"Just a little farther." Derek squinted at the pad installed in his suit arm. "One of my buddies in 37 claimed they saw the boys." Derek's breathy voice continued.
I sighed and looked out a vent close by and saw one of the twins running down a hallway below.
"There!"
I turned my body, so my feet were aimed at the vent. I grunted and kicked out as hard as I could, and the vent buckled under the pressure. I leaped out and landed with a light thud on the linoleum floor below. I spotted the boy running down the hallway and called out to him. He stopped abruptly and turned towards me. Recognition passed over his features and he sprinted the few meters separating us. I was disappointed to see the moles on the boys neck. It wasn't Charlie. The smile vanished from my face as I realized that Charlie wasn't with Max.
"Where is he?" I said out of breath as the smile faded from my lips, I looked at Max. Max didn't look any less panicked as Derek came up behind me. He realized it was just him and me.
"We got separated 20 minutes ago at the last corridor, haven't seen him since," He said, the panic becoming more and more noticeable as the seconds ticked by without an answer being passed between us. The adrenaline pumped through my veins, as the realization set in that none of us knew where Charlie was. You know what I did? You guessed it... I freaked.
"What do you mean you got separated?!" I seethed angrily throwing my hands up in the air. "Your first job is to make sure that doesn't happen, and the second was to stay at the freaking base! The first was to keep him safe!" I yelled near tears. Derek grabbed my shoulder, and I spun around angrily to face him ready to bust his chops too. "What!?" I spat. Unit Leader Fox had his hand on Derek's shoulder tightly. He found us.
"Where exactly in the plan, Connors, did I say to separate from the Unit and fight the war yourself?!" UL Fox seethed, spit flying as he punctuated his words to me. I do admit to shrinking a couple of inches down. I didn't have a comeback. I didn't have anything.
"Would you two shut up and listen?" Derek hissed. That's when I heard it, the groans. I didn't even think twice, my instincts kicked in and I was running, running as fast as I could to get to him.
"Halt!" Fox barked after me. "CONNERS!" his voice faded in my mind, only thing I heard was my heartbeat. I saw Charlie's face in my mind and I wouldn't stop till he was in front of me.
"Charlie!" I screamed over and over again. I ran around the corner stopping dead in my tracks. "Charlie?" I asked shakily, softer this time, as a sob shook my body. A fawn color haired boy stood, hands strapped in metal cuffs to the brick wall at the end of the hallway. His head hung limply in front of him, his bare upper body, covered in cuts, burns, and bruises. My hand shook up to my mouth as I tried to keep myself from breaking down right there at the sight of him. "Ohh..." I said faintly, more sobs following as I ran down to get to his limp body. "I'm right here, Ch-Charlie, it's okay, I'm going to get you out of here." I sobbed, pulling frantically at the thick, metal restraints.
"S-S-Scarlett, d0-n't. Run." Charlie managed through his weak and exhausted tone, his voice breaking at the end as he looked up from under his heavy brow at me.
"Don't be silly, I'm not leaving you here." I shook my head through silent tears, pulling harder at the restraints, desperately trying to keep my voice and hands steady. I wiped my tears quickly on the sleeve of my jacket. Anything I could do, so Charlie wasn't afraid, any ounce of confidence I could give him that we were going to make it out of here together, one last time.
"Ah, Scarlett!" A pleasant voice came, belonging to none other than the commander, himself. "Lovely that you could join us. We need to have a little chat." He said coming out from behind a windowed door to the right of me only meters from Charlie. From behind him came four men in black matching uniforms, all armed. Two pairs of heavy, running footsteps tore down the hall towards me and skidded to a stop at the sight of me, Charlie, and the Commander. Derek looked panicked, and he only paused briefly before sprinting toward me once again. He came to a stop at my side, stepping protectively between the commander and me.
