CH4: Unlikely Allies

It’s time to move. I get up and get my gun and hurry out. I see Esme sitting and holding her head so I point my gun at her and she seems too exhausted to put up a resistance: “Just… shoot me. I don’t care anymore. Wait… oh, you got the door open?” She mutters and holds her shoulder that got shot. “Yeah, what about it?” I ask and she pouts: “You are going to shoot me anyways, so why should I tell you? Huh? You bitch! You shot all my friends! You shot Hope! Y-you…”

She looks down and feeling confident I kneel before her: “I know. I probably should shoot you. But right now… Right now I want us all out of here. Do you know some way out? Please. Esme. I saw you and Hope. I didn’t want it to come down to this. I do feel bad. I believe in Calliope’s strategy. It’s just that we heard it too late.”

Esme looks at me with a bitter face: “You saw us? … I… I told them that we should tell the others the plan first and shoot second… It’s just. They wanted to control with fear. Calliope, Sam and Lorelei… I was scared too. But I loved her, I loved Hope.” She clenches her fist and leers at me: “I hate you though, I will always hate you.” Her bottom lip is trembling and I sit calmly. “You know… I think you really want to survive, don’t you? I’m not sure why, but you really, really do. I heard what you said earlier.” I tell her and she gets an embarrassed expression. She was ready to give us anything just to let her survive, you don’t forget something like that.

“And the only way out for you now is to show us the way out, ok?” I tell her. Esmeralda calms down and says in a defeated tone: “There is a way through the closet. We found it when scouting out the way to the gym through the ventilation shafts. It takes you to the second floor bathrooms. But… Please, don’t leave me.” She looks at me and I take her hand. It feels weird after being at odds so many times, but I think at this point it’s not about sides, it’s about survival.

Faye and Vinora managed to put their dicks away too and tend to Grace while I go to the closet with Esme so she can show us the escape route. She leans over a table and starts lifting boxes out of the corner of the room and I make room so she can make the way clear. The boxes were hiding a hole in the wall big enough for a high school girl to crawl through.

“So, Esme.” I say carefully and she turns around and looks a bit grumpy still: “Why didn’t you guys explore this room when you got the chance?” The red haired girl points at the boxes: “Well, it’s not so easy to lift these up when you are down there crawling, you know? Also, we were stressed out enough about trying to find a way into the gym in those dark and tight spaces… you should know. I know you went through the one by the gym two days ago.”

It really was dark and claustrophobic, so I understand now. I suddenly hear what I didn’t want to. Laser fire. I hurry out to the doorway and see Faye and Vinora taking cover as lasers fly in through the windows. “We have to get out of here!” Vinora shouts and I see that they managed to get Grace awake and she’s pressing her hands over her hat covered head. “Grace!” I shout and she looks my way with a shy look. I don’t think it’s the time to lecture her, so I continue: “Come on, over here!”

Arleth’s aim is something else and even though we all have good cover, she still manages to hit us as we rush into the small supply closet and start entering the little tunnel. Faye goes first, then Grace who is still holding her hat on for dear life. I try to keep Arleth busy by shooting her way while Esme crawls in and Vinora also at last. I go in after her and pull a box in front of the tunnel to maybe slow Arleth down a little bit. She will find it eventually, and it’s another thing if she dares to go through it even then. But I have to do something.