Payton

PAYTON

Havek sprang into action, spinning me away from him into the wall so he could neutralize the warden and take his rifle. He slipped the shiv underneath the guard's breastplate and between his ribs, twisting it so the stylus would break and leave the glass and shards of steel inside him.

As blood gushed from the wound, the warden screamed and writhed on the floor.

Havek grabbed the rifle and tossed it to me. I caught it like it was some kind of feral animal. "What am I supposed to do with this? " I screamed.

"Point it at somebody!" Havek yelled as he went after another guard. One by one, the guards recovered their wits following the explosion. They shook themselves, stood up, and took aim at Havek, but he moved too fast.

"Not at me!" Havek screamed. I looked down and realized that I had, indeed, pointed the giant gun at him. The kickback on this thing must be incredible! I thought.

Focus, Payton!

I tried to calm down and assess my situation, but so much happened all at once that I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Not knowing what was expected of me, I just dodged the flailing body parts of the guards and tried not to slip in the blood. Both became increasingly difficult.

Finishing off the guards in the room, Havek cracked the door and looked both ways to make sure all of Deathgate's other employees were off dealing with the other prisoners. Evidently satisfied, he closed the door again and undressed one of the guards.

"What are you doing?" I asked, not in the mood to see a Mondian naked.

"What you should be doing! We need armor. Find some that's not too damaged and suit up!" He kicked at the leg of a groaning figure in the corner. "That guy's little. Pop him in the head and take his vest."

I stared at him for what must have been a beat too long. Havek finished "suiting up" and noticed. "Do you mean to tell me Alkard sent me an advocate that doesn't even know how to shoot a gun?" His mouth was agape.

I shook my head, unable to utter a syllable. Havek busied himself with gathering weapons from the guards. When he found a small handgun, he turned and shot the guard in the corner. Undressing him hurriedly, he tossed me each piece of his clothing.

Trying not to think about what I was doing, I donned the dead Talimarian's gear and tightened it as far as it would go. Havek switched the rifle in my hands with another, even larger cylindrical weapon. He strapped several more guns to my suit before opening the door and looking out.

"Okay, this is how it's gonna go." He spoke quickly and confidently. I tried not to let him know I struggled to keep up. "What you're holding is like a grenade launcher. Pump action—you load it like a shotgun, point, and shoot. Not much recoil, and you don't have to be that accurate."

Right.

Not accurate.

That was good.

Because I was still in shock. I was a bottle girl pretending to be an advocate. And now I was in the middle of an armed revolt.

I never even touched a weapon more serious than a knife before, and that was just for cooking.

What was I doing?

Finding the lever, I nodded, clinging to his words. "You should have eight rounds," he continued. "So don't waste them. Shoot only when I tell you. I'm going to take weapons off your suit, so stay behind me, and don't let anyone else touch you. And Payton…"

I looked up just in time to catch his blinding smile. "Try not to get shot." He was out the door before I processed his sentence. All I could do was run after him and hope there was more of a plan than the chaos already ensuing.

He bolted down the hallway, jumping over fallen guards and prisoners. "Keep moving! Keep moving!" he shouted when I slowed to look into one's face.

There was rubble and detritus everywhere. More explosions rocked the building, but never as big as the first. The regularity with which they went off sounded like he set up a chain reaction.

A few hallways later, I realized he was counting between booms. Boom … "… two… three… four…" Boom… "… two…" At regular intervals between explosions, he let off a volley of shots from one of the machine guns he stole from the guards.

It was impossible to tell how long we had wandered when I fell into the macabre rhythm of booms and shots. It was like a strange, complicated dance, and Havek was the conductor and the lead. He orchestrated it: he kept time, he leaped, he shot—he was a one-being ballet.

How did he construct all of these explosives with the parts I brought him?

Impossible.

Or…

Did he use the parts to get access to the guard armory, and used their own weapons against them?

"There. Shoot. Now!" he shouted, breaking me out of my ridiculous train of thought.

There wasn't any point in trying to figure out what he did.

He'd done it. And now I needed to pay attention.

Without looking at what I was shooting, I pumped the handle, pointed in the direction of Havek's finger, and shot.

