4522 {The Number Series}

38

"Where is my father!" Macallister shouted, his dark eyes wide and wild. 

"He was shot," Gina had a nonchalant feel to her voice. The cold that emitted from her gave me chills. "One of the Officer's bullets clipped him during our escape."

"Did it kill him instantly?" He was now tearing up. 

"No."

"Gina gave him the fatal blow." Archer raised his voice above the others in the room. He glared at his old teacher. "We could have saved him."

The lump that had been in my throat since we had arrived now slid down into my stomach. I felt as though I would faint at any second. Part of it had to do with the loss of blood from my chin and the other half was all of the overwhelming emotions that crashed down continuously. Harold had been a sweet man to all, including Gina. 

I recalled the glint in her eyes as she shot him. The woman showed no mercy, not even to him as her leader, as she put the bullet into his head. She did not even allow Archer or I the chance to save him. Gina had been sent to protect Harold and, yet, it seemed as though she had ultimately gone to complete ulterior motives. 

"You killed him." Macallister said through mashed teeth. "You were supposed to protect him!"

"I did what I had to do," she said. Her expression continued to remain blank and her voice lacked any sign of concern. "Besides, now we can take your course of action that you have been proposing the whole time. If I remember correctly, your father was saying no to it."

"He was not saying no," Macallister's hands were in tight fists, they shook with built up rage. "He just said not yet."

"Because he doubted you-" 

A loud bang cut her off. I jumped towards Archer, trying to protect him, not knowing the destination of the new bullet. Archer's arms wrapped tightly around me in a protective embrace as if he were trying to do the same in return. I looked up to see Aaron holding his gun out straight in front of him, though I was thankfully not the one looking down the barrel. He was angled and I could see how relaxed he was despite the fact that he had just shot a fire arm. Aaron lowered it slowly to his side without a change of expression before he looked at Macallister. My heart clogged in my throat as I prepared to scream for him to stop. I could not loose Macallister too. The gun was still being held in his hands as he spoke to Macallister. 

"You're enemy, is my enemy." Aaron said. Jericho looked over at Archer and I as we held each other. Something flashed in her dark eyes before she turned away, back to Aaron. "So I guess we will have to trust each other."

"We'll see." Macallister's eye glinted with tears. 

He was going to let his anger for Gina and sadness for his father cloud his judgement. He was going to let Aaron and Jericho stay. 

I would have to speak to him about this privately but he was, in the end, in charge or the Third Party now and he would have the final say. 

Packs of people filed into the front entrance with guns held in their hands. I continued to hold on to Archer. I had not been away that so many in the building had been armed the whole time we had been staying. It made sense for emergency purposes but after watching Harold die, and even cold Gina, guns sent a shiver down my spine. There was no controlling when or where the bullet went expect for in the hands of the shooter. The rest were vulnerable, even with their own gun in hand. Life was at the mercy of another. 

Macallister lifted one hand to the new group surrounding us, their guns trained at Aaron and Jericho, and held it there. Was he going to have them shot now too? Was everyone just willing to kill everyone so easily?

I could not stand it. I was shaking, sweating, and feeling like I would be sick at any moment. Life was worth more than this. It had to be worth more. 

"It's going to be alright," Archer whispered in my ear. "Just stay still."

I did not argue with him, though I wanted nothing more than to run away from the sight before me. Aaron had always been shady to me almost as if he were always hiding something. An image of him smiling at his father's funeral flashed through my mind. Part of me had wanted to pretend that I had been imagining it but, by looking at him now as a small gin began to spread across his face, I knew I had not imagined it back then. Just as I was not imagining it now. Despite causing the death, the man before me felt nothing.

All I could hope for was that the death of Harold would not be in vain and that this was not the foreshadowing of the Third Party crashing down around me. 

"We should talk in private," Aaron's voice was smooth and light as he spoke with Macallister who was staring at the gun in the other man's hands. Aaron chuckled. "I'll even put this down, see? I do not want to cause too much trouble."

"Right." Macallister crossed his arms. "Search him for any other weapons."

"And Jericho, too." I chimed in to him. At the sound of my voice Archer gripped my shoulder tighter and worried that maybe he did not want what I had asked. Macallister nodded with approval, though Jericho's eyes narrowed at me, and Archer remained tense. He was worried for her, which was not surprising considering he had never stopped, but she had arrived with someone which meant she had shown an outsider the path to get to the Third Party. She proved to me that she was not to be trusted. But, I was not in charge.

I watched as the two before me we patted down. A few knives were taken off of hidden parts of Jericho's body much to her annoyance. No one seemed to have expected anything less. The weapons were taken away before Macallister decided to step forward and speak. 

"If you do not do as I say, you will die." His dark eyes examined them further. "Follow me. All of you."

And with that, the unlikely four of us were grouped together and trailed behind. 

I could not help but notice that Archer's eyes never left Jericho, just as I am sure he noticed mine never left Aaron, the both of us never breaking contact but more than likely for different reasons.