Stargazer (Write Awards 2013)

Chapter 19 (Write Awards 2013)

"Stephen!" Carmen cried, jumping in to help me when my knees buckled under Stephens weight. She grasped his head before it hit the ground, cradling it in her lap. I gently placed his body on the floor, making sure to not further injure him. Carmen looked up to me, panic setting in her eyes. 

"You have to help him!" she screamed to me. I placed two fingers to his throat and feeling his heart still beating strongly. Carmen started running her hands over his chest, trying to get his shirt off to see the wound. 

"Carmen," I said and repeated louder when she didn't seem to have heard me. "You need to calm down!" She took a deep breath and her whole body seemed to settle down. "Now, I know you went through first-aid in the training program. You can do this." 

Carmen nodded and started getting supplies from the pockets in her armour. I grabbed my gun and took back off into the restricted room from where Stephen must have stumbled from. 

The light slowly diminished to nothing and I had to strain my ears to hear if I was about to crash into anything. 

Slowly but surely, my eyes started to adjust to the darkness and I made more progress downwards. The hallways were lined with rooms and I managed to unlock them to find that they were empty while tiled rooms. 

It amazed me at how far Stephen had come with the injuries he had sustained. He must have taken a big gun shot wound to the stomach. A wound like that would have sapped at your energy. But he was in good hands. Carmen would patch him up in no time. 

A crackling sound shot through my gun and I yelped, dropping it. Carmen's voice crackled through, breaking up at random moments making what she said completely unrecognisable. 

"Carmen?" I asked into the microphone on the side of the gun. Her voice crackled through again, this time clearer. 

"June! You have twenty minutes!" she screamed through. My heart jumped up a notch, making it feel as if it would burst through my chest at any moment. 

"Twenty minutes?" I asked again, still in shock. 

"Yes!" she screamed and I heard a thump. "Crap, drop it. Now June, you need to hurry!" 

"Carmen! I have no idea where I need to or where I am!" I hissed. 

"Just keep moving forwards but don't head down. Take the first staircase up. That's where it is." Her voice cut off at the end and she didn't respond anymore. In frustration I threw the gun onto the floor, hearing a satisfying crack as it landed. I must have passed at least four flights of stairs and kept going down. Now I need to go back up? I picked up the gun and started retracing my steps. 

I came to the first staircase and took the steps two at a time, reaching the top within ten seconds. I was about to run back down the hall when a small set of flashing lights on the wall distracted me. Turning I saw it was a lone keypad with flashing red lights. 

Without thinking I opened the lock and a white panel in the side of the wall opened. I was blasted with the sick smell of blood. It was a small room with a spiral staircase in the centre. I could see blood splatters on the stairs, and I swallowed loudly before climbing them. 

The stair case went on for what felt like forever. I lost count after the fortieth step and the back of my legs began to get sore. I was just about to give up when I heard the sound of grunts and the sound of metal hitting metal above me. 

The top floor was magnificent. It must have been the size of the whole town, stretched out in concrete flooring. I counted at least four balconies all looking down, like the whole building was hollow. And this was all illuminated by multiple chandeliers.