Interwoven ✔️

37~ A Dying Ember

I was screaming. At least I think I was screaming.

Time seemed to slow down as Yoongi's grasp on my arm loosened before he went sinking to the ground. I swore the thud his body made when he collapsed on the ground echoed; a sickly noise that resounded like another shot of a bullet, only this one tearing right through my heart.

I slowly ripped my eyes away away from his body and turned to where the two Reformists were all laughing and high-fiving each other.

"One shot." The one to the right, a girl around my age, crowed triumphantly. "Nice!"

The one on the left, a young man who also couldn't have been much older than me—and the one who'd pulled the trigger— grinned smugly, twirling his gun arrogantly. His eyes landed on me. "You're welcome for saving you."

You're welcome. Is that what he said? You're welcome??

"What the hell...?" The words were all but a faint gasp from my lips.

"Let's keep moving." The Reformist girl grinned, cocking her gun. "We still have a whole lot of aliens to score down up ahead."

My body reacted before I my mind did. I slid in front of the two Reformists, cutting their path to the main hallway off.

"What do you think you're doing?" The boy Reformist frowned, both of them halting.

"Get. Out." I was still too stunned to come up with any better words.

"Excuse me?" The girl shoved forward, incredulity and rage contorting her face. "We just saved your life! That alien was—"

"That alien wasn't even armed!" I snarled. Both Reformists flinched in shock. "You guys just pulled the trigger on an innocent Outworlder!"

"I can't believe this." The girl shook her head. "How the hell can you be on those invaders' side? They don't belong on this planet!"

"Maybe they don't. But they have nowhere else to go," I fired back. "They have no other choice!"

"They had the whole goddamn galaxy of planets they could've chosen and they chose Earth!" The boy was now yelling at me. "Well Earth belongs to humans and humans only. These creature freaks with their glowing tattoos are too dangerous with their morphing abilities. Not to mention they're terrorists now after blowing things up."

"You think that if they didn't have anywhere else to live, they'd destroy the only new home they have? If they wanted to exterminate humans, they would've done it when they first landed here!"

"Would you listen to her?" The girl shook her head. "I bet she slept with these aliens and that's why she wants to defend them." The girl took another step towards me. "Now get out of our way, alien-sympathizing slut."

The Reformists began to move forward again, but only came to a screeching halt when I lifted my gun and pointed it at them.

"You would rather defend an alien and shoot us?" The boy gasped, incredulous.

"I would rather defend an innocent person and shoot a guilty one." My voice came out eerily steady. Something had shut down in me.  A humane side of me had shut down.

All I knew was I wasn't going to let these Reformists harm a single other Outworlder or innocent being. And if it meant firing a gun at them to stop them, so be it.

"This is ridiculous," the girl seethed.

She lunged at me. But she was slow. I shifted the gun and fired.

The bullet went clean through her leg and she collapsed, screaming in agony. It was a lesson Yoongi had taught me when I'd first picked up a gun. Just because a bullet didn't pierce a major organ or artery didn't make it a minor injury. The old Hollywood movies lied. A clean through-and-through bullet hole that might miss major arteries or organs would still be enough to incapacitate the victim.