by Amy Rachiele
Derek carried her back up onto the crates and gently passed her through the window to Will. Will took her tenderly and with the ease through the large window. But he didn’t take his eyes off me...he looked angry.
I shoved the gun back into the waistband of my jeans and rushed to Jen. She was attempting to lift one of the girls into a standing position. I threw a quick arm around her in a hug and helped her. Derek came over, his face in a frown. He took the girl from us.
“I want the two of you out of here right now,” Derek’s words were harsh and demanding. He meant it!
Jen and I sent quick looks to each other, and no words needed to be said. We moved fast, picking up the other girl. We each swung one of her arms over our shoulders and headed for the window. The girl’s body was like a limp noodle. I vaguely wondered what the hell they did to her.
Will pulled the second girl through as Derek handed her to him. Both Derek and Will were in secret-agent-mode and were clearly not happy. I shoved Jen on the butt.
“Go,” I ordered.
Derek and Will helped her through, and I could hear her land on the asphalt. I positioned myself to go through the window. Will reached out, grabbing me under the arms and yanking me up over the window sash out into the night air. Without even knowing how it happened, I was in his arms. He held me in a vice-grip hug, crushing his lips to mine.
He said against them, “Stick to the plan.” His voice and his actions were an odd paradox, mixed with passion and fury.
Derek was the last one to make it out, and he immediately went to Kara. Jake came barreling around the corner, and shots rang out in a deafening silence-splitting chaos.
Will’s hand immediately went the back of my neck, pushing me down. Jake collided with Jen, and they hit the ground in a tangle.
I looked over at Derek who had crushed Kara against the building beside the incoherent girls. Will let go of me and pulled out his rifle. Jake and Will formed some sort of assault team, scanning the area and pointing their weapons. Jen crawled over to me and reached out like she was going to hug me.
“You’re not wearing Kevlar,” she said into my ear, her intent clearly to protect me.
“I’m okay,” I told her and reached for my gun. I moved it in front of me and got up into a squatting position. Jen stayed right next to me, both of us behind the guys. One last shot, then everything became quiet. Derek sat Kara up, and I reached out, putting my arm around her. Derek slipped back into secret-agent-mode, joining the others as the third person of the assault team.
“It’s time to move,” he said.
The group of us stood, surveying the space around us.
“What about them?” I asked pointing to the slumped girls. Will took out a walkie-talkie and called Bill.
“Ready for pick up,” he murmured into the speaker. He paused for just a second, and then his eyes widened and he yelled at us. “SHIT! Get down!”
I immediately squatted again, looking around in a hurried panic. I trained the gun wherever my eyes took me.
“Whoa, easy with that,” Jen complained. I checked myself. She was right; I was definitely being too loose with where I pointed it.
Sharp thwacks rang out, and pieces of brick and mortar crushed and crumbled to the ground. Jen and I clasped our arms around each other and jumped at the sound.
“Get back!” Derek yelled to all of us. We flattened ourselves against the warehouse. Jake grabbed Jen and forced her back.
Will looked at Jake and Derek and, with hasty authority, said “Mouse and Brian are just around the corner. Take the girls the other way.”
He pointed towards the area back where Bill was on the roof.
“Jake, you go. Will, I got your back.”
“How is Bill supposed to pick us up?” I asked as I glance down at Kara huddled with the other two girls who seemed to be coming out of the fog they were in.
Kara helped one of them to stand. Jake let go of Jen, helping the other. He spoke to the broken girl softly and reassuringly. I could only catch every other word, but he was encouraging her.
“When I say go, you are going to run down to the end of the building and go left. Stay low and close to the building,” Derek commanded. Then he reached for Kara, holding her shoulder, and looked her in the eye.
“It’s almost over. Do what I say. Stay close to the building and run. You got that?”
Kara nodded. I did, too. Even though that last reiteration of instructions was not for me, I felt compelled to show my compliance. My heart rate sped up as I hoped we could all get out of here.
