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“… What?” I mumble, my head pounding. Something wet is trickling down my chin. Blood. I can taste it.
“We were right, but we still failed,” Ray says. “The Greek fucker set off the bomb before I could get to him. He’s dead… but I fear that the same can be said for everyone upstairs.”
My stomach drops.
“… No… fuck… he was right there…”
Slowly, my blurry vision focuses and Ray helps pull me onto my feet. The pain in my leg is gone, but only because it’s covered by a pounding headache.
“We need to get out of here before the cops show up and stick the blame on us. Come on.”
Ray yanks at my collar and I stumble after him. The tight basement hallways are crooked from the blast, and the occasional rubble still pours down from above.
“… I had them both right there…” I mumble, anger and disappointment battling to take over the inside of my pounding skull. “I could have taken them both out… if it weren’t for my fucking leg.”
“We tried our best, lad,” Ray says, leading the way to a back door. “There’s nothing to do now but regroup.”
Pushing our way outside, we’re met by a gust of screams and blaring sirens.
“Is your car still out front?” I ask.
“No, I pulled it into this alleyway before I followed you inside. I figured we might have to get out of here without being seen.”
It’s hardly a relief. We failed, and it’s all my fucking fault. I can’t even blame Sophia. A real man should be able to think about a girl without becoming a cripple. But no. I’m not a man. I’m hardly even a monster. What’s so scary about a killer you can outrun?
“There it is,” Ray says, pointing ahead to his half-hidden range rover.
By the time we reach it, another chorus of sirens has arrived at the scene; they’re almost loud enough to cover the wails of agony.
Almost…
“Help!”
The cry for help comes from back down the alleyway. Immediately, I draw my gun and whip around. It’s just instinct at this point.
But I move too quickly, and for a moment the world blurs. When my vision refocuses, I almost wish it hadn’t.
My gun drops to my side.
One of the college girls has wandered out of the same backdoor that Ray and I just burst through. She’s missing a chunk of her skull.
My stomach drops one more time.
What the fuck was she doing in the basement?
Was she following us? Was she following me?
… It hardly fucking matters.
She’s not going to live long enough to answer any questions. That’s immediately clear.
As she stumbles out into the alleyway, her mouth twisted with dread and confusion, I swear I see what’s left of her brain drip from the massive wound in her head.
“Help me…” she whispers, one last time. Then just like that, the life drains from her eyes and she collapses to the filthy alley floor, dead.
“Let’s go!” Ray shouts from behind me. Grabbing me by the collar, he pulls me to the passenger door and shoves me inside. “We need to get out of here!”
“The girl…” I mumble, my face frozen.
