And I Thought the Year Would be Boring!

(24) Consequences of War?!

Everything around me was black. I put my hand to my stomach. My fingers became sticky with the blood. I groaned as I felt someone remove Taylor off of me, and then gently shake my shoulders.

"Nikki? Nikki, you with me?"

I felt someone sprinkle a few drops of water on me. My ears were still ringing due to the sound of the gunshot.

I forced my eyes open to see Liam hovering over me. I gaped at him, clearly not believing my eyes.How was he even...? The last I'd seen of him was his body sprawled on the ground behind me.

"Liam?" I croaked.

Nikki, are you okay?" he asked, his eyes filled with worry.

"Actually, I don't feel anything," I said weakly, with a small grin.

"Well, that's because you haven't been shot." he said with a crooked grin.

My brow furrowed in confusion as I looked at my abdomen and gave it a press. It was soaked in blood, but not mine.

I looked over at Taylor and saw her lifeless figure laid down on the floor.

I leaned back and gave a huge sigh.  I couldn't believe it. Taylor was finally dead. I gave a gentle laugh of relief looking at that. "What happened?" I croaked.

"Well, you fainted. The second that I shot Taylor." he said grinning.

Liam came over and helped me up. "See, right after she knocked me out, it was pretty bad. Geez, my head hurts like crazy!" he said.

I gently ran my thumb over the swelling on the side of his head.

"Well, what happened to you?" he asked.

I cleared my throat. "Well, after I left Nate to find and help you, she knocked you out. I then took her on and began fighting."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You've never fought anything in your life and you took on TAYLOR? Are you mentally off, Nikki?"

Suddenly, my legs felt like jelly and seemed to lose it's feeling. I collapsed to the floor. Liam's eyes grew wide with worry as he knelt down next to me.

"Nikki, you ok?"

I nodded. "It's probably aftershock or something. Tiredness mut be catching up with me." I said with a small, reassuring smile.

"Well, anyway, what happened?" he asked, making himself comfortable next to me.

I then proceeded to tell him in painstaking detail about every blow, punch, smack and hit Taylor and I issued each other, and how he managed to kill Taylor just in time. He gave me a look of pride mixed with...'What the heck is wrong with this woman?!" kind of disbelief.

 We moved slightly closer towards each other and he interlaced his fingers with mine.

He looked down at me a grin playing on his tired but handsome face. I looked back up at him, a slow smile beginning to form on my face as well.

"I was so scared, Nikki. I thought someone might have caught, tortured or even killed you." he said quietly.

"Me? Liam, I thought Taylor would have killed you! That's why I had to come back! Oh, I was so tense! You're not too badly hurt are you?"

He shrugged off my question. "Nikki, I'm fine. Stop worrying about me. We still have so much to do."

I looked at him, puzzled. "What?"

"We need to get Nate, find the real nuclear codes. They were switched with false ones remember? And we need to find Nate as well."

I swallowed and nodded. "Let's go get Nate first."

We walked over to the same ledge, hopped through the window and entered the secret room. Nate was still lying down, but his eyes fluttered open when he heard us coming.

I rushed over to him and flung my arms around him tightly. Liam followed and was right behind me

"Oh Nate, I'm so glad you're okay! You scared us!"

He groaned and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Ugh, this is BAD. What happened?"

Liam and I proceeded to tell him what all had happened till now. When we were done he groaned again.

"How retarded did I act when I was on the drugs?"

Liam burst out laughing and proceeded to tell him in loving detail all the antics of his craziness under the influence of the pills.

"Dude, Nate you were such a psycho!" finished Liam laughing.

Nate merely scowled in return while sticking his middle finger at Liam who was howling with laughter now.

"Okay, guys," I tried interjecting. They paid no attention.

"GUYS!" Liam paused mid-laugh and Nate looked at me.

"We still have a lot of work left. We need to find the real codes. NOW. Before it's too late."

Nate scratched his head. "What happens if we find the codes too late?"

Liam's face became serious. "We could start an unprecedented war against other countries, forcing them to strike back at us, with our military unprepared, leading to an approximate death of easily one to three million people. Also, apart from that, millions would die or even hope for death due to radiation effects."

We sat for a few seconds in silence, absorbing and processing what Liam had just said.

"Oh, and we could also get sent to prison." he mumbled.

"What?!" I asked shocked.

"Well, the ICC or FBI could easily charge us for withholding matters of national and international importance. We would get a lifetime imprisonment. Scratch that, we would get a death tow. A death penalty. We could HOPE for lifetime imprisonment." Liam replied quietly.

Nate got up slowly dusting his hands on his pants. He cleared his throat and quietly said, "Well then, we'd better get straight to it."

"But we have no idea where it is!" I interjected in panic. Liam nodded in agreement.

"Actually, I do know where it is." responded Nate, a glimmer of realization dawning in his eyes.

"WHAT?!" Liam and I exclaimed at the same time, in unison.

Liam rounded up on Nate. "You know where it is?"

"I think so. I'm pretty sure."

"Well, where is it?!" I demanded.

"Well, you remember-" before he could complete his sentence, the secret door slowly revolved open. A menacing figure stood infront of us.

"You thought you could  get rid of me couldn't you?"

The figure advanced on us and I finally recognized who it was.

Darius. With a knife.