Chapter 37: Chapter 37

Thirteen's POV

Garrett's expression hardens and he stares at me, daring me to make a move. I don't. I stand still and tense, waiting patiently for what I know is going to come.

His eyes narrow as he reads my expression. He was expecting me to be cooperative. He was expecting me to be submissive. He wasn't expecting me to fight against him. He pulls his gun from its holster and aims it at Sam.

"Make a move," He says lowly, daring me to do it. I don't have to.

I hear a loud pounding on the door behind me. Followed closely by yelling.

"Housekeeping!"

The door is thrown open with a loud crash. And I hear the clicking of heels as she walks in at a leisurely pace. Her crossbow in her hands and aimed at Garrett. There's a deadly smile on her face.

"Don't worry," Lily says. "I've come to take out the trash."

I see the anger in his face, the frustration as he tries to figure out how she managed to get out. I notice Devin put his hand on his gun, unclipping it from the holster.

"Excuse you," She says sharply, eyes on Garrett. "But he still owes me a cake." She gestures to Sam before once again leveling her crossbow at Garrett, her expression deadly. "And you still owe me for the bullets you put in my chest."

"I'll be glad to repeat the past," Garrett says.

"Well, then I guess I should start with knocking you on your ass." Lily shrugs. "And then I can start with new memories, like how I'm going to paint the walls in your blood."

"Devin," Garrett calls out and Devin straightens away from the wall, looking completely bored. "I think it's time Lily left the party. After all, she wasn't invited. Escort her out."

"To dinner or? . . ."

Garrett looks beyond annoyed as he shoots a look Devin's way. Lily smiles and I keep from giving anything away. Besides that little remark, Devin stays in character.

"Right, right," He says. "Shall I toss her down the incinerator when I'm done with her?"

"If you do, I'd prefer to be there. And I'd prefer to toss her in alive."

Devin nods seriously as if totally in agreement. "So, I guess I'll be needing a pair of cuffs then." He makes a show of patting all his pockets, coming up empty. He looks to me, a spark of mischief in his eyes. "Well, I can just use hers. Thirteen would you hand me your cuffs please?"

"Of course," I reply as I hold out my hand and hand him the unlocked handcuffs.

Garrett fires his gun. He swears loudly as he pieces together what's going on. Lily fires her crossbow. She swears loudly when she misses Garrett because he jumps out of the way.

Devin charges Garrett with Lily close behind him. I don't stick around to watch and run over to Sam, pulling a knife from my boot. I begin cutting at the ropes holding him down.

"Sam," I say as I look over him, my voice barely a whisper. He doesn't move and makes no motion that he even heard me. I suddenly notice his lack of hearing aids.

"Shit," I mutter as I cut away the last of the ropes. I put my hand on his neck to check his pulse and my wrist is grabbed roughly, his fingers tightening around my wrist to the point of breaking it.

His eyes are closed and they stay that way, I can't tell if it's his subconscious that's lashing out, or if it's actually him, but either way, a broken wrist is the last thing I need to deal with right now. I put my other hand on his shoulder and shake him, his eyes fly open and for a second I think he's going to attack me. His eyes finally focus and his grip loosens when his eyes land on me.

He starts to shake his head, his breathing coming out in ragged gasps. "Shouldn't be . . . here. Trap . . ."

"Shh. Stop talking," I tell him, before realizing he can't even hear me. "Damn you. You told me you'd teach me sign language."

He lets out a series of short breaths, almost like he's laughing. "I can . . . read lips . . . pretty well," He tells me, his voice soft and hoarse.

"Stop talking," I repeat again as I move to try and help him off the table, but he's too heavy for me to move by myself and I don't know if he can walk, or if he should be.

He reads the expression on my face. "I'll be . . ." He winces as I pull him into a sitting position, his face contorted with pain, but he's still trying not to let it show. "Fine," He finishes, his voice a breathless whisper and dripping with pain.

"No, you won't," I tell him, but throw his arm over my shoulder anyway. I feel something collide with my back and both of us are falling to the floor.

Sam lets out a groan and manages to roll himself on his back, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth against the pain.

I roll and get to my feet in one swift motion, turning to face Garrett. He's got several deep cuts and bruises forming everywhere. Devin and Lily are equally beat up, and starting toward him from behind after being thrown aside.

Garrett's sole attention is on me, and I hold my hand up for Lily and Devin to stop. I pull my dagger from the sheath strapped to my side and a knife from my belt.

"Get Sam out of here. Both of you," I tell them, my eyes never leaving Garrett. I know how quickly he can strike when you look away for even a second.

Devin moves quickly over to Sam, getting him on his feet. Lily watches me and Garrett, hesitating.

"Lily, go," I tell her firmly. I see her nod out of the corner of my eye and she rushes over to help Devin.

Garrett makes a move to go at them and I step in between, keeping them behind me as he tries to circle me and get to them. I match each of his steps with one of my own, keeping in front of them until they make it to the door and out into the hallway.

Garrett looks amused. "You won't be able to protect them forever," He says threateningly.

"Watch me," I tell him before I pull my arm back and throw the knife in my hand.

The knife just barely misses him as he dodges it, and then he's coming at me.

I block his first swing, and just barely dodge his next one. I swing my leg out and catch him in the side, but he's able to grab hold of my leg and pull my feet out from under me.

I fall onto my back and just barely manage to roll out of the way as he brings the gold dagger down where I previously was. I swing my leg out and knock him down, rolling to my feet in one quick motion.

