Estranged (28 page)

“
Which way?” Jenna
asked.

“
Figure it out yourselves.
Why should I help a pair of cold-hearted women?”

Kalei sighed and told Jenna, “Let’s
just follow him.”

“
No, let’s find our own
way.”

Josh had reached the top of the stairs
and was walking through the door-less frame. Kalei glanced at him
and then back at Jenna. Her sister was probably right for once, but
that didn’t mean Kalei was going to listen her. The thought of
ditching the kid just felt wrong. “I don’t want to leave him. The
kid doesn’t know what he’s doing, he could get into some serious
trouble.”

“
He’s thirteen! He’s
Estranged! It’s what they do!”

“
He’s thirteen about as
much as you’re eighteen. What if he wanders off and starts shaking
hands with people? What if Landen picks him up? What if Terin
throws him into a glass tube for helping us? We can’t let that
happen.”

Jenna shifted her jaw back and forth
as she considered Kalei. “Fine.”

They started heading up the
stairs.

When they cleared the stairwell, they
found that the walls on this floor were still intact, creating a
long white hallway in front of them. Even the carpet was still
there, a very tight weave with geometric patterns of blue and green
squares. At the far end of the hall, two pairs of boots stepped out
onto the carpet, filled with a pair of Wardens. They were maybe
fifty feet away when they spotted Kalei and Jenna on the stairwell,
and without missing a beat, they raised their weapons, shouting,
“Hold it!”

“
Dammit!” Kalei and Jenna
dodged back into the stairwell. Kalei hadn’t spotted Josh in that
brief moment, only the Wardens.

Jenna yelled out, “Josh! Where the
fuck are you!”

They heard his voice call out from
nearby, “Over here!” Kalei poked her head out and identified the
source as the second door on the left. The Wardens were already on
their way.

“
Here.” Jenna slapped a
pistol into Kalei’s hand.

Kalei looked back and saw that Jenna
was still holding the original gun from the tunnels. Kalei had
forgotten all about it. But if Jenna had that gun, then— “Where did
you get a second gun from? And where the hell did you hide it? Last
I checked, these short shorts don’t have holsters.”

Ignoring her, Jenna crawled up the
stairs to stand behind the narrow strip of wall flanking the door.
She said, “Shoot their kneecaps.”

Kalei dropped the question and climbed
to the opposite wall, readying her weapon.

Jenna nodded at Kalei and shouted,
“Go!” Both girls leaned out and shot at the Wardens. Kalei’s shot
missed the kneecap, but caught the first Warden’s shin as he ran,
sending him face-first into the floor. Jenna hit both knees on his
accomplice.

Before the echoes of the shots had
cleared the air, Kalei and Jenna were sprinting down the hallway.
Kalei’s target picked up his gun, but Jenna sent a bullet through
his wrist. His cry filled the air as the gunfire died out, and then
that too faded away to the sound of ringing in Kalei’s ears. The
report of gunfire in a narrow hall had not been kind to her
eardrums. She half expected to find blood pouring out of her ears
if she was so inclined to check, but she wasn’t worried about it.
Even as they ran, the ringing was dying down.

The sisters ducked into the room,
gasping for breath as Josh slung a black bag onto his back. Jenna
wheezed, “What the fuck is so important... that I just wasted...
four fucking bullets!” She took another, deeper breath and
continued, “You plan on buyin’ me ammo when we get out of this
shithole?”

The room was cleaner than most of the
others; the walls were finished, the wiring for the lights and
outlets was complete, and a couple of old but undamaged desks lined
the far wall, with a single plastic chair sitting before the one on
the right.

Josh replied, “Uh...I don’t know where
to buy ammo, but—”

New voices shouted in the hallway,
accompanied by the sound of thumping boots.

Kalei turned to check and saw two more
Wardens coming down the route their companions had taken. They
ducked into the first door on the right, using the doorway as cover
as they trained their guns on Kalei’s hideout. The helmeted figure
on the left shouted, “Drop your weapons and come out with your
hands up!”

Kalei pulled her head back in and
said, “Shit, they got here fast.”

