Children of the Elements: Prey to Him

Chapter Twenty-Three: Our Time to Shine

Chapter Twenty-Three: Our Time to Shine

"Where's everybody else?" Ash fingered around the ripped and bloody skin on her wrists as the handcuffs fell to the ground, looking between Ellie and the other girl for an answer. Ellie was busy putting the handcuff key back in her pocket, leaving the girl to turn to look at her from the open doorway where she was keeping watch.

"Attacking from other points of the house." She answered with a military style tone. Clearly she was in charge here.

"Sorry, who are you?" Ash asked bluntly. She hoped she didn't sound rude, but from the look she received back, she presumed that she had failed in that respect.

The girl opened her mouth to respond, but Ellie cut in instead. "Her name's Elicia, she's leading Jonah's attack on the mansion and I'm sure you two will be jolly good friends when this is all over, but can we save that for when we're outside of this place and away from imminent death?"

Ash smirked, Ellie's tone proving once again how similar she was to her brother. Efficiently, Ellie pressed a small clean dagger into Ash's open hands before she strode out of the concrete room and into the corridor. As Elicia disappeared as well, Ash began to follow hastily, briefly bending down to pick the second dagger out of the dead guard and brandishing one in each hand.

"Where's Nathan? Is he here?" she questioned as she caught up to them. It was still deathly quiet in the thin underground corridors as Elicia led them through quickly, making Ash's voice bouncing off the walls and their footsteps the only things to break the silence.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "You think he'd be anywhere else?"

Ash's heart fluttered, and she smiled weakly, only to wipe it off her face when Elicia started to speak sternly. "I sent Nathan with Rio down the other way. Our two teams are the only ones down here – the rest are at the ground floor. Jock took one half of our warriors through the front, which I'm sure has caused an uproar, though we wouldn't be able to hear down here due to the sound-proofing." Elicia glanced back at Ash. "Craig doesn't like to hear the screams from the lab when he's having dinner." Ash felt her heart lurch at the thought as she continued. "Then Chris led a team through the back entrance to try and keep them occupied on two fronts. Eva, Casper and Trenton went down through the roof to flush any out of the house from the top."

Elicia stopped at a sharp T-shaped corner of the corridor. The vague and distant sound of shouting and guns could be heard from down the lighter corridor to their left. Clearly they were near to the stairs up to the ground floor. She finally looked at Ash properly. "I've already told Rio and Nathan that we've found you, and they'll be heading here to take you out into the forest along with Ellie."

"What about you?"

"I'm their captain," she said with a sense of duty, though Ash couldn't ignore the flicker of fear in her eyes. "I can't leave until the last of them has gone or... you know."

Ash searched over her face for a minute, before she dipped her head. "Thank you," she said quietly, reaching out to touch her arm gratefully.

A loud bang smashed the silence, making Ash suddenly jump backwards, falling against the opposite wall as a bullet soared straight through Elicia's temple and out the other side. The girl crashed to the floor, instantly dead as Ash clambered to her feet and Ellie attempted to regain her balance.

One of Craig's men was standing 10 or so metres down the corridor on the opposite side of the T-junction leading to the ground floor. He held his shotgun at his shoulder, ready to kill either of them.

Ash was naturally in front of Ellie, and took it upon herself to take a step into the middle of the corridor to block her from the gun's aim. If she died, so what, right? She'd just come back again.