He's on his feet too and he body slams me back into the wall, pinning me there. One hand holding my wrist in place, keeping my dagger away from him. The other hand spinning the gold dagger up so it catches the light, so I can see it clearly.

"I've always wondered what this one does," He says.

"Well, you're going to have to keep wondering," I tell him as I pull a knife from my belt with my free hand and drive it into his thigh in one quick motion.

He swears and swipes out with the gold dagger, catching the side of my arm and drawing blood. He swings out again and I dodge, slamming my fist into the side of his face.

His knee comes up into my stomach and I double over, his knee comes up again and smashes into my face and I fall to my knees. I feel a sharp pain as he brings the dagger down into my shoulder blade.

Fortunately, he gets too close to do this, and I strike out, my dagger slicing a long line into his side. I hear his hiss of pain and he stumbles back and I push myself up to my feet, the gold dagger still stuck in my shoulder. I reach around and rip it out, biting my tongue against the pain.

I look back to where Garrett was standing and he's gone. No longer in the room, and not in the hallway as far as I can see.

My immediate thought is that he's gone after the others, so I take off at a sprint through the hallways of the base. I run as fast as I can, passing by various crumpled forms of the guards scattered throughout the hallway. I almost crash right into Chase.

"What happened with Garrett?" He asks me.

"Gone," I reply. "He took off. I managed to get a good slice across his side with my dagger though, but he knows about the poison and the antidote, so it's unlikely the poison will kill him."

"Damn," Chase mutters.

"Where's everyone else? I thought maybe Garrett . . ." I trail off.

"Lily and Jason are with Sam," Chase says as he starts off down the hall, motioning for me to follow. "We can't get him out of the base, not without getting him killed. It's a war zone out there. Basically, there are three different battles going on out there. Lydia and Vendetta versus Garrett. Zero versus Garrett. And then, Lydia versus Zero. The base is almost completely under our control, but not quite. There are still several guards running around the place. We've secured one of the rooms with an exit and we have Sam there. Lily and Jason are watching out for him."

"What about Zack and Devin?"

Chase shrugs and waves around vaguely. "They're both somewhere in this base making a game of who can take out the rest of the guards first. I was going to go with them, but Lily didn't know whether or not you'd need help and she didn't want to leave Sam alone, or Jason for that matter. We've wrapped up as much of the wounds as we can. Sam was still conscious when I last left them and Jason was letting Lily try to wrap his wounds."

We come into a room that's basically completely empty, and all concrete. Sam's laid out on the floor, Jason's sitting up against the wall and Lily stands in the middle of the room, crossbow in hand.

"Garrett?" She questions once she sees me.

I shake my head. "Don't know."

She nods, her gaze moving to the gold dagger in my hand. She nods again. "You hurt?" She asks me after a moment.

"Nothing I can't handle," I tell her before kneeling next to Sam.

His eyes are open and he's staring at the ceiling. His gaze moves over to me when I kneel next to him. His breathing is ragged and uneven.

"You're . . . bleeding," He whispers as he carefully lifts his hand to brush lightly at a cut on my cheek.

I shake my head. "That's not my biggest concern." He just nods slightly before closing his eyes.

"He's not doing well," I say as I turn to Chase and Lily. "We need to get him out of here."

"I've been on the phone with Zero," Lily says. "He's going to try and get a team over here to help escort him out of here. Until they get here there's nothing we can do. We can't protect ourselves and him if we go out there. It's like a minefield."

"If we can't get him to a hospital soon he's not going to make it," I mutter, staring down at him.

"Thanks . . . for that . . . vote . . . of confidence," Sam says, eyes still closed. I stare down at him in confusion. Lily notices.

"Zack was able to find Sam's hearing aids," She tells me and I nod.

Her phone's ringtone suddenly shatters the silence. She pulls it out of her pocket and answers it.

"Yeah?" She says, her expression serious as she listens to whoever's on the other end. "We'll be ready." She hangs up and turns to us. "Zero's got Gamma team 12 on their way to us right now."

I nod. "Ok," I say. "Chase, Lily, wait outside for them so they know where to go. Jason and I will stay here with Sam."

Lily nods and readies her crossbow before leaving out the door with Chase close behind her, both of them on the alert.

I turn to look at Jason. "You ok to walk, or are you going to need help?"

Jason waves me off as he loads his gun and slides it into the holster on his side, having it ready. He gets to his feet and leans back against the wall. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I can keep up."

I nod, thinking I'll still probably put Chase on watch and standby in case Jason does end up needing help.

I look out the open door and out at the forest surrounding the base, I can see Lily and Chase standing nearby to the door, shooting occasionally and otherwise just waiting for the other team to arrive.

I turn my attention back to Sam and suddenly I hear Lily cry out.

"No!" I hear her shout and I tense, my gaze flying back to the open doorway just as it's slammed shut and locked.

I jump to my feet, a dagger in each hand as I face the person standing in front of the closed door. I can hear someone on the other side trying to get it open, but they're not having any luck. Jason's alert and at the ready same as me, gun in his hand.

I get a sense of déjà vu as I stare at the figure standing between us and the door.

All black, bulletproof vest, and the same strange black helmet with the blacked out visor as the last guys. No face visible, no skin visible, and he's totally loaded down with weapons.

And he's standing between us and the way out.

"Shit," I mutter. This is a problem.