GRAVE DANGER

Grave Danger Chapter 10

I grab his shoulder and pull myself up, keeping all my weight on my left foot. He pulls my left arm over both his shoulders and pulls me sideways so I'm leaning on him. "You should hide that." The bandit points at the key hanging around my neck.

I silently stick it back under my shirt. The bandit opens the door and we make our way down a dark hall. I try to be quiet as I limp on the concrete floor, my shoe making an obnoxiously loud clapping sound every time I take a step. The bandit stops and peers around a corner. "Okay." He says, then opens a door next to us. Martin and I walk in before him. "Just go straight." The bandit says.

He shuts the door behind us and I can't see anything. I shut my eyes and grip Martin's shoulder tighter, concentrating on moving forward. "Stop." the bandit whispers.

He steps around me and I hear him climbing up a metal ladder. A shaft in the ceiling opens and light pours in. "Come on up." He says, holding a hand out in my direction.

Martin helps me limp over to the ladder and they both assist me in climbing to the top. I crawl away from the shaft and see we're behind a building made entirely of concrete. Martin helps me get back to my feet and we keep moving. "This way." the bandit says, ushering Martin and I ahead of him.

We walk around the back of the building and start down a dirt path that runs along a tall stone wall.

BANG!

The sound of a gunshot rings out through the air, the bandit falls to the ground. Martin turns around violently, almost dropping me in the process. The bandit shakes his head, gripping his knee. "Just go!" He shouts.

"I'm not leaving you!" Martin says. "Get up!"

I look around but don't see the shooter. Why would someone bother to shoot us and not just kill us? Where did they go? The bandit struggles and pushes himself to his feet. The right knee of his hands is drenched in blood that keeps running down his leg. "I can make it, just go. Don't slow down for me."

Martin starts walking back towards him. Have you forgotten I'm here? You're hurting my leg! He said he can make it, we have to get out of here before they kill us! Keep going! "Go!" The bandit yells. He starts speed-limping past us. Martin turns around and keeps walking along the wall again. I start hopping on my one good leg faster than he's walking. Where did the gunshot come from? Why hasn't whoever it was killed us by now? I look down at my feet and prepare myself to step on my bad leg. We have to get out of here, I can't keep limping.

The second my foot hits the ground, my whole leg gives out. Martin stumbles forward and almost falls. He stops walking and reaches for my leg like he can fix it. "Keep going! We have to get out of here!" I say.

He nods and keeps pulling me. THe bandit crashes against the stone wall and turns, then keeps limping. "The gate's right up here!" He yells over his shoulder at us.

"Speed up." I say to Martin.

We turn around walk around the gate. A tall female bandit stands a few feet in front of us. "You're not going anywhere on my watch." she says pulling out a knife. "I worked too hard for that key, I'm not about to lose it."

I feel anger overtaking me. Martin squeezes my arm, I elbow him. "Raven..." he whispers.

I ignore him. I'm tired of him acting like it's unreasonable for me to be upset at these people so bent on stealing everything I have left. I glare at the bandit girl.

"What?" she scowls back.

"You're not taking it." I let go of Martin and step away from him, still keeping as much weight off my bad leg as possible.

"What, is that supposed to scare me?"

Martin steps forward too and puts a hand on my back to steady me. The bandit boy pulls out a gun and points it at her. "Let us go."

She shrinks a little, but keeps her scowl. "You traitors."

He steps forward again, jerking the gun a bit. She jumps and sticks her hands in the air, dropping the knife onto the ground. He cocks his head in the direction of the gate, which she immediately walks back to. He keeps the gun trained on her and limps backwards after Martin and I. As soon as we're out of her view, he turns back towards us and we all run as fast as possible.

"This way!" Martin says, turning towards a distant cliffside. "It's pretty far off the path we need to take, but we have to hide out until they leave."

I hear a gunshot far behind us, but don't see anyone when I look. We find a decently sized underground cave and drop in. The bandit grabs a big mossy stone and pulls it over the entrance after we're in. Once again, we're in complete darkness.

Martin eases me into a sitting position and we all catch our breath.

"Oh, Raven," Martin finally says. "This is Aiden."

I laugh, but it sounds weird since I'm out of breath. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." Aiden says.