Heritage

Heritage (Chapter 25)

Chapter 25 - Leon

I release my hug from Stella after what feels like an eternity compounded into only a minute. I kiss her with more emotion then I have ever felt before, and I smile in absolute joy at Stella.

"I'm so glad you're safe," I say.

Before Stella can respond to me a wild round ricochets off the wall beside me and snaps all of us back into reality as we dive for cover behind the corners of the hallway.

Dad and I keep mom and Stella back while blind-firing our weapons around the corner, trying to suppress the horde of Sekrid on the opposite end of the hall. I catch a glimpse of something to my left and begin to turn to fire at it, but, before I can react, Stella lifts her weapon and unloads on two Sekrid soldiers attempting to flank us.

I watch as the limbs of the soldiers corrode and fall off of the bodies before finally dissipating completely.

"Holy shit, Stells, nice gun," I say with a somewhat surprised look on my face.

She gives me a token smirk of her own and continues aiming through her scope, waiting for more commandos to come around the corner. I look over at dad, bringing myself back into the fray.

"Dad, we have to move now! They're flanking us!" I scream through the muzzle bursts. He gives a quick nod and continues firing.

I begin to see commandos coming from every direction of the hall, enclosing us within one confined quadrant of the ship. My dad starts to look around, his face becoming more and more frustrated as he glances in each direction.

He shakes his head.

"Fuck this," he says. "Everyone get inside one of the rooms now, no questions asked!" he yells giving us a command.

We do as he says and I observe as he pulls a grenade from his belt while simultaneously firing at the enemy. He presses a button and spikes jut out of its sides. He throws it at the ground, embedding it into the tiling and then jumps behind a wall himself.

"Stay down!" he yells once more.

A few seconds seem like an eternity waiting for the grenade to go off. I close my eyes and anticipate the blast as the grenade explodes sending a hail of shrapnel in every direction, eliminating some of the Sekrid soldiers down the hallways.

I shake off the shellshock quickly and hop out from over the wall Stella and I were behind and Stella follows me in the same fashion. I cover my father as well as everyone else in our small space as my dad kicks the hole in the floor further open.

"Everyone down!" he screams, as he finishes widening the hole. I continue my steady rate of firing at the enemies at hand as Stella and my mother drop into the hole.

"Leon, let's go, you next!" my dad yells once more at me.

"I'm fine dad, just go! We don't have time to discuss this!" I yell back.

I glance back a few times making sure that my father is jumping into the hole himself. I slowly back my way towards the hole, still firing, trying to suppress the Sekrid soldiers so that I'm not overwhelmed before I myself could jump into the hole.

As I lower my weapon to drop down to the floor below, a stray round darts through the gun-smoke and pierces my shoulder, knocking me down the rest of the way into the hole.

"Gaahhh!!" I scream in agony while clenching my shoulder.

"Oh my god, Leon! Are you shot!?" Stella screams in a concerned voice.