Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Alicia realized the same thing at the same time and turned to me, her face falling. Then she saw the expression on my face. “Wait,” she said. “No! Don’t!”
I ignored her, opened the door to the drug lock-up and pushed her inside. Then I slammed the door, locked it and slid the key under the door to her.
“Olivia!” she yelled, and banged on the door. “No!”
I turned to the infirmary door just as the rioters arrived. I screamed as they threw themselves against the door, rattling the handle. Faces pressed against the window, spittle spattering the glass as they yelled obscenities at me. Oh God, there were so many of them. I started to panic-breathe. The door will hold, right? The door will hold.
One of them rammed a fire extinguisher against the door, trying to batter it open, but the lock held. But then he thought to try the door’s window. On the first hit, the reinforced glass spiderwebbed, but held. Another hit and it began to cave inwards. I went cold with fear. Oh Jesus.
Another hit. The crowd whooped. I pulled open a supply drawer, and with shaking hands, I grabbed a scalpel.
Another hit. The glass was almost out of its frame now. I backed away from the door, but stayed between it and the drug lock-up. Whatever happened, I had to keep them away from Alicia. I looked at the scalpel in my hand, trying to imagine stabbing it into someone.
The fire extinguisher slammed against the glass a final time and it fell from its frame. Instantly, arms reached through the hole, searching for the lock. Please, no—
The lock opened and the men surged into the room. I slashed the air with the scalpel, keeping them at bay for a few seconds, but there were too many of them: one got behind me and suddenly I was grabbed and lifted almost off my feet, an arm wrapped around my waist and another around my neck. The scalpel was pulled from my grasp.
Packard stormed in. “Get the drugs!” he yelled. Two of them started trying to force open the door to the drug lock-up, but as I’d hoped, it held. And Alicia was smart enough to stay silent: they didn’t know she was in there.
Packard turned to me. “Where’s the key?” he roared. He was amped up on adrenaline and he looked to be high, too, a dangerous combination.
I swallowed. “I threw it down the drain,” I lied, nodding to the drain cover in the corner of the room.
Packard’s face twisted in rage and his hand cracked across my cheek. My head snapped to the side and the room spun and swam. “Bitch!” he yelled.
“Fuck the drugs,” said the man behind me. “We can have some fun with her.” His groin was pressed against my ass and I could feel him getting hard. Oh God, no…
That’s when I saw Gabriel.
He was stalking through the crowd towards me, his head lowered and his eyes flashing with rage. He barely seemed to see the other men, he just stared straight ahead, right into my eyes, and flung aside whoever got in his way. His hair was damp with sweat and his jumpsuit was torn and spattered with blood but he was coming, and no one was going to stop him.
Three of Packard’s men ran at Gabriel and my chest contracted in fear. But Gabriel moved so fast I could barely follow it: a knee to the groin, an elbow to the face, a kick to the back of the leg…it was brutal and efficient, unlike anything I’d ever seen, and the men crumpled and fell.
Packard roared and ran at Gabriel, fists swinging. He was huge: there was no way Gabriel could win in a fair fight.
But Gabriel wasn’t interested in fighting fair. He grabbed the discarded fire extinguisher and swung it in an arc that connected with the side of Packard’s head. Packard crashed to the floor, out cold.
The man who’d been holding me let go and tried to run. Gabriel grabbed him and flung him against the wall and he collapsed, groaning. The other men backed away from us, terrified.
Then Gabriel’s hands were gently cupping my cheek. Some of my hair had escaped its bun and he pushed a lock of it back from my face, his eyes locked on mine. “Are you okay?” he asked breathlessly. “Are you hurt?”
I was too overcome with emotion to manage words. I shook my head. With their leader gone, the rioters pulled back from the infirmary and the noise of the crowd faded away. For a few moments, Gabriel and I just stood like that, staring silently into each other’s eyes. As the adrenaline drained out of me, my legs went shaky with fear and I had to grip his shoulders to keep from falling. He hooked an arm around my waist, supporting me.