Broken but not lost

Chapter 15, FLYNN

I'm strong because I never had the choice to be weak.

I repeat it over and over in my head.

I guess I can understand that. I've been trying to be strong my whole life, but Briar... she's had to be strong because of the things that have happened to her.

If I could take away her every pain and every awful memory, I would. But maybe that's what made her who she is.

**
I'm not saying that her sister getting killed is a good thing and I'm definitely not saying that Kai raping her was a good thing because, God, I'm going to kill him when I see him.
**

What the fuck is wrong with me?

I barely know her and I can't even bare to leave her side. She's making me crazy and angry, but at the same time she's making my heart beat faster, my breathing heavier.

Fuck why did I have to say anything.

I made her have a fucking a panic attack by saying what I said.

I don't want anyone to touch you except me.

I'm afraid to fall in love. I'm afraid I'll love you.

Fuck me for saying anything at all.

"What is wrong with you?" Briar asks, smacking my arm, shaking me out of my thoughts.

I take a deep breath and look at her to the side with a glare. "Meaning what?"

She scoffs. "Meaning why have you been ignoring everything I've been saying the past hour?"

Shit. She's been talking?

"I- uh- I haven't been. I just—" "Wasn't listening? Yeah I could tell." She interrupts me.

"Fine. What were you saying then?" I ask with an expectant look.

"Too late now. You missed your chance to hear all the important things I have to say." She shrugs.

I bite my lip and shake my head, containing a laugh. "You're a real asshole sometimes, you know that?"

"Thank you, it's a gift." She stops and bows dramatically before jogging up to walk beside me again.

It feels like she forgot everything I said but at the same time there's a sort of containment to her words. Something she can't or won't say.

Suddenly, there's a ringing in my ears and a sharp pain on the side of my neck. I jump to the ground instinctively, grabbing Briar and taking her with me. Shots are firing near to us in every way, we stand and crouch, zigzagging every direction.

We're able to find a rock with good cover as I try and spot whoever is shooting. I lift my head over the rock when a bullets shoots just under my head against the rock. Briar seems to know exactly what happened because she drags me down by my shirt collar and covers my body with hers.

The closeness of our bodies makes me shiver. Also from the fact that she was surprisingly cold.

"You got shot, dumbass! And you were going to try and spot the shooter?!" She shouts over all the gunfire. Her shout rumbled against my back from her being on top of me.

I was going to respond but before I could say anything she did first, "I already spotted them. There's 4 that I saw. Three with rifles one with a close range pistol. We gotta go for the one with the pistol first because it'll be harder for him to hit us. Stay down, stay close." She rips her bag off her shoulder, then mine, tossing them to the side so we can run faster. She quickly rises, grabbing my hand and starts dragging me behind her. I grab onto my neck with my other hand, putting pressure on it even though it burns to touch.

We stay low, still running but crouching, trying to stay behind as many rocks and boulders as we can. They keep shooting, the man with the pistol missing at every shot. But the rifles make it much closer. Much closer.

There's a cry from Briar who slows for just a second but picks her pace back up, she still manages to be faster than me dragging behind her.

She pulls us behind a tall stone, pushing me against it and bracing her arms on it on either side of me. She takes a few shaky deep breaths while looking down. She sniffs and picks her head back up, trying to ignore the pain.

"Where were you shot?" I ask, resting my free hand on her waist. Her breath hitches and her eyes flicker from my eyes to my neck where the graze is.

"Let me see." She says, moving her left hand up to my neck and wincing as she does so.

"You were shot. Where?" I shout.

She ignores me and moves my hand away and takes a look. "It's just a graze. I've seen worse. I'll patch you up when I'm done here." She pushes my hand back against it and presses it against my wound. "Don't stop keeping pressure on it and don't move from this spot."

I try and reach for her, taking a step out from behind the rock once I realize what she's doing but she's already out of my grasp and I quickly pull back once I feel the pain on my forearm. "Shit!" I shout to myself, pulling my arm against my chest and leaning my head back.

The shots being fired drift away from me, following the direction Briar was going. I take my chance and look out from behind it.

She's running full speed, jumping over rocks and dodging bullets, she makes it behind one closest to the close range shooter. She pulls her gun out of her holster and barely looks at the man before she takes a shot and he's dead on the ground.

I see her make a small smile in her victory as she pulls herself back behind the rock.

Her smile vanishes in less than a second then she's back to running. She gets behind the same cover the, now dead, man is, taking his gun in her left hand and keeping hers in her right.

She stands and shoots with each gun and ducks right back down again, not even waiting to see if she hit one.

She didn't.

She does the same thing over and over until she hits one and there's less fire than before.

Fuck, even in mortal danger she's still beautiful.

She starts sprinting to the next dead body with the rifle. She slides to reach it, feet first, quickly grabbing it, laying on her stomach taking aim.

Two shots later the other two men are dead on the ground.