Page 113 of Uprising

We walk through the house. It’s completely empty. Deserted. As if everyone has already abandoned it.

And that gets my nerves up.

Because what if Darius has fled? What if he’s taken Rose with him? Taken her and gone to ground.

If he has it could take months to figure out where the fuck he is and even longer to get Rose out.

“In here.” Someone yells.

I pick up speed, gun still in my hand, and sprint through the rooms. There’s a massive TV still on, flashing images of the riots, images of this house now with it’s gates half hanging off from where a vehicle drove into them at force, but what it keeps returning to is the image of Otto.

Of him hanging there.

Dead.

I wasn’t the one to do it though I wish I had. I wanted to gut him and look my sister in the eyes, to tell her he was dead by my hands, only I won’t get the honour now.

Because Koen did it.

He took three men with him. Three assassins. Together they stalked the streets and, right when the new stations were spreading fake news about how the militia were back in control, they made their move. They got Otto. They butchered him.

And they made sure everyone saw the results of it by hanging him from the Courts of Justice, right where everyone could see him.

I pause as I reach the room. As I see the men stood outside waiting for my reaction. I can see the body beyond, I can see the pool of congealed blood around it.

“Ty.” I murmur.

So they did capture him. I let out a sigh at the knowledge. I was hoping he’d escaped. I was hoping that somehow he had gotten away.

I walk up to where he’s slumped in a chair. He looks like he took a beating, like Otto and Darius made sure he suffered before they blew his brains out.

His body is cold when I touch him, telling me that he’s been dead for some time but as I drop my gaze I see it, bare footprints in the blood. Small smears too from where someone was clearly dragged away from him.

Rose.

She was here. She witnessed this.

My eyes fall on the other chair, an empty one with tape cut where wrists had been held in place. I clench my fists at the thought of her being dragged in here, forced to watch as they no doubt tortured and then executed Ty.

“Roman?” Holden says behind me.

Only we both freeze as we recognise what that sudden sound is.

“He’s got a fucking chopper.” I yell. That’s where he is. He’s fleeing as we speak and I know he has Rose, that he’s taking her hostage.

I run back through the house, smashing into someone and sending them flying, but I don’t stop to apologise. I don’t have time. The helipad is out to the side, it’s a good few minutes from the main house. My legs are killing me from the force at which I’m forcing them to go but I won’t slow down. I can’t slow down. Not now, not when I’m so close to reaching her.

As I get outside I hear all the commotion, all the noise and chaos of the riot I set in motion. The sound is deafening but above it, I can hear that hum of the rotor blades.

And then I hear gun shots. A lot of them.

I run faster, force my body on, so fearful now that I’m too late. That once again, Rose is slipping away, being stolen again right when I’m convinced this might all be over.

I shout her name. I scream it over and over until my lungs feel like they have no oxygen left.

The sound of helicopter seems to be getting dimmer, it sounds like it’s already disappearing.

I fight back the tears, fight the anger too as I make the final turn to where the damned helipad is.