Shifter

Chapter 17

[ J U D E ' S  P O V ]

The door closes behind her, but she turns around. Our eyes meet for a second and then she's gone. Something snaps inside of me when Parker leads her away. He did this. He's the reason Kira was taken, the reason Ralph is bloodied and bruised next to me. He's the reason and he's going to end up dead because of that. The thought of Ralph jolts me back to reality and I turn to him.

"Come on kiddo."  I walk over to him and put my arm around his shoulder. He grunts as I lift him off the ground, trying to put as little weight as possible on that foot.

"You s-shouldn't h-have come..." He breathes out as the Elxi opens the door and leads us out. I'm holding Ralph's light body up with one hand and the other hand is on my gun, just in case.

"We weren't going to stop until we got you out. Kira knew what that meant."

"She shouldn't have. They'll kill her."

"And that's why we're getting her back, kid." I throw a smirk at him as we finally leave the Elxi's headquarters. Thomas stands up and puts his arm over Ralph's other shoulder, holding him up so he doesn't have any weight on his foot.

"The hell happened?"

"Not here. We need to get him back to Bea, and we are still targets." That's when I notice something. "Where's Peterson?"

"Gone. Left as soon as you went in. He kept mumbling about how he knew this was gonna happen and  that you were going to break after this. Got a fist to the face for that one." 

I scoff as I listen to Thomas. That stupid, self absorbed bastard, and he's wrong.

"No. No fucking way." Ralph cusses. "He knew? That's what he told me the day the Elxi came to Camp. That he was sorry this had to happen and he was going to miss me."

"He knew? How could he have though?" We turn to take the alleys, avoiding the guards in the main streets.

"That's a great question to ask the bastard himself." I spit angrily. Ralph's head rolls back a little, and i immediately cuss. "Fuck. Ralph. Kid. Kid! Stay with me. Shit." I turn left quickly, leaning his head back so I can check for a pulse. 

Thank fucking god. There's one.

"Come on, we have to get him home." Thomas and I rush him to the safe house, avoiding Elxi on the way. As soon as we come into view, I know they can see us. We have soldiers positioned at every angle hidden inside.

"Ralph!" Hayes runs out to meet us, holding his face up in her hands.

"Get Bea." I say sternly. She rushes in again as we follow closely behind. Inside is chaos. Bea runs over with a makeshift stretcher that Luke is helping her carry. Thomas lays him in and she carries him to the room with all the fabrics that I assume is the infirmary for now. Brady is in the corner being watched by Cassi and two other soldiers. The rest of the soldiers are arguing about something, resulting in a hell lot of yelling.

"HEY!" My shout quickly quiets everyone else, as they look at me to continue. "Kira made a deal with the Elxi, her for Ralph. But that doesn't mean we aren't getting her back. Everyday, every minute, every second starting right now is to get her back. We need to get into their security systems, get inside. Without leverage we won't be able to get her back. She would never give up on any of us, so are we going to give up on her?"

A series of shouts of "NO" arise and I crack a grin in response. "Good. Parkman, get Lan or anyone in Camp on the radio, we need to get everything we know about the headquarters. Cassie, make sure your soldiers are-"