Jen, Kara, the two girls, and me lined up against the brick, fearful and with our backs to it. An observer would think we were in a police line-up. Jen squeezed my hand.
“Go!” Will ordered.
We all took off running, hugging the wall. Jake led us with his weapon ready. I was at the end of the escape line. My feet pounded on the pavement, and my hand rubbed against the rough brick in the darkness.
Bullets ricocheted and echoed behind us.
Will! I wanted so badly to turn around and go back to him, but I knew I had to trust that all of his training and know-how would get him through this. I stayed on the path and prayed.
The rough gravel strewn on the ground played with my balance. I slipped on a rock, twisting my ankle. I held in my urge to cry out as pain shot up my leg, but I kept going. No one else stumbled. The drugged-up girls were doing better than me.
Jake stopped at the corner and it jacked us all up. We collided like dominoes. He carefully peered around, scoping for danger. More shots fired from where we came from. I turned my head instinctively. My sight was limited in the darkness.
“Hold,” Jake said with his hand raised to us. We all paused with bated breath. “Move,” he commanded, and we continued on.
It was quiet all around us now. The only sound I could hear was our group’s heavy breathing. Each one of us sucked in breaths.
I could make out a van ahead of us. Jake dashed towards it, throwing open the door. It was Bill’s van. What a sight! I was elated. I wanted only to find Will and get the hell out of here.
“Get in!” Jake stood as sentinel with his gun ready as we all piled in, crushing ourselves together. I was frenzied, rushing to get in, and I slammed the sliding van door as Jake raced over to the driver’s side. Jen was in the middle seat beside me.
Kara screamed, causing us all to spin around in our seats. She pointed out the window.
“Tommy,” she screeched hysterically.
Tommy ran towards us with his gun high, his face contorted in anger. He fired two shots. Outside the window of the van, I watched Jake fall out of my line of vision.
“Jake!” Jen shouted.
We both scrambled to the fronts seats. I tossed the gun on the floor, and opened the driver’s door, reaching down and grabbing Jake by the arm; with our combined strength I was able to help haul him up and over the seat. Jen helped me pull him all the way in. He had been shot. Blood spilled out from his shirt sleeve.
“Oh my God!” Jen shrieked.
The back windows were suddenly blown out. We all simultaneously screamed like the girls we were. I covered my head. Jake slumped between the seats. He held up keys, and I snatched them from him.
Another window blew out, and we again scream in unison. Hysterics and fear ran rampant through the tight space of the van.
“Stay down,” Jake told us.
I didn’t even know which window was hit as I fumbled to get the van started. I heard Tommy’s evil voice blazing and coming closer. He yelled into the night air by the van.
“I’m gonna get you bitches!”
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” one of girls kept repeating.
Jen hovered over Jake, putting pressure on the gunshot wound. She picked up the gun I dropped behind him.
“Shut up and duck!” she yelled and fired the gun.
The bullet sliced through the side window. The window shattered, girly screams echoed, and bits of
glass rained everywhere. At that moment, I finally found the right key and thrust it into the ignition.
“Everyone hold on!” I hollered as the van fired up and I flattened the gas pedal to the floor. We surged forward with a roar of the engine.
“I think I winged him!” Jen shouted.
Kara crawled from the back of the van to the front to help Jen with Jake. I glanced down; he was losing a lot of blood. Both Jen and Kara’s hands were covered in liquid red. My hands quivered on the steering wheel.
“Did you get him?” Jake choked out.
“I don’t know.”
“Where do I go?” I asked Jake.
“Head north and out the gate,” he slurred through a fresh wave of pain.
“North? Which way is north?”
“What about Derek?” Kara asked.
“They’ll get out,” he mumbled. “You should be able to see a cell tower in the distance, keep it on your left.”
I nodded. I scanned through the dark sky and immediately saw the tower. We were going in the right direction. Whew!
“Ow, shit...”
