Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 29⌉

The lab door busted open, revealing Atlantis, Jayla, and Natasha, soaking wet from the rain. At the counter, Andy jumped and his eyes darted between the girls. "How'd you get the- nevermind- where... Where is Rich?"

"That's the issue," Atlantis caught her breath, tumbling against the wall whilst still standing. "He locked us in the security room. Natasha got us out, but it was already too late. I heard his voice echo through the tower. I didn't see him, but I'm certain he was caught. Meaning he's in Blake's custody."

Andy's eyes went wide and he quickly gathered a bag of weapons and devices. He moved very quickly, evident that he was nervous if it wasn't clear enough when his hands began to shake. "He's going to kill him if we don't leave now. Luckily I finished the weapon. You may not like it."

Atlantis raised an eyebrow before Andy placed a large gun on the counter. "Another 48 XR?!" Atlantis exclaimed.

"No," Andy picked it up. "A 49 XR. It holds extra ammunition and it doesn't need a steady hand to work at its best. Someone could have Tourette's and they could still do a hell of a lot of damage. If anything, it should be more illegal than the 48 XR, but this is new. It hasn't been made before. But we can't stand here and talk about it. We have to get that idiot out of there."

"I thought it was, like, your prophecy to not leave the lab unattended?" Jayla tilted her head.

"In a situation like this, it's fine. We won't be staying in Adelmir anyway," Andy threw the bag over his shoulder, motioning towards the door. They filed out of the lab, using the walk out into the city as a time to discuss their plan. They formulated one quickly before they ran to Black Tower, weaving through people and cars.

⇤⇥

"Well, Rich, it's the end of the line for you," Blake said, unlocking the cell of a broken down Rich and dead Alex. Rich was on the floor, trying to recover from Alex's murder. It felt like he had lost everything. He sighed faintly and looked at Blake.

"I thought you said tomorrow evening," he replied monotonously.

"No, it gives your comrades enough time to try and break you out of here. We're going now. Though it doesn't seem like you mind all that much."

Rich narrowed his eyes as his shoulders tensed. "Why would I?" he mumbled. "What about the party at the front? Don't you think this is a bad time to kill me?"

"I ended it. The party, I mean," Blake walked into the cell, handcuffing Rich and pulling him to his feet. "Besides, since Winters told me everything, it's been more so a cover-up than a party."

Rich's hand tugged at the brown hair on his head, tears still drowning his eyes as he body shook under his own weight. "Of course. Of course he betrayed us."

A smile formed on Blake's lips, but his face went out of view as he escorted Rich out of the cell block, away from the dead corpse of his best friend. He stumbled as he walked, staring blankly at the ground. He didn't try to fight Blake - instead he just let everything happen. He forced himself to breathe deeply instead of panicking, but he couldn't. He wasn't scared to die - he just didn't want to leave the world behind. He didn't want to leave Andy behind. Or Atlantis, Jayla, or Natasha. Honestly, a part of him also didn't want to leave Anthony behind. He figured there was more to the situation than what Blake gave away, but Rich couldn't fight his rising anger that Anthony had ratted them out. He was the same guy who hated Blake on such an extreme level - but he ran back anyway like some sort of horrible addiction.

"I didn't want to have to do this, Rich. If you had just let everything happen seven years ago, you wouldn't be off to the death sentence right now. You wouldn't end up in less than an hour a mangled corpse of bullet wounds," Blake said as they descended to the underground level of the tower. Along with the labs, the basement also held what was quite literally called 'The Execution Room.'