Septiplier One-Shots

Choices PT III - Final

And here is the conclusion of yet another fantastic miniseries by author144!

Jack’s POV
The rain slapped against my face, the wind howling in my ears and the weight of my soaked jacket causing me to run slower than I probably could. Carelessly, I removed it from my body while I ran and threw it somewhere behind me. I heard Mark remove his sweatshirt just the same, and we both leaped in unison over a fallen tree, slick with water. The trees around us blurred by in our haste, and I could hear shouting and several people behind us. I knew they weren’t all chasing us, and I doubt any of them knew where we were or where we were going, but they were aware that we were out here in the woods.
Mark was panting, and I couldn’t tell if my shirt was soaked due to sweat or the rain. We couldn’t talk, and we didn’t stop to try and plan, all we knew was run. I knew that somewhere out here there was a drop off, a ravine that we could hide in. If we could just find it, I knew that we could climb down into it and be lost for good. I couldn’t reiterate this to Mark, but I could tell from the look he gave me once I glanced at him, trying to tell him to trust me simply by looking at him and his nod, I knew he was going to follow.
Sure enough, the woods stopped abruptly and gave way to a large canyon in the ground. The cliffsides were steep, and slick with rain. It was slowly becoming too dark to see anything, and the idea of playing hide and seek with the guys in the middle of the night was not appealing. Mark had keeled over his knees, panting and glancing behind us to make sure that our location hadn’t been found yet. Breathing heavily, I walked along the edge for a few meters, looking for a way to get down, and Mark followed.
I couldn’t hear anything beside the rain and my heartbeat in my own ears. I knew that I should have been listening for approaching enemies, but Mark was doing that for me, and he kept one eye on me, and another one trained towards the woods, watching and waiting. However, when Officer West came from behind us and tackled Mark to the ground, neither of us were expecting it.
I whipped around, seeing Mark slam against the ground as West jumped on him. West pulled a radio to gather his backup, and without thinking I knocked it from his hands. I kicked West back, Mark scrambling behind me as West stood up and surveyed the situation. He gaped when he saw me, and I removed my gun from my holster. I had little memory of how to use this, but seeing that West had taught me, he could only assume I did. West’s gape was trained on my figure, switching between my menacing glare and back to Mark where he stood behind me, cradling an injured arm.
“Well well, Jack.” West finally spoke over the rain. “I thought you were dead. My boys found a body, beaten and left on the floor. I truly thought we had this in the bag.”
“That was your own man.” I told him, turning as his radio suddenly started emitting static. It was lying in a puddle, and I was sure that it wouldn’t work anymore. West turned and smiled at me, shaking his head slowly. “Why are you doing this? What do you want with Mark?” West chuckled at my questions, and his eyes glinted as he looked up at me.
“Don’t you know, Jack?” he asked, his voice low and terrifying. “Never tell secrets to an enemy.” Before I could react to West’s words, he lunged forward, slapping the gun from my hands and bringing his other elbow up to hit me in the face. I stumbled backwards into Mark, who was standing behind me still, and he stumbled as well. West grabbed my gun at the same time that Mark grabbed me, turned tail and ran. I heard the gunshot ring out just a few seconds after we were sprinting, and a splitting pain ripped through my right calf. I tripped, skidding to a halt on the slick, stony ground. Mark turned, gasping. He stepped toward me, and I reached out to stop him.
The ground crumbled at Mark’s feet, and he slipped backwards, right over the edge of the canyon. Despite the immense pain in my leg, the soreness in my limbs, and the headache pounding in my temples, I got to my knees and threw myself forward. My hand reached out, grabbing Mark’s just as he went down, and my other hand grabbed the edge of the cliffside, holding my body as Mark’s weight dragged us both over the edge. The edge was slick, and I fought to keep my hand there. Mark was panicking beneath me, calming now that he saw I had a hold of him. I tried to pull myself back up, but it didn’t work. We were stuck here it would seem.
“Jack, you have to let me go!” Mark’s voice echoed up to me, and I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head furiously. I looked back down at him, feeling my heart drop as I saw just how crestfallen he looked at my refusal. His eyes were wide, and he looked like he was crying, or it was the rain, I wasn’t really sure. I felt my own grip slipping, and I looked up to where my other hand was cramping, gripping tight to the edge of the cliffside. The rain poured down onto the ground making the rock slippery and wet, and my grip was slowly loosening itself. “Jack, please.”
“I’m not giving up after I came this fucking far for you, Mark.” I snapped, looking back down at him. He looked both hurt and taken aback by my words, and I felt my lower lip tremble. Off the edge of this cliffside, below us and right behind Mark as I stared down at him, the deep ravine stared back at me, gaping and waiting for me to fall. We were outside of town, no one knew where we were or that West was trying to kill us; we were alone now, and I wasn’t giving up yet. “I came all this way, I fought for you, and dammit we’re going to get out of this.” I met his gaze again, and found it reciprocating my own hopes. We would get out of here, we had to.
