Shards

Polishing Pt. 2

Another shot as they cross into the storage area turns Octavia into deadweight causing Shard to stumble and lose his light grip on her. Momentum propels him several steps away from her. He sees her on the ground with her leg bent awkwardly under her. A hole in it coats her fingers with blood.

A Tarnished rushes up to her. He raises his rifle, pointed straight at her blank face.

"Octavia!" Shard shouts.

The Tarnished turns his focus to Shard. His gun points at him. Marque shoots the Tarnished between his eyes.

Marque and Tam, ducking between crates, cover Shard as he swoops in and drags Octavia behind a crate. Tarnished scatter. Some back track to use the wall outside the room for cover. Others dive behind crates.

Shard loops Octavia's arms around his neck. She's somewhat lighter than the last time he carried her. Hopping from behind one crate to another, he holds her wrists in one hand and uses the other to shoot. Only a couple Tarnished fall. A single sound doesn't come from Octavia while moving around. Is she unconscious?

He catches up to Marque and Tam and motions for them to hold fire. They stay hidden behind crates.

Shard takes off his jacket and rips a sleeve off. He hands it to Marque.

"Pressure," he orders.

Marque applies pressure to Octavia's wound.

"Cover," Shard says.

Tam covers her head. Covering Marque's head with his arm, Shard shoots out the lights in the storage room. Glass rains on everyone. Aggravated sounds come from Tarnished in various places in the room. The lights in the hall where they entered through remain on as well as those in the hall behind them. Shard crawls around in the shadows and silently climbs a few boxes to position himself to be able to shoot out the fusebox feeding electricity to the half of the floor level they are on. It's, of course, in the hall swamped with Tarnished.

He pokes his head around a crate to shoot once he's at his vantage point but snaps back behind the metal box to avoid a bullet. He hears the shooter reloading and takes the chance to fire at the fusebox. The lights go out. Dim, red emergency lights, only helpful to anyone in the hall, activate. The storage room is pitch dark to everyone else but him.

He keeps to hiding behind crates while he moves so no one can see his glowing eyes. Shard's small party is near when someone speaks up.

"I still can see in this, you idiot," the voice says.

The voice cuts his breath and heart in two.

"Sals?" Shard calls out in disbelief.

"Don't act like that," Sals says. "Don't act all sad and regretful now. Don't even act surprised."

Shard hears Sals moving. He quiets his movements knowing Sals could hear him and doesn't want to lead her straight to his party. But she's moving in their direction, anyway. Does she know where they're at?

"What the hell, Sals?" Shard continues to move as he talks. His steps are slow and silent. He hopes the echo in the storage area will be enough to throw her off a little. But he can tell her general area from her voice. "You better not fucking tell me that you're headin' this."

"Bet your ass I am."

"The hell?" Shard has to swallow a choking feeling clawing at his throat. "I thought we were in this together."

"I thought so, too, Shard. But you've kept me out of everything. Every hit to the Capital I was forced to stay here because of your stupid 'no girls' rule. Me joining the Grounders to at least make damage to the gov that way, but no. You rejected me. Told me I wasn't fit for it."