We See the Same Sunset

4

Pain.  Blistering hot.

Because this arsch with a gun couldn't aim for her torso or her head, but managed to hit her hand. 

White hot pain flares through her hand, as something dislodges from it.  She doesn't understand what she's seeing at first, but gravity takes ahold of her body and pulls her down into the crack. Her shoulder takes a blow against a hard object, as she falls, crumpling like a paper doll.

Gasping as stars blur her vision, Nikola reaches out weakly to feel where she is.  Blood rolls down her wrist, wet and sticky.  She tries to move her fingers, but the effort almost makes her black out.  Something moves at the right of her eyes.

"Nikola!" 

Her eyes shoot wide open and she sees Soren, safe and sound without his backpack.  But then, she notices the tall figure holding him back.  He's completely covered from head to toe with a winter coat—a military coat—with a thick scarf tied firmly over his nose and mouth, so only his dark eyes are visible. He's defensively hovering around Soren, hands raised and ready. 

"Who—?" She croaks out, trying to move, but the man speaks over her, moving in front of Soren.

"Do you know her?" 

It's in shaky German. His voice is muffled by the scarf, but there's a thick English accent coating his words.

Soren tries to yank his hand away from the man, spitting and hissing.  "Who the hell are you?  Get away from me!  Nikola!"

The man rushes his finger to his lips, shaking his head.  "Shhh, shhh!  We have to go before another scavenger gets here!"

"Back away from him!" Nikola tries to move from her place, but recoils at the pain.  "Let him go!"

The man steps closer to her, face unreadable through the mask and looks back and forth between Soren and her.  His shoulders drop, as some understanding dawns into him.  "She's your mom, right?"

Nikola and Soren look as similar as a cactus and a daisy does, but she sets her jaw and bares her teeth.  Even in her injured state, she makes no promises about dying easily. 

His gloved hand pushes her jaw back, as he approaches her.  "I'm going to help you two get out." His whisper fades into the sounds of footsteps coming from above.  The scavengers are coming and Nikola has no defenses left, except for this stranger, who could be lying to her.

He slips an arm under her shoulders, supporting most of her weight, even as Nikola tries to push him off, jaws snapping.  "Knock it off, I'm trying to help you two!  The scavengers will be here soon and I know a back route here."

Nikola locks eyes with Soren's terrified face and before she can say anything, she hears heavy footsteps from above.  She's made her decision.

"Lead us there!" Nikola grits her teeth at the twinges her body makes, trying to stifle the pain.  The stranger notices the blood and hisses at the ones he see. 

"Alright," The man pulls her into his arms and carries her over his shoulder, much to her surprised yelp, and grabs Soren's hand.  "Trust me, I don't mean you two any harm.  You're not going far with your leg like that."

"Don't waste your shot,"  Soren snaps back, but the man is already moving through the room.

There's rubbish all over the floor, newspapers, bottles, and cans, but the man picks his feet over them nimbly, as he heaves Nikola through these hallways.  It looks like an underground shelter, but all the electricity has been shut off and the ceiling is cracking. 

Soren's panicked breathing makes her the more anxious, along with scavengers' voices that travel down the hallways.  They're not too far off. 

The stranger is mumbling something in English under his breath, as he drags Soren along, turning his head from side to side.  Nikola's English is rough, but she knows when someone has no idea what they're doing.  Her heart sinks.  They're doomed. 

"It has to be here, right...?"  He whispers, pawing through a shelf, knocking aside a few bottles of disinfectant.  Some of them roll on the floor, which Nikola sees Soren slipping some into a bag she hasn't seen before.  At times like this, she really wonders what kind of childhood he had before civilization went to hell.

"What are you looking for?" Nikola braces herself, in case, she needs to roll herself off this stranger.  From the looks of things, she could very well be his human shield.  "Don't you know where you're going?"

"I don't normally need to go out the emergency exit," He hisses back, still pushing a couple shelves out of the wall.  What kind of exit has so many blockages in front of it?  It looks like a fort...or a siege.

Soren paces near Nikola, glancing down the hallway.  It's a game of hide and seek, Nikola knows that, but they can't risk being caught.  If her body wasn't riddled with bullet holes, she would've pushed some shelves over to the hallway to buy themselves some time.  But the man has his hands full with her and is trying to find something.

They're running out of time.

Nikola's eyes catch Soren's, as he lifts the flap of his bag, where a metal cylinder shines in the dull light.  No.  Not cylinder.  It's a pistol tucked into the layers of the bag, which he taps with the nail of his finger.

Soren's dull eyes send an unspoken message to Nikola, letting her mind race.  There's no guarantee that it has any ammo left, but it's better that no one knows the truth.  It'll buy them a few seconds.

"Found it!"  The man has something in his hand that Nikola can't see at this angle.  "Heads-up, this is going to be loud."

He smashes it against glass and a red light filling the room, as a loud siren blasts from every corner of the room.