Beyond the Horizon

52. Firebrands

Shion's ears burned with the cacophony of gunfire. Somewhere down the hall, something glass shattered and the pieces hit the tile with a light fizzling sound before another rapid report buried the noise. Shion kept his body tucked tightly against the wall of the room he and Aki had dove into in the nick of time.

          It appeared their good luck had worn off. The terrified klaxon was still blaring overhead, spurring the Lab officers to crawl out of wherever holes they had been hiding in and flood the halls. When Shion's group had made it out of Section S and up the next staircase, they rounded the corner only to come face to face with two officers who were armed to the teeth. The officers took one look at Shion and his green jumpsuit and their heavy guns went up and off.

          The spray bullets came so fast and furious that self-preservation split their group in half; Shion and Aki jumped one way into an open doorway, while Hitomi and Rin flattened themselves against the opposite wall. The other wall didn't have a door directly across from it, and Shion's breath stuck in his throat for a choking moment before Rin sent up a wall of flames to distract the officers, and in the confusion, they and Hitomi had managed to slip inside a room a little way back.

          Shion's heart rabbitted in his chest as the hail of bullets continued to whiz through the air just outside the open threshold. It didn't matter how much bravado Shion and his friends had, it sputtered and gasped in the face of enemies that could not only attack from a distance, but kill them instantly. These were not tranquilizers, or TASERs, or buzz batons. These were heavy metal death in tiny, heart-stoppingly fast casings.

          Shion had become used to agents who wanted to capture him alive, scientists who wanted to keep him healthy. Horizon Laboratories was a horrible place filled with callous abusers, but they valued the superhumans as precious specimens, and seemed to prefer them in as good working order as they could safely manage. But the enforcers of the Lab were taking no chances with this jailbreak; today they shot to kill.

           They had to take out the officers outside as soon as possible, but Shion was afraid to stick his head out into the hallway. The last time he tried, a bullet came so close to his head that his eardrum was still vibrating. Shion glanced over at where Rin and Hitomi had taken refuge. He could only see Rin's profile from his angle, but it was enough to recognize the pure terror on their face. Rin was a powerful asset in a fight, but had they ever been in a fight like this? Had any of them? He and Rin were still children; they should never have had to live this way, to experience so much danger. Neither should Hitomi and Aki, who the Lab had turned into eternal pariahs.

          No, they hadn't chosen this fight. But goddamn it were they going to finish it.

          The gunfire ceased. Shion glanced at Aki.

          "They were wasting bullets," the old man said. "They'll wait for us to come out."

          Shion nodded slowly. Aki was likely right. But maybe they were regrouping. Or maybe they had been pulled away to something bigger? Shion met Rin's wide, dark eyes across the hall and signaled he was going to peek. Cautiously, Shion poked his head out.

          The two officers were still there, but in his brief glimpse, Shion realized that the female officer had crept closer to where he and his friends were hiding. The woman spotted him and raised her gun. Shion yanked his head back and plastered himself against the wall. The bullets meant for his face thunked into the white tile, sending chips of the floor up and onto his pants.

          Shion squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. For a fleeting moment, he wished he had the serum that Lab Coat had injected him with. It was poison, and it had made Shion feel sick and blurry, like he had been spun in a burning centrifuge, but beneath his body's rejection, there had been a limitlessness in his mind. His power surged and struck with the sudden deadliness of a viper. It had come strong and clear, and he barely had to think of using it for his will to be done. If he had some of that endless power now, he could take out the officers without worrying about their weapons. He could probably walk through the barrage like a mythical god, parting the bullets around him as easily as he parted the cigarette cartons at his first successful training.