“Don’t move around,” Jen barked at him. “It looks like your shoulder’s been hit right beside your vest.”
“Is anyone behind us?” he asked.
Jen stretched to see through the back window, and I checked the rearview mirror.
“I don’t see anyone,” I told him.
“Good...” Jake said before he passed out.
“Jake needs to go to a hospital,” Jen said hesitantly, as though saying it out loud would make his condition worse.
I gazed down, he was extremely pale. Shit! I trained my eyes back on the windshield concentrating on getting us away.
“We’ll have to take him to Sundlun.”
The headlights of the van shone on a chain-link fence up ahead. A man stepped out from behind it out of the darkness. I recognized his form.
Bill!
“It’s Bill,” I gasped out to everyone.
“Who’s Bill?” one of the girls slurred.
I ignored her, maneuvering the van and bringing it to a stop. I pressed the brakes little too hard, and we all jerked forward.
“Take it easy!” Jen barked at me, holding onto Jake.
Bill ran around to the side of the van, sliding the back door open quickly and throwing himself in.
“Go!” he yelled.
I stomped on the gas, sending the van screeching forward. Bill joined Jen and Kara in the small area behind the driver’s seat.
“How is he?”
“I don’t know,” Jen replied anxiously.
“We’re taking him to the hospital,” I informed Bill, trying to keep my focus on the road and not what was going on behind me.
My brain was going a hundred miles an hour, and the van was going fifty. Thoughts of Will, Derek, and Jake’s blood loss wreaked havoc on my ability to think straight. But I didn’t have time to sort out my thoughts of the issues at hand. Out of the corner of my eye in the rearview mirror, I saw single headlights and heard a familiar roar through the wind that pummeled the inside of the van.
“Shit!” I screeched.
The loud rumble of the motorcycles got closer.
“Jen! Switch!” Bill yelled.
Jen crawled over Jake to switch places with Bill. Bill climbed into the passenger seat, quickly giving me directions and motioning for me to take a left.
“Left, Joy!” He snapped at me. “Keep him steady, Jen!”
“I’m trying!” she spit over the noise of the wind hurtling through all of the broken windows.
Inside the van was a ton of commotion, yelling, crying, and barking of directions. I couldn’t help but continue to neurotically look in the side and rearview mirrors, watching our pursuers as they swayed and zigzagged through the streets behind us.
“Turn right, now!” Bill yelled, and I spun the wheel, clipping the edge of the sidewalk and curb. “Take another right, now!” I twirled the steering wheel once again and let it slip through my fingers to right itself.
“Faster, Joy!”
I crunched down the gas pedal again, and we propelled forward. My heart was skipping beats in my chest. Bill raised his hand and pointed to a parking lot behind a restaurant.
“Pull in there! And kill it!” Bill bellowed. The tires screeched, and I flipped it around into a parking spot. I threw it in park and ripped the keys out of the ignition. “Everyone get down!”
I felt the van rock as everyone scooted down. The thunder of the motorcycles passed by, and I slowly let out my breath.
“Hospital,” Jen breathed out.
I looked over at Bill, his eyes closed, as he leaned his head against the doorframe. I turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the spot.
“Double back the way we came,” Bill instructed me. I did what he told me on autopilot. My arms and legs moved, but my mind was crying. I kept the tears locked away. I yearned to see Will, and I hoped he and Derek could catch up to us soon.
Chapter 16
Derek:
“She’s out,” repeats over and over again in Derek’s head. The relief is overwhelming. He wants to get to her and hold her again, but this isn’t over. He needs to keep his head in the game. The team is counting on him to remain focused, whether the plan has gone to shit or not.
“Derek, look out!” Will shouts as a bullet whizzes by his head. Mouse!
That fuckin’ weasel!
Derek flips the switch in his combat trained mind...
Take ’em down!
He spins on the pavement and aims his gun. He is barrel to barrel with Mouse. Even in the semi-darkness with only the glow of the moon, Derek can see Mouse’s eye twitch uncontrollably.
