AVERY’S POV
A scream rippled through the air and I snapped back to consciousness, coughing and groaning as I dragged myself back to my feet.
Smoke.
The air was thick with the stench of smoke and screams of agony.
My eyes took a quick sweep of my environment and my heart seemed to stop.
People ㅡ No.
Bodies ㅡ littered the grounds, some somesmashed, others laying dead with a hole punched through their chest.
Oh fuck.
The wall of the halls were a rubble, bricks and huge chunks of concrete slabs had already smashed down a few people.
Everyone else was running, screaming and trying to get away.
Some into buildings and others into the city.
My ears were ringing, something warm and sticky trickling down the side of my head as I spun around, heart racing in my chest.
Move.
Move!
My brain screamed at me but my body felt like lead, a sharp pain searing through my hip as I stumbled forward with the crowd.
Suddenly, my gaze caught someone pinned under a fallen wall and my eyes widened.
Everyone else was running, ignoring the groaning boy but I dragged myself to him, grabbing his arm.
Dad had a rule that he never forgot to remind me of: Never leave a person behind.
“Woahㅡ wait. Wait.” I gasped, fingers desperately grabbing his.
“I’m gonna pull you out, okay?”
His face was pale and soot covered his clothes, a panicked look on his face as he frantically nodded.
The low whirring of…the thing… still wrecking through the city sent me into overdrive and I yanked hard, trying to get him out from under the slab of concrete he was pinned so we could get to safety quickly.
My chest tightened and my arms felt slack as I finally pulled him out, gasping loudly.
“Oh shit, can you walk? We need to get to the gym, okay?!” I yelled, not waiting for a response before I threw his arm over my shoulder to steady him before beginning to pull him towards the gym building that hadn’t been flattened.
Better that than getting caught in the crossfire out here.
The sound of gunfire filled the air, military trucks trooping in numbers as explosions went off in the distance.
A trio of F-35s flew low across the grounds, gunfire rattling through the air as they banked away in opposite directions around the machine closest to them, firing missiles at the foreign machine.
For a second, I didn’t move, my jaw slack as I looked up at the sight, my feet rooted to the spot.
It didn’t dent.
The machine barely reacted to the heavy fire it just received, it merely swung a metallic limb and I watched as it swatted both jets into the nearest building like they were simply flies.
“Oh shit!” I ducked in fear as the jets spun, crashed and exploded into a burst of flames.
No fucking way.
“Move! Move!” Someone pushed past me, almost sending me off my feet.
The boy I was helping was trembling, his lips wobbling.
“Let’s go!”
I didn’t need any other person to tell me.
Just as that moment, the machine paused, a low buzzing sound that seemed to make the grounds tremble.
And then it turnedㅡ amidst the chaos and everything…it turned to me and the boy.
I almost peed in my pants as it raised two limbs, teal light beeping at the ends rapidly.
Oh fuck!
My eyes widened.
“Duck!” I pushed the boy in the opposite direction just as a flash of light shot through where we were just standing a moment earlier, punching through a wall neatly.
My chest hit the ground with a violent crunch and I whimpered in pain, tears stinging at my eyes as I forced myself up.
I needed to move.
The boy was groaning, clutching his shoulder, eyes blown wide with pain.
I skidded across the pavement, immediately reaching for him.
“We have to move!”
“I can’t feel my arm!” He cried out, snot running down his nose as he rolled over.
My gaze briefly darted to his shoulder and for a second, I paused.
What was that?
A fluid that wasn’t there before the blast now covered a patch of his skin where his cloth had been burnt off ㅡ it was iridescent.
Like the way oil looks on wet asphalt, shifting between deep teal and a bruised violet.
Not thick but not exactly watery, just enough to cling to the skin.
A loud explosion went off less than a hundred meters away and my knees buckled from the force of the blast, sending me to the ground as the ringing in my ears intensified.
My vision was white and blurry, lips parted as I tried to suck in air.
One.
Two.
Three.
I was still alive and we needed to move.
“Up! Now!” I dragged him up again, steadying him as I limped my way to the gym, gaze darting to the chaos one last time as Humvees and APCs moved in a convoy formation, mounting pavements as gunners on top of the Humvees fired in controlled bursts at the machine.
“Shit!” I shouted and ran, limping as I dragged the boy to the door of the gym.
Locked.
What theㅡ
The boy steadied himself against the wall, gasping horridly.
My fists clenched as I pounded on the door.
“Let me in!”
Just as I was about to give up and find another place to shelter, the door swung open and I wasted no time before dragging the boy in and slamming the door shut.
My heart was racing in my chest as I looked around the ground of students and a teacher.
Some of them were on the floor, struggling to bite back tears as they tended to the wounded.
My eyes did a quick sweep around the fear stricken people.
A person was missing an arm, clearly blacked out from the pain and a lot of people looked like they were about to pass out.
I turned to the people who had minor injuries, staring at me in fear.
“Barricade.” My voice was a hushed whisper.
For a second, no one moved.
Then a boy moved, dragging a large table to the door and pushing it up against it.
That wouldn’t hold shit from any kind of artillery the machine had but it was a start.
I helped the boy I brought in to sit down, gently resting his head against the wall.
The dim lights above us flickered for a second before finally plunging us into darkness.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
The sound of screaming, guns and explosions rang out outside and I shut my eyes, trying not to throw up.
Someone burst into tears in the corner, her hands trembling as she held up her phone flashlight ㅡ somehow that survived.
“There’s no signal…” she sniffled and I turned to her, still crouching low.
“The communication lines will be out with all those blasts. You guys look around. Find a radio or anything useful. If you find another first aid box, bring it over, we’ll need it. A lot of it.”
No one argued.
Those who were active immediately took off into the dark building to look for materials.
While the others moved, attending to the wounded with any makeshift thing they could find, I shuffled to the corner, tearing off a piece of cloth to tourniquet the gash running down the side of my hip from shrapnel and being thrown around like a ragdoll.
Finally, I took a flashlight from someone standing there and turned back to the pale boy I saved, letting the light gently illuminate his face.
“What’s your name?”
His hand shot out and gripped mine, sweat beading across his forehead.
“Marcus…” He choked out.
“Thank you so much…for helping me.”
I nodded grimly, letting out a shaky exhale as I turned back to the boy who gave me the flashlight.
“How many people are here?”
His brown hair was ruffled, freckles scattered across his face.
“Twelve. And without proper medication, two of them may not make it past the next hour.”
My eyes squeezed shut and my stomach churned.
“Oh shit.”
What the fuck was happening?
The boy stepped closer, his voice turning low so no one else would hear him.
“I’m Keiran. You are?”
For a second, I couldn’t bring myself to answer.
My legs felt numb and my head spun with everything I had gone through.
“Avery…” I finally whispered.
He took one look at me and grabbed something from the side ㅡ a piece of cloth ㅡ and he pressed it to the side of my head.
“You’re bleeding.”
Oh.
I cleared my throat and took the cloth from him, cleaning up the blood running steadily from a gash at the side of my head.
“Thanks.”
“But what the fuck are those things?” Someone who was sitting against the wall asked, voice trembling as one of the girls who had gone to look for essentials rushed back with a lamp that she switched on to provide lighting so everyone could see.
My gaze slid back to Marcus, brows knitting when I looked at the spot where the fluid was ㅡ it wasn’t…there anymore.
All that was there was flaked skin.
Almost like …it had seeped into him.
But that wasn’t possible.
Uncertainty gnawed at me.
Was it?
My voice was a low mumble as I stared at Marcus.
“I don’t know… but they are sure as fuck are not from here.”