Forgotten

Chapter 4: Hale

I wobble out the door, and stare at this new outside world that I have supposedly seen before. A fountain spouts water in a cascading waterfall in the middle of a beautiful courtyard surrounded by trees and plants of all species. The enormous sky above me is the color of navy blue in the early night. I take a deep breath and smell the scent I recall as lemongrass. The air is warm yet cool, and luscious on my burning skin.

"This is beautiful" I breathe.

Drake merely beckons with his hands to creep forward after him into the shadows of the trees that look eerie in the fading light. Soon I realize why he is hiding. Voices up ahead are whispering faintly. So quiet I can barely hear them. But they are there. And they are getting louder as we near the ginormous gates blocking our path to freedom. We are going to have to sneak past the guards to get out. I shake my head. There is no way we are going to make it. We are close enough now that I can make out what they are saying. Too bad they are speaking in Vietnamese. They seem to be preoccupied by something and we slip right past them, safe. But just my luck, a short loud bang echoes from behind us and I turn around searching for the only thing that could have made that sound. One of the guards was standing next to his former comrade with a gun in his hands. More and more guards pour out into the courtyard stunned at what they see, then taking action. First one man then another, then more people standing in the front row draw their guns. The guards open fired. I duck and cover my ears not wanting to see the man hit the ground with bullet holes riddling his body. Drake swears under his breath, although I don't know why he would be sad about a death of an enemy. Bangs and cracks echo around me, bouncing inside my skull like a dub step bass. After the shooting ceases I look up to Drake, his expression horrified. He regains his composure in the matter of seconds and motions for me to follow him away from the crowded courtyard. But I am not fooled, I saw the tears streaking down his freshly shaven face.

"What are we going to do with all of the guards now in the courtyard, Drake?" I ask him quietly.

He shushes me through his tears and then slides through a hole in the chain link fence. I try to follow but my wide frame gets caught in the wire. I pull, and feel a long scratch of broken metal slicing up my back. But it won't let me go. Drake eventually just cuts off my entire shirt leaving me bare on top. I manage to finally wriggle my way out from under the fence, wincing at every move I make. After having him help me to my feet we sprint to the next gate. I am about the same height as him but at least half as sturdily built. My bulky useless body is nothing compared to his rock abs and strong arms. I make a mental note never to get on this guys bad side. The next gate is passed through a bigger hole in the wire, and this time instead of getting up, Drake motions for me to army crawl directly behind him. I did't even know how to do the crawl, it just came to me. Like I had done it a thousand times before. There are tall, reed-like grasses as we crawl, which makes it infinitely easier because otherwise we would have been spotted long ago by the men standing on their guard posts. Each are at least 100 meters away from each other. Two men stood watch at each post, and all carried lethal looking weapons, ranging from machine guns to hand grenades. I wonder how Drake got into the compound in the first place. I focus on this as we keep crawling to keep my mind off the fact that I could be dead in seconds. Eventually, we make it toward yet another chain link fence.

"When I cut open this wire, Hale, you are going to run through and head straight south. Here take this." He flips over onto his back and reaches into the breast pocket of his now muddied suit. He silently hands me a folded square sheet of paper, and a compass that has been neatly tucked into his suit pocket all this time. On the front of the paper it said three words. 'For My Love'.

"Wait. Wait. Wait. No!" I whisper. He has handed me his will. Proof that he might die today.

"Yes Hale," He grunts as he flips over, "face it. I won't have enough time to get through with you before I am either shot or overtaken by guards coming to investigate the broken fence. Please. As my last words, I wish you luck, and please tell my wife and kids I love them." Without another word he took out a glowing, red knife and began sawing at the chains. First one link and another and another, it's as if his knife was melting the metal. The sawing machine made no noise as it cut through the links and within a matter of seconds, the hole was almost big enough from me to go through. I took his other hand, and after giving it one last squeeze, prepared myself to sprint through the fence.

'5-4-3,' I counted to myself, '2-1.'

He burned the last link and I crawled through with him on my tail.

BANG.

A gunshot echoed from behind me and suddenly I was no longer being followed by Drake. I turned back to see a Japanese man pointing a gun at my heart. A heart that they messed with. I could be shot, right here, right now. I look into the mans eyes and see nothing. A lifelessness inhabiting his soul. But there was no way I would let them take me again. Adrenaline gave me new strength and I hauled Drake over my shoulder, firefighter style, then took off at an agonizing sprint. I don't know why he didn't shoot me.

--------/---------

That first night seemed to last forever.

1 day. 1 night. Another day. Only on the third evening did I reach a small gated town. I stumbled through the gate, dehydrated and underfed, I collapsed. Bringing the weight of Drake crashing on top of me, knocked the wind out of my lungs. Within seconds people are surrounding me and lifting Drake off of my shoulders, giving me food and water after lifting me to a hospital stretcher. Everything was a blur, the people calming me were swooping in and out of my line of vision, a side effect of dizziness. The blaring sirens of the ambulance are drowning out my refusals to eat. Because if I eat, I will just throw it up again. The ride to the hospital was merciless, with 3 nurses and a doctor hovering over me, injecting needles this way and that, shining mini flashlights in my eyes, and checking my heart rate. The cacophony was extreme. Even with all this going on, there is only one thing on my mind.

"Drake. The other guy. Is he dead?" I mumble.

The nurse currently monitoring my IV drip comes over and leans her ear down by my mouth. I have to repeat what I said. Twice. She stands up, the dark circles under her yes enhanced by the harsh lighting, and shakes her head. Without words she ruins what I have tried to do. I now no longer have the will to keep going. My mind goes blank and I slip into the welcoming embrace of unconsciousness. But just before I black out, I hear a long high pitched beep and the lady's scream.

/// hey babes. This is a bit longer than the last chap I hope you like it. ♡ getting interesting in the next few chapters. I promise. At least both of the mains are rescued now. Btw; what do you think will happen with Drake? ///