Alien X

Chapter 24

Mr White looked at me in shock maybe. It was clear that he never expected me to guess the password. S.A.F.E was built by his family so it would have to be something he cared deeply about to use as a password. Zachery just seemed to be the best password that he could have come up with. I never heard Zachery talk about his mum or any other family besides his father. Actually he never even talked about his father much.

My heart was lodged in my throat and I totally bluffed my way through the password. I had no idea that it would even work in the first place. Huh, maybe today we can win. Now all we needed to do was leave but from the way Mr White was aiming the gun at me I didn't think it would be as simple as walking out the front door.

"You!" he snarled throwing Zachery to the floor. Dust rose up around Zachery's body which was heaving. Oh, maybe he really was suffocating his son. The gun was still aimed at me and it trembled slightly in his grip. A warning siren blasted through the room but it was only a background noise compared to the heavy breathing everyone was making.

The small room seemed much smaller than before when Zachery and Mr White were fighting. I think that was because the rows of panels had fallen and was broken up into much smaller bits. A few were still buzzing and every now and then, shot bright orange sparks.

"You think just because you destroyed this company that I'll let you just walk on out?" Mr White screamed, spit dripping down his lip. Dude really needs to control his spit level.

"Yeah, we kinda do," Scarlet said from behind me. I ignored the urge to turn around, instead kept my eyes on Mr White and the gun.

"Well then, sweetheart," he spat the word like it was poison in his mouth. "You've got something else coming." I saw his finger move to the trigger and it wasn't until I heard my name being screamed did I realise what he was going to do. I frowned, realising I was so slow at catching onto things before my entire left side exploded into pain.

I cried out, stumbling backwards and tripping over some twisted piece of metal. My fingers instantly went to my hip and I could already see dark red blood start to drip between my fingers and feel the warm and sticky substance through my shirt. It felt like every bone in my left side was being broken, shattered into hundreds of tiny fragments before someone ripping each piece out of my still living body.

I faintly recognise I was on the ground with blood pooling around my side, with my eyes closed and people yelling in the background. Someone kneeled down next to me and my eyes fluttered open to see Shani kneeling down and placing her hands to my hip.

Shani had looked better. But then again she could have looked worse. Blood dried across her face and her brown hair had come undone from its hold behind her head, spilling down in deep curls and sticking to her face. Her clothing was stained with blood and I could see a knife glinting next to her side.

Her lips moved and a faint tinkling sound rang in my ears and I tried to desperately hard to focus on the words but it was as if she was speaking a different language altogether. Her hands travelled to my hip where she carefully removed my hands and began doing her work. Behind her I could see the worried faces of Alexis, Scarlet, Kelly who had a massive gash along her jawbone, Adrian for the first time since we left the forest, Zachery and someone else. Someone I hadn't seen for a very long time.

I blinked, not sure if I was actually seeing him or not. Arson was standing an arm's length away from the group. He was still wearing the clothes I had found him in even though I faintly remember ripping them; a long dark coat over a white shirt and brown pants. His hands were shoved inside the coats pockets and he gave me a full blown smile.

"Your parents say hi," he said softly. No one else even turned their heads to look at him or even recognised he had spoken. Very slowly, he withdrew his hand from his pocket, holding up what looked like a golden chain with a circle dangling at the end. I wanted to grab it, I truly did but not one single part of my body would work. My arm didn't lift to grab hold of the chain and my lips didn't move to ask the millions of questions I had in my sludge filled mind.