Zone Zero (Book 1 of 3)

Chapter 36

We keep moving forward as loud footsteps become prominent over the sirens. This time it has to be more than just four guards.

Logan and I stand our ground and get ready to aim while Alex's stance changes to an almost animalistic one. I try not to think too much into it and instead focus on the soldiers coming our way.

Their bullets are heard before they come into sight which sends Alex running at them faster than my eyes can follow.

Stay put, Alex demands.

Logan begins to chase after him with his gun cocked and ready as I begin to fall behind.

I walk at a slow pace and try to keep a little bit of distance between us so not to entirely disobey Alex but I can't even see them ahead anymore. I notice that the corridor has a turn up ahead and can only guess that's where they are.

Do I follow them blindly into the gunfight or do I stay and wait for them here?

The sirens are so loud and obnoxious that I barely hear the sound of more footsteps coming from behind me. I turn to face the noise and my heart skips a beat.

"There she is. Arrest her!"

At least a dozen more soldiers, even bigger than the four that lie unconscious not far from where I stand now, have managed to close in on me from behind as a clearly livid Max commands them.

Fear instantly strikes me motionless as I struggle to comprehend just how much trouble I really am in. I can't see this ending well as I slowly raise my hands in the air and drop my gun to the floor.

Each soldier has now readied their stance and have their guns aimed at me ready to pull the trigger if I move a single muscle. This must be what it feels like to be slaughtered by a firing squad.

Max stands behind a few of the guards with a smug smile plastered across his face as he comes to fully realize that my life literally hangs on his next words.

Without a word, a single guard breaks rank and begins to walk my way, pulling out a bunch of cable ties from his back pocket. They are intended for me so I can be taken back into my cell and chained up like an animal once more. I shed a silent tear at the thought of what will surely happen next.

I inhale deeply and begin to exhale just as a movement, faster than the human eye can possibly see, blurs across the room and takes down the soldier in front of me throwing him against the concrete wall.

I watch the horror and shock grow across the faces of the rest of the soldiers, and even on Max, as the blurred movement comes into view. Alex.

I sigh in sheer relief but before I can even let my entire breath out, he is gone again and this time so are the lives of two more soldiers as they fall to the floor.

It is at this point that Max, along with three other cowardly soldiers, make a mad dash back down the corridor in which they came as gunshots begin to ring through the air. Within a second, Logan is standing next to me shooting whatever moves that isn't Alex or I while Alex continues to snap the necks of the soldiers that remain until none are left standing.

Alex looks around at the pile of dead bodies quizzically before looking in the direction that Max ran.

I listen in on him and hear him as he debates on leaving me again to chase Max down only to have him snap his attention directly at me with fierce ice blue eyes.

"There's more coming." It's all he says but I know he wants to say more. I know that he wants to tell Logan to take me somewhere safe so that he can chase Max down and gut him like a fish but he chooses not to. He knows as well as I do that I am much safer when he is around.