The two girls stood in silence for a moment, nothing but the sound of their own shuddering breaths breaking it. Unfortunately, they didn't have the luxury of grief at the moment. After some hesitation, Aeron reached out for William's body and flung him across her shoulder. He was already getting cold. As they moved between the hallways and rooms, ransacking the compound, they formulated a game plan.
"We need to get him out of here. I wont be much help if I have 150 pounds on top of me." Admittedly, Aeron's voice still shook. Whether it was from grief, stress, or the overwhelming adrenaline, she didn't quite know.
Senka was letting tears fall freely down her face, though her expression wouldn't give away the fact that she was crying. After her initial shriek, she had fallen silent, following Aeron like a lost puppy. She nodded. "I saw an armory down the hall. It might have something we can use to blow this place up." Her voice, much like her expression, didn't compliment the water running from her eyes. If anything, she sounded braver and more sure than Aeron had ever heard her.
Aeron nodded as well. They dropped William's body off among the trees outside before reentering the suspiciously empty complex, heading toward the armory.
Inside, both girls outfitted themselves with weapons, Senka grabbing a pair of daggers and a small gun, just in case, and Aeron carrying her thigh-holstered hunting knife and black pistol, as well as a larger rifle and ammo held across her torso. They each grabbed a bag of small remote-activated explosives, planning to place them in each room and hall and "blow this hellhole to the fucking ground," according to Aeron.
The girls split up, Aeron going right and Senka left to cover ground more quickly.
Aeron placed the small explosives along the walls and in each room she came across, most being empty training rooms or barracks. The next room she came across was a room labeled "records," which she had never seen before.
Inside were piles of papers, files, and books, with not a single computer to be found. "Good way to cover your tracks," Aeron thought as her fingers brushed across the papers scattered across the desk that lay in the center of the room. She reached into her pocket for another, placing it onto the desk. Her hand lingered as she looked over the pages, subjects numbered from 001 to 325. Aeron always knew she was number 113. No one let her forget.
"So many failures," Aeron spun on her heels at the voice. "And for what? They all could have lived. They just weren't strong enough."
Aeron took a shaky breath as she stared down the man before her. "..how?" She froze, not even comprehending the fact that she could have reached for her gun.
"Oh, zolotse, you didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?"
YOU ARE READING
Winter's Burn
General Fiction"Her amber eyes turned almost black as the shadows overtook her thin frame. Tree branches became spindly hands wrapping their serpentine fingers around his body, vines twisting and knotting to pin him to the ground. He could have sworn he saw her le...
