“Shit, Jimmy!” I yelled, hurrying to his side. His jacket was seared through with burns covering his torso, but that wasn’t the worst part.
A huge piece of metal protruded from his upper thigh, tearing open a slash at least six inches long, and gathering from the blood gushing out like water from a faucet, deep enough to bleed him out in a matter of minutes. Quickly shrugging off my jacket, I pressed it around the metal in a feeble attempt to stop the blood loss.
That’s when I noticed it wasn’t just any metal. It was a broken half of a saw blade from a buzz saw, its ragged edges embedded deeply in Jimmy’s leg.
Our Racer was down.
“Jared? Josh?” Jimmy rasped through clenched teeth.
“Both fine. We need to get you out of here, Jimmy. This doesn’t look good.” But I knew chances of escaping were slim as long as the Hunters cornered us. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”
“Go,” Jimmy said with determination, and I returned to the open field where Chris was still caught in the exchange of fire.
Jared woke up just in time to ram into a Racer who was in the process of stabbing Chris with a wicked curved dagger. I quickly pulled out the Glock from my belt, the movement swift and smooth from countless times internalizing the motion, unlocked the safety, and fired at the opponents with guns in their hands.
My bullets hit two of them directly in the head, eliminating them instantly, but just as I was about to shoot another, I saw Jared caught in a chokehold by a Hunter, making me switch my aim. I shot him in the foot, giving Jared time to dispose of the guy.
Three left, two with guns. None of them was Dorian or Aitana or anyone else I knew. Had they hired these Hunters to do their dirty work, or were we dealing with new players?
My thoughts were interrupted by a Racer rushing toward me with a gun pointed at my head. I recoiled at the last second, two bullets buzzing out the window behind me. As soon as the Hunter was in attacking range, he dropped his gun and advanced on me with fists held high.
Stupid move. Never drop a loaded gun. The only thing you accomplish is handing your opponent another weapon. Wouldn’t help me now anyway. Fighting a Racer with a distance weapon was as useful as trying to catch a fly with chopsticks.
Several consecutive punches smacked into my stomach with enough speed to nearly knock me over. I quickly regained my composure and drove my knee upward, but the Racer was faster than me, parrying my blow and sending me sailing through the air with a firm strike of his palm aimed at my chest.
I absorbed the impact by dropping into a backward roll, but just as I lifted my head, his knee smacked my chin, snapping my head back. Stars appeared in front of my vision as blood flowed into my mouth from my teeth nearly cutting my tongue in two. A familiar shiver crept along my spine, and a red haze settled over my vision, indicating the Bluster was near. The additional strength would be helpful, but I needed to hold it back, or I’d risk hurting Jimmy and the rest of our crew.
The Racer pounced on me, straddling my hips and ramming his elbow into my rib cage. I quickly grabbed his hand before he could strike another blow and twisted four fingers backward until his knuckles broke. The Racer howled in pain, and I took the opportunity to push him off me. He growled in anger, the pain slowing him down, and I used the moment to my advantage.
Kicking from the side, the metal cap of my boot connected with his jaw causing a bloody tooth to swirl past me. Not hesitating, I quickly jumped him, grabbed his head and snapped his neck in one swift motion. I spit on his face just to show him who’d gotten the upper hand in the end. Asshole.
Shots still rang out all around me, and I sprinted back to where Chris and Jared fought against the last two remaining Hunters, picking up the gun I’d lost earlier. Jared was fist-fighting his opponent, and Chris was just in the process of firing, but an empty click signaled that he’d run out of ammunition.
I came to his aid and shot for him, the Hunter dropping limply to the ground with two bullets in his stomach and one in his chest. Chris sprinted toward Jared to help him out, shouting in my direction, “I’ve got this. Go and help Jimmy and Josh!”
When I reached Jimmy, he was in worse shape than before. Despite his dark skin, he was awfully pale, sweat running down his face, his fingers trembling where he was pressing the jacket against his wound. That was when I realized what horror we were stuck in.
“This… this is my fault,” I mumbled in desperation.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jimmy rasped.
It had been my idea to leave the Regenerators at the compound. I’d known a fight was a possibility, but I hadn’t counted on it to get this disastrous. Now, here I was with half of my crew badly injured while I’d wished for a battle only hours before. Well, my wish had been granted. I’d gotten the bloodbath I’d wanted.
“But Sarah could have—”
“No, she couldn’t have,” Jimmy interrupted me.
He had a point. We would need to remove the blade first and then disinfect the wound before starting the healing procedure. Chances were high of Jimmy bleeding to death by then. Still, Sarah could have stopped the blood flow or at least eased the pain from his burns.
Jimmy’s fingers grasped my wrist. “The compound is… your responsibility now,” he croaked through clenched teeth.
