Unsung

Chapter Ninety

I groaned loudly as I landed flat on my ass and then collapsed back, breathing hard. Everything hurt. I was so tired. I wanted to go home.

But I was alive.

"Man, I thought I was going to stick the landing," I said, when I'd finally found my voice again.

"I'd give you a ten," Austin responded without a beat.

Still lying there, I turned my head to look at him. And then I saw just how bad he looked. His skin was pale, a stark contrast to the red he wore from the neck down. There was so much blood on his shirt that it was difficult to make out what color it had been before he'd been shot. It was amazing he was still conscious, let alone alive, and here I was resting.

"Oh geez," I said, scrambling to reach him and then freezing when I did, not sure what to do. "Where..."

I ran my hands over his torso, trying to find the wound.

"We have to stop the bleeding," I said, and then realized how obvious that sounded and shut up.

One of his arms was draped over his side and I slowly pulled it away from his body.

There it was.

The tiniest hole in his shirt. The edges frayed, but otherwise it was perfectly round.

It was incredible that something so small could do so much damage.

I grabbed the edge of his shirt and pulled hard. The material ripped as easily as paper, exposing Austin's chest and stomach. He wasn't built like Ty, but there was definition there. Proof that he'd been training hard for the past several months. Even I wasn't the rail-thin stick figure I'd been when I'd started the hero program. Still, I hadn't been prepared to see so much...

Blood.

I clapped my palm over the gush of dark liquid that had begun to escape from the hole in his abdomen, causing Austin to grunt in response.

"I know you're pissed at me, but Jesus, Kida," he said with a gasp.

"I'm sorry!" I exclaimed, but didn't let up on the pressure I was putting on the wound. Instead, I took up his hand gently and placed it back over his wound. Then, I quickly untied the shirt from my waist, and maneuvered it around him and pulled it as tight around the area as I could.

"There," I said, checking for any fresh streams of blood. When it remained dry for the moment, I sat back on my haunches. "That'll have to do until we get you to a doctor."

"If I get to a doctor," he said automatically.

"Don't say that!" I shouted. "Look, I'm here. We're in this. Stop whining about the mistakes you made and do something about it!"

Austin's mouth dropped open, but he didn't argue with me.

"That's a start," I said and promptly turned away from him. "Now, we need to find a way out."

"You've been spending too much time with McKayla," I heard him say as I started to sift through a nearby pile of wreckage. Finding nothing that would help, I moved on to the next mound and the next, digging until my fingers began to go raw.

"What are you looking for?" Austin called out.

"I don't know," I admitted. "We need something that will get us up and over the fire. A catapult. A ladder we can jump from. A gargantuan sized fire extinguisher. Anything we can use to get out."

"Darn it, I think the school's only catapult is in the shop," Austin said sarcastically.

"You can come up with ideas, too, you know," I spat back, starting to feel desperate. I'd gotten this far, but I was finally stumped. I saw no way out. No sign that said, "exit here." But I wasn't ready to admit I'd done it all for nothing.

After a few seconds of silence and more searching, Austin finally spoke up.

"Over there," he said.

I turned to look at where he was pointing. There was yet another pile of garbage. Destroyed equipment. Crumbling dry wall. Cinder blocks. Objects that were already too mangled to recognize what they once were.

"What?" I asked, no clue what he was suggesting.

"The logo," he said, pointing to the oversized school logo. The steel shone orange and yellow as the surface reflecting the colors shining around it, but I knew from having seen it hanging in the gym every day that it was actually an icy, silver shade. And it was much larger up close than I'd thought.

I walked over to it and ran my hand across the buffed façade. It was shockingly cool to the touch, despite the rising heat around us. And sharp around the edges. Glancing at it from a different angle I noticed that it was almost two inches thick.

"We could lay it over the fire," Austin was explaining, although I'd already figured out what he had in mind. "Use it as a kind of bridge or walkway to the other side. We'd probably have to be fast, but it might work."

I studied the metal sheet and started to nod thoughtfully.

"It just might," I said agreed. Then I gave Austin a grin. "You did it."

He just shrugged in response.

"I'd help you, but..." he let the sentence trail off as he pointed to his bloody stomach. "I think I only have one sprint left in me."

"That's okay," I said, starting to lift the metal by one of its corners.

It was heavier than I'd expected. I'd only lifted it as high as my shins before I had to let it drop back to the ground.

"You've gotta get under it," Austin suggested as I rubbed my hands together and leaned over again.

"Thanks for the input," I said sarcastically and tried lifting it again. The logo made it up a few inches higher but then landed at my feet with a clang.

"Maybe I could—" Austin said trying to sit up.

"Sit your ass down!" I shouted.

He did as he was told and relaxed onto his back again.

I muttered every curse word I knew under my breath as I got down on my knees. Raising the sheet just enough to slip my legs under, I took a second to change up my grip and then began to lift the steel panel with my whole body.

It wasn't easy. I was shaking within seconds and had barely lifted it halfway. But I forced myself to keep going. It was my version of when a mother lifts a car off of her child. Only, this made Austin my child, and I wasn't even totally sure we were friends.

Grunting loudly, I gave the logo one final push and watched as it toppled over and directly onto the wall of fire. For a moment, I thought the flames had been extinguished completely, but as the air rushed back to the space, they climbed skyward again. But we'd done it. Where there was once no way out, there was now a clear path for us to cross.

A fiery, dangerous path, but beggars can't be choosers.

"Let's go!" I yelled and began to run back toward Austin to help him up.

I only made it a few steps though before I slowed and then stopped altogether.

Standing in between me and Austin was Senator Bradley, gun in hand, and only looking slightly worse for the wear. I hadn't even thought about him since the explosion. Didn't question whether he'd managed to escape. If he was still alive.

But here he was in front of me.

Blocking my way to Austin.