Page 18 of Eclipse of the Pack

Ivy mumbled a quick apology.

“… Do we have enough cash to get-…”

Her words died in her throat as they caught her eye. Her hand instantaneously flew to Jon’s arm. Her grip was hardenough to leave bruises, nails digging in to his arm hard enough to draw blood. PEACE agents. An entire unit of them.

She knew them. She knew their names, their ranks, their kids names. She had had small talk with them. Had eaten with them. They were friends.

“Jon.” She didn’t realize she had spoken. She didn’t even realize she had started to tug Jonathen towards the direction of the doors until he dug his heels in as he tried to slow her down. People. The people. There were too many of them. Where did the unitgo?

“Ivy! Slow-…” Jon must have noted the sudden shift in expression. She was not just nervous anymore. She was scared. Fear washed over her in waves as she kept moving. Jon quickly got the message and followed her closely. They speed walked towards the exits quickly.

But not quickly enough.

Gunfire, screams and chaos erupted behind them. The train station went from quiet and calm one second, to utter madness the very next. The sound of gunfire in such a large echoing room was deafening.

Ivy couldn’t save them. No the wolves, not the civilians that were gunned down in equal measure, she couldn’t do a thing.

Instead, she gripped Jon’s arm. Together, they ran through a hail of bullets towards the exit.

22

JONATHEN

Once when he was young, Jonathen fell from a the elevated playground while playing with some neighborhood boys. He had fallen straight down on to his back and knocked the wind right out of his chest. For the span of a few moments, it felt like he could not breathe.

That was nothing to what he felt the moment the PEACE agents opened fire in a public space. It was as if the wind had been forcefully punched from his lungs.

Madness erupted in the train station. Screams mingled with the rush of footsteps as the crowds went into a panicked frenzy. Some people ran. some fell, others were trampled over as the panicked mass ran for the exits.

The grip on his arm brought him back to the present moment. Ivy was screaming at him – but he could not hear her over the gunfire and the noise.

Seeing the fear in her eyes was all it took. Jonathen unrooted from the spot, running with her through the masses towards the closest exit. They had to get out. They had to go. To their left, a mother ducked into an alcove, tugging her two small children to her as they took shelter.

This was not happening. This could not be happening.

“HEY,” Ivy screamed. He could hear her faintly over the roar of blood in his ears. She pulled him towards the side. It was no easy feat, but they cut in a horizontal line through the rushing crowd.

She tried to get their attention. Trying to draw them out, away from the rest of the crowd. By some stroke of luck, it worked. They ran for it, hand and hand. Jonathen was gripping her hand so hard he knew it would leave bruises, as was Ivy.

They booked it out an emergency exit, and ran as fast as they could push their legs to go. They had only made it half a block from the train station when the PEACE agents caught up with them. Frantic, Jonathen tugged her to the side, into a connecting alleyway.

The alleyway was dirty and dark. A forgotten path in between two narrow buildings, one of those places that just felt wrong. They pushed themselves to run faster.

The only way they could turn was to the right, so to the right they went. Jonathen’s eyes went wide, abruptly halting in his tracks. His stomach sank. He felt sick. Ivy reacted before he could, whipping back around and attempting to run back out of the dead end alleyway.

It was too late. Jonathen’s last shred of hope died as the Peace agents rounded the corner into the alleyway, cutting Ivy off in her tracks. There was nowhere else they could go. No last minute saving grace. No help from above.

On instinct, Jonathen blocked her body with his and pushed her behind him.

“Don’T TOUCH HER.” His voice worked on it’s own accord. He was barking orders at these men as if it would do anything at all, as if they would listen. The agents had their guns raised, trained on the two of them.

“Wait!” Ivy yelled as she tried in vain to push past Jonathen to face the agents head on. She managed to break his hold and get in front of him. Jon could hear his heartbeat in his ears once again.

“Don’t do this. Please – Don’t do this! Youknowme!” She was on the verge of breaking down. Her voice shook violently in anger, fear and frustration as tears welled up in her blue eyes.

“YOU KNOW ME! We – we were friends! We…”

She was losing the battle. The faces of the agents were stone cold, without emotion. She might as well have been begging for mercy from one of the brick walls that caged them in. Ivy choked back a sob.

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