“Don’t worry about it now,” I muttered back, realizing what burden lay on my shoulders. As Jimmy’s second-in-command, I was the leader in his absence. Under other circumstances, I would have seized the opportunity without question, but now I wished I could hand over the task.
I let my gaze swerve over the dead bodies littering the ground. The enemy was defeated, but still, they could have prepared another surprise for us. We needed to get out of here as quickly as possible.
Chris and Jared rushed to my side. “Are you all right?” I directed at Jared who nodded.
“Just two crumpled fingers.”
“Hang on, we need to be careful,” Chris advised, lifting Jimmy’s legs while I took him by his shoulders. Chris hissed in pain as he limped with his injured knee, but he kept a firm hold on Jimmy.
“Argh!” Jimmy cried out when we heaved him up.
“I’m sorry, man,” I apologized, guilty for adding to his pain. I was glad we had a big opening to walk through now, caused by the explosion. Getting him through the tiny window would have been an impossible feat.
“Put him down here,” I instructed as soon as we were outside. Chris rushed to Josh’s side, who slowly regained consciousness.
“Josh,” Chris tried to get his attention and repeated his name when he only got grunts for an answer.
“I’ll call the ambulance,” Jared offered, but Chris was already shaking his head.
“Would you be able to give them directions? We’re in the middle of nowhere. It’s faster to take the car.” I agreed. Chris put a hand in Josh’s jeans pocket and fished out the car keys. He tossed them to Jared who caught them midair. “Go, get the car, kid. Hurry.” Jared raced off without another word.
“Hey, Josh, time to wake up,” Chris yelled, slapping his cheek. Josh’s eyes finally opened.
“What—”
“Explosion. They blew up a tank. You’ve got burns on your arm. Jared, Dylan, and I are fine, but Jimmy’s badly hurt,” Chris filled him in.
Josh was suddenly on high alert, visibly paling as he noticed the saw blade decorating Jimmy’s thigh.
“We need to hurry, he’s losing consciousness,” I urged when I saw Jimmy’s eyes drop shut.
“We need two hours back to the compound, probably less if we break every speed limit. Will he make it?” Josh asked in a panicked voice.
“No, time’s running out. A Regenerator can’t heal him. Jimmy might need surgery. We need to get him to a hospital,” Chris answered just as Jared sped with the van in our direction, spitting up gravel under the wheels. We quickly heaved Jimmy in the back seat.
“Here,” Chris said, peeling out of his jacket and pressing it into Josh’s hands. Josh didn’t ask any questions and got in next to Jimmy, removing my already blood-soaked jacket and switching it with Chris’. Chris got in next, heaving Jimmy’s head up to rest it on his lap.
“Get in the passenger seat,” I instructed, taking Jared’s place in front of the wheel. He couldn't handle the van with two broken fingers.
“Where’s the next hospital?”
“About two miles from here.”
“Fuck!” I shouted, punching the dashboard hard enough to leave a dent after I finally found the time to get out some of my aggression. It seemed everything we did was turning into a nightmare lately. “How the fuck did this happen?”
“They must have followed us,” Jared mumbled while I hit the interstate, racing from one lane to the next.
“But how did they blow up the tank without us noticing? I swear, I didn’t notice anything out of place the entire time,” Josh interjected.
“Unless they prepared for it before we arrived and hid out of hearing range,” Chris mused, his voice turning darker.
“You think they lured us out here on purpose?”
“Most likely. There was only junk in the truck, and we didn’t find anything in the building, either,” I said grimly. “They threw us a hook, and we swallowed it.”
“But that would mean they knew we were picking up their trace,” Josh said in disbelief, and everyone kept silent as we all thought the same.
They knew about us scanning the traffic areas with cameras. They knew we’d follow them, and there was only one way this information had leaked through—with help from someone from the inside.
Dammit. How high were the chances of really having a mole inside the compound? I refused to believe one of us deceived us all. I would have liked to pass the buck to Cole, but we’d already had suspicions before he arrived. And, as much as I hated to admit it, I trusted him on this. He cared about Haylie, and everyone who did deserved my trust.
Before the car came to a full stop in front of the hospital, Jared jumped out whistling to two nurses who were having a smoke outside the entrance doors.
“We have an emergency!” he yelled. One nurse immediately hurried inside to call for help, while the other took in Jimmy’s condition. She gasped when she saw the metal protruding from his skin.
“Work accident,” I explained quickly. Jimmy was already unconscious. After checking his pulse, the nurse took out a flashlight inspecting his pupillary reflex.
