BLOOD AND BONE | rewritten

52

Gigi forced her lungs to expand. The windowless complex was menacing even with a small army at her back. She allowed herself one last glimpse of the upper world to the left of the place, burning blue in comparison. The complex swallowed up all the other areas around it, pooling them in murky red light. The ceiling was fifty meters above the place they congregated, but Gigi still felt it pressing in.

Like the Needles Delphinium felled, the guards were armed to the teeth. Gigi watched their movements from where she peeked out from the corner. Listened to their breathing. Felt the calm flow of their blood pressure. Sensed the way their skin held in all the integral parts of them.

Her grip on the bow tightened when Jake addressed her. "Aim for a meter left of that door. And don't miss."

It was not so much of a door as it was an entrance protected by criss-crossing thin metal bars. Surely that was where Corinthian's drugs were dropped off. She'd only caught a glimpse of the little white bags while previously inside, but there were thousands. They had to arrive by the truckload.

Gigi did not know why Jake wanted her to strike the thick wall outside of the side entrance. Wouldn't breaking through an open pattern of thin bars be infinitely easier? Of course, she wouldn't damn herself by questioning him.

"On three," Jake said, watching too closely for her to concentrate. "One."

The pitch black arrow was nocked and raised to compensate for its fall. "Two."

Gigi pulled it back with her first two fingers, finding the familiar tension in the string. "Three."

The arrow left her with deadly precision, the most perfect shot she'd ever made. This would be her first ever account of working well under pressure.

Narrowly missing the guards' heads, the arrow's tip struck the desired place and exploded, rocking the entire complex. Even at the distance they stood, Gigi felt the reverberations under her feet. It then occurred to her that they were on Level 2-there'd been a sign not too far back. If she'd accidentally overestimated the amount of pressure she gave the arrow, the ground might crack and throw them all to open air below.

Three Needles were blown apart on impact. Gigi felt an arm being yanked from the socket with a squelch. A spinal cord severed. Instant death. Several more were injured too suddenly to count. The rest were enveloped in a billowing layer of smoke and debris.

Gigi closed her eyes and leaned back behind the corner as an unmistakable sound creaked through the fog. Through some mechanical pressure point in the wall, the gate was lifting on its own.

They only had a minuscule window before the surviving Needles were drawn to them. "The seven of you, march," Jake ordered as Gigi gawked at the perfect crater she'd blown in the wall. It was nearly dented all the way through.