The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

Pop! Pop!

Two more gunshots. I heard running from up ahead and another burst of gunfire followed.

You know the feeling when you know your fate is sealed. Like when you walk out of a lover’s apartment and you stop, mid-hallway, because you know right then and there that the relationship is over? You can’t explain it. You don’t even understand it, but you feel it. And you know in that split second that everything had changed somehow and you were helpless, but it already happened.

That was how I was feeling. Right then and there that spread through my body. So all I could do was wait, wait for the fucking footsteps to closer to me. I needed to know who it was. And if it wasn’t Tray…I grabbed for the gun he’d made me take. I strapped it to my back, wanting to forget I even had it, but he made me take it.

Tray. I let go of the gun and left it there. Still nestled in the small of my back, hidden underneath my clothing.

It was Tray that was running towards me and the world slammed back at me. Everything: the wind, the tunnel, the darkness, and Grayley. He was still on the ground, moaning in pain.

I bent and picked him back up and ran to meet Tray.

“Tray!” I gasped, but I knew he couldn’t hear me.

I could see him fumbling against the wall, measuring where the door should’ve been. And then he was ramming the butt of his gun against the wall, trying to get at our escape route.

I dropped Grayley to the floor and took my own equipment. The end of the knife helped some, but it was our hands and feet that did most of the work.

“Fuck,” I gasped, but Tray was quiet. The entire time, he was just focused and silent.

I could see the training he’d undergone in that moment. He flipped the gun in his hand like a kid who’d been given a gun for their first birthday. He turned and aimed it towards the opening where he’d come from.

“Keep working,” he commanded tensely, standing poised with the gun aimed, perfectly even.

His hand was calm and steady.

I had another burst of adrenalin because I hammered at that wall, knowing my knuckles and skin were getting cut. I didn’t care.

Our livelihood was on the other side. Blood, skin, and pain would gladly be sacrificed to get there.

They were coming, someone was coming. I knew it, but I kept trying. I wailed, I punched, and I kicked. I threw my entire body against the unyielding fucking wall and nothing happened.

Nothing.

Tray faced squarely whoever was coming. He had both guns out now, so I stopped and waited a second.

He didn’t say anything.

He didn’t order me to keep working, he didn’t tell me to stop. Nothing.

And I knew it was over. We’d tried, but we’d failed.

They were here.

I reached behind me, where my gun was still secured, but just held it there. Waiting.

Three guards came around the corner and each took position, their guns pointed right at us.

It was over.

Tray didn’t say anything, neither did they.

Grayley spat out some blood.

I waited.

“You disappoint me, son.” Galverson stepped out, from the direction where Grayley and I had come. He looked irritatingly unperturbed, like he’d been waiting for this and was just ready at a moment’s notice.