Because You Exist(71)

Jo looked like an amateur as the woman walked out. She was buff. Like really buff. Almost like one of those commercials. She was wearing black leather pants and a torn shirt featuring The Runaways. Her jet back hair was cut into an actual mullet. Maybe she’d come from a Halloween party?

Hopefully.

I heard Jo gasp when the boy stumbled out.

There he was. Her twin. It was a little unsettling seeing so many of Jo’s features reflected back in this boy’s face. The same red hair, albeit shorter. The same eyes. The same nose. He was a little on the scrawny side. When the boy saw Jo his eyes went wide.

Did he even know he had a sister?

I reached back and took Jo’s hand into mine. I thought after a moment she’d let go but she didn’t.

“We gotta run. Now,” the boy spoke up, looking up and down the hall nervously.

“It’s—” Jo cleared her throat, perhaps a little emotional at the sight of her only family who wasn’t in the mental hospital or in jail. “It’s all right. We have friends outside. We’re going to get everyone out of this safely.”

“Not if we don’t get moving,” the woman snapped, rolling her eyes.

The boy nodded. “She’s right. You haven’t noticed all the wire?” he asked, pointing down towards the floor and then up towards the ceiling.

I looked to where he was pointing and he was right. We hadn’t noticed the wire that seemed to wrap itself around the building like ivy. “What is it?” I asked.

The boy stole a glance at his sister. “It’s explosives. The whole place is wired to go.”





Chapter 35





I felt something in my stomach drop. I clutched onto Jo’s hand. “Can’t we just cut the wire? I’d like to go through here, grab some supplies,” she asked, clutching my hand back,

Of course. It made sense. Even if we got out of here alive there was another reason to destroy the hospital. They’d take away our main source for first aid. They knew a battle was coming.

“We have no way of knowing which wires lead to an actual bomb. All this is meant to confuse us. These survivors are crazy not dumb,” replied Jo’s brother.

“Can we just start running already!” his partner yelled.

We were just about to take off when a scream made us all still.

“The little girl,” the boy whispered.

“What little girl?” Jo asked.

“They took another pair. A little girl and a lady. They put them right above us.”

“We don’t have time to save them, Ewan,” the woman said, tugging on his hand.

“We can’t just leave them,” Jo hissed, throwing the woman a look of pure disgust.

Maybe that’s what made me dark. I wanted to run too. I wanted to get Jo out of here.

Jo spun on me, taking my free hand into hers. She was holding tightly onto both of my hands now, staring straight into my eyes. I didn’t have a good feeling about this. “I need you to do something for me, Logan.”

“Don’t ask me to do this, Jo,” I begged.

“I’m gonna ask you. I have to. Get them out, Logan. Leave. Go. I’ll get the others.”

“You won’t make it,” I pleaded, pulling her closer to me, wishing the other two weren’t there.

“You don’t know that, but the longer we sit here arguing, the more likely I won’t. Please, Logan. Run.”

She looked up at me and I knew we were damned. There was no way I’d be able to convince her. So I’d do the one thing I could. I’d give her time. I turned down the hallway and started to run. “Let’s go,” I called over my shoulder to the other two who were meant to come with me.

I couldn’t bear to look back.

I ran faster than I’ve ever run. I always thought it was cool in movies when the hero ran in slow motion from the building as it exploded, but now, being in almost that exact situation, I was beginning to think anyone who put themselves in a position like that was the biggest idiot known to man.

“Where the hell is Jo?” Bentham asked panicked when we halted to a stop in front of them.

“She...she’s still in there,” I managed to choke out, putting my hands on my knees in an attempt to catch my breath.

“And you left her in there? What kind of partner are you?” he yelled, stepping up to me.

“The kind that listens,” I spat back.

“Can we stop fighting over the shiny toy and move the hell back. That building’s going to explode any moment,” Joan Jett wannabe exclaimed.

Randall grabbed Bentham by the arm and started to pull him back. “I’m sure Jo will be out any minute, but we got to get these two away from here. Otherwise, all this would have been for nothing.”