The stairwell was alight with the flash and resonating echoes of gunfire… only occasionally pierced by agonised screams as flesh was torn from bone. Trey was a few paces ahead of me as he now powered his way up the stairs encumbered a little by his heavy equipment… I tried to call after him as he rushed ahead but a red haze had descended across him and he no longer acknowledged me as he rushed to the aid of his team… more thin screams reached my ears… the explosion of glass, though in itself not loud was noticeable by the sudden roar of the elements as they hammered the building, the storm now violently tearing the heavens open…

I rounded the stairs leading to the third floor and saw Trey pause for a moment, his expression intense and brimming with a need for vengeance… he hissed a little to himself before striking out upwards to the next floor… almost breathlessly I reached the landing and was stilled by the sight of the commando who had earlier been hit in the thigh. His body was still and a second bolt protruded from his stomach, a deepening pool of blood marking the perimeter of his cooling corpse. My hand gripped hard against the handle of my knife, for a fleeting moment it felt a little inadequate… I had a feeling of admiration for this woman, such rawness to her power… that not only could she survive in this wasteland but also she had so far bested all but Trey and I. I turned back to the stairs… Trey must’ve thought she would try to flee by going higher… for a moment I thought about following him but then turned my eyes back to the door that ran with the sprayed blood.

I rose to face the door; my fingers reached out and ran down the wood, my eyes closed… I couldn’t hear any sound from within as it was masked by the raging storm outside the building. The warmth of the blood against my fingers… my eyes snapped open… for a moment I though about calling Trey back, but I knew that would only alert her to my presence… then I looked down at the gun at my feet, a thin wisp of smoke still coiling from the heated barrel and thought perhaps I would be better served with that at my side, but I wouldn’t feel the comfort with a gun that I did with my weapons of choice and so it would probably be far less effective… my fingers tensed as I gingerly pushed at the door… it swung open gently… only coming to a halt when it tapped against the boot of another of our team, almost unrecognisable as a result of the bolt that had thudded into his skull, crushing the bone and covering his face with a rich red mask that still leaked from him…

Slowly my eyes worked their way across the room searching out for the slightest movement… the walls were peppered with bullet holes… shards of glass from the shattered window reflected each shockwave of lightning as it ripped across the sky, the wind howled and blew a fine rain into the office… I closed my mind of from the storm and slowly crossed to the middle of the room, my blade withdrawn and held at my side…then I saw her… from the corner of my eye she was huddled behind a desk, her arms around her knees and the crossbow by her side… I silently made my way in front of her… as yet she had failed to notice my entrance… her arms embraced her knees as she sat hunched… her head resting backwards and her eyes closed as her breathing rasped against her chest… she seemed so deeply lost in her own mind, fighting against something I could not know…

Her hair was tousled and her clothes bore the marks of battles… both fresh and those lost to timeless memory, her pale skin shimmered with the backlight of the storm, despite the grime she had an almost ghostly beauty, but there was something more… something deeper that made my senses charged in her presence… something that perhaps even shocked me…

Her eyes bolted open and for the briefest of moments we were locked in each other’s gaze… I saw her hand dive for her pocket and my grip tightened on the blade… she pulled the gun out swiftly and easily lined it against me, her hands shaking and her eyes running with such a confliction of emotion… the air stilled…it was as though the storm itself had quieted against the storm of feeling that ran through this woman… my senses burned and my eyes flared at her as I was torn with an intensity that I so rarely felt… to be facing death, made me feel more alive than I had ever done…

I saw her body tense and she pulled the trigger… the gun clicked… and her expression wavered. A thin smile crossed me… I knew little about guns but I knew to check the safety, one of the first things they taught us back at the ‘warren’. My eyes flashed as I bought the knife more clearly into view, the storm erupted behind me… the glow of the lightning played across its edge as I drive forward… my forearm braced against her upper chest as I hit into her pitching her backwards onto the desk… the gun bouncing from her grip… her hands automatically rose to defend herself, her eyes flared with a deeply awoken primal instinct… my knife hovered above her and she struck out grasping my wrist tightly, trying to force it away… I was a little taken aback at her sinewy strength as she powered underneath me and we both rolled to the floor… my back crunching against the fragments of glass… as we fell I thrust out with a leg and continued the roll and bought her across to her back… our gaze fused as our battle of wills and bodies raged… I raised my position a little and bought the knife back but this gave her enough leeway to force her knee between us and pitch me overhead landing with a crack against the floor… she sprang to her feet, and I saw her gaze shift to her crossbow as I rose to mine….