Kale stilled immediately and allowed himself to be pinned against the wall. One of the giants buried his elbow deep into his captive’s neck. Kale’s face turned red. His eyes bulged.
Mia couldn’t believe it. The largest Myrmidon moved in to tower over Vi, though his eyes were locked on Kale’s. “Interfering with the Empire is a crime and I’m not feeling particularly patient today. If you insist on getting physical with us, I’m going to kill your sister. Then you’re next. Got it?”
Kale writhed in the much larger men’s grip. His haughty behaviour had landed him in trouble in the past, but Mia still couldn’t imagine how he had managed to get himself into such a mess.
Kale was a big man, strong as an ox, but he was helpless against the augmented Myrmidons. The giant held him by the throat and his eyes began to glaze over. The Myrmidon pressed harder until Kale’s feet lifted from the ground, his fingers desperately tugging at the man’s hands. His face took an even darker hue. Mia flinched as the second Myrmidon struck him. The sound of cracking ribs echoed through the room.
Vi shrieked. The fair-haired woman instinctively fought back, scared to death that the men would kill her brother, kicking at the man before leaping at him to dig at his eyes with her fingernails. The Myrmidon raised an arm to cover his face. When he did, Vi wriggled free of his grasp and scrambled toward her brother. As she dashed across the room she spotted Mia.
Vi stopped dead in her tracks, stood straight up and looked directly at Mia. Her panicked voice pierced the shocked silence as she screamed to her friend. “Run!” She shrieked. “They’re here for you!” Her words were cut short by the blade of the largest Myrmidon’s sword.
Mia felt her gorge begin to rise. The Myrmidon had stabbed her friend without a moment’s hesitation, his thick blade ripping through her torso to protrude from her chest. A steady stream of Vi’s blood ran from the tip, staining the floor at Mia’s feet. Behind her, the crowd screamed and ran.
Vi looked down for a moment in shock. She didn’t blink as she stared at the length of the sword sticking out of her. She looked back at Mia. Her pale lips moved as though to speak but no sound came out. Run! her mute mouth urged again before she collapsed on the floor.
Kale flailed and shoved, trying desperately to help his sister as he kicked at the guards. The massive men had no trouble controlling him. The more he struggled, the harder they pinned him to the wall. The Myrmidon hit him again. The blow was like a hammer to the head. Kale went limp. Blood streamed from his mouth, nose and eye. The man hit him once more before Kale fell to the floor.
Mia was frozen with fear and shock. There was an ugly sound as the Myrmidon slid the sword from Vi’s body. He fixed his gaze on Mia. The four Myrmidons advanced on her in unison.
Mia’s body reacted more quickly than her mind. By the time she realized she was being chased she was already in full flight, her long, dark brown ponytail trailing after her as she ran.
How? she wondered. How did they find out? Her mind flashed between the vicious attack on her friends and the men who were chasing her.
She scrambled back toward the entrance, but two more Empire men blocked her path and joined the pursuit. She turned and fled down a side hallway, dashing away from the bulky men as fast as she could.
Too late came the realization that she had taken a wrong turn; she had run deeper into the school. The only exits were behind her and the way was blocked. The sound of heavy footsteps echoed over her shoulder.
She raced to the basement stairs. There the winding, branching corridors would give her the chance to hide and regroup. At the very least, the passages were narrow enough to prevent more than two of the men from advancing on her at the same time.
She ran full out, slamming into the basement door and forcing it open. She stumbled as she took the stairs two at a time—the steps came at her faster than she could see them—somehow her legs managed to carry her forward and keep her from falling. The heavy footsteps were getting closer.
The university’s basement was a maze of aisles and storage rooms containing a mundane array of goods. She had spent a great deal of time in the quiet nooks during the past six years. There were no weapons or other items of consequence stored in the basement, but weapons wouldn’t have helped anyway. There were ample places to hide, but she knew she would eventually be found. There was no possibility of escape without confrontation. She needed to prepare.
At the bottom of the stairwell her pace quickened once her long legs had room to run with full strides. She hoped she was putting distance between herself and the Myrmidons, but her heart pounded so loudly in her ears she could no longer hear them behind her. Her eyes clouded with tears of frustration and grief as she struggled to see where she was going.
Exhausted as she was, she lost no speed as she rounded the last corner. At the end of the long, narrow hallway stood a sturdy wooden door. Beyond it was storage. A dead end.
Mia raced through the doorway and flung the door shut. The heavy oak made an impressive slam that echoed throughout the basement.
If the Myrmidons lost my trail, she thought to herself, they know where I am now.
She gasped as she pulled at a heavy shelf piled with jars and bottles. With a heave, it fell, its contents shattering and littering the floor around her. Mia flinched at the deafening racket. It worked. The door was blocked.
Her eyes darted back and forth as she walked backward, moving away from the door to the far wall of the storage room. Her slender fingers reached behind her belt and from it they plucked a small, tightly rolled tube of paper. She grabbed a box of wooden matches from a nearby shelf, tore them open and removed a single match before discarding the rest on the floor. Despite her trembling fingers, she struck the match and lit one end of the paper.
She tried to catch her breath for a few seconds. Between sobs and gasps she put the lit cigarette to her lips and inhaled the pungent red smoke that wafted up from it. The tip glowed as she inhaled. The tube burned down, leaving a slender ash in its place.
Mia closed her eyes as the smoke filled her lungs. She allowed the weight of her body to slide down the wall. Her lungs burned; she choked, holding the nasty smoke inside as best she could. When she couldn’t stand the burning in her lungs any longer, she pursed her lips and blew out a haze of swirling, ruby-tinted smoke. She panted for a few seconds, watching it curl in and out of the slivers of light interrupting the darkness.
As her breathing slowed she wiped the tears from her eyes and took another drag of the cigarette. Again and again she inhaled the red smoke, holding it in a little longer each time, only to spew it out into the confined space around her. Soon all that was left was a mess of black ashes on her chest, a small roach burning her fingers and a red haze all around her.
Mia flicked the remains across the room and slid her thin frame up the wall in one fluid motion, clenching her eyes shut. Her breathing became more controlled, more deliberate. The Myrmidons were coming. Her fear melted away, giving rise to a newfound confidence as the drug surged through her system. It made her stronger, bolder, angrier. She chuckled as she opened her eyes.
***
“What’s on the other side of this door?” one of the Myrmidons yelled back through the halls as he rattled the handle of the door Mia had barred.
“A storage room. It’s a dead end,” Lio told him, trotting to keep well ahead of the three Myrmidons trailing him,
The biggest one grabbed Lio by the collar, yanking Mia’s professor upward.
“This one may know this place and he may know the girl,” the enormous Myrmidon informed the others, “but if he keeps up the lip kill him anyway.”
“Yes sir, Adan,” one of the Myrmidons responded.
Lio shook his head. “It’s just a storage room,” he repeated.
“Unlock it!” the Myrmidon