Taken

John (Chapter 36)

I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. I wanted to give them what they wanted, but I couldn't. I was useless to Chris. I looked at my dad, half hoping he had a plan to get us all out of here, but I knew better; he looked broken. This was more than he should have to go through.

Every time he was hit in the gut/chest, Chris would cry out in pure anguish. Any other time he was hit, I didn't hear him mutter a damn thing. I knew there must have been something wrong and that was where the pain was coming from that I had seen in the picture they had shown to me earlier. Maybe he had broken ribs.

Ivan stepped away and I saw Chris clearly. He came in not looking too bad, but now he looked like Hell. He was bleeding everywhere and he was breathing funny. It had to be his ribs. He could easily die if they kept this up.

I looked to the ceiling in despair. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't help my own brother, I couldn't help anybody. We were all either going to die or be tortured until we gave up the files, whichever came first. Unless by the grace of God help came...

I'm not even joking, that's the thought that came to my head when I could've sworn I saw someone waving to me from the air vent up and across from us. I quickly looked away to avoid drawing attention to it, but I was certain someone was up there. I stole another look, and this time there was a face in the vent and we made eye contact. I looked away again, not sure if I should have been relieved or horrified.

Zoey had found us. But she was in an air vent, so I wasn't really sure how much faith I had in her past that.

I waited a few minutes before I dared to look again. This time I saw two guns. Okay, faith restored.

I made eye contact with her again, and she made a motion like she was coming down. I tried to motion her with my eyes that it wasn't a good idea, but there wasn't much I could do. But I knew if she was going to try coming down, she couldn't come down with this many people in the room.

"That's enough," I said. I didn't realize how weak I would sound, but I could barely hear myself.

Ivan looked in my direction. "What did you say?"

I stared him right in the eye. "I said that's enough."

Alicia stepped forward again. "So you'll talk?"

"John..." I heard my dad's also weak voice. I had to ignore him or I wouldn't be able to follow through.

I glared at Alicia. "Yes."

"No!" Chris yelled at me. I could hear the pain in his voice. I bit the inside of my cheek; this had better work.

"Take him out," Alicia said motioning to me. I breathed an internal sigh of relief that she was following her usual protocol as at the C.I.A.; whenever one bad guy said he would talk, she would separate him from the others. If she sent me out, I was almost positive she would go, and she would probably bring along a few others in the room. That should narrow down Zoey's work.

As Ivan came to untie me, pain hit me like a wave. I hadn't really been thinking about it until the ropes began rubbing the cuts fresh again, and my headache came on full force. I grunted as he forced me to stand, and I nearly fell over. I shook my head to clear it, and then walked, with some assistance, to the door.

"John, no! Come on, think about this! You can't give in, not now!" I heard Chris saying. I turned around to look at him, and gave him a half grin. He narrowed his eyes at me, clearly not on the same page as me. That was okay though; they would all be soon enough.

"John..." My dad. I turned to look at him. I couldn't read what was going through his head, but I didn't see disappointment like I was afraid of; I saw understanding. I couldn't tell if he understood the whole situation, or if he just assumed he understood the fact that I would give up government intelligence to save my brother; I think he would be happy to learn it was the first. I nodded to him. I looked at Carson and Daniel, who just sat there, and I knew they weren't sure what to think. I had to look away. If anything went wrong, I could possibly never see them again. Heck, even if things went right for them, didn't mean things would go smooth for me.

Alicia pointed to three people in the room. "You three stay here. The rest of you, with me." She turned to me. "Let's see what you got, kid."

I swallowed hard. I want sure what I was going to do from here, but at least Zoey had an opening.

I just hoped she saw it and took it.

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I honestly have no idea what I'm doing anymore! I mean, I literally thought of this in one night and I'm just running with it for now. I know how it's all going to end; it's just these minor details.

I'm thinking (since I'm almost done writing these chapters) of going back to some of the earlier ones and editing them majorly. Not necessarily plot changing details, but big details. I keep reading them and cringing at how bad my writing and ideas were, so I'm dying to fix them up a little bit; just an FYI.

Comment, vote and share please!

~Emily~