Courageous Compassion | Illinois x Reader |

Guns Blazing

Mark made a evil grin and a sinister laugh before speaking.

[Mark] I was hoping you'd say that. FIRE IN THE—

He cut off his sentence, holding the bomb up high. He looked around and returned to finish his sentence, but in a more quieter tone.

[Mark] Fire in the hole.

He threw the bomb and it rolled to the opening of the vault. I was a bit concerned because we were a bit too close, but my main focus was to get out.

[Mark] Now, if I know my medieval weaponry, we probably got about 15 seconds before that puppy blows. So when it does, I'll dash right—

But he couldn't finish his sentence because, then, there was a loud boom. My vision turned white and my ears rang like crazy. But I was running with a limp along with Mark.

[Mark] Come on.

Mark coughed. We managed to slip by without the guards seeing us. Smoke peered through the whole room of the vault and the chatter the guards were making began to over lap each other. Next, fire began to spread and that caused a panic.

We ran into the previous room we were in and Mark fiddled with his map. He circled around, looking confused as ever. We passed a door and Mark opened it.

[Mark] Right in here. Yeah, this is perfect. It's perfect.

He held the door open for me to come through. I was about to when I saw what the door had imprinted on it.

World's largest collection of Ancient Gunpowder

[Mark] All right, come on. Come on, come on!

I didn't have time to react when I rushed in the door with him. We ran down the flight of stairs and we couldn't see anything. Nothing was in view except for pitch darkness.

[Mark] Now where's the light? Uh, is this it?

He flipped a switch and the lights came on, almost blinding me with the bright lights. I gave out a sigh of relief and Mark laughed a little. But when he turned to the room we were in, he gasped. I looked the same way, but my vision was blurry. I took off my glasses, breathed into them, wiped them and put them back on. There in the room, I could see gunpowder labeled:

• Every known Lithuanian bomb made with gunpowder.
• Gunpowder Treason Gunpowder
• China's most expensive gunpowder

And..

• Crazy Mick's Ass-Blasting Fireworks

My heart began to pound as I looked up at Mark, waiting for his instructions. He could see the fear and nervousness in my face and immediately reassured me.

[Mark] This is fine. All we gotta do is be really, really careful and really, really quiet as we get to the exit on the other side of this room. And then, *clicks tongue* we'll be home free.

We began to sneak through this room of explosives and we have gotten a quarter through until we heard a voice yell.

[???] Hey, I think they might be in here!

Panic soon came over me and I looked at Mark for some aid to calm me down.

[Mark] Maybe they didn't mean in here.

We continued to walk through the room and behind me, I could hear footsteps run down the stairs, coming closer and closer to where we are.

[Guard] I was right! They ARE in here!
[Mark] RUN!!

And we did. We began to run through the rest of the room and the guards began to shoot at us. At a close range, you'd think they ought to have shot us in the back or leg or arm or something, but no, they didn't. I mean, with all that bullets and how we were so close to each other, we could've gotten hit. But, hey, I'm not complaining.

Also, the bullets flew past us and into the gunpowder which was a bad sign. We were so close to the exit and a bullet missed me by the inch. The bullets landed on the fireworks and they started to go. But, luckily, we got out of the room just in time.

We soon got outside and we continued to run. Well, I was following Mark and he kept on looking back and panicking. We got over the small stone wall and we waited there for some reason. I looked at Mark, but he was confused. He looked over the wall and to the museum.

[Mark] Oh, okay. Well, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. I guess ancient gunpowder would be...ancient. Anyway, we should be going. They've gotta be still on our tails so quickly, through here.

Mark walked in between 2 bushes and I followed him through. We now were in a forest. I could hear insects and crickets chirp in the background. Bugs were all over the ground and it grossed me out. Not only that, the woods were a bit creepy. You can't get a good look at everything and it gave like a outlast vibe to it somehow. Who knows? Maybe we'll run into Mark's best friend, Slenderman.

[Mark] Okay, were safe for now, but we're not out of the woods. What we need is a vehicle to get us back to base safely and quietly. So, keep your eyes out for, whoa—!

We turned our heads to my right to see 2 vehicles in sight. A white bad-ass looking helicopter and a small red Jeep. Mark ran to them and admired them for a bit and turned to me afterwards.

[Mark] Okay. This could be perfect. We've got a helicopter and some kind of, uh, car. Either one will be good but I think that one flies and that one drives...probably.

He turned to the helicopter.

[Mark] So, maybe that one will be quicker but maybe louder. I don't think we want that.

He turned to the car.

[Mark] That one could be slower, but quieter. That seems like a really stealthy vehicle. But the bright red kind of gives it away.

. . .

If you'd like to pass this segment of the story, you can go to 'Boulder Chase' in the table of contexts above.