Once reaching the top and turning back to see if her friend was following behind her, Aurora felt a sting upon her right shoulder like that of a wasp. The bullet ever so slightly grazed her before striking the wall behind her. The strike upon her skin made the young woman wince by its sheer velocity more so than any pain it bestowed. Glaring in the direction from where the hyper sonic projectile came from, she saw Crow aiming his Colt her way.
"You son of a bitch!" she cried drawing her gun and pulling back on the trigger. Her aim ever so slightly off by the grazing bullet gave Crow another chance at firing once more. Dropping to her knees to dodge the two rounds squeezed off by the man in red and blue flannel, she again drew his fire backing him off for the moment as she could hear the sound of two more shotgun blasts from below. Inspecting her wound, she saw the bleeding was little and pain was a non-issue at the moment due to her high pulse rate and surge of adrenalin. Her attention was once again drawn to the friend she left one flight down. With a muffled cry she called to him.
"Stryker…..Stryker…...please Matt answer me!" she choked out fearing the worse.
"I'm here, I'm ok," a voice said from the lower plain as she saw a figure emerge from the depths. "I'm good…..miss me?" he said with a smile as she threw herself into him, melting into his jacket. "Thought I was done, did ya?" he added as she pulled from his embrace.
"No, I just didn't want to be left here all alone," she said covering her eyes trying to hide the moisture in her eyes.
"Yeah sure…..okay," he added reaching his hand to her shoulder. "What happened, was this downstairs?"
"No, Crow took a few pot shots at me up here."
"And what about the girl…..Jodi?"
"I don't know," she said looking about for the other female. "She's most likely dead if he turned on her too."
"Come on let's go," he said leading the way.
"What about that monster downstairs, did you kill him?"
"No, he moved off under fire giving me time to run up the steps."
"You know what all that gun play is going to do?"
"Yeah, bring cops all up in our asses.
"I couldn't have said it better myself," Aurora said as the two moved on.
The pair didn't get far before they found Jodi on her back clutching her gut with one hand and trying to hold her weapon with the other. "The bastard shot me," she said looking up at the couple. "I guess I'm out of the game," she said trying to form a smile. Kneeling beside her, Aurora took the girls hand away from her belly to confirm how badly she was hit. The wound was on her left side and the blood was seeping out at a slow but steady pace.