PETAR TOOK A DEEP breath and gagged as the lingering black mist sucked into his lungs. He swiped a hand across his face and only succeeded in smearing the oily fluid across his skin. Beyond a barrier, the battle raged unseen. Judging by the shouts of the soldiers, the vucari was winning.

Petar rolled and saw Jem lying on his side surrounded by a potpourri of gleaming objects. Some were drenched in blood. A thin, rasping breath climbed into Jem's lungs. Petar could hear it catching.

Petar crawled toward Jem over the bits of metal and glass. Blood was pouring out of the cut on his side. It was thick and dark, sticky on Petar's palms. Dark blood, Petar knew, ran in the veins. The fermion bolt must have severed the renal vein, judging by the position of Jem's hands on his side.

Petar pulled up beside him and tried to pull Jem's hands away. They were as red as if someone had dipped them in a bucket of paint. His shirt clung to his skin, outlining the ruts of his ribs. Petar peeled the shirt away and, with both hands, ripped the fabric to give him a view of the wound. It was a thick, ugly gash that had gone black at the edges already. Even as Petar watched, a viscous stream of blood oozed out of it. Jem groaned at the movement.

"How ya doin', buddy?" Petar asked, echoing his tone from earlier. Jem moaned, tried to work his lips. They looked dry.

"That's good, don't try to talk. I'm just going to patch you up. It's going to sting for a moment, but soon you should feel something warm on your side." As he talked, Petar worked. First a binding foam from the tip of his finger that would fill the wound and expand to push out air pockets. It was bio-centric to allow cell communication between the torn tissue. Then a thick layer of boson film to quell the nasty side effects of the fermion charge.

Only nothing happened. Petar tried again, swiping his thumb across the back of his pinky's middle knuckle. Above the wrist, silver metal glinted through the melted holes in his forearm. The LEDs were dark.

This was bad, but there was no point alarming the boy. So Petar just smiled and said, "You feeling okay now?"

Weakly, Jem nodded.

"Okay, that's good. Now I'm going to lift you up gently. Do you think you can put your arm around my neck?" Faint grunt. "No? That's fine. I'll do it for you." Petar leaned in and lifted Jem's arm behind his head, then gripped Jem's fingers where they hung down over his chest. With his other arm, he supported Jem around the waist. He slowly lifted Jem to his feet.

Petar looked around warily. So far, their little corner of the lab was still quiet, although it was only a matter of time before something stumbled across them. A loud wail bounced off the walls and ceiling. Only two rifles were firing now. The fight wouldn't go on much longer. Then, it would become a hunt.

Petar pulled Jem over the debris past where the wall had been. There was now a thin space at the edge of the stack of rebar that they could slip through. Beyond it was the far wall of the lab, and that wall should have a door to the oscillation test chamber.

Jem was light enough that walking with his entire weight slumped on Petar's side wouldn't have been a problem if not for the equipment littering the floor. He went as quickly as he could without risking a slip. Jem was conscious and doing his part by lifting his feet whenever they bumped into something hard, but he didn't seem capable of putting any weight on them.

Three things were worrying Petar.

First, the Koschei had been alone. Koschei never hunted alone. That meant its partner was around somewhere. Since they were using deflector fields to stay out of sight, the second Koschei could be anywhere.

Petar's ankle rolled on a ball bearing. He stumbled and Jem's arm tightened around his neck. He mumbled something.

"What'd you say?" Petar asked.

"Where are we going?" The words came out slurred: Werr we goen?

"Somewhere safe," Petar replied, taking another slow, hesitant step.

Second, General Samil almost certainly wasn't in the firefight with the vucari. Either he was watching from the sidelines or – and Petar would have bet the world on this – he had slipped away and was regrouping for another attack on Petar even as they picked their excruciatingly slow path through the minefield of glass and steel.

Another mumble from Jem.

"Hm?"

"Did you kill the Koschei?" Didj killa kuhshay.

