She shook her head to clear it from the maddening objections, it couldn't be him. He didn't answer. He didn't have to. She knew it was him. "You're the one who shouldn't be here," she spat. "What is this? What are you doing? You lied to me!"
"No, I've never lied to you." He started to move towards her until she chambered a round. Skyler seemed all too calm as he held his hands up and took one more step.
"You need to go. Now. The police are on their way and you can still get away from here if you leave now." Madison didn't know why she was giving him a pass. Here he was, endangering her colleagues and herself, had probably used her to get here, and didn't appear as if he even cared what happened next. For all she knew, he would go through her to get what he was after.
"I can't do that, Madison. You know this." He took another step, then held his ground. "You were never supposed to be involved. This isn't how it's supposed to be."
She didn't understand what he was saying. She heard the words, but they meant nothing to her. Her own conscience struggled with the knowledge that he was her friend and also that he was a threat. Neither fact outweighed the other.
Just when she thought she couldn't take anymore, the second intruder came at her from the curved hall. He limped towards her with his gun held shakily and directed at her, muttering a string of curses. Madison left off her watch of Skyler and turned to the immediate threat.
The visibly angered man halted his advance when she leveled her aim at him. "You're dead," he grumbled as he gave her a unnerving stare.
"Levi, put that away." Skyler's voice came clearly with the order though there was a hint of fear in it.
The belligerent man gaped at him, his eyes wide with rage. "What are you doing? You idiot! We're giving out names now? All right, Skyler, she has us both. What's your plan now?"
"You put your gun down and make new friends in prison," Madison mocked, her gaze fixed on Levi.
She caught Skyler's movement out the corner of her eye, and she looked to him. Before she could counter him, the sound of Levi's gun firing stole away her thoughts. A shock of heat and pain radiated from her gut just below the reach of her protective vest.
Madison responded with two rounds. One pierced the top of the fire extinguisher beside Levi, sending an explosion of the white foamed cloud in all directions. The second shot was aimed at the sprinkler head above the hunkered gunman, setting off a shrilling pulse of the siren and activating all the emergency sprinklers throughout the facility.
She took the opening and ran for the eighth hall, mindlessly clutching the wound on her belly. Her body argued with her and fought against her with each labored step. The spraying water made the floor that much more treacherous as her legs numbly carried her towards the high priority safe.
It wasn't much farther, but she just couldn't take another step. Every bit of energy and strength ebbed away and she dropped with an awkward splash to the floor.
Madison gasped to catch the breath that tried so hard to elude her. She gradually looked up at the safe's door. It seemed so far away. She couldn't reach it. She didn't want to anymore. Her eyes wanted to close. She wanted to lie still with the steady drizzle falling on her back.
Her mind began to work again. It screamed for her to keep breathing, to keep moving. It wouldn't let her be. She obeyed, dragging herself over to the wall. It took more than she thought she had just to bring herself to sit with her back against the cold, white wall. But she did it.
A figure came towards her from the up the hall. Detached, she glanced in their direction. It was Skyler. He was moving slowly, as if he were afraid to approach her. She didn't know why he would be, she didn't have any fight left.
He paused a few feet away from her. His face was painted with concern, maybe guilt. His blue eyes looked her over as if he didn't understand what was happening.
Worry reached through the numbness. It wasn't for herself. It was for Skyler. She still didn't want anything to happen to him. She was afraid of him taking the blame for what had unfolded. She didn't blame him, not really. But she knew he would blame himself. And if he lingered much longer, he would be charged for it as well.
He started to edge closer. Madison tried to voice a warning to tell him he was dangerously close to the view of the safe's camera, but her voice evaded her. She raised the pistol and fired a shot, and Skyler flinched away from the debris of the disintegrating camera. Turning her aim in the other direction, she put two bullets in the safe's keypad. She was content. Skyler would not be revealed and the safe would remain sealed.
Madison fumbled as she ejected the last round and pulled the emptied clip from her sidearm, then let the pieces lay where they clattered to the floor. She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. The rhythm and coolness of the shower was soothing.
Skyler's warm hands grasped her arm and brushed the soaked curls from her face. "Look at me," his composed voice broke through her stillness. She opened her eyes and met his assessing gaze as a drop of water rolled off his chin and splattered on her arm. "You're going to be just fine, Madison. I'm going to get you fixed up." He adjusted his hold on her and eased her to the floor.
"You need to go," she muttered to him. He didn't react to her words. His gentle touch surveyed the place on her belly that felt as if it were on fire. "The police will be here any minute. You can still make it."
"We have another eight minutes," he said as his eyes flashed to hers for a brief moment. "You weren't supposed to be here." His words were muted, he wasn't meaning for her to hear him.
"I was bored," she winced. "My hot date cancelled on me."
Skyler gave a sympathetic chuckle and shifted, pulling something from his vest pocket. "You're going to be all right. You've always been a bit of a firecracker, remember to hold on to that spark."
Madison watched in a daze as he uncapped a syringe and stuck her upper arm with it. She thought to object, to ask him to leave, but the dose was quick to take effect. She began to drift. Her body felt heavy and weightless at the same time. Her eyes lost focus as he recapped the needle and put it back into his pocket.
The return of familiar voice caught her attention. "What happens now?" Levi stalked up behind Skyler.
"We leave," he answered with a convincingly calm tone, though everything sounded muffled, or maybe echoed to Madison as she listened. "This job is over. We need to go."
"What about her?"
Skyler shook his head. "She's dead. You get Carl and go on without me. I'll take care of this."
His words ambled through Madison's fading conscious. She wondered if she were actually dead. An odd sense of serenity came over her at the thought. She was okay with it.
Levi hadn't complied with the given orders and he still waited. Skyler stood tall and turned to the watching man. "I said go." His tone sounded threatening. Levi must have finally accepted his decree. He didn't argue, quickly leaving Skyler to his doings.
The seconds passed like hours. The screeching fire alarm began to hum into nothing. Each drop from the overhead sprinklers felt like a whispered breath where they landed on Madison's skin. She was completely unbothered by Skyler's arms coming around her and lifting her off the floor although the movement triggered another bolt of pain through her belly. The waking world pushed her away from it expelling her into oblivion.