Double Crossed

Stories

The sudden stop of the vehicle jerks me off balance and my back hits the back seat with a thud. Ryan, who was looking out the front windshield when the sudden stop occurred, gets thrown head first into the seat. Immediately my gun is out and I look over to check if Ryan is alright. He's lying on the floor, not unconscious, but not completely conscience either. He's disoriented and probably seeing black dots across his vision. I act purely on instinct as I get up so I'm kneeling over top of Ryan and my gun is placed over top of the back seat so the seat itself is acting as my shield.

Breath leaves my lungs, it's as though someone has knocked the air out of me. Standing in front of the car is the last person I expected to see. There's a deep gash across his forehead causing the blood to run down his face and pool at his chin, continuing to drip down and soak his tattered, white shirt. Although his shirt's not so white anymore, it's covered in blood, dirt, and some foreign substances I can't identify. His right arm is dangling, lifeless, at his side while clutching it with his other hand. Various small cuts line his face and the exposed parts of his body from his tattered clothes.

It's Cadwell.

Shock fills my face and leaves me paralyzed for a moment. A couple seconds pass and I look to my left, where Ryan has shaken off his dizziness and joined me with his gun drawn. His face is shocked too, although I see a mixture of emotions. Anger, sadness, and relief is also swirling in his brown eyes. I'm not surprised but I can't pretend to know what this must be like for him. Ryan was always close with Cadwell, almost like brothers, and now to see him beaten and broken like this... As much as I would like to comfort him though, there's a much more pressing matter at hand.

We don't waste a second, the both of us put our guns back into the waist band of our pants and jump out of the car through the trunk. By the time we reach Cadwell, he has fallen to his knees and Jacky and Derek are already there helping him.

"Cadwell!" I yell while running towards him. The closer I get to him the worse his injuries seem to get. "Oh my gosh, what happened?" Kneeling down beside him, I inspect the cut on his forehead. It looks bad, blood runs down and covers half his face while he continues to clutch his arm with his left hand.

"Red-I tried to-Mr. Mann-I couldn't-" Cadwell starts to stutter and mumble incoherently. Glancing over my shoulder, I see Derek is just closing the back door of the van with the medical kit we brought in his hand. He rushes over and almost knocks me over as he skids to a stop. Derek pulls out wipes and starts to wipe the blood from his face.

The entire time Derek is cleaning his face, Cadwell keeps a stoic expression on his face. I begin to grow worried and look over at Ryan only to see the same things I'm worried about on his face as well. "We need to keep moving, Hecate will be here any time. Volant and I will take care of him in the back." Derek pauses, the worried expression on his face remaining, before he nods and gives Ryan the medical kit.

Together, Derek, Jacky and I help Cadwell into the trunk of the van and lean him against the back seat. I climb in before Ryan does and the others get back into their respective seats and we are on our way again.

"Can you pass me the medical kit, Ryan?" I ask. The cut on Cadwell's face has started bleeding again and it almost looks worse than it did before because now it's red and irritated. Cadwell continues to murmur incoherent thoughts, repeating Red's name over and over again. I worriedly glace at Ryan as he hands me the medical kit.