Operation M.I.A: Missing in Action (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter VIII

"We've gotta get in there!" Shanna urges. Heath shoves everyone else out of his way and pulls on the doorknob. The door doesn't budge.

"Damn it, it's locked!" he yells in frustration.

"What!? How could it be locked!?" Mackenzie shouts.

"Mackenzie, locked means locked!" I sigh.

"Everyone, stand back!" Luke warns. The group moves out of his way as he pulls out his "Rock of Doom" (a philosopher's stone kind of rock that can grant special powers if someone knows how to use it properly) and curls his arm back for a throw. With all of his force, he heaves the rock right at the door. It recoils off the door, flies back at him, and hits him right in the face, causing him to fall onto his back.

"Good job, you idiot," Sam says sarcastically.

"Shut up," Luke growls.

"Guys, he's coming back!" Skylar hisses. I look back inside the gym and sure enough, the man's walking right back toward the doors, dragging a girl along with him.

"I would suggest we hide, but, well, there really isn't a good place for us to hide," mia says.

That's when the double doors fly open, smacking anybody standing next to them in the face. By a stroke of dumb luck, he leaves the hallway without spotting any of us. I think the only reasonable explanation is that the opened doors serve as good enough cover to conceal us from the man's vision. Don't ask me, though.

Also, while I'm not able to get a good look at his hostage, I can tell right away that it's not Avery. This girl is much older-looking, and has darker hair than Avery does. She is wearing the same attire Avery is, which leads me to believe that she's from the same team. Her captor has one hand covering her mouth, and the other hand on his gun. He turns the corner, and just like that, he vanishes from plain sight.

"What were we doing, just standing there!? We could've stopped him!" Mackenzie complains once we're out of his hearing range.

"Mackenzie, that isn't our concern right now," Sam replies. "Right now, we need to find Avery and make sure she's okay."

The rest of us nod our agreement, and run inside to search for our friend.

AVERY

Music: Crystal from Gradius Gaiden

Well... I certainly was not anticipating an armed intruder to barge into our rehearsal session and start shooting, that's for sure. The very first thing I did when he came in was hide under a table with two younger girls from my team. And I've been staying down there since then, my knees curled up to my chest, breathing heavily from the sudden burst of fear. All around me, girls are running about and screaming bloody murder. I see a few unlucky ones get shot, but it's usually somewhere like the arm or the leg. As far as I'm aware, no one is killed in this fiasco.

I start breathing more easily when I hear what sounds like Elle's voice calling out to me, "Avery!" I crawl out from under the table, but decide not to stand quite yet. The rest of the group spots me, and they all run over to me.

"Are you okay!?" Shanna asks, getting down on one knee to be at eye level with me.

"Yeah... I'm fine..." I get out, panting. "Just a little scarred for life, that's all."

"Well, we're just glad you're okay," Heath smiles. I'm able to smile back, thankful for having such a caring group of friends with me right now.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to have to rescue you for a third time," Sam chuckles. I can't help but laugh at this comment.