Superhuman [Book 1]

34 || Father Figure

  ➟ ly
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"Dad?" Kyle shouted, his face a bright red.

"Kyle, I- I didn't expect to see you here."

"Bullshit," Kyle said, his tone venomous. "Bullshit."

"Kyle. Get down," Tommy said. He paused, but looked up at Kyle again. "You need to get down." My eyes moved to the woman in front of Kyle's dad, raising her gun- "Get DOWN!" Tommy said urgently. But Kyle was still shooting daggers with his eyes, ignoring anything but his father. Tommy leaped up, pulling Kyle down by the shoulders when...

The woman fired.

Tommy reached for his shoulder, his eyes squeezing shut. With that, everything seemed to fall in slow motion. Sam lashed out, all but running at the woman. Hazzy raced to Tommy's side, inspecting the wound. Piers looked crestfallen. I, although, knew what I was doing.

"It's a shoulder shot, he'll live," I said, moving through the crowd. "Apply pressure, remove the bullet, disinfect, and stitch it up. Simple."

"Ly, how do you know-" Zane started, but I cut him off.

"I've been through a lot. Don't question it. Hazz, how accurate is your telekinesis?"

"Pretty accurate? What? Why are you asking?" Hazzy said, looking up from Tommy.

"Well you need to be accurate, or this will go horribly wrong. Nia, can you go calm Sam down?"

"Yeah, sure. Since when are you taking charge like this?" Nia said.

"Since I actually know something for once," I mumbled, looking over to Kyle. He was stood in place, unmoving. "Kyle, go talk to your father. If there's one thing I regret not doing, it's that." Kyle looked over at me, contemplating my statement.

"Ly, Tommy's just been shot because of me-"

"It's under control. Now go."

"I-"

"Go. We can handle without you," I said. Kyle nodded, stepping around the chaos that had become Alliot. "Right. So we need to do this quickly and get out of here. Tommy, I need you to listen to me. Did the bullet go through?"

Tommy moaned in response. "I... I have no idea, I've never really been shot before," he said, wincing with every word.

"Right. We're gonna need to take the shirt off- Zane, a little help?"

"Why do I have to take his shirt off, that's-"

"Zane, you're the only one who isn't either busy or having an emotional breakdown," I said. He looked over at me.

"Look at you playing doctor," he said with a chuckle. "A sight I never thought I'd see."

"Get to work, Zane," I said. "Hazzy, hold his arm still, and put a little pressure on the shoulder. Not too tight, we don't want to bruise it. Alright, Tommy, this is going to hurt a little bit, but it needs to be done."

"I understand pain, Ly. It's nothing I haven't dealt with," Tommy said stubbornly. I looked him in the eyes. Was that a challenge?

"Fine. I guess that will make this easier. Pull it over his head," I said. Zane nodded, pulling the fabric off of Tommy. Tommy flinched, his breathing becoming ragged. "Nothing you haven't dealt with before," I mumbled. Looking over Tommy's front side, I could tell that the bullet only breached the backside of his shoulder. "Okay. So the bullet's still in there. I don't know if it's been broken into many pieces or not, but if it was it's going to make things hell of a lot more difficult. Hazzy. You said your powers were pretty accurate. I'm going to need you to try and get the bullet out of there."

"What? Ly, you need to think about what you're asking me," Hazzy said, her eyes widening.

"I have, trust me. We need to do this as quick as possible and get back to the- wait. Where's Jack?"

"With Kyle," Zane answered.

"Hmm," I nodded. "Right. As I was saying. Hazzy, we're all trusting you right now."

"It would mean a lot, Hazz," Tommy murmured from his odd position.

"Why the hell did you even jump in front of him?" Hazzy asked, moving closer to Tommy.

"Kyle's a good two inches taller than me, right? And I know that if that bullet would have gone through him- I mean, I saw it, in the future or whatever- if it went through him, it would have hit him in the heart," Tommy said. Hazzy stared at him, eyes unwavering. Her face started squishing up.

"No. We're not crying. No time for crying. Hazzy, we have a job to do and very little time to do it," I said.

"But what if I mess up? I could kill him!"

"The chances of that happening are little to none. If you don't help me, the chances of him dying are much higher. Now come on, we need to go," I said. "Zane, apply pressure to the outside of the wound while she's doing this."

"Why do I-"

"Nope. Tell me what you have to say later, just apply pressure," I said. Hazzy moved over to the back of Tommy, tears streaming silently down her face. "Focus, Hazzy. You can do it."

"Ly, we have to leave," Piers said, waving his walkie-talkie. "This place is swarming with Ineffects, there's no time for this."

"We can't leave him like this, the blood loss will get to his head. Give us ten minutes," I said, kneeling next to Tommy.

"I can't do this in ten minutes!" Hazzy cried. I looked up at her. Her hands were beginning to shake.

"Hazzy. This is just like training, remember? We'll make it out fine. We'll leave Pagomonen and go back to SOSA and it will be like this never happened."

"Didn't you hear what they were saying? Draos is returning-"

"Live in the present, Hazzy. We need to concentrate. Pull out the bullet."

"I-"

"Pull it out, Hazzy!" I yelled, and she closed her eyes. She sat perfectly still, except for her eyes, which could be seen moving under her eyelids. Nia rushed up next to us, Sam in tow.

"There are like, thirty of them. We can't hold them off, Zane, not as a whole team, and certainly not as two people. We have to leave immediately," Nia said to Zane. He looked to me. I held a finger to my lips, watching Hazzy intently.

"He'll die of blood loss if we don't do this now," Zane whispered to Nia. Her eyebrows shot up, and she knelt next to Tommy. Sam's mouth fell open.

"Will he be alright?" Nia asked.

"If you two shut up, he'll be fine," I whispered back. Nia nodded, eyes falling on Hazzy.

"Oh my god," Piers said. I looked up at him, eyes wide.

"Be quiet!" I whispered, and he shook his head, backing up several paces.

"Oh my god."

"What's wrong?" Zane whispered, looking to Piers.

"They have a Breaker. They have a Breaker, we- we need to move. And we need to move fast."