Battle Scars

Chapter 47: The Price of Freedom

Chapter forty seven: The Price of Freedom
We met Preston and Lionel in the corridor outside. Preston instantly noticed that Vikk had my dagger, and he raised an eyebrow at me, but said nothing. I wondered what he was thinking, but there was no time to ask. The two of us removed our hospital lab coats, since they were hard to move in, and we ran quickly down the corridors towards the exit.
It wasn't until we were past the place where we had first hacked the security check that we had trouble. Apparently in The Soviet it is completely normal for a doctor in a hospital to be carrying a gun. I came to this conclusion when the we stepped out of the door to room HD703 and saw about five doctors whip them from the folds of their lab coats. Luckily between us we thought fast enough to retreat around the corner before they shot us.
"We'll be trapped if we don't move," whispered Preston. "We'll just have to shoot our way through."
I peered around the corner and shot the closest one with my gun. He keeled over, and fell to the ground in a heap of white coat and red blood. Preston began shooting as well, and I saw Vikk nail one with a knife I'd given him. We shot a couple more, until there was no more movement on the other side of the wall.
"They're terrible shots," I remarked. "It's almost unbelievable."
"Let's keep going," said Preston. "We've got about a hundred metres of corridor to get past." The four of us ran down the corridor, past all the bodies we'd shot, most of them now lying in pools of their own blood. It was a scarring sight. We were almost to the room we'd begun in with the window to the outside world, when we heard shots from behind us. Lionel cried out suddenly, and fell over. I felt sudden searing pain in my arm that held the gun, almost causing me to drop it, and I turned to see one of the doctors reloading his gun. My arm was killing me, but I managed to raise my own gun and destroyed him properly.
"Lionel!" Yelled Preston. He put out his hand to him, but Lionel shook his head.
"I won't make it," he said. "That went to the chest. I'm sorry." I watched in horror as Preston's complexion went from tanned to pale white.
"No... You can't, we can carry you!" He cried.
"Come on Lionel we can take you," I agreed, crouching beside him. Lionel uncurled himself, and then we could see the full extent of his injuries. He wasn't going to make it. He shook his head, as we heard footsteps coming towards us. Preston wrapped his arms around Lionel, and I watched as Lionel's embrace slowly became weaker, until his eyes closed, and he flopped backwards. I looked at Vikk, and he looked upset.
"Preston come on," I whispered. "Or you'll go the same way." Preston dragged his friend to the edge of the hallway, and after a final look, turned to Vikk and I.
"Let's get out of here." We got out of there. We made it back to the window, and encountered another problem. It was easy enough to get in the window, but getting out was nearly impossible without help.
"You guys go first," I said. Preston climbed down first, with Vikk and I helping him from above. Then Vikk climbed out, and safely made it down to the window sill below.
"Abby, come now," said Vikk. I shook my head, thankful they'd gotten out of the window without question. It was my turn to help them.
"I can't get out, you need someone from above, unless you jump down to the roof below, which would be a leap of death." They stared at me in slowly dawning horror.
"Wait there Abby," said Vikk. "We'll get down to the roof, you can jump and we'll catch you." I frowned, feeling doubtful as to whether this would work. "Come on, you can trust us," said Vikk. I looked at them, and finally nodded.
"But hurry," I said, looking behind me. "I'll have company in a few minutes." I watched as the two of them climbed down by the slow and painful way that Preston and I had come into the building. I could hear footsteps behind me as they reached the rooftop below, and I climbed out onto the window, preparing to jump. A woman entered the room, and I pressed against the window quickly, but not quick enough. She saw me and fired. I returned the fire, but not before she hit me in the side of my stomach. I cried out with the pain which I really didn't have time to feel. I bit down on the insides of my cheeks, trying to stop the pain in my side.
"Jump now, Abby!" Yelled Preston. I looked down to see the two of them waiting for me. I bent my knees, and leapt off the side of the building. Far below, I fell into the arms of Preston and Vikk. The three of us fell over from the impact, but we were luckily unhurt, apart from the bullet in my side, and the one in my arm. We picked ourselves up quickly, and I looked up at the window to see if anyone had reached it yet. Nobody had.
"Come on, we need to get to the hovercraft," said Preston. The three of us ran back the way Preston and I had come earlier, and eventually made it to the hovercraft. Vikk and I closed it up, and Preston went straight to the control room and started it up. Preston rejoined us as the craft rose into the air, already on it's preprogrammed route back to Canada, and our base.