Youngbloods of the World, Stand Up and Fight

Too Easy for My Taste

Warning !!

It may seem like they get off easy and without a fight in this chapter, but don't worry, they don't.

Carry on ^^

~~~

It wasn't until Pete shook him awake, did Patrick realize that he'd fallen asleep on the couch.

Yawning, he sat up, trying to stretch out and wake himself up.

"Dude, we're almost there. You have to get up," his best friend said quietly, looking over him with concern etched into his features.

"I know, I know," Patrick responded, batting away his hand before rubbing his eyes. "How long was I out?"

"You fell asleep almost ten hours ago, man. Pretty much slept through the whole rest of the ride."

"Where's everyone else?"

"Joe's driving. Andy, Kayla and Aspen are still asleep, and Rina is cleaning and bandaging Carlee's wound."

Nodding, he looked up, still trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. It was hard to process that they were back where they had started after almost three weeks of hunting down other Youngbloods. However, it was starting to become evident how dangerous this was going to be. Turning and facing the door that led to the back, he let out a sigh.

"Pete. I don't want Rina or Carlee to come with us into the hospital. Carlee needs to rest, and Rina needs to be able to tend to her wounds, and keep it disinfected... They just... they can't be put into anymore danger until they're one-hundred percent ready to fight."

"I know, 'Trick," Pete said with a nod. "And don't worry. Neither of them are leaving this bus. And we can leave Andy to keep an eye on them."

"Alright..." Patrick said quietly, standing up as the bus came to a complete stop.

"Guess we're there. I'll wake up Andy and the girls," he announced, heading into the back.

Laying into the cushions of the couch, Patrick let out another sigh enjoying what he knew would be his last minutes of peace before running right into the line of fire. It wasn't going to pretty, that's for sure. None of them would go in there and escape without a scratch. That was pretty much next to impossible. No, they wouldn't get out without getting hurt, but they would get out. Alive, and with Hope who is also still alive. With all of her limbs. Hopefully.

A soft thud echoed throughout the space, causing him to look up again as Kayla and Aspen entered the room, one right behind the other.

"Alright. We need a plan," Aspen announced, plopping down in front of Patrick and running her fingers through her hair. Kayla sat down silently beside her, carefully pulling her hair up into a bun as she nodded.

"Well... yeah. We can't run headfirst into that place blind. Two of us will get captured, two of us would get lost, and one of us would get killed."

Aspen rolled her eyes, before leaning forward. "It's nothing all that hard. Quite a simple plan really. We divide and conquer. Search all the rooms of the hospital in ones. Then, we meet back at a rendezvous point. If we haven't found anything, we can split up into a group of two and a group of three and continue looking from there."

Before Patrick could open his mouth to protest, Pete, who'd been standing in the back the whole time, spoke up. "Isn't splitting up sort of dangerous? In the original Youngblood Chronicles, it's what got us all captured in the first place. Being alone."

"Well... yeah, I get what you're saying, but we honestly don't have much time," she said, her grey eyes focusing in on both band members. "Hope has been there for about three weeks now. When this all happened to Patrick, you four were in the hospital, what, like two days? Maybe three?"

"I... " Pete sighed, before nodding, "yeah. You're right."

"Three weeks is a really long time for someone to be able to screw with the mind. You think Patrick was bad when this all first started? Well Hope will be ten million times worse. I garuntee it."

Patrick stared down at his hands in silence, before bobbing his head once in a barely noticeable nod. "She's right. Divide and conquer is our best bet if we want to find Hope as fast as possible. Who knows what's happening to her right now? For all we know, she's gone through Hell and back these past three weeks. It's about time we find her."

"To be honest, divide and conquer has never failed us," Kayla put in, speaking up for the first time. "It's effective. And it works. It truly is our best bet."

"So that settles it," Pete stated, pushing himself away from the wall and walking towards them. "Let's grab Joe, and go save ourselves a Youngblood."

~~~

Patrick found himself alone, and hopelessly lost in the hospital after about five minutes.

Groaning in frustration, he kicked an abandoned, rusted crutch across the hallway. Where was she? Surely, he would've found her by now. I mean, even though it had only been five minutes, he'd expected some sort of-

And that's when he heard it.

The distinct, distant humming of a machine.

Taking off at a run, Patrick followed the sound all the way down a few hallways and finally to a rather large set of double doors at the end of the hallway.

Hesitantly, he reached forward and slowly pulled the doors open.

To both his horror and absolute relief, he found himself standing in a chapel, in front of Hope, who was strapped to a chair and currently hooked up to a bunch of buzzing machines. Her face was scratched, and burned mercilessly, and her arms were riddled with serious, deep knife wounds. Dark streams of blood matted her dark brown hair, which was also dripping down her arms and was creating a bloody mess.

At the sound of the door opening, Hope had looked up, a look of anguish and surrender on her face. But when she saw Patrick, her eyes lit up.

"Patrick...!"

Unable to help the smile, he ran over to her, quickly fumbling with the straps to release her. "I'm sorry we took so long... w-we just... looking for others... to help..." he stuttered, trying to hold back the tears that were trying to force their way out. "I'm s-sorry... I'm so so so so sorry, I just... I thought-"

That was when the last strap was undone, the last cord was ripped off her body, and Hope let out a long, pained groan, sliding off the chair and into Patrick's lap. "I really wanna say a cuss word right now..." she whined, burying her head in his shirt.

All was quiet for a moment, before Patrick started laughing. Almost forgetting about the tears that were still trailing down his cheeks.

"Come on, let's get you to the bus," he said, gently scooping her up in his arms and standing. Turning around, he half expected to see one of the cult members standing behind him, but to his excitement, there wasn't one. Slowly, he made his way out and down the surprisingly empty hallway.

This doesn't seem right... it's almost too easy... he thought to himself as he continued on, cautiously looking around.

Suddenly, a sharp pain exploded in the back of his leg.

Letting out a slight gasp, he whirled around, almost dropping Hope in the process. Still, no one behind him in the hallway. He looked down at his leg, chewing anxiously on his lower lip. But there wasn't any blood. The pain had almost completely faded.

Dismissing it as nerves, he continued on, carrying Hope out to the front of the hospital, where the bus was waiting.

However, he'd failed to notice the small needle that had implanted itself in his leg.