eternal flame - s. harrington

Chapter 16: Catastrophy

Immediately after hearing that Nancy and Jonathan had gone to do something dangerous, Mike and I insisted we go help them, but Lucas and Dustin strongly disagreed.

"Guys, this is crazy. We can't just wait around!", Mike said. "Mike, in case you forgot, we're still fugitives. The bad men are still looking for us.", Lucas argued. "Yeah, and we don't even know where they went.", Dustin added.

"El can find them.", Mike said. "Mike, look at her!", Dustin pointed at El, who was obviously exhausted. "I still think we should stick to the chief's plan", he said. "Exactly. We stay here, keep El out of sight and keep her safe. That's the most important thing, right?", Lucas said to Mike, "Besides, your sister is fine, Mike. She's with Jonathan.", he added.

"Yeah, and she's kind of a badass, now, so...", Dustin said and started walking away from the gym. "Where are you going?", I asked Dustin. "I'm gonna go get some chocolate pudding. I swear, Lunch Lady Phyllis hoards that shit.", he replied.

"Are you serious?", Mike asked. "El needs to be recharged!", Dustin replied as we all followed him out of the gymnasium.

We walked into the cafeteria. Mike and El sat down at a table and I followed Dustin and Lucas into the kitchen. Dustin opened a refrigerator, and on one of the shelves was numerous cans of chocolate pudding. "Found it! I knew she was hoarding it.", Dustin said as he started grabbing the chocolate puddings out of the fridge, "Always lying, saying she's out. Bald–faced liar."

I watched the two boys, loading cans of chocolate pudding in their laps, amused, when Dustin turned to me and spoke, "Grace, a little help here?"

"Sure.", I laughed and grabbed some pudding as well. "Mike, I found the chocolate pudding!!", Dustin screamed. "Okay!", Mike's annoyed voice responded from the cafeteria. Dustin, Lucas and I each grabbed a tray and filled them with the puddings and walked out into the cafeteria, where El sat alone.

"Where's Mike?", I asked as I placed the tray on the table. "Nancy.", El said. "What? Nancy came back?", I asked and El shrugged as a response. Soon, Mike ran in to the cafeteria.

"Guys, guys!", he shouted. "What is it?", I asked. "They found us!", Mike panted. My eyes widened, and without saying a word, all of us ran out of the cafeteria into the hallway like our lives depended on it — because they did.

We ran in the hallways, all of us frantically checking behind our shoulders. "How did they find us?", Lucas asked. "I don't know, but they knew we were in the gym!", Mike responded. "Lando.", Dustin said. "What is Lando?", I asked. "Don't get him started.", Lucas said and we continued running.

We were almost at an exit, when the door opened and two agents barged in. "Go, go, go, go, go!", Mike screamed as we ran to the other direction. We ran for our lives when a woman with blonde hair and more agents stepped in front of us from behind a corner, holding their guns up.

We stopped on our tracks. This was it.

I watched and wondered why the woman or the agents weren't doing anything, they just stood there, frozen, pointing their guns at us. Soon, I saw them trembling, blood coming out of their eyes as the lights in the hallway flickered rapidly. I gasped when all of them collapsed on the floor.

"Holy shit...", I whispered as I looked behind me, seeing people dead on the floor. Suddenly I heard a thud behind me and immediately turned my head to see El on the floor as well. I gasped as we all rushed to her rescue.

"El, are you okay?", Mike asked as he shook El's limp body on the ground. "Somethings wrong!", he said. "She's just drained.", Dustin said. "No, no, no, she won't wake up.", Mike said, "El!"

Mike pressed his ear against El's back. "She's barely breathing. We gotta go!", he said.

"Leave her!"

We turned to see an old, tall man in a suit, walking up to us. Three agents stood behind him, pointing their guns at us. "Step away from the child.", the man warned. "No! You want her, you have to kill us first!", Mike yelled at him. "That's right!", Dustin said. "Eat shit!", Lucas shouted.

Before I could even blink, I saw the boys being grabbed by agents, and at the same time, I felt a pair of arms grabbing me as well.

Startled, I screamed and immediately tried to free myself out of the agent's grip, but he only tightened his arms around me. "Let go of me!", I screamed.

The man in the suit walked up to El and sat down next to her, forcing her to sit up. "Eleven? Eleven, can you hear me?", he asked as he grabbed the girl's face. "Papa?", El asked weakly. "Yes. Yes, it's your papa. I'm here now—"

"Let her go! Let her go, you bastard!", Mike screamed at the man. El started to whimper. I tried my best to free myself out of the agent's grip as the old man spoke to El on the floor. I squirmed, tried to hit him, but he grabbed my arms, locking them together against my chest and tightened his grip.

I had gotten weirdly attached to El over the past couple of hours, and I wasn't gonna let that old man take her back to that awful place. I had to think of something to save her.

I tried to come up with some way to free myself. Damn it, I wish I took up martial arts as a kid.
I thought about biting the man's hands, but they were out of my jaw's reach.

So, I looked down and positioned myself to where my feet were right between his.

To my advantage, he stood in a position where his legs were a little bit apart. I took a deep breath, and swung my foot up with all the force I had, kicking the man right in the crotch with my heel.

He groaned, and accidentally let go of me, so I charged towards the old man. "Don't you touch her!", I screamed, and then—

A loud pop echoed around the hallway, followed by the boys screaming. It was a gunshot.

I stopped on my tracks and gasped. I turned to look at the boys to see who was shot. But they were all fine. They all stared at me with horror on their faces. I frowned as my ears started ringing.

Suddenly I felt a burning sensation on my right hip, like my jeans had caught on fire. I turned my head down to see a hole on my jeans, and a stain of blood expanding right where I felt the burn.

I was shot.

I gasped for air in shock. I stumbled, placing my arm against the wall for support. My hearing started to act up, the boys screams muffled as the ringing in my ears got louder, and louder, and louder.

I didn't feel pain at first, I didn't even feel impact when I heard the gunshot, but as my brain caught up with what had happened, the burning on my hip quickly turned into a throbbing, stinging pain. I gasped for air again as I placed my hand in front of the wound.

The lights in the hallway started to flicker rapidly as my vision blurred. I felt my hand get wet and slowly turned to look at it. My entire palm was painted red with my blood, as it dripped down my wrist.

The lights kept flickering, and from the corner of my eye, I saw the wall crumbling. I must've been hallucinating. Suddenly I felt a hand on my arm, and saw Lucas through my blurry vision. He said something to me, but I couldn't hear what. Lucas locked my arm with his, and started to walk.

I managed to take one limp forward, and then...

Everything went black.