Chapter 40

While the chaos erupted around me I could only feel the weight of Kyle's body pressed against mine and the hardened earth digging into my hands and face, as the pounding in my ears grew louder and louder. I couldn't tell if Kyle was hurt, I couldn't even tell if I was, the only thing I knew, was that I was scared stiff to the point where I could no longer open my mouth to scream.

I snapped my eyes shut, as if not being able to see the flying bark and leaves would somehow make it all go away. My chest felt tight, my nose was running and I imagined the wet stuff seeping through my eye lids to be tears. I took a shallow breath which hurt like hell and only succeeded in burning my sore throat. When I felt Kyle shift above me, my heart jumped with relief.

He was okay.

He wasn't dead...at least as far as I could tell.

"Ah!" I heard him yell right then and a moment later his weight completely left my body and I was being pulled from the ground, almost roughly.

"Come on, stay as close to the ground as you can and run!" I heard Nathan shout and I twisted around in surprise to see him right behind me, shoving me and Kyle into the direction he wanted us to go.

I stumbled a few times because I was foolish enough to look back, checking to make sure Nate was still safe behind us, and my aching chest didn't do much to make the journey any easier.

Shots were still being fired and every so often I could swear a stray whizzed past us, but with Nate's insistence I kept going, tearing through the trees as fast as I could manage, while keeping my head down and body bent at the waist. Twice I fell, injuring my already scraped up knee and I could feel the blood running down the inside of my pant leg.

The further we ran, the more muted the sounds of the shooting became, and after a while, all I could hear was the sound of our feet passing lightly over the ground and my own heart still pounding rapidly in my chest. When I peeled my eyes from the ground and looked up ahead, I spotted Eddie just as he dove behind the bark of a tree, and even further away I could see John, settling in with a guy whose identity I couldn't decipher from such a distance.

The third time I tripped, it was over the unmoving body of a man I'd never seen before and I slapped my hand over my mouth to hold in the shocked shout that was sure to burst free, when I realized just why he wasn't moving; a shot to the head.

I watched, with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as Nate searched through the man's clothes, managing to pull a silver gun from the waistband of the dead guy's jeans. Then we were on the move again.

Beside me, Kyle panted as we went, expertly sidestepping protruding roots and every other trap nature flung our way, but with each step the tightness in my chest grew until I felt as if I couldn't breathe. When the tingling started in my fingers and the black dots started flashing before my eyes I stopped completely, sliding against a weak looking tree and onto the ground, where I clutched at my chest in hopes that the feeling would pass.

Nate grabbed my arm, trying to pull me up again, but I fought against his hold in panic, desperately shoving him away from me so I could catch a breath.

"Run! Go to Eddie!" he shouted at Kyle who took off in the direction we had been going.

"Riley, come on we can't stay here!" Nate was yelling but even though he crouched directly in front of me, he sounded farther away.

"I can't...breathe...wa...wait." I gasped out. By now my lungs were burning, and I tore at my shirt trying to get it off me so I could breathe easier.

Nate grabbed my hands and pulled me up, but my knees buckled, and he was forced to drag me along the ground while I continued to gasp for air. I felt as though I was drowning and I fought, kicking and clawing at him so I could catch a breath.

After what seemed like a lifetime later, I felt the hard bark of a tree against my back and Nate was crouched before me, my face trapped in his hands.

"Riles listen to me."

I tilted my head, sucking in air from wherever it chose to come and the tears spilled over from my watery eyes.

"Breathe Riley, I'm here, just breathe." He was saying over and over again and for a while he demonstrated, exaggerating his breathing as if he wanted me to mimic him.

"Just breathe, that's right, just relax and breathe."

As the minutes ticked by, the tightness in my chest slowly began to ease and I practiced taking breaths as deep as I could manage. Nate stuck with me, my face still held between his palms as he encouraged, until eventually the tightness fell away completely and all I was left with was a strange burning sensation in my chest and an aching head.

I slumped against the tree, exhausted and feeling completely worn out and for a moment I closed my eyes and imagined how good it would feel to sleep.

"You're burning up. What the hell are you two doing out here?" he questioned and I cracked an eye open to look at him.

"We hitched a ride with Simon." I said by way of explanation and he swore.

"Why am I not fucking surprised." He said, his expression having changed to one of anger, before he pinched the bridge of his nose and pushed up from the ground.

"Come on we can't stay here."

I let out an exasperated breath. "Just give me two minutes please." I pleaded, too weary to even muster the strength I would need to pull myself from the ground.

Nate turned around and signaled to Eddie and a moment later, he and Kyle were pushing up from their own spots and taking off through the trees.

