~ Hidden Love ~

CH6 - E Pluribus Unum [PT1]

"It's the gate." I told Dustin and Steve. We all agreed to get out of here as soon as possible and we rushed down the stairs.

"I don't understand. You've seen this before?" Robin asked us.

"Not exactly." Steve replied.

"Then what, exactly?"

"All you need to know is that it's really bad." Dustin told her.

"It's not just bad, it's terrible." I told him.

"Yeah, like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad." Dustin said.

"And you know about this how?" Robin asked.

"Um, Steve?" Erica started. "Where's your Russian friend?" We all then looked down to the little pile of dried blood and then alarms started blaring.

"Shit." Steve said as he ran over to the door. There was shouting outside and Steve slammed the door. "Shit." He then motioned us to go back up the stairs. "Go, go, go, go, go!" He yelled as we ran up the stairs. We went through the little room and through the 'control center'. We stopped for a moment as we followed Dustin. The Russian guards were right on our tail. We kept pushing past people and we ended up near the weird lazar thing drilling the gate open. Dustin kept screaming as Steve yelled at us to follow him. We pushed past more people and Steve knocked over some barrels on top of some soldiers. He rushed us through a door as he yelled at me to help hold it in place. I ran over to him and placed my back against it. Erica found a vent and called us over.

"Come on!" Dustin and Robin yelled at us.

"Go! Just get out of here!" Steve yelled back to them.

"Go, come on, now!"

"Dustin, just go get help! We'll be okay! Now go!" I yelled at him as he stood inside the vent.

"What are you doing?!" Steve yelled at him as Dustin stood in the vent.

"Go!" Steve and I shouted at him.

"I won't forget you!" Dustin shouted at us.

"Go!" I yelled at him as he went inside the vent and closed it. I looked at Steve with my face filled with the same amount of worry his was. He opened his mouth to say something, but we were thrown backwards as the door flew open. We hit the wall behind us as soldiers crowded around us. Steve and I slowly put our hands up as they aimed their guns at us.

"Well, shit." I muttered to Steve. The soldiers grabbed us and drug us opposite ways from each other. They brought me to an empty room with a concrete bench. I was thrown down and with my hands bound. All of the soldiers left the room except for one.  Then a scary looking guy walked inside. He looked like he was the captain or something. He just stood there for a moment, looking at me.

"Who do you work for?" He asked me.

"I work for Scoops Ahoy." I answered him. He chuckled at my response as he walked a little closer to me.

"Who do you work for?"

"I said I work at Scoops Ahoy." I answered him as he stared through me.

"How did you get in?" I looked at him for a moment trying to figure out a better lie.

"We didn't get one of our supply boxes so we went to the supplying dock and.. the door was open so we walked inside to grab our box, but the room turned into an elevator and now we're down.. here." I told him with a straight face.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." He said as he knelt down to face me. "Last chance. Who do you work for?"

"Are you fucking deaf? I said I work at–" I answered him as I got backhanded. I winced as I felt a stinging across the left side of my face. I took a deep breath as my eyes started to water from the sudden stinging. I sat there with my head turned away as he grabbed my chin and turned me to face him.