Gangs and Roses

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

It was only after a long silence did I finally come back to my senses. I looked around the dim room. I saw Will looking down at me, a tiny half-smile across his face. I let go of him, suddenly hearing shouts and stomping of heavy feet coming to the entrance of the basement. The chattering from the pain part of the pub had long faded from my mind. No, they didn't sound like a group of middle-aged men going to the loo.  

Like in a spy film, the silhouette of the enemy, more of Mack's' guards Paige guessed, stood in the threshold at the top of steps. 

"Run," Will whispered under his breath, his hands curling into fists. Will and I both darted our eyes across the room.  

Run where? There was no-where to run to...except for the tiny window at the far end of the room. Taking my hand, Will dragged me towards the window.  

"Stay where you are," ordered the voice at the top of the steps. We didn't stop though; we couldn't. Will joined his hands together and gave me a leg up. I used my gun to break the glass, banging against it as hard as I could, my teeth gritted.  

We heard the footsteps of the men coming down the steps. Finally, the glass smashed. The hole was big enough for me to crawl through and just big enough for Will. I pushed myself up, going headfirst. I felt the glass scrape across my stomach. I winced in pain but I couldn't stop. I knew I couldn't. Because it was the basement, I could use the pavement beneath me to hoist myself up. I was now at the back of the pub, just around the corner was the back garden where even more people were enjoying themselves.  

"Come on, Will!" I urged Will on, who was struggling to find the strength to get up. He hadn't eaten in weeks. What had they done to him?  

The bang of guns back in the basement only just started to arise as the last of Will came through the window. Both of our tops were tattered at the front of the glass. Luckily I had my leather jacket on so Will was worse than mine.  

I helped Will up, heaving a sigh of relief that we had managed to get out of that basement. All we had to do was- 

Will and I both looked up from the ground to see ourselves surrounded by another set of guards - all of them holding a gun. How did they get here? How did they know we were going to come out this way? We both took a step backwards, I clutched onto Will's side. I tried to use my other hand to find my gun that I'd put into my back pocket but it was no use. We were surrounded.  

Two of them stalked forward, grabbing Will and I by the shoulders and twisting us round. We couldn't protest; there was no point. The man who had me snatched the gun from my back pocket and dropped it to the ground out of my reach. They handcuffed us. I heard the click. I closed my eyes for a short moment. We were caught. What was going to happen to us now?  

Making sure that the two of us were secure, they started shoving us to where they wanted us to go. They took us to a single side-door, unlocked, which led us into a narrow hallway. We came to a room, which must've been behind the pub's kitchens. It was a large room with silver walls and floors. There were six chairs in the centre of the room, wooden and old taken from the pub next door. Three of them were already filled - filled by Seb, Sam and Peter, already handcuffed and sitting down. Where was Luke? Standing at the far end of the room, surrounded by guards, stood Mack, a smile stretched across his stubble-covered face. 

His smile grew wider when Will and I entered the room. Seb, Sam and Peter remained facing the front, not daring to turn around. Though as Will and I sat down, I was sure that they knew it was. I felt my heart hammering inside my chest, ringing in my ears. I was going to die. I could feel it. I was going to die and that was that. I wouldn't make it out of this room. I was the one who was going to die at the end of the day. I was the one who had caused all this mess. How did I let myself think saving Will was as easy as it was in the movies? I was stuck in a fantasy, I realized, stuck in a place where I thought this was all just a game. Killing those men who chased me down the motorway, I hadn't thought about what I could be taking away when I took their life.