57. We Jump
FIFTY-SEVEN
WE JUMP
Jack
D arkness.
Endless darkness.
Wasn’t death supposed to feel peaceful?
Because this felt the opposite. It was hollow, and painful, and lonely.
I tried to let go of those feelings. To float away. To seek out that bright light people always talked about when they had a near-death experience.
Don’t you fucking dare , the monster snarled, holding me back. She’s coming for us.
But we’re dead , I replied dreamily.
We are definitely not.
“Jack!”
The voice sounded faint. Like I was hearing it through a very long tunnel.
See? I told the monster. She’s calling us on to whatever comes after life.
She’s calling us back, you fool!
Then there was crying, and moaning, and other words that sounded like a plea … but I couldn’t be sure because everything was garbled. But it sounded closer, and sharper …
The weight on my head disappeared.
Was that …?
I can see the light! I told the monster.
You fucking idiot. She’s digging us out.
Suddenly my chest didn’t have a heavy weight on it. Pain shot back into me, and I sucked in a ragged gasp of air.
“Jack?”
I blinked. Or at least I tried really fucking hard to blink. But my eyes felt stuck shut.
“There’s a lot of blood, Jack. Please … don’t die on me!”
“I thought I had,” I rasped. “Are you an angel?”
Seven’s watery laugh sounded more like a sob, and then there were featherlight, slightly damp touches to my face.
Kisses. She was kissing my filthy, bloody face.
I’d never wished to kiss her back more than I did right that second.
“Can you open your eyes?” she asked me gently, fingers tentative on my tender jaw.
“They feel like they’re stuck shut.”
“They’re swollen shut, brave boy.”
Brave boy … I shouldn’t like that … but I do … the monster mused.
Another rumble, and the shit that was piled on top of me shifted again. My legs suddenly hurt like a fucking bitch.
“Your legs ... Jack … can you move your legs?”
I wriggled my toes. “Fuck that hurts!” I snarled, but I bent my knees, hissing.
Seven’s hands fluttered over my legs. “Are you … I can’t see any breaks, will you … Jack, we need to get out of here … fast.”
Her voice was nervous, accompanied by an ominous groaning sound from everywhere around us.
I gritted my teeth, swinging my body in what I hoped was up and not down. Vague, blurry shapes were visible through the slits of my eyes now … hopefully that was a good sign.
“It’s just pins and needles, Blossom,” I lied.
More like fucking swords and knives , the monster grated. I ignored him.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
S even was definitely in no better shape than I was. But still, she propped herself under my arm and helped me and my fucking uncooperative legs to slither our way through the mess of concrete and rebar and glass and wires and shit.
My eyes were improving. I just wished they’d heal a bit fucking faster, so I could see her. So I could look her over, and make sure she was okay, the way she’d done for me.
I could tell there were lights flickering in the passageways we stumbled our way through. I could tell that there was a fucking shitload of the building littering the ground because Seven kept stopping us, diverting us. Or telling me that I needed to climb, to lift my feet.
This went on for what felt like fucking forever
“You do know the way out of here, don’t you, Seven?” I asked jokingly.
The silence that met my words did not fill me with confidence.
“I have a … vague idea,” she mumbled, dragging us forwards, then taking a right turn.
“I can feel air!” I cried, the cold of it biting into me through my clothes.
BOOM!
An explosion rocked Taiga, so violent it threw us to the floor. My breath whooshed out of my lungs as Seven landed on top of me. I wrapped my arms around her, rolling us, shielding her with my broken body as best I could as the ceiling rained down around us.
“Get up, quickly!” a voice snapped. I squinted in the direction of the blur with the familiar British accent.
“Farida!” I shouted over the ringing in my ears. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Making sure no one gets left behind!” she retorted as if I was a complete idiot. “Now hurry, or we’ll all be buried when this place comes down!”
I fucking hate her, the monster grumbled. But you’ve got to admit, she’s got some spunk.
Seven’s weight disappeared off me, and I lurched to my knees, shaking my head at the blurry hand that appeared. I was doing this on my own.
“Males,” Farida muttered, but the hand disappeared, and I bit the inside of my cheek so they wouldn’t hear a single sound of pain as I staggered upright, using the wall to support my fucked legs.
You are fooling literally no one , the monster muttered.
You know, I feel so much fucking better about myself when you let me pretend, I retorted.
“If you’re quite done,” Farida snarked. I turned to the black-haired blob in front of me.
“Ready for anything!” I said, reaching in what I hoped was the direction of Seven.
A warm hand grasped mine, a thumb caressing my palm. Together, we limped after Farida.
“ Y ou said you were ready for anything,” Farida argued.
Seven’s gust of furious breath was enough to tell me that the fresh air blowing against my bruised, swollen skin wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“You can’t be serious! That’s … a hundred feet down!” Seven blasted.
“Into a river!” Farida countered. “Look, ideally Jack would shift, and he’d fly you down. But he’s in absolutely no state for that right now. The water will break your fall.”
“Wait … what?” I asked, leaning into the breeze as if I could see anything through my stupid bloated eyelids.
Seven dragged me back roughly.
“You will fall!” she hissed.
“A hundred feet into a river … yeah, I heard that part.”
“Stay here,” she commanded. “I’ll … I’ll find us another way.”
“There is no other way. All passages to the ground are collapsed. We must do this now … I cannot hold the final blast back any longer,” Farida muttered. My bones turned to ice.
“You … that’s been you? Like … not dynamite?”
“We jump. Now.” Farida said, the finality in her words not doing much for the cold seeping out from the inside of me.
“He’ll die!” Seven snarled. “He’s not immortal yet!”
There was a moment, a silence that had my stomach creeping its way into my throat.
“Isn’t he?” Farida asked softly. Her blur moved closer to me. A cool featherlight touch slid across my temple, lifting my hair. I winced at the sharp pain.
An uneven gasp tore out of Seven.
“Wait,” I protested. “Are you saying … am I—”
“We jump,” Farida interrupted.
“O-okay,” Seven stammered. Her hand gripped mine. Her fingers were slick with sweat.
“Am I going to survive this?” I asked her in a rough whisper.
“I hope so … just don’t let go of me, Jack,” she pleaded quietly.
I brushed my thumb over the back of her hand.
“I’ll always hold onto you, Blossom.”
With a little, hiccupping sob, she helped me step forwards, my toes curling over a jagged edge.
“On three,” she muttered. “One … two …”
The building exploded, flinging us into nothingness.
We tumbled. Air whistled past us, cold, but also burning as we plummeted. I squeezed her hand tight. She squeezed mine back.
And then we hit water that felt like concrete. I gasped, plunging underwater, sucking it into my lungs.
My hand was ripped from hers.
And then there was blackness again.