Page 32 of Shattered World

Following Rainer’s plan from earlier, we took our seats. Warner sat closest to the door, his hand sliding under the table to palm his gun. Rainer and Aiden sat on opposite ends, closest to the others.

Mina sat beside Aiden, Sasha at her side. I placed myself between Murphy and her, directly across from the standing man, who I easily assumed was Chandler. The men may have been our brute force, but I had been labeled as the speaker.

Caroline had trusted me once before. Maybe this man would do the same.

“According to your message, you have some information for me,” Chandler began, leaning forward slightly in interest. BeforeI could respond with a lie, his head canted toward Caroline. “But she has made it clear you do not.”

Swallowing hard, I realized we had been sold out before we ever stepped foot inside. Chandler knew exactly what information we had. More importantly, he knew exactly what information we lacked. Namely, a way to get inside the bunker.

Deciding to shoot from the hip, words spilled from my lips. “That was before we gained access to her office. The information in there was quite extensive.”

Caroline’s eyes widened and she began shaking her head. “They couldn’t get in. There’s no way.”

By her frantic words, I knew she was trying to save herself. But what she didn’t realize was that she gave me exactly what I needed. If we made it out of this building, I would find that battering ram and get into her office. Everything we needed to survive was in there.

“Hm. An interesting development,” Chandler muttered, meeting the gaze of the woman to his right.

The single look sent a shiver up my spine, an omen of what was to come. Briefly, I glanced at Warner, his eyes widening slightly, trying to share a message with me. But I wasn’t Rainer. I couldn’t decipher what he meant, not in enough time.

“Alas,” Chandler continued, “it seems that none of you are any use to us. If anything, you’re simply a nuisance, only in our way. Not for much longer.”

The woman at his side stood, a hidden gun revealing itself, the sight like an abstract painting. I couldn’t quite piece together the image of her in her pencil skirt and neat blouse, aiming a gun directly at Caroline’s head.

Without a warning word, the bullet flew through the air, meeting its intended target. Caroline’s body slumped in her seat, her head hitting the table, blood spattering on the immaculate surface.

I held in my horrified gasp, biting my tongue until I tasted blood. I urged my body to move, knowing that gun’s next target, especially as the other men and women on Chandler’s side stood in unison.

Finally, I stood on shaky legs, backing toward the door, Mina and Sasha at my side. Murphy stepped in front of us, Aiden and Rainer standing their ground. I wanted to yell at Aiden to get out of the way; he didn’t have a weapon as Rainer did.

“Now don’t do anything stupid. You are clearly outnumbered. And even if you weren’t, you’ve given away your location.”

I was stupid. An absolute idiot for thinking this would go any other way. It wasn’t the time, but my mind settled on Elizabeth’s words, wondering if this was the moment she had feared. The moment our luck was finally up.

No one on our side spoke, a silent standoff between the five weapons on their side and the two on ours. Sasha inched closer to the door, pushing Mina and me along. But the blonde woman from before stood at the exit, a gun in her hand as well.

We were trapped on all sides. Warner and Rainer may have been a good shot, but not good enough for this.

“Drop!” Rainer called out and quickly, Sasha, Mina and I dropped to our hands and knees, ducking beneath the table.

A cacophony of shots rang through the room, a yelp spilling from my lips when a hand grabbed me.

“It’s just me,” Aiden breathed, crawling along the floor and pushing us toward the door.

I wanted to tell him there was no use, but then I spotted the open eyes of the blonde woman, staring blankly into the distance. The blood dribbling down her forehead told me that our exit was clear.

Crawling as fast as we could, we made our way toward the door. We were almost there when suddenly Mina turned directions.

“Mina! Stop!” Sasha whispered harshly, but Mina didn’t hesitate.

I had no clue what she was doing, only that she was purposely moving into danger. Looking up, I noticed Murphy ducking beneath the table, moving toward us, Rainer and Warner backing up in our direction.

None of the others dared to come on our side, not willing to be caught in the crossfire of their own companions' shots. But I couldn’t think about any of that, not when Mina still shuffled across the floor.

Somehow, she maneuvered without notice, her features shuttering as she reached Caroline’s slumped body. As she dug her hand into a pocket, I realized what was happening.

“Oh my god, the key. She’s trying to grab the key,” I whispered to Sasha.

Caroline was wearing the same outfit. The outfit we had seen her slip the key to her office inside of. The odds of it still being there were slim, but when Mina clasped something in her palm, my heart skipped a beat.

---