Whatever that gun was, it was not a grenade launcher. A massive ball of green electricity left the muzzle of my weapon, sparking as it floated to a nearby wall. It dissolved into the wall and disintegrated, taking the blocks with it in a pixelated domino effect.

He was right about one thing, though. It had no recoil, and I didn't have to be accurate at all. Okay, he was right about two things.

"What is this thing?" I looked at Havek as though he were an evil sorcerer bent on mass destruction. As far as I knew, he could be.

"Illegal," he quipped and laughed at his own joke. "What Alkard wouldn't do to get his hands on one of those babies."

All I wanted to do was get my hands off of the gun, but Havek ran off in the direction of the unblocked wall before I could share. I followed as quickly as I could but lagged behind under the weight of the weaponry he stashed on my suit.

Luckily, he ran out of ammo. Tossing his guns aside, he grabbed the two largest off my back and shoved me behind an upended table just as a fireball came rocketing through what I could only presume was the mess hall.

Flames engulfed us all around. I smelled heat, fuel, burnt meat, and singed hair. I hoped none of it was mine. Screams reached us from all corners of the room, and I tried again not to think about what it was we were doing or how we would ever get out of this mess alive.

Havek must have seen the doubt on my face. "You're doing great!" he yelled. I looked at him like he had grown another horn in the middle of his handsome face. "I mean it! Follow my lead. We're going to go left, and you're going to shoot through three walls in a row and keep running!"

I would most certainly not shoot through three walls in a row. "Ready?" he shouted. Absolutely not . "Go!" I ran to the left, pumped, and shot three times without waiting for the walls to disintegrate between shots, hoping beyond hope the gun would keep working how it was supposed to.

Havek whooped and took my hand, running with me straight ahead, then veering off to the right. "One more shot, dead ahead, and we're outta here!" I gave him the shot he asked for, and just like he said, we were in the docking bay.

And there before us was a ship. Sleek and curved, it didn't look a thing like the Deathgate Express.

"What is that?" I gasped.

Havek grinned. "The warden's personal star runner. He won't need it."

As we approached, a frog-looking thing skittered out from under the craft. "You didn't say anything about a hostage!" he oozed.

"Relax, Braadi. Plans change. Give me some cover."

Havek took the gun from my hands and pulled a greenish, glowing power cell out from one side of my vest. From the other, he pulled some wiring and threaded it through the power cell in a specific pattern.

Finally, he pulled one of the cartridges from the launching mechanism of the gun, removed the pin, and unloaded the firing switch. All of that, of course, I learned later when I asked him what he was doing, and I never could figure out what it meant.

"There!" He presented it proudly when he was finished. "Remote control key!"

"Havek, we need to go now."

Completely ignoring me, Havek continued chattering about his newest toy. "Now, the trick here is gonna be to not fire up everything within a ten-mile radius…"

"Havek, we need to go now! " I exclaimed, looking back at the prison.

Despite Braadi's efforts and the ongoing barrage of bombs, the guards caught up with us and took up positions, ready to fire.

"But you haven't even looked at–"

" Havek! "

"All right, all right! Keep your pants on!" He smacked me on the ass and grinned devilishly. "Or don't."

The ego on him is going to drive me insane.

He adjusted some wires on the power cell and pressed the firing switch, opening the bay doors to the star runner. "All aboard!" he called.

Closing the airlock with his remote control, he adjusted more wires, pressing the button again, and activating the shields.

"That oughta hold ‘em while we get in the air." His cavalier attitude made me smile completely against my will.

I never met a person like this, one who came alive under the pressure of bombs and gunfire.

"Boss, I thought you said not to bring anything extra!" Braadi arrived to ruin my train of thought.

"I did." Havek crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow in a look that begged Braadi to make his point.

"So should I toss the hostage? We don't need her anymore."

Havek seemed to consider his suggestion, and I looked at him wide-eyed. I honestly wasn't sure what he was about to say or do, and that was not a position I relished.

"No. We'll keep her."

I almost sighed with relief.

" We? " Braadi repeated, an unsavory look of excitement curling on his loathsome face.

" I, " Havek corrected. " I will keep her."

"Why?" Braadi whined.

Havek pulled me close with an expression of authoritative challenge. Holding me tightly by the waist, he stared Braadi down and, in a voice that made my insides melt, stated, "Because she's mine ."

It is real.