The Beginning of The End

Chapter 9 - The Save

THE SAVE

Both Carlie and Luke ducked and covered their heads with one arm. Carlie fell over from her lack of balance, and Luke swore and moaned at the pain in his rib cage.

"What the hell was that?" Luke stood up and looked around. Right in front of them was a huge gap in the walls, opened completely up like a doorway.

"I was hoping you'd know!" Carlie winced as she stood up. She knew Luke couldn't help her much with standing up because of his own problems, but he stuck his hand out anyway. She shook her head and did it on her own.

"Um...do you smell that?" He stuck his nose towards the smoke from the explosion.

"Smoke? Yeah, I smell smoke. I'm pretty sure that's normal for a fire."

"No. The rubber smell. Fire doesn't smell like rubber."

Carlie's eyebrows knitted. "Hey, yeah! What-"

The sound of a engine starting and tires screeching on the ground interrupted her. A large white pickup truck zoomed into their vision and stopped just a foot in front of them, like it knew they were exactly there.

Voices filled the air. Shouts and orders echoed from inside the truck. A door opened and slammed shut.

"Luke?" someone called from the smoke.

"Depends. Who's asking?" Luke called back. Feeling uncertain, Carlie inched closer to him.

"Agent L! Do you have the girl?" the voice responded. A feminine high pitch voice at that.

"Yes ma'am! Can we get in the car?"

"Yes! Hurry!"

Luke started towards the truck, pulling Carlie by the hand. She stopped him.

"Wait! We promised Noah that we would wait for an hour. It's been like twenty minutes," she said, tears forming in her eyes from the smoke.

"Carlie, you are the most important thing in this mission of mine. As long as you're safe, we're all safe. We can't risk your safety for one person."

"One person or the whole population doesn't matter to me. It's a life. A life I'm not willing to lose. We may not know who he is, but we don't have the right to just decide who lives and who doesn't."

"Maybe not, but if you don't make it out alive, we'll all be dead, so you're coming whether you want to or not." Luke grabbed her hand and pulled her around the side of the car.

"Luke! Stop saying that crap! The world doesn't revolve around me like I'm Apollo or something crazy. I'm just a boring teenager that nobody gives a single crap about, okay?"

"Carlie," Luke started, tightening his grip on her wrist. "You are more important than you know. You're important to me and to everyone else on this planet, you just may not know it."

"Not to my parents," Carlie muttered to herself, then scolded herself for bringing that up. Great, now that would be all she could think of. It's totally the smokes fault that my eyes are watering.

"What?" Luke cocked an eyebrow.

"Nothing." Carlie glanced over her shoulder one last time, then let Luke pull her into the truck.

There was a bright blue tarp laying in the bed of the truck that they were getting into. Luke simply lifted it up and sat down under it. He held it up for Carlie, motioning for her to do something. She didn't understand.

"Get under! Quick!" He ushered her under the tarp and pulled it down over them. There they lay on their backs, shoulder to shoulder, breathing heavily.

"Why are we under here?" Carlie hissed, scrunching up her nose when her hot breath bounced back in her face.

"Nobody will look twice at a boring white pickup truck that's driving down the road at two in the morning," the high pitched voice responded from the cab of the truck. Carlie tensed and looked at Luke. He didn't seem to be worried about the voice, so she calmed a little.

"Wait...two in the morning?!" Carlie shrieked when she realized what the women in the front had said.

Luke slapped his palm over her mouth, giving her a 'shut up or both of us will die' look.

When he released his silencing hand, she gave him a 'oh, you dare?' look and started talking. "Oh, I'm so sorry for talking too loudly. It's not like a bomb went off in this building or anything crazy like that..."

"Just keep quieter. When we get on the open road, it will be quiet and we can't risk anyone hearing a voice from the back of a truck. That would cause a little suspicion and potentially someone following us back to Headquarters." Luke sighed, letting the tarp rest on his chest. Carlie was smaller than him, so the tarp wasn't even touching her chest.

"Keep her quiet," the voice quipped from up front.

"Don't worry ma'am, she won't do it again."

"Like heck I'll do it again!" Carlie whispered, then added, "if I want to." She honestly couldn't care less if she did or didn't, but she was stubborn and wanted the last word.

And the last word she got.

Most of the rest of the car ride was silent. Oh, how badly she wanted to peer out from under the tarp and look at the cozy city lights, but knew she couldn't. Her fingertips drifted towards the light peeking in from the outside a few times, but Luke slapped them away each and every time.

When Carlie thought they must have driven around the world ten times, suddenly the truck came to a sharp stop. Both Carlie and Luke slid backward and slammed into the cab.

Luke squeezed his eyes shut and let out a long breath. After a moment, he looked over at Carlie with concern in his eyes. He seemed to be asking her if she was okay without actually verbally saying anything, so she nodded. She then silently cursed at the pounding headache invading her brain.

Tapping sounds on the back metal part of the truck brought Luke's attention away from her. He intently listened and swore under his breath.

Well, he would have been helpful for when the nurse did Morse code for me in the elevator, Carlie thought.

"Get on me," he whispered, scooting over to the very edge of the truck bed.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, get on me. Someone is putting something back here, and they will need room. Hurry."

"Urm..." Carlie stuttered uncomfortably. "I..."

He sighed and pulled Carlie on top of him. Not all the way, which was Carlie was thankful for. It wasn't as awkward as possible, but enough to give whatever enough room to fit. Hopefully enough. She did not want to be completely on top of him.

She shifted slightly so her shoulder wasn't in Luke's face and so her chest was on his stomach instead of his chest. This was one of the most awkward things she had ever done, and it wasn't even as bad as it could be. She was really thankful for that.

A rumble outside shook the truck. Carlie held her breath, and Luke's chest tightened. The only sound was the ba-boom of their heartbeats close together.

Ba-boom.

Ba-boom.

Ba-boom.

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Ba-boom...ba-boom...ba-BOOM!