Enemies At First

Lovers Embrace

Sorry this took so long. I've been busy with things and I didn't have the chance to update. Thank you guys so much for reading this and I hope you enjoy this chapter. (I randomly chose this song because I love it.)

We were shoved into a large mansion, probably Avery's, and headed to the next floor. We ended up in a long hallway and as soon as we all got packed in, they barricaded the door. We investigated into the room at the end and I spoke to Sam. "Can you believe we're actually here?" I said with enthusiasm. The king of pirates lived here, before he went insane, and the place was filled with treasury. "Yeah, it's pretty amazing." He replied with a satisfied grin. Nadine started to get frustrated and ordered us to find the passage. I walked over to an old globe and noticed something; a bloody finger print. I was curious so I just had to push it and as I did, the floor lowered into a spiral staircase. Nadine's goons eyed the staircase, making sure it was safe. "Nicely done." Samuel said stepping to be closer to me. He then took out his lighter and dropped it, leaving for Nathan to find it. If he was alive, that is. We made our way down the stairs, And try lead us to a gate. Nadine motioned one of her guards to open it and he followed her orders. As all of us made it under, the gate collapsed and Rafe cussed under his breath. "Hopefully this leads somewhere." I whispered to Sam. He just shook his, not saying anything because it might poss Rafe off even more.

We eventually ran into a puzzle, Avery sure liked these. One of the mercenaries was dumb and stepped onto a square. The floor crumbled and that caused the man to be impaled by large spikes. Sam and I looked at each other, astonished by Avery's death trap. "You better find a way across." Nadine said, angry that another one of her army men died. I looked at each one of the platforms, noticing symbols. I poured them out to Sam and he pulled out a paper we had found earlier. Sam had figured it out and we made it across alive, at least most of us did. As we continued on, more of the cave collapsed and now there was know way back. I prayed that Nathan was okay and he was shortly on our trail.

We ventured down the long cave. Some goons had light some flashes and continued down the edge of the cave wall. I held a torch, having Sam light it for me earlier. As we wondered farther, mummies tied to wooden stakes came into our vision. I got closer, wanting to see how it was done. Suddenly, they caught on fire and stepped back, not knowing what was going to happen. At first I thought they were just some sort of torches Avery made, but I soon found out I was horribly wrong. Three mummies exploded next to me and I was knocked back against a wall, were another mummy waited for me. More explosions happened and I lost hearing. I laid on the floor, protecting my head and waiting for it to stop. The moment felt like it lasted for ages before it stopped and was still on the ground. Every part of my body hurt and I struggled to breath in the deadly fumes. Sam ran up to me and put his hand on my shoulder, causing me to jump. I still couldn't hear anything, except for a faint ringing. I slowly sat up and looked around, noticing all the damage the explosion caused. As I tried to focus my attention on Sam, I felt something warm running down the side of my jaw. I lifted my hand and touched the liquid, I then knew it was blood trickling down from my ear. Sam had a worried look on his face and was speaking to me. Being so close to those explosions cause me to lose hearing and feeling in my limbs. Hopefully this gross feeling would ease up soon so I could talk to Sam. Those mummy contraptions were amazing, even though they almost killed me. I had never seen anything like them before and I knew Sam had to be just as curious as I. As I tried to stand, my balance was off and thankfully Sam caught me. My body felt heavy and I was getting sick from the gravity pulling on my body. Sam helped my arm around his shoulder as we continued walking down the caves hallway. As we went deeper into the abyss, the ringing in my ears died down I regained some of my hearing. I looked over at Sam, before I tried to speak. The only thing I could cough up was 'hi'. He just smiled at me and kissed my temple. I'm sure the explosion scared him too and then he had to see me laying on the ground with blood pouring out of my ears. As we walked past more mummies, I noticed how they were tied. These mummifications weren't voluntary and I still wondered how Avery got them to explode. The stupid ass goons walked to close to the mummies and set them off. At least Sam was smart and he backed away, causing us to be safe from the deadly flames. Breathing in these fumes were taking a toll on me. It began to become harder and harder for me to breath and Sam noticed. He called out to Nadine and Rafe. "Ashley needs to rest, the explosions hurt her." At least I think that's what he said. Most of it was drowned out by the high pitched ringing so I didn't catch all of it. Nadine looked at Rafe and rolled her eyes. They argued for a moment before they finally came to terms and we stopped walking. Sam helped me sit down and lean against the cave wall. Why was I the one to be injured in all of that? Probably cause I'm an idiot and get out of there in time. We rested for awhile before we urged by Nadine. More explosions went off, but they weren't caused by the mercenaries. They were below us and also behind. We automatically assumed that it had to Nathan and we picked up our pace. I soon was able to walk on my own and regained most of my hearing. My head pounded as I listen to Nadine giving out orders to her men. She wanted them to stay back and to handle Drake. They of course listened to their queen and stayed behind as we dove deeper into the cave.