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

On the Road
Again

Kalei looked to Josh. “Which
way?”

“
We have to go through the
hall and back down the stairs,” he said, pointing.

“
Dammit. Jenna, get over
here.” At Kalei’s request, Jenna joined her sister, standing on the
opposite side of the door from Kalei.

“
How many?” Jenna
asked.

“
Just the two.”

Jenna nodded. “Got it. I’ll take
left.” They swung out into the open doorway and shot at the
Wardens. Jenna caught hers cleanly in the shoulder, and as the
force knocked him back, she sent her second bullet through his
now-exposed heart.

Kalei’s bullets mostly found the
plaster wall her Warden was hiding behind, but that didn’t seem to
matter, since one of those bullets made her target cry out and fall
to the floor.

Kalei turned back to Josh. “Come on!”
She pushed him out in front of her and ran after him.

Jenna caught up and commented, “Your
firs’ guy is gettin’ up. That leg don’ look like it’s buggin’ him
no more.”

Kalei replied, “Then take care of
it.”

As Kalei and Josh started to descend
the stairs, Jenna spun around and took out the Warden’s right knee,
but not before a bullet grazed the side of her face.
“Dammit!”

“
You all
right?”

“
Yeah.” Jenna wiped at the
blood that began to spill above her right eye.

Josh’s voice echoed in the stairwell
as he called back, “Why didn’t you just shoot them in the
head?”

Jenna plodded down the stairs after
them and said, “They’re wearing bullet-resistant helmets, you
dumbass!”

Josh nodded to himself. “Oh.
Right.”

They took an exit on the right,
crossed another abandoned floor, down the stairs, to the left,
another right...

Several flights later, they finally
arrived at the first floor and ran for the exit. Kalei and Jenna
kept low and headed for the walls at either side. Kalei thought
Josh was following her. She had overtaken him in the sprint, but
when she looked for him, she saw that he was standing in front of
the open door, watching her with confusion as he said, “Why are
you—?”

His head snapped forward and the blast
of a gunshot ripped through the air. He crumpled to the
floor.

“
Fuck!” Jenna mopped her
blood away from her eye and leaned out to return fire. She pulled
back just as a bullet whizzed through the doorway. “It’s
Terin.”

“
What?”

“
It’s fucking
Terin!”

“
Shit.” Kalei reached out
and snagged the edge of Josh’s pants leg, using it to pull his limp
body away from the gunfire.

Jenna frowned at Kalei, fresh blood
pooling in the crease between her knitted brows. “What are you
doing?”

Kalei finished dragging Josh and
propped him against the wall. “We’re not going to leave him
here.”

“
Why the fuck not?”
Gunshots continued to ricochet off the floor and walls. Jenna
returned a few of her own.

Kalei ignored Jenna and checked her
pistol. The magazine was still half full. She popped it back in and
chambered a round.

Jenna said, “Fine, we’re
taking the kid, but I sure as hell ain’t carrying him.” She took
another shot, then her gun made a sharp
click.
Jenna tossed the weapon away.
“Hey, gimme your gun.”

“
What? Why?”

“
Cuz I’m out. Now give
it.”

Kalei slid her gun over to Jenna.
“It’s just Terin, right?”

“
That’s what it looks
like. Though fuck knows how he managed to land that shot on Josh.”
Jenna caught the gun and tucked it into the back of her shorts.
When she pulled her hand away, the gun was replaced by a grenade.
“This should keep him busy.”

“
Where the fuck did
you—?”

“
You ready?” Jenna looked
at Kalei with an eager grin growing on her face. Kalei wasn’t sure
if she should be more concerned with where the grenade came from,
or the fact that she was related to this madwoman.

“
Hold on.” Kalei stooped
down and picked Josh up in a fireman’s carry. “Okay,
ready.”

Jenna tossed the grenade, waited for
the explosion, and then sprinted out into the dust and debris.
Kalei was hot on her heels.

Running through the dirt cloud,
Kalei’s eyes burned and her shoulders ached as Josh’s bony weight
dug into her muscles. She soon lost sight of Jenna, but Kalei kept
running, hoping she was running in the right direction.

