Hope - A Louisentine Story

Chapter 14

Description: Louis and Javier get ready to go rescue Clementine, assembling their team and heading out.

Wordcount: 2035

A/N: This chapter ended up being almost 6000 words long, so I decided to split it. This part is very short, and a small filler for the next part, which will be up tomorrow. Hope you guys enjoy!

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"You wanna talk about what happened back there?"

Javi's gentle voice broke through Louis's troubled thoughts, bringing his attention back to the former baseball player. His eyes stung from earlier, the ghost of his tears lingering on his cheeks. Javier looked at him from the corner of his eye, his brows tightly knitted.

"I'm sorry, alright?" Louis breathed, closing his eyes. Every time he did, all he could see was Miles. The image of his first human kill haunted him, and he feared he might go crazy soon.

"I'm not mad, Louis," Javi assured the man, turning left on a side-road that would lead them to Richmond. "I know why you did it. Hell, I've done worse from time to time."

"You have?" Louis asked incredulously. "I killed a man in cold blood, Javi. What the fuck's my problem?" he wondered out loud, looking down at his hands. They were shaking at that point, a fresh rush of adrenaline coursing through his body.

"Sometimes you gotta do bad shit for the sake of your loved ones," Javi argued, shrugging. "I'm not saying what you did was right, but I get that it needed to happen."

"He had helped us, though," said Louis, still arguing against himself. "He gave us the exact information we needed and more and I just shot him."

"Would you rather he went back to Myers and told him all about our little rescue plan?" Javi asked as they pulled over by the gate of Richmond. "Cause that's what was gonna happen if we'd let him go."

"I guess," Louis muttered, still looking down as they got out and made their way to the admin building.

After the incident, Javi had briefed Gabriel on the new information, reminding him they'd be back before nightfall. True to their word, the sun was barely three-quarters of the way down when they arrived in the main office. Gabe sat at the desk, fiddling with his handgun. When he spotted Javi and Louis, he stood up and offered his uncle a bone-crushing hug.

"Glad you're back," he said. He shook the freckled man's hand and the three of them gathered around the map on the desk to survey the information. As promised, Gabe had outlined every piece of Intel Javi and Louis had gathered, marking key points where needed. The third pin that used to represent the Right Arm had been replaced with a rough sketch of its perimeter and the location of key buildings.

"This should be the infirmary." Javi pointed at a large rectangular structure on the west side of the compound. With a marker, he scrawled a red cross on it.

"Why's that important?" Louis asked with raised eyebrows.

"Well, if by some chance they find out Clem's pregnant, the only other place she could be is there," Javi explained. "Of course, our main objective is the holding cell," he added hastily, jabbing a finger on the target building located near the west wall.

"We can go in through this sewer system on the west side, but we have no idea where we might find a manhole cover," Gabe said, tracing the possible route the pipes could take them.

"We gotta take that chance, "Javi replied. "With some luck, we might be able to sneak in without the guards even noticing we're there."

"That is if we haven't gotten shot before we even get close to the wall," Louis piped in, crossing his arms. The two men pursed their lips, looking at him with equal looks of concern. They tried to comb the sketch in search of a solution to that problem.