Feared

Twenty-Two: Plans

"No, I want you to stay here with Matt and set up a perimeter. We can't leave ourselves to become vulnerable," he replied.

She nodded, taking her position of responsibility with cool determination. Charlotte wondered if she would be so resigned to remaining behind if Ethan had denied her participation. She knew she wouldn't.

"I can help," Matt offered.

"No – you will be in too much danger," Charlotte said. "You're not trained for this sort of situation. We are".

Matt looked like he was going to cut her off but Ethan cut across him.

"She's right. Stay here and protect the others," Ethan said with a sigh.

Silence descended as they looked at each other. The truth of what they were about to do, of how close they were to succeeding seemed to hit them as they stared from one team mate to the next.

"We've got the cars," Ian said, breaking the silence as he appeared in the middle of the space. "A white SUV style thing".

"My choice," Ronnie smiled jogging up the stairs.

"And a station wagon of sorts – pretty beaten up, but it has space in the back if we need it. My choice and far more practical," he said.

"Won't stealing cars just draw attention to where we are?" Matt sighed.

"Who said anything about stealing? They are strictly borrowed," Ian shrugged.

"Right listen up", Ethan snapped, ignoring Ian and Matt. "Ronnie, Ian and Carrie drive. Nathan and Callahan go with Ronnie. Charlotte and Wallace go with Ian. That leaves Harris and myself with Carrie. About a mile before we come to the prison there is a rundown gas station. After that the road branches in two and we will be splitting up, hitting the prison from different sides at the same time. We need to be brutal and efficient. Everybody has to remember our main point is to get the others out". Ethan looked to Charlotte giving her a chance to speak.

"Look," she sighed, gazing to the others. "They have our friends. They blindsided us the first time, but now it's our turn. There is nothing holding us back. They have underestimated us and we are going to destroy whatever thoughts they have of power and in the process bring our friends home.

"Remember the bigger point of this. This isn't just about saving our friends, this is part of their bigger plan. James, Annakiya, Freya, Daiki and Alison are part of their bigger plan. We know they are wanting a war. We know that they are ready to tear the human world apart and we need to stop them. We need to take back the weapons they have stolen, because those weapons will be used to destroy us all if we give them the chance".

The air was alive with an electric sense of anticipation, but they didn't speak. Ethan grabbed his plan from the table. Harris gathered his medicines into his bag. They were ready to fight.

"I have dibs on the station wagon," Ian declared vanishing down the stairs before any of the others had even thought of moving.

"Is he honestly always like this?" Ronnie asked glancing at Charlotte.

"Yeah, pretty much," she shrugged, watching as the others followed him at a more human pace down the stairs.

"Matt," Wallace whispered as they moved towards the stairs. Charlotte went in front of them, trying not to listen but overhearing everything anyway. "Just in case things go wrong," she breathed.

"Do you expect things to go wrong?" he replied and Charlotte could sense the worry in his tone.

"I always expect things to go wrong," she replied with a hollow laugh. "We need to cover all bases".

Charlotte pushed out into the cool spring air, trying not to dwell on Wallace's unease. Ethan was waiting for her with a grim expression.

"This will test you. There will be a lot of them".

"I'll manage. Just be careful," she said, hugging him.

He returned the gesture. "Let's get the home okay".

Charlotte nodded, smiling a nervous smile, before turning to Ian's pale blue station wagon. The black and white SUVs were top of the line models, monsters of the road. The station wagon was less of a monster and more of an old turtle. Rust spotted its paint in places and it smelled of old perfume and even older smoke.

"You picked this?" she sighed, crumbling up her nose in feigned disgust as she climbed into the passenger seat.

"I am telling you it's practical. And far less conspicuous. Plus whoever owned this seemed to have forgotten it was theirs. But whoever had that lovely white thing Ronnie picked will notice it's gone straight away".

"Right, so you thought this through," Charlotte laughed, watching the wing-mirror distractedly as Wallace hugged Matt.

"I'm not just a pretty face, Owens," he grinned, slapping the steering wheel in a blur of motion.

Wallace clambered into the car, her expression mirroring the doubt over Ian's enthusiasm for the vehicle.

"Road trip!" Ian declared, turning the key and allowing the old engine roar to life.

Charlotte exhaled, feeling weirdly excited and terrified. She was glad she had something to do at last and she was ready for the fight.

The journey was long. Night had deepened to blackness as they finally reached to the gas station. The windows of the small buildings were boarded up and the paint was peeling of the walls. Grass grew with wild ferocity around the lot, half-obscuring the old gas pumps.

They hardly slowed as they passed it. Continuing on the pitch road that weaved its way through the thick forest. There was no need for more talk. They knew the risks. This was a kill or be killed mission. They knew what they had to do.

Ronnie's black SUV turned left and Carries' white SUV turned right.

"Follow Ethan," Wallace said. "He'll stop at the main gates, but we're to go further around the perimeter".

They watched as Carrie's car pulled to a stop in front of a set of formidable gates fixed with watch towers and barbed wire, but Ian drove on for about quarter of a mile before stopping. There was another entrance, half-ajar and grown over by brambles and weeds. It too had watch towers and a security booth. Barbed wire and spikes lined the top of the fences and a large ditch was dug on the inside of the enclosure.

The night was black, moonless. A thick blanket of cloud had fallen on this world, offering the shadows even greater darkness, hiding the evil from the eyes of innocent passers-by.

Despite the heavy cloud cover, they could just make out the colossal outline of the prison a short distance away. It rose with monstrous ferocity from the large clearing in the forest, its hard walls black against the deep night. No light burned within the compound. No spark of brightness offered hope or signs of life. It was just a black hole in the darkest night.

Ian cut the engine and with it the light offered by the headlights. They slipped out of the car, not caring to even shut the doors behind them. They moved together towards the fence, caring little for the scratching, clawing brambles. Ian pushed open the gate as much as possible, without making too much noise and the struggled through without much difficulty.

He held it back for Charlotte and Wallace to follow, leaving it fall back against the weeds once they had stumbled through.

Charlotte gazed at the dark prison walls, the unlit windows.

"Wallace?" Charlotte breathed into the dark.

"I know," she replied, glancing around.

"What?" Ian breathed.

"There's nothing," Wallace breathed. "There's nobody here. It's abandoned".

Thank you so much for reading Feared. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you're excited to see what happens next! Please don't forget to vote, comment and share! Let's think Wattys! Thanks again and always for your constant support! Sorcha x