Running from Monsters (The Broken Trilogy Book 2)

Chapter Sixteen

Mia froze. Of all the crazy things to happen right now, after everything, who in the hell were these people?

"Hands up!" The guy shouted. He appeared to be the leader of whatever this little group was. Mia, Ethan, and the rest of them slowly raised their hands. "You." The guy pointed directly at Mia.

Great. Only out in civilization for a few hours and some random person is already going to give her a horrible nickname.

"We found her." He turned to the men with him. "Call the others. Tell them got her."

"Got me?" Wait, what?

Before Mia could ask what on earth they were talking about, the man in the road they ran over started coughing. How he was possibly still alive with all that glass stuck in him and being hit by two cars is beyond her.

Andie, apparently forgetting they had guns on them, ran to the man's side.

"Don't move!" The men with guns shouted.

"He's alive. He needs help!"

She looked down at him. His lips were moving and he was muttering something, but it was too quiet for Mia to hear. She focused on his lips, trying to figure it out when suddenly the sound seemed to come into focus.

"Please, let me go," he said.

Andie shook her head. "But-"

"Thank you." And then he stopped coughing. Stopped breathing. Stopped moving. 

"Hey, do-gooder? Stand up and put your hands up now." The head guy pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Andie. 

She slowly stood up and raised her hands, keeping direct eye contact with the gun on her.

"Alright, now, this is quite a find. Here we were trying to find our little runaway and what do we come across." A small chuckle escaped the man's lips.

Mia looked over at the dead man on the road. Runaway?

"So, if everyone would kindly step away from the striped freak no one else has to get hurt."

Ethan shot Mia a look but she shook her head. They would find a way out of this. They always did. But right now they needed to survive. He took a step away and the rest followed. It didn't escape her notice that the guns remained aimed at her and not anyone else.

"Now what?" She couldn't help but ask.

The mystery man chuckled. She couldn't decide if that made him creepier or just plain annoying. Maybe a little of both.

"Step forward. And no funny business."

She took one step when a car came speeding out of nowhere. Mia jumped backward to get out of its way. 

The car stopped when it ran into one of the other cars on the road, separating the two groups. In a flash, someone exited the car and in one smooth motion took out all of the gunmen. The person slowed to a stop in front of Mia. It was Lora.

She wobbled a little, then dropped to the floor. An orange crystal rolled out of her left hand. Mia recognized it as the speed crystal. 

Mia knew she should probably check to make sure that she was okay, but couldn't bring herself to move. Ethan didn't seem to have that problem and ran to Lora. Luckily, she was still conscience. 

"Are you okay?"  he asked.

She nodded. "I was following you to make sure you were okay." She looked up at Mia. "I knew coming to see you would be dangerous. We better pray they didn't get to tell anyone else about you."

"Who else? Who even were they?" Mia's head was spinning. Could the world just slow down for two seconds?

"They were the Architect's men. If he finds out about you, he will never let you go."