the academy and taught her well. I’d tried my best to be a good human being. Maybe I didn’t like cats, but I never killed one, so I could go inpeace.
The grunt nearest me crouched low, took my boot-covered foot into his mouth and chomped down. Pain exploded in my ankle, and then there was the snap of bone. If I’d been conscious, I would’ve passed out. Being eaten alive was pretty much the worst way to dieimaginable.
“Kit!” Damien screamed and chucked his knife. It sailed through the air, sticking between the eyes of the ghoul that had my foot in his mouth.This guy is the biggest idiot I’ve ever met. He just threw his only weapon to save my leg! Now we’re both going to die.The ghoul hissed, opening his mouth as he keeled over backward,dead.
There was a bright flash of light as nausea rolled into me, and then I was falling. Waking up. By the grace of God, I was waking up! My hands began to disappear into little droplets of blood as my duplicated body deconstructed. Where it went, I didn’t know, but watching someone wake up in the Dream Wars was both fascinating and horrifying. All of their matter just disappeared in a span of thirtyseconds.
There was blackness, and then my eyelids snapped open to a tiny old Chinese man with a broom hitting me in the face with the bristles. Who the hell was he? It wasn’t MasterAki.
Once he saw I was awake, he started smacking the rest of the people in bed. My leg was gushing blood, but I knew Damien would be dead if I didn’t wake him right now. I reached over with my good arm and slammed my elbow into hissternum.
Damien’s eyes burst open and he gasped, grabbing his stomach. The grunts must’ve just reached him, but I’d woken him within the thirty-second window because he wasn’t badly injured. I, however, was a hot freakingmess.
Damien shot out of bed once he realized his guts were firmly tucked into his stomach and flew to my foot, which was bent at a bad angle and blood pooled all over. Everyone else was stirring around me, cursing like Maxine or crying like Tatum. It was a bad night. I couldn’t believe we’d survived. I started to see trails of light across the ceiling, and my leg convulsed as Damien tried to tourniquetit.
“Jesus, Kit!” Ronnie shrieked, and flew across the room to her surgicalcenter.
The old Chinese man was standing at the back of the room holding his broom. He stepped into my line of sight and bowed deeply. “Friend of Master Aki. I break window. Sorry.” He stated in brokenEnglish.
“It’s okay. Thank you.” Damien answered for me. I was barelyconscious.
The man bowed again and then left, as if this was a regular night forhim.
So that’s what Master Aki did. He didn’t jump on the hyperloop and drive all the way down here, he called a local friend and had them bust through the window to wake me sooner. If he hadn’t, we’d definitely bedead.
Speaking of dead… pain like I’d never felt before was working its way through my entire body. My arm, my leg, even my brain felt like it was onfire.
“She’s going to go into shock if I can’t get this sentry saliva under control.” Ronnie rattled off a bunch of orders to Brisk, who had become her official nurse in situations like these. He had basic medic knowledge from being a Marine, and seemed to understand her blabber about fancy medicationnames.
I realized then that Damien was holding my hand, squeezing it hard and staring at me like I was going todie.
“Ronnie,” I rasped and realized my voice was warbled. “You might want to fix my fingers too. He’s going to breakthem.”
Damien let go immediately and Ronnie smacked my shoulder. “Hardly a time to be joking, Kit. You’re going to need surgery. You’ve torn at least two ligaments in your ankle and broken as many bones. I’m going to need to put in screws and pins and God knows what else so you can runagain.”
The color must’ve drained from my face because Damien winced. “Do you have to sedateher?”
Ronnie sighed. “Kit’s tough but she’s not that tough. I’ll need to knock herout.”
“Hey,” I said, and the room started spinning. The pain had reached an all-time high, and I was going intoshock.
Ronnie rattled on. “I’ve stitched her up awake plenty of times, but screwing bonestogether….”
Damien nodded. “I’ll go back in with her. I’ve only slept eight hours in the last week, but I know I can take her to a safeplace.”
