Mutations

Mutations: ~ Chapter Forty Two ~

Mutations:

~ Chapter Forty Two ~ 

Footsteps.

They echoed through the air, slow and calculated. Arms wound tightly around my midsection, holding me tight against a muscular chest and wrapped me in a rugged scent that made a sense of safety embrace me.

Siren's echoed through the air, faint but pulsing. My eyes cracked open but saw nothing but red, the lights mounted to the ceiling were either cracked or gone altogether. The normally grey cement walls splattered in dripping red.

"Five?" I whispered his name but he didn't respond. Five blinked slowly in response, his body was sprawled across the ground only feet away from me, one hand outstretched and he whimpered a little, "What...what happened?"

Five looked so vulnerable, his handsome face was covered in speckles of dried blood. Somehow, it made him look older. He slowly rose but winced with every move he made, "Hell of a fight." He murmured with a wry smile, reaching out to grab my wrist and I cried out when he tugged.

"Ugh!" The pain burned up my side, and I felt a wetness spill down my cheeks, "Five!"

A hand pressed down on the center of the wound, I glanced back to see Two. Barely conscious and wounded, a bullet was wedged into his shoulder but he didn't seem to notice. It was obvious that he was doing all he could to just stay awake.

We were all done. Five tried to fight the exhaustion but he wasn't strong enough, I watched as his eyes slipped shut and he slumped into the deep sleep that awaited him. I was surprised to see Ander, Five's Handler, propped up against the wall in a similar state.

Only he loosely held a gun in his hand.

"We're under attack..." Three's voice came from behind, I looked back. Three was covered in blood, it was in his dark blond hair, drenched his clothes and even in his ears, "We need to...move."

I met his gaze with my own and he held it. I didn't remember much; a gun firing, and then darkness. But from the sight of Three, it wasn't hard to guess that a lot more than just that happened. He looked like he could crash at any moment and I didn't blame him.

The sound of shoes travelling grew louder and I inhaled deeply. Blood clogged my nose with its bitter metallic tang, that and the sharpness of gunpowder. Other odors threatened to block out everything else, but there was one scent; a foreign one that captured my attention.

...cigar smoke?

"Six!" A painfully familiar voice echoed through the air but I couldn't have responded even if I wanted to. And I so desperately wanted to. His voice made me feel safe, and if I closed my eyes I could see his scowl, "Six!"

Large hands jerked me out of Two's hold and I cried out from the pain that shot through my side, it smelled like him. Like aged aftershave that wasn't layered on but a faint whisper of it, he smelled like what I remembered as home.

"Eric." I mumbled enjoying the scent despite the pain. All I could focus on was the memory. But it hurt to think about him, not knowing whether he was safe or not, "Is it time to go home?"

His angular face was suddenly hovering over mines. His sharp jawline covered in more than a days' worth of dark stubble, and his oval bottomless eyes pierced into me. Eric's hair was even longer and fell in tousled waves on top of his head.

"Come on, Six." Eric muttered pulling me to my feet and I stumbled a little, "Ander! Wake up!"

Amazement suddenly channeled through me as my senses slowly seeped through the cracks of darkness, "Eric." I said more firmly this time as my distorted vision cleared up a little. The man looked down at me, an emotion on his face I didn't recognize, "You're real."