Ordinaries

Chapter 29

I couldn't take my eyes off of the bodies. Mendel, Ventrice, Seyan, Tatia, Eric. The others didn't bother me as much, but every time I looked at Eric, it was like another piece of my heart was being chipped off. Camila was practically wailing, and Adriana's face was wet with silent tears; although, I didn't think they were for Eric. Moving like a robot, she dropped Seyan's pistol and retrieved the serum from her mother's still body.

The display screens above the computer told me that Elys's streets were practically empty now, albeit covered in black knockout dust and hail and flooding rainwater. No screams or sounds played in the background anymore. I knew the Necrose were very close, if not already here. We needed to leave.

"Camila," I said, pulling her up. "We need to go. We can't be here when the Necrose get here."

"You just want to leave him?" Camila cried. "We can't! He deserves better, and you know it, Luke!"

My heart panged, and I couldn't come up with a response. Jade and Noah came over, while Lindsey went to check on Adriana. "Camila," Noah said softly, "there's nothing we can do. He would want us to run."

Camila sniffed. "We can take his body. We've got time."

Jade exchanged glances with Noah and I. "Camila, we need to—"

"We've got time!" Camila yelled. "We can carry him! I'm not going without him."

I sighed and turned to Noah. "Are you in good enough shape?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but we need to go now."

"Okay." I bent down and heaved Eric's left side over my back, and Noah took on his right side. Eric was all muscle, but there was a fire burning in me that I knew would give me all the strength I needed. I took a breath and locked eyes with Lindsey. "Is she good?"

"I think so." Adriana wasn't speaking, and her eyes were blank. "She's just in shock."

"Well, I hope she can run while she's in shock," Jade said from the door. "Because I can hear engines."

Darting down the stairwell was particularly difficult with close to two-hundred pounds on my back, but we'd made it to the lobby before I even knew it. Adriana was being tugged along by Jade and Lindsey, and all the while I could hear the roars of engines and helicopter blades ripping through the air in the distance. By the time I reached the lobby, they were so loud I was convinced they must have been right out front.

"Let's go," I said. "We've still got Mendel's helicopter."

I burst out of the research facility and raced into the cover of the trees, my friends hot on my heels. Hail pelted my skin like rubber bullets, and the pain firing through me said I would have some bad bruises later. Through the trees on my sides, I could see the figures of Helixes zipping towards us and the shadows of helicopters on the forest floor. I ran harder, praying that by some miracle, they wouldn't see us, that they were too intent on saving their precious serum to look anywhere other forward.

When I made it to the helicopter, my back was ready to snap in half. Noah and I took care in loading Eric's body into the trunk of the aircraft and strapping him down before clambering into the cabin and buckling up. Lindsey took the pilot seat once again, and the helicopter started and rose into the air. But as Lindsey steered us forward, she froze.

"What is it?" Jade queried from the passenger seat.

Lindsey furrowed her brow at something on the helicopter's display console. "This helicopter is on autopilot. It already has a predetermined destination."