Argent Glass

Chapter 25 - Leap - Andrew

As Andrew regained consciousness, he became aware of a soft lap below his head. Danielle. Or an angel. He laid still another moment, and then cracked open one eye. Dark brown orbs, framed by silky black hair, stared into his own. The sunlight haloing the girl's face felt gritty. Definitely not Danielle.

The girl slapped his face. Definitely not an angel.

"Stop slapping me." His voice came out in a hoarse rasp.

She stopped to look closer into his eyes. Andrew felt a tug seeing she had the same light and dark flecks stretching away from her pupils as Danielle. His heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, thank God!"

Andrew's world went dark when the girl hugged his head tightly. Baby powder and vanilla. And dust.

"I don't think he can breathe," a distant, muffled voice said.

His head dropped back into the girl's lap, one soft place exchanged for another, and he opened his eyes again.

"Oops, sorry," she said. Worry furrowed her forehead.

A boy stepped over him and shielded the sun. "Who are you?"

"Andrew," he croaked, without looking. The eyes. He wanted the eyes to come back.

"I'm Jinho," the boy replied, and Andrew sighed inside. The boy squatted down to keep Andrew in his shadow and nodded toward the girl. "Jordan."

"Hi," he whispered. "Water?"

Jordan shook her head and lifted him by his shoulders so he could sit up. "We need to get you out of here."

"Wait. I've been–"

"Sh!" Jordan held a finger to her lips and looked up. "The helicopter."

Spurred to action, Jinho pulled Andrew off Jordan's lap. "Over here!"

He stumbled. A shock of pain roared up his leg when Jinho pushed him to the larger rocks at the side of the dome. He fell into the shadow of a boulder and massaged his ankle as they stepped back to the patch of dirt between the crops and the dome. A moment later, a reflection of the helicopter appeared in the glass of the dome. It flew over the valley and hovered in the air.

Jordan and Jinho shielded their faces with their arms while dust and bits of dried cornstalks swirled around them. Andrew covered his mouth and nose when the dust rushed up to the dome and billowed back into his face. His eyes watered from the grit.

Jordan smiled and waved at the helicopter until it lifted and flew out of sight. She was picking dirt from her teeth when she and Jinho returned to Andrew's side. She pulled him toward the canyon wall away from the dome. "We need to go. Now."

"I need water," he repeated hoarsely. "And I've been–"

"Later. You can't be here," Jordan said to him.

"What? Why?" Andrew winced in pain as he stood up. Seeing he was struggling to walk, Jordan came in under his arm. When her hip smashed into the bullet wounds, Andrew gasped. He reached down to thrust her hip away, and her eyes grew large when his hand came back with a fresh smear of blood.

Jordan caught his wrist. "What happened?"

"I was shot."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"I've been trying to tell you. I got shot by a soldier. That helicopter picked him up when he crashed."

"Pierce shot you?" Jordan stood staring at Andrew with her mouth open.

"Pierce?"

"He's in charge of security at–" Jinho replied.

"He crashed?" Jordan interrupted.