The Long Way Home | ORIGINAL

Six

"So, where exactly are we going?" Louis asked impatiently, wanting to get this over with. They were both a little jittery from what had just happened. For Adair, it wasn't her first kiss. Not now, because of Aiden. But she let the thoughts of Aiden slip from her mind. She never really saw anyone else except for Louis as an option for her.

"Just up here, that building." The structure she had indicated was broken down and dusty. Louis looked at it skeptically, taking in the filthy air and trash littered on the ground.

"Alright, let's do this." He grabbed her hand, and they charged the building confidently.

When they got inside, they noticed immediately that the attention was not going to be turned towards them instantly. The entire building was in mass chaos, people running around frantically as they gathered up their belongings.

"Well, looks like we don't have too much work to do here." Louis remarked with a low chuckle. "If they're all like this, unorganized and such, it'll be easy to take them down and find Sage." He gave Adair one last hopeful look, and they plunged into the pandemonium.

Stumbling through the ramshackle building, Adair felt braver than she should have, but she missed Louis. Wondered where he was right now, limping through the massive crowds of people who were panicked for some unknown reason. She worried, but kept going, reaching the nearest person to her and asking a simple question.

"I'm a new recruit here. Where are the prisoners being kept?" She inquired in a low tone. The woman simply laughed sternly, and steered her towards a set of double doors.

"Well 'Newbie', if you want to get yourself killed, that's a good way to get it done. First off, there's only one prisoner right now. They only want you, Adair.They're using Sage as bait. Lay low for now." Okay, she knew Adair's name. Slightly creepy, but to be expected.

"And then what?" Adair queried incredulously. "You want me to just stand here and get myself killed?"

"They're not gonna kill you. They need you. And no, I don't want you going into the action. You're going to do something stupid to die. They won't even have to kill you." The woman scoffed, but held a hand out. "Fine. You want help? The name's Ruth. Follow me and try not to do anything stupid."

"Okay, Ruth. So what are we doing?"

"You go for as many as you can, take 'em out unless they have this." She pointed to a small purple pin on the shoulder of her jacket. To anyone who didn't know, it would have been an insignificant detail. But, now that Adair looked around carefully, she could see at least fifteen others who had the same dark magenta pendant pinned to their jackets.

"So, do I just...how am I taking them out?" She asked anxiously.

"Here, take this. You just need to take the safety off, then you can pull the trigger. If you run out of ammunition, come find me, or take some from one of the people you shoot. Got it?" Ruth looked into her eyes sympathetically. "I know, this is hard, and you're probably not used to it. But you need to be calm and do it. These are bad men that will hurt you if you don't hurt them first. Okay?" Adair nodded, everything just felt numb now.

The fear wasn't paralyzing, just numbing. Adair couldn't feel much of anything as she charged through the crowds of people, shooting as best she could.

Eventually she heard the hollow click signifying that she was out of bullets. She ran to the closest person who was motionless and grabbed their gun, emptying the ammunition from the chamber. Adair quickly shoved it into her own gun's chamber and stood quickly, heading off into the mayhem once more.

As time passed, Adair saw less and less of the Nightmen, and more and more of the people with purple pins. She sighed in relief, slumping against a wall and taking a few deep breaths. A few more shots flew, then the last of the remaining Nightmen fell to the floor, dead.

Ruth came back to Adair, hugging her with relief coating her already sweaty features. Adair smiled back at her, and they parted, looking around. Then Adair saw a familiar face. Louis. He was holding up a gun, a determined expression on his face.

Adair realized what he was doing too late. He had the gun aimed at Ruth, and then he pulled the trigger, thinking he was saving Adair. "LOUIS NO!" Adair shouted, but the bullet had already hit Ruth in the chest, just above her heart. There was no way she'd make it before she bled out.

"Adair, you're safe. It's okay. Let's go find Sage." He put an arm around her, guiding her towards the door, but she pulled away.

"NO! I can't believe you just did that! She was on our team, trying to protect us!" Adair was furious, and she pulled her hand back to slap him. Luckily, Louis had quick reflexes and caught her hand before it made contact with his face.

"Stop Adair. I know, you're frustrated and scared and probably stressed, but you need to calm down, okay?" He looked into her eyes, and she broke down from the stress. She put her head on Louis's shoulder and cried into his shirt until he pulled her back and held her by the shoulders. "You're strong, you can do this, okay?" Adair nodded silently, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and clearing her throat.

She stuck out her hand, and Louis took it. They gave each other one last determined look and ran down the dark corridors, hopefully towards Sage and safety.