“That’s cute.” I looked up, seeing West standing over us, my gun still in his hand and a cigarette now in the other one. His face was twisted with amusement and pain, and he crouched down to get closer to us. He took a puff before blowing the smoke into my face, sending me into a fit of coughing before he flicked the cigarette over the edge. “You see, the police are already onto us, thanks to your friends. They don’t know I’m a part of this, but needless to say, you guys have been cut from the deal. I’ve been asked to get rid of you both, and seeing as how this Irish fuck cost me quite a bit of heartbreak, I don’t see a problem with it.” West grinned wider, something terrifying, reminding me that he had all the control. “And what a perfectly precarious position you seem to be in for the situation.”
“Jack-!” Mark shouted, and I looked up from trying to reposition my grip on Mark so he wouldn’t fall, just to watch West bring his boot down onto my hand, the one that was gripping the edge. I screamed, tipping my head back and letting the sound reverberate through the night and the canyon. It seemed to echo for miles, and I hung my head, breathing heavily as not to show my weakness.
“Not enough for ya, huh?” West asked, and brought his boot down a second time, curbstomping my fingers and I heard each of them break. I screamed again, this time into my forearm so it wasn’t as loud, and I felt my grip loosening more and more. I struggled to keep my grip, and West turned away, annoyed with my stubbornness. He pulled out another radio with a cheeky smile, turning. “Yeah, I’ve got them trapped on the canyon side, about 10 miles from town. I’ll get rid of them, then we head East back to the boss’ HQ - ...” West’s voice faded as he turned, walking away while he talked into his radio. I looked down at Mark, who stared up at me, actually crying now.
“You’re hurt,” he said in a hushed voice. Then, his eyes widened. I felt West’s boot before Mark said anything, and I cringed, my mouth open in a silent scream.
“Fucking hell, just die already!” West shouted, and I looked down at Mark once more. My eyes motioned to my leg. It was the one that was shot, and when Mark let go of my hand and grabbed it, I nearly slipped from the edge in pain. West grinded his boot into my already broken hand, I tried my hardest not to scream. My grip was so close to gone, but I had a last ditch effort. I reached my other leg up to my now free hand, and I removed the knife hidden there. Bringing it up quickly, I stabbed it back down through the top of West’s foot, sending him stumbling back and howling with pain. Using both hands, I dragged myself up and over the edge, bringing Mark with me.
“Jack, you’re hurt.” Mark said, and he looked at my fingers and my leg. I smiled, shaking my head, and slowly got to my feet. He helped me up, wrapping my injured arm around his shoulder and bracing me against him. We looked up to find West standing, holding his gun out and training it directly onto us.
“Oh no, you’re not going anywhere you fu-!” A gunshot rang out, interrupting West’s words. A bullet hit him directly in the hand, knocking the gun from his fingers and causing him to bleed. “What the hell?” he turned, and we found a silhouette outlined against the sky. I looked closer as more joined him, and several ran at us. I realized they were police, and several tackled West to the ground. When I looked at the sharpshooter, I realized it was Wade.
“Mark, Jack, you’re okay!” Wade said, throwing the gun at another officer and running over to hug us. I felt relief wash down my back, and I shuddered once I relaxed my muscles, which had been tense for several hours. I hugged Wade back, and he was quickly replaced with Bob. I had never felt so happy to see these two men in my whole life.
“How did you know where we were?” Mark asked, and Wade looked over at Bob, who glared at West. The other officers had him in cuffs, and he stared at Bob as well. He seemed just as curious.
“Let’s put it this way.” Bob said, turning to look as West dead on. “You gave us a radio to listen in on our conversations, and judging from the one back there, you had two. You used our radio to try and contact your men, so you gave yourself away.” West’s eyes widened, and I chuckled.
“If I hadn’t done that, you two would have been dead.” West reminded me, and it was Bob’s turn to chuckled. He shook his head at West matter-of-factly.
“We were on your trail for hours, West. We knew something was up once the police uncovered a conspiracy that you were working against the force. We needed an exact location, we were even in the right area. All your other men have been...” Bob paused and glanced at me with a smile. “Detained.” I laughed at this, despite cringing at the pain in my fingers and my leg. Mark and Wade laughed as well, and the police moved West away from us. I was helped to an ambulance, and I looked at Bob as he sat in the back with me, Mark on one side and still holding me close, Wade beside Bob on the other.
“We never did figure out why they wanted Mark.” I said, and Bob sighed, looking up at the ceiling of the vehicle as we bumped along to the nearest hospital.
“Something about ransom for holding a YouTuber. YouTubers are generally affect the youth more, and they were hoping by taking one it would get them a lot more money. However, they apparently don’t know that YouTubers watch Taken and are all secretly Liam Neeson. Like, holy shit Jack.” Bob said, looking at me. I laughed, glancing down at my broken fingers and my leg.
“Its gonna be hard to game with this hand.” I mused, and Mark chuckled next to me. He’d been watching me the whole time in silence, looking me over with a smile, and his smile was even brighter now.
“We’ll get you fixed up, good as new so I can repay you for saving my life,” he said, and I blushed.
“That’s not necessary.” I told him, and he shook his head.
“Too bad.”
“Can you fill us in on what happened?” Wade asked suddenly. “What was it like, Jack? How did it all happen?” I laughed at this, taking a deep breath and starting from the beginning, hoping to get it all in before we arrived at the hospital. Mark kept one hand on me at all times, never leaving my side. Even after surgery, I stayed at his house which was redone and made twice as secure. Wade and Bob stayed too, and we all had a good time. Mark helped me around with my injuries, and kept his promise to pay me back.
It was an experience I surely wouldn’t forget soon.