Restless

Worse In Albuquerque

We drove for about five more hours before we all agreed we were safe. We entered the desert city of Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city. We wanted to stop and check on Big Ben.

"How's he looking, Mad?" Ty asked her as she sat with him.

"He's fine. He's been through worse. Right Ben?" She said rustling his hair like a child. He smiled and nodded. I met with Luke and Zach to talk until we were ready to leave.

"So how are you guys?" Zach asked us.

"Alright I guess. Are we almost to San Fran?" Luke asked.

"If we drove all day we'd be there tomorrow night. but we have to make sure everyone's well rested and prepared for the worst." I said to them. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon. We walked away from our group and towards a crosswalk. The air was hot and we all were sweaty without the air conditioning of our vehicles. We approached a corner and I swore I heard someone talking. I held out my arm to stop my friends.

"I want them killed! Admiral Sandman said that they should be coming through here tonight. If they make it through,we fall back to Los Angeles with the entire force." A girl's voice said. I slowly peeked around the corner and was instantly paralyzed with disbelief. The girl was maybe 5'6 with long blonde hair. There was a orange bandana that covered her face. She was with a large group of sandmen. I counted twelve men, two trucks, with a man in each of them, and her. "We can't let them find Sleepwalkers in California. They'd be the biggest group of rebels in the continent."

"Alright Zach, you're the best shot on the team. How many bullets you have?" I whispered behind me. We were too far to get our groups attention. He counted his bullets then put up eight fingers.

"Let's flank 'em. Dray, you circle around back, and I'll be a distraction. Dray, finish off the leftover soldiers after Zach shoots his bullets" Luke said to me.

"Got it. Zach, leave the girl. I said and pulled out my revolver which had six bullets in it.

"Okay, if you say so." he replied quietly. I made my way around the building, behind the group of soldiers and waited. It was time for Luke's distraction. He did something completely stupid in my opinion. He ran across the street screaming until he was out of site.

"The hell was that?!" The girl yelled. Then Zach shot. Like a pro, one by one, eight shots, eight kills. Eight of the men collapsed dead, with a hole in their faces. The remaining six men shot at where Zach was, completely unaware of me. I aimed and shot the four men out in the open. The two men in the trucks panicked and sped off down the road. Leaving one person left. Her. She looked at me, then at Zach, then at Luke. She was surrounded.

"Don't move!! Get on the ground!!" I yelled as we all closed in, like lions on a unaware gazelle. She did not move. "I will shoot you if you don't do as I say!"

"Oh, will you?" She said sarcastically. Her disrespect enraged me.

"Last chance!!" I yelled at her. We were only about three feet away from her. She suddenly pulled a knife from her pocket and threw it at Zach. I looked at him and froze. The knife was lodged in his right thigh. He looked down at it with wide eyes.

"Oh... My... My LEEEEGG!!!" He screamed collapsing to the ground. I had enough. I aimed down from her head and shot her in the shin. She screamed and fell over.

"You... You shot me!!!" She yelled, like I hadn't warned her three times.

"What did you expect?" Luke asked as he helped Zach stand. The knife was several inches inside his leg. I reached down and pulled the bandana off her head. My heart stopped and I felt dizzy. It was Emilie.

"You... How are you here?" I screamed at her. She spit at me and stayed quiet. Ben ran around the corner with a pistol in his hand.

"What happened?! We heard gunshots." He said before he saw Emilie.

"Emilie?" Was all he could say.

"Get up. You're coming with us." I said putting the barrel of my gun to her forehead. She managed to stand up and hop on one leg all the way back to where our group was. Everyone had different ideas for what to do with her. Some wanted to shoot her then and there but I wouldn't let them. She had information about the sandmen that we could use. I made the hardest decision in my life. We would keep her alive. We couldn't stay in Albuquerque now that two sandmen escaped alive. They probably were on their way now. Emilie would have to come with us. Cailey and Nick tied her up and shoved her in the trunk of Ben's car.

"All better." Maddie said from somewhere behind me. She had pulled the knife out of Zach's leg and had stitched him up.

"Thanks." Zach said to Maddie.

"We need to get somewhere away from here and interrogate her. Our next stop is Flagstaff." Elizabeth said to the group. So we all got back into the vehicles and drove down the road. Almost to where we wanted to go. The West coast was on all our minds.