Page 110 of The Last True Hero
Twenty-Eight
THEY FOUNDTHE helipad after a hellish slog through streets cluttered with bodies and hungry wargs.
A huge engine kicked into gear even as they neared the chain-link gates. Wind whipped out from behind the tin fence as something began rotating, slowly at first, then kicking into gear. The tin fence shuddered.
"She's getting out of here!" Zarina screamed.
"How do we stop it?" Adam roared back, trying to be heard over the massive engine. His shirt blew back in the wind the contraption created. He'd heard of helicopters, but he'd never seen one himself and the sight of it was a thing to behold.
The blades whipped faster and faster, and the helicopter began to rise. Zarina screamed in impotent fury, firing her pistols directly at the helicopter.
"Drag her out of the way!" Mia insisted.
"What?" He turned around and saw her lift a fucking rocket launcher onto her shoulder. Jesus. "Mia!"
"Get Zarina out of the way," she replied, focusing on the helicopter.
Adam dove forward and grappled Zarina into submission. She screamed and kicked and tried to head-butt him, but he maneuvered her out of the way, getting a mouthful of her brown plait for his efforts.
"I want her dead!" she screamed. "She can't escape. Not like this. No!"
"Mia's on it," he bellowed.
Zarina stopped fighting him with a sob. She looked up as the helicopter began to find purpose in the sky. Mia calmly tracked it with the launcher and then pulled the trigger.
There was an explosion of fire out the back end of the launcher, and Mia staggered as the grenade launched with a whizzing hiss. Its flight path steadied in the air as it flew determinedly toward the helicopter.
"Take cover!" Colton bellowed, and drove Mia into the ground.
Adam caught a glimpse of Vex's face as the startled warlord caught sight of the rocket heading directly for her, and then the world turned molten.
The back blast of the explosion flung both he and Zarina off their feet; a heated wind that stole breath from lungs and dried his eyes in their sockets. Adam landed flat on his back, then rolled, dragging Zarina beneath him. He clenched his eyes shut as flames swept over him, heat blistering his bare skin. The helicopter hit the ground with another explosive boom that echoed in his bones. The very dirt beneath him seemed to shake, and one of the helicopter blades whined past him and impaled a nearby hut. Adam flinched.Mia! Sound screamed in his ears; the shriek of dying metal. Bits of debris bit into the exposed skin on his back.Christ. His ears rang, and Adam grit his teeth. How much more could he take?
And then it was over.
Adam gasped as he collapsed atop Zarina. He couldn't get the smell of burnt... everything... out of his nostrils. Slowly he lifted his head. Zarina's breath came in ragged sobs. But the only thing that mattered was Mia, and when he saw her wobble to her knees across the street, the lump in his throat almost choked him.
He'd been closer to the blast than she had been. Mia's shirt looked like it had lost a fight with an angry badger, but apart from that she seemed untouched and as much as he hated to admit it, he probably had Colton to thank for that.
Bastard. It was growing hard to keep finding the energy to hate him.
"She's dead," Zarina whispered, hauling herself to her feet and staring at the wreckage. Nearby, a doorway that had been hovering in mid-air finally collapsed.
Fire bloomed in places. His skin still felt hot and tight, like it had shrunk two sizes. The helicopter had taken out a handful of shanties and the flames spread from shit hole to shit hole. Adam caught the faint tang of burning flesh in his nostrils, and deliberately started breathing through his mouth as he hauled himself to his feet with a wince. His back would heal.
"I never... I—" Zarina looked lost.
The words faded into the background.
He stared at Mia. She stared back.
"Plan B," she told him, as if that all made sense.
And it suddenly became very clear to him. He'd been trying to keep her at arm's length for days. The excuse had always beendon't hurt her, don't break her heart when you walk away. But the truth gave a little twist inhisheart. It had also been about protecting himself.
He no longer cared what had happened in that cell. All he'd been thinking until this moment was that the right thing to do would be to walk away. Again.
But how long could he keep running?
And he realized what she'd been saying to him in that alley, when they first met. That hadn't been rejection. She'd been trying to find him, just as much as he'd been trying to find her.
Taking trembling steps, Mia reached for him. Adam slung an arm around her shoulders and dragged her against his body. He was insanely tired, all of a sudden, and his entire body ached.
And they needed to talk.
Just as soon as they got out of this hellhole.
"Well," Colton said, shattering the moment. "Looks like you got yourself a real warrior there. Good luck with that, McClain. Now, we'd better get out of here before those fires spread."
"Amen," Mia whispered.
