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I see a flash of green light and hear Nine shout out in pain He falls down next to ht before That is the unadorian cannon
7
Bullets whistle by, exploding in the dirt all around us Ella and I take cover behind the wreckage of one of the trucks The bullets see frole Ella’s been hit The air is so thick with dust froently run my hands over her body until I feel the wet, sticky blood and find a bullet hole in her lower thigh When I touch it, she cries out in pain
I use the iven the circu to be okay Marina can help you We just need to find her’ I pick Ella up and start carefullyher with my body I almost trip over Marina and Crayton, who are huddled behind another piece of debris
‘Coet out of here!’
‘There are too many of them If we try to run now, they’ll kill us Let’s treat Ella first, then fight back,’ Crayton says
I set Ella down next to Marina She’s still wearing the dark glasses I can see her wound clearly now; her blood is flowing steadily Marina places her hands on Ella’s leg and closes her eyes Ella inhales sharply, her chest beginning to rise and fall at a rapid pace It really is aacy in action Another explosion sounds nearby and a blast of dust sweeps over us just as Ella’s wound contracts, pushing the bullet out of her flesh The gash turns from black and red back to the color of her pearly-white skin An outline of a small bone shifts just below the surface of her skin and Ella’s body slowly begins to relax I rest my hand on Marina’s shoulder, relieved, and say, ‘That was incredible, Marina’
‘Thanks It was pretty cool, wasn’t it?’ Marina removes her hands froives her a hug
A helicopter roars overhead and decimates two trucks with a spray of bullets A chunk oftruck door, the red nuht of it fills ht back
‘Noe adorians?’ Marina asks, clicking the lock of her Chest shut
Crayton looks over the top of the debris heap we’ve been hiding behind, and ducks back down to report ‘It’s not the Mogs But there are a lot of theht here, but it would be better to take it to the mountains Whoever they are, if they aren’t here to attack us but are battling Commander Sharma, I see no reason to reveal your powers’
An explosion behind us pushes another cloud of dirt our way, and I watch the helicopter circle back around and head straight for us Marina and I look at each other and we can tell we’re both thinking the sa There’s no way to honor Crayton’s request that we not use our Legacies and do e need to do She takes control of the helicopter and reverses its flight path Its passengers will never understand what happened but we know it’s out of our way And regardless of who’s inside, we don’t want anyone to be in danger’s path unnecessarily Ella and I cheer with relief as atch the spinning blades disappear into the distance while Crayton watches with a frown Then Commander Sharma dives behind our cover
‘Thank God, you’re alive,’ he says I’ht he was killed when that first rocket struck Blood trickles fros aardly at his side
‘I’ at him
He shakes his head ‘Those are soldiers of the Lord’s Resistance Front They are ere trying to avoid’
‘What do they want?’ I ask
Co me in the eyes ‘To kill Vishnu And destroy all of his friends Like you More are on their way’
Istance and carefully peer over the deade of heavily ar towards us, several helicopters hovering above the line of the trucks and jeeps, and seconds later I hear the bullets zip past us
‘Let’s go kick some ass,’ I say
‘It’s not possible to defeat theun with his good hand ‘NoWe round if ant a chance to survive this’
‘Just let me handle it,’ I say
‘Wait, Six,’ Crayton says, scooping up Marina’s Chest ‘He’s right The ive us le one of theood for us We don’t need the Mogs picking up on this right now’
Marina puts her hand on ht We need to be smart Let’s not draw more attention to ourselves than we have to’
‘The Mogs?’ Commander Sharma asks, confused We’ll need to be more careful around hi helicopters zip in with their guns blazing Several of the commander’s soldiers are mowed down, their weapons blown to useless shards ofto run, it’s now or never I use my telekinesis to pull on the tail of one of the helicopters, tipping the nose down It looks like a rodeo horse trying to buck its rider as the pilot struggles furiously to level the copter out We watch the pilot give a particularly hard yank to the joystick and two h in the air, so the fall shouldn’t injure them – much
I look over at our fleet of stalled SUV s and see sine is still running! I shout, ‘Let’s go! Now!’
Everyone rushes from behind the cover; Co ade is less than a hundred yards away As we run I feel a bullet zip through h ht next toto my injury as we run All but one of the commander’s soldiers follows his orders to retreat That lone soldier follows the coet inside – the four of us, plus Coas and whips us onto the road Bullets tear through the tail end of our truck, shattering the back windshield, but we’re able to maneuver around a sunfire