The Clean Ones

Chapter 12

"Run." He whispered, his face still only inches from mine. He unhooked the latch on the window and slid it open, allowing the brisk, midnight air to nip at my exposed skin. Cale rubbed his hand quickly over a patch of goosebumps on my arm before attempting to shoo my body- head first- out the window.

"What in the world, Cale?!" I exclaimed. "I thought you said run, not jump out a window that's three stories of the ground! Are you insane?"
I pulled my freezing upper body back inside the room just as another gunshot went off. Cale was already rummaging through his pocket to grab the miniature pistol that he kept concealed in case of emergency. Well, it wasn't exactly what one would call miniature, but it was significantly smaller than the large weapons the Mayor's guards were armed with. I think Cale had called them machine guns, though I couldn't be certain.

He pressed the pistol into my hand. "I want you to take this. Take it and run, okay? Downstairs is the mayor's office, and right next to that is the library. I talked to Benton earlier; he and Lu scoped out the place. Head into the library and push the third bookcase aside. There's a set of stairs behind there that'll lead you to an underground escape. I'll meet you down there, okay? Look," another shot fired, followed by several smaller ones. I jumped as the sound of the shots came crashing into my eardrums. "The hard part is getting down there without anyone noticing you, especially the Mayor. If anyone, anyone, tries to hurt you or stop you from getting down there, you know what to do, right?"

I gulped and looked down at the weapon that lay in my hands. Right then, I knew exactly what he wanted me to do; shoot. My pure hands, which hadn't done so much as caress a dead creature, now held within them a machine that was powerful enough to destroy a human being. Even so, I looked up at Cale with a certain fire burning from within me. I was going to do this. I could do it, and I was going to do whatever it took to prove it to him.

"Right." I answered. There was no longer hesitation behind my voice. Instead, it was replaced by strength and certainty.

"Hey," he reached out to stroke my choppy hair. "It'll be okay, you know. I promise, I'll meet you down there as soon as I can. Until then, don't worry about me. Just worry about yourself."

"You sure?" I whispered.

"I'm more than sure. Ah, you should probably get going, though."

"Yeah, okay, right. I'll just be going... Hopefully I'll see you on the flip side." I said, much faster than I wanted to. The whole thing probably came out as more of a jumble of strangled vowel sounds rather than coherent words.

When I got to my feet I closed my eyes, ran as fast as I could possibly muster, and hoped that I would make it out alive.

A/N: thank you to all of my new followers for the follows! I hope you enjoy my story and the newest chapter! Please take a moment to like this chapter and give it a little review! Did you love it? Hate it? Whatever the decision, I want to know! Thank you all so much for your support with this story so far. It's only just the beginning.