Infinity's Row - Interlude

Chapter 2

Gentry's eyes are wide. "Elias, what—"

Doors all around the perimeter of the chamber slam open, allowing men in steel masks and breastplates brandishing guns to run into the room. Multiple shots are fired into the air, and subsequently yelling and screaming erupts.

I push myself off of her and face the woman who had attempted to shoot Gentry.

I unsheathed my sword. "Miss Yate, I suggest you get out of here."

"Fat chance of that!"

I don't have time to argue with her. The woman fires at me, but I'm already maneuvering myself behind her. I slam my elbow right into her neck--

She falls to the ground. She doesn't move.

I turn around to see one of the attackers. I ram my sword into his shoulder, pull it out, and turn around again—

I see a gun pointed right at me. I duck just as a gunshot goes off, roll towards the gunman, and stand up to plunge the blade into his stomach.

"Miss Yate," I call, "are you alright?"

She doesn't respond, so I look to her. She has stolen two handguns off of the attackers' bodies and holds them in opposite directions. She fires them both in quick succession, and subsequently two yells of pain pierce the air.

She spins around to see someone about to fire her. She slams her gun into the attacker's hand, forcing it upward just as he pulls the trigger. She goes behind him and strikes him on the head with her gun.

I lift my eyebrows. "Well, I suppose you weren't recruited in Runite's Row for nothing."

I take down another gunman with a few sweeps of my sword. I look around, ready to take on another one of them—

And then I see it. Several attackers have poured into the chamber now, too many to count, and they’re beginning to herd the civilians into the center of the room—

That’s when I see what they’re doing. 

“Oh no,” I say. 

I sheathe my sword and run over to Gentry. “Miss Yate, come with me, we have to run.”

She pales visibly. “Wait, no. I’m not going anywhere!”

I don’t have time for her protests. I clamp my hand around her arm and begin dragging her toward the door.

“Elias, no, wait, you don’t understand—“ she squirms and twists and bends and digs her heels into the ground, anything to stop me, but none of it works. “No. No, no, NO, NO!”

I grit my teeth, but still I run out of the room as fast as I can, trying to ignore all of the heavy hits that she delivers my arm with her gun—

And then we’re out of the chamber.

Still I don’t relax. I run, run as fast as I can, through the white halls and corridors, leading Gentry around several twists and corners until I couldn’t get back to the chamber even if I tried. Finally, halfway down a long hall, I come to a stop.

Everything’s quiet.

The attackers have taken the chamber.

I release her arm. Gentry sprints to the end of the hall with an amazing burst of speed—

She gradually comes to a stop at the end of the hall. She’s still for a moment, staring at the wall in front of her. Then she lowers her head, and her back rises up and down.

She’s crying.

I scowl. “Stop crying.”

She doesn’t. The volume of her crying only rises as she slumps to the floor and curls into a ball.