“I don’t want to have to hurt you, Derek,” he says nervously.
“Really? And what was that? You tried to blow my head off not two seconds ago,” Derek spits with anger and loathing. He braces his legs and holds his gun steady. “I never fuckin’ liked you!”
Will silently hides in the shadows by the warehouse wall. Derek can feel his presence. It’s always been like that. Since they first started together in the recruiting program, they have always been in sync. They always know what each other is thinking, can always find each other, no matter how difficult the situation.
Mouse is wavering. He is second-guessing himself, and that is never smart in this type of business. Derek sees his apprehension.
“What’s the matter, Mouse? Did you lose your balls?”
Mouse’s eyes flash with anger for only a second, and he moves his arm distinctly like he’s ready to shoot. A shot is fired from the shadows, and Mouse crashes to the asphalt clutching his knee. He writhes in agony as his gun spirals and skitters across the ground.
Will steps out from the wall to stand next to Derek in the faint light. The two of them stand over Mouse, watching him thrash.
“So...Will Harrison is alive!” The diabolical voice of Tommy travels across the darkness. Will and Derek turn back-to-back scanning for the threat. “You know, I never really trusted you, Derek. I had my doubts. I should have gone with my instincts.”
“Yeah, you probably should have,” Derek grinds out mockingly.
Tommy steps out from the deep dark shadows, the barrel of his gun gleams in the faint light. Mouse is wailing.
“Shut up! Mouse!” Tommy yells. “You are so fuckin’ annoying!”
Tommy trains his gun on Derek and Will. He creeps forward. Anger mars his face. He knows his operation is crumbling down around him. Matthews will be here any minute, and his one trump card just screeched away in a van. Dammit!
“Brian!” Tommy calls harshly. No response.
“Where is my daughter!?”
Everyone looks for the origin of the sound. Stepping out from around the building is their boss...Matthews! His big brutish arm is wrapped around Brian’s neck, and he has a gun to his head.
Derek restrains himself from firing, seething hatred wells up inside him.
&nbs
p; “Calm down, dude...” Will whispers to Derek. He can sense Derek’s flare of anger.
Tommy ducks behind a car and yells arrogantly, “She’s dead if you...”
Tommy’s threat is cut off. Brian elbows Matthews in the ribs and dodges away from him. Shots are fired from the rooftop, and Matthews fires his gun blindly in the air, clipping Brian in the back. Brian falls, skidding on the asphalt and landing in a heap.
Agents dressed in riot gear flock the area. Derek and Will dive for cover.
“What the hell!?” Will curses under his breath.
“Get them!” Matthews barks to his men.
The team moves and rushes along the area.
*****
Joy:
We squealed into the roundabout in front of the emergency room of Sundlun hospital. Bill jumped out and ran through the automatic sliding glass doors to the nurse’s station. Within a matter of seconds, medical staff was running to the van and a gurney was wheeled outside.
Bill stood aside allowing to EMTs to gently slide Jake out of the van and onto the gurney. Immediately, a nurse placed oxygen over his face, and they wheeled him away into the hospital. Jen followed anxiously.
More staff swarmed the van, examining and helping the two abducted girls and Kara. Kara slumped with exhaustion into the arms of a young male nurse.
“Miss? Are you hurt?” an older man asked me. I shook off my fog, as people were lead away for medical treatment.
“I’m okay,” I said softly.
Bill walked around to my side of the van and opened my door.
“Why don’t you go inside, I’ll park this in the lot,” he offered.
I stepped out of the van, propelling my feet forward towards the magical doors offering solace and help. I sat down in a chair covered in a padded red plastic in the center of the waiting room. My head felt heavy, so I rested it on my hands.
Will! Where was he? I was so worried that I was paralyzed in this chair.
The distinct smell of ammonia and disinfectant permeated the air, keeping me grounded and aware that I was in a hospital. I watched as people came and went around me. The chairs that surrounded me were vacant and lifeless.