She made it a few more steps,
wondering if this could have an end, when the ground dropped out
from under her. Her foot fell through open air, then abruptly found
the pavement several inches lower than she was expecting it to be.
Her knee buckled and she almost dropped Josh, but she caught
herself with her right leg and kept on running.

The dust was finally beginning to fade
on the wind. She looked around for Jenna and heard her sister curse
loudly. Kalei found the young woman’s silhouette several feet to
the left, picking itself up off the ground next to what appeared to
be a tire. Kalei slowed and called out, “You all right?”

“
I’m fine. Just keep
running.” A bullet ricocheted off a patch of dirt beside Kalei. She
picked up the pace, running straight for an old pickup truck parked
on the other side of the road. Her breathing became labored, and
Josh seemed to feel heavier with every step, but she pushed
forward, diving behind the truck as another bullet pinged off the
hood.

Jenna was already there, crouched
beside the cabin with the gun in her hands. Kalei lowered Josh to
the ground. “He had a clear shot. Why’d he miss?”

Jenna smiled at Kalei, blood running
down one knee in addition to the gash that continued to weep above
her eye. The red on her face was mixed with dirt, painting a
grotesque mask streaked with handprints where Jenna had wiped the
mess from her eyes. She said, “You’ve never seen Terin shoot, have
you?” Kalei shook her head. “To say that he sucks ass would be an
understatement.” Jenna handed over her gun. “Keep him busy for a
sec.” She wiped at her eye again and opened the door to the
truck.

“
What’re you—?” Kalei had
to scoot back to avoid getting hit by the door.

“
Don’ worry ‘bout it,”
Jenna said as she crawled into the cabin.

Kalei flicked the safety off and said,
“Whatever.” She popped out of cover and sent a couple shots at
Terin and the van he hid behind. One-two, she ducked and waited for
his return fire. She heard the bullets hit the cement and wood of
the abandoned strip mall just behind them. Jenna wasn’t lying; he
really was a terrible shot. She stood up again, three shots this
time, then the slide on the gun kicked back and stopped. She
retreated to the shadow of the truck.

Meanwhile, violent ripping and
crunching sounds were coming from the truck’s cabin. As Terin’s
shots ricocheted off a nearby tree, Kalei moved over to the open
door. Lying on the floor of the truck was Jenna, sprawled out on
her back with a large piece of plastic from the steering column
sitting to one side. Her arms worked methodically as she ripped out
wires and used a knife to cut through choice colors. Kalei tapped
on Jenna’s boot and showed her the gun. Jenna nodded, a red wire
held delicately in her mouth, then went back to work.

Kalei’s old instincts told her to grab
the handcuffs and march this bitch off to the station. Kalei had to
remind herself that she wasn’t a cop anymore, and seeing as she was
already a fugitive, there was no harm in adding to the record.
Kalei asked, “Where’d you learn how to hotwire a car?”

Speaking around the wire held in her
teeth, Jenna said, “Don’ worry about it.”

The gunfire from Terin stopped. Kalei
heard more voices shouting from the office building. She poked her
head above the hood. “Terin’s on his way. The other Wardens too.”
She ducked down and a random thought occurred to her. “Hey, do you
think that big guy was Jarmel?”

Jenna no longer had the red wire in
her mouth, but now sat puzzling between a blue wire and a green
wire. “Nah, he went down too easy. Jarmel would’ve kept on coming
even with a bullet in his leg.”

“
Good point.” Kalei
decided it was time to get ready to go. She crawled over to Josh’s
body, pulled it over to the cab, then heaved and lifted the boy
into the truck. By the time she got the boy’s torso in, Jenna still
had not succeeded in starting the car. She knew it couldn’t take
this long. Half the thugs in Celan could have had the truck to
Telahar by now. She knew; she had to write up what felt like a
million of those missing car reports and watch the ensuing hours of
surveillance tapes. She couldn’t see Jenna from her position beside
the back seat, so she asked, “Do you really know how to hotwire a
car?”