I made it two steps out the door when the wall beside me exploded into a shower of cement and paint. I dropped flat to the hard ground on instinct, covering my head, looking around me wildly. Suddenly Javier’s window exploded and I could feel bits of wayward glass raining down on me.
I reached into my boot and pulled out my gun, my eyes darting all over the parking lot. There was nothing unusual, just a few cars and Jose. But across the street was a long fence belonging to a house. If the shooters were hiding behind there, we were sitting ducks.
“Ellie?” Javier called out from his room. My ears were ringing with the sound of the gunshots, my lungs seizing at the close call. The shots had stopped for now but they were just waiting for an easy target.
“I’m okay!” I shouted back.
Camden’s door swung open and he suddenly burst out, running fast as hell, gun in his hand, over to a high van that was parked near the entrance and closest to the fence on the other side of the road. He flattened himself against the back of the van and his eyes darted over to me. If I ran, the gunmen would try shooting and reveal their location. I looked over at the door Camden had left open. Could I make it there before their bullets got me?
Only one way to find out. I nodded at Camden.
Then I got to my knees and sprinted. Shots fired out in my wake, some of them far above my head which showed that the shooters didn’t have the best accuracy so far. I was just about to duck inside the door when Violetta came stumbling out of our door, looking panicked.
“Get down!” I screamed at her. I ditched Camden’s room and ran for her instead. I tackled her to the ground just as the window to our room shattered with another blast of gunfire. Even though I smashed up my elbow in the fall and we partially landed on Violetta’s arm, Camden took the opportunity to take out whoever was shooting at us. He popped off a few rounds, splintering the fence across the street, the noise punctuated by a few cries of agony and defeat.
Violetta moaned beneath my arms, her own pain taking over her. I rolled her over and peered at her face, the tears streaming down it. “I’ve got something for you, it will just take a few seconds, okay?”
“Who the fuck is shooting at us?” she cried out.
I looked up at Camden who was peering around the van, being extra cautious. From behind us, I could hear another door open.
“Are you okay?” It was Javier. His footsteps stopped right behind us.
I eased myself off of Violetta and Camden came trotting over and helped me get Violetta to her feet. “We’re okay, thanks to Camden.” I gave him a quick smile. “Can’t see things from far away, right?”
“I got lucky,” Camden said, but his tone and the darkness in his eyes said it was nothing as frivolous as luck.
“Well let’s not start thinking he saved the world yet,” Javier said. “We don’t even know if they’re dead.” He took his gun out from his waistband and snapped back the clip. “But if they aren’t they will be.”
He trotted across the parking lot, his shaggy hair blowing behind him, and crossed the street, gun held low. I looked over at the hotel lobby and saw a few people gathered, some on cell phones, perhaps to call the police.
I looked up at Camden. “We have to shoot her up and get her out of here.” I held out her good arm and he grasped it around the forearm while I quickly found a vein near the crook of her elbow. “This will pinch. And then you’ll be flying, okay sweetie?” I tapped the vein and stuck the syringe in, injecting the morphine in one push. She immediately relaxed in my arms, but not too much. Javier had put enough in there to take away the pain but not as much as she had the night before.
“Why don’t you go wait in the car?” I told her, smoothing back her hair.
“Can I drive it?” she asked lazily.
I smiled. “Not yet. But you can listen to the radio if it will make you feel better.” I put the car keys in her hands and sent her off.
I turned to Camden. “I think we have five minutes tops before shit hits the fan.”
He nodded at the broken windows and blasted walls. “I think it’s already hit the fan.”
“True but–”
“No!” Javier’s scream cut through us. We snapped our heads to look. He was running across the street toward us, screaming and waving his hands frantically. “No!”
I looked to Violetta, where he was headed. She had just gotten in the car.
She adjusted her seat.
She started the car.
Jose made a strange grinding sound.
My lungs, heart, soul collapsed.
And Jose exploded.
One minute I saw Violetta’s dark hair through the back window, Javier running across the street for her, a look of absolute horror on his face, a look I’d never seen before and a look I’d never forget.
The next minute, there was a fireball, hotter than hell, larger than life and I was flying backwards, blown into the wall by the fist of heat.
I slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, heat taking over my body, my brain humming with blood and echoes of the blast. I lay there for a few seconds, trying to figure out what had happened. Where was I? Why was the world on fire?