Niam- What I've Done

Eight: And Wash Away

Liam's hand clenched around my wrist as I let out a sob, and he ran toward the building, not looking back. He shoved the glass doors open easily and quickly glanced around the room, which was completely trashed. British soldiers were still in the process of ripping things out of cabinets and knocking desks over in search of anything valuable. They paid no mind to us at all, which surprised me, but it occurred to me that maybe they were beyond the point of caring that I was American.

Not paying attention to anything, I let Liam guide me up an excessive amount of steps, through hallways, and into various rooms, until we were finally in the place I least expected to be: the bathroom. He pulled me into a stall and locked us in there before pulling me up against his body and hugging me tightly. Quiet sobs escaped my mouth as I kept my face buried in his chest. "They... They fucking crucified him," I choked. "What the hell?"

"I know, babe, I know," Liam said in a deep voice, stroking my hair and caressing my face gently, leaving a soft kiss on my lips. "We'll make it through today. We'll do it and they'll never touch any of your family ever again."

Breathing in a shaky breath, I nodded and looked up at him. "How are we even gonna do this? Liam, I'm scared," I sniffled, pressing my forehead to his chest again.

"We've got to find some way to kill the British colonel," Liam said thoughtfully. "He's highly trained, so we can't take him head-on, which means we're going to have to kill him before he notices us. Otherwise, we're screwed."

"And how're going to do that?" I pointed out.

"There's bound to be a weapon around here somewhere," Liam sighed, and suddenly, my head started pounding badly. I ignored it since it was likely due to all of this craziness.

"Then... we're going to find a weapon... and use it to shoot the colonel?"

"That's the general idea, yeah," Liam grimaced and let go of me. With a grim expression, he unlocked the bathroom stall and took my hand again, guiding me out of the restroom. Making sure no one was looking, he dashed down the hallways and began our search for a weapon. The first room we went in had clearly already been ransacked, but Liam still opened a bunch of drawers and checked beneath chairs and desks.

When he didn't find anything, he led me out of the room and into another one, and we didn't find one until we were in the highest room in the building. Unfortunately, it was directly behind a tall, bulky man with brown hair and brown eyes. To be specific, it was on his belt. My eyes scanned over the room and I realized that a table sitting in front of the glass window across from the door was covered with an assortment of weapons. What caught my eye was the matchbox resting on the corner of the table. An insane idea surfaced in my mind and I tried my best to shut it out, but I couldn't. The man was standing there, staring out the window, watching his troops destroy and entire city. My conscience was screaming at me to run away, but for some reason, I couldn't take my eyes off the colonel, feeling like he was going to jump at us at any moment.

Liam looked me in the eyes for a moment before taking me into his arms and pressing his lips to mine passionately. The guy turned around right after Liam let go and he started toward us. "What're you doing here with an American boy? I ordered everyone to kill them on the spot-" he began, but Liam cut him off by punching him right across the face. I knew that that was the only hit Liam would get in before getting hit back so I dashed to the table and picked up the matchbox, fumbling with it to pull out a match and light it. Before I threw the match to the floor, I looked at Liam, who was being punched in the stomach.

The look of pain on his face made me wince and I shouted, "Hey! Meathead," to catch the colonel's attention and I threw the match to the floor, watching the fire spread rapidly. He let go of Liam and gasped; Liam seized the chance to escape and started crawling toward the door, but the colonel was now advancing toward me and the fire was spreading so fast, I couldn't find way out other than to run straight toward the colonel. Liam was now on his feet, leaning by the door, watching me as I ran at the guy and brushed past him, leaving him extremely confused. He may be the leader of the British Army but he definitely wasn't the most intelligent.