Several explosions later, we found ourselves in a ship graveyard. Giant boats littered the water, most of them in pieces. We walked into yet another cave, this one connected to water though. "I have an idea, stay close to me and when I tell you to run, you better do it." Sam said leaning down and whispering into my ear. I shook my head, curious as to what he had up his sleeve. We held hands as we walked through the cave, looking for any signs of treasure. Sam subtly pouted towards another death trap and I knew what had to be down. "Hey, I think that's the next passage." I said while pointing to it. Nadine and three of her men walked up to the trap. Suddenly, spikes fell from the ceiling, piercing all of them except fro Nadine. "Run!" Sam yelled at me and took off towards the entrance of the cave. Men shot at us as we sped through the terrain and ran into a boat. More men emerged and seemed to be focused on something else. We stopped and defended ourselves by shooting back and throwing MKs towards the assholes. Nate came to our rescue, same with Elena. Soon enough all the men were murdered and we greeted one another. Nathan had to point out had bad I looked and I returned the roast. As we laughed, an RPG was shot and the floor collapsed underneath us. More goons showed up and we found ourselves in yet another shoot out. We crossed from ship to ship, shooting more and more of Nadine's army as they came from all directions. They swarmed us, causing us to have to run away. Nate and I were blasted into the water and went under the pieces of boat. We swam and emerged from the water. We were then chased by another armored vehicle but then they were shot by an RPG. To our surprise it happened to be Sullivan. He helped us up and then came running Elena and Sam. Elena ran up to Nate and embraced him in a hug. I then saw Sam and mimicked Elena's actions. He hugged back tightly and we stayed there for a long moment. As we started to head back to Sully's plane, Sam stopped us. "We can't stop know, the treasure is just in that mountain." Nathan talked to him and seemed to change his mind. We soon came up to an elevator that broke with Nate and Sam on it. "Don't you dare!" Yelled a frustrated Nate. "I'm sorry." After saying that, Sam headed off towards the mountain. "Sam!" I yelled. Idiot! What was he thinking going by himself. "Come on, let's go get him." Elena said while walking away. We made it to a small opening and pushed a crate up to a tall wall. As soon as Nate set the brakes, they broke and caused us to catch it. We held it as Nathan made it to the top and jumped onto the wall. Not being able to get up there now, we split up. Nathan going to get Sam, while Elena, Victor and I went to his plane.

X Time Skip X

Me and Elena waited for our men on the shore. We watched hopelessly as the ship began to burn and crumble into the ocean. As we watched in horror, A boat drove up behind it. I turned around and who I say made me sick. It was Hamilton. He found me. I guess killing my brother wasn't enough for him so he had to come after me. He walked of his fact and stepped closer to me. I stepped in front of Elena, not wanting her involved. "Go back to plane." I told her, keeping my eyes focused on the crazed man. She obliged and left towards Sully. "Well Ashley, we knew this was going to happen." He pulled his gun out of his sling and pointed it at me. My heart raced as he inched closer to, loading the gun while he was only a few feet away. I grabbed my gun and hid behind my back, waiting for the right moment. He stood only inches away. He then put his gun back into his own sling before speaking. "How about we do this the old way. Western style." He said with a devilish grin. He wanted to do a stand off, testing each other's reflexes. I gulp and nodded. This would be the easiest the way to kill him, and the most satisfactory. We both stood there eyeing, waiting for the other to make a move. The fiery ship exploded and I took this chance to shoot him. He seemed to have the same idea and we both fired. I waited for the pain to explode somewhere in my body, but never felt any. Hamilton then moved his hand to his side and coughed up blood. He fell to the ground with a heavy thump and went limp. I sighed, relived that his rain of terror was over. Elena came back and joined me as the boys swam towards us. We helped them up and greeted each other, happy we were all alive. As me and Sam broke from our hug, 3 gunshots sounded behind me. I felt pain surge through my back as I looked up at Sam. He had a look of confusion before he looked behind me, noticing Hamilton. My legs grew numb and fell to the ground, hitting the cold stone. "Ashley!" Sam yelled as he tried to catch me.

I now laid in Sam's lap. One hand supporting my head while the other intertwined with mine. I gazed his scared face, a tear running down his cheek. My other arm reached up to wipe it away before falling back onto the stone floor. My back throbbed with pain as I bled onto Sam. He held me closer and spoke to me, trying to calm my nerves. I didn't catch any of it, as I was to shocked at what was happening. How did he shoot me? I thought I killed him. Sam cried even more now that he noticed I couldn't hear him. But I did happen to read his lips. I love you. He mouthed before kissing my forehead and cradling me. I tried to reply with my love but the only thing that came out of my mouth was red liquid. This is it. I slowly closed my eyes, feeling a wave of tiredness sweep over me. I enjoyed the warmth of my lovers embrace before I finally slipped away.