The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

holster and drew my rifle around my body, moving to a spot between the two doors so I could turn and fire easily. The outer set of doors hadn’t opened yet—the wheel was still spinning, slowly enough to let the fear within my gut blossom into terror that I held at bay with action.

I dropped down to a knee, and within seconds Mark and the other wardens were moving over to me, temporarily accepting our truce, taking up positions in front of the left door, while Tim, Amber, and Logan took up positions at the right. Maxen slipped around us until he was behind me, but as I turned, I saw Thomas pointing a gun at him, waving him back toward the line. He frowned, and then moved next to Mark. Viggo, Owen, and Ms. Dale stationed themselves at the other door, with Thomas lurking in between the three groups—all of us with pistols drawn.

The outer doors started to swing open, my eyes snapping to them, and I pulled the stock of the gun up to my shoulder, bracing myself. Viggo and the others did the same, and as the doors opened fully, mist curling out of them, I held my breath, waiting hopelessly for something—anything—to stop them.

I heard Viggo shout in warning and turned, seeing a flash of something silver, and Viggo opened fire as a silver python slid in from the door behind us. I noticed the fat lump squirming within its belly, just a few feet under its head—likely this was the monkey creature that had been in pursuit of us—and a nauseated feeling grew in my stomach as the people defending that side of the room pelted the creature with bullets. Its body jerked as Viggo fired, and then everyone on that side was firing into the wide-open door. I returned my gaze to the other doors, searching for movement in the tunnels ahead and finding none.

A quick glance at Viggo showed me that Ms. Dale’s plan was working. Already the bodies of pythons littered the floor, silver coils blocking parts of the entrances. Owen tossed something out the door, and an explosion followed. I looked back toward my door. It was still clear.

“Viggo,” I shouted. “This door is clear. We should start falling back to—”

Something detached from the ceiling on the right and swung in, landing in a crouch in the area between the two lines and coming up swinging. One of the Porteque men on the left caught the blow, and there was a sickening crunch—and then his body fell to the ground, the straight line of his neck interrupted by an obvious break. A young man wearing black pants, a black sweater, and a black balaclava mask twisted around to face us, his hands still in fists.

Elena had sent the boys to fight us.

Before I could even react, Maxen began firing at the boy, catching him in the shoulder and chest. He went down, and Maxen shouted, “Let’s go!” before darting through the door on the left. The Porteque man closest to me started to turn toward me, bringing his gun around, and I shot him without hesitating, dropping him to the ground. Tim raced past me toward the fallen boy, moving to check his pulse.

The others began to follow Maxen just as something dark and huge exploded into the room on the other side, clawing its way over the body of a python with a hunting howl. The fear that sound sent through me was nothing, though, compared to something I almost felt before I heard—the sound of buzzing.

“Run!” Ms. Dale roared, and I saw her toss something at the monkey-wolf creature as Tim came to push me up, shouting for me to move. I didn’t even catch a glimpse of which door we went through, just scrambled through the airlock, trying to avoid the explosion.

There was a loud bang as Ms. Dale’s grenade went off. My ears rang from the force of it, and we all stumbled. I shook my head to clear it, climbing back to my feet and helping Tim up beside me. I moved over and did the same for Morgan, the haze that had drifted into the room through the open airlocks making it difficult to see anything. The buzzing grew louder.

“We have to go!” Morgan said, and she grabbed my hand, dragging me with her.

Then we were running, out and away through another cave, running from the buzzing of the red flies. They’d have plenty to feed on in that room with all the bodies, and I fervently hoped that would buy us a little bit of time, just enough for all of us to get out safely. I ran as fast as I had ever run, scanning wildly through the mist with my flashlight.

The ground was uneven, and I stumbled and stubbed my toes and should’ve fallen a dozen times—but somehow I was still up and moving. I drew to a sudden stop when I almost impacted with a wall, and took a few steps back, breathing heavily and listening for sounds to tell me what was happening and where the next door was.

Looking around, I gasped and almost dropped my flashlight when I saw Morgan appear suddenly out of the mist, my hand twitching for my gun. I could see her eyes darting around, looking for others, and I shook my head. I turned on my subvocalizer.

Viggo? I wheezed into the comm-link. There was a burst of static, and then nothing. I tried it again, several more times, each time growing a little more frantic.

“It’s no use,” Ms. Dale’s voice came out loud as she approached, much like Morgan had—seemingly from nowhere—giving me the cut-off signal with her hands. “We’re either being jammed or the rock is interfering with our signal. Either way, I haven’t seen anyone else. Have you?”

I shook my head and straightened up, realizing I was shaking, though I didn’t know whether it was from adrenaline or from rage.

“No. And Maxen