The Grey Blood #2

Black Smoke

As the first splash of colour begins to paint the sky and their entourage rouses themselves from restless sleep to begin travel once again, the crack of a shot sends black birds screaming through the canopies.

Alicia blinks grainy eyes open from where she'd fallen asleep against Oliver's chest, her spine protesting against the awkward angle.

Her tiredness is quick to disperse when more gunfire splits apart the quiet of the forest.

Within the next moment, both her and Oliver are on their feet, wide-eyed and alert.

"Gun?" he asks and she yanks hers out from where it's tucked into the waistband of her trousers as Oliver drags his from under his blazer.

"Ghuls?" comes Alicia's question, but Oliver shakes his head.

"We'd all be dead already if it were." With those words, Oliver moves and Alicia follows.
Shouts rise ahead and a tight knot begins to form within Alicia's throat as she anticipates what they're walking into.

If not the Ghuls, then other exiles have found them. It's not a reassuring thought. Alicia is well aware of what people banished to the Dead Lands are capable of.

Into the sludge of mud trampled by horse's hooves they run, only to be bombarded by chaos. A bullet sinks into a tree near Alicia's head, spraying bark into her hair and she veers away. As she does, squinting her eyes against the sting of gunpowder smoke in the air, she sees someone atop a cart, grampling with another.

Sam lets out a cry as Grayson whips the butt of his gun across her mouth, sending crimson into the air. Then he vaults over the side of the cart, something clutched in his hand.

Alicia's stomach lurches as she recognises the red and veiny lump of the heart in his grip, the cure to this madness.

"Oliver!" she shouts, only to realise she's lost him amongst the fray as Grayson's men continue to bombard them with bullets. A curse leaves her lips, but resolve settles in her gut.

She won't just lay down and let this world crumble, not while so many are relying on them to succeed.

She pushes through the pulsing pain in her leg as her stitches are tugged and perhaps torn. Everything is shoved from her mind as she focuses on Grayson's blond curls and refuses to lose sight of that.

Alicia leaps over mossy logs, dodges the thugs that don't even know what they're fighting for and tries to block out the screams of those she's leaving behind to die. She sees glimpses of Grayson amongst the fray and barrels ahead, her lungs aching with each frozen breath she draws.

They both tear into the trees away from the camp, leaving behind the chaos of gunfire and the stench of blood. Alicia's loud breaths and the crunch of wet leaves are the only noises left amongst the trees as she follows Grayson's imprints in the mud and broken foliage.

Alicia narrows her eyes, trying to see Grayson through the trees but all that's left of him are his footsteps. Alicia perseveres, continuing to follow him through the shadows with her hand becoming numb from her grip around her gun.

"Have you come to kill me too, Alicia?" comes a voice ahead and Alicia's breath hitches.

"If you give me no other choice," she calls back, bowing to swerve through the trees, taking cover behind them. She doesn't know where Grayson is and she won't risk getting a bullet in her before one of hers hit him.

"Will you butcher me like you did my uncle?"

Alicia runs to the next tree, keeping an eye on his tracks but also trying to pinpoint his voice. "He had it coming." Alicia peers around a tree and catches a glimpse of the end of his swaying coat. She raises her gun, clicks back the hammer, and runs after him. "Give me back the heart, Grayson!"