Spy Between the Lines (formerly New World, Old Foe) [Gallagher Girls Fanfiction]

Chapter Sixteen

"What time is it?" I asked Zach for the 127th time today (I'd actually counted).

He checked my wristwatch. "Eleven o' seven."

"They should be here by now," I mumbled.

As if on cue, I heard a loud crash and yells carry over the cinderblock walls into our quarters.

For several minutes, all we heard was footsteps thundering through the maze is hallways and the thuds and grunts of bodies falling to the ground.

I twirled the fake engagement ring around on my finger.

We're going home. I smiled. And we'll act like a normal couple for as long as possible.

Silence. The only sound I heard was keys jingling in the lock of the door.

Keys?

Bex was the kind of girl who would do a kick-down-the-door entrance. Zach and I exchanged a glance. His leg bounced nervously.

This cannot be good.

I was right.

When the door opened, Bex, Grant, Aunt Abby, and Townsend were thrust inside, their hands chained like ours.

We were quiet for a moment. Then Townsend lashed out at my aunt.

"I told you that we should've just got Cameron and Zach! But no, you wanted to get Catherine too. Now look at this bloody mess you've thrown us into!"

Aunt Abby scowled. "If you had just called in and had gotten more backup, we wouldn't be in this!"

Bex came over and sat on the corner of my chair. "They've been arguing like this since you guys were taken," she whispered.

I counted the number of people in the small room. "Where's Macey, Liz, Preston, and Jonas?"

A shadow crossed over her face. "Not far from here. Using the comms unit Catherine's goons took from us, they should track them down pretty easily."

Catherine stepped into the room with about ten guards. "Your little friends will be meeting us outside. Let's go."

After a few minutes of traveling in the back of a van on a bumpy road, the van came to a halt.

Catherine cursed and climbed out to inspect the van. "Hate these roads," I heard her mutter. "Always a flat tire. Everybody out."

From what I could make out, we were surrounded on a mountainside by abandoned and overgrown orchards. Clouds covered the moon, making it hard to see figures before you got up close and personal with them. In other words, it would be pretty hard to run for your life up there.

I noticed Bex had a small smile playing on her lips.

I cocked my head at her.

She shrugged with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Catherine was trying to change the tire without success. I guess the Gallagher Academy hadn't taught the basics of changing flat tires when she attended my school.

"Need help, boss?" a guard asked behind me.

"I've got it, thank you very much," she hissed. "Keep an eye on them."

After a few more minutes, Catherine was starting to get frustrated and the guards had let their attention wander.

I made eye contact with Aunt Abby. "Now," she mouthed, and dashed away from our group.

I ran after her down the mountain, our group running behind us.

See, here's the thing about backup. When you're about to be toasted by the enemy (literally and figuratively), they're expected to come and get you out of it. Sometimes their plan doesn't work (see above for an example), and you all end up being captive. Which means that if you decide to escape as a group, you have larger numbers than what you started with. And that can help. Or it could cause problems.

When there's a big group and no apparent leader, everybody tends to do what everyone else is doing. Which was a bad thing for us. We also had our hands bound together, which throws off your balance entirely.

All ten of us were running/stumbling down the mountain side. Yells erupted from where our captors were. With all of us together, they could've found us in five minutes, tops. I heard panting as they started to pursue us.

"Split up!" I yelled.

I was almost to a dense area of trees when I heard an, "Oof!"

I skidded to a stop the moment before I would've hit a tree and looked back. It was Liz, and I could hear a guard was gaining on us.

When she saw me coming to help her, she said, "Cammie, no! Go, I'll be fine!"

Despite her protests and the guard, I helped her up with my feet and we took off again.

When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain, we were panting hard and had numerous cuts and bruises from blindly hitting trees and other objects.

I looked back. No one was on our trail.

I leaned against a rusty car that looked like it hadn't been used since the 40's.

"Cam! Liz! You're safe!" someone whispered from behind the car.

I bolted up and ran around with Liz on my heels. Aunt Abby, Preston, Macey, and Jonas were crouching in the dry grass.

"Where are the others?" Liz asked.

"They'll come, hopefully," Aunt Abby said. My heart was a mixture of sadness and hope when she said those words.

Macey held up her wrists."Any way to get these things off?"

The zip ties that had replaced my chains were too tight. Liz was trying to break hers off with her teeth. Jonas was fiddling with the end of his tie.

Zach, Grant, Bex, and Townsend came running up, their tails clear.

"Hey, Edward, you wouldn't happen to still have your wedding ring, the one with the saw under it?" Aunt Abby asked. "They took mine away."

Townsend shook his head.

Moonlight faintly shone through the trees, casting eerie shadows over our faces. I skimmed over everyone. None of them had any jewelry or watches on.

Then why do I still have my watch? And the ring? Catherine probably left the ring on to toy with me. But the watch...

The question in my head made me more desperate to get the zip tie off. I started rubbing my wrists against the rusty car, thinking. Then my wrists broke apart.

Brilliant!

The others noticed and did the same. As the worked on they ties, I studied my watch.

Nothing looked different at a glance, but there had to be a reason they left it on me.

I looked closer. On the digital watch face, I saw a timer counting down.

When did I set a timer?

I went to timer mode to disable it, but the countdown wouldn't cancel.

I hit the watch on the hood of the rusty car in frustration.

Pop. The button came off.

I examined it again. Then I gasped. Something was nestled where the timer button used to be.

A bomb.