Virago

10

Anastasia had her phone flashlight lighting her way in the dark subway tunnel. Leo also had a flashlight, but he had a real one. He, like always, was leading the way but this time instead of being behind him Stacy was in the middle of the group to add extra light.

The walk was silent until Cali walked up to Leo to talk to him again.

"Why did you stop at our building? Why'd you help us?" She asked him.

"Didn't we establish a no talking rule?" Leo looked over at her.

"People are getting killed all over the city, why'd you stop for us?" Cali ignored what he said and asked again.

"I saw you, and you were putting up a hell of a fight." Cali chuckled. "You reminded me of someone." Leo looked away from her.

"Who?" Cali asked. Anastasia sighed because she assumed that Leo meant his son. Leo ignored her and just looked around the dark tunnel. "Look, purging no matter what the reason is wrong. Killing doesn't help anything. It doesn't heal someone." Cali said. Anastasia rolled her eyes, she knew that Leo was getting frustrated too.

"Enough, enough." Leo said as he stopped walking. He turned to the young girl and looked at her in the face. "Go back to your mommy. Go." He told her. Eva pulled Cali back to her and Anastasia walked to be next to where Leo was.

"Are you okay?" She whispered quietly so nobody else heard.

"I'm fine. Are you okay? I'm sorry you had to see me kill that guy in front of you?" He sighed.

"I'm fine, it's the world we live in. And you did what you had to do to protect us." She shivered as a cold breeze came through the tunnel.

Leo stopped and set his gun down on the concrete platform. He took his jacket off and then took off his bullet proof vest.

"You gonna take the shirt off too?" Anastasia joked. Leo chuckled and walked towards Cali. He gave her the vest and made her put it on. After she argued a bit she finally put it on. Leo walked back over to Anastasia and put his jacket over her shoulders. "Leo, no, it's your jacket." She started to pull it off.

"Keep it on Ana, I'm fine." He told her and grabbed his stuff.

She blushed and put the jacket on the rest of the way. She had to take her backpack off first and then slid the jacket on and the backpack back onto her back. The black jacket was long on her since Leo was taller than her. The jacket ended mid thigh on her.

"He's not your boyfriend, my ass." Cali chuckled.

"Shut up." Anastasia chuckled.

As they walked further down the dark tunnel they heard a noise. Leo shined his flashlight and held his gun. Leo walked towards where he heard the noise and saw that it was just homeless people hiding.

"It's no threat. They're just trying to make it through the night." Leo moved his flashlight away from the people. "Keep moving." He told the rest of the group. Anastasia let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in.

Anastasia looked over and saw that Eva was having a hard time breathing. "Hey are you okay?" Anastasia asked the woman.

"Yeah, I just want to get out of here." She told her and gave her a small smile.

Anastasia stopped walking when she heard a noise. She didn't know what it was at first so she stopped and turned. She furrowed her brows as the sound got louder. "Shit!" She said as she saw the lights of a four wheeler drive down the tunnel. Leo turned around and grabbed her wrist pulling her behind him.

"Go!" Leo told all of them and they started running. Anastasia dropped her phone on the ground, she wanted to go get it but she knew she couldn't. So, instead she grabbed her gun out of the waistband of her pants. She cocked the gun and took the safety off, ready to fight.

The people on the four-wheeler had a flamethrower. The homeless people all jumped out of the hole they were hiding in and the guy with the flamethrower started burning them.

"Oh my god." Anastasia flinched as she heard their screams. They also had guns and were shooting the homeless people down. Leo was yelling at them to keep moving but Anastasia couldn't hear what he was saying. His words were muffled.

Eva then fell on the ground in front of Anastasia. Leo kept yelling at her to get up. Anastasia turned around and crouched down. She grabbed her backpack and opened it, grabbing her extra guns. She put her gun that she was holding originally and put them in the waistband of her pants. Stacy now held two black Beretta Model 92 in her hands. She zipped her backpack back up and threw it over her shoulder.

Anastasia looked back at Leo and he nodded his head at her. He picked Eva up off of the ground and carried her bridal style.

"We're not gonna make it. Fuck it." Shane said.

"Let's do this Shane." Anastasia took the safety off of her guns and crouched down behind the same wall Shane did.

"Shane! What are you doing?" His girlfriend ran over to them. Anastasia started shooting at the tires while Shane was just shooting in their vicinity. Liz started shooting with them.

The people shot back and grazed Anastasia's arm, which ripped the sleeve of the jack a little.

"Fuck you! This isn't my jacket!" Anastasia yelled and stood up and walked out from behind the wall to get a better shot.

The people shot back and got Shane. "Shit! Is he okay?" Anastasia asked as she reloaded her gun.

Liz didn't answer, she just was checking on Shane. Anastasia looked back and saw that Leo, Eva and Cali were now gone. She sighed, glad that they got out.

Anastasia stepped back out from behind the wall and started shooting at the same time as Liz and Shane. The people shot at them again but their four wheeler blew up after Anastasia shot and killed the driver while Liz shot at the gas tank.

"Holy shit." Anastasia took a deep breath. Her adrenaline was still pumping so she didn't even feel her graze bullet wound. "Are you okay?" She looked over at Shane.

"I'm fine." He tried to stand but winced in pain. Liz helped him up and threw his arm over her shoulder. Anastasia walked to the other side of him and did the same thing.

They walked and followed the way that Leo and them had gone. Once they reached Leo, Eva and Cali, Liz lost her grip on Shane which made him put all his weight on Anastasia. She stopped and cried out, she gripped onto the wall and dropped Shane.

"I'm sorry." Anastasia said as she held onto the wall. Shane didn't really care, everyone crowded him on the ground.

"Call your friend!" Leo told Eva and handed her his phone. "Tell her we're close." He walked over to Anastasia. "Ana, are you okay? Where does it hurt?" He crouched in front of her.

"I'm fine." She opened her eyes and stood up with his help. "Are you okay? What happened to your leg?" She looked at his leg.

"I'm fine, I cut it on the platform. You saved us back there." Leo gave her a smile.

"Well, I guess I have to be the hero too." She smiled back.

Leo nodded and walked back over to Shane. He helped Shane stand up and they all started walking up the stairs out of the subway tunnel.

As soon as Anastasia took a step she winced. The group was so focused on Shane that they didn't even notice her quiet cry. She shook her head and ignored the pain and walked to the stairs. Before she took a step she looked up and saw that everyone was most the way up the stairs. So, she pushed the jacket aside and saw her baggy black pants now clung to her thigh. She put her hand on her leg and lifted her fingers to her face and saw the blood.

"Stacy! Come on!" The group yelled at her.

"I'm coming." She wiped the blood off of her hands and wiped her tears away with her other hand before walking up the stairs as fast as she could.