Sky Dust

Chapter 33

He kept the gun clenched in his hands.

Pull the trigger, he told himself. Before doing that, he closed his eyes.

You've done that before.

A movement. A noise. A scream. Spencer opened his eyes and ran without thinking. Perhaps he had only provoked their anger, but there was no time for regrets. He shot again when he spotted someone's eyes on him. The gun slowed him down, and soon he felt that he would be caught.

Spencer searched for a streak of white hair, but it was nowhere. The snow was the only white thing he could see, and his eyes were wet. Everything was blurred.

The urge to fall down and the urge not to were mixing inside of him. Spencer was obliged to keep running. He jumped away, but Vivia was still not there. He shot again and dropped his gun.

Lovely, he thought. His legs were giving up, but his mind wasn't. But his whole body got energetic when he saw a white streak. It disappeared into nowhere, and he searched for it with his eyes. Spencer lost his balance and fell down. Before anyone could catch him, he sat up.

"Surrender," a soft voice told him. "Do you really think we'll hurt you?"

"You killed Rudy," Spencer replied calmly, too afraid to stand. He wanted to think of something, but it came out difficult and slow.

"Not you."

"You tried to kill me."

"Only because we were forced to."

He turned his head. It hurt; his bones could barely move. The gun that he used to hold was lying in the snow. Spencer got up and raced to get it, but was caught. He froze, then bowed down quickly and grabbed the gun.

The back of his neck felt a burn. There was probably a knife pressed against it. He pulled away as quickly as he could and shot blindly. The pressure made him fall, but he flew up. Only then he could feel the pull on his arm.

Spencer opened his eyes. Vivia's hair flashed in front of him, then again.

"You're awake?" He heard. He jumped onto his feet before Vivia could stop moving. "Great. I was getting tired of carrying you."

Vivia looked up at the camp as she untied the pouch from his belt.

"I'm taking this."

He nodded messily, expecting a shot. A whole group of them came when Vivia was still holding the pouch up in her hands. Spencer ran, seeing almost nothing through the rain of bullets. He looked around, trying to distinguish Vivia's shape. A bullet came flying, and he couldn't dodge it.

Then he was on the cold surface.