In Death's Grip

In Death's Grip: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Darkness. This is all I've seen for the past two hours as our little group moves silently through the night. I can barely make out the shape of Taylor's form trudging ahead of me quietly.

Silence is key on this mission. Once again, we have all put our lives on the line to save another. We have a tendency to go out of the way for the peoe we care about.

The plans had been made for three days before we executed them. Long nights in the basement of our home Charleston brought forth our goal of rescuing our friend Zach.

My father Tony, Nathan, Haven, Jonny, and myself created the plan ourselves. Using Zach's notes on Nikolai's compound and all of his research we were able to put together an almost flawless escapade. I remember the many arguments the began from our scheming.

My mother had volunteered to go but my father forbade her. "It's too damn dangerous Tusha! We're already putting so many lives at risk here. Do you feel guilty about not having faith in Zach?"

"It's not that," my mother had said, "He's like my own child. All of these teenagers are. Ever since Barb died....he's an orphan now. He doesn't have anyone else to care for him but us and Jonny and Amy. I just want to help."

Tony had replied, "You'd be helping by staying here. Watch the house. We don't have just Nikolai's people to worry about. If Hank finds out what we're planning then everything would be undone. Do you understand?"

"I understand," my mother answered.

I keep walking, making sure to keep low to the ground. I'm dressed in Kevlar body armor and jet black clothing. My katana is strapped to back as always. No one speaks a word as we trek onward.

Cho comes up from behind me and starts to move along beside me. She's wearing a black ski mask that covers her entire face except for her eyes. I can see traces of her black hair poking out of the mask. I may not be able to see her face but I know that it has a look of nervousness and worry on it. I think it looks beautiful anyways.

The day before we left for the compound, I kissed Cho. The crazy thing is that she actually kissed me back. We were discussing the details of the mission and I just had the urge to kiss her.

I leaned into her face and our lips touched. I pulled back at first but she didn't let me. She kissed me back. We stayed that way for a few minutes and the broke apart. She looked at me with happiness.

"Finally," she had said, "I was beginning to think that I was gonna have to make the first move." I remember the sly little grin she gave me when she said that. I love that grin.

She takes my hand in hers as we walk amongst the group. I don't want to rush into things but this might be love. It could be. In this world, you don't know what might happen next. Keeping someone with me would make it easier to live in this world anyways.

I've notice a bright light in the distance. We've reached the compound at last. Tony turns to face us. He makes a motion for us to get down and we all lie flat on our stomachs.

"We crawl from here," he whispers into the night.

We make slow progress toward the fortress. I takes us half an hour to make it to the outskirts of the little town. Spotlights are mounted on top of the wall of the compound. I can hear voices talking back and forth. Guards.

I see some debris and overturned cars spread out across the clearing in front of the compound. We rush toward it before we're seen. I hide behind a old, burned out sedan. Alex and Taylor are hiding with me.

I take a peek over the top of the car to look at our surroundings. I can see the faint outlines of three sentries standing atop the wall. The spotlight that one of them is operating is faced close to our location. The blinding light moves slowly over the patch of land in which the group is hiding.