The Beginning of The End

Chapter 7 - The Backup

THE BACKUP

Luke picked up a weird old fashioned phone looking thing and held it up to his ear. He yanked it away as a voice came blaring out of it. "Holy jeez!"

Carlie jumped at the noise. She was just expecting him to say, "Get us the heck out of here this second," and have that be exactly what happened - no conversation or anything like that.

"Hello?" Luke whispered, after turning down the volume so it didn't blare his eardrums out.

"Hello? Luke? Where the hell are you, man? We've been looking everywhere!" The voice on the other side came out a little scratchy, but both of them could completely understand what he was saying.

"Yeah, Johnny, we're fine. I've got Carlie."

"The chick?" the boy named Johnny asked, annoying Carlie. I'm not just a 'chick' you idiot, she thought to herself, but wanting to say it out loud. "Do we need to bring sedatives when we come?"

Carlie's eyes almost popped out of her head when she heard that. She backed away from Luke nervously.

"No, dude, you just scared the crap out of her. She's completely chill. We're in the Tournament Headquarters at this moment. Get us out. Bring backup too, because it may not be pretty getting out."

"Okay...can she fight well?"

"Uh, well, yeah." Luke made a face.

Carlie kicked his shin. Hard.

"That's great! Just you and her go do some karate and taekwondo and stuff and you'll be good. Taekwondo is, like, the best way to fight." Johnny sounded elated. Stupid boy.

"And no," Luke finished.

"What? How 'and no'?"

"She says she's not gonna fight."

"Well it's either she fights and you might get out before the backup comes, or she doesn't and you're all by yourself, trying to protect a useless girl."

"She's not useless. I don't blame her for not wanting to fight. Neither should you. You're the one that cried the first day at the fighting clinic," Luke said, smirking.

"Shut up. Fine. Not useless. Just not useful," the boy grumbled, clearly not amused by Luke's reminder.

"Whatever! Just get us the heck out of here! I don't give a crap if you cried at some stupid clinic thingy! Just. Get. Us. Out. Now!" Carlie yelled, getting highly agitated.

"Okay, okay. Jeez I will. Backup is already on their way. I just like talking. But hey, Luke, seriously, get out alive." Johnny suddenly sounded dead serious. "With her. Don't pull another Jennie incident. None of us want that to happen again."

Luke looked down at his feet. "Yeah. I know. I'll try my best."

"That's all we can ask, dude. I know you'll be here soon to show me this new savior you've been talking about for ages." The boy's voice relaxed a little, and he sounded chirpier, maybe even smiling.

Carlie raised an eyebrow. "You've been bragging about me being a 'savior' before you even met me? Huh? And who's Jennie?"

"Remember I said no questions until we get out? Yeah, well, that rule is not changing," Luke responded, rubbing the back of his neck. "Johnny, we need to leave. Where's the backup picking us up?"

"Just outside the front entrance. Ya think you can make it there?"

"Uh, no," Carlie said.

"Yeah, we'll be there. Thanks." Luke set down the phone thing and coughed. "Okay, Carlie, we should be able to get to the front just fine with the plan you had earlier. Let's go quickly before the tech guys can come back."

"How'd you get all serious after being chill while talking that other kid?" Carlie asked, frowning and following him to the door.

"That was a question." Luke reached for the handle and swung open the door.

"Ugh." She rolled her eyes. "Fine, but we have a problem."

"What?"

"We don't have a wheelchair. It's back where Noah found us."

Luke swore. "Okay, let's just improvise. You'll just be leading me to the front entrance..."

"Uh...I don't know how that will work, but I guess it's worth the shot."

Carlie and Luke stepped out of the door, completely unaware of the challenges that lay ahead of them.

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