Dead Ringer *Watty 2016*

Larkin

Archer looked around for somewhere to hide and it was only when he was glancing around that he realized Larkin was no where in sight.  Then he felt a hand on his ankle pulling, without glancing down to make sure it was her he lowered himself into the crevice, setting the unconscious Oakley on the ledge.  Once his feet hit the ground and he was safely concealed he reached back up and pulled Oakley down into the crevice with them.

"How did you know it was me?"  Larkin whispered.

"I didn't but I figured one angry guy hiding in a hole beat twenty angry guys that have me corned."  He whispered back before turning his attention back to Oakley.

Larkin kneeled beside Oakley who was now shaking slightly but was looking less pale.  "There is no way she can go with us," Larkin whispered.

"I know but we can't leave her."  Archer insisted.

"That's not what I was saying," Larkin said looking him directly in the eyes.

"No," Archer answered firmly.

"I wasn't asking a question Archer," Larkin said making her voice just as firm as his.

"You have no authority to tell me to do anything Larkin," Archer said still trying to take charge of the situation.

"Neither of us has any authority here Arch.  Here's the situation, we are hiding in a hole from heavily armed men with an unconscious Cian, now you being the nice person you are you care how this turns out for her but I'm scrappy and have been trained to hate Cian's.  I will leave her here and climb out of this hole, so you save her and take her down this mountain or you go with me and let here die here.  Your choice."  Larkin didn't feel as brave as she sounded but she knew it was the only way she could save Briar and she trusted Arch not leave Oakley.

He ran his hand through his hair in frustration and looked from Oakley to Larkin.  "Damn it Lark," he said, "what am I supposed to do?"

Larkin tried to look as apathetic as possible and she shrugged.  "At least help me get out of here," he said gesturing to where the guards stood just out of sight.  "Or else we will all three die."

"Ok then here's the plan I will distract them and you run on down the hill with her and find the others I will meet you later when I have Briar."  Larkin said.

Archer opened his mouth to object again but Larkin took a deep breath grabbing the ledge and hoisting herself onto it.  She picked a rock up off of the ledge, threw it into the center of the guards, "Kill me."  She shouted running away from the hole as they all turned towards her.

Immediately the entire group ran after her, which was much smaller than she initially thought, only around six guards.  Larkin knew that she couldn't outrun them all so she ran straight to the edge and let her feet glide over.  She felt herself slip and she wanted to panic and flail but instead she flung her hands into the cliff edge.  Her right hand caught hold of a crack in the rock but her left arm slipped.  She felt the pain instantly as her shoulder began to rip, she reached around with her left arm, grabbing onto the same crack, and jammed her feet into the wall.  Then she saw what she had been hoping for, running at full force two of the official guards ran straight off the edge hitting hard onto the ground, their half robotic bodies breaking.

She felt her hands slipping and she knew that she couldn't hold on with her shoulder in the state that it was in any longer.  That's when she heard it, their feet walking away.  She hoped that she had given Arch enough time to get back down the mountain or at least enough time to find a spot to hide.  Using mostly her legs and her left arm she pulled herself back up to the flat ground.  Tears welled up in her eyes and her arm hung limply, not entirely connected at the shoulder.  "No, you didn't send everyone down the hill to die up here."  She told herself moving towards the entrance to the headquarters.  "If you die, Briar dies in the cave, Archer won't leave without you neither will Sanders so they will die, without them to help her down the hill while she is hurt Oakley will die, if Oakley dies Harlow might lay down and die, and then Everett will die.  I don't know how he will die but he will."  She told herself hoping that her friend's mortality would motivate her not to just lay down and succumb to her relatively minor injuries.

The door to the headquarters seemed farther away than before but luckily the guards had returned to the other side.  "Not luckily if they caught Arch," she thought.

The cave wall was only fifteen feet away and Larkin began to feel the panic creeping in.  What if she stepped into the headquarters and there were more guards than ever before, she couldn't do anything with one arm.  Despite her best effort, she didn't see any other options so she kept powering through, walking straight towards the cave.  The entrance was only ten feet away and with every step she took she felt throbbing in her right shoulder, pain so bad that she felt nauseous.  She shook her head leaned against the rock wall and vomited, took a deep breath.  "You are Larkin," she whispered to herself and she closed her eyes allowing herself to feel the pain, miss her old life, be afraid, and remember the things she collected and everything she loved.  Then she stopped herself, "You had your minute to be a person, you can't be a person anymore, you aren't what's important.  You don't feel, you don't fear or think anything other than how to survive.  You are not a person."

With that surge of strength Larkin straightened her back and walked into the mouth of the cave.