Page 95 of Captured Immune

A flash of flying dark gray metal catches my eye. I yelp as my captor releases my shirt just as a large filing cabinet hits him. The metal bangs against his head with a bone-crushingclank!I’ll never be able to unhear.

The man falls to the floor with the heavy metal cabinet landing on top of him. I expect him to get right back up, but he doesn’t even stir.

“You bastard!” Bruce shouts as he punches Trey in the face. Trey stumbles backward, clutching his cheek. Bruce, who’s almost twice the size of Trey, kicks him in the stomach. Trey falls backward with a grunt, then Bruce climbs on top of him.

“Arella, run!”

Bruce wraps his hands around Trey’s neck. Trey claws at the man’s hands as I glance around for something I can hit the guy with, something heavy, like a fire extinguisher, or a large—I gasp. A handgun! It’s lying on the floor inches from Dennis’s limp body.

I dive toward the weapon as if someone else was going for it too. It’s heavier than I thought it would be. I’ve never held a gun before.Are they always this heavy?My hands shake as I hold it up and aim it at the man straddling Trey.Oh no.What if I miss? What if I hit Trey? How do I do this? Do I just pull the trigger?

Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm blares from the ceiling. Seconds later, the sprinklers activate and rain onto everything.

Trey wails as Bruce beats his large fists into Trey’s ribs. I keep imagining my ocean waves surrounding Trey as I aim my weapon. I can’t get a good shot though. Bruce keeps moving, and my hands keep shaking. I command my feet to get closer, but they don’t listen. They’re frozen where they are.

“Run!” Trey shouts as he grabs the man’s face. A burst of red flames appears in his hands. Bruce screams over the blaring alarm and falls backward, clutching his head.

Now that he’s away from Trey, I aim the gun and pull the trigger.Bang!

I miss. I pull it again.Bang!

And again.Bang! Bang!

The man’s body jolts twice, then he stops moving altogether.

My ears ring as the gun slips from my shaky grasp. Water drips down my forehead and into my eyes.

Trey’s propped up on his elbows, gaping at the dead man, then loses his strength and slumps onto his back.

I rush over to him. “Trey!”

His breaths are sharp as I take his face into my hands. The side of his head is bloody again. So are his nose and his lips and, well, everything.

“Arella...” My name comes out in a scratchy broken tone. I barely hear it over the high-pitched beeping of the fire alarm. He points. “My leg.”

I slap a hand over my chest and gasp. Something has sliced through his jeans and cut into his left thigh so deep, I could stick my fingertip into it. His blood has already soaked through his jeans, all the way to his calves.

Trey pushes himself back onto his elbows to get a better look. “It’s pretty deep, huh? Those fucking ice balls. I tell ya, they can be sharp as hell.”

I take another glance at his thigh, and it makes me queasy. It’s one thing to see this stuff on TV; it’s another to see it in real life.

After I suck in a deep breath of courage, I get to my feet and dash to the supply closet. It takes me a bit of rummaging to find a first aid kit on the top shelf.

When I return to Trey’s side, he’s lying on his back with his eyes closed, breathing heavily. I set the first aid kit down next to me, then work on getting his belt unbuckled.

Trey grabs my hands. His voice comes out coarse and weak like it’s taking all his strength just to speak. “Arella, listen to me. They could be sending more people. You need to go.”

“Okay. Let’s stop the bleeding first.” I reach for the button on his jeans.

He grabs my hands again. “No, Arella. The wound is too deep. I’m...” He lets out a painful exhale. “I’ll only slow you down. I’ll probably bleed out anyway. Just forget about me and get outta here.”

Tears well into the corners of my eyes. I shouldn’t have asked Dennis to call the police. All I wanted was for this nightmare to be over. I never meant for anyone to get hurt. Now Dennis is lying lifeless on the floor from whatever Baldy did to him as revenge for the woman who is now bleeding out from the holes Dennis put into her. Baldy is still unmoving under that heavy filing cabinet and barely a step from where I’m kneeling is the large man I shot. All of that didn’t happen just for me to leave Trey behind to bleed to death. No way.

“You’ll be okay,” I choke out. “We just have to stop the bleeding until we can get you to a Healer.” I get the button of his jeans undone, then I slide the zipper down.

Trey grabs my hands a third time. “Arella, this is not the time to be difficult. More of them could be here any second. A fire department is probably on their way too. Go look through that employee’s pockets for his car keys. Then?—”

“No!” I shout as tears fall from my eyes. “You’re going to be okay. Just let me wrap you up.”

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