BOOM!
I was knocked back, ended up landing on my back next to Pogan. There was an explosion nearby, enough to knock us both back. I scrambled over to the door and opened it, grabbing up my mask on the way. I put it on and crawled to the nearest upper floor observation deck in the hospital. In the parking lot, a small plane had crash-landed. I observed as armed men stormed into the main entrance. My heart was racing; these guys weren't on our side. At some point in my internal breakdown, Pogan had crawled next to me in his own gas mask.
"Who are they!?"
"I... I dunno." I got to my feet and ran in the direction of my room. When I got there, Ava was gearing up. She took my crowbar, I armed myself with two pistols, a rifle, and extra rounds. I ushered her onto my back.
"Mana, what's happening? Who were those men?"
"I don't know, sweetie. But we're in the top team, we're going to check things out."
"With me." Pogan was geared up with a rifle, and although we were all without our suits, that didn't matter at the moment.
---
Through the scope that had been added to the patched-up rifle, I saw the Director and everybody else being held hostage. My team (Team Alpha), Team Omega, Team Epsilon, Team Delta, Team Sigma, Team Ipsilon, and all other workers and survivors were down on their knees, being tied with rope and having questions barked at them. There was only one question they repeated.
"Where's the little girl?!"
I swear on my own life, if they mean Ava, I'm going ballistic. I told Ava to hide in the closest storage closet, I was going to risk my life in an attempt to distract them. I disarmed, took off my gas mask, and stepped out.
"Ola!" I called. "O que vôce quer?" The most leader-looking man looked at me confused, then gave a signal to some of his henchmen. They began approaching, so I ran opposite of where Ava was hiding and where Pogan was ready to perform a one-man ambush. I heard heavy-booted footsteps behind me. "Apanha-me se vôce~!!"
"C'mere!! Where's the little girl!?" Somebody yelled after me. I took a sharp left, it lead to a large hole that fell two stories underground. I turned back around, and there were five armed men in the way. I took the only route I saw.
I jumped into the hole.
"Não pode me pegar!!" I landed with a resonating THUMP! It took me a few seconds to get my grip back on reality. I looked up at five shadowy figures against orange. I gave a final, beaming smile, then crawled away. Something in me broke bad when I fell and landed; my left leg and lower back were torturing me. I still kept fighting to scramble away, to the laundry shoots. I needed to recuperate.
---
My leg was in a half-ass splint I tied with my tank top, leaving me in a few sports bras. That didn't matter; what really mattered was what was going on above. Everything was so fast: first having a fun time with your Biggums, next with a broken leg in a dank laundry shoot. My breathing was hitched; I worked to get my breath back from the fall.
I wonder how Pogan's doing...
---
When I saw her jump down that hole, I thought she'd killed herself. She laid still for a second, then smiled, muttered something in a foreign language, then limp-crawled away. She might have just been acting, to keep us from finding our real target. I doubted she was even alive after that hard fall, so I turned back to Gustavo.
"Should we go after her?"
"No," he said. "At least not us. Send Stefane and her team. They'll find that girl and take care of her good." I chuckled.