“Shallow breathing and tachycardia. Hypovolemic shock. He needs a blood transfusion,” she mumbled just as the second nurse appeared with two medics wheeling a stretcher. “Take him to ER-3,” she ordered while they heaved Jimmy onto the stretcher, and everyone shuffled inside.
The nurse hooked him up for a transfusion while shouting instructions to the medics. They jogged with Jimmy on the stretcher through wide double doors at the end of the hallway, the nurse lifting a hand to stop us from following. “No visitors allowed inside. You need to wait here.”
“Will he make it?” Chris wanted to know.
The nurse gave us a sad smile. “The blade could have harmed his femoral artery. He lost a lot of blood. Please wait here, and I’ll inform you as soon as possible.”
Before she hurried inside the ER, her eyes flew over the rest of us. Chris was limping, and his jeans were bloodstained where he’d hurt his knee. Jared held his injured hand where two fingers bent at an awkward angle. Josh’s left arm was burned from elbow to shoulder, and my face was splotched with blood. I could only guess what I looked like—probably like somebody had beaten the hell out of me—which wasn’t far from the truth.
“What kind of work accident was it?” She scrutinized us with raised eyebrows, her voice thick with disbelief.
“A tank blew up in an industrial building not far from here,” Chris spoke.
“How did that happen?”
“We don’t know.”
“Are there any other casualties?”
“No, it’s just us.”
The nurse nodded. “I’ll call a doctor to check you out. This one looks nasty,” she added, pointing to Josh’s burns. With that, she hurried inside the ER, which left Chris and me with nothing to do but wait while Jared and Josh received a thorough examination. Chris and I declined their offer to get checked.
We propped down on the uncomfortable plastic chairs. Heaving a deep sigh, I rested my elbows on my knees and buried my face in my hands, making a tent with my fingers around my nose and chin. Needless to say, this wasn’t the outcome I’d hoped for this mission.
“Do you think he’ll ever be able to race again?” Chris asked quietly after a few minutes of silence.
Christ. I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of Jimmy never being able to use his ability again. “I don’t know,” I answered, deflated, at a loss about what to do.
Today got out of control. Again. The Hunters seemed to be one step ahead of us every time. I had to face the truth—information was leaking out of the compound. It just left the question—who the fuck was the traitor?
“You should have a look at that.” I nodded toward Chris’ knee.
“Can wait for now. Which reminds me, we need to call the compound and tell them what happened,” he muttered with a sigh, but I was only half listening.
“Something doesn’t add up,” I mumbled more to myself.
“What?”
“We are not their enemy. They have no reason to attack us.”
Chris huffed out a dry laugh. “We made them our enemy when we started hunting them years ago, and now we have what they want. They won’t stop at anything to get it.”
He spoke of Haylie, of course, the precious Natural they wanted to rip out of my hands. I shook my head, pressing the heels of my hands onto my eyes as I let my brain reel through every possibility.
“But they wouldn’t be so stupid as to think we’d take Haylie with us on this mission. Besides, they could have killed her in the explosion. They made it clear they wanted her alive. If they plotted this to get their hands on her, they chose the wrong strategy.”
Chris suddenly gasped, and my head jerked in his direction. “Exactly,” he murmured, his eyes drifting off. “They knew we’d leave her behind…”
It took me less than a second to catch up to where Chris was going with this, but I quickly swallowed down the upcoming panic.
“Everything’s fine. Someone from the compound would have… called… us…” I drifted off, remembering that we’d all muted our phones before storming the building. I gave Chris a look of horror before we simultaneously fished out our phones.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Chris cursed, attracting a few people’s attention. “Several missed calls from Lauren.”
“Same here.” My phone showed five missed calls from Lauren but none from the rest of the crew. Sarah or Scott would have called us if something went wrong, right? I dialed Lauren’s number, putting the phone to my ear.
“Dylan, thank God!”
I knew we were in trouble as soon as I heard Lauren’s panicked voice. “What happened?”
“An attack at the southern entrance. Cole and his team are taking care of it. He wouldn’t let me go outside and told me to call you, but you weren’t answering.” Lauren spoke so fast, it was hard to keep up with her, but as soon as the word ‘attack’ reached my ears, I was out of the seat dashing in the direction of the parking lot. Chris followed me quickly, picking up on me being on high alert in no time while I indicated him to text Josh and Jared to wait for Jimmy’s verdict when the surgery was over. I hated to leave before we knew anything about Jimmy’s condition, but we couldn’t help him now anyway.
Jimmy had transferred the compound’s command to me barely half an hour ago, and already everything had blown up. If I messed this up, I’d never be able to look into Jimmy’s eyes again. Failure was no option.
“When?”
“About half an hour ago.”
“Is anybody hurt?”
“I don’t know. They haven’t come back yet. I don’t even know what happened!”
