Page 61 of Invincible
CHAPTER20
“Knox!”Tyler screamed, scooting toward him on her knees.She breathed a sigh of relief when she found his eyes scrunched shut in pain.A dead man didn’t have the ability to feel pain.Reaching out to her, he let her pull him closer to the containers.Blood was pouring down the side of his face and she couldn’t decide if she would be sick with relief he was alive or in horror because he had barely missed being killed.
“Fuck, did they kill me?”he asked with his eyes still clamped closed.
“Just a flesh wound,” Tyler answered.She let out a slightly hysterical snort.As much as she would like to be the badass from the movies that took on the bad guys single-handedly and saved the day, she was terrified.
“Ahh, Monty Python.Very good,” Knox said.Leave it to him to suffer a shot to the head and still find the humor in it.
When another bullet hit the deck a foot from where they were, Tyler wrapped her arms under his armpits and pulled him up against the door.
With Greer helping her, she sat him up, crawling around until she was facing him.She could see the groove cut in his scalp where a bullet had scorched a path.Blood continued to well up from it, dripping down his face.Calling on her limited first aid training, she pried one of his eyes open to look at his pupil.
“Good Jesus, woman,” he said, swatting at her hands.
“Stop, I’m trying to see if your pupils are blown due to head trauma.”
“And what are you going to do if they are?I think your time would be better served stopping the blood so we can try and build some sort of barricade to hold them back.”
“Here,” Greer said, kneeling next to Tyler.She had ripped off the bottom of the grubby T-shirt she had been wearing, leaving her in nothing more than a pair of Daisy Duke–style shorts and a midriff.
Using pieces of material several of the other women had ripped off their clothes, she tightly bound up the side of his head before wiping the blood off of his face.Tyler shivered when she realized how close the bullet had come to being fatal.One more inch and it would have punched through his forehead.
“They’re going to shave my head to fix this, aren’t they?”Knox asked, closing his eyes again.
“Please, as hard as your head is, they probably won’t have to do anything,” Greer answered, drawing a small smile from his lips.“Even if they do, you could use a haircut.You’re starting to look like a hippy.”This time he opened his eyes, spearing Greer with a smirk.“Right now, you look like the bogeyman come to scare naughty children into behaving.”
Tyler felt herself able to take a full breath again.If he was good enough to spar with Greer, then he would be fine.
The next crack of a gun had Knox pushing to his feet with her help.“Ty, come help me block off our position,” he said, taking the bolt cutters she was still holding.
Cutting off the locks on one of the containers, he motioned to it.“Do you think we can pull the doors off?We could shield the women against the containers with them.”
With a shrug, Tyler wrapped her hands around the door as high up as she could reach.With a heave, she began to pull on the door.She felt Knox at her back, reaching above her to help at the same time that she noticed Mia’s small hands below hers grab the door.When the first hinge let go, she doubled her efforts until the rest of it popped free.
Catching the door, they laid it against the front of one of the containers making sure it was wedged against the floor to prevent it from crashing down on them.It wouldn’t hold forever, but maybe it would slow down the crew just enough.
Turning back toward the other door, she found Mia behind her again.Looking along the deck, she found several of the other women were working at opening more container doors with the bolt cutters, Greer at the lead hopping on one foot.
Moving to another door, Tyler had just heard the last hinge let go when she felt something pop in her shoulder.Yes, she was superhumanly strong, however, that didn’t mean her bones could hold up to the strain she put on them always.
With a cry of pain, she just managed to hold the door from falling on Greer with one hand.She helped Knox wrestle it into place before sinking to her knees on the deck.
“Was that your arm?”Knox asked, falling to his knees beside her.
“I think I dislocated my shoulder,” she answered through gritted teeth.Her strength also didn’t save her from feeling the same pain as everyone else.Knox ripped his belt out of his pants.Having Greer hold Tyler’s arm against her chest, he secured it tightly using the belt.
“We make a hell of a rescue crew, huh?”Knox asked, checking her fingers for circulation.
“Yeah, well, beggars can’t be choosers,” Greer answered.Knox eased both women under the doors, where the rest of the women huddled.
“This will have to work,” Knox said, testing the shelter by trying to rock the doors.Without Tyler at one hundred percent, it was impossible to remove any more of the doors.
Making a long loop with the remaining cable ties in his pocket, he secured one of the opened doors on the next container to the shelter, closing it off on one end.
“Okay, I’m signaling for help.Everyone stay in the middle as much as possible.”
Gathering the women together in the center, Knox made sure everyone was as low as possible under the doors.Tyler knew that it wouldn’t take long for the crew to push down the barricades.She just hoped Dex made it in time.Their group was beginning to look a little worse for wear with a head wound, a bad ankle, and a dislocated shoulder.She wasn’t sure they could hold them off much longer.
