Behind Our Walls (21 page)

"What the hell are you doing?" she screamed at him.

"I need you to focus! Are you with me?" The others around him looked like they were bracing themselves for Sophie to jump up and gouge his eyes out. She was surprised though, to find that her mind was slowing and clarifying. The rovers had gotten into the building. Gunshots. She could hear screams and heavy footfalls as people ran around above them. People that needed her help.

"We need to get into this," Clive said. She realized that he held out another pistol for her. She shook her head as her mind started to drift again and took it. "The safety's off and you've got a round chambered," he said as he turned and headed for the door.

Sophie followed, along with three others into the hallway. Seeing no one, they headed for the stairs to the main level. She had no idea what she should have been expecting to happen, but whatever this was, it had begun.

-48-

Lot and Meredith leaned up against the food cart. It looked like there were twenty rovers making their way towards them, but there had to be more than what he saw. The last few minutes still replayed in his head like some kind of black and white footage. He had heard a strange noise coming from gate 29, out on the field near the press boxes. Before he could investigate, a huge group of rovers flooded through, from the inside of the building. Once they got onto the concrete walkway that circled the entire field, they did exactly what Lot would have done if he had been in charge. They split up and charged off in both directions. Everyone in the stadium was now going to be waging a war on two separate fronts.

Lot was proud of how well their people had responded, but he counted at least eight dead on the ground from the fifteen they originally had. He was pinned down with Meredith and could see four others huddled in a small alcove against the wall. They were stuck in the worst possible situation, and blind to how many of the rovers were left or how close they were.

The shots bounced off the cart and the walls around them, but despite having them all trapped, the rovers seemed to be taking their sweet time conducting their advance. Meredith looked at Lot with an expression communicating that she clearly had no idea what to do. He looked around for anything that they might be able to use to slow them down, if not stop them completely.

He grabbed Meredith's arm to get her attention and began thinking out loud. "Look, we need to try and use the building to our advantage, do the same thing they're doing. This corridor wraps all around the stadium but we can duck through any of these gates and get out onto the field. If we can do it without them noticing, maybe we can keep out of sight and when they run past—"

"We can get in behind them," Meredith finished his thought, wincing and leaning forward as a bullet winged close to her. "So how the Christ do we do that?"

His eyes fell on the cart and a thought raced through his head. He reached behind them and slid open the back panel, revealing the propane tank within. Meredith watched as he reached in, unscrewed the connecting hose and hefted it, judging what was left inside. It had been sitting dormant for so long, he had no idea if it would even be reactive anymore but it wasn't like they had many options left. He handed the canister to Meredith but she recoiled as if it was already on fire.

"I don't want it!"

"Meri, are you a good enough shot? Because if you are, I'll throw it."

She shook her head, still reluctant as she reached out to take the tank.

"You don't have to get it airborne," Lot said. "It's a straight shot, just roll it. And make sure you put enough juice on it. Wait until I say so."

She nodded and he rocked back on his heels, clenching and un-clenching his muscles as he tried to work some blood flow back into his legs. He waited for a pause in the shooting and stood up, opening fire as he did so.

"Now!" he yelled and noticed with some satisfaction that a few of his shots were actually hitting their marks, taking down more of their numbers. As the firing recommenced, he ducked back down behind the cart. He dropped down onto his belly, taking aim and when he thought the canister was close enough, he squeezed the trigger.

The sound of the explosion made his ears bulge, the heat wave strong enough to roll over them, even at that distance. Lot ejected the magazine from his gun and inserted another. Waving to get the attention of the other four, he pointed at the nearest archway.

"Get through there now, out through the gate!" he yelled at them as they passed, keeping low.

The rovers hadn't resumed firing, and he could hear their screams after being struck by the brunt of the explosion. He stood and took aim, waiting for the smoke to clear and for targets to clarify in his field. There were seven people that he could now see, staggering around and waving their hands through the thickening smoke. He let his breath out, moving from left to right, always shooting for center mass. His instructor's voice still rung in his ears whenever he fired a weapon.
Bigger targets ladies. That's what you want. Behind the chest is the lungs, the heart, the spine. Hit any of those and your target is down for good.
He managed to hit three before the other four realized where the shots were coming from. He dropped all of them before they could get more than a shot off.

Just as he turned away, a stray shot slammed into his shoulder. Lot grunted, felt himself spinning away from the rovers and fell to one knee. The firing from their automatic weapons resumed and he grabbed Meredith, pulling her towards the archway. He had taken out a large amount of their group, but even if there was only a handful of them left, their automatic weapons would make them too much to handle.

"That was great," Meredith said as they crouched down with the wall behind them. "You got any more ideas?"

Lot hefted the Ruger in his hand, feeling pain sear down his arm from his shoulder as he did so. "No idea," he said. "Just stay low and out of sight. Hopefully, they think we're just running away."

He crouched down and leaned back against the wall, trying to ignore the pain from his shoulder. If they were lucky, the rovers would advance without knowing that they had ducked in here. There wasn't much chance of this actually working, but they had reached the point where even shitty odds were the only ones left.

-49-

Sophie gripped the gun and eased out into the main corridor, down from the food court. The sound of gunfire echoed all around them and just around the bend, she could make out their people, running and trying to find whatever cover they could. She grabbed the arm of one of the men as they passed.

