I would like to say that’s what they did, that the cavalry came and saved the day.
Unfortunately, I’d be lying if I did.
“April, promise me you’ll run,” Clayton began, leaning down to whisper in her ear. He didn’t have much of a plan, but he knew they’d move against them again soon, taking them off to some other room or something, and that meant that he had to convince her to go along with his half-formed plan. It was really their only chance.
“What?”
“If anything happens, promise me you’ll run,” he repeated. Whatever they did, he figured he’d survive it, and if he distracted them, she could get away. Her and the baby.
“Clayton, do not do anything stupid,” she ordered, shaking her head. “Not now. We just have to… Have to hope that they show up soon and rescue us.”
“And you think that’s going to happen? Come on. You know better than that. I know better than that. There’s no rescue coming. If you get out, then you could get help, but they’re not just going to show up. They had another equipment failure or something, but no matter what the excuse is, they won’t be here in time. Please. Go. I don’t want you to… I can’t let anything happen to you.”
She grabbed hold of him. “And I can just accept something happening to you? Clayton, I am not doing this without you.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, kissing her gently on the forehead. “I can survive it. We’re mostly certain of that. You can’t. And that baby’s even more fragile than you are.”
“I am so going to hit you for that one—”
“April, damn it, I can shift out of whatever he does to me. You can’t. That’s fact. And this isn’t just about you. It’s about more than you.”
She sighed, nodding reluctantly, biting her lip. Clay knew that even if the others hadn’t heard their whispers—and honestly, they probably weren’t much in the way of whispers—they probably had a good idea what he and April were talking about. They knew he was getting ready for to make a move.
“Oh, hell, not now,” Clay muttered, shaking his hand as it started twitching.
“Are you kidding me? I know that acts up when you’re stressed, but this is a really bad time for a random shift, Clay!”
He grabbed his hand, trying to stop it. “What, you think I want to do this? This feels bad. Really bad. I haven’t had one this bad in a while…”
He moaned, dropping to the floor as the rest of it started taking over, briefly managing to catch April’s eye. She gave him a reluctant nod, and he forced himself to move through the spasms toward Kilbourne, who was in the middle of ordering everyone to contain Clay. “Get him up and into the lab.”
Clay knocked into himself into Kilbourne’s legs, making the man fire the gun wildly. About the same time, April made a move, slamming the nearest goon into one of his friends so that they both fell into the wall. Then she started running, and Clay hoped that was enough to get her out. If she was safe, then… Then he didn’t really care what happened to him.
Kilbourne looked down at Clay. “She won’t get away. My men will find her.”
Clayton shook his head. “You don’t know my wife.”
“Impressive act there.”
“Um, hello, I’m five. You honestly think I did this on purpose?”