“Fuck,” I gritted out.
“Listen,” she said, and I met her gaze again. “I was—I was wrong, earlier.”
“What?”
“If you think they can handle it, and you think being honest might give you a chance at a normal life and a better ending than this one promises…” She swallowed, breathing. “Take it. Don’t let it go. You deserve to be happy.”
My chest tightened, eyes stinging.
“We all do,” she said. “Now go! Let’s finish this.”
I hesitated, the grip I had on my gun tightening. “I’ll come back for you.”
She smiled. “I’ll see you on the outside, Zahra.”
I nodded.
She returned it, gaze hardening as she engaged the flash grenade, throwing it right at our attackers.
The moment the bang blasted, I made a run for it, dashing down three aisles and straight for the area where Team B went through.
“Team B, stat!” I yelled.
“Route to the workers’ station, men down!” someone shouted from the radio where the gunshots were just as loud as they were here.
“On my way!” I yelled back.
The route to the workers’ station was tight. Hot steel pipes lined the walls on both sides of me, a loud whirring sound making it difficult to really use my ears to scope my surroundings; it was why when I turned a corner with my weapon before me, a man sharply turned with his gun pointed right at me.
“Drop it, lady,” he said, voice hard.
“What if I say no?”
His jaw ticked, then a smile curved at the side of his lips as he raised his gun, like he was surrendering. “Why don’t we fight fairly? Give me chance to beat thatnoout of y—”
I pulled the trigger, watching him drop to the ground with a thud, my bullet sitting right between his eyes.
“Sorry, but I don’t have time for that,” I muttered, stepping over his corpse just as the sound of hurried footsteps reached my ears. I sighed when another man with a gun came into view. He charged at me, and I fired at the pipe right beside him, steam blasting out to the side of his face.
He screamed, staggering back, distracted and shooting blindly.
I dove out of the way, shooting back until—click.
“Shit,” I cursed.
Charging him, I connected my gun with his torso and my knee with his groin, making his knees pinch together, his gunclattering to the ground. I snatched it up sharply, shooting him twice in the chest.
I encountered three more armed men on my way to the workers’ station. I finished the bullets on them. Received one and then two really fucking hard blows to my sides. Met up with Team B and separated when they gave me cover to go before them to the workers’ station.
Quietly, I climbed up the tiny stairs from the engine area and through the small door to the workers’ station, my gun leading the way as I came into a long empty hallway, doors on each side.
The dull hum around me was the only sound I—
Wait a minute.
I paused, frowning as I stopped to really listen.
A familiar sound was coming from one of the rooms, dull, but I heard it.
