ELBINA 3

Chapter 17

"We should drop him at the hospital."
Lucas is only partly conscious at the moment, he's heavy between the two of us as we drag him along the street and away from the square. The streets are filled with emergency services arriving, guiding people away and ambulance workers tending to people sat on the edges of the pavement.
There's too many of them trying to take Lucas off of us too, but I shout at each one of them. Each one of them backing off.
"No. We'll take him back to the flat. He'll be safe there."
He just rolls his eyes at me, readjusting Lucas' arm over his shoulder. When I glance over at him again, I can see his jaw grinding in anger. I try to ignore him, focusing on myself to keep moving and preventing people from bumping into us.
It feels like it's taking forever.. His head drops into the crook of my neck so his nose runs along my skin. My breath immediately hitches in my throat at his light touch, it's accompanied by the gentle breeze of his breath. All of it forces a shiver along my own skin, and a shake in the hold I have on his arm.
I don't think he realises the effect he has on me.
Instead, I drop down my own head towards his, mumbling against his ear so he can hear me loud and clear.
"Not much longer now, okay?" He lifts up his head from my neck, as he whispers back.
"It's fine, I'm good now." He says, and he was better, his legs taking most of his weight now.
"Oh, you're good now?" Nero says, suddenly he drops him so Lucas nearly falls to the ground, the only thing stopping him hitting the pavement are my knees almost buckling under me.
"Nero, You asshole!" I hissed at him, the strongest glare I can muster pointed directly at him. I help Lucas get his legs back under him, his grunts of exertion at every movement.
"What? He said he was good." A slight chuckle forms with his words.
"You knew he wasn't. So stop being a dick and help me!" My voice comes out more of a growl then anything,
He gives in, lifting him up and we carry on. Though now, when I glance ahead the apartment complex is in sight.
"Still think we should have left him." He mutters to himself, and I'm sure I hear Lucas say something back in just as much distaste for him too, but I don't really hear what he says anyway.
All I'm thinking is getting him into the flat, because then we'll be out of sight and then we'll be safe.
Even though a small part of me is terrified that i'll have to actually speak to him. What would he say?
How angry would he be with me now that the shock of seeing each other has worn off. Now, even for me, I look at him and I feel huge waves of guilt eating away at me. It's such a strong feeling it almost makes me want to be sick just thinking about how I've handled everything.
I try to remind myself that no one would know how to handle the situation though, it's not exactly something people experience on the regular.
But I still feel like I could have done better.
And now he's here, and any form of backlash I get from the choices I've made are well deserved, I know that.
Finally, we reach the building where Nero let Lucas go but this time he has enough energy to hold himself up. A little more weight is put on me, but I take it. Guiding him forward through the door, he slips away from me to stand on his own as I turn around and grab the door handle.
My eyes look out, hearing the eerie sounds of the engines and the distant chaos that we'd left behind. If it weren't for the rising smoke which plumes into the sky, you'd have thought it was everyday noise. It's not, I know that especially when I shut the door and I'm faced with Lucas. His clothes covered in rubble dust and there's still hundreds of little cuts that cover his face.
I had managed to pull the big one out from his arm that had sliced easily through his jumper and straight through his skin. It came out fairly easily, his hiss and the way he'd dug his head into my neck at the time still gives me goosebumps.
For multiple reasons that I couldn't control.
When I get up in the flat, I know I'll have to pull out a dozen more glass pieces from his face too. They were too tiny to grasp hold of at the time, especially with my shaking hands and the more I tried the more pain he was in. My efforts were only forcing the shards further in, cutting more of the tissue beneath the surface.
I'm probably looking at him too long, his own eyes never moving from me too except I don't know what he's thinking.
We're brought out of our staring contest by Nero who slams the button for the elevator in anger, "Hurry the fuck up would you!" His back is tense, grumbling loudly to himself when the doors finally peel open and he looks back at us with raised eyebrows.
We don't hang around another minute, I pull a reluctant Lucas with me until the doors of the elevator slide closed and we're left in an uncomfortable silence. None of us say anything, maybe we're still in shock about what's just happened.
What could we say?
We stopped a lot of people being killed, I was sure of that.
