Anything For You

17: Desperation

-Cara's POV-

"Close it, close it!" Mr. Daley muttered. There was one person left. Mr. Roosevelt. I didn't feel comfortable calling him Teddy like everyone else. Attila yanked him through the doors. I helped Nick and Mr. Daley slam them shut, and bar them. "Good work, Cara, Nick. I think we're-" The door splintered to pieces. "Get back! Get back!" He shouted.

I needed no directions to do that. But something about our group made me pause. "Mr. Daley! Where's Natalie?" He looked around with absolute horror. I didn't see her.

The maniac skeleton kicked something into the room, which slammed against the wall. Mr. Daley was already running. I followed him, and I heard someone else do the same. I glanced behind me. Sacajawea. I kept running, using the wall to stop myself. I was a slow runner.

Natalie lay on the ground, her eyes closed. She was breathing, but not moving. I heard a defiant roar from directly behind us. We turned together. The dinosaur was looming right over us.

"Take Natalie and go," Mr. Daley said. I looked at him in shock. I couldn't do that! It sounded like he was planning something.

"Got it," someone said. I turned. The Egyptian guy Natalie liked....Alenkahn? Ahrekmah? Ahkmenrah? Yeah, Ahkmenrah. He scooped Natalie up like she was a rag doll, limp and weightless.

I turned on my heel and sprinted to a corner. When I ducked into the alcove, I watched from behind the case of maces. Mr. Daley grabbed a matching mace from another case, and smacked the looming, omnipresent dinosaur on the snout. I smirked.

The triceratops didn't so much at twitch. Mr. Daley backed up against a suit of armor. The suit began to shake.

Mr. Daley ducked aside, and made way for the person inside the armor. A knight, from what I could tell. He fought like a maniac (including laughing like one too). Slashing, weaving in and out, he even flipped over. After a while (like five seconds) I lost interest.

Of course, when you get tackled, it's pretty hard not to notice.

-Natalie's POV-

I drifted away. Drifted away on the capturing tendrils of darkness, on the destroyers of light. The dark, cool depths beckoned, and I was glad to obey. I was glad to obey the swirling comfort of blackness, the night in day. My body ached from the blows, and I closed my eyes as pain raked my side.

Pain is muted in unconsciousness. Nothing more than a dull throb, annoying you until you decide to wake up. But my pain kept me drifting from the comforting, encroaching darkness.  Uncomfortable, unable to gain purchase against the slippery darkness, I groaned in frustration. I heard unremarkable, frightened chatter. Did I know that voice? It was projecting from the void around me. Everywhere I turned, I could hear it.

"She's slipping away. I'm sorry."

"There must be something you can do for her! We can't just let her die! I won't let that happen!"

"It's her will to live now. Nothing you and I could do will save her. It has to be her choice."

"Natalie. Natalie, if you can hear me, fight! Please, please come back!"

The voice sounded so desperate and anguished, I nearly cried. Were they calling for me? Yeah, they must be! My name was Natalie!

I remembered. Now, now my head was oriented. The pain was gone, amazing how being so close to death was relieving. The voice, that person must be reaching out to me through my trance, helping me remember.

The first voice was...Sacajawea! Of course. Why hadn't I guessed it before? And the second voice could only be one person. Only one person could care that much. Ahkmenrah. Oh, my sweet pharaoh boyfriend.