“Move it,” Walker screams, slamming the door, with at least five soldiers behind it. We scramble up the metal stairs, feet slamming like my heart in my chest.
“I hope you have a plan,” I say to Walker.
Wyatt turns his head and says, “Always.”
Walker laughs and nudges me hard in the butt. Stairs have always been my weakness. Running five miles? I can push through…slowly. An endless flight of stairs. I don’t know how long my legs can last.
“How much…”
“Do not even ask how much further we have to go, Ramsey. It’s the stairs or your life. Figure out which is your priority,” Richardson barks from the front of the group. The sirens are less loud in here, giving my ears a break.
We’re two flights up when I hear them behind us.
“Shit,” Walker says and I feel her stop moving. She jumps into it with the first soldier, a massive guy who looks like he could snap her neck. Walker reaches for her baton and swipes it in his direction. He stumbles backwards to avoid it and crashes into another soldier–this time a female.
Wyatt pushes past me and says, “Go! I’ve got this,” but I’m frozen in my spot. An hour ago Walker was my captor. Now she’s something different. And working with Wyatt? What the hell was going on? “Go!” he screams so close to my face he spits on me. It’s enough to shake me from my spot and I race after the others only glancing down when I reach the landing.
Wyatt and Walker are in full assault mode, moving in a coordinated way I didn’t know either had the capability. The sound of fighting fills the air, punches and grunts. Never stopping, Wyatt uses the wall to leverage himself and executes a heart stopping kick to a soldier’s chest. While Walker moves like a cat, quick and sharp, claws out in the form of her baton and a fist. She pummels the face of the massive, first soldier.
“Ramsey!” Richardson’s voice booms down the stairwell. I look up and see him and the twins two floors above me.
I race to meet them. Cole reaches his arm out to mine. His eyes flick over my head. “Behind you!”
I look. I shouldn’t have but I look and one of the soldiers has gotten past the others. He tackles me by the waist, my head bashing hard against the metal stairs. “Not so fast,” he says, breathing in my face. He goes for my wrists, trying to hold me down. He and I both know he can’t kill me. I’m too valuable.
“Mother f—” I cry over my throbbing head. I grab for the gun tucked in my pants. Even though I’m kicking like a mad woman he still fights me for the weapon.
I get to it first and I know, deep in my soul, I will blow this asshat away. I knee him in the groin and manage to whip out the gun—leveling it at his face. Not the first time I’ve been in this position lately. The last time though, I was a scared girl. Not anymore.
“Move,” I grunt because I don’t want his brains splattered all over me.
He swipes at the gun but I simply cock the trigger. Beneath us are sounds of rapid clicks and clinks of metal and like Spiderman, a figure in black and gray flips over the railing. The soldier glances up but it’s too late. Wyatt has launched him back down the stairwell, sliding to an unconscious stop on the next landing, barely missing Walker running up the steps.
“Clear,” she says bypassing the two of us. Wyatt offers me his hand and pulls me up.
“Ugh,” I groan reaching for my head.
He cradles me against his shoulder. “You were right,” he says glancing down. His hair is falling out of the band in the back covering his eyes. We’re catching up to the others, all waiting at the door at the top.
“About what?”
“You forgot the rules already? How hard did you hit your head?”
I laugh and it makes my head hurt even worse. “I told you.”
“Yep. You did.” He nods and we reach the top. Chloe gives us both a tired but relieved smile. Cole…well, Cole just looks worried.
“Ready?” Walker asks tightening the straps on the backpack. Richardson bends over and I watch, confused, as she climbs on his back and shifts a panel in the ceiling. A dark hole emerges above us.
“That’s how we get out?” Chloe asks. Her tone reflects my own exhaustion.
“Yep.”
Voices carry from below from a new wave of soldiers on their way up. Walker hoists herself inside, disappearing into the dark. Chloe follows, and then Cole. Richardson and I get a boost from Wyatt, who then follows on his own with another surprising acrobatic move. We’re in an opening that leads to a tunnel, with just enough space to army crawl through. Walker and Richardson exchange a look that I barely catch with the limited light. He pulls a small square from the pocket on his chest and presses a button before replacing the panel and enveloping us in total darkness.
“How far does this go?” Cole asks from somewhere ahead.
“Far enough to get us to safety,” Walker replies.