Runaway Lover // Andy Leo

Chapter Eight

Sitting in the back of a jeep, my heart races a mile a minute. I clutch tighter to the pole that I was given to act as a weapon, trying to disguise my shaking hands. I sit in between Andy and Brent, both of which are staring out at the City. They all wear their skull cloths over their faces, making them look 10x more intimidating than I could ever be sitting here with my bomber jacket, shorts and a t-shirt.

I shake my hands, trying to regain the feeling that I had lost from clutching my pole so tight. Andy notices, places his hand on my knee and squeezes reassuringly. I give him a small smile in thanks, and look up to see Megan grinning at us both. I give her a questioning look, to which she nods toward Andy and winks. I feel my face go red and focus my attention on one of my nails, hoping that Megan was the only one who had seen it.

I run over the plan for today in my mind, trying to calm the nerves bubbling up inside of me. We drive to the maintenance building in two cars; Me, Andy, Megan and Brent in one, and David, Brandon, Benn and Hayden in the other. When we get there we enter through the back door, and David and Hayden go to find the network room, broadcasting Andy's speech on every computer and tv under the Empire. While they do that Andy, Megan, Brent, Benn, Brandon and I will find the people that were taken and get out as quickly as possible, meeting Dave and Hayden back outside. I try to tell myself that there is nothing that could go wrong, but I know that that isn't true.

My heart jumps into my throat as we turn the corner so that we're behind the building. The jeeps slow to a stop, allowing everyone to clamber out onto the gritty road. Andy quickly flashes me a grin before running off toward the door, followed by everyone else. I run with them, trying to stay as close to them as I can.

Andy kicks the door down and goes inside, allowing us to follow him. We all stand crowding in the small corridor.

"Right, guys, the network computers should be down there." I point down a corridor to our left, and Hayden and Dave run off. We then split into two's, one pair covering each remaining corridor. Megan and Brandon go through the doors to our bottom right, Benn and Brent go through the doors to the top right, and Andy and I go straight ahead.

We run past what looks like some sort of reception desk, and my stomach drops at how closely this place resembles a hospital. One thing that's well known about the Ravens is that they're deadly with the right things, and I'm pretty sure most of those things could be found in an abandoned hospital. I shiver and carry on running next to Andy, who looks in every window we go past. Three doors down the hallway he stops.

"In here! You get the cuffs off of them, I'll get the raven." I nod quickly before he knocks the door open and barges in. I rush over to one of the three people in the room on hospital beds wearing white jumpsuits. Fiddling with the handcuffs that keep them down, I watch Andy. He moves almost rhythmically, taking the gun from the raven and hitting it over the head with it.

"Cuffs!" He yells just as I unlock them, and I toss them over to him before moving onto the next person and undoing their handcuffs.

We go through two more rooms like this, with Andy doing the more offensive things and me focusing on undoing handcuffs and whatever other restraints people are being held in. In the third room, however, our plan is fooled when three Ravens wait inside rather than one. Andy peers through the window, giving me a concerned glance.

"There's three of them. I can get two, but you're going to have to take care of the other one." I nod firmly, swallowing the lump in my throat and gripping my pole tightly.

He pushes the door open and goes to the Raven furthest from it, while I go to the one closest. I follow what Andy does and use my pole to knock the gun from its hand before bringing it back to hit it over the head. I raise the pole and bring it down hard, aiming for its face. It moves out of the way and I try to swing the pole to the side, but it grabs it before I can land a hit. We have a 3-second tug of war session with it which ends in my losing possession of it. Now armed with my pole, the Raven swings for my stomach and the force of it makes me fall backwards and hit my head off of one of the cabinets.

I see Andy look over when he hears the clatter and shout my name, but I can't find the strength to answer. My vision starts to black at the edges, and I'm pretty sure I can feel blood dripping down the back of my head. I try to get up, but the movement washes a wave of nausea over me that makes me black out completely.