Chapter 70
AVA - LIVES I TOOK
I didn’t stop running.
Branches clawed at my arms, thorns biting through skin, but I didn’t feel it. Not really. I just knew I had to move. Faster. Farther. Away.
The trees swallowed me whole, the smoke still clinging to my back like it was trying to drag me home.
My chest ached, lungs burning from the fire, from panic, from too many minutes without air.
My vision tunnelled, every sound too loud, every crunch of underbrush a warning.
.. a threat, every whisper of leaves a breath behind me.
I didn’t know where I was going.
Only where I couldn’t go back to.
A gunshot cracked through the woods.
I didn't know who it belonged to, only that it wasn't mine.
Was Gray ok?
Had Harlan made it back?
I didn't know.
Just that the gunshots felt like more than a threat.
They were closer.
My legs felt like Jello below me... like if I tried to regain control, it would be over.
I felt something dripping down my hairline, and I prayed it was sweat and not blood.
Another shot rang out.
I jolted at the closeness, and then I pitched forward.
I hit the ground hard, tucked behind a fallen log, my hands shaking as I curled around the gun still clenched in my grip.
God, I still had the gun.
Another shot. Closer. Footsteps now. More than one. Male voices, swearing. Laughing.
No... please no.
They were hunting.
They were enjoying it.
And then, another sound. Closer. Harsher.
Gray’s voice.
“Come on then! Let’s see what you’ve got!”
Oh god, what was happening?
I dared to look.
Through the trees, maybe thirty feet out, I saw him. Bleeding. Staggering. But still fighting. He had one man down. Another lunging. A third coming up behind.
“Gray!” I cried out before I could stop myself.
Too loud. Too raw.
One of them turned.
He saw me.
He fucking laughed.
I raised the gun, too slow, too unsure, and I saw it happen in real time. He gave me a cocky grin. Started toward me.
“Run, Ava!” Gray shouted, but it was too late. The man was almost on me.
I aimed.
My hands shook.
Point, breathe and shoot, I told myself. Like Gray had said. Like I repeated to myself when I was trapped and alone.
But I wasn’t alone anymore, and it wasn't just my life on the line.
It was Gray and I against them.
And the man with his eyes on me... he wouldn't stop.
He was coming closer.
Grinning.
Raising his gun.
BANG.
The shot cracked the air open like a thunderclap. He jerked. Stumbled.
Then locked eyes with me.
And something happened in those seconds that I’ll never forget, not for the rest of my life.
Oh... God... no... please.
I saw it.
The moment it left him.
That spark.
That flicker.
Gone.
He hit the ground hard and didn’t move again.
His body sprawled on his side, his eyes wide open, locked on mine.
I did this. I ended him... took his life.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t blink.
I just… stared.
At him.
At what I’d done.
I’d taken a life.
His.
No...no....
I felt it lodge inside me like a shard of ice.
I didn't hear anything after that.
It was like my hearing was taken from me. Like I was locked in a tunnel of pain and fear with the man I had killed.
Gray’s hand was suddenly on my shoulder. His voice was low, fierce, and alive.
“You break later,” he said. “Grieve later.”
He knelt, checked the man’s pulse, then turned back to me. “Right now, you live.”
I shook my head, barely able to speak. “I... I didn’t mean...”
“You did what you had to do.”
“I killed him, Gray.”
“I know. And we’ll carry that. We all do. But not here. Not now. It was him or you, Ava. You made the only choice that ended with you living.”
He looked back toward the smoke, thick, black, still rising.
“They’re not all dead,” he said. “We don’t have long.”
He grabbed my face with both hands, blood on his fingers. “Run toward the road. Keep the smoke at your back. Do not stop. I’ll draw the rest away.”
“No.... please...” I grabbed his wrist, panic rising.
“Ava, go. If they find you before help gets here, that death will mean nothing. This isn't the end for you... I promise.”
We stared at each other for what felt like forever, and then he pushed away from me, unsteady in his movements and said... "Go, Ava... run. I have you."
I wanted to say more. Wanted to scream. Beg. Plead.
But I didn’t.
I listened.
I ran.
The woods blurred again. My legs moved without thinking, my body a machine running on fumes and primal instinct.
And behind me…
Gray’s voice.
Another shout.
Gunfire.
And a piece of me breaking in ways I wouldn’t understand, not till much later... when it mattered.
Because I’d never forgotten that man’s eyes.
Never forget the lives I took.
Or the price I paid to survive.