Of Smoke and Stardust [[COMPLETE]]]

CHAPTER 29-ALYA

Alya dug into her father's suit pocket. She had to find the key card or tag or whatever necessary to get out of this room and get to Parker. Her's were taken along with her weapons when the soldiers shoved her into the room.

Her fingers fumbled the card as she dashed for the door. Turning her back away from where Parker was getting beaten. She swiped her father's card and the panels slid open. Alya made for the elevator and pressed the button with her trembling, bloodied hand.

Hurry, hurry, hurry

Each second ticked away like a year. "Damnit!" Alya punched the elevator button when the display showed the elevator had yet to come up. She almost flew head first down the stairs in her haste, taking two or three together at a time. She made it down the hall, on the other side of the glass where Parker was fighting for life. One look over her shoulder, and she turned away from the door. Away from parker.

It killed her not to be able to go to him any sooner, but there was no way she could fight those inhumanly strong soldiers inside the ring. She needed a weapon. She needed a communicator to contact Jorrit. With Rowan gone, she needed back up to save all those trapped lives. To save Parker. To save everyone.

The corridor was empty, eerily quiet and unnerving. No soldiers in sight. Maybe her father was still unconscious so he couldn't alert security. Or maybe...she slid around a corner and almost collided with a solid something.

"Rowan!" She gasped.

Alya was stunned.. How...? The comprehension dawned suddenly. The reason why the corridor was barren of soldier. The next thing she knew, she had her arms around her friend, her comrade, clutching him against her tight enough to make sure his presence was real. Please be real.

Rowan grunted and pushed her away. "Jeez, I was shot you know." He winced, his hand moving to cover his abdomen where he was shot.

She looked at his stomach; blood splattered on his uniform. "How did you... you were dead."

Rowen's lips twitched, a weak self-satisfying smirk. "It takes more than one bullet to kill a Summers."

"But how?" Alya couldn't help the suspicion in her gut. They were in a scientific lab full of created soldiers. Could Rowen be...?

"Shh." Rowen looked around fugitively before continuing in a whisper, "The bullet missed any vital organs. I knew if I stood up and fought back against all those soldier, I would be dead for real. So I faked. I laid still and waited for the soldiers to go. Then I snuck way to this lab to get a med kit and patch myself up."

Alya lifted his shirt, and inspected the red blotch blooming on the white bandage to the side of his stomach. "Okay, that looks ...bad." Rowen had lost a lot of blood, but he patched himself up pretty well. There was also no sign of any mind controlling metal attached to him that she could see.

He tapped his earpiece. "I contacted Jorrit. He's trying to get into the system to shut it down along with the soldier's chips. I got him a link straight into the mainframe, but it's taking him forever." Rowen pulled his shirt back down with a huff.

Alya knew that 'forever' to Rowan meant about ten minutes in reality. But that ten minutes were enough for Parker to get killed by his brother.

"Parker. He's stuck in the training room with his brother. They locked him in a glass cube. He's..." She shook her head. "I don't know how much longer he can hold out."

"Fucking Rebel." Rowen handed her a laser gun and pulled out the one strapped to his leg. "Let's go save the prick."

"Can I borrow your communicator?" Alya asked as they headed back to the training corridor. "They took mine."