I stood and ran, unloading the spent magazine into my bag as I went. When I turned again, there were a handful of bodies dead or dying on the roofs, but those who remained had spread out, making them very hard to hit while on the run.
I swore and shoved my pistol back in my bag, realizing I needed speed over firepower now. Distracted, I didn’t see a low lip jutting out over the edge of the building we were currently traveling on. Just before I made my small leap to the next building, my toe tripped on it and I went sailing through the air. Thankfully, I cleared the small gap but landed roughly on my shoulder. I did a quick roll, got to my knees, and allowed Helena to help me up.
She shook her head, but for once didn’t comment on my klutziness.
We ran from our pursuers, leaping over a number of small gaps between rooftops, but we were quickly running out of real estate. I could see the eastern walls of Byzantium and the Bosporus beyond them. We needed to get back down to street level, but we couldn’t just leap off from the height we were at. We were far too high. We needed another route down.
Perhaps it was best for us to continue on high ground. If we had to get into a firefight, it was better to be up here than down in a killzone like a narrow street. Then again if we were at street level, maybe we’d be able to lose our pursuers like Xenophon had attempted mere…
Helena grabbed my hand with one of her own and pointed with the other. “Get ready to jump!”
I followed her upraised arm and spotted a building to our right, on the far side of the street, with a second level doorway and a balcony. If we timed it just right, Helena and I should be able to jump to the top of those stairs and make our way into the home.
“Are you crazy??” I shouted.
She didn’t answer as she stumbled again. When she recovered, she sent a painful glance at her feet, and I realized why she wanted to get off the roofs so quickly. Her weakly constructed sandals had come off and she’d been running on bare feet for quite a while. Every step she took left a series of small blood stains behind her, a painful trail that was easily followed.
I didn’t have time to think of a way to help.
Ten steps remained between us and the jump. I risked another glance over my shoulder to see our ninja buddies still behind us but gaining. With four steps to go, Helena stumbled again, her feet unable to continue supporting her. I snagged her arm and brought her in close. One step remained, and with a surge of energy, we were flying through the air, our legs kicking beneath us as we fought for distance. Below us, residents looked up at a pair of flying morons who had just jumped off a roof, most of the men’s attention on Helena. On our way down, I realized we had over jumped, and we’d have little time to stop ourselves before slamming into the door.
I came down first, still holding Helena’s hand. My knees instinctually buckled into a roll, Helena’s body reacting similarly. I hit first, but the heavy wooden door only bucked under my weight. In typical fashion, the damn thing must have been dead bolted into the frame, and I felt something crack in my chest as well as in the door frame. Helena slammed into it a half second later, her added mass and momentum enough to smash the door open on its already broken hinges. She let go of my hand and managed to swiftly roll inside, while I had to scamper on my hands and knees, trying to follow.
Once inside, I kicked the door shut, plunging us into darkness. I stood but my first step failed to meet solid ground and realization dawned on me that I was about to fall down a flight of stairs. Helena, unfortunately, had risen to her feet on the third or fourth step down, oblivious to the fact that I was about to fall on her. I was already on my way down before I could think to warn her and gravity did the rest.
We fell together, tumbling over one another and banging ourselves against everything that got in our way. The nausea inducing tumble ended when I hit the floor first, summersaulting head over heels before my back slammed against the opposite wall, the back of my head following suit. My body collapsed on its own accord and I slid on my butt so that only my head rested against the wall. Stars sprang into my mind and my vision darkened, but I could still make out the shape of Helena as she barreled her way towards me. I tried to move out of the way as she landed hard on her side, her left hip thwacking against the floor loudly. She started to roll, hitting my shins first before her momentum propelled her up and then down onto my chest. She landed on me perpendicularly, her lower back resting on my abdomen.
My head throbbed as blood trickled down the back of my neck and I found it difficult to breath, Helena’s presence upon my chest only hindering the process. Instinctively, I placed one hand against her shoulder, the other against the side of her hip, and pushed her off me with little thought of how her own body would react.
My breathing eased almost immediately.
I finally allowed myself to look at Helena, concluding she seemed mostly fine. Besides her bleeding feet, any additional cut and bruise seemed minimal, and none of her limbs appeared broken, but I couldn’t know for sure.
Her clothing hadn’t spared nearly so well.
Most of her outfit had been made out of a thin silk like material — not overly durable — and had been torn to shreds during our run, leap and fall down the stairs. At least she’d had the sense to wear her modern undergarments beneath, her sports bra and tight short shorts basically all she had left.
She began to cough uncontrollably where she lay, doubling over in pain on the ground. She curled into a ball and clutched her side before a spasm forced her to uncurl and arch her back so violently that I feared she’d fold in half in the wrong direction. Every muscle in her body seemed contorted and close to bursting from her skin at the exertion. For a moment I thought she was experiencing a seizure, but the muscles at the small of her back loosened and her body relaxed. She curled into a fetal position again and wrapped her arms around her stomach to stave off the pain, the latest painful throes of yet another of her attacks ebbing away.
I crawled as fast I could to her side and flipped her onto her back, hoping beyond hope that she was still conscious. When she opened her eyes, I saw them full of pain and, as ever, directing pure rage at me and me alone.
“How… in the name… of God, have you survived… your life, Jacob?!” She yelled through her agony, punching me square in the jaw to punctuate her words. “You have to be the biggest klutz on the entire planet, from now until the goddamned future and everything in-between!”
I held a hand to my sore jaw and forced myself to keep from smiling. A moment later, I held out my other hand, indicating that she shut up when I heard a banging noise above us. Our leap of faith had to have thrown off some of those chasing us, but it seemed like someone had come to inspect our house.
Helena got the point quickly and I helped her to her feet as she fought off the last of the pain. Together, we shuffled over to a dark corner of the house. I heard voices from the level we had just vacated and hoped for a miracle that there was only a few of them. I retrieved my Sig from the floor, my bag having spilled its contents everywhere, and quietly reloaded it, thanking God I’d left a bullet in the chamber so I didn’t have to make any noise pulling back the slide. Helena retrieved a small knife from her own bag.
“Let’s try and take these guys alive,” I whispered, my adrenaline pumping once again. “Find out who the fuck they are.”
She nodded and scampered off beneath the stairwell, waiting for the men to come downstairs. I waited as well, crouching in the shadows directly to the left of the stairs. I tried to take a deep breath to calm my nerves but winced after just a quick one. I needed to get my chest taped up soon or I’d be having serious trouble breathing pretty quickly.
The voices upstairs stopped, and I heard them shuffle towards the stairs. Not a second passed before the first set of black footed men descended to our level, passing Helena without a thought as to what lurked beneath the stairs. The man stopped on the landing and waited, scanning the dark room with eyes that hadn’t had enough time to develop their natural night vision. As a result, he failed to notice my presence mere feet from him in the dark corner, and I made my move.