"You can rest when this is all over. If we stay here we might as well sign our own death certificates. Let's go." He said seriously then pulled me to my feet, wrapping his arm around my waist so that most of my weight rested on him as we ran.

I could still hear the shooting in the distance and as we ran, it sounded as if it was getting nearer rather than farther away, which meant they were catching up to us. The only good news really, was that shooting meant that the agents were finally engaged in the chaos and we at least had some help.

I couldn't see the others up ahead, but what I could see was a break in the trees and I wondered as I ran, whether we were running toward some sort of clearing.

"There's a warehouse up ahead, if we can get there, we'll be safe." Nate explained.

If was a tough time to have the flu and I was certainly reaping all the rewards of the damned illness; runny nose, watery eyes, swollen lymph nodes, cold sweats and all. I never thought I would crave a bed as much as I did then.

The closer we got the clearing, the more my hopes rose. Nate said we would be safe when we got there and I desperately needed for us all to be safe. It was not to be however, because when we finally broke through the trees, it wasn't a clearing that we stumbled upon, but the warehouse Nate mentioned. It was huge and ancient but I failed to see how we could be any safer here than we were back in the trees.

Up ahead Eddie, Kyle and the guy who'd been with John were approaching the massive metal doors of the place and Nate pulled me along, cursing viciously as he looked around.

"Where the fuck is my backup?" he was shouting and Eddie turned to him, looking just as pissed, if not more so.

"Once again Simon has to let me down. Why am I not surprised." He ranted as he approached the doors.

"When we got here the cops and a bunch of agents were further down. Maybe they heard the shooting in the trees and decided to stop." I tried to defend Simon, but the others weren't listening to me and I took the opportunity to slide to the ground, resting up a bit before they decided on their next course of action.

I fixed my gaze on the guy who'd been with John and recognized him as the guy from the year book; guard Kelly's son. I disliked him instantly. He and his asshole of a father were the reason we were in this mess, yet here he was standing around looking scared and lost.

"Where's Johnny?" Kyle asked then and everyone froze. Eddie and Nate looked around in surprised confusion before fastening their gaze on the newcomer.

"Where's John?" Nate questioned, his eyes narrowed as he took one step, then another towards him.

He back up, raising his hands before him. "I don't know he told me to run so I ran." He said, voice shaking as he did.

Nate ran a hand over his face in frustration. "Watch the kid." He told Eddie then surprised me when he took off heading right back into the forest we'd just emerged from.

I pushed up from the ground, taking an unsteady step in that direction and Eddie grabbed my arm. When I looked at him he shook his head and I bit my lip, looking back at the trees Nate had just disappeared into.

Right then Eddie bent to grab a rusted metal pole from the ground and turned to the locked warehouse door.

Kyle gasped then and I glanced his way to watch as he pulled something from the pocket of his jeans. "I almost forgot about this." He said, pulling one of Simon's phones out to show us.

I hadn't even seen when he'd pocketed it.

Eddie grabbed it from his hand and ruffled Kyle hair, grinning as he tapped the phone screen. "Jesus Kyle what would we do without you?"

"You call Simon, I'll get the door open." Kyle assured him, then pulled the pole from his hand and slammed it against the bottom half of the rusted lock. It didn't budge but he kept trying, slamming again and again.

Beside me Eddie, had the phone to his ear and save for the clunking of pole against lock, it was just quiet enough for me to make out Simon's voice when he finally answered.

"We're in!" Kyle shouted in delight and I sighed in relief when the lock fell to the ground and he pushed the massive doors open.

Eddie ushered us in and pushed up the door behind us, probably to give the illusion that it was still locked.

"...met up with them a few minutes ago, what the fuck were you thinking Si?" Eddie was saying as we followed him further into the place.

It was filthy and old and I hoped the putrid smell coming from one corner of the room was not that of rotting flesh. Up ahead, a rat the size of my fist scurried past and cringed. The sooner we got out of here, the better.

The place was mostly filled with junk; scraps of metal, sullied plastic cups, broken glass and pretty much everything one would expect to see in an abandoned warehouse.

It was pretty dark, the only source of light coming from the large dirty windows in the center of the room, which allowed me to make out the rows and rows of shelves and stacks upon stacks of greasy metal.

"We've got Edward Kelly. They brought him in ten minutes ago." I heard Simon say and I spun around to look at Eddie who looked just as surprised as I was.

"Wait, he wasn't among the assholes shooting at us?"

"No he turned up at the bureau, saying some FBI agent took his son and he wanted him back. I got the call, put two and two together and had them bring him out here."

Eddie scratched his head. He looked as frustrated as I felt.

