Survivor

Chapter Twenty-Three

Olivia takes a deep breath and peeks around the corner. Pointing the barrel right under her line of sight as the men start up the stairs, she takes aim, and fires. There's a grunt from the man with the gun, and he drops it, clutching his arm. She hit her mark. The second man picks it up and fires twice where Olivia is standing, luckily missing.

She fires back, but the men have moved to cover. She glances around the upstairs hallway, trying to decide where to move.

"Fuck," she breathes. Her best shot is the master bedroom. She doesn't have enough time to second guess, she can hear the men moving just ten feet away. In a split decision, she crosses the hall and takes shelter around the doorframe of the master. It's quiet, she's slightly relieved she can't hear Meredith in the bathroom because if she can't, the men can't either. Just hold them off until backup arrives. Hold them off.

As she shifts her weight to peek around the corner to get a visual of the intruders, the floor creaks. She freezes, cursing herself. There are loud whispers and she knows they're getting closer, and the damn squeaky floorboard just gave away her position. She has to take a shot...blind. With a calming breath, she holds her Glock in front of her and leans around the doorframe, firing once, and before she can turn back, the man fires as well and she's instantly greeted with stinging pain in her arm. She glances at her left shoulder, seeing red liquid in the moonlight. She tests the joint, moving it, and thanks god that the bullet just skimmed her arm, no serious damage.

A groan in pain reaches her ears and she feels a flash of satisfaction knowing she hit her target as well. Peeking half of an eye around the corner, the man without the gun is slumped against the wall. However, the one with the weapon is quickly approaching. As he passes through the hall, light from the full moon hits his face and Olivia recognizes Matthew Trahkcol.

He's only a few feet away now, and Olivia quickly comes up with a plan.

Her senses are heightened and she's completely focused on the danger in front of her. Smells of gunpowder and blood fill her nostrils, and she takes shallow breaths, trying to keep as quiet as possible. Her finger tightens on the trigger of her Glock, and she hears a floorboard creak. A bit of smugness rolls over her as it seems she's not the only one having problems with the crappy floors in Meredith's house.

Matthew's breathing heavily, probably the adrenaline, so when Olivia can hear his breaths, she makes her move.

Slipping her Glock into its holster on the side of her body, she makes one swift motion around the door, catching Matthew's hand holding the gun with her own. She presses with her right arm, her primary goal to get the gun away from him. With a knee to the gut, his grip loosens and she's able to wrestle the weapon out of his hands and into her own.

She tosses it across the ground behind her, just in time to catch a strong punch in her gut. She's on defense now, dodging, ducking, and blocking his punches as she's backed against the wall in the hallway right next to the open master bedroom door.

They're both panting, but Olivia is not even close to giving up. She glances at his cheek, pulling back an arm to make it look like she's throwing a punch, but throwing out her leg and sharply kicking him where no man wants to be kicked. He pulls back sharply, and now she's attacking him.

Recalling every bit of hand-to-hand combat training ingrained into her mind from years of practice, she reads his moves and soon realizes he is not a skilled fighter. He's still twice her size though.

They're going at it, slamming each other into walls. Olivia is just trying to kill time, waiting for her backup to arrive. It passes slowly, she has no idea how long it's been, meaning she has no idea how much longer until Derek and Maggie show up.