"David," she said. "Those stairs lead up to the luxury suite level. Go up there and bring back as many people as you can, get them anything they can use as a weapon and get back down here."

He nodded and ran off. Clive looked over his shoulder at her and she shrugged.

"At this point, we need anything we can get. We outnumber them, we need to be taking advantage of that." She ran with Clive, keeping low and ducked down behind several vending machines that had been tipped down to use as barriers. The kid who was there looked maybe twenty, and from the expression on his face, he looked like he was about to lose it.

"What's going on?" Sophie asked. It was a stupid question but she needed to offer something to distract him.

"They got in somehow, I don't—" The kid's voice started to rise to the level of a shriek and Sophie put out her hand to stop him.

"Calm down. How many of them are there?"

He nodded and blinked several times, wiping the sweat out of his eyes and sweeping his hair back from his face before answering. "I have no idea. There were too many for us to count. At least twenty, and they've got automatic rifles. But so far they've just been shooting up the corridor, like they aren't even trying to hit us."

Sophie nodded as the bullets whizzed over their heads. Even though they had more people, with only a handful of guns and a lot of clubs, they would likely just end up getting cut down by the advancing force.

"What about over that way?" Sophie nodded behind them.

"We don't know. We figure they must have split up, so they're coming at us from both directions."

"Our people?"

"Five or six killed. A few more hurt."

"Do you think they're just trying to—" Sophie was interrupted by the sound of an explosion from the other side of the stadium where Lot and Meredith had been stationed. If there was another group of rovers trying to break through, they could be in a lot of trouble.

"They're trying to stall us!" Clive yelled out, evidently having the same thought. "They're trying to pin us down until the rest of them can get around from the other side and get us in a crossfire."

"So what do we do?"

"We need to get out of this corridor, there's no point in defending the gates anymore. They're already inside."

It still didn't answer the question of where they were going to go. They needed the reinforcements from upstairs but Sophie was skeptical that they would be able to help.

"Is that thing working?" Clive asked. The kid nodded and practically threw his radio at him. Clive thumbed the switch and spoke into it.

"Is this the south gate?"

"Yeah, what's going on?"

"Are you guys under attack?"

"No. We can hear shots coming from both directions but that's it."

"Okay, I need you to make your way over to us at the main gate. We're under fire, so be careful how close you get. We need you to lay down some cover so we can get out of here."

"Okay. Headed to you."

"Are there still some smoke flares in the bag there?" Clive asked.

"I think so."

"Toss a few of them down the corridor."

Sophie pulled the pins and rolled them towards the rovers. Several shots rang out as the purple smoke began to billow up out of the cans.

The voice came crackling through the radio. "
We're in position, I hope that was you that dropped that smoke bomb."

"It was," Sophie called out.

"
Make your way towards us but keep single file along the outer wall. Keep as low as possible."

"Stay low!" Clive yelled at them. "Follow me."

They moved across the corridor towards the wall and began crawling as gunfire erupted above them. There was sporadic returning fire from the other side, but not as much as she had been expecting. She looked ahead, and saw that people from the upper level had come down and were milling around the bottom of the stairs. Her heart froze at the sight of Corrine, charging down the stairs with a crazed, determined look on her face. Sophie reached out and started to stand but realized that there was nothing she could do and no way Corrine would hear.

It all happened in slow motion. Corrine shoved someone to the side and started to make her way out towards the corridor, just as gunfire from the rovers started to pick up. Heedless, Corrine moved to put herself into danger when someone reached out and grabbed her, pulling her back towards the stairs. Sophie saw Corrine's legs kicking back and forth in protest as she was lifted off the ground. The concrete of the wall exploded under a flurry of gunfire, where Corrine had been just a moment ago. Sophie let out a small sigh of relief that someone had been able to stop her in time.

She almost didn't recognize Ricco when he set Corrine back down on the floor. From the emaciated state he had been in when she and Rowen had come across him in that luxury suite, she would have never guessed him capable of lifting more than a feather.

Now he had just saved Corrine's life.

She grunted as she ran into Clive's backside and the moment ended. He was looking into one of the gift shops to their right before turning back.

"Follow me in here. Get down and stay out of sight!" Clive ordered as he lifted the radio again. "South gate, get the hell out of there. They're going to be coming for you."

"Got it."

Sophie counted each second, hoping that everyone was getting to safety when she heard the rovers, running in pursuit of their prey. She watched the darkened shapes as they made their way past, guns up and at the ready.

"All right, everyone up," Clive said. "We need to get in behind them. This is the best chance we're going to get."

They stepped out into the corridor and David came down to join them with over a dozen other people. Corrine ran to Sophie and the two held each other fiercely before letting go. There wasn't time for anything else.

"Fall in behind us," Clive said and they began following the rovers. Sophie raised her gun and prayed that when they did catch up, they would find the enemy with their backs turned, not facing them and waiting to attack.

-50-

"How is it that none of us has a walkie?" Lot asked.

"Brad had one, but I doubt you want to go back for it," Meredith said.

"Well, we can't stay here." Lot winced again at the pain in his shoulder as he looked out over the field. There had just been a loud volley of gunfire from the other side of the stadium but there was no way to know what was going on.

"We need to get back out there," Meredith said. "If we can get in behind them, hopefully there's enough of us left that we can take them out."