Trapped

Chapter 18

            Gabe began to carry to tear soaked Trinity, on his back.  Her memory freight train had blown her, mentally, to bits.  She was barely able to walk.

            “This is his sucker punch,” Gabe seethed. “He knew damn well her memories would do this to her.”

            “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.  Gabe dropped her and grabbed her hand before she ripped the collar off.

            “Don’t, you do this, you give in to him.  Don’t give into him.  Alright?” Gabe said.  She just shook her head and stumbled away.  Gabe realized Trinity had reached her breaking point, all the running and the shocks and the memory flashes and the games and the lack of sleep, it had all caught up with her and shattered her mental stability.

            “Trinity, come on, you are stronger than this!” Gabe argued.  He grabbed her arms and held her. “You are stronger than him!  You can fight this!”

            She just shook her head as she tried to grab the collar.  Gabe didn’t know what else to do, he took her face in his hands and pressed his lips against her trembling ones.  He kissed her once and looked into her eyes.

            “I am right here, I will be right here.  I will not leave your side no matter what.  Got it?  I am here for you , nothing will separate us.  Do you understand that?”

            Trinity looked up at him and a tear slid down her cheek.  She touched his lips with her fingers and sucked back some of her tears.  Gabe smiled and took her hand.  Exterminators arrived at the end of the hall.  Trinity and Gabe took off running.  They tried to outrun the Exterminators.

            Pain exploded into Gabe’s side as a bullet ripped through the tactical gear, but lost too much force to pierce the skin any more than an inch.  He stumbled and Trinity dropped down drew her pistol and fired three shots.  The bullets all slammed into Extermination unit’s foreheads.  She grabbed Gabe and pulled him down the hall.  As they continued to run, Gabe watched Trinity.

            Pain shooting through his side and Trinity helping him walk.  He held his side and watched the blood slid between his finger and over his gloves.  This time he knew it was real.  Trinity pushed a door open and helped him inside.  Sitting him down against the wall, she jammed the door shut and broke the handle off.  Sealing them inside the room.

            “Let me see,” she said and rolled his shirt up.  She peeled the vest back and pushed it aside.  Running her fingers over the wound, Gabe’s face clenched in agony.

            “It’s a flesh wound,” she said.

            “How can you tell?” Gabe asked.  She stuck her thumb into the wound and pulled it out.  Only the tip was covered in blood.

            “I touched the end of the bullet.” She told him and dug her fingers in, pulling the bullet out and dropping it onto the ground.  Gabe was left breathing raggedly.  Pulling her knife out, she cut the fabric of her jumpsuit at the waist.  Pulling her vest off, she pulled her shirt off.  Cutting the fabric off her sleeves she wadded them up and turned the shirt into a bandage.  Putting the wadded up sleeves the wound, she wound the strips of the shirt together and tied it tight.  She rolled his shirt down and looked up to find him unconscious.

            She sat down beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder.  Closing her eyes, she drifted to sleep and woke up when Gabe moved.  He groaned and she turned into a kneeling position.

            “Did I pass out?”

            “Yeah,” she smiled.

            “How much time has passed?”

            “Six hours,”

            “So, we can pretty much fuck the idea of killing all of the Exterminators?” he asked standing up.

            “Yeah,”

            “Where’s your shirt?”

            “Around your stomach, I needed something to patch the wound.” She sighed.

            “Can we even get out of here?” Trinity nodded and kicked the door out.  Pointing her rifle down the hall, she unleashed a volley of rounds on an approaching Exterminator.  The three men collapsed, three rounds in each of their heads.  Gabe tossed her the shotgun and she turned and the front man in the Exterminator unit behind her received a face full of twelve gauge buck shot.  She fired two Glock shots and the last two men dropped.

            She looked down the hall and saw Dan standing there motioning her to run.  She started walking towards him and he set off at a fast pace.  She was left sprinting to catch up.  Gabe following her closely behind as she ran.

            Dan vanished beside a black plate.  Trinity shot it and it shattered.  There was a rocky wall facing them, walking out into it, Gabe and Trinity were in a cave.  The mouth of the cave was awash in light.  Walking towards it, they emerged on a grass covered ridgeline overlooking a lush forest.  Trinity erupted in joyous laughter.

            She threw her arms around Gabe as he stared out at the forest.  Gabe wrapped his arms around Trinity as she laughed.  A low sweeping military search and rescue helicopter swept overhead.  Trinity jumped up and down waving her arms and it circled around.  Gabe reached underneath the collar and snapped the thin nylon holding it together.

            As the chopper landed and men got out, Trinity ran over to them.  Gabe followed up behind and Trinity was wrapped in a blanket and helped into the chopper.  Gabe saw the Exterminator’s come out behind them and he turned to them.  Knowing that if he gave himself up, it would give the chopper enough time to get away, he slung his guns off and raised his hands. 

            They grabbed his wrists and pulled them down.  Spinning him around so he could see Trinity in the hovering helicopter, she screamed, reaching out for him.  As he was pulled up, Trinity grabbed one of the men’s wrist and her throat.  Her breath began to catch and she hit her knees.

            The cyanide!  Gabe instantly saw everything stop in place and it reversed.  All of it, so quickly, he squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears to try to avoid a headache.  He opened his eyes in a prisoner cell, lying on the bed.  Sitting up, he had no wrap around his torso, no shotgun on his back, no nothing.

            “You asshole!” he screamed. “You cock sucking asshole!”

            “Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Richards, are you mad?  Did you lose someone important to you?  Did she even exist in the first place?” The man from above said.

            “Her name is Trinity Vega!  She is an assassin and she is real!” Gabe shouted.

            He looked around the cell and tried to open the door.

            “Was she?”

            “Her name was Trinity Vega.  She was an assassin.  She was real.” Gabe said less sure of himself.  He still was confident she had been real.  That everything he experienced was real.

            “Are you sure?”

         Gabe broke down into sobs, completely unsure if anything he had experienced had been the truth.  “Her name was Trinity Vega, she was an assassin.  Was she real?”