flower | newt ✓

FIFTEEN

chapter fifteen;
paradise

"NICE AIM, THALIA" Brenda yelled as she shot another bullet at the guards. Thalia shot one more arrow before Brenda gestured her to follow her to the back door. "Alright, come on! Right here!" she yelled. Thalia followed her to a small hallway. Bullets were shot at them, but they managed to dodge them.

"Hurry! We're running out of time!" Brenda yelled as they ran down the stairs. Thalia heard footsteps behind her and the guards were following them down the stairs. As they got to the end of the stairway, Thalia turned to where the guards were and shot an arrow at one of them, resulted to him falling down, and Thalia assumed die. "Thalia! Come on!" Brenda yelled.

The girls were about to take the next exit when guards were swarming over them. "I got eyes on them!" one of them yelled. Thalia sighed and glanced at Brenda.

"This way!" she yelled. Brenda walked carefully on the thin crossbar. "Come on, Thal!" she yelled. Thalia shot one of the guards and took a deep breath before following Brenda with her hands spread open, trying to balance herself as she walked down the crossbar.

The tunes of what Brenda said was 'Jorge's favorite song' was intimidating Thalia more and more. "Oh my god I'm actually gonna die tonight" Thalia muttered. "I'm gonna die tonight!"

"Freeze! Stay where you are!" a voice behind her instructed. Thalia turned to them and held her breath. She couldn't shot an arrow right now, or else she'll fall off the crossbar. Thalia turned to Brenda who was climbing the crossbar.

"Brenda, where the hell are we going?" she breathed. Brenda motioned Thalia to follow her.

"Come on, the song is almost over!" she yelled. Just as Brenda said that, the melodies of the music were replaced by the sound of explosion. Thalia snapped her head towards the sound and immediately covered her face.

The explosion stopped and was now replaced by the sound of metal falling and clanging against each other. And Thalia knew exactly what that means. "Shit" she cursed.

"Thalia! Come on!" Brenda's voice snapped her from her thoughts. She turned to the girl and she was already in the second floor. Thalia jumped over the bar and landed next to Brenda. "Come on!" she yelled. Thalia followed the girl and the floor that they was in started to leaned.

"Shit shit shit" Thalia yelled. She turned to the back and she could see the ground that she was standing on before was gone and had crumbled down. "Holy shit! We're gonna die tonight, Brenda!" she yelled.

"No we're not!" Brenda yelled as she grabbed onto a rope and slid down. Thalia followed her action and they landed on a hard surface. Thalia groaned and she looked up to see the metals and poles falling upon them.

"Watch out!" Thalia yelled. She grabbed Brenda's wrist and they both got out of the, what Thalia assumed was, an elevator. They landed on a hard sandy surface. Thalia coughed out the sands on her mouth and she could hear Brenda doing the same thing.

"You okay, Thal?" she asked. Thalia coughed before answering.

"Either than the bruises and some several bones being broken, I'm marvelous" she said, trying to sit up. Brenda shone her flashlight that allowed Thalia to see her eye roll.

Brenda shifted her flashlight to her surroundings and Thalia could see that they were in a some what damaged and unused basement. And she didn't see her friends anywhere, which caused her to panic a little. "Shit. How are we supposed to get back?" she asked.

Brenda let out a breath and opened her backpack. "Relax. I'll get us out of here" she said. She pulled out a flashlight and tossed it to Thalia. "Here" she said. Thalia caught it and turned it on. Brenda zipped her backpack back.

Thalia turned to the girl. "Can I ask you something? And I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just.. wondering" she said. Brenda turned to the girl.

"Yeah?"

"Why are you helping us?" she asked. Brenda shook her head.

"Trust me, it's not my idea" she said. "Jorge seems to think you guys are the ticket to the safe havens" she said. Thalia turned to the girl in confusion.

"The what?" she asked. Brenda stood up, and put her backpack over her shoulder.

"You know, paradise. Safe from the sun, the infection. Apparently the right arm has been taking kids there for years. Immunes, anyway" she said. Thalia followed the girl as she walks. The word paradise rang in Thalia's ear. Paradise. She thought there was no more paradise in this world. But if what Brenda said was true, she is determined to go to the paradise.

"And you know where that is?" she asked. Brenda shook her head.

"No" she said. "But Jorge knows a guy, Marcus. He used to snuggle kids up into the mountains" Brenda said, as she lifted up a piece of wood. Brenda knelt down and Thalia did the same thing in front of her. "Okay, help me out with this" Brenda said. Brenda and Thalia grabbed the grate in front of her and tried to open it up.

The grate finally opened and the first thing they heard were alarms. "Well, that doesn't sound good" Thalia commented. Brenda sighed and nodded.

"Yeah. Down here they'll be full term" she said. She paused for a minute and took a deep breath. "Let's go" she jumped in. Thalia grabbed her bow and arrow and followed her down. Brenda led her down to a small tunnel, once they got out, Thalia could see that they were in a some what underground tunnel. Thalia shone her flashlight on the walls and there were graffiti all over the walls.

"Where should we go now?" she asked. Brenda pointed her flashlight to the right and nodded.

"I think it's this way" she said and turned to the right. Thalia hesitated for a minute before following Brenda down the long dark path of the tunnel.

EDITED
31/05/2019