But in the end, it still went off. We still failed a little bit, and that meant Arden won.
What government in their right mind would pull back funding for defense after what just happened? So she'd get her wish this time too.
The thought almost brings tears to my eyes, knowing that if it worked again then she'd be just as happy to try again in the future. Why mess with a good thing, a system that worked in her favour multiple times before?
"Are you coming?" Nero's voice echoes from down the hallway, key in hand and waiting for us. I nod slowly, stepping out of the elevator only to be held back by Lucas. His eyes flicking between me and Nero behind, not really telling me anything except that he doesn't trust him.
And that's fair, I understood why he wouldn't.
Nero could be difficult to deal with at the best of times, never mind during a terrorist attack that we'd ultimately failed to stop. He was probably just as upset as me, he just expresses it in a different way to me.
"Come on." I say, pulling him with me despite his initial hesitation. The door opens as we get there, Nero stepping in first and so we follow suit. The room was exactly how we left it before and I watch Nero as he strides over to the coffee table, picking up the remote and switching on the TV.
He sits down on the edge of the sofa, his eyes transfixed by the news. There's helicopter footage circling the destroyed building. I step closer too till my hands rest on the back of the sofa with my heart in my throat.
"It is not known at present the death toll from this attack but officials are suspecting ten individuals who were scheduled to be working in the building at the time."
My heart drops, clenching my hand around the sofa, "We forgot about them."
"It was a Saturday. We had to assume no one was in there." He muttered, shaking his head.
"We should have got them out." My voice shakes, and he twists his head around to give me a serious look.
"No. We didn't have time... we barely made it out ourselves."
I gulp, not hearing his words. "We let them die."
"Elbina! If we weren't there, then ten deaths would look like nothing in comparison to how many could have died. Understand that! We saved hundreds of lives today, forget about those ten." His body is shifted closer to me, resting an arm on the sofa between. My stare matches his, biting my lip.
"I can't just forget about them!" He cuts me off just as loudly, frustrated with me beyond belief. A vein pulsates at his temple as he leans forwards and spit practically hits my cheeks when I refuse to back off.
"You have to! We did what we could, END OF!" I don't say anything to that, and all of a sudden I can feel a hand on my lower back. He's running it minutely up and down, trying to soothe me.
And because it's him, it works. I sigh, dropping my head away and standing up so his hand circles around my waist. My head leaning into him when he pulls me to him and we both stand there looking at the news.
Looking at the aftermath of where we'd been not too long ago.
The building's glass panes gone completely, scattered into millions of pieces across the square. Parts of the brickwork are destroyed too that edged the windows, unable to stand strong against the blast from within. So there's rubble too, thick chunks of brick and mortar that the emergency service workers are wading through to check for any survivors.
It's hard to believe we were there, a surrealness knowing that Lucas was in that square and right in the thick of it when he exploded. I look up at him, he's still watching the TV unaware of me analysing the side of his face.
He made it here. He got out and he kept himself alive. He survived an explosion and he's still standing right there in front of me. Battered and covered in injuries, but he's standing.
Somehow, looking at him. I don't think he realises that like I do.
"There isn't going to be another one, right?" He glances down to me, those green eyes filled with worry.
"Do you really think they need another one with how that one went?" A grimace forms on his face, shaking his head before looking back at the screen again.
I can't look anymore at the devastation, "Come on, I need to get that glass out." I pull Lucas with me, seeing Nero turn his head back. His suspicious expression turns into a part glare when he sees Lucas looking at him too, instead of letting it continue I pull him extra hard so he's forced to exit the room.
Nero kept a steady eye on us even when I shut the door behind us, my eyebrow raised in confusion.
He stands in the middle of the room, taking it in. Not uttering a word to me when I rummage through Eve's draws by her desk and pull out a tweezer. Just as I move to him, hands raised to take hold of his head, he pushes me away.
Taking a step back away from me.
Shit.
Why does that have to hurt so much?
"Please, let me help you." The minute I look at him though, he's fuming.
"We can't. I need to call them, we need to get out of here." My frown deepens.
"What do you mean? This is the safest place right now. It's why we're here." I watch him open up the window, his head leaning out and looking at the ground below.
