Isabella

15

"Mama, where are all the guns?" Luke asked in an almost terrified voice, though he masked it very well. His eyes gleamed in confusion as he turned to the small woman who stood only metres away. 

"I got rid of them." She responded honestly, shrugging her shoulders without an ounce of regret. Isabella tried to offer her a smile, but the fear of being hilariously outgunned weighed too much on her conscience. 

"Very noble of you, Mrs Hobbs." Deckard complimented before turning back to show his troublesome expression. 

"These guns, they've killed all my family." Mrs Hobbs admitted firmly, giving the newcomers an understanding of why she would want to remove them all from her home, "So if we're going to fight, we're going to fight with our fists and our hearts." Pointing to each one in turn, Isabella nodded fondly, trying her best to agree and make light of the dire situation at hand. 

"She's right; we'll just have to fight like we used to. We've done it before; we can do it again." Bella suggested, glancing between the two Shaw brothers, who had no choice but to agree with her logic. 

"I guess we're going to war with the family heirlooms." Luke shrugged in bewilderment, his wide frame somewhat of an unsure mess, "But we're gonna need a lot more." 

Though there were many varieties of weapons on display, there were not nearly enough to defeat any enemy. If they wanted any hope of winning, they needed to use their heads, and they needed to collect more resources.

"We still have no chance against their firepower," Owen stated with brutal honesty, and everyone knew he was right. 

Isabella creased her forehead, trying to think of a way around the issue, and one suddenly came to mind, "But Eteon's guns are controlled by their biometric scanners. If I hack into their systems again, I can cut off their weapons long enough for us to move in and take the higher ground." 

Deckard nodded his head proudly, a smirk growing on his face now that they realised they might have a chance to win. "How much time can you buy us?" Luke asked hesitantly, glancing at their supply of weapons whilst balancing the strength of Eteon in his mind. 

"As long as you need. If they change the code, I'll just hack it again." Isabella promised, reassuring the group that their problems could be solved. She could feel Owen staring at her with a growing smile, "Bella, I could kiss you right now." 

Laughing freely for the first time in a while, Isabella felt hope rush back through her veins, "Please don't." She nudged Owen's arm in a friendly manner before he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, ruffling her hair annoyingly. 

"Well, we're still going to need to prepare, but I have a few tricks in mind," Luke admitted to his family, looking towards his mother for the go-ahead. She nodded her head proudly, willing to offer the help of anyone he may require, "Whatever you do, don't get yourself killed." 

***

Bella, Luke, Owen and Deckard walked quickly through the factory, following the guidance of Hobbs to gather what he so desperately needed. The area had come alive with activity, every man practising with their weapons or organising their equipment. 

From a distance, Isabella spotted Hattie and Jonah working on the machine, and from the smiles growing on both of their faces, it seemed like it must be on the road to full recovery. 

"Where are you taking us, Hobbs?" Deckard asked warily as he pulled back a rag that covered one of the rock-faced walls. Isabella hadn't realised that the factory had been built against a cliff, but as her eyes wandered the back wall, she soon realised that the grey rocks were the natural landscape. 

Under the rag was a dark passageway carved through the rock, whatever they were hiding in there must have been very important or very dangerous. 

As Luke ducked his head slightly to fit in the gap, Bella glanced at Deck with confusion. He shrugged his shoulders lightly, insinuating that he had no idea what they were doing either, but followed behind the tall man, grasping Isabella's hand as he sauntered by. 

Although the passage was dimly lit, they could make out just enough to see where they were going. Every so often, Deckard squeezed Bella's hand, alerting her of a change in direction or a low-hanging rock, helping her avoid any further accidents. 

Unfortunately for Owen, Isabella forgot to warn him on occasion, and she heard little whimpers of pain as he blindly strolled into the walls around him. 

Finally, they came to a little opening where all of them had enough room to stand up freely, "What on Earth are we doing in here?" Owen complained, holding his hand to his forehead, which was slightly red from the collisions he had made. Isabella, too, wanted to know, and so Luke cleared his throat, pointing to a small gap in the rock wall. 

"In there should be enough dynamite to blow up the whole Eteon army." Luke explained, looking quite proud of himself, but Deckard only frowned, "You keep dynamite here? Under god knows how many tonnes of rocks?" 

Hobbs nodded with a smile on his face, not understanding Deckard's concern until Isabella expanded, "But what if it went off? This whole thing would collapse and take out the whole factory." 

Her comments dawned on him slowly, and his smile faded as he scratched the back of his head foolishly, "Oh yeah, we never thought of that." To say he was a trained hunter and experienced in the weaponry field, he hadn't planned the storage particularly well. Deckard rolled his eyes at his incompetence, urging him to continue regardless. 

Meanwhile, Isabella eyed up the hole in the wall. Unless there was a way to reach the explosives from the outside, there was no way Deckard, Owen or Luke could get through the small gap. 

"When I was a little kid, my dad used to make me climb in through that gap and pass him whatever he needed. As you can see, I'm a bit too big to climb through now." Hobbs explained, flexing his muscles obnoxiously as Isabella knew what he was trying to get at. She wasn't going to make it easy for him. He'd have to directly ask her to climb through himself. 

"So what do you expect us to do about that?" Owen questioned obliviously, not at all amused that Hobbs could just be wasting their time when they could be doing something useful to help Hattie. 

"Well... one of us could fit through. Isabella?" Hobbs asked hesitantly, almost withdrawing back into himself in case she refused. Glancing at Deckard, Bella shrugged her shoulders ambivalently, "Fine." 

With a lot of tight movements and shouted warnings, Isabella managed to get into the shielded cave, and she was amazed by the vast amount of weapons that sat in such an inconspicuous place.