Page 45 of Chained

"I'm Coal," he smiled briefly.

"Maya."

"We need to move." He pushed himself up so he was straddling me and offered me his hand.

I took it and he pulled me to my feet. For a moment I didn't let go and he smiled again in amusement as I blushed. More shots were fired in the other trench and I was wrenched back to reality.

"Taylor-" I looked back up to the ridge, suddenly panicked. "Did you see...?"

"The boy you were with? He went down," Coal said as he started to move away along the trench.

"No," I gasped as I started scrabbling to get back up the bank.

He grabbed my arm and turned me back to face him.

"We don't have time. I have to get out of here - you should come with me if you don't want to die." He pulled on my arm again but I jerked it back, trying to shake off his grasp which was annoyingly strong.

"I'm not leaving him!" I yelled.

A strange look passed over Coal's face but he sighed.

"No promises." He cupped his hands together to give me a boost back up the bank. "Stay low to the ground up there," he warned and hoisted me up.

I leaned back over the edge to offer him a hand as he took a running jump and scrambled up the bank, ignoring me.

We crept across the ground towards Taylor's prone form. My heart was thumping in my throat. It seemed to take an age to reach him, staying flat to the ground and using our elbows to propel us along.

We reached Taylor, who was sprawled in the mud, and I let out a huge breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding. He was breathing. Coal moved to check Taylor over and discovered a deep scratch along his temple.

"Bullet grazed him, but he's fine, just knocked out," Coal reported.

Laurie was running towards us, a pistol held ready to fire in each hand.

"Are you okay?" she panted as she came to a stop and crouched down next to us.

"Taylor's unconscious," I told her.

The sounds of fighting from the trench to our right paused and a shout went up.

"We got 'em on the run boys! Let's take out the stragglers!" It was followed by whoops and cheers which multiplied quickly in the trench on our left too. We crouched where we were, surrounded.

"Laurie? What do we do?" I asked in a pleading whisper, hoping she had some miracle way to get us out of this mess.

"I'll call for back up," she replied as she holstered one pistol and pulled out a walkie talkie. "Warden two-five-five-three-seven calling for reinforcements."

Coal was looking worriedly at Laurie. "I need to go," he whispered to me.

For the first time, I noticed his outfit. He had a lot of guns and knives, more than anyone else I had seen during the battle. They were strapped to every available space on his body, it was a miracle I hadn't been impaled when he tackled me. He wasn't wearing any camouflage either, just a plain black shirt and pants, unlike anything I'd seen in SubWar before.

"Warden two-five-five-three-seven requesting immediate back up," Laurie repeated, looking anxious. She hit a display panel on the front of the walkie-talkie and frowned at it. "It says that my messages are being received, why aren't they responding?"

"We're being surrounded," Coal cut in. "Are you coming?" He looked about ready to bolt.

"Can you help him?" I asked desperately.

Coal started to shake his head and then looked at me. I bit my lip and looked back steadily, just hoping that he would.

"Dammit," he muttered. "I can get you out of here, but you have to trust me." He looked at Laurie like he distinctly didn't trust her but didn't say anything more.