“I want you to know something,” said Ryan.
“What’s that?”
“Despite… despite everything that’s happened, all the hardships, all this madness… you’ve been spectacular, Theo. I’m honored to be your friend.”
Theo didn’t know what to say. He wrapped his good arm around Ryan’s shoulders and pulled him into a hug right there on the stairwell. He stepped back, ready to see the war come to an end one way or another. Somehow, his friend had given him the strength to carry on.
“Guys,” he said, “I have to be honest. I can’t use my right arm. I’m going to try to keep shooting with my left but my aim may be terrible. I will stand with you to the end but you can’t rely on me to make a shot. I’m sorry.”
“Not a problem, Theo,” said Wes. “We’ll just have to kill a few for you.”
Theo smiled. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”
One of his other soldiers (was it Hugo?) reached for the door and whipped it open. A thunderous round of gunfire sounded and the man went flying backward in a hail of bullets.
“Damn it!” Theo yelled. “Take them!” He led his team in low while the Security Force reloaded. They fired as many shots as they could. He thought they might have hit one or two agents, but he couldn’t be sure. He pulled his men back quickly to the relative safety of the stairwell. Theo looked at the others. They had no way forward. The Security Force was prepared. There was nothing to hide behind in the hallway. All they could do was take potshots through the doorway until they ran out of ammo.
“What do we do?” asked Wes.
“We don’t do anything, not yet.” Theo scratched his head. He knew Kylee’s troops were working their way up but he didn’t know what condition they were in. If Kylee had been hurt or killed they would be in disarray. They might very well be coming up right underneath his group in the stairwell, which would do no good.
He considered Wes’s grenades. He wished there was some kind of flash bang, something that would give them an advantage without being so destructive. If they took out the hallway the top floor could collapse in on them. It might not be pleasant for Tiberius but it might also kill Theo and everyone with him.
Just then he heard sounds of motion coming down the hall. “Someone’s coming,” he said. “Be ready.”
There was a grunt of exertion and then Michelle’s body came flying through the door landing on the floor in a heap. Ryan screamed, a sound that chilled Theo to the bone. He saw his friend go running for the door, gun drawn. Theo moved as quickly as he could, but Wes got there first, tackling Ryan and pinning him to the ground.
“Let me go!” Ryan screamed. “Let me go!”
“You’ll die out there!” Theo yelled.
“I don’t care! I want to kill them all.”
Theo turned to Wes. He was trying hard not to see Michelle’s twisted body in his peripheral vision. “Wes, keep him down. He’s no good to us like this.”
What the hell was he going to do? Theo was completely out of options. Throwing Michelle’s body at them like that… Tiberius wanted to disarm them emotionally, and remind them that he was in control. Maybe he was. Maybe this had been a giant fool’s errand. For the first time in a while, Theo thought of his family. His real bed in his real room in his real home. He sat down on the step and stared at the blank wall across from him while Ryan kicked and struggled.
He was just so tired. Tired from being awake for so many hours, but even more tired on a deeper level from everything he had experienced the past year. He’d had enough.
A new spate of gunfire caught Theo’s attention. It was like those he’d heard periodically, but this one was much closer. He could hear the sound coming through the open door. Curiosity motivated him to his feet. “Can someone get me a visual?” One of the men crawled to the opening and moved his head out and back.
“It’s Kylee, Theo, sir,” the man said. “It’s the army! They’re fighting the Security Force!”
Theo snapped back into action. “We can’t go into the hall without risking hitting the other rebels or them hitting us. I want careful shots taken at the floor between the Security Force and us. Draw their attention. Let’s help our army win this.”
Theo’s men did as he ordered. Ryan had collapsed into a weeping mess draped over Michelle’s body. That was fine for now. At least he wasn’t getting himself killed, and Wes was now free to keep shooting.
It was a confusing few minutes. His men fired sporadic shots at the floor. The Security Force and the rebel army exchanged far more gunfire. Finally, the shooting sounds slowed, becoming less frequent and less intense, before they ceased altogether.
Silence surrounded them like a heavy blanket, deadening thought and emotion. Time slowed. Finally, Theo dared speak. “Kylee?” he shouted. “Kylee!” We’re across the hall in the stairwell. Can we come out?”
He froze, petrified that he might not hear Kylee’s voice in response. Then there it was: “Theo! Come on out here!”
He walked out. He still felt a little dizzy from his wound, but nothing would stop him from seeing Kylee again. There she was, at the opposite end of a hall filled with smoke, dust and bodies. They ran to each other, past the shredded carpet and chunks of violated concrete from his team’s contribution to the fight, and embraced in the center.
“You’re hurt!” she cried.
“It’s nothing,” he said.
“Bull. You’re bleeding. Your arm is hanging there. We need to get you help.”
“I can’t. Not yet. There’s one more thing to do. You know that.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“How did you get here?” he asked.
“It wasn’t easy,” she said. “We were pinned down for a while in the parking garage. Outnumbered, for a while, at least.”
“How did you make it through?” Theo asked.
“We won, I think, through sheer grit and force. Thank God for Joseph.” She indicated the big Austrian, who was standing and talking with Andrew. He was wounded, but it looked superficial. Kylee cast her eyes downward. “We lost a lot of people.”
“We had losses too.”
She looked up suddenly, worried. “Where are Bill and Ryan?”
Theo sighed. He explained what had happened with Bertier and how Bill had knocked them both down to the beach and out of sight. “I don’t know if he’s okay,” Theo admitted.
She brushed back her hair. “And Ry?”
Theo opened his mouth to speak, to tell her about the horror that had transpired, when he was interrupted. “Oh hell,” said a weary voice, “did I miss all the fun?”
Bill was leaning against the door at the end of the hallway from which Kylee’s army had arrived. He was bleeding from several places. His face was, once again, a puffy mess. He had dark bruises on his throat.
“Oh, God, Bill.” She and Theo ran over to him.
“Hey, hey, don’t worry about me! I’m fine. Just a few… horribly painful scratches is all.” He winced.
“And Bertier?” Theo asked.
“Dead as a doornail, my friend.” Bill’s voice was jovial, though tired, but he did not smile. Just then, Jamie saw him and came running over. She threw her arms around him. “Easy, easy, baby!” he cried out. “I’m not a well man!” Finally a crack of a smile showed.
Kylee turned back to Theo. “You were starting to say about Ryan?”
Theo’s shoulders slumped. His eyes watered. “Follow me.”
He led the three of them to the stairwell. There, Ryan continued to weep over Michelle’s body.
“Oh, no.” said Jamie.
She and Kylee moved closer to Michelle. Bill came around and tried to gently move Ryan off.
“Come on, Ry,” he said. “Come on, buddy. It’s okay man.”