As I Say

They huddled in an alley, listening to sirens wail in the background. Scott could still smell burning smoke from the explosion that had rocked the hotel just as they were ducking out the basement.

“Remember,” Carolyn said, “if you want to stay alive, you have to do exactly as I say when I say it. You listen to me, or you listen to John.”

John was crouched behind Dan, armed with a machine gun and scanning the shadows warily. Dan was clutching Carolyn’s handgun too tightly, and his face was pinched with tension, but he seemed the most calm. Clay had a death grip on one of Bob’s arms and refused to let go, which meant that Carolyn had to shield both of them at all times.

“What’s the plan?” John asked. “Combat command is down.”

“The Agency is sending in an retrieval team. We head to the rendezvous point and make sure The Carrier stays alive,” Carolyn said. She kept her voice low. Scott couldn’t help but stare at her bloodstained hands, at her casual grip on the machine gun she’d taken from one of the corpses in the hotel room.

Footsteps in the distance sounded like they were coming closer.

“Get back,” Carolyn hissed. “Scott, you stay with me.”

Bob tugged Clay backward into the alley, and John moved to guard them.

Carolyn set down the machine gun very carefully, and then she stood up. Scott rose with her, and together they crept toward the mouth of the alley.

“What’s going on?” Scott asked. Carolyn spun around and shoved him up against the wall, pressed herself against him and kissed him.

He froze, but she had one hand in his hair, and he could feel the stickiness of drying blood, and Bob was going to kill him, but then a voice broke the moment.

A uniformed man, dressed just like one of the corpses in the hotel room, spoke in rapid German. Carolyn pulled back, spoke in flawless German in reply, and the man nodded. Scott straightened up and scrubbed a hand over the back of his mouth, keeping his gaze averted while Carolyn and the soldier spoke.

Then the soldier said, in English, “You kids should get home.”

Scott nodded cautiously. “Yes, sir.”

The soldier leveled a machine gun at him. “We found one!”

Carolyn spun into action. She wrenched the gun out of his arms with a sickening crunch; she must have broken several of his fingers. A sweeping kick brought the man to the ground, and Carolyn shot him. Other soldiers must have heard his cry, and they charged up the street. Carolyn cut them down with a hail of bullets. Scott remained against the wall, hand pressed to his mouth, horrified by the utter blankness of her expression.


Deeper in the alley, someone threw up. It was probably Clay.

Carolyn set down the machine gun, stole another from a corpse. “Let’s move.”

(488 words)