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Silence hung in the air for a moment. Then Maddie spoke up, working to keep her voice steady. “I'm not. My group is here in the city. I got separated from them, but they're close by.”
The woman paused for a moment before responding. “How many?”
“Oh, come on,” a new man's voice added. “Even I can tell they're both lying.”
“How many?” the woman repeated with a lethal calm that sent a twinge of fear through her spine.
Maddie considered what would be both a believable and also terrifying number—terrifying enough that it would make them want to let her go.
She cleared her throat. “Twenty-six, including me.”
The man chuckled. “Right. Like we wouldn't have run into a group of over twenty people. That's such bullshit.”
“It's not—I'm—”
“Hey,” one of the men said, cutting in suddenly. “Four dead heads back there.”
“Remember, no guns,” the woman said. “We don't need to draw any more attention.”
Someone grumbled, then Maddie heard footsteps scraping loudly on the ground, moving farther away with each step.
“Were you military?” the woman asked.
“No,” the woman beside her answered.
“Then how’d you get your hands on all this?”
A pause. Then Maddie heard a man shout from far away.
“Shit,” the other man muttered. “More dead coming. I got it.”
Light footsteps trotted away.
“How’d you get the guns and grenades?” the woman repeated, this time with a lot less patience.
There was a long silence.So long that she almost felt the need to fill it with her own lie.
Then, suddenly, all hell broke loose.
She wasn't sure which she heard first: the faraway scream or the sudden, rapid gunfire. Then directly after that, she heard the woman beside her move, followed by a lurching grunt in front of her. And immediately after came the crack of bone she recognized from earlier that morning.
If they weren’t in the middle of a dire situation, she might have found it laughable that the sound of bones breaking was becoming familiar—something she could now recognize.
"Hey," she called out, then paused. Knowing the woman’s name would have made it much easier.
Through the barrage of continuous, somewhat far-off gunfire, she could hear the occasional grunt of fighting happening in front of her. Whatever the woman was doing, she just hoped she was winning—and that she wouldn't take too long to win.
Then she heard a sickening thud. And a few moments later, a sharp yelp echoed as someone cried out in pain.
Maddie pushed herself up quickly off her knees, orienting her cane in front of her.
What was the best option? Retrace her steps back and hide in the bathroom? That would at least keep her safe for the time being while whatever they were shooting at passed by.
Then a sharp crack broke her from her thoughts and suddenly, the fighting noises in front of her vanished. She froze, completely still, waiting for some indication of what had happened or what she should do. Then she heard another far-off scream, and the gunfire stopped.
Beyond the sound of the gunfire was a soft murmur, almost like hundreds of voices speaking in the distance.
"Get—" she heard the familiar voice, although this time it sounded strained. "Get back to the building."