NALA POV
I don’t know how it happened so fast.
One minute Ethan was standing in that corridor doing his best impression of soone who is guilty and trying to make ands next everything shifted in a way that my brain was still three seconds behind on.
I heard shouting from sowhere deeper in the building, it got louder like sothing or soone has disrupted how things were supposed to go naturally. I was still trying to wrap my head around what could possibly have gone wrong.
Then Ethan grabbed my hand.
He didn’t grab it lightly like he was asking for permission to touch , his fingers locked around my wrist like he had already made the decision for both of us and the only remaining variable was whether my feet would cooperate.
"Ethan what—"
"I told you I had a plan." He was already moving and I was moving with him because the grip left no option and also because the shouting was getting closer and closer felt bad. "I told you outside and you didn’t believe but I planned this Nala just run with ."
"You planned on being held at gunpoint?"
"I planned what ca after it now fucking run."
I ran.
The corridor was different at speed, longer and narrower and full of shadows that I had not noticed during my slower mapping walks, and Ethan moved through it like he knew it which ant he had been here longer than the few minutes since I had seen him at the entrance and I was going to need him to explain that later when we were sowhere that wasn’t this.
Behind us I could hear feet. Multiple sets and organized heavier feets, my body told before my brain confird it that Ivin’s n were behind us and they were not moving slowly.
"Left." Ethan pulled left.
"How do you know—"
"Left Nala."
I went left.
The corridor opened into a wider space and there was a door at the far end with a thin line of grey light underneath it that looked like the most beautiful thing I had seen since arriving in this building and Ethan was aiming straight for it and I was aiming with him.
Sothing moved in my peripheral vision.
I turned my head without slowing down and caught a glimpse of Ivin at the mouth of a connecting corridor but he was not running.
Ivin was standing there with his eyes on and sothing in his expression that I did not have ti to read properly at this speed. He had his hand slightly raised, I even thought he was trying to stop Ethan but I discovered almost too late that it was a signal to his n and the signal was not to shoot.
Because of . Understanding dawned on as I kept running to catch up with Ethan.
Ivin is probably playing mine tricks on .
How can you act like you hate today and then suddenly act all concerned about tomorrow?
How can you lock underground and ignore for days then still stop your n from shooting just because I could be shot?
Could this be his obsession or his weird preference for control?
I knew without being told that he’s concerned and the knowing sat strange and warm in my chest and I almost stumbled but Ethan’s grip tightened and kept upright.
"Almost there." Ethan hit the door with his shoulder and it gave and the grey light beca actual light, real outside air that was cold and sharp against my face like a reminder that the world above ground was still there and still had weather and I gasped at the feel of it without aning to.
We ran.
We kept running, Ivin n were almost on us, and even if Ivin has cautioned them not to use gun, that doesn’t an we will be safe once they get their hands on us.
But for a mont I took a deep breath and sothing loosened in at the realization that I was outside, actual ground under my feet.
I had forgotten what that felt like, the specific reality of open sky above and distance in front of and I could have cried about it at a less inconvenient ti but Ethan was pulling across what looked like a service road opposite the building we just escaped from underground.
The other side of the road was dark with no streetlights, and behind us the door we had co through was already opening again.
"Ethan they’re right behind us—"
"I know."
"We are not fast enough—"
"We don’t need to be fast enough, we need to be fast enough for another forty seconds just run."
I ran harder.
My lungs were doing sothing uncomfortable and my hand was starting to lose feeling where Ethan had it gripped and the footsteps behind us were close, too close, and I made the mistake of looking back and imdiately wished I hadn’t because there were four of them and they were gaining and then I looked further back and saw Ivin standing at the door we had co through watching and still not running and still not giving the order.
Still not giving the order because of .
Still not running cause even I knew he could easily catch up with us in his long legs and that would be the end of everything.
It’s almost like he’s taunting with my freedom and fuck if I don’t use this mont wisely.
Ten seconds later or maybe more than and a pair of headlights appeared from the left, there was no announcing engine sound or screeching, it just appeared suddenly like it gilded towards us.
The precision confird Ethan had absolutely planned this even if the planning had looked nothing like planning from the inside.
The door swung open before the car fully stopped.
Ethan let go of my hand and threw himself in and turned back imdiately, arm extended, face urgent.
"Nala. Co on."
I stood there.
I don’t know why I stopped maybe because my legs stopped and I don’t know why, so signal that got sent before I authorized it but the car was right there.
Ethan’s hand was right there, and behind the footsteps had slowed because Ivin’s n were waiting for sothing, waiting for an instruction or maybe waiting for to co back to them.
"Nala." Ethan’s voice was low and tight. "Get in the fucking car right now."
I turned around.
Ivin was maybe twenty feet behind . He had walked, not run like the rest of his n and he had covered the distance between the door and here in an unhurried way, like the outco was already known to him and the speed didn’t matter.
He was looking at and his face was doing nothing, not the controlled nothing or the usual arranged nothing, this was just plain nothing.
It was unreadable in a way I had never seen on him before.
He didn’t say my na or say anything else for that matter instead he looked at , really looked at standing in the space between the car and him while his n stopped behind him and my brother’s hand extended behind .
"Nala." Ethan growled in a low voice again and urgently, a sigh that he was at the end of his patience, whoever was running the car was talking to Ethan and it was obvious he was displeased at the delay as well.
I have to pick one.
I looked at Ivin.
I looked at the car.
I looked at Ethan.
I looked at Ivin again.
I made my choice.
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