BETRAYAL

The Next Barrier

Iris woke up with a start to the sound of sirens blaring. She had been lying on the floor, must have fallen asleep while they were waiting.
She staggered to her feet, searching frantically for the origin of the sound but there was nothing but a room with a table and chairs. Covering her ears from the deafening sound, she ran around the table to look for Shae but she couldn't find her. Shae wasn't anywhere in the room. Now frantic, she bent over to look under the table and she saw the body of a man lying on his back under the table. She crawled under the table and knelt down above the man. It was Captain Westfall. His eyes were closed, but he wasn't breathing. How could he not hear the sirens? Iris grabbed him by his ankles and dragged him from underneath the table, until he was lying out in the open. She placed her index and middle finger on his neck to check his pulse, but she could only feel a slight beat. She shook his shoulders vigorously back and forth while yelling "WAKE UP!!!!" at the top of her lungs- which she could barely hear above the sirens.

What had happened to him? She let him drop back to the floor again and slapped him across the face. Still nothing. She had never had this happen to her before in her training. She knew it probably wouldn't help, but she saw no other option. She pushed her hands down on the center of his chest hard and fast. Then she placed her moth ontop of his and blew air into his. She kept repeating this process, almost in tears when her arms where aching and she was out of breath, the sirens still wailing around her, starting to think that there was no hope in trying to save the Captain. That her mentor and friend that had taught her everything would now be dead.

Until finally, after what seemed like forever, Captain Westfalls' chest rose from the air. Relieved, she did CPR one more time until Captain Westfall's eyes opened and he was coughing.

"Captain!" She exclaimed, embracing him in a hug, but then let go as she realized that he'd just been unconscious. "I thought you were dead!"

"What?"He cringed at the sirens, covering his ears with his hands. "Whats that noise?"

She could barely hear him ask.

"I don't know!" Iris stood up and grabbed Captain Westfall's arm, helping him up.

"Where's Shae?" He yelled.

"She's gone! We have to find her!" Iris yelled back.

Captain looked around, and spotted the doors. "Come on!"

They ran towards the doors, and as soon as they were outside in the hallway, the sirens had stopped.

They both paused out of shock outside the door frame. Iris popped her head back in the room but then quickly extracted it as the sirens were still blaring loud and clear.

"What the hell is going on?" Captain Westfall asked.

"Don't ask me!" Iris said back. She looked around. "Come on, lets go this way."

She started running down the hallway, Captain Westfall behind her. She turned corner after corner, following the endless hallway until she was running down the longest stretch of floor she'd ever seen, she ran fast, her hair blowing behind her, and her legs burning, but she had to keep going this could be their only way out. To find Shae.

They must have taken her, Iris thought as she ran. Semilar, that conniving, manipulative, self centred, son of a-

She was cut of from her thought as Captain Westfall pulled her by the arm, holding her back from running any further and she realize that he just saved her from running straight of a cliff.

The looked around her, to see that the hall way ended, and so did the rest of the tower. She was now faced with the outside- the mountains, the green grass and everything else lay ahead of them.