"TINTIN!" I screamed again. I was strapped onto some funky table. Men and women in white lab coats swarmed around. My vision blurred and a wave of nausea over came me. A lady in red rushed me to a rest room where any liquid or food came from my insides to my outsides.
"Breath honey!" Pleaded the lady in red scrubs.
The moment I caught my breath I yelled, "TINTIN."
The room door could be heard bursting open and protest from doctors echoed there after.
"I heard her yell-no I will not leave- I don't care if I'm not allowed-let me through-ROWEN!" Tintin called.
I silently pleaded to the lady in red, who eventually sighed and opened the bathroom door. In stumbled a clean reporter. All signs of the island struggle had been removed except a little scratch above his right eye. He swooped down next to me as the nurse finished wiping my mouth. Moaning, I curled up and leaned my head on his shoulder. He rubbed circles on my back.
"Feeling better?"
"Not really." I groaned.
"What do you remember?"
"I got pricked. We were escaping Rastapopoulos and some annoying doctor and Carreidas were there. I also-" I remembered kissing Tintin's cheek but wasn't sure how to except it. Don't say something? Maybe after this headache passes.
"Can we take her?" Asked Tintin.
A doctor standing by the door nodded. "She will feel off for a few hours but the nausea will eventually subside."
"Come on. The Captain and I bought you some new clothes. " Tintin guided me from the room.
"I hope they don't make me more sick." I joked. He sat me on the funky hospital bed next to my clothes while the doctors and nurses filed out.
There was a red, button up shirt and black capris. The socks were seated atop the same shoes I had borrowed from Tintin. I smiled at their fashion choice. From the pant pocket slipped the knife Tintin gave me. I silently kicked myself for not using it earlier. I placed it back in my pocket for a later use.
"I'll leave you to change. Holler when your ready to go." He smiled slipping out of the room.
That smile...
****
We were in America. America. In Chicago. Chicago. Rastapopoulos would find me. I was doomed. He always finds me. And he has looooooots of friends. Bad friends. In America. Huzzah. America.
Our hotel rooms were very high up with a beautiful view of the city. Haddox was staying on my left and Tintin on my right. Though, everyone voted Snowy stay with me. And, in all honesty, the little guy and I had become very close since my release.
Tintin told me about the work he had been doing since arriving in the big city. Many mob members had been locked up thanks to him and Haddox. One man, Mr Smiles, had even faked as a police officer and asked us to leave.
"Sounds exciting," I smiled as Captain continued his wild story.
"Then I threw him to Tintin and Wam! He was out of it! We made a grand team out there aye my boy? Tintin?"
The young reporter was gazing out the window. Brow slightly frowning and a blank look in his eyes. Yet, the gears on his head seamed to be pumping. I slowly approached his chair. The tenseness left his shoulder as I placed my hand upon it.
"Hum," he turned to me.
"Haddox was telling me about how you escaped Smiles and how you avoided drowning. What's on your mind?"
"I need one set of clothes from each person. Quickly."
"Why?" I questioned as he raced to the door.
"We're all about to die."
****
The three of us sat in the hall of the thirty-seventh floor. The wait was tourture. Every second passed and no gun fire had sounded. I kept waiting to be shot.
"Perhaps they aren't-" before the Captain could finish machine gun fire sprees across out three rooms almost instantly.
We all huddled behind the wall of our neighbors room until the lead rain ceased. Once it stopped, we waited for the sound of police sirens blaring in the distance before checking our rooms. We had to fight against the crowds of people trying to escape the floor.
I burst into my room to find my dummy intact. They must expect me to try and find them and 'make them pay' in order to capture me for Rastapopoulos.
"Good thing we took extra precautions."
"Yeah, but they didn't shoot me," I replied, meeting the other two in the hall.
"They must not know you." Suggested Haddox.
"Or Rastapopoulos has met up with some old friends."
"Well, now that they think we're dead, let's set our own trap."
Haddox and I frightfully exchanged glances.
****
Tintin and the chief of police sat on either side of me in disguise. We were in and 'oil truck' that was 'sneaking' me out of town. In the back, barrels of 'oil' were filled with police me and one containing captain Haddox.
"Do you think this will work Tintin?" Asked the Chief.
"If it doesn't, I'm going to shoot him," I grumbled as we came upon a man with a fallen tree blocking the road.
"It will. Don't worry." Tintin smiled under the fake mustache.
"What do we have here?" Asked the man behind the fallen tree. He pulled a gun as other men emerged from the woods. "Put your hands up and hand over the girl and blueprints."
"I don't think so!" Shouted the Captain.
Haddox and many other officers sprung from the oil barrels and went about gathering the men. In all the commotion, no one heard a car start. Except me. I grabbed Tintin's hand and yanked him after me but it was too late.
"Smiles escaped!" Exclaimed Tintin.
"So? Let's go get 'im." Replied Haddox.
****
By the time we'd made it to the train station, Smiles had fled the scene.
"I don't think it's safe for you to go to Red Dodge, Rowen. Take snowy and go back to the hotel. We'll meet you back there in two days." He grabbed my hand. "Don't do anything crazy while we're gone. Please."
"I promise!" I smiled.
But I'd never be able to keep it.
