2050: A Time of Courage

Chapter 9: Rosalie/Jason

Rosalie

I'm not sure exactly when Brynn stopped following me, I just know she did. As soon as I noticed, I stopped walking too, like if I waited for another minute she might appear around the last corner. I probably thought she would. It's easy to get lost in this building, but if she wasn't too far behind us maybe Brynn would catch up fast.

The soldier, Ivanov, turns to look at me, noticing the same way I did that Brynn isn't here. He looks a bit sad, though that expression only crosses his face for a few seconds.

"We will find her." he says, sounding sure of it, "Come on, let's go after the others first."

Foolishly, I suddenly want to cry. We can't just leave Brynn alone, trying to find her way out of danger by herself. But we aren't leaving her. We'll find her, we just have to get to Emilio and Theo first.

I still haven't started moving, and Ivanov mutters a curse word under his breath. He grabs my wrist, forcing me to run to keep up as he drags me along next to him. We move quickly, and each time Ivanov shoots at another soldier, I can't help closing my eyes. If, when, I get out of here, I know I'm probably going to have nightmares about all of this.

I can watch an Inhumane die, knowing they weren't really human after they changed, but every time I see an everyday person die, it's different.

Regular people aren't Inhumanes. They can think about families, about life, and they're not focused on trying to eat me. Whether these soldiers are bad people or not, somehow that doesn't matter. They're people, and watching Ivanov shoot them is like watching those Russians shoot my parents all over again. Russian soldiers tortured me, but these officers weren't the ones to do it. I'm caught between wanting to look at them all as evil and feeling sorry for them.

"Don't." I startle myself when I speak, and I have to stop myself from slapping a hand over my mouth, "Don't shoot them. You don't have to."

Ivanov looks at me. We're standing in front of a door, a soldier standing on each side of it. Both of these soldiers have guns in their hands, and they're moving to point them at us. It's their instinct to try to hurt us, because harming us will get rid of the threat.

I raise both my hands, pulling the left one from Ivanov's grasp as I concentrate on the air, on taking care of these two soldiers without killing them.

Both of them are slammed against the wall at the same time, crumpling to the floor a second later.

They're unconscious.

Not dead.

Hopefully they can stay that way. Hopefully the rest of us can too.

Ivanov opens the door, and I'm expecting him to go into the room, but he doesn't. He looks down at me, a small smile crossing his face.

"Go ahead." he says, pushing me forward with his other hand. I stumble at first, still carrying the supplies in the city patrol woman's pack and not having expected Ivanov to push me.

I take a few steps forward, walking through the doorway and into the small room. It only takes me a second to catch sight of Emilio and Theo, sitting against the back wall. It looks like they were talking about something before Ivanov opened the door, and now both of them turn their heads to look at me.