“Is Haylie with you?”
“No. She left shortly before, said she needed some time to think.”
A dark cloud of fear formed in my heart. It was only that morning she’d woken in my bed, her world completely turned upside down again after two days of being in a coma. I couldn’t blame her for some alone time, but right now, I wished she was with Lauren.
“Can you go check on her?”
“Please tell me you don’t—”
“Just do it and call me back, okay?”
I hung up without waiting for an answer and got into the driver’s seat. I couldn’t get rid of the notion that Haylie’s safety was at stake. Her heritage made her the center of danger.
We sped away while Chris made a quick check through our weapons and ammunition. A few minutes later, Lauren called again. I put the phone on speaker.
“She’s not in her cabin,” Lauren said flatly as soon as I connected the call. My heart plummeted down my stomach. This can’t be happening… “But she could be anywhere, right? Maybe she’s—”
I didn’t let her finish. “Lauren, listen to me. Go to the control room to Scott and Sarah. They have recordings.”
“All right. Do you think something’s happened to her?” Lauren’s voice shot up an octave while we could hear her sprinting through the corridors.
“Let’s not assume the worst, okay?” Chris intervened before I could open my mouth, no doubt to calm us both. “We should—”
“Jesus,” Lauren stuttered, interrupting whatever Chris had wanted to suggest.
“What?” I urged, gripping the steering wheel so hard, my knuckles cracked.
“Scott, he’s… And Sarah…”
“What is it, Lauren?” Chris shouted this time.
“They are on the floor. They both have needles in their necks.” A sob came through the speaker.
“Lauren, you need to calm down, okay?” Chris instructed in a soothing voice, trying to prevent Lauren from freaking out. “Check their pulses.”
I cut the van hard, sharply switching onto the left lane and causing the convertible behind me to blare its horn.
“Both stable, I think.”
“Is there any blood?”
“No.” Chris and I sighed in relief.
“They were drugged,” I concluded.
Clean and silent. No fight necessary. Either the attacker wanted to stay inconspicuous, or they doubted they could win a fight, therefore choosing the safer way.
“Lauren, have a look at the footage. I need to know what happened.” I gave her the password needed to access the security system. After giving her instructions on how to handle the software, I told her the timeframe she should search.
“Uhm… Scott sits in front of the monitors. Sarah isn’t with him. I think this was about the time one of the students broke his ankle.” I remembered Jimmy telling us about it earlier. “Something red flashes on the monitors, and Scott panics.” The cameras recorded unauthorized entering, causing the alarm to go off. “Cole rushes into the room. They talk. Cole rushes out. And then Scott collapses.”
“What, just like that? Are you sure there’s no one else in the room?”
“Yes.”
Great. Whoever shot in the main quarters with tranq darts knew about the blind spots of the cameras in there. Dear God, if I caught the motherfucker who did this, no one would stop me from crushing his windpipe with my bare hands.
“Sarah comes in,” Lauren continued. “She runs over to Scott but faints, too, before she can reach him.” He hid in the shadows the entire time. Fucking coward.
“Okay. What about Haylie? Can you see her on any of the screens?”
“Uhm, wait a sec…” Clicking sounds came through the speaker. “Here she is… She’s going to her room. She probably wanted to see how it looked.” After it had collapsed on top of us, I added mentally.
“I’ll speed up the file. Hang on…” A pause. “Someone knocks on her door.”
“Who?”
“I’m not sure, but it looks like Cassie.”
I frowned. Cassie knocking on Haylie’s door? They’d never willingly exchanged a word before. That didn’t make any sense.
“Cassie opens the door,” Lauren continued, telling us everything she saw on the monitors. “They talk. Haylie seems shocked, and they take off down the hallway. They’re running. They seem to be in a hurry.”
“Running where?”
“The northern exit.”
I closed my eyes briefly. There it was. The one thing I’d vehemently denied, and the reason why I’d argued with Haylie in the first place. She’d felt that something was wrong with Cassie, just like Lisa and Scott, but again I hadn’t listened and had shouted at Haylie for even suggesting it. The truth had been right in front of my eyes the entire time, and Chris spoke so out loud.
“Cassie was the traitor from the beginning.” He bumped his head against the backrest in defeat, as helpless as me.
“But who drugged Scott and Sarah?” Lauren wanted to know, and Chris shot me a knowing look. I nodded in return. Cassie had help.
“Lauren, go back to your room and lock it from the inside,” Chris ordered in a sharp tone, obviously coming to the same conclusion about who the conniver was.
“But—”
“Now!”
There was only one person that hadn’t shown up until now. And I doubted he was doing his regular job in the server room as Scott had told Jimmy on the phone a few hours earlier.
I hit the road harder than ever before.