"So he has nothing to do with this then." Eddie surmised.

"I wouldn't say that." Simon continued, then a pause and we could hear him talking to someone in the background.

"Alright, forget that, just hurry up and get your ass down to the warehouse, we're running out of bullets and something tells me, things are gonna heat up real soon."

"We'll be there in five minutes... and Eddie..." Simon trailed off.

"Yeah?"

Pause

"Nothing...just sit tight." Then the line went dead and we were plunged right back into silence.

"This is all just so fucked up." I sighed.

"Come on, we gotta get upstairs." Eddie said and we followed behind him as he led the way, clearly familiar with the layout of the place.

We found a stairway, hidden behind another stack of ripped up metal. It was solid enough that I didn't fear falling through as I stepped up, and in no time we found ourselves in another large space, much like downstairs only, with far more places to hide or get lost.

The dust was practically growing in the room and the air was thick with the smell of grease and a strange chemical.

"What was this place used for anyway?" I questioned.

"Scrap metal trade." Eddie said, "At least that's what they advertised the business as until we found the drugs in the back room." he continued, pointing to a door further down the way.

We walked through aisle after aisle, and passed row after row of shelving before coming to stop in front of one particular shelf standing by itself in a corner. Eddie pulled it away from the wall, which took some amount of effort and the scarping of metal against the concrete floor was loud and startling.

Behind it, was a door I hadn't expected to be there and Eddie pried it open and stepped inside. We all filed in behind him into another open space about half the size of the first room with more stacks of junk.

Down stairs, as clear as day we heard the scraping of the warehouse doors and knew we had company. Eddie waved us over to crouch behind a large shelf in the back of the room and drew his weapon, moving silently across the room and out the door, leaving the three of us to wait silently for the approach of our visitor.

There was just no way they could find us where we were. They'd have to search and that alone would take a while. I hoped, but within five minutes I heard the footsteps approaching and I sighed in relief when it was Eddie who reentered with John and Nate in tow.

"Thank God!" Kyle and I breathed in unison.

"It won't be long now before they find this place." John spoke, moving to the back of the room where we were crouched, and lowering himself to the ground. Nate and Eddie followed suit and then it was the six of us sitting there behind shelf and the stacks of metal in silence.

"I got ahold of Simon, they're five minutes out." Eddie announced and Nate's brows furrowed.

"How'd you manage that? John lost the phone miles back." He continued and Eddie tilted his head to Kyle whose eyes were fixed on John.

"I took it from the car before we came looking for you guys." He offered with a small smile and John nodded. He didn't seem particularly pissed that we were out here, instead he looked just as worn as Nate and Eddie, as if the only thing he wanted to do right then was go home.

Nate shifted to sit in front of me and when I smiled at him, he returned it.

"What the hell happened to your face?" John's voice interrupted the brief silence once again and I watched him take Kyle's chin in hand, turning my friend's face so he could inspect the large angry bruise that ran from his chin to eye. The eye was already swelling, making him look like he'd been punched a few times or at least taken too many doors to the face.

"I was attacked by a tree branch." Kyle explained and I found myself grinning despite the serious shit we were in.

John only shook his head, let go of Kyle's face and grumbled something to himself.

"How are you feeling?" Nate asked and I grimaced.

"Like I just wanna go home." I said and from the corner of my eye I saw Kyle nod.

"I think it's time we asked James here a few questions." Eddie said and the guy's eyes widened; in fear? in surprise? I couldn't tell anymore.

"We don't have the time. We've got to find them a place to hide until this mess is over." John interrupted and Nate nodded in agreement. I imagined he meant James, Kyle and me and I dreaded the thought of being separated from Nate again.

"Alright let's-" Nate began and was in the process of pushing up from the ground when we heard the familiar scraping of the warehouse door against the concrete floor downstairs.

"Too late." John hissed and I nervously licked my dry lips.

I watched as John checked his gun. "I'm outta bullets." He announced and almost like a domino effect Eddie and Nate did the same.

"I've got one." Eddie said and I looked at the two guns Nate held, hoping he would have better news.

The first one he checked came up empty and he placed it on the ground beside him.

"Three." He said when he checked the other and I looked at each of their grim faces, worrying my lower lip as I imagined what this must mean.

"We better hope Si comes through soon or we're dead men." Eddie said seriously and before I could blink, John pulled Kyle to him and kissed him soundly on the lips.

It was this unusual display of affection from John that sent a sliver of fear through me and I looked at Nate, praying he would offer me some whisper of hope, praying that this wasn't seriously the end.

"It's okay, we're all gonna be fine." He said, but the small smile he offered me was weak and unconvincing.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

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-unedited.