Friendly Fire

Chapter 4

Present day

The woman in front of me didn't make a single mistake. She was an incredible actor, but she was just that. An actor. I kept my gun handy, but I took it off her a while ago. We had gotten a conversation going about sanity, and how I was able to keep mine. Her school work, as she said, made her want to lose her sanity.

I would've gotten mad about her saying something like that, but she didn't know what it was truly like to come that close to losing her mind. She was innocent of torture and death.

"So, how'd you get out?" She asked. I hesitated. My friends were still in coldwater; should I have given them away, their cover would be blown.

"What did you say your name was?" She smiled.

"So you don't remember then. You're kinda a hard man to read Mr. Mullins." I pulled back the hammer on my gun. Her face went white with the sound of the click.

"You should be more careful with men who have nothing to lose." She sat back in her seat, keeping her hands on the table. "What is your name?"

She didn't answer at first, but after a moment of silence she gave up. "Isabel Brown." 

The name clicked immediately. "Isabel.." I turned my gun on its side and set it next to my lap. "You can't be here. You need to leave. Now." I quickly pulled a napkin from the holder and frantically wrote down a location. "Meet me here. Bring nobody and nothing. Now leave."

She looked confused at first, but the pieces fell into place as three men started to walk towards us. She set her jaw and gave me a firm nod before sneaking back to her table and packing up with her friends. The three men didn't notice her or didnt care to notice, thankfully. 

"Luke Mullins, we need you to come with us. Don't make a scene please." I stayed still in my seat, hand on my gun until Isabel was out of sight.

"Ya know, Rat, maybe if you hadn't sacrificed me to coldwater, I would come with you." I turned my gun to the man to Rat's far right and shot. The bullet struck his pelvis and he doubled over in pain. The cafe turned into chaos, giving Rat cover to shoot the second man in the ribs, right under his arm. I finished the first man off with a shot to his head.

The screams were ear piercing, and the crowd was hard to push through. Rat and I were able to make it to the van with little struggle. I kept my gun trained on the back of his head so the cameras would see me taking him as a hostage, as we agreed the plan would go.

Zeffer quickly pulled us both in and shut the door. I pounded on the grated window to let Mary know to get driving.

"I think someone may have called the cops on us while we were waiting in front of the cafe," Zeffer informed us.

"I wasn't able to get coldwater to trust me enough to finish this mission alone. I think my cover is blown." I cursed under my breath. 

"So we have to outrun the cops and throw coldwater off our trail." Mary sounded like she was going to enjoy this. "I'll call ahead for my plane."

The three of us in back relaxed hearing the sirens behind us. Mary was the one sweating buckets now. She turned on the radio to some driven music and turned sharply.

"Hey," Rat began, looking at me. "Who was that girl you were talking to?"

"I thought it was our third party, but it wasn't."

"She may have scared off the third party. I didn't see any of my contacts come within a hundred feet of the building," Mary informed us in the front.

"So who was it?" Zeffer asked.

"Just a civilian." I glanced at Rat and saw he didn't believe me. He let it go for now, and so did Zeffer. I could tell he wanted to give me a very long lecture on risking a mission, but it would have to wait. 

The silence between us lasted until the airstrip. Mary turned down the radio. Many of the cops were lost, but we still had 2 on our tail. 

"Okay, boys! Time to fly!" She pulled a U-turn quickly, aiming the door at her plane. The three of us got out and ran as fast and hard as we could until we reached the plane.

In the distance, we could see Mary playing chicken. Those cops didn't understand how her mind worked. She was indestructible. Rat may have been our math wiz, but Mary always knew the numbers.

The cars raced toward each other. The grey cement turned black where their tires were. We heard guns behind us and watched one of the cars swerve away. It was one to one now.

Rat, unknown to me, had set up a sniper. He pulled his trigger at the last second, making my ears ring. I wasn't bothered by it. The cop car swerved and slowed to a stop with blood on the windshield.

Our van pulled to a stop by the plane and Mary got out looking more furious than I'd ever seen her. "I had that!" She yelled at Rat. He just smiled and walked into the plane. Zeffer and I followed, with Mary not far behind.

Mary got in the driver's seat with Rat as her co-pilot. Zeffer and I sat in the back with a deck of cards. I kept quiet during the game. I still didn't fully trust him. 

"You realize we left everything back at camp, right?" Zeffer broke the ice. I looked up at him.

"You realize all our covers are blown and we're flying to another place we haven't decided on yet, right?" He shrugged and discarded.

"I'm just saying, we only have the guns on this plane."

"We have no lives, no jobs, no income, nowhere to live but on a plane, and you're concerned that we only have ten guns." I laid down three kings and discarded.

Things after that were silent.

~

So there you have it! Longer chapter! Enjoy!