Page 65 of Rat Race

And then there was something else… Something hard to identify. An emotion that had me sick to my stomach and my heart aching.

It hurt.Knowing that they could be in real trouble.

I hadn’t known them for long but in the time I did, they burrowed themselves inside me. Akin to a parasite. They changed my thoughts. Twisting them until they were all about them. Until I longed to always be next to them. Until I felt real fear and panic at the loss of their presence.

The ground jerked under me, slowing my progress as I slipped. My eyes fell to the stones where they’d cracked, shooting across the space between me and the next corridor.

I screamed in frustration, jumping up onto the rapidly rising bit of stone, only to realize that the ceiling was also beginning to descend. I needed to move fast if I wanted to avoid being crushed to death.

“Aubrey!” Cam’s anxious voice cut through the buzzing in my ears as I scrambled over the stonework, barely rolling over the lip and onto the other side before the two pieces connected withan angry grinding noise that let me know I was very nearly just made into an extremely good-looking pancake.

I righted myself, brushing some pebbles from my scratched-up knee, just in time to watch another set of walls begin to close.

Fear.

Cam was on the other side of the descending walls, and at the rate they were moving… I wouldn’t make it.

All thoughts of killing the rat left my mind.Killing can wait, I need to get to her.

I jerked into motion, but I was too slow.

The walls slammed together, and the last thing I saw was Cam’s shocked face as Ella approached them from behind, the knife clutched in her trembling hand.

I slammed my fist on the wall once, twice, a third time, and hard enough to draw blood.

“Cam! I’m coming!Cam!”

I could hear something from the other side, but it was no use. The stone was too thick to hear anything substantial over my own panicked breathing.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

I’d been so close!

But I wasn’t alone. The wall closing had produced a T in the road, and my head swiveled to meet the eyes of a pair of surprised feminine Runners, looking just as lost as I felt.

I cursed under my breath and decided to go right down the long hallway, away from the two. The last thing I needed was to get into a fight with no weapon in hand. It was the best I could do, taking the next left to try and circle the box that held the single most important person in my life.

I’d just have to hope that when I found my way in, I wouldn’t be too late.

Hang on, cowboy. I’m coming.

Cam

What if she’s telling the truth?

With Aubrey safely out of the way, I turned my attention back to Ella.

The walls closed around us to form a box, the opening that'd been created closin’ as quickly as it'd been made. No way out, and with a girl crazier than a bed bug with a knife at my back, I knew I only had one chance at this.

One chance to win. One chance to make it out alive.

One chance to make the Church proud. To make me proud. If I succeed in this I’d finally prove im not a failure. That I can live up to my family name.

I turned, lungin’ for the knife in Ella's hand. She lashed out with the blade, laying a heavy slash to my forearm that was absolutely going to fuck up one of my favorite tattoos.

Fucking cunt.

But a little scratch wasn't gonna deter me. I caught her arm, stalling another pass and more damage, strikin’ her wrist against the stone wall. The knife clattered to the floor as she gasped, her look of determination cracking into fear as my booted foot went over the weapon, dragging it closer to me.

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