Pain

Chapter 8 - Home Invasion

Chapter 8
Home Invasion

I could feel Koby's heart crashing against my chest and the hand that was covering my mouth was slick with sweat. He knew that we weren't getting out of this and so did I. The best-case scenario was that we were taken prisoner and the others got to us tomorrow. Somehow, I thought that was going to be the soldiers last choice when they saw that we were armed.

Koby started moving very slowly, removing his hand from my face and my side and carefully covering my body with his own. No matter what direction the bullets came from, Koby would be hit. He was still putting his life on the line for me.

"This is it, isn't it?" I asked, fearing death.

"I think so," he admitted.

Both of our guns were too obvious to go grabbing at that point and even with the two of us shooting at lightning speed, there was no way that we could shoot all of the soldiers before they shot us. We were wildly outnumbered and completely vulnerable.

"I'm so sorry for everything I've done in this war," Koby whispered, staring into my eyes. "Maybe if I had of been there for you, if I had stopped being so angry and overprotective, you might not have run away. You found what you lost in Jamie and I drove you there and I reacted terribly. I know I shouldn't have slept with Candice to get back at you. I went about everything to wrong."

I gulped, realising just how obvious this had been all along. Not only had my closest friends been angry at Koby, Nigel had also had a very obvious dig at Candice and no one had stood up to defend her. It was a low blow. Candice was very lucky that I would never make it back to camp after this.

"I heard you and Jen talking the other night," Koby continued, taking my silence as an opportunity to try and explain his actions. "I knew that no matter what I did from that point onwards, no matter how much I tried to hurt you, I wasn't the man I was when this war started and I don't think I ever will be again. That was the Koby you fell in love with and he's gone. I can't blame you for moving on. Jamie's always been blindly in love with you and the war hasn't affected him like it's affected some of us. He's good for you."

I felt tears on my face and at that moment in time, I couldn't tell if they were from me or Koby. I certainly felt like crying, but with everything he was saying and everything he was admitting after fighting it for so long, it wouldn't have surprised me if the tears belonged to him. The man I'd once loved was still there.

"With all that's been said and done, you have to give yourself more credit," I said. "You fought hard and have been hurt so badly, yet here you are putting your life on the line to try and save my life. You'll always be in my heart, Koby."

I kissed him softly on the lips, before breaking away to look at him.

"Here's what we're going to do," I went on. "We're going to get up and we're going to fire in every direction. That's the best chance we have."

"Do you think it'll work?" Koby asked, carefully looking around.

"It's either death by bullets now or an execution," I replied. "Are you with me?"

"To the death," he whispered.

He slowly left my body, moving to lay on his back beside me. The two of us then got a hold of our guns and turned to look at each other. We were ready to face death. I nodded slowly and the two of us jumped to our feet. The night exploded with the sounds of gunfire and the smell of death.

The bullets ceased and I realised that there were no more soldiers surrounding us. Somehow, we'd won this battle. I exhaled in disbelief and turned to Koby, eager to get back to camp before there were any more soldiers to battle. Instead, I found him doubled over in the grass, clutching his stomach with blood covered hands.