Halo | 18+

chapter twenty one

- JACE SINCLAIR -

Ian's lifeless body stared me in the face as I threw it over the balcony of the building. If the Capitol had any idea we were here, we would be dead faster than you could blink.

Especially because we just killed their leader.

Thankfully, Ollie and Rez got Aurelia out of here before she could see anything else. I told them to take her home, and they did. Now I was here, covering my ass again.

As I was leaving, I ran into somebody. "Sorry man." I said quickly, pushing past him and down the stairs.

The door slammed behind me and I didn't breathe until I was safely hidden behind a wall. I cracked my walkie talkie and enough signal came through for me to communicate with my people. "Rez, what's it looking like?" I asked.

When I didn't hear anything, I signalled again. "Rez?" I spoke, "Ollie? Do you read me? Come in." 

Fuck. 

Anxiety made itself present in my stomach. My chest was tightening, why do I have such a bad feeling.

"Rez? Lia? Is anybody there, what the hell is happening?" 

I started off in a jog down the empty streets of New Jersey, the walkie talkie close to my chest. "J- Jace? C- can you r- read me? A- are you t- there?" Aurelia's beautiful voice came through the walkie, "Lia, baby? Is that you?" I stressed.

"J- Jace! W- we need you. Th- there's too m- many of them!" The line kept disconnecting and cutting her off every second word.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Nothing.

"Lia? Please, come on Aurelia." 

I was approaching the street that our hideout was on, and I could see the guards in their towers. 

"W- walkers." That was the last thing I heard from her before the line went dead. 

I took off in a sprint, faster than I have ever run before. I practically climbed the gate. 

"Sound the alarm, now. Sound it!" I screamed to the guard tower, they nodded before sounding the blaring alarm. 

Everybody came rushing out into the quad, murmurs and whispers. "Jace, what's going on?" Someone asked me. "There's been an attack, on Ollie, Rez and Aurelia. I don't know where they are, but I need my strongest fighters." 

Fourteen people stepped forward, "You have five minutes. Change, grab your ammunition, and say your goodbyes." 

Chills ran down my spine at the thought of saying goodbye. "This is not a suicide mission, I expect everyone to come back in one piece. But, we have trained for this. And we know the casualties if we are exposed." 

+ + + 

Fifteen of us stormed the streets, splitting off into three groups of five. "We came from the Capitol, they could be anywhere. You guys check East, you guys West. We'll check South."

Once we parted ways, I was on full-saving mode. 

I was only separated from them for a few minutes, ten at the latest. If they took the normal route home, we should have passed them already.

I tried not to think of the worst, but it was hard. Especially when nobody was answering on the walkie talkies.

I slowed my walking when I heard something up the street. "Henry, Cam go check it out. The others follow behind slowly, wait for my approval."