My chest burns as I shove off of him. I cringe when I put a little weight on my right hand in order to stand up. At least there isn’t a bone sticking out of it. I take a couple of stumbling steps away from the body and turn to look for Hannah.
She’s up against the retaining wall, sitting with her arms wrapped around herself. I wipe the blood from my face with the tail end of my shirt and grab both the guns. I take one last look at Caesar’s body before I go to her.
“It’s okay, Hannah,” I say as I crouch down next to her and lay my
hand on her shoulder. “It’s over. He’s dead.”
“Are you sure?” she suddenly screams at me. “I mean, for God’s sake, Falk! Stab him a couple more times!”
She bursts into tears and grabs onto my neck at the same time.
“It’s all right,” I say. “You never have to worry about him again.”
She pulls back and looks into my eyes. I can see it in her face—she isn’t worried about him anymore; she’s worried about me.
“I will always protect you, Hannah,” I whisper. “No matter what.”
She looks over to the body on the ground.
“So much blood,” she whispers.
“Don’t look.” I take her face in my hands and turn her to face me. “Let’s just get out of here. We’ll get to the others, and you can rest for as long as you want, okay?”
Hannah wipes her eyes, sniffs, and nods. She winces as I help her to her feet, her arm still around her stomach. I wrap my arm around her waist to support her as much as I can. I’m fairly certain my right arm is broken, but I’ll just have to deal with that later. I don’t know if Caesar had anyone else with him or not. I don’t think so because someone would have come to his aid before now, but it’s still possible. It’s getting dark, and I need to get Hannah out of here.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.” She’s shaking all over.
I give her a minute to collect herself. She keeps looking over at Caesar’s body, so I stand in her line of sight. She looks up at me and scowls. She knows exactly what I’m doing.
“Let’s go,” I tell her.
“What happened to him?”
“I killed him.”
“I mean, what about all that shit you said about aliens and bombing the camp? What happened?”
“Later. We need to get moving.”
“Falk!” She yells at me, her eyes narrowing.
“Not now!” I run my hand through my hair out of habit and then cringe as pain shoots up my arm. “We can’t stay here. We have to get going. I’ll explain it all later.”
She continues to look at me sideways as we finally start moving again. She’s trying to keep up a good pace, but she doesn’t last long. We stop again, and she grips her stomach with both hands.
“Falk?” She looks up at me, her voice barely a whisper. Her eyes are wide and full of fear.
“What is it?”
“I think…I think I might be in labor.”
No. No, that can’t be.
“I thought you said it was gas?”
“That’s what it kinda feels like,” she says, “but not quite. And the pains are getting more frequent.”