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“Keep. Your. Heads.” Sebastian’s grip tightened to the point that Leon was sure he’d leave finger-shaped bruises on his shoulder. “No matter what you see, no matter what you think, no matter what you feel. Keep your heads.”
Then Sebastian turned from the sniper and put both hands on Leon’s shoulders. “Stay with me. Promise me you’ll stay with me. That you’ll trust me.” He gave Leon a little shake. “Promise me.”
“I promise.” Leon grabbed Sebastian’s wrists. “I trust you with everything, Sebastian. I always have.”
Something heartbreakingly vulnerable flashed through Sebastian’s eyes, and then those eyes dipped down to Leon’s lips. Leon’s heart jumped, and he started to sway forward, but too soon, Sebastian turned away and pulled out his gun.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
A long wail reverberated down the corridor as they descended the stairs and waded into the yellow fog. Leon’s heart jumped at the sound, then continued to beat wildly afterward. Sweat broke out on his palms.
Just as their feet hit the corridor floor and they stepped away from the stairs, Leon grabbed Sebastian’s elbow. “Do you know where they are? The tunnels?”
He recoiled, shocked by the sound of his own voice, strained and thin and almost an octave higher than usual. Sebastian must have heard too, because he cringed before giving Leon some grotesque attempt at a comforting smile. “Yeah, I found them yesterday. I know where I’m going.”
Leon swallowed and forced himself to nod a few times. “Of course.”
They made it several paces toward the central part of the building—their footsteps curiously quiet and muffled by the heavy gas in the air—before the sniper broke.
“I don’t want to do it,” he said suddenly and stepped back away from them both. He raised his hands in front of him, squeezed his eyes shut, and shook his head back and forth. “I don’t want to do it. I don’t like it. I don’t want to be here.”
“I know.” Sebastian reached out an open, placating palm. “I know. But it’s okay. It won’t hurt you.”
“I just—I just… I don’t want to go any farther.” The man wrapped his arms around himself and ducked his chin into his chest. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“It’s the only way to go.” Sebastian took a careful step toward him, his hand still open and outstretched, his voice soft and coaxing. “We’re gonna get out of here, okay? Remember, it’s not real. It’s just—”
“No!” The man screamed when Sebastian took another step, and Leon’s racing heart stopped. “No, I’m not going! Stay back!”
Leon clutched at his chest as his heart restarted and reached for the wall to steady himself. His knees buckled, and he fought the gravity that wanted to pull him down into a small, tight ball at the base of the wall where no one would see him. Where he could hide from it all.
Sebastian had both his hands up now. “Calm down, try to calm—”
“No, stay away from me! You can’t trick me! I know what you are!” The sniper yanked his sidearm out of its holster, and his screams echoed through the eerily quiet hallway. “You won’t take me!”
“I won’t, I won’t!” Sebastian stumbled back quickly and ran into Leon.
Leon saw the gun, saw Sebastian’s wide eyes, and acted on hair-trigger instinct. He wrapped an arm around Sebastian, yanked the other man behind him, and in the same movement, pulled his own gun from his hip and sent two bullets into the man’s chest.
“No, stop!” Sebastian knocked Leon’s arm wide, but the damage had been done. The sniper reeled backward, grabbing at the wall, his eyes rolled back, and then he crashed to the ground.
Reality hit Leon hard. His stomach convulsed, and vomit fought up his throat. He slapped a hand over his mouth and wrestled it back down. He’d shot his own man. He’d shot his own man dead in a heartbeat.
“Oh fuck.” He turned into the wall and put his forehead against it, breathing hard. He’d killed his own man. He could kill someone else. He could kill Sebastian. There was no telling what he could do.
“Hey! Hess! Stop!” Sebastian’s desperate voice broke into his black spiral, and Leon looked over to see Sebastian kneeling next to the sniper. The sniper who now sat up, gasping and pushing weakly at Sebastian. “He’s got body armor on, he’s fine, he’s—Fuck!”
The sniper regained his breath enough to swing a hard right hook at Sebastian, and Sebastian just managed to get his forearms up enough to block the blow.
“I’ll kill you!” the sniper screeched and started to scrabble around on the floor, probably looking for his gun.
“Go-go-go-go!” Sebastian scrambled back toward Leon and pushed and shoved him down the hall. “Go!”
The urgency in Sebastian’s voice meeting the rising panic in Leon’s chest spurred Leon into running more than the logic of Sebastian’s orders, and they barreled down the hall as gunshots rang after them.
They’d only cleared a corridor when Sebastian grabbed him and yanked him around a corner, then pressed him against a wall. Over Leon’s own thundering heart, he could hear more gunshots in the hall they’d come from, from more calibers of guns than just the snipers, and multiple voices screaming and shouting.
Leon squeezed his eyes shut and pressed himself back into the wall, wishing it could open and swallow him up inside it.
