SWRC: Hidden Pasts (Book 2)

Chapter 10 'Shoot'

"I can't believe you convinced me to do this," groaned Zach.

"Hey, I think it will work," said Neeran with a shrug.

"You do realise that only three people can fit in those jeeps?" said Zach.

"You can fit four, it's just a little squished," replied Neeran as she peered around the corner. "And besides, why would they have teams of seven if you could only fit three people in a jeep?"

"Those quadbikes sound good right about now," groaned Joel.

"There's no weapons on them," countered Harry.

"But they are faster, aren't they?" asked Corben.

"Actually they're about the same speed," said Galen.

"Don't they disable the guns on the jeeps between missions?" asked Brandon.

"Oh, please," said Neeran, as she rolled her eyes. "There's at least nine ways to cheat jumpstart those things. I could probably do it in my sleep."
"That's not comforting," said Zach.
Neeran just shrugged and smiled at him, before glancing around the corner a second time.
"We may have a problem," whispered Neeran, motioning for them to speak quietly.
"Your dorms are past the Directors' office, and something tells me that I shouldn't go past there."
Neeran turned back to them and whispered, "You guys go to your dorms and get your stuff. I'll meet you in the courtyard."
"How are you going to get there?" asked Joel.
"People are stupid," said Neeran as she jumped up, pushed in a ventilation hole and crawled in. "They seem to like building ventilation shafts big enough for people to crawl through."

"What's she talking about?" asked Joel.

"Best not to know with her," said Zach, peering around the corner. "Yeah, we're going the long way."

"Why?" asked Brandon, trying to see.

"I'd rather not be shot by the guards around the corner," replied Zach, heading back down the hallway they'd just come down.

"I agree," said Joel as he and the rest of their team headed back down the corridor.

Neeran quickly crawled through the vents to the main courtyard where all the vehicles were stored.

"Theta, are we in the clear so far?" asked Neeran.

"Nothing's gone wrong so far," replied Theta, as he blinked on.

"Do you know where the others are?"

"You miss him, don't you?" said Theta slyly.

"What are you talking about?" asked Neeran, already having guessed where the conversation was going.

"Zach," replied Theta. "You really like him."

"Shut up Theta!" exclaimed Neeran quietly, although she wanted to shout at him.

Theta giggled mischievously and said, "They're down below."

"Shut down," said Neeran as Theta blinked off with a giggle and she dropped down onto the ground behind her team, scaring the hell out of all of them.

"Where the hell did you come from?" exclaimed Harry.

Neeran put a finger to her lips and whispered, "Do you want the whole base to know I'm here?!"

There was a silence to which Neeran replied with, "Shut up. Let's go."

Zach and Joel just shrugged at each other as they followed after Neeran to the jeeps. Neeran chucked her bag into the back of the jeep as she started hot wiring the jeep to start and activate the gun.

"Zach, can you do the other one?"

"I'm not a mechanic, what makes you think I could do that?!"

"How about them?" said Neeran as she jumped out of the first vehicle and into the second. 

"Holy mother-"

"Come on! We gotta go!" shouted Neeran stopping Zach's sentence short.

"Brandon, Harry, take the guns!" commanded Neeran.

Zach had hopped into the drivers seat of the first car Neeran had activated and Galen had jumped into the passenger seat and was taking pot shots at the incoming troopers with a shotgun he'd acquired during training.

Harry, Joel and Corben had gone to the car Neeran had activated as she got in between the two cars and fired at the incoming squads.

"Go, go, go!" shouted Neeran jumping on the back of the jeep that Zach was in the drivers seat of. Zach hesitated for a moment as Neeran's instructions were registered, before he tried to drive.

Only they went no where.

"Neeran, what'd you do?" said Shakkuri. "Why aren't we going anywhere?"  

"What?!" exclaimed Neeran, looking back at Shakkuri. "It should work."

"Something must be missing from the engine," said Theta, reactivating. 

"Why would they-" started Neeran, before realization hit her.

"Surrender now, fugitives," said a voice overhead as Neeran went to utter a string of vicious curses. (That I will not repeat here.)

"Neeran?" asked Shakkuri, raising his hands. "I think we should surrender."

Neeran glanced over her shoulder and saw that they were surrounded.

"God damn it," swore Neeran under her breathe, as she forcefully dropped her guns to the ground and vaulted out of the jeep whilst raising her hands above her head.

Everyone else got out of the vehicles and raised their hands above their heads.

"Do you have a Plan B?" whispered Shakkuri.

"I wish." was the reply.

"The would-have-been leader of Squad A, the leader of Squad A and the actual Squad," mused an all too familiar voice. "Such a strange coincident that you should all be here."

"Director," hissed Neeran in a venomous sounding voice.

"Ah, Cadet Anika," said the Director. "Still possess that same instability that you had when you first came here."

Neeran felt as if something was wrong when the Director said her real name as she just froze and she couldn't reply. 

"Restrain her," ordered the Director as two of the nearby soldiers forced her to the ground.

"Cadet Zach," said the Director as he walked in front of him. "It seems you were with holding information from your reports, were you not?"

"Yes, sir," whispered Zach.

"And what made you think I wouldn't find out?"

"I don't know sir," replied Zach, avoiding the Director's gaze.

The Director nodded and then said, "It wouldn't have anything to do with her being a friend of yours, would it?"

The Director caught a glimpse of something in Shakkuri's eyes and something glistening on his left ring finger.

"Or is it something more?"

"No, sir," replied Shakkuri, moving his hand slightly so that the glistening on his finger was hidden in between his fingers.

"Well then," said the Director, pulling out his pistol and placing it in Shakkuri's hands. "I don't think you'll have any problems killing her."

Those words took the Squads' breathe away.

Zach turned slowly to face Neeran with the gun in his hand. Zach raised it up with one hand before grasping it in two for fear of dropping it on the ground.

Moments passed as Zach just held to gun shakily at Neeran before she looked up at him.
"Zach," said Neeran, staring up at him emotionlessly.
Zach looked at her hopefully, hoping against hope that she had a plan of how to get away.
"Shoot."
Zach gasped quietly and his hands clasping the gun shook vigorously. He couldn't shoot her even if he wanted too, and he knew she couldn't shoot him either.
"Anika," whispered Zach, screwing his eye closed. "I can't."