Gone in an instant

Chapter 20: Tuesday 3, 6:00 PM

We charged towards the tower and a few seconds later reached the door, but not before we heard some shouting from up in the tower. We reached a door on the side away from the other towers. It had an electronic lock that required a number code. I looked Adrian. He typed quickly 6613 and the lock clicked. I opened the door, pointing my gun inside. There was a spiral concrete staircase and a door to the left. We began climbing the stairs quickly and quietly. I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, we froze. I turned to Adrian and he smiled and pulled out a grenade from his pocket. I suppressed the images of the SWAT team. He pulled the pin and threw it gently around the corner. We ran down the stairs. “Grenade!” Some guards shouted and there was explosion along with a scream. The door at the bottom of the stairs began opening and without even thinking I was shooting at it. There was a cry and a body fell behind it.

I looked at Adrian, unsure of whether we should go up the stairs or not. He seemed to understand but he made no movement towards either. So we stood there, halfway between the stairs, halfway to the door. There was a metallic clinking and soon a small metal was rolling down the stairs. My eyes widened and Adrian pulled me behind the door and we stumbled into the room as the grenade exploded outside. My ears were ringing and my vision blurred a bit. My head pounded and I rolled on the floor for a bit lay there as the ringing went away. I got up slowly. “Are you alright?” Adrian asked me. I nodded and shook my head around a bit.

I looked around the room. It was a drab, concrete room that had a fridge, stove, counters, and a sink. There was a door on the other side too. I walked over to it and opened it up. There was an elevator at the end of it. Right then there was a 'Ding' and the doors opened. I dove out of the way just in time as gunshots erupted and bullets sprayed into the room. The bullets stopped for a few seconds and I pointed my gun around the corner. The elevator doors were closing. There were four guards inside. I quickly shot off a few rounds and I hit one guard. The elevator went up. There was another two on the sides of the hallway and I called one down. I glanced back at the room.

“I'm coming.” Adrian said, walking out of the room and following me. The elevator had four floors. I looked to Adrian. He pushed 4. I was surprised. But I went with it. I would have gone with two. We arose, I re-loaded my gun and we prepared for the door to open. I raised my gun up and the elevator stopped. There were a few tense seconds that seemed like an eternity while the door opened. Inside the room there was windows all around. We were in the top of the tower. There were desks with computers everywhere and there were about 50 men in the room. Several guns pointed at us. “DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” A man shouted. I glanced at Adrian. He nodded and dropped his. I did too. Unsure. He seemed confident though. He wasn't at all scared.

I looked at him questioningly. He just nodded as if everything were fine. This calmed me down. The men moved in and took our weapons. Tying our hands behind our backs. They escorted us downstairs. We entered the Kitchen room again and went into the hallway with elevators. They opened a door I hadn't noticed before that was next to the elevator on the right. It led to a garage with several black Hummers. They pushed us into one and began driving out of the garage toward the compound. Adrian still looked unfazed and I was starting to think he was masking his emotions. But we were captured again. We had lost the challenge. That means that we were headed to our deaths.