Surviving

Chapter 33

Everybody was silently gathering their things. I was retying my shoes out of nervousness when Hayden approached me. She held out a small silver gun.
   
"It's filled with tranqs," Hayden whispered.
  
"And you couldn't find anything deadlier?" I asked.
   
"Nope, sorry. Tranqs will have to do." She flashed me a quick smile as I took it.
  
"How much longer until we go?" I asked.
   
"However much longer it takes for Claudia to pick the lock. Apparently she used to break into stuff all the time before the apocalypse happened." Hayden shrugged.
   
Suddenly, everyone stopped moving, and it seemed as if the whole room was holding its breath. I looked towards the door where Claudia had stopped working and was looking at us. I got up and moved towards her. Once I reached her she opened the door just enough for me to see the guard. I quickly raised the gun and took him out. Gladly, the only noise made was when the tranq kicked in and the guard thumped to the floor.
   
Everyone was on their feet and ready to go. Ingrid and Hayden also had tranq guns, but everyone else was unarmed. That would have to wait until we got into the armory.
   
Ingrid led us down the hallways, taking turns that seemed random to us but made sense to her. We had to trank two people as we went, but got lucky and didn't see anybody else.
   
At an upcoming corner Ingrid paused and held up a hand for us to stop. She quickly turned it, and we heard the thunk of someone being tranqed. She continued down the hall and we followed. After stepping over the sleeping guard, Ingrid opened a door.
   
The boys from our group came out, most wearing mischievous grins. I felt slight relief when I saw Roland come out, knowing that with him we had a chance.
  
"Let's go!" Hayden whispered, this time taking the lead. She led us down the halls and went to another small room, this one unguarded.
   
The room was large and filled to the brim with weapons. I grabbed a gun from the corner and opened the barrel. More tranqs. I traded it for a machete, favoring something that would actually take out the corpses.
   
Soon, everyone had armed themselves with something, and we were ready to go. Hayden and Ingrid took the lead, with Roland and I taking the rear. I held a tranq gun in my hand, having reluctantly promised that I'd used that on anybody I saw instead of the machete.
   
We were going down the hallway, looking for our exit, when I heard additional footsteps. I looked at Roland and saw he had heard them too.
  
"STOP!"
   
We spun around to see a large group of the adults led by Travis, armed with guns. There was no way of telling if they were real or tranq guns.
  
"Lay down the weapons and go back and everything can be forgotten," Travis commanded. "I got us a safe place here. Don't ruin it."
  
"We didn't ask to be brought here!" I said. "You didn't save us. You brought us here to get power for yourself! And at the cost of a life. My brother's life!"
   
"Yes, a life was lost. But they are giving us food and protection." They raised their guns.

"We can protect ourselves!" I retorted, and we raised our tranq guns.

"Put down your weapons!"

"Never."

A gunshot rang out, causing screams and gasps. Even the adults seemed a bit surprised. Pain started blossoming from my gut. I looked down to see my shirt turning red. With blood. I collapsed as I realized I had been shot.

"Oh my God! Travis, what did you do?!" Roland exclaimed, kneeling down beside me.

I touched the wound, gasping from the pain. I pulled my fingers away, sticky and wet with blood.

"Stop this little rebellion and she'll get medical attention. Hand over your weapons," Travis commanded. My vision was starting to blur and I felt dizzy. Nobody moved. "Well, she doesn't have all night. We can save her, but only if y'all comply."

People started moving forward, handing their weapons over to the adults. It was getting harder for me to breath, and I could feel the blood starting to pool beneath me.

"Adira," Roland said, but I had trouble hearing. Blood was rushing in my ears. "Hang on. You're gonna get--"

I drifted off into darkness.