"You bet. I disintegrated him with a sympathetic electromechanical oscillator. One of my dad's inventions." Keep him talking. Keep him conscious. They reached the edge of the rebar pile and Petar leaned against it to take a breath. "It sends a series of increasing sine waves into whatever's connected to it. Once it gets going fast enough, it vibrates their molecules away from each other."

"Thscool." That's cool.

"My dad made one that was so big he was afraid to turn it on. He thought it would create an earthquake violent enough to tear away the shelves of the Earth's mantle. Kill us all."

Third, Jem. There was no way around it: The boy wouldn't last much longer. Petar had to get him to a hospital. Which meant he couldn't attempt the breach right now. Not that he would have anyway – Petar had decided to get Jem out of here as soon as the vucari had showed up. Leaving him here, defenseless, would have meant a death sentence for the boy. Petar wasn't going to get him killed. If it meant delaying his travel plans, so be it.

Koschei. Vucari. Samil. All trying to kill him and anyone helping him. Jem. Blind. Dying. He'd lost too much blood. Petar had no choice. He had to get out of the lab. There would be another way back. He'd have another chance.

Wouldn't he?

Petar tightened his grip on Jem's arm and leaned into the space behind the iron beams. They created yet another hallway on the open floor plan. Four feet wide, with the gray wall of the lab itself on the other side. Two steel doors were set into the wall with a ten-foot gap between them.

As he watched, the door closest to them swung open. Petar ducked back behind the rebar, but caught a glimpse of a camoflauged arm before he completely turned away. Boots smacked heavily on the concrete floor, heading away from them. Samil must have called in reinforcements. Which meant that was the door that led outside. The door beyond it would be the oscillation chamber, or at least a passage that led to it.

Petar followed the sound of the running soldiers to the fading fray farther down the lab. A thundering round of gunfire, shouts of surprise, and renewed snarls from the vucari told him they'd found the beast. Another wall of debris collapsed. Something heavy and hollow tinged into the concrete.

It was all behind them now.

Making sure the coast was clear, Petar hauled Jem down the hallway. His hand gripped the door handle and he realized his fingers were still covered in Jem's blood. At the realization, a wave of exhaustion crashed over him. Let it all just end, he thought. He'd felt refreshed after waking in the Kia on the way to Colorado, but now he felt as if he hadn't shut his eyes in a week. So much killing, all because of him. It was too much. Too heavy.

He pulled open the door and a wave of fresh air hit him in the face. He hadn't even realized that the air in the lab had become heavy with the acrid scent of gunsmoke and the putrid stench of blood and death. The outside air hit him like a shot of adrenaline. Almost there. He'd drop Jem at a hospital and find a place to just lie down and sleep. Let the plans wait until tomorrow.

A flight of two dozen cement stairs rose to a bright, sun-filled doorway. Petar stepped toward the first one and Jem's hand shot out to grip the doorframe.

"What are you doing?" Petar asked.

"Nother." Not there.

"You need to get medical treatment."

Jem shook his head fiercely.

"Let go, Jem."

He shook his head again. "Do it. Go back."

"You'll die." Petar was on the verge of shouting.

"Won't. Trussme."

Behind them in the lab, a makeshift wall thundered to the ground, startlingly close. The staccato pop of rifle fire had shifted in their direction. And Jem wouldn't let go of the wall. How could a dying boy's grip be so strong?

"We're running out of time! Let. Go." Petar tried to jerk Jem's hand from the doorframe. It slipped loose, but Jem wrenched his other arm off Petar's shoulders. Even as he hit the floor, he was crawling back into the main lab.

"Get up," Petar hissed. "If I leave, you'll die in there. You can't even see."

"Cantoo," slurred Jem, and bumped a shoulder against the door jamb.

"I'm not going to leav–" Petar stopped in the middle of the sentence and whirled around.

Someone was walking down the stairs toward them.

Thanks for reading my story! Please VOTE and let me know what you think of it so far, then check out Chapter 48!