Chapter 9 - The Last Stand
The courtyard was a kill zone.
Snipers were on the roof,
and a line of armored vehicles blocked the exit.
“Stay low!”
I shouted over the roar of the wind.
We used the parked cars for cover,
moving toward the gatehouse.
Phantom was a shadow,
darting between the wheels,
keeping the guards distracted.
I saw a sniper’s nest on the west tower.
I took a steady breath and fired my rifle.
The man tumbled over the railing.
“One down,”
I muttered.
Mara was firing with a cold,
calculated precision.
She didn't miss.
It was terrifying to see how they had changed her.
But then,
we were all changed.
“We need to get to the SUV!”
I shouted.
We made a break for it.
The air was thick with lead.
I felt a sharp pain in my side,
but I kept moving.
We reached the car,
and I threw Mara into the back.
Phantom jumped in after her.
I took the driver’s seat and slammed it into gear.
“Hold on!”
I rammed the first armored car,
the heavy steel grill of the SUV doing its job.
We spun through the gap,
the tires screaming on the icy asphalt.
“They’re following!”
Mara yelled.
Two black sedans were right on our tail.
I headed for the cliff road.
It was a dangerous path,
but I knew the turns.
The blizzard was at its peak now.
Visibility was zero.
I drove by instinct,
feeling the road beneath the wheels.
One of the sedans tried to ram us.
I hit the brakes,
letting him slide past,
then shoved him toward the edge.
The car vanished into the white void,
followed by a distant explosion as it hit the rocks below.
“The other one is still there!”
Mara cried.
I looked in the mirror.
It wasn't a sedan.
It was a heavy-duty truck.
And it had a mounted gun.
The rear window of our SUV shattered as the machine gun opened up.
“Get down!”
I yelled.
I saw the bridge ahead.
It was an old stone structure,
barely wide enough for one vehicle.
I had an idea.
“Mara,
when I say jump,
you and the dog get out!”
“What about you?”
“Just do it!”
I accelerated toward the bridge.
At the last second,
I slammed on the brakes and spun the car sideways,
blocking the entrance.
“NOW!”
Mara and Phantom rolled out into the snow.
I followed,
diving behind a stone pillar.
The enemy truck couldn't stop in time.
It slammed into our SUV with a deafening crash.
The momentum carried both vehicles toward the edge.
The truck driver tried to reverse,
but the tires just spun on the ice.
With a groan of twisting metal,
both vehicles slid off the bridge and plummeted into the sea.
Silence returned to the mountain.
I lay in the snow,
gasping for air.
My side was burning,
and my vision was blurring.
“Holden!”
Mara ran to me,
pulling me up.
Phantom stood over us,
his fur matted with ice and blood.
“I’m okay,”
I lied.
“We have to get back to Elara.”
We walked through the storm,
three ghosts in the night.
We reached the ruins an hour later.
The guards were on high alert,
but when they saw us,
they lowered their weapons.
The cellar door opened.
Elara came running out,
ignoring the cold.
“Mommy!”
The reunion was something I will never forget.
The way the child clung to her mother,
and the way the dog sat beside them,
as if he had finally completed his mission.
I sat on a stone,
watching them.
I felt the weight of the world lifting,
if only for a moment.
But I knew the Council wasn't dead.
They would come back.
They would always come back.
“We have to disappear,”
I said.
Mara looked at me,
her eyes clear for the first time.
“I know a place,”
she said.
“Our father’s old cabin in the north.
It’s not on any map.”
“The North,”
I whispered.
“The Star of the North.”
I looked at Elara.
She was the key to everything.
But to me,
May you like
she was just family.
And family is the only thing worth fighting for.
