We The Forlorn (Book #2) (Completed)

19. Shoot

On the second floor landing, a group of militia pounced on Bo and Khan. Bo managed to down two with well-placed shots, and Khan knocked down another. Two were left, but they were too close to use their weapons effectively. Instead, they threw punches. Bo took one to her jaw and felt her teeth snap together. She stumbled backward, her boot catching on the edge of the top step. She felt her weight tip her backward, but before her feet could completely leave the ground, Khan snatched her arm. He yanked her back onto solid ground, and she had just a second to feel her stomach still dropping before she blocked a punch from one of the remaining militia. She ducked away from his next two punches, and then danced out of his reach.

She risked one glance at Khan, and saw that he had knocked his opponent to the ground and had pinned him with a knee to the chest. A few sharp blows rendered the militia man unconscious, and then Khan turned his attention to the man making a run for Bo.

Bo side-stepped as the man rushed her, bringing both of them closer to Khan. The man, perhaps not even realizing Khan was there, rushed straight into their trap. Bo spun to the side, leaving the man to run straight into Khan. Immediately, Khan pinned the man's arms to his chest, spinning him around so that he faced Bo. She smiled briefly, and then delivered a blow so sharply that the man instantly lapsed into unconsciousness. Khan let him drop to the ground as soon as he went limp.

Now that the coast was cleared, Bo and Khan took a moment to catch their breath and orient themselves. Bo cracked her neck and rubbed the spot on her jaw where she'd caught the blow. It was tender and she felt it all the way to her teeth still. Even her eyes hurt from the jolt of it. She grunted and kicked the side of the man who had delivered the blow, though he wasn't conscious enough to feel it.

"I think she was around the middle of the building," Khan said. "So she should be in one of the rooms that are right ahead. One of the ones that would have access to a widow that overlooks the courtyard." He pointed to the doors of rooms that lined the hallway of the second floor. Before Bo could caution him to use care before barging in, Khan was already running for the hallway that led deeper into the building.

Bo groaned, but followed him as he rushed past the doors they knew the girl couldn't be behind. When they finally reached the part of the hallway connected to the rooms on the edge of the building, Khan began to try the handles. A few opened, showing bland bedrooms that obviously no one ever slept in. The glow of the fire and the echo of gunshots rang through the windows, but Khan didn't even spare a second to see how the battle outside was doing. As soon as he saw the girl was not inside, he rushed from the room to try the next. If any of the doors were locked, he kicked them in. All revealed the same interior as the ones before them.

After ten doors, Bo began to worry that the girl might have been dragged away by the hands that had grabbed her, and that they were searching in vain. But before she could even finish her thoughts, Khan had kicked in another door... and this time they saw something new.

The room was double, or maybe even triple the size of the ones they had seen before. It was decorated in an antiquated way. Plush scarlet carpets damped their steps, and the walls had been left as bare brick and covered with draped fabric and hanging rugs. A huge bed took up most of the space, covered in black velvet blankets and silk pillows. It was easily big enough to fit five or more people across it, and curtains hang from a canopy. Chairs, tables, bookshelves, and map tables filled the rest of the room. They were all old and luxurious, completely out of place in the desert stronghold. But even more shocking was the fire that raged in the middle of the room.

Books and pieces of chairs had been shoved into a haphazard pile, and burned now in a pyre. The carpet around it had already caught fire, spreading slowly. Someone had attempted to dampen its spreading, as water soaked the carpet in a circle around the fire. But it wasn't enough to stop the flames from licking the ceiling and filling the room with smoke.

Khan darted into the room, heading for the bonfire. Bo followed him closely, jumping over the spots on the carpet where it steamed with heat. She choked on the smoke as she circled the fire and looked for any signs of the girl.

As she came to the other side of the pile of burning materials, she spotted a figure crouched in the firelight. She could immediately see it wasn't the girl. This was a man, with gray hair and thin arms that stretched out wide as if he was wishing to embrace the fire. Bo paused, watching him and trying to gauge whether he would be an immediate threat. Yet, he didn't seem to notice Bo, or even Khan who was still running around the room and searching for the girl.

Bo brought her gun up to aim at the man as she took another step toward him. His small eyes reflected the fire in a feverish stare, but he didn't react as she got closer and closer. Only his mouth moved, and after a few more feet toward him, Bo could hear that he was whispering. None of it made sense, just blabbering of words. Something about heaven and hell, and punishments. Bo didn't care to listen much longer. She nudged the man with her gun.

"Hey, buddy," she snapped. "Where's the girl?"

The man's head whipped around at the sound of her voice, and his glare was almost as hot on Bo's face as the heat from the flames. She took one unconscious step backward as the man slowly stood up, revealing a hidden height that only accentuated his boney appearance. His gnarled hands stretched toward Bo, his lips curling back to reveal yellowed teeth bared in fury.

"You cannot have her," he hissed. "If she cannot belong to me, then she will burn with everything else."

Bo shifted her weight to get out of his grasp, but he moved faster than she anticipated for his emaciated frame. He snatched a handful of her sleeve, and she cursed as she tried to make sure he couldn't gain control of her gun.

"Bo!" Khan yelled from across the room. "I found her!"

Bo risked a few seconds to glance away from the man who still hung onto her sleeve, and saw that Khan was supporting the girl from before. Metal shackles hung from her wrists and ankles, and a freshing forming bruise covered one eye. But even in her depleted state, the girl still found the strength to point a shaking hand at the man. Her eyes hardened, and a strength Bo didn't expect to see filled her face.

"Shoot him!" the girl yelled. "Kill him!"

Bo yanked her sleeve free from the man's grasp, and took a step back. Her eyes bounced between the girl and the man.

The girl spat in the man's direction. "He killed hundreds of girls. He kept us as slaves. He deserves to be shot and burn in this hell he created."

Bo slowly turned to face the man who now growled in rage as he stared at the girl. This was the Judge? He was not what she had expected from the man who everyone feared so much. But power had a way of making even the most pitiful people into monsters.

His whole body shook and his face went red as veins popped in his neck. "Sinful, ugly girl," he hissed. "If I did not love you, you would have died long ago."

Bo stepped in between him and the girl, raising her gun so that he looked down the barrel. "You know nothing about love," Bo said. "Step back from her, or else I'll blow your brains out."