HIDDEN

Chapter 2 "The Mouse in a lion's den"

Three days have passed since the day the borders of the city became fully secured, the team had little to no ammo and took refuge in the same abandoned hotel. None of them have a plan to escape the area, and none of them have any hope to do so. Charlie is weakened by his wound, Duke is exhausted trying to fix the radio, and James is busy organizing the rations they have, counting all of the ammunition in his magazines, and laying out the rest of the food and water on the table. Charlie sprays alcohol in his wound, trying to disinfect it before wrapping another bandage around his leg. James notes down how much they have left, and makes another list of things they need.

After he writes the necessities that they need to survive, he heads of to the city, wearing a hood to hide his identity and blend in among the crowd. He wanders in the streets of Abrachska, and pickpockets cash from people. After getting some bucks, he goes to the local market and buys off some supplies. Before leaving with a basket of needs, he spots a poor young girl, out of pity, he handed a dollar to the kid. He heads to a pharmacy, and buys some alcohol and bandages for Charlie, until he spots a familiar face.

In the crowd, he sees a subdued Victor being held by two policemen, without a second to react, he follows them to a prison, he observes as they drag him to the infirmary to treat his amputated arm and eye. James creates a plan to try and free Victor, he looks around his surroundings as he finds a vent, sparking his mind. A few hours later, Victor is sent to his prison cell, the guards close the door and mock him, one of them saying "You should've stayed dead." James, after hearing his perfect english accent, wonders if he was an American and takes note of it. After the coast was clear, he breaks off the vent, giving Victor a spook. He somersaults down as Victor questions his appearance. "The hell are you doing here?" Victor asks, grasping the bars of his cell, "no time for questions, we must let you out first." James replies, he gathers up momentum and breaks the door open, setting Victor free.

"You are one crazy guy!" Victor shouts, James leaps back to the vent and helps Victor in. Soon they got out of the place, and James wraps his clothing around him so he wouldn't be suspected. They slowly head back to the hotel, having no suspicions as they were wandering back. They head upstairs, heading to the apartment that they took refuge in. James opens the door, revealing a sleeping Duke and Charlie whom is looking out of the boarded window. James unpacks the medicine, and gives it to Charlie so he could try to recover his leg. James heads back to his table, were he starts to organize his items he got from the market. Victor who was new to the place, strolls around and got bored, he then spots the sleeping Duke and gets an idea.

The menacing Victor grabs a sharpie and starts to create his lovely art on poor Duke's face. Charlie gets annoyed by the giggle Victor makes, whilst James is trying not to laugh at the sight of Duke's new face. After 6 days, they maintained their mentality by simple games and pranks. after 12 days, they start to get low on supplies, James sees this and traverses to the markets to start getting more supplies, little did James knew that someone is busy watching him from affar. The scene turns to a dark area with only TV's projecting camera footage as the only light source, a man who goes by the name Maxhell then appears, and smirks at the sight of James in one of the cameras. He then says with a menacing voice "We meet again, Mr. James.".