"Lucas. If we go out there, we risk being found by people who want us dead. They're not going to hesitate, you know."
He spins around, a hiss on his lips that has me stepping back. "Of course I know!" But then he's pointing a finger behind me to the door, stepping towards me so his whisper can be heard by me.
"But they're not the only ones who want you dead."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I shake from his close proximity and at the uncontrolled state of his emotions. It's a mix between fear and anger.
"Your friend out there," He says with derision. "He's the one that killed the other guard." I shake my head, no.
"No, he didn't. You're mistaken because Nero is on our side. I'm only alive today because he got me out of there in time!" He tries to get closer to me but I step back closer to the door so I can see all of him.
"No Ella... He got you out because he had too. Because Arden demanded it!"
I think back to the staircase, she was surprised to see him. She was, I'm sure of it.
"You weren't there, it doesn't make sense!" It really didn't, he had no idea about what happened that day. So where was this all coming from?
"It does! ... Just listen to me." I pause, crossing my arms over my chest waiting for him to speak. I want to understand where he's coming from, I do. But the way he looks panicked but angry all at the same time has the pit in my stomach deepening until swallowing is difficult.  
He rushes his words, falling over them as he tries to connect it all together for me.
"He was good, when he helped you get you out of that hellhole, he was helping you. When he got you out of the witness protection building, that wasn't to keep you safe or whatever reason he came up with to get you to leave. We don't know how, but Arden got to him and now he's not on our side." This sounds ridiculous, I knew him. I knew Nero and nothing would change that fact, right?
"Who's we?" I'm looking for a plot hole in this, and for a second Lucas seems reluctant to say it.
"Gerald -"
"Gerald!?" I cut in sharply, "Are you serious? The one that would happily have let me die, that let Fallen die! He waited TOO long Lucas, hours, and he was just waiting."
"I know!.... I know." He levels out his hands in front of him trying to stem my anger.
"But that's just the way it goes sometimes, I hate it just as much as you but they couldn't have just waltzed right in without being certain they could pin something on all of them."
I shake my head, shuffling on my feet. "But the hard-drive...."
"Is great.... but he had to be certain Ella. He had to be."
"How are you so sure about Nero?" I trusted him. He helped me the entire time, and ultimately we saved hundreds of people together today. How could he be truly bad? I understand he's unorthodox but he's not actually evil. 
So I couldn't just blindly follow Lucas' word, from someone who didn't even know Nero as a person.
"He killed Harris...." I shake my head, except he butts in before I can argue against him.
"We saw it on the CCTV, he tried to remove the footage but we saw it. Arden got to him, and now he's brought you here for revenge. He got you out so he can take you to Arden."
"Revenge against what exactly!? We're going to find Arden, she can't get away with this. I'll be bait if I have to, just so I can stop anything like today from happening again." He pauses, edging back slightly as he looks at me in confusion.
"Why would you go along with a plan like that?" He says with such a look, that he might as well be calling me crazy.
"Nero believes she'll be around because she was a control freak, so there's no way she'd let today happen without being in the close vicinity. So why would I waste an opportunity like that?" Lucas steps closer, grabbing hold of my arms and keeping me right there in front of him. It's as if he's shaking me partly when he shouts at me.
"You aren't going to stop anything! He's taking you to her so she can kill you!" I stare back shocked, his breathing erratic and so is mine, "All it is, is a vendetta against your parents, for being snitches and for making those hard-drives in the first place. The ones that were meant for Gerald to see before they were murdered, they were trying to destroy everything that Arden had worked for. That's why they were murdered. You're the last Milderson alive Ella."
I don't know what to think.
But my brain believes everything he's saying, I only had to feel the numbness in my fingers to know that. Fear etched it's way across my skin eliciting a sting, I didn't want to believe that the person I had become close to during this time had this intention. That Nero was intent on letting me be killed even after helping me all this time, who had gained my trust.
"She's putting everything on the line to make sure you're the last...And Nero, he's not going to help you. He's only going to make sure that she puts you in the grave."
He pulls out the phone from his jacket, looking up at me.
I'm not sure, did I want him to call Gerald?
I believe Lucas, but that didn't mean he was actually right.
"Put the phone down."
I turn back with my heart in my throat.
"Now!"