Hidden Under Perfection

Chapter 30: Claire

My dad's face has fear showing and John's hands are balled into fists at his sides. I hear more movement in the trees and then my dad's face shows the terror and anger at what came out of the trees. I turn around slowly and the first thing I see is my mom and Jennifer, they are being held at gunpoint, their hands tied behind their back. There are tears on Jennifer's face and they keep rolling down her cheeks, she is confused and she looks around. The men holding them have The Clandestine's symbol on their vests. Liam stands at the end of the line, pointing a gun at me, but when I make eye contact with him he winks and I know he is on our side. The line breaks and a man with light grey eyes and bluish black hair steps forward. His voice is raspy and I recognize him as he says, "if you come peacefully, then we won't hurt them. We already have operatives chasing after your friends."

The boss of the clandestine stares daggers at us, I slowly raise my hands above my head, but I make I contact with Liam and I count down from three on one hand. When I hit zero he throws the gun and I catch it with both hands, I aim it at the boss's head. I announce, "you will let us go, and you will give us back the my mom and sister, or I will shoot your boss in the head. You will call off your men and let my friends finish what they started. This is all over if you dont." Liam silently walks up to the boss and puts a knife up to his neck and holds back his head. I can see the vein in the man's neck, his heart is beating extremely fast. He motions with his hands to let them go. The men remove the guns from my mom and sister's temples and they run into my dad's arms. I hear them weeping as I say, "now call off your men."

He motions for someone to give him an ear piece, he says, "fall back, meet me by the generator I need back up." All of a sudden Liam let's go of him and throws his knife at my head. I duck and it sticks into the wall of the building housing the generator. I stand up with wide eyes, in shock. My mom comes and snatches the gun out of my hands and shoots Liam in the leg. She yells, "you hurt my daughter, I hurt you."

He falls to the ground, that one initial shot was all it took for guns to be fired at will. My mom pushes me to the ground and then I crawl on my stomach around to the back of the line of men. I stand up, all of them are so focused on what's happening in front of them that they don't notice that I am behind them. I kick out a couple of their knees before hitting them in the temples with my elbow.

I manage to take out four before someone starts noticing. One of the men turn around and I recognize him as one of the guards that was with us in the cells. He comes at me and punches me in the face, his knuckles make contact with my cheek and I feel the skin break. He tries to elbow me in the side but I duck and punch him in the stomach, he doubles over and I elbow the back of his head, he he collapses, and I grab his gun and I run back into the crossfire. I manage to shoot two more guards down, one in the leg and one in the stomach. My dad has Jennifer, they are hiding behind the generator, inside the building. I see John out of the corner of my eyes, he is fighting the oncoming men, these are the men that the boss called back, but not to stop chasing Doran and Lynn, to fight us. He uses all of the techniques that Lynn taught us, but it isn't enough. I watch as they over power him, they surround him and I see him fall to his knees. One of them hits him in the temple with the butt of his gun. John falls to the ground and they cuff his hands and feet then drag him to the back of a black van. "John!" I wail. Out of the corner of my eye I see Doran come running with Lynn cradled in his arms, there is a bloodstain on the arm of her shirt. I point to the generator and yell, "In there!"

He runs in and comes out a few seconds later he asks, "where is John?"

"They took him," I croak.

"Oh, then how can I help?"

"Grab a gun and shoot to injure." I order. He grabs one of the guns from off of the grass and shoots at the oncoming mass of men. His aim is almost perfect, they all fall with a bullet wound in their thigh. He comes over and picks off the remaining men until it is just the boss, cowering behind a dead tree. He backs away and runs to the van, I chase after him but I can't catch him before he jumps in the back and they speed off.

I stand there in defeat, my head in my hands, Doran stands next to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. He says, "it isn't over yet."

I turn around in time to see Liam raise his gun and aim at my mom, everything moves in slow motion as he squeezes the trigger. The bullet shoots out of the barrel and imbeds itself in my mom's side. Her blood sprays from the wound and I rush to her, Doran shouts my name but I am too consumed with my mom to know what he was warning me about. A bullet hits me in the thigh and I feel as if I was hit with a baseball, then a sharp burning pain bursts along my leg. I collapse to the ground but I crawl over to my mom, not caring about myself. I cradle her head in my lap, tears running down my face as I sob. Sadness overwhelms me, I bend over and hug her tight. Her breathing is shallow and I press my hands on her wound. She moans in pain and looks up at me. She says, "I love you, say goodbye for me."

Her heart slows down and I sob, "no, mom, no stay withme. I need you, mom I love you." I press on her chest, willing her to come backto life, but it is no use. I watch as the light leaves her eyes and I closethem. I scream and I rock back and forth, tears running down my face. I cradleher against me, my heart filled with despair. My dad comes running out of thebuilding, he falls to his knees when he sees her. He starts to sob, his bodyshakes and he crawls over to his wife. He hugs her against me and we rocktogether. I hear a gunshot and I look up, my eyes filled with tears. Doranstands over Liam's body, his gun pointed at his chest, he looks back at me hiseyes filled with unshed tears. He comes over and sits down next to me andinspects my leg. There is a puddle of blood growing under my leg. Theadrenaline is starting to wear off and the pain in my leg is excruciating. I startseeing spots and I start to sway, I look at Doran as he starts tying a strip offabric around my leg, his face is creased with worry. My field of vision lessensand then the world goes black, I feel my head hit the ground and then the painand blood loss make me pass out and I don't feel